In Xiangping County, Liaodong County, Fan Zeng led a group of officials to stand outside the city.
"Guardian, when will the governor arrive?" an official asked respectfully, but the person he looked at was not Fan Zeng, but the county magistrate next to Fan Zeng.
Jun Cheng Heli was born in the He family, a powerful family in Liaodong. His influence in Liaodong was deep-rooted, and many officials looked at his face. After the Zhao State occupied Liaodong, the He family not only did not resist, but also cooperated with the Zhao State's policies and annexed the land over the years.
Everything was returned to the people, and Yintian was re-registered without any concealment. Therefore, Zhao Guo retained his status as a county magistrate.
Even when Fan Zeng came by air, He Li did not show any displeasure. However, other officials were somewhat dissatisfied with Fan Zeng and often talked behind his back. In their opinion, He Li should be the governor of Liaodong County.
"We'll be there soon." Fan Zeng said calmly, as if he didn't notice the official's small movements.
He already knew the situation in Liaodong in Handan. If he chose to rely on the local officials and gentry and help them cover up, he would be able to get along very well, but his official path would only be to the county guard at most, and it did not suit Fan Zeng's heart.
A gentleman has certain things to do and things not to do. Since Fan Zeng chose to become an official, he naturally had to do certain things.
He had no foundation in Liaodong and originally planned to pursue it slowly, but he did not expect that this group of nobles would be so bold as to assassinate a county magistrate and ask Li Mu to come in person.
"Originally, if I had made the decision, I would have killed only a few people at most, but you have provoked Lord Wu An. I don't know whether to praise you for being powerful or being stupid." Fan Zeng was already mourning for these people in his heart.
"The county governor has said this twice," the official said.
"If you don't want to wait, you can go back. I don't require you to stay here." Fan Zeng glanced at the official and said in a deep voice.
"A boy with barely even hair has become a county guard by some unknown route, and he has also learned how to show off." The official cursed in his heart, but his steps did not move even an inch.
Even if you give him three more courages, he won't dare to leave at this time.
Rumble, rumble!
At this moment, bursts of dull sounds came from the end of the earth, like rolling thunder, and then, a black torrent of steel appeared in front of everyone.
The expressions of all the officials suddenly changed and their bodies trembled slightly. They knew that Li Mu was coming to Liaodong, but they had never heard from Fan Zeng that Li Mu was coming with a large army.
Fan Zeng looked calm, but in fact he was as shocked as everyone else. He didn't know that Li Mu actually brought the Great Wall Army.
"stop!"
The army rushed not far away from everyone. Li Mu gave an order, and the five thousand soldiers reined in their horses at the same time. The horses' hooves were raised in unison, and then they stepped heavily on the ground, stirring up dust all over the sky.
"My subordinate Fan Zeng respectfully welcomes the governor." Fan Zeng took a step forward, leaned over and said.
Only then did all the officials come to their senses, ignoring the dust rushing towards their faces, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute.
"Get up." Li Mu looked at Fan Zeng who was standing at the front, "You are Fan Zeng."
"General, my subordinate is Fan Zeng." Fan Zeng said, cupping his fists.
"I heard that the king mentioned you. At that time, the king was full of praise and said that you have the talent to prime minister. Now it seems that the king has exaggerated a bit." Li Mu said in a deep voice.
"I hope you will forgive me, General." Fan Zeng said respectfully, without any dissatisfaction. He had an unshirkable responsibility for something like this happening in Liaodong.
The other officials were filled with shock. They knew that Fan Zeng could serve as a county guard at such a young age and his backing must be extremely strong. However, they never thought that Fan Zeng's backing would be the King of Zhao. They actually had a wishful thinking and wanted to bring down Fan Zeng.
"You have to remember one thing. The people standing behind you are the king and the entire Zhao Kingdom, not just yourself. It's just a small number. If you need to catch it, you can catch it. If you need to kill, kill it. Even if the entire Liaodong is overthrown, there will still be some generals to help you.
You carry it." Li Mu stroked the hilt of the sword and glanced over everyone's heads.
Everyone instantly felt a chill rising from their backs, and subconsciously shrank their heads.
"My subordinates have remembered it," Fan Zeng said.
"You go to one side first, I will demonstrate it to you." Li Mu looked at the officials behind Fan Zeng, waved his right hand, "Take them all away."
"General, why do you tie us up?" an official yelled.
"General, what you are doing is a bit unruly." He Li, who had been silent all this time, couldn't help it anymore and stepped forward and said.
"Rules? The rules for me, Li Mu, are the rules. If you don't obey, go to the king for impeachment. As long as the king doesn't remove me as governor, the general of Yan will make the decision." Li Mu said loudly, boundless evil energy radiated from his body, and he was shocked.
The crowd retreated one after another.
"When I was talking to you about the rules, you talked to me about your strength and even assassinated an imperial official. Now when I am talking about my strength to you, you actually talked to me about the rules. What a big joke." Li Mu.
laughed.
"General, don't talk nonsense without evidence. Although the magistrate of Wen County died accidentally, it has nothing to do with us." He Li said coldly.
"You made a mistake." Li Mu drove his horse to He Li and looked down at He Li, "You may think that as long as you are not directly involved in this matter, even if you secretly add fuel to the flames, there is nothing Zhao can do against you.
Even if the truth is exposed in the end, the mastermind can still be handed over to protect himself. After all, the law does not punish the public."
"I can tell you that you have overestimated your status. As far as our Zhao country is concerned, all the officials, gentry and nobles in the entire Liaodong combined, none of them can be on the stage. I don't have time to find out which family and which family it is."
I, an official of the State of Zhao, was assassinated by someone else. I only know that the magistrate of Wen County died in Liaodong, and the person who killed him was from a large family in Liaodong. Do you understand?"
He Li's face turned pale. The family he was so proud of was so vulnerable to Li Mu. He even didn't know what the He family was, only the Liaodong clan.
Just like facing the Hu people, the Central Plains only know that they are collectively called Donghu. As for which tribe has no energy to understand, anyway, they are all scum together, let alone separate them.
"Fan Zeng." Li Si said.
"My subordinate is here." Fan Zeng took a step forward.
"Inform all the famous families and powerful family heads in Liaodong to come to Xiangping within five days for a meeting. We will not wait until the deadline." Li Mu said in a deep voice, and drove his horse towards the city.
The Great Wall Army suppressed a group of officials and followed behind. The officials looked at me, and I looked at you, and finally focused on He Li.
He Li looked at Li Mu's back without saying a word, his hands clenched into fists, his eyes filled with hatred, but in the end he had no choice but to let go.
Li Mulian brought a large army, but even if he had many tricks, it would be of no avail.
The nearby people stood on the roadside and talked a lot, wondering why Zhao Jun appeared in Liaodong.
However, the reputation of Zhao State and Zhao Jun is still very good, and no one showed anger because Zhao Jun arrested He Li and other officials.
"Does the general really want to do this?" Fan Zeng caught up and asked.
"I know what I'm doing and won't kill too many people." Li Mu waved his hand, indicating that Fan Zeng didn't need to worry.
Hearing this, Fan Zeng breathed a sigh of relief.
Li Mu rested one night in Xiangping, and early the next morning began to inspect the entire Liaodong.
"The king often says that as a king, the most basic requirement is to solve the problem of clothing and food for the people. Although I am not a king, as the governor, I am also responsible for the land of Yan." Li Mu said as he walked.
It was already very cold in Liaodong at this time. The river had already frozen, but it had not snowed yet. Most of the pedestrians only had a winter coat that was not too thick, which was barely enough to keep out the cold and prevent them from freezing to death.
Beside the haystacks at the entrance of the village, people sat together in twos and threes and basked in the sun.
In winter in Liaodong, when the sun shines, the inside of the house is colder than the outside, so people don't stay indoors.
"The general cares about the people, which is a blessing to our Zhao country. However, Liaodong is located in a remote place and the people are poor and cannot even afford a winter coat. I, Fan Zeng, feel ashamed to treat them." Fan Zeng sighed.
"Last year and this year, our country, Zhao, did not collect a penny of taxes from Yan. We even used work-for-work relief many times to build various factories. Moreover, the winter clothes we sell in Zhao are not expensive. If this is the case, I will buy them all."
If I can't afford a winter coat, I would have frozen to death in previous years." Li Mu glanced at Fan Zeng.
"Ahem." Fan Zeng coughed twice in embarrassment and whispered, "I heard that Hetao has developed a new winter coat. It seems to be called a cotton coat. It has excellent thermal insulation properties. I wonder if the general can transfer it to me from Liaodong.
Some."
"Cotton-padded clothes have been out for a long time, but the output is limited and it will take a few more years to become popular. It is not a big problem to transfer a batch to Liaodong, but then other counties will have opinions." Li Mu said, he
As a governor, you cannot openly favor a certain county. A bowl of water must be balanced.
"Then I'll spend the money to buy it and leave it to the head office." Fan Zeng said.
"Where...where did you get the money?" Li Mu looked at Fan Zeng in surprise.
"First of all, I owe you. We have coal mines and iron mines in Liaodong. My subordinates plan to use cotton-padded clothes to recruit a group of people who can't even afford winter clothes to mine. After next spring, we can pay back the money and make some money.
At the same time, it solves the problem of food and clothing for this group of people." Fan Zeng said.
"How do you determine whether the people you recruit can afford winter clothes?" Li Mu asked.
"Mining is dirty, hard, and even life-threatening. People with decent family conditions will not sign up. Only those who can't afford winter clothes will do it," Fan Zeng said.
"I will inform the Chamber of Commerce to transfer 20,000 winter coats to you as soon as possible. The price will be according to the market price. After next spring, I will pay it back with iron ore." Li Mu gave Fan Zeng a deep look.
"Thank you, General." Fan Zeng leaned over and said.
"After we go back, prepare a detailed charter and give it to the general." Li Mu said that Fan Zeng's method was very good. He planned to promote it throughout the Yan region and told Zhao Kuo to see if it could be used in other places.
"No." Fan Zeng said.
"In addition to winter clothes, there is also something called a fire pit in the Hetao. It can be built with only simple soil and does not cost money. It is very helpful for winter. The general ordered various places to build it last year, but no one urged it.
The result is definitely not particularly ideal, and you have to urge all localities to complete it this year," Li Mu said.
Liaodong is different from the Central Plains. The trees in many places in the Central Plains have been cut down. If you want to burn a fire bed, you can only buy coal, and many people cannot afford coal.
There are mountains and forests everywhere in Liaodong, so if there is a shortage of wood, there will be no shortage of wood. Moreover, Liaodong itself has coal mines, so the price will not be that high.
In this case, except for the kind of hooligans who have no land or house, it is not a problem to spend the winter peacefully.
There used to be many such gangsters in the Zhao State, but they have been basically eliminated in the past few years. In addition to hiding in the mountains and isolating themselves from the world, the Zhao State can't find them. The rest are all given land and houses for farming.
.
There are no gangsters in Guanzhong. The basic requirement of Shang Yang's reform is to squeeze everyone's power as much as possible.
There are only some gangsters in Yandi. They have no land or houses, and no one wants to join the famous families and powerful people. In the past two years, the government has remeasured and allocated the land, and the number of gangsters has been greatly reduced.
"My subordinates have remembered it," Fan Zeng said.
"To the east of Liaodong is Jizi Korea. Have there been any frictions recently?" Li Mu climbed up a hillside and looked in the direction of the sunrise in the east. In fact, the distance was blocked by a stretch of mountain forest, and he couldn't see anything.
.
"I heard that Jizi Korea often had conflicts with Liaodong in the past, but there was no friction during the past two months." Fan Zeng looked at Li Mu, "General, do you have any ideas about Jizi Korea?"
"Just asking." Li Mu shook his head and continued walking forward, "Let's go to the next village and have a look."
Five days later, Li Mu met with the famous and powerful heads of Liaodong families at the government office.
"Are you all here?" Li Mu asked in a deep voice.
"General, all the famous families and powerful families in Liaodong are here, fifteen families in total." Fan Zeng leaned over and said.
"The families in Ping County come forward." Li Mu said.
A family head stood up tremblingly: "Su Qianjian... I have met Mr. Wu An."
"Tell me who killed my court official. Don't tell me that you don't know anything. I am a rough man and my patience is limited. If you answer honestly, I will only kill you. If you refuse to answer, or if you have
If you conceal anything, I will uproot the entire Su family. You can try." Li Mu looked at the other party calmly.
"Excuse me... Sir Wu An, you really don't know anything." Su Qian collapsed on the ground. The Su family can't even be called a famous family. At most, they are powerful. Never thought that they would offend such a big person.
trouble.
It doesn't matter if he lives or dies alone, but if the entire Su family is uprooted, he will become the sinner of the entire Su family.
"Drag him out and behead him." Li Mu waved his hand and said impatiently.
Two soldiers came forward, one on the left and one on the right, to hold Su Qian and drag her out.
"Wait a minute." He Li stopped in front of the soldiers and asked loudly, "The general is too unreasonable to do this. Not to mention that the head of the Su family once served as the magistrate of our Liaodong County and had an excellent reputation among the people. Even for an ordinary person,
, and you can’t just kill someone without any basis.”
"I have said that I am not here to reason with you, but to quell the rebellion. Assassinating my imperial official is tantamount to rebellion. Do you understand?" Li Mu looked at He Li and said slowly.