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In the golden October, the land of Hanzhong is thriving. At this time, the Hanzhong Basin is like Yizhou and other counties in Jingzhou. The autumn harvest has ended. Singings are floating everywhere in the farm. The faces of the busy farmers in the village are filled with the joy of harvest.

In the morning, a team of two thousand soldiers guarded slowly walked on the official road. This was Liu Jing's team inspecting Hanzhong. He had been inspecting Hanzhong for ten days and was on his way to Wudu County. At this time, they were still walking in the Hanzhong Basin. The hills and fields intersected are unique scenery in this area. The shadows of tall mountains can be seen faintly in the distance.

The Hanzhong Basin is still the core area of ​​the entire Hanzhong region, and Nanzheng County is the largest city in Hanzhong and the political and economic center of Hanzhong. However, the military center has quietly changed its position last year and has been transferred to Wudu County.

"Husband, we seem to have been here."

In the carriage, Sun Shangxiang looked around the scenery and asked, "The terrain of the Hanzhong Basin was slightly flat, and she no longer rode a horse, but instead took a carriage. Although she was very tired after following her husband when she inspected her, she had no complaints and tried to do something as much as possible, such as meeting the family of officials, pacifying the wives and children of the fallen soldiers, etc. When she went out for twenty days, she obviously lost weight.

Liu Jing looked at her pitifully and smiled, "Twenty miles south is Yangping Pass where we entered Hanzhong from Shu Road. At that time, we walked east from the official road to the south, and now we are walking west, so you think it looks familiar, we have indeed come."

"So this is Yangping Pass, I said why do you look familiar?"

Sun Shangxiang asked again: "Is this still Hanzhong County?"

Liu Jing pointed to a small river not far ahead and smiled and said, "I saw that there was no small river in front. After crossing that river, I entered Wudu County."

The team soon arrived at the small river and crossed the river from the bridge. There was a boundary monument by the river. Sun Shangxiang leaned over and looked at it. He saw that the word "Ju County" was written on the boundary monument.

She suddenly remembered something and asked Liu Jing: "Last time I heard you say that there is something important about you going to Ju County. Is it here?"

Liu Jing nodded, "It's here. I'll take a day off in the county town today and set off to go to the next day."

The reason why Liu Jing was very interested in Ju County was because a major case broke out in Ju County more than a month ago. Ju County officials colluded with prodigal businessmen to embezzle tens of thousands of stones of official grain. From the county magistrate to the chief clerk, all officials were involved in this major case. It can be said that it was the most serious corruption case that Liu Jing encountered since he rose from Jiangxia.

Since Liu Jing discovered that local officials had committed fraud during his inspection of Wuchang, he returned to Chengdu and immediately established the Supervision Bureau and formed ten teams of external supervision envoys, requiring that all counties in Yizhou and Jingzhou be thoroughly inspected within one year. The major corruption case in Ju County happened in this context, so Liu Jing attached great importance to it.

One of the important purposes of Liu Jing's inspection of Hanzhong this time was to come to Ju County to personally inquire about the case. He went to Nanzheng first, and on the way from Nanzheng to Xiabian County, he happened to pass by Ju County.

Soon, the team gradually arrived at the county town of Juxian. Juxian is one of the major grain-producing counties in Hanzhong. It is close to Mianshui. It has a large population and has nearly 7,000 households. However, the county town is not big and has a circumference of only ten miles. The city walls are short and dilapidated. The population mainly lives in the villages on both sides of Mianshui.

Since all the officials in Ju County have been removed from office and have been temporarily taken over by the Hanzhong Supervision Branch, waiting for the new official to take over power after taking office. The Hanzhong Supervision Branch is appointed by the young Xun Zhi, with two deputys and twenty cavalry guards.

In just a few months, they inspected more than a dozen counties in Hanzhong County and Shangyong County. Xun Zhi was upright and upright. He was called the Iron-Face Duke by the Hanzhong people. More than a month ago, he seized a major case of collusion between officials and businessmen in Ju County and privately selling official grain, which made Xun Zhi famous in the officialdoms of Jing and Yizhou.

At this time, Xun Zhi had already received the news of Liu Jing's arrival and rushed outside the city gate to welcome the arrival of the provincial governor. Xun Zhi was led to Liu Jing by the soldiers. He bowed deeply and said: "The humble minister Xun Zhi participated in the provincial governor."

Liu Jing knew that Xun Zhi was Xun Yu's nephew, and the Xun family was an important family he would fight for in the future. In fact, based on this consideration, Liu Jing promoted Xun Zhi as the supervisory envoy. Seeing Xun Zhi was kind and had a little favor, he nodded and said, "I have read the report sent by Xun Yu, which shocked me. So this time I visited Hanzhong and came to Ju County specially. I want to know about this major case myself."

"Please ask the governor of the state to enter the city, Rong Weichen will report in detail"

Liu Jing immediately ordered Li Qing, the commander of the guard, and said, "The army does not need to enter the city. Stop in the military camp outside the city, rest for a day, and set off tomorrow morning."

"Abide by the order"

Li Qing led the army to the military camp outside the west city, while Liu Jing led Sun Shangxiang into the county town under the left and right escort of the two guards.

Although Ju County is a major county in Hanzhong, the county town looks very dilapidated and messy, with uneven grounds and dust flying, and there is a sour smell everywhere. The residents' houses are almost mud-brown houses, low and tattered. Most of the residents are wearing old clothes with coarse cloth, and the children they see are barefoot and no shoes.

Liu Jing also has many years of political experience. He knew that the advantages and disadvantages of a county official can be seen from the appearance of a county town. The Ju County Magistrate is obviously very unqualified. The county magistrate who is inaction does not know how Zhang Lu could tolerate it at the beginning.

When the group arrived at the county government office, Liu Jing asked Xun Zhi to arrange for someone to take a few female guards and Sun Shangxiang to the side hall to rest first. Liu Jing entered the back hall. Liu Jing sat down and smiled at Xun Zhi: "Tell me how you discovered the situation. The report you wrote is simple."

Xun Zhi quickly bowed and said, "Reporting to the prefecture governor, I first look at the supervision records of Zhang Lu for each county, and found that Ju County had no records for consecutive years. I asked Yang Shou again, and he said that Ju County Magistrate Zhong Lin was the wife of Zhang Wei, who served as the county magistrate for one year. He was ranked among the top of Hanzhong counties for two consecutive years. He was deeply praised by Zhang Lu. If we had not conquered Hanzhong, Zhang Lu would have promoted him to the magistrate of Wudu County. On the surface, this was a very capable official, but Yang Shou suggested that I go to the county to take a look."

"You mean Yang Song knows it," Liu Jing asked interrupted him.

"Yang Shou only knew that the Zhong County Magistrate was very fierce in collecting taxes, and he did not know about embezzlement of official grain. Because Yang Shou was the county magistrate of Hanzhong and Ju County belonged to Wudu County, Yang Shou didn't say much, just suggested that I go to Ju County to check it out in detail.

As a result, it was found that Ju County had been levied for ten years, which means that the taxes for the next seven years had been collected in advance, so naturally a lot of taxes were paid, which was praised by Zhang Lu. As for how much corruption he embezzled, it was a mess."

"How did you find out?"

"Reporting to the provincial governor, the night when Weichen led two deputy to the county for inspection, Zhong Lin asked me to send me five taels of gold. I knew that his problem must be very serious, but most of the previous account books were lost and there was no way to check it. Later, I found that the inventory of grain and Hanzhong account books were not in line with each other.

Then Weichen checked the records from Hanzhong that the official warehouse of Juxian should have 70,000 stones of grain stored in the grain, but in fact the inventory is less than 20,000 stones. If the loss of poor preservation is removed, a total of 50,000 stones of grain is reduced.

As a result, from the county magistrate to the chief clerk, they insisted that the grain was requisitioned by the Yizhou army when they went north, and they said that they were stolen by the rioters. The problem lies here. When the Yizhou army went north, they did not pass by Ju County at all. They went directly from Mingyue Pass to Dingjun Mountain, and even Yangping Pass did not come. How could they requisition the county's grain?"

Liu Jing nodded and asked with a smile: "Then how did you find out the problem?"

In his report to Chengdu, Xun Zhi only reported the problems of Ju County officials, but he did not mention how he investigated the case at all, while Liu Jing was very interested in it.

Xun Zhi said a little embarrassedly: "Weichen pretended to accept their bribes and pretended to check them all. They believed it, so they lowered their vigilance. Then Weichen left and returned to Nanzheng, but secretly sent his subordinates to Juxian to investigate. They found the merchant who had traded with them and directly arrested the merchant in Nanzheng.

As a result, the merchants had detailed records and evidence. Weichen asked General Zhao to send troops to assist. He seized a large amount of money from the homes of several officials in Ju County, as well as the account books they hid. In front of the evidence and witnesses, they had to plead guilty."

Liu Jing laughed, "It's true. Not only is he selfless, but he is very strategic, and he is worthy of being a younger brother of the Xun family."

Xun Zhi blushed, bowed and bowed, "I have a request to ask the provincial governor to agree."

"Tell me, I agree."

"Weichen is very sad about the situation in Ju County. A good county was ruined by corrupt officials. I beg the governor of the state to appoint Weichen as the magistrate of Ju County. I will give me two years to completely turn the appearance of Ju County."

Liu Jing pondered for a moment and then said happily: "It is rare that you have this ambition, so I will fulfill you. Not only that, I will exempt you from the annual taxes of Ju County. All the money and grains from several corrupt officials are charged into the Ju County treasury, and the county can control it. I will come to Ju County again in two years. I hope you don't disappoint me."

Xun Zhi was overjoyed and bowed to him, "I will definitely not let down the trust of the governor of the state."

...........

At night, Liu Jing reviewed the emergency certificate sent by Chengdu in the military camp, and Sun Shangxiang sat aside to organize the books for him. Although Sun Shangxiang had been good at martial arts since childhood, he also received a good education and studied, and wrote a beautiful font.

Although she followed Liu Jingyi to inspect the north and saw the magnificent mountains and rivers, she also served as Liu Jing's temporary clerk, sorting books for him and arranging his daily life, food and accommodation, which greatly helped Liu Jing.

At this time, Liu Jing stopped writing and asked Sun Shangxiang with a smile: "Can you tell me how Jiangdong manages Shanyue people?"

Sun Shangxiang knew why her husband asked this question. She had just seen Xu Shu's report. Xu Shu suggested sending people to the barbarian tribe to teach them to raise silkworms and weave brocades, and cultivate land and farm. This made her sigh that Yizhou's governance of barbarians was completely different from Jiangdong's governance of Shanyue people.

"Jiangdong has insufficient population. Since my elder brother's era, I have been constantly provoking wars against Shanyue people, and took the opportunity to plunder Shanyue people to enrich the population of local counties. Although they conquered Shanyue people on the surface, they also left great hidden dangers. In recent years, riots have been constantly in the counties where Shanyue people gathered, and the numerous revenge and killings with the Han people have always been a confidant of Jiangdong."

Sun Shangxiang sighed softly and said, "From Yizhou's governance of barbarians, I realized that Jiangdong's direction of governing Shanyue people was wrong from the beginning. It should be to help them improve their lives and slowly integrate with the Han people, rather than just conquering them by force, which would only backfire."

Speaking of this, Sun Shangxiang took off the moon bead on his neck. This was a gift given to Tao Zhan by Mrs. Zhurong. It was the treasure of the barbarians. Although Tao Zhan was unwilling to accept it, he could not refuse it in the end. Later, he gave it to Sun Shangxiang. Sun Shangxiang kept wearing it for his love.

She stroked Baozhu and said to Liu Jing: "From these strings of Baozhu, we can see Mrs. Zhurong's desire to improve the lives of the barbarians. I hope that my husband can help them sincerely."

Liu Jing smiled and said, "Conquest is not only about force, but also about transformation. In fact, whether against barbarians or mountain and Yue, you cannot use force roughly or simply appease it. It should be both kindness and power. First, you must establish your authority with force, and then use soft means to comfort it. More importantly, you must be patient and use generations to slowly integrate and move subtly, and you cannot rush to achieve success. I believe that by the generation of our Sun, there will be great changes in southern Xinjiang."

"My husband said it well, I hope to see that day."

The two were talking, and at this time, a guard outside the tent reported: "Qi Bizhou Governor, General Huang sent someone to send an emergency war report."
Chapter completed!