Zhu Ying suddenly wanted to go out of the city with Zhang Shou. On the surface, Zhu Tingfang had a fierce argument with Zhu Ying, making his sister slam the door and leave. But in fact, he was just using anger as a cover, hoping that the two of them would stay away from Cangzhou for a few days.
Don't see some bloody scenes, because after he dealt with those wealthy people, he immediately slashed at the idle people in the city.
In his opinion, these idle and aggressive guys were the most unstable factors wherever they went. So, without the eldest prince, who needed the protection or surveillance of the Ruiqi Camp, he directly ordered Du Heng to personally
He led the sharp cavalry battalion to go out and arrest a bunch of gang leaders in the city who were bullying and dominating the market. On the same day, he beheaded two of the convicted gangsters in the market.
And these two people were also the organizers of Changlu County Magistrate Xu Cheng who had bribed him with a lot of money to plan the first wave of counterattack on the palace. However, when Old Xianyu said that we are rebels, the mob they brought with them were killed.
Xian Yunhe and others who came out were scattered.
Until the two people's blood splattered on the execution ground, they didn't know the reason why they lost their lives. Whether it was because they had been Xu Cheng's lackeys, or because they had committed extortion and caused death and injury.
These were the first two people Zhu Tingfang killed after arriving in Cangzhou. Compared with the crackling boards on the platform in front of the county government hall, compared with the several beheadings and numerous exiles he sentenced, and compared with being locked up in the palace by him
Compared with the "rioters" Xian Yunhe and others who were waiting for the imperial court to be punished, the scene of two heads falling to the ground was undoubtedly a more powerful deterrent.
At least seven or eight of the idle men who accompanied him to watch the execution were so frightened that they peed their pants. Some of the rest fainted, and some looked pale and shaky. There was not one out of ten heroes who could stand upright as if nothing had happened.
As for those heroes who were not tied to the execution ground to watch the execution, but spontaneously hid in the crowd in twos and threes, or hid in nearby wine shops and teahouses, their mood was even more complicated.
The rioters were imprisoned and the wealthy families were dealt with. However, the court regarded them as the most restless factors and needed to kill them as a warning to others. In other words, it was those idle men who had martial arts skills but no legitimate professions. This was undoubtedly a very dangerous sign!
When Cao hurried back to Cangzhou City on the evening of the fifth day of the fifth day, he got the news from the disciple who was waiting for him at the city gate that Zhu Tingfang had beheaded the two people the previous day.
He was being held on death row, but these two men were suddenly taken to the execution ground. When he heard this, he felt his heart tightening. It was not until his apprentice lowered his voice and called Master twice that he came back to his senses.
"What else?"
"The chief escorts from the other three escort agencies all came to our house. They said that they couldn't sit still at home, so they could only come over and wait for news from you... Since you are back, should we go back quickly?"
Cao Wu's face suddenly darkened: "I'm not here, just treat them to a sip of tea and send them back. Why are you keeping them? They killed two people yesterday, and they don't know how to behave with their tails between their legs.
Are you still communicating with everyone? I still have things to do, go back and tell them that I have met the person I want to see, and if they want to be safe, they can go home and wait for me!"
Seeing his young apprentice startled for a moment and then running away, Cao Wu shook the reins and finally went straight to the Changlu County Yamen. When he got off the horse at the gate of the County Yamen, several riders came galloping towards him from the other side.
The two leaders were young men with good looks and ordinary clothes. They jumped off the horse and entered the gate one after another without even looking at him. Several guards followed closely behind. He was not in a hurry when he saw this.
, dismounted and walked straight to a door at the gate.
If it was normal for him to stand like this, the doorman who must have recognized him would have called out "Master Cao" with great enthusiasm. But at this moment, the doorman stood up straight and said nothing, only gesticulating with his mouth to indicate the line.
Being there, he didn't dare to speak, so he motioned to Cao Wu to speak first.
Faced with such a situation, Cao Wu did not insist on putting on airs, and immediately said with a smile on his face: "Please let me know, please tell Shunhe Escort Cao Wu to see General Mingwei..."
Seeing the hesitation on the man's face, he immediately added: "I met Miss Zhu at Maliu Mountain, and she asked me to come."
As soon as he finished speaking, there was an exclamation of surprise inside. But a young man who had just entered the door turned around again. The person looked at him up and down for a while, and then he laughed and said: "This is really the sun.
I came out from the west, and Yingying has always only looked at people with good looks. Looking at your appearance and demeanor, you are quite capable of winning her to look at you differently!"
When Cao Wu first saw the group of people, he recognized that this young man was Zhu Ying's second brother and the second son of Duke Zhao. However, at this moment, he deliberately pretended not to recognize the person and said with a smile:
"The villain happened to be the eldest lady's guide for a while today. Thanks to the eldest lady's guidance, I came to see General Mingwei."
"Oh?" Zhu Er looked at Cao Wu with some critical eyes. Thinking of the word "escort agency" that just happened to hit his ears, his heart moved, and he raised his chin slightly and said, "Well, take away all the weapons and hidden weapons on your body."
Hand it over and follow me in!"
Cao Wu had no intention of bringing those bits and pieces to see Zhu Tingfang, so he immediately and readily complied with the request. When he and Zhu Er entered, they had to secretly take a closer look at the two young men who were waiting impatiently for them.
Eyes. But he didn't know who this person was. He only knew that he seemed to have been in and out of the Second Young Master Zhu these past two days.
But soon, he found out, because Zhu Er had no intention of keeping secrets in front of an outsider like him!
"Who is this guy? It's not an exaggeration to say that your boss Zhu is busy with everything right now. He brings all your cats and dogs to him. Are you afraid that if he gets angry with you for being nosy, he will just come up and beat you up?"
"My elder brother doesn't just know how to use his fists all day long. He has a brain better than anyone else. Don't try to sow discord! As for this guy, he just said that Yingying introduced him here. I leave it to my elder brother to decide whether he is here or not.
That's all. Why do you, the eldest son of the Duke of Qin, have any nonsense? I've almost finished the sample statistics for the first street. Can you handle three streets by yourself?"
As Zhu Er said this, he drawled a long and mean voice: "If you can't do it, I can help you share another street..."
"No need!" Zhang Chen snorted angrily, and then said firmly, "Don't forget that Mr. Xiao said that this time I am the leader, and you are the one who helps!"
Seeing Zhang Chen walk away after finishing speaking, Zhu Er suddenly said angrily: "Subordinate? Without me as the subordinate, you wouldn't be able to finish even if you are exhausted! What can you do? If my brother-in-law were here, he would definitely say, everything
Being able to instruct others to do something is called skill, but only knowing how to work hard by yourself is a fool..."
Cao Wu saw Zhu Er muttering there, and finally they sent him to the second hall smoothly, but they just handed him over to a soldier standing in front of the door, and then left without saying a word.
He thought he was about to undergo a strict interrogation, but who knew that the guard only looked at him for a moment, and then reported it to the inside.
Not long after, he saw the door open in front of him, followed by a young man who looked like a follower came out. He only glanced at him and went straight out of the door, but the guard just now pouted at him: "What are you standing there for?
The doors are open, why don’t you hurry in?”
Cao Wu did not dare to delay and hurried in quickly. Fortunately, for a martial arts student like him, his feet were very stable and he would not stumble over the threshold due to nervousness.
However, when he saw the young man sitting in the middle, with a scar on his face that could not hide his elegance, but his aura was completely different from that of Zhu Er and Zhang Chen, he was glared at by that sharp gaze, and the words he had planned in his heart were revealed.
I immediately forgot about half of it.
And when he heard Zhu Tingfang's question, he was even more caught off guard. Because General Mingwei clearly asked the question straightforwardly without any detours.
"I'm not going to ask why the chief escort of Shunhe Escort Agency left everything behind and went two hundred miles away to go to Maliu Mountain to work as a guide for Yingying. What you and her said, you can repeat it exactly now.
Tell me, or I'll ask her back and ask her the same thing. Don't evade the important and take the easy. My time is limited."
Cao Wu only hesitated for a moment, then he simply changed his mind and recounted how he met Zhu Ying and the subsequent conversation. Even Zhu Ying almost kicked the son of the prefect of Hejian down the mountain.
Omit.
Sure enough, after he finished speaking, Zhu Tingfang was seen playing with a short dagger in his hand, with a stern look on his face.
"He's just a sour scholar who can't show off but talks nonsense. If he's beaten, just beat him. Don't worry about him! As for the worries of you Cangzhou warriors... Haha, every family has unscrupulous children. This is understandable. Even the Jiang family, Qi family, etc. have
I am not implicated in the bad deeds of others, let alone you?"
However, before Cao Wu could feel at ease, Zhu Tingfang said coldly: "But for the sake of money, as long as you are willing to give money to become a disciple, no matter whether you are a good or bad person, you will teach some basic martial arts. Naturally, you will create a group of people who think they are good at martial arts."
, people who don’t care about production and just make trouble all day long. This time the incident in Cangzhou is so big, you can’t escape the blame.”
Cao Wu now accepts the punishment and only hopes that Zhu Tingfang will not chop the butcher's knife on Wumen's head.
After all, they may not be afraid of General Mingwei and Duke Zhao's palace alone, but they may not be afraid. But this time the court's face has been trampled to the ground. Who knows what kind of thunderous wrath the emperor will have?
At that moment, he took a very low profile: "What the general said is true. We didn't carefully screen talents before, so there were some black sheep..."
Before Cao Wu could finish what he said, Zhu Tingfang said in a deep voice: "Since Yingying has given you some advice, I can be lenient. First, clean up the house yourself, and fire out those with bad deeds. Second,
, you have no one to maintain law and order on the streets these days. As for third, choose your own children who are good at both civil and military affairs and have a clean family background. I can recommend them for martial arts."
Since they all agreed to Xu Weng and asked Zhang Shou to recommend a few outstanding scholars to study in the Imperial College, it is not a big deal for him to recommend a few martial arts disciples to try martial arts. While wielding a big stick and a butcher knife,
Of course you have to appease him!
Cao Wu didn't expect that Mr. Zhu, who everyone said was ruthless, would be so tolerant, and he was overjoyed. However, he had seen the world and knew that the two conditions in front of him were far inferior to Zhu Tingfang in the back.
After the price was offered, he hurriedly bowed down and thanked him: "General, I am so generous. I am very grateful. I will definitely clean up the house when I get back. As for public security..."
"There were only twenty or thirty police officers that I temporarily captured together with Changlu County Magistrate Xu Cheng, so now there are quite a few vacancies in the third class of county government officers. If you want to help maintain law and order in Cangzhou City, you will indeed
It can’t be without a name. Let’s do this. Each of your families will recommend some elite soldiers and generals to join the third squad.”
Is there such a good thing? You must know that many of those taken down this time were regular servants, not assistants and deputy servants who were not on the yamen roster, that is, they could be fired at any time.
Serving as a regular servant is usually a job that is inherited by the father after his death, and it is impossible for outsiders to get involved! It is said that there are more than twenty vacancies in total!
When Cao Wu was inexplicably excited, what Zhu Tingfang said next made him feel cold all of a sudden, and he secretly complained.
"I checked the official records of Changlu County's official office. The Kuaiban, Zhuangban, and Zaoban classes have a total of registered regular servants in these three classes. The total number of regular servants in each class is 30 people, a total of 90 people, but the assistants
Added together with the deputy officers, the number exceeds 300. With more than 300 people devouring the wealth of the people, plus those idle people in the market, no wonder the folk customs in Cangzhou are uneasy."
"Those who you recommend to join the third class must first be screened by the deputies and assistants. Anyone with bad records will not be retained! This is an order, not a discussion with you!"
Knowing that there was no way to refuse the matter, Cao Wu could only bite the bullet and said: "The general hates evil as much as he hates his enemies. The villain naturally understands. But in this way, the black sheep that we have expelled, plus these people who have been eliminated by the third squad
, at least there are hundreds. It would not be a good thing if hundreds of idle people were thrown into Cangzhou City all at once..."
"It's none of your business." Zhu Tingfang raised her eyebrows sternly and said word by word, "Just do it yourself."
When Cao Wu promised to resign and quietly exited the room, Zhu Tingfang remembered the survey Zhang Chen and Zhu Er had mentioned to him when Zhang Shou left - Zhang Shou called it population and employment statistics in front of him -
—He thought of other prefectures and counties from Cangzhou, and thought of the world from other prefectures and counties, and his heart felt heavy.
There are too many people without land and jobs... It is indeed a big problem! Why don't those so-called famous families know how to restrain themselves?
Thinking about the chaos in the world in the past, it was said to be famine, but could it be because there were too many people who could not support themselves, their wives, children, and children by cultivating land and working hard? He had previously blamed Zhang Shou's new spinning machine for causing such trouble.
Judging from the current situation in Cangzhou, trouble has been slowly accumulating for a long time, but it was just not noticed before.
Just as Zhu Tingfang was deep in thought, a voice suddenly came from outside: "Eldest Young Master, someone from the eldest lady sent a letter back, saying that the tunnels in Maliu Mountain are not entirely preserved by the Qi State. They may have been excavated in recent years, and they discovered...