Most of the provincial governors outside Xingyuan Mansion were appointed by other godsons of the great eunuch Yang Fugong, forming a local power group headed by Yang Shouliang.

One of the reasons why Yang Shouliang was willing to establish Jiedu in southern Sichuan was that Yuzhou was very independent and he was beyond his reach in the short term and could not control it with strong means.

The affiliation of Yuzhou is subtle, as it was formerly affiliated to Dongchuan Jiedu.

Wei Fufeng stood on the bow of the ship and could basically determine the safety by observing the positions of the officials on the dock. The old officials were mature and would never use their own lives as bait.

The boat docked and the gangplank was set up.

Li Chenggang was dressed in bright light armor and landed first with four subordinates holding swords. The armor he wore belonged to Wang Meng, and those who followed him ashore were Wang Dahu, Yang Wencheng, Dong He, and Liu Yi.

Wei Fufeng then climbed onto the springboard with Lin Qingxue. The two held hands and walked slowly back and forth, landing as if there was no one around.

After that came five selected elite guards, each holding a sword in their left hand and carrying a crossbow on their back.

There was silence on the shore, silently watching the third-rank official who arrived. Many people secretly murmured that the person who came to be the defense envoy was actually a dandy of sixteen or seventeen years old.

When Wei Fufeng came ashore, the governor of Changzhou stood up and saluted and said respectfully: "Li Song, the governor of Changzhou, respectfully welcomes you to take office."

"Young Master Li, you are welcome. My troops arrived in a hurry. Don't blame me, colleagues." Wei Fufeng responded with a smile.

"I don't dare." Li Song responded respectfully, as if he believed in Wei Fufeng's appointment.

Wei Fufeng smiled and nodded, turned around and said, "Qingxue."

"I'm here." Lin Qingxue responded softly, stepped forward, took out the prepared seals and official documents, and held them in front of her. She smiled slightly and said, "Please have a look, Lord Governor."

Li Song saluted, stretched out his hand to take a look at the festival seal, and suddenly said: "This is a seal made by the imperial court. Could it be that your Excellency is from Chang'an?"

"Well, I was born in Weishi, Chang'an. I am the grandson of Lord Wei Zhaodu, the brother-in-law of Gu Yanhui, the governor of Hanzhou, and the brother-in-law of our army. Now he serves as the deputy recruiter in the Xichuan Army, assisting Prime Minister Wei in his rebellion." Wei Fufeng calmly said

answer.

Li Song nodded, and Wei Fufeng suddenly moved closer and whispered: "My army has been ordered to take charge of the military affairs of Yuzhou, Changzhou, Luzhou and Rongzhou, but this matter cannot be made public for the time being, so as not to affect the situation of Xichuan's rebellion."

Li Song's eyelids raised slightly in shock. His body was about to move but he stopped. He hesitated and whispered: "I don't know what the official is. What does your appointment have to do with Xichuan?"

"When Xichuan was revolting against rebellion, the imperial court divided the four prefectures in southern Sichuan and established the Yongping Jiedu Envoy. Now that the revolt is nearing its end, Yongping Jiedu Envoy Wang Jian is powerful in Xichuan, so he divided the four prefectures in southern Sichuan and established the defense envoy general.

Military." Wei Fufeng replied softly.

Li Song nodded and said: "Your Majesty's official seal is genuine."

"There are also official documents, sir, please take a look at them." Wei Fufeng whispered.

Li Song nodded, stretched out his hand to send back the seal, took the official document, took a look at it, and then sent it back. He saluted and said respectfully: "My lord, please come to the city to rest."

"My army will leave early tomorrow morning. Since I have been ordered to take charge of Changzhou's military affairs, I wonder if I can see the army." Wei Fufeng said softly.

Li Song nodded and said: "Your Excellency, you can meet the army, but there are only a thousand regiments in Changzhou, and there are many bandits in Changzhou. If your Excellency transfers the regiments, I'm afraid there will be bad consequences."

"This army will not transfer all the regiments, only three hundred at most." Wei Fufeng replied.

Li Song nodded and said: "The military camp is nearby, please come."

Wei Fufeng nodded and walked with Li Song, followed by guards and officials. After walking 200 meters, he saw a castle.

Li Song raised his hand

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Pointing at the castle, he introduced Wei Fufeng.

All the way into the fort, the fort is divided into two areas: the school field and the barracks. The trumpet sounded, and a thousand regiments gathered in the school field for training. Wei Fufeng and officials stood on the general point platform.

After the assembly, Wei Fufeng took a quick look and saw that the troops of the Thousand Regiments were scattered. Their weapons were basically spearmen and they were wearing girdled linen clothes and trousers.

The governor Li Song announced Wei Fufeng's official position and asked the five captains of the Thousand Regiment's military training to pay homage to Wei Fufeng.

After the army dispersed, Wei Fufeng declined to go to the county seat to rest and stayed in the fort.

At night, Wei Fufeng sat nervously in the house. He was surrounded by thousands of troops. Even if these thousands of soldiers were a mob, there were enough ants to kill the elephant and send him on his way.

"Don't be nervous, nothing will happen tonight." Lin Qingxue comforted her softly.

Wei Fufeng looked at Lin Qingxue and said with a wry smile: "I hope nothing happens."

"I said nothing will happen. There is no need for the governor of Changzhou to cause trouble. He can only pretend to be confused about things he is not sure about, otherwise the consequences of his mistakes will be serious." Lin Qingxue whispered.

Wei Fufeng nodded, feeling a lot relieved. He felt that Li Song had doubts and became nervous involuntarily.

He looked at Lin Qingxue again and said gently: "Sister, thank you for being with me."

"Stop talking and go to sleep. The better your spirits are, the easier it will be to win people's trust." Lin Qingxue whispered.

Wei Fufeng nodded, turned around and lay down on the wooden bed, whispering: "Sister, can I hold your hand? I'm afraid of nightmares."

Lin Qingxue hesitated for a moment, then turned around and sat beside the bed. Wei Fufeng immediately grabbed her delicate right hand.

Wei Fufeng closed his eyes with a smile, and Lin Qingxue turned to look at the door, looking at the bright moonlight shining through the crack of the door.

...

Inside the best mansion in Changyuan County.

In the living room, a middle-aged captain who had once paid homage to Wei Fufeng, together with two officials, were talking to the governor of Changzhou.

"Dad, do we really hand over a thousand regiments for military training?" asked the middle-aged captain.

"It's true or not, we can't fight against Jiedushi, so we need to truly hand it over, but the situation is unpredictable, and Tuan Lianjun can return at any time." Li Song answered.

The middle-aged captain nodded and said: "My son firmly holds the military power and acts according to the opportunity."

Li Song nodded and said: "The master who came today was born in Chang'an Wei, and Master Wei Zhaodu was fighting against rebellion in Xichuan. Perhaps he had reached an alliance with Dongchuan Jiedu, intending to deal with Wang Jian."

The middle-aged captain nodded and said: "I heard that Wang Jian is developing rapidly in Xichuan and already has tens of thousands of troops."

Li Song nodded and said: "For our interests, it is best for the imperial court to be strong in Bashu. Wang Jian's strength will inevitably lead to Tudongchuan. Then even if we surrender, we will be replaced by Wang Jian's heroes."

The middle-aged lieutenant said angrily: "The governor of Luzhou is a lesson learned from the past. Gu Yanlang went back on his word, which is chilling."

Li Song smiled lightly and shook his head, saying: "It is a foolish idea to expect strong people to keep their word. We can only sit back and watch. If the situation goes bad, we need to step away from the official position in time."

"Abandoned the official position?" The middle-aged captain was stunned.

"With the annexation war between the two Sichuan provinces, official position and wealth will become life-saving talismans. It would be better to go to a peaceful land and become a wealthy gentry." Li Song said calmly.

...

Early the next morning, Li Song went out of the city to see Wei Fufeng off. Wei Fufeng had nothing to do all night.

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Ran was in a good mood and walked out of the castle with Li Song, talking.

"Master Wei, my subordinate has already sent people to report to Luzhou and tell Governor An that I have handed over the right to train the regiment." Li Song told him bluntly.

Wei Fufeng was a little surprised when he heard this. Could it be that this old official was acting with great trust and to please? He responded with a smile: "Thank you, Mr. Li, for sending the message."

"Master Wei, the military in Luzhou is different from that in Changzhou. There are not only five thousand regiments training, but also two thousand suppressing troops." Li Song said.

Wei Fufeng was slightly startled, but this information was an omission. He nodded lightly, worried that he would be wrong if he said too much.

Li Song added: "The two thousand town troops are stationed in Xuyong County and Xingwen County respectively. They are mainly used to defend the border and suppress the Liao people (minorities)."

Wei Fufeng nodded, and Li Song added: "I would like to remind you that the population of Luzhou is several times larger than that of Changzhou, and the number of soldiers available for regiment training is no less than 20,000. If you need it, you can draft troops into an army at any time."

Wei Fufeng was even more surprised when he heard this, but he also heard the implication. Luzhou was the main recruiting place, while Changzhou had few people and many bandits.

"Thank you, Mr. Li, for your advice." Wei Fufeng saluted and smiled.

Li Song nodded and added: "You may not know, sir, that the strongest force in Luzhou is not the governor, but the three powerful families."

Wei Fufeng was slightly startled and said: "A wealthy family?"

Li Song nodded and said: "The three major wealthy families are the Zhao family in Naxi County, the Gao family in Lu County, and the Luo family in Hejiang County. The strongest among them is the Luo family. The Luo family is the strongest local family in Luzhou, followed by the Zhao family.

, the former governor of Luzhou is actually the head of the Zhao family, so when you come to Luzhou, you must be wary of harm from the wealthy family."

"They dare to kill officials?" Wei Fufeng said in surprise.

"If their interests are endangered, of course they dare to kill officials. Luzhou is located at the strategic point of the river. The three powerful families have controlled the salt profit for many years. Most of the fields in Luzhou belong to them. Each powerful family has thousands of soldiers, and there are as many as five vassal serfs.

Ten thousand, they unite to rebel, enough to separate Luzhou." Li Song said.

Wei Fufeng looked solemn. In fact, he knew that there were many wealthy families in Bashu.

The wealthy families are big landowners and businessmen. Those wealthy families own a large amount of land and human resources, forming local armed forces.

Any Jiedu envoy who takes control of the two rivers will compromise and co-govern with the local wealthy families. If he does not form an interest alliance with the wealthy families, he will never even think of gaining a foothold in the two rivers.

"They have fifty thousand serfs? How many people can there be in Luzhou?" Wei Fufeng asked doubtfully.

"At least 200,000 people. Half of the population of Luzhou comes from the Jingzhou area. Your Excellency should know about the Qin Zongquan who harmed the Central Plains." Li Song said.

"I know, Qin Zongquan was a rebel after Huang Chao. He was known as the Great Man-eating Demon King. He was defeated by Zhu Quanzhong, the governor of the Xuanwu Army, two years ago. Just as he ascended the throne today, Zhu Quanzhong offered a prisoner to Chang'an to congratulate him, and Qin Zongquan was beheaded." Wei Fufeng replied.

Li Song nodded and said: "The Qin Zongquan lost all conscience and used human flesh as military food to cause harm everywhere. In its heyday, the army was directed towards Jingnan, and the soldiers surrounded Jiangling Mansion, burning, killing and looting everywhere, turning the prosperous Jingnan into a wasteland.

To escape the scourge of war, the southern population had no choice but to go south or walk up the river through the Three Gorges to reach Yuzhou and Luzhou."

Wei Fufeng nodded, and Li Song added: "In addition, the war in Xichuan also caused a large number of people to flee Xichuan, and many people poured into the prosperous Luzhou. The wealthy families in Luzhou had water transportation and salt profits, which could be exchanged for food from other places, so they absorbed tens of thousands

Strong men, but Changzhou cannot support too many people."

(End of chapter)
Chapter completed!