Kelan is sandwiched between the mountains at the northeastern foothills of Luliang Mountain and Guanchuan Mountain. Fenshui flows out from the northwest between the mountains in the middle of the Guanchuan Mountains, flows west of Kelan City, and goes south to Loufan County.
This is the upper reaches of the Fen River, and the water flow is not very strong in June.
As a prefecture, Kelan City was also the core support for the defense of the western section of the Khitan people. If necessary, it would also provide reinforcements for the border war between the prefecture and the Dangxiang people west of Guanluishan Mountain. It had an extremely important strategic position in the territory of Dai Viet.
The city was built along the east bank of the Fen River. It is more than seven miles long from north to south and more than three miles wide from east to west. The city walls are all made of bricks and stones. It is also a rare large city in the Central Plains.
The state government offices are not magnificent. They are all gray brick and wood buildings, but they occupy a very large area. They include the offices of various officials, trial courts, Ma Bujun prisons, warehouses, and the garrison of the forbidden army in the city. They are almost there.
It occupies more than a quarter of Kelan's entire city.
Xu Huai and Xu Wukun, Zheng Tu and the others caught up with them and arrived at Lanzhou one step ahead. However, they were not in a hurry to meet up. Instead, they rushed to the state government office first.
Yin Peng, Han Qi, and Tang Qing accompanied the girls and stayed in the alley outside the state government office to wait.
Xu Huai, Tang Pan, and Xu Xin'an accompanied Wang Zhen and Lu Xiong into the state government office. However, Guo Zhongxiong was not in Kelan City today. It was an escort named Zeng Run from Guo Zhongxiong's side who was recruiting them in a side courtyard of the state government office.
:
"Guo Langjun went to Ningwu yesterday to inspect the border military affairs, but Dong Langjun also expected that Wang Langjun would come to Kelan in the next two days, so he specially ordered Zeng Run to stay in the Yazhong and wait for Wang Langjun to arrive.
There are many things to do in Linkelan. The clerk did not expect that Wang Langjun would have so many companions. The house prepared for Wang Langjun behind the government office was a bit small, but it didn't matter. The clerk would vacate the two rooms on the left and right.
It should be enough to live in a courtyard..."
The halls of the state government offices are all low and narrow, with two chairs and stools deliberately placed on either side of the official desk.
Xu Huai didn't want to go in and stand with him, so he sat down on the steps in front of the corridor and waited. He ignored the strange looks in the eyes of the two guards in the courtyard and just fiddled with the knife in his hand, feeling the power of drawing it and slashing.
Subtlety, silently thinking about giving these two guys a hard blow, can you kill them before they scream?
It is said that when a sword is in hand, the murderous intention arises. This is probably the case. I always want to test the sword on others for no reason.
At this time, when he heard that the escort named Zeng Run was greeting Wang Zhen with "Wang Langjun" on the left and "Wang Langjun" on the right in the official residence, Xu Huai felt harsh and turned around to peek into the official residence.
I saw Zeng Run, who was in his forties, with a yellow complexion and a narrow face. He was wearing a blue-black official uniform and had a black beard on his lips. He looked like a scribe.
Titles in this world are quite sophisticated.
Only the left and right prime ministers, those involved in political affairs, privy envoys, deputy envoys, censors, Zhongcheng and other figures are qualified to be called "prime minister", "Xianggong" and other titles.
If these figures were demoted from the local area or dismissed from their posts for private crimes such as corruption and perversion of the law, and were notorious, they would naturally not care about the issue of title; and for those like Wang Zhen who were demoted from the local area for public crimes committed by outspokenness, according to Dai Viet
The local government must also give sufficient respect to the tradition that has lasted for more than a hundred years.
When he was in Biyang, no matter how disdainful the local officials were towards Wang Zhen in their hearts, they still called him minister-in-law orally.
At this time, Zeng Run deliberately addressed Wang Zhen as "Mr. Lang". He did not get up and walk out of the official residence to greet him before. Instead, he sat behind the chief case and waited for Lu Xiong to accompany Wang Zhen. Xu Huai knew that it was Guo Zhongxiong who took the post.
A private official who was brought to Lanzhou at that time.
Although state and county official affairs are mainly controlled by local forces, after the leading officials go to the local area, they can also use the power of recommendation to arrange for the secretaries around them to take charge of some key affairs to avoid being bullied by local forces. In particular, Guo Zhongxiong went to Lanzhou for In order to attack the outposts of the joint attack on Yan, it is necessary to bring a few more shrewd and capable private officials to eliminate the interference of local forces, so as to seize the initiative as quickly as possible.
Wang Zhen didn't seem to mind the subtle difference in title at all, and he could hear that Zeng Run meant to keep him in Kelan City, but this was not what he wanted, and said:
"Since Guo Langjun is not in Kelan City, he doesn't know which gentleman Guo Langjun will entrust the matter of the quarry to. I'd better finish the handover first, and come to Kelan City to see Guo Lang after a while. You are the one!"
The quarry is located in Langu County at the northern foot of Guanluo Mountain, and is nominally under the jurisdiction of Hedong Road Tiju Changping Division. However, except for Guo Zhongxiong, who has the right to control as the magistrate of Lanzhou, the stone mined by the quarry mainly supplies Langu and Ningwu. The construction of border walls, fortifications, stone mining, transportation and other matters in other places actually require Lanzhou to mobilize hundreds or even thousands of Xiang soldiers from Xiang troops and prison camps to serve as hard labor migrant prisoners. The state and county are also responsible for allocating the materials consumed in the entire process.
Without the cooperation of the prefectures and counties, how could the Changping Division in Langu County be able to mine tens of thousands of carts of stone and transport it to the required places every year with just a few officials?
Of course, people like Cai Zheng just found a reasonable-sounding name to extract Wang Zhen from Huaiyuan; the stone field can continue to operate without Wang Zhen's intervention.
Even though Wang Zhen believed that the attack on Yan and the alliance was complete, and whether it was a blessing or a disaster that three or five people could not change, he still did not want to be confined to Kelan City by Guo Zhongxiong and the others.
Since the imperial court had appointed him as the supervisor of the Lanzhou Stone Field, he himself did not mind his humble position, nor was he afraid that Guo Zhongxiong would dare to imprison him in Kelan City to prevent him from taking up his post.
Faced with Wang Zhen's persistence, Zeng Run was not surprised and said with a smile:
"Wang Langjun is in such a hurry to go to the quarry, but it also saves the junior officials from worrying about the poor recruitment in Kelan City. When it comes to the handover of the quarry, Zeng Run is lucky enough to have Guo Langjun's trust, and the state, county and All matters related to the stone quarry are mediated by the small official - Wang Langjun can go directly to the stone quarry first, and there will be someone responsible for everything there. If you encounter any inconvenience, you can send someone over to say hello to the small official. When the small official arrives, When the time comes, someone will be arranged to mediate on Wang Langjun's behalf."
The Changping Division, also known as the Cang Division, has jurisdiction over Changping, Hedong Road, levy exemption, market transactions, mills, river crossings, water conservancy and other market affairs, as well as some important mills, such as the smelting and casting of gold, silver, copper and iron, and the boiling of salt. In addition to the on-site supervisor as an official in matters such as sun exposure, there will also be officials such as the chief minister to assist and supervise.
If Wang Zhen is appointed as one of these important factory supervisors, he can go to his post first, meet with the farm chiefs and other subordinate officials, and then meet with state and county officials as usual.
There is no money to be made in the stone quarry, and the warehouse department does not have a field chief or other supervisory and auxiliary officials. The previous field supervisor was a polished commander who fell ill and died in office. For a while, no new officials were appointed, and the state government was responsible for the operation. .
Wang Zhen already understood these things clearly when he handed over to Cangsi in Taiyuan Mansion.
Wang Zhen insisted on going to the stone quarry to take up his post, but Zeng Run didn't stop him. He also politely reminded him that if anything went wrong if he went straight to take up his post, he would send someone to help mediate. The implication was that such trivial matters were not worth taking personally. Take a trip.
Of course, what Zeng Run wanted to show at this time was to tell Wang Chen clearly that everything in Lanzhou was under their control.
"Thank you."
Even a few words without speculation would be too much, so Wang Zhen immediately took his leave and left with Lu Xiong.
"Wang Langjun, go slowly." Zeng Run also walked to the threshold to say goodbye, with a smile on his face that a gentle gentleman should have, and did not care at all that Xu Huai was rude to sit on the steps in front of the eaves of the official residence.
thing.
"Woof woof, woof woof woof!"
Xu Huai patted his butt and stood up, barking like a dog twice at Zeng Run.
Wang Zhen, Lu Xiong, Tang Pan, and Xu Xin'an were all stunned, but they had long been accustomed to Xu Huai's unexpected words and deeds. Zeng Run and the two guards guarding the corridor were really shocked when Xu Huai learned how to bark.
Seeing Zeng Run's astonishment, Xu Huaishi held up his hands and said: "Xu Huai is a good running dog in front of Wang Xianggong. I just heard a dog barking rudely in the official residence. I thought I met the same kind today and wanted to say hello...
Woof woof, you really can’t understand my nonsense?”
Zeng Run claimed that he had cultivated his mind to the point where he could not be surprised when Mount Tai collapsed in front of him, and he felt that he had the qualifications to stand alone when he followed Guo Zhongxiong to Lanzhou, but at this moment he felt angry.
Still the uncontrollable "miso" ignited, it was so difficult to contain.
But how could he retaliate?
The Thousand Swordsman mocked him as a dog, but he admitted that he was a lackey in front of the king's throne. How could he continue to mock him as a dog?
This is completely harmless.
He has often done this before when literati looked down on each other and sarcastically retorted, but he had never experienced this kind of sarcasm before stabbing himself twice!
Are you scolding this murderer for being wanton and rude in an official residence?
In this courtyard, no matter how downcast Wang Zhen is, he is still an official, he is an official.
He had to go back to celebrate the festival, so he could only ask Guo Zhongxiong or the chief officials of the state government to come forward and suppress the king's complaint before reprimanding the murderer for being rude and messing around. But if he really wanted to do this, he would not be able to prove that he was showing off his prestige to others.
Acting like a running dog?
Since Wang Zhen's identity was clearly revealed, Zeng Run didn't think that the two officers would obey his order and beat this arrogant man out with sticks.
So angry!
He was ridiculed to the point of being laughed at by this rogue and rude way of killing embryos. He was so helpless with this embryo-killer that he had to spit out all the words he was holding in his throat. It was really uncomfortable.
Wang Zhen had no intention of entangling him, so he tugged on Xu Huai's sleeve and walked out of the government office together.
Xu Huai walked out with the knife in hand, and when he reached the moon gate of the side courtyard, he turned around and called out "woof, woof" twice to Zeng Run, who was standing under the eaves of the corridor.
There was no trace of Zeng Run's self-proclaimed character. The veins on his forehead were so angry that he wanted to grab a brick from the courtyard wall, rush up and slap the grandson on the back of the head to let him know that scholars are also angry; the guards wanted to find someone.
Places bury themselves inside, hoping that everyone will ignore their existence.
"How can you be so rude? Mr. Wang has lost all his face!"
Hearing that Xu Huai was actually barking like a dog in the state government office, Wang Xuan, Tian Yanyan, and Song Yu'er rolled around with laughter. Liu Qiong'er laughed angrily and slapped Xu Huai on the face as he crawled into her carriage.
"This Zeng Run, you can tell at a glance that he is full of bad intentions. Lanzhou is their home field. We really need to show some respect. They have countless legitimate means to deal with us. So how are we going to play?" Xu Huai
He got into the carriage and said with a smile, "I want to lose this face openly now and let them know that the prepared routine can't defeat us. Only then can we make them make mistakes and expose their flaws - otherwise, you
You thought I was willing to learn how to bark like a dog. Even if I have to learn, I would do it in front of you - woof woof..."
"...Go!" Liu Qiong'er stretched out her hand to push Xu Huai out to prevent him from rubbing against her, but she laughed and had no strength in her hands. In the end, she even used her feet to kick Xu Huai out of the carriage...