Chapter 155: If I had known, I would not have bought this official
Lin Ziran, who was riding a horse in Nanzhou, was dressed in military uniform. On his collar was a gold-plated silver border with a young prince's collar badge embossed with a peony.
Peony, in addition to the many symbols of the peony flower itself in the Daheng Dynasty, it is also the symbol of the Ji Dynasty.
Because the Ji family's family background is dominated by peonies, Lin Ziran had heard that the Ji family palace in the capital was surrounded by countless peonies.
At the same time, the peony is also the national flag of Daheng, and the collar badges of senior generals also use the peony flower pattern.
Many people, whether outsiders or insiders, sometimes directly refer to Daheng as the Peony Dynasty.
Lin Ziran was wearing a peony collar badge and a navy blue military uniform unique to senior generals. Anyone who looked at him would know that he was a senior general in the Daheng Dynasty.
It's just that many people don't know that Lin Ziran's military title of Shaoqing has not been recognized by the county governor's office. It is just an acting Shaoqing privately awarded by the Third Division.
But this does not prevent Lin Ziran from dressing up as a Shaoqing and treating himself as the real Shaoqing.
Arriving at the city gate of Xinmu Town on horseback, the local guard and several other officials and gentry were already waiting at the city gate.
At this time, Luo Mazi had already stepped forward first, and then sang loudly: "Commander of the third division's supplementary brigade, Lin Shaoqing is here!"
In fact, Lin Ziran was just a few meters behind Luo Mazi, and this loud singing almost frightened Lin Ziran.
I'm right here, what are you yelling about?
At this moment, everyone in Xinmu Town also stepped forward and said: "I humble myself to pay homage to Mr. Lin!"
Lin Ziran was too lazy to pay attention to Luo Mazi, and immediately took two steps forward: "You don't have to be polite. Lin came here purely for military affairs this time, and I didn't intend to disturb you. I'm really sorry!"
However, despite saying this, Lin Ziran was still riding on the Nanzhou horse, which was 1.56 meters tall, with no intention of dismounting.
He just stretched out his hand with white gloves and raised it in vain!
When Luo Mazi saw this Shangguan style, he felt a bit like the original Jian Liangzhi.
I remember that when Jian Liangzhi first came to Qingshan Town, he looked like this when he met Lin Ziran, Luo Mazi and others. He seemed kind and polite, but he was condescending.
After entering the city, Lin Ziran took a group of officers and the people of Xinmu Town to have lunch, which was considered a welcome feast for Xinmu Town.
In the afternoon, Lin Ziran called Shi Jinhao over.
"I'm here today. I've been angry with you before. I'm here to suppress bandits. The banditry in nearby areas has been quite serious recently, so I have to guard against it!"
Listening to what Lin Ziran said about suppressing bandits, Shi Jinhao nodded and said yes, but he was thinking about suppressing bandits. Who are you kidding? Our place in Xinmu Town is so poor that even bandits don't want to come here.
Besides, our Xinmu Town escorts are not vegetarians either.
Although their escort team in Xinmu Town only has more than a hundred people, with a smaller number and worse equipment, they can still be regarded as a militia group. They have weapons and training, and they usually have no problem dealing with bandits.
Anyway, Shi Jinhao had never heard of any bandits nearby, especially a large-scale bandit group that required Lin Ziran to dispatch hundreds of troops to suppress the bandits.
But if he sees through it without telling it, Lin Ziran insists on speaking out to suppress the bandits, so he can only agree with it.
The timber merchants in the town had already made their attitude clear and defected to Qingshan Town.
Lin Ziran came with an army, and the timber merchants welcomed him very much. They even forced Shi Jinhao, who was guarding the mansion, to agree to let the army enter the city.
Lin Ziran continued at this time: "What is needed to suppress the bandits is a multi-faceted encirclement and suppression. Although the troops I have brought here are many, they are not enough. In this way, tomorrow you will ask the town's escort team to go with us to suppress the bandits."
"Let the escort team suppress the bandits?" Shi Jinhao was a little confused as to why Lin Ziran would do this.
Not to mention that there are no bandits, even if there are, it is not necessary to let the escort team suppress the bandits. Lin Ziran's few hundred people are enough.
Lin Ziran's face turned pale at this moment: "What, are you having difficulty?"
Shi Jinhao said quickly: "No, no, when I get back to my post, I will ask the escort team to follow your troops to suppress the bandits!"
Lin Ziran now had a smile on his face again: "Well, okay, very good. I am very pleased that Mr. Shi has such love for the people!"
After coming out of Lin Ziran's side, Shi Jinhao was not in a good mood on his way back to the governor's mansion.
The master next to him said: "Sir, why do they need a bodyguard? Are they really going to suppress bandits?"
Shi Jinhao said: "What kind of bandits are you trying to suppress? Doesn't this mean that we are going to recruit our escort team?"
The master said with uneasiness: "Just let them be included?"
"Is it okay if I don't give it?" Shi Jinhao said: "Let's not talk about the supplementary brigade first, let's talk about this escort team. Can you and I completely control it?"
Without waiting for the master's answer, he said: "I can't control it. This escort is nominally the town's escort, but every officer in it is a member of the gentry!"
"Since those timber merchants have already taken refuge, it's useless for us to stop them, and we can't stop them either!"
Hearing what Shi Jinhao said, the master also sighed: "It's not easy. If I had known better, my lord, you shouldn't have spent so much money to buy back this guard. It's been more than two years and it hasn't been paid back yet!"
When Shi Jinhao heard this, his expression froze, and he paused for a few seconds before sighing deeply: "Yes, if I had known better, I wouldn't have bought this official position."
On the other side, Xu Zhongshu, who had come with him, was reporting to Lin Ziran: "Sir, I have visited the escort team. There are a total of 165 people. The quality of the soldiers is average, but they are still young and strong.
, as for officers, they are all non-professional officers. If they want to be recruited, I'm afraid they will have to be retrained in a new military camp!"
Lin Ziran said: "Well, in that case, let's put them into the recruit camp for training!"
Xu Zhongshu said: "What about this escort team?"
Lin Ziran said: "This is not easy, we just leave the Ninth Company as a guard!"
The Ninth Company is a newly formed infantry company, with dozens of veterans serving as the backbone, and nearly a hundred others who have just completed recruit training.
Lin Ziran brought them here this time just to let them stay in Xinmu Town.
In this way, the subsequent unit, which bears the name of Xinmu Town Guards but is actually the ninth company, will live in Xinmu Town permanently and receive military expenses from Xinmu Town as a local militia.
According to Lin Ziran's plan, the action against Xinmu Town was actually to recruit the local militia and obtain military expenditures from Xinmu Town in the name of the local militia.
Basically, it is similar to what Sanyang Town and Qingshan Town do. They all let their troops stationed in various places under the name of local militia, and then legitimately ask for military expenses.
In order to achieve the purpose of raising more troops through these towns.
As for directly taking over the garrison offices of various places, and even directly collecting taxes, this kind of thing will definitely be done in the future, but not now!