At noon, Li Yanqing's army arrived in Nanzheng County, Hanzhong Prefecture. The prefect Liu Shoushan, the magistrate Xiao Yun, and the deputy envoy of the regiment training, Zhang Tao, and the dozen or so-called officials went out of the city to welcome Li Yanqing's arrival.

Although the Hanzhong Prefecture belongs to Zizhou Road administratively, it is under the jurisdiction of the Shaanxi Strategic Envoy. Li Yanqing turned over and dismounted, handed the horse to his personal soldiers, walked up and smiled and said, "Master Liu, Parliament Xiao Tong, we have been missing for a long time!"

"It's indeed a long time since I saw you. At that time, Li Jingluo was still a Tongzhi of Jingzhao. Four years have passed in a flash."

"Thanks to the Hanzhong government and the Hanzhong people for their support for the Jingzhao Army. This time I went south to inspect and thank everyone, and it was also a journey of gratitude."

"Mr. Jinglei is so kind. As a subordinate, it is our responsibility to support the Jingzhao Army."

Everyone exchanged a few more greetings, and Li Yanqing entered the city accompanied by a group of officials. Hu Qing'er led 500 female soldiers to the Hanzhong military camp.

Li Yanqing came to the government hall to sit down, and a group of officials accompanied both sides and gave in a humble manner for a while. The prefect, the magistrate and the deputy envoy of the regiment trained could only sit down. Everyone was drinking tea while briefly reporting on military and political affairs.

At this time, Li Yanqing asked Zhang Tao, deputy envoy of the regiment training, and said, "How many wing troops are there in Hanzhong Prefecture?"

"Reporting to the strategy, there are about a thousand people, distributed in three counties, mainly responsible for suppressing bandits and maintaining order."

Li Yanqing nodded and asked again: "I remember last month, the Ministry of Education ordered that the 20,000 xiang troops from the three routes of Bashu would come to Jingzhao Prefecture for training. Some xiang troops from some prefectures came, some did not come, and Hanzhong Prefecture seemed to have not come. Why is this?"

Zhang Tao's face suddenly showed a look of embarrassment. He looked at the prefect Liu Shoushan. Liu Shoushan hurriedly said: "Zhang Tuanlian was originally planning to lead the army north to participate in training, but suddenly a group of thieves appeared in Yangshan County. Zhang Tuanlian led his army to suppress the bandits, so he didn't go."

Of course, Li Yanqing knew that the prefect Liu was talking nonsense and could not make excuses. There would be no thieves in Yangshan County. It was simply that they were afraid that they would seize the military power of the local chief officer and detain the Xiang army and refused to come back.

Li Yanqing didn't say it out loud, but said lightly: "Training is very good for the soldiers. The wing troops in several states on Kuizhou Road generally responded well after returning. Not only did the military discipline increase, but the physical fitness and quality of the soldiers were also incomparable to the past. It was like a new army. Anyway, it was only half a month to train. Zhang Tuanjian would be better off leading troops tomorrow."

Zhang Tao looked at Liu Shoushan again, Liu Shoushan nodded, Zhang Tao quickly got up and bowed, "I respect the orders and will take my brothers to Jingzhao Mansion for training tomorrow."

Li Yanqing then went to the suburbs to visit several refugees who fled from Hedong Road, asked about their living conditions, and told Liu Shoushan and Xiao Yun to care about the escaped people. Then Li Yanqing visited the warehouse again, asked about the tax situation this year, rested for a night, and led his army to set off south the next day.

Just as Li Yanqing led his army away, Liu Shoushan immediately flew a pigeon letter to Chengdu Prefecture.

Chengdu Prefecture is the political center of Bashu region, with fertile land, numerous populations and abundant resources. Chengdu Prefecture Road includes Chengdu Prefecture, Mianzhou, Hanzhou, Maozhou, Jianzhou, Meizhou, Jiazhou and other thirteen prefectures, with a population of millions. It is currently the second most important tax area in the Song Dynasty after Jiangnan East Road and Liangzhe Road.

The prefect of Chengdu was named Zeng Xiulin. He was born into a large family in Pengzhou and was the son-in-law of Prime Minister Zhang Dun. He passed the imperial examination in the second year of Yuanfu and had a deep experience in the court. He served as the Minister of Rites in the fifth year of Zhenghe. In the sixth year of Zhenghe, he failed in factional struggle and was impeached by Cai Jing. He was demoted to Chengdu Prefecture as the Tongzong. In the second year of Xuanhe, he has officially served as the prefect of Chengdu.

Bashu has always been the territory of the Taifu Liang Shicheng, and Zeng Xiulin was also Liang Shicheng's confidant. After Zhao Huan ascended the throne, Tong Guan, Wang Fu and Li Yan were killed, Cai Jing retired from office, and Liang Shicheng was exiled to Lingnan. The court had no high-ranking and powerful officials. Zeng Xiulin was a local official in Bashu, and with his decades of political experience, he became the de facto local official leader of the three routes of Bashu.

Zeng Xiulin was extremely keen in political awareness and had alliances in the court. The left prime minister Lu Yihao was his political alliance. When King Kang Zhao Gou ascended the throne, he was the first local chief official in the local government to express his congratulations. After Li Gang was dismissed from prime minister, Emperor Zhao Gou intended to promote him to deputy prime minister, but he politely declined and supported Zhu Shengfei as prime minister.

When the Supreme Emperor returned from the Jin Kingdom, he was the first local official to send a letter to express condolences. Zhao Ji was deeply moved by his loyalty, and he was promoted to the second-rank special promotion.

Li Yanqing was named the Sichuan-Shaanxi Military Envoy, and Zeng Xiulin also made a false conspiracy. On the one hand, he actively expressed his full support for the Jingzhao Army's resistance to the Jin Dynasty, but secretly resisted Li Yanqing's implementation of the jurisdiction of the Bashu Three Routes. It was under his instruction that the magistrates of the Bashu Three Routes did not hand over the government affairs report to the Jinglifu Office, but directly reported to the court, so that Li Yanqing, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Military Envoy, was in name only, but there was still only the real power of the Shaanxi Military Envoy.

Zeng Xiulin was a little restless these two days. He already knew the news that Li Yanqing was going south to inspect, and he also knew why Li Yanqing went south. The three million jin of taxes and 700,000 shi of grain in the first half of the year of Chengdu Mansion Road have not yet been released to Jingzhao Mansion. Li Yanqing was nominally here to inspect Bashu, but his real purpose must be to come and ask for punishment!

The taxes and grain were all in the warehouse in Chengdu Prefecture, but Zeng Xiulin didn't want to hand them over to Shaanxi Road like this.

"Who is trying to make things difficult for whom?"

In the official room, Zeng Xiulin took a sip of tea and said coldly to Zhang Ji, the transshipment officer: "We will fully support him if he wants to resist the Jin Dynasty, and we will not give him a penny less. But now Song and Jin have signed a five-year contract and still support Shaanxi Road like last year. I think it is unnecessary. We also need to build bridges and roads, run schools, and pay official salaries. If all the taxes are given to him, what should we do? So we have to talk about it, and we will only give half of the other half to the court in the future, and leave it for our own use. In short, we can no longer support him unconditionally as before."

Zhang Ji smiled and said, "The Song-Jin agreement started in May, and this time the money and grain were taxes for the whole first half of the year. The meaning of humble vocation is to give it to them first this time and discuss it next time."

"I know, it's okay to give it to them, but before giving it to them, you must first explain the constitution and how to give it to them in the future. If you don't make any promises about the future, I won't give it to him this time."

Zhang Ji sighed in his heart. It is not a good thing to offend such a strong person as Li Yanqing. The evil man has to do it himself, but he is unwilling to give himself a solution. Things are very tricky!

Zhang Ji hesitated for a moment, then said, "I heard that the imperial court sent Yin Shishi Wen to Chengdu. If he did not give him a low position, it would violate the will of the officials and the court. I am afraid that the imperial censor would impeach Weishi."

"This may be the meaning of the government, but it may not be the attitude of the court. As far as I know, the court is arguing about this matter. Zhizhengtang's opinion is three to three, and the Supreme Emperor hopes that we can abide by the principles."

"The Supreme Emperor?"

Zhang Ji was stunned. Could it be that the Supreme Emperor also interfered in this matter?

Seeing Zeng Xiulin's gaze showing pride, he couldn't help but ask in a low voice: "Is it possible that the Supreme Emperor and the Duke are in contact?"

Zeng Xiulin smiled proudly, "What do you think? Otherwise, I would have broken up with him, Li Yanqing?"

Zeng Xiulin stood up and patted Zhang Ji on the shoulder, "Don't worry! I have the emperor's handwriting on my hand, so I won't let you be impeached by the censor."

At this moment, the sound of rapid footsteps came from outside, and the Chengdu Prefecture General Xu Qingwei walked into the inner hall quickly and smiled at Zeng Xiulin, "Mr., the pigeon letter from Hanzhong Prefecture has arrived!"

Zeng Xiulin was excited and hurriedly said, "Come on me and see!"

This must be a pigeon letter from Hanzhong Prefect Liu Shoushan. Zeng Xiulin really wanted to know what questions Li Yanqing asked in Hanzhong Prefecture?

Zeng Xiulin opened the carefully written pigeon letter and read it carefully. He nodded to Zhang Ji and Xu Qingwei and said, "He is indeed here to urge for money and food. As expected, he also mentioned the Xiangjun going to Jingzhao Mansion for training. Has our Xiangjun gone?"

Xu Qing smiled and said, "I remember Commander Hong asked the Duke about this matter. At that time, the Duke said that if other prefectures and states were all gone, then Chengdu Prefecture could also go."

"Have you gone to other prefectures?"

"Some of them went there, but most of them didn't. As far as I know, even the Hanzhongxiang Army, which is closest to Jingzhao Prefecture, did not go there."

Zeng Xiulin laughed, "Since that's the case, why are we in a hurry? When other prefectures go, it's not too late for our Chengdu Prefecture Army to go again!"

"But we need to find a reason!" Zhang Ji said carefully again.

Zeng Xiulin glared at him dissatisfiedly. Zhang Ji is good at everything, but he is too timid. What reason is needed? No time is the best reason.

But he was afraid that Zhang Ji was worried too much, so he casually said: "There are thousands of reasons. Don't we need the Xiang army to transport money and grain north? So we can't go to the training camp. What's the reason?"

"Okay! Good reason."

Xu Qinghui and Zhang Ji praised each other, and the three of them laughed together.
Chapter completed!