Chapter 215: Meet in a restaurant

Jincheng County was originally just a small county. During the Tianbao period, there were only two counties under the jurisdiction, one was Wuquan County, which was the county seat, and the other was Guangwu County. During the Tianbao period, the population of Jincheng County was less than 3,000 households and a population of only 14,000. However, after the Anshi Rebellion began, a large number of people in Guanzhong fled westward, causing the population of Longyou area to surge. Tubo advanced eastward and caused the Han people in Hehuang area to return to the east. Two major dynasties caused the population of Jincheng County to increase rapidly. By the tenth year of Qingzhi, the population had reached 70,000 households and more than 300,000 people, and the county under it had also increased from two counties to six counties.

Among them, Wuquan County, where Jincheng County is located, has a population of more than 200,000, and the city has expanded accordingly, eventually becoming the second largest city in Helong area after Kaiyang City. Starting from the end of the second year of Xuanren, with the Wei family in Longyou area being sent out by gifts, the political focus of Longyou area has officially shifted from Kaiyang County to Jincheng County.

Jincheng County in the New Year is particularly festive. On the eve of the Lantern Festival, the city was decorated with lights and people were roaring. Last year's bumper grain harvest made this New Year particularly rich, and you could see joyful smiles everywhere, but more people's faces were expecting, looking forward to the beginning of the land change in the new year. This is their hope for survival. Can the myth of Hexi military households obtaining a large amount of land last year become a fact in Longyou?

The west of the city is a place of prosperous business. There are many restaurants, inns, brothels, gambling houses and other service shops of various grades. The business is particularly popular during the New Year. At noon that day, the Xihuang Restaurant, which is most close to the city gate, is as prosperous as usual. The three-story hall is full of more than 200 diners. The Xihuang Restaurant can only be regarded as a medium and low-end restaurant. Its biggest feature is that it has no elegant rooms and all three-story halls are all in one. Twenty soft mats are laid on each floor, which can accommodate more than 100 people to eat at the same time.

Most of the guests who eat here are middle and lower classes, and many of them go shopping and shop. After dinner, talking about current affairs has become a common feature in major restaurants. Five people sat in a mat by the window on the second floor, two old men who made an appointment to have lunch, one mule driver who traveled a long distance, one farmer who went to the city to buy oil and salt, and the other was a young man. According to his own introduction, he worked in the county government office. They originally ate their own meals, but as they chatted, they talked about common topics.

Their topic was the possibility of Longyou implementing a military land system. The topic was first triggered by the conversation between two old men. Both old men thought that Hexi was feasible, but Longyou was not feasible. At this time, the farmer who had been eating like a wind and clouds became less and less happy. He finally couldn't help but slam the table and said angrily: "The two old men just said that they couldn't do it, but they couldn't tell a reason. When recruiting last month, the officers said they wanted to divide the land, so I asked my son to join the army. What qualifications do you have to say that it's not possible!"

His voice was loud, like a broken gong, making the people in the lobby laugh. Seeing that the two old men looked rude and didn't know each other, they loudly made themselves in an awkward situation. Both of them hummed contempt and ignored him. The farmer punched him and couldn't help but blushed and explained: "It's like this. The army is also soldiers, and they all fight with their heads. Why do some people have land while others don't have land? Isn't this unfair?"

"Brother makes sense!" The mule man next to him saw that the farmer's eyes were almost red, so he couldn't help but comfort him, "I have two younger brothers who have obtained twenty acres of land when they joined the army in Wuwei and took over their parents. They were all real land. I often went to Wuwei. After implementing the military household system there, people are stable in their hearts. Although Hexi is barren, everyone can at least have enough food. This is a good system. Why can't they travel in Hexi but not in Longyou? I think the two old men are frozen here."

Speaking of this, the mule man smiled and pointed at his head. When the people next to him heard him have a funny laugh, they all laughed loudly, and the farmer grinned happily.

When the two old men saw that the mule man was talking even worse, one of them had a gloomy face and did not speak, while the other couldn't help but say angrily: "I have lived for more than seventy years, and I haven't seen anything before? It's okay if the boy is arrogant and ignorant, but he even hurts people, waiter!..."

He wanted to leave after checking out, but suddenly he found that he had not eaten a few bites of the wine and food he wanted. It was a pity that he left like this. When he was about to start, he changed his mind, "Get a pot of wine!"

At this time, the young man who had been silent all the time raised his hand to stop the old man, "Two fathers, I'll treat you to this wine!"

He pointed to his desk at the guy who was running up and said, "Get three more pots of wine and put it in my account!"

The guy agreed and brought three pots of wine in a moment. When the two old men saw him being polite, they hurriedly bowed and thanked: "Young man, there is no need for this. We don't know each other before, how can you spend money?"

"It might be better, a few pots of water and wine will not cost much." The young man smiled slightly, picked up the wine pot and filled the glasses of the five people in the deskmates. Then he picked up the wine glasses and toasted them to the two old men: "I just heard from my father-in-law that he is over 70 years old, which is very rare! I have something to ask, I hope my father-in-law will give me advice."

Seeing that he was generous and polite, the two old men felt very fond of him. They were many times better than the two rough people next to him. They quickly picked up their glasses and smiled, "Young man, it's okay to ask."

The young man pondered for a moment and asked, "This year, the government has specially given each elderly person over 70 years old three dou of rice, ten kilograms of meat and a consistent amount of money. I wonder if the two father-in-law received it?"

"There is still money?" The two old men looked at each other and said in unison: "There is only rice and meat, but there is no money!"

"No!" the young man confirmed again: "As far as I know, this was specially arranged by the new Jiedushi. Will it be that rice and meat should be given first and money in a few days?"

"The money was not mentioned!" The two old men shook their heads repeatedly. At this time, the farmer also interjected: "The government yamen runners have also visited my house and sent my father rice and meat. There is indeed no money, but we are already grateful for it. My father said that this is the first time he has ever experienced in his life and dare not have too many extravagant hopes."

Hearing that the elderly had not received the money, the young man's face slowly faded. He suppressed his anger, glanced at the farmer, suddenly remembered something, and asked again: "Your son is in the army, can the military pay be paid to his home on time?"

The farmer scratched the back of his head and grinned embarrassedly, "This, this one, why don't I get the money to drink here?"

The young man's face cleared a little, and he turned around and bowed to the two old men and asked, "Just just now, the two father-in-law said that the land of military households is feasible in Hexi, but it is not feasible in Longyou. Why is this?"

One of the tall and thin old men picked up the wine glass and drank it all, and smiled and said, "Wuwei is a remote area, which is optional for the court, and there are very few powerful people there, so we say that it is feasible to implement the military land system, because the court will not take it seriously and there is no resistance. But Longyou is different. Not to mention that acting without the consent of the court is an act of overstepping power. Moreover, there are many powerful landlords in Longyou, especially the four major families of Wei, Xin, Ma and Li. Most of them have official backgrounds and the land is mostly concentrated in their hands, which is related to their core interests. Of course, they will object in groups. The governor just arrived in Longyou, and it would be difficult to last without their support. So we say that it is difficult for Hexi to be easy and Longyou, which is what we mean."

The young man was silent for a while and asked again: "If you are in your father-in-law's opinion, is it absolutely impossible to implement the military household land system in Longyou?"

The two father-in-law shook their heads together, and the shorter and fat old man said, "Think about it, why was Zhu Li identified as Zhu bandit? In fact, he did not harm the interests of ordinary people at the beginning. Didn't he just kill too many powerful landlords? What are powerful landlords? To put it bluntly, they are famous families. Our Tang Dynasty is now the world of aristocratic families. I think that Jiedushi Zhang would not think carefully, and the local governments may not be willing to cooperate."

"But! But!" The farmer was so anxious that his face turned red and his neck was thick. He shouted almost straight: "When they recruited soldiers, they clearly said they wanted to divide the land, so I sent my son to join the army. Now I don't give it to him. Isn't this a lie?"

The young man suddenly smiled, pressed the farmer who was about to jump up, and comforted him, "Don't worry, although the two father-in-law make sense, it does not mean the government after all. I think since you have already promised you when recruiting troops, there will definitely be one."

At this time, the mule man who had been silent next to him saw that the young man was obviously messing with everyone's words, and remembered that he had said that he was working as a worker in the government. The mule man suddenly remembered something and couldn't help but interrupt and said, "This guy, can you be the 'wind-selected envoy'?"

The 'Shifeng Envoy' is an organization just established by the Jiedushi's office a few days ago. The resident and the governor's headquarters are directly under the military service. It is said that hundreds of people were born, all of whom were soldiers. They specialize in visiting public opinion in Helong and inspecting local officials. They have great power, which is equivalent to the combination of left and right picks and penalties in the court and the censor in the imperial court. After the mule man's words, the people who were eating around were stunned. Although the 'Shifeng Envoy' had not heard of anything terrible, they were from the government after all, and the two old men were even more scared and trembled all over, for fear of implicating their families. They bowed to the young people and begged: "We are all people who are about to fall into the soil, please don't make things difficult for us."

The young man shook his head and smiled, "Where are you thinking about? If I were the Fengshang, would I say I was in the government office? Besides, the Fengshang is to visit public opinion and supervise local officials. Why do you fear it like a tiger?"

When everyone heard that he was saying it well, they all let go of their hearts and each had a meal and drank. At this moment, a young woman complained from the other side of the stairs, "Uncle San, I don't like this restaurant, go to the opposite house!"

Then a middle-aged man complained, "My aunt, who told you to get angry and give all the money to beg for food? If I hadn't hid a little, we would have to beg for food if we didn't go into this restaurant."

"I didn't just leave money by saying that my father was in Jincheng County. Who would have thought that my father would set up his home in Kaiyang County? You should blame you."

"Forget it, forget it, let's have a meal first! I'm so hungry."

These two people spoke very specially and didn't sound loud, but everyone could hear it clearly in the noisy restaurant. The lobby suddenly became quiet. The two guys also looked at the stairs with dissatisfaction, wanting to see who the person who looked at their restaurant was higher than the beggars.

A strange color flashed in the young man's eyes. He smiled and called a waiter and asked him to put two more bowls and chopsticks beside him. Soon, the two walked up quickly. They were both agile and could be seen as martial arts people. There was a young woman in front of him, with an ordinary appearance, but she had a very good figure. She had a small silver pan on her waist and a long sword on her back, which looked heroic. The middle-aged man behind her, with a long sword, was also frowning, but she followed the young woman with a timid face, as if she was her follower.

Needless to say, these two people are naturally Pingping and Uncle Lin San. Since the Battle of West Fort, Lin Pingping has received a reward of 200 taels of gold for his bravery to kill the enemy. With this money, she took Uncle Lin San to the Western Regions to travel and went west to Persia before returning. After arriving in Wuwei, she realized that her father had moved to Jincheng County. She came here again and again. After nearly half a year of travel, Pingping was obviously much more mature than before.

The waiter wanted to ask them what they mean first? They compared their restaurants with beggars. It can be seen that they were all martial arts practitioners. They swallowed their anger again, and smiled and greeted them, "You two, are you here to have lunch?"

"I'm not here to eat, are you asking for debt?" Uncle Lin San said angrily. When he thought that Lin Pingping had made his own decision and distributed more than ten cents of money to the beggar, he felt so depressed.

Pingping didn't say anything. She saw the young man at first sight, looked at him incrediblely, and murmured: "Shibalang?"

This young man was Zhang Huan, the governor of Longyou. Today he was very excited and came to the bottom to visit public opinion. Unexpectedly, he happened to meet Lin Pingping. He smiled and waved to Lin Pingping, signaling them to sit over.

Zhang Huan's more than a dozen personal guards disguised themselves as diners and mixed in the crowd. The person closest to Lin Pingping saw that she seemed to know the governor, and quickly reminded in a low voice: "Miss, don't reveal your lord's identity."

Lin Pingping was stunned. She immediately reacted and walked to Zhang Huan with a smile, "Shibalang, we have been missing for a long time."

"Pingping, I remembered that there was a little bit of gold hidden in my shoes, otherwise I would go across from there..."

Lin Deqi rushed over excitedly and suddenly saw Zhang Huan. He opened his mouth wide and couldn't close for a long time. Zhang Huan smiled and nodded, "Uncle Lin San, we have been missing for a long time."

Without waiting for Lin Deqi to speak, Lin Jiuhan next to him dragged him over, "What do you want to eat? I'll treat you!"

"Haha! Then I'm not polite." Lin Deqi immediately threw Zhang Huan behind his head. He rubbed his hands and smiled: "First two pots of good wine, and a plate of signature dishes in the store."

"Sit!" Zhang Huan moved a little to the side and gave up a seat. At this time, the farmer and the mule man had already eaten and left. The two old men looked at Zhang Huan with suspicious eyes. They had just discovered that the young man actually had many followers, and they all seemed to be extremely powerful characters. He must not be a swearing man, so who is he?

Pingping sat down. She took a pair of bowls and chopsticks, picked up the wine pot and filled herself with a glass of wine, and poured another glass for Zhang Huan. She picked up the wine glass and smiled and said, "I just heard of it, congratulations."

As she said that, she drank the wine herself, took another bowl of rice, and started eating it first. Zhang Huan took a sip of the wine. He silently watched the junior sister who grew up with him. They had been separated for two years. Although they had not said a few words, Zhang Huan had clearly felt that Lin Pingping had changed. The stupid girl who used to be, who never grew up had disappeared and became a little strange.

"Pingping, where did you go after the Battle of Xibao? I asked the master and his wife, but they didn't know."

Pingping quickly finished the meal, and she poured herself another glass of wine, picked up the wine glass, stared at the disappearance of the hops in the glass, and smiled faintly, "Uncle San and I went to the Western Regions, thank you for your concern!"

"You..." Zhang Huan originally wanted to ask her why she hadn't gotten married yet, but she felt a little abrupt, so she changed the topic and smiled: "What are your plans in the future?"

"I don't know either." Lin Ping smiled lightly, "Let's go like this! When you are tired of walking, find someone who likes you to marry me."

Zhang Huan also fell silent. The two of them didn't say anything for a long time. Pingping looked at him and suddenly laughed: "Why are you growing a beard? I almost don't know you anymore."

"Do you know? I'm a dad."

"Is that so? Then I want to congratulate you even more! I'll toast you another glass." Pingping smiled and picked up the wine pot, poured him a glass, and poured another glass for himself. Zhang Huan quickly pressed the wine pot, stared at her and shook his head slowly, "You used to be without a trace of wine, but now you have just sat for a while and have already drunk four glasses. This is not good!"

Lin Pingping didn't say anything. After a while, she raised her head and smiled proudly, "What's this? When I was in Persia, I met a group of Persian men who bullied me as a Han woman. I drank a glass of wine and killed one person. I drank eighteen glasses of wine in one breath and killed the eighteen evil men. That was a pleasure!"

Speaking of this, she put down the wine pot and smiled and said, "But Shibalang doesn't let me drink it, so I won't drink it."

Zhang Huan said nothing more. He stood up and bowed to the two old men, "The two father-in-law have extraordinary opinions, I thank you here."

The two old men had already vaguely guessed that Zhang Huan was probably a high-ranking official who petitioned for the people. They did not dare to neglect them, so they quickly stood up and returned the gift. Zhang Huan looked at Pingping again and smiled: "Since you are here in Jincheng County, of course you have to stay in my mansion for a few days. Cui Ning mentioned you two days ago, and you happened to be here."

When he heard Cui Ning was there, Pingping nodded happily and agreed, "I haven't seen her for a long time, so I'll go find her now."

She glanced at the two old men, and suddenly a naughty look appeared in her eyes. She bowed to Zhang Huangong and said, "Thank you, Governor Zhang, for asking me to drink!"

After saying that, she laughed, turned around and ran downstairs, and Lin Deqi hurriedly followed. The two old men looked at Zhang Huan in amazement, their legs were trembling, and they were about to kneel down. Zhang Huan was quick in his eyes and hands, and he held them with a wry smile: "You don't have to be polite to both of you, I will never disturb you in the future, take care of you!"

He turned and went downstairs. When he walked to the street, Lin Pingping was gone. Zhang Huan shook his head and his uneasy heart fell quietly. He thought that Pingping had completely become another person. It was not until the last moment that he realized that she still maintained a childlike heart.

"Governor, where are we going now?"

Lin Jiuhan’s question reminded Zhang Huan, and his face sank, “Go to the governor’s yamen!”

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Jincheng County is different from Wuwei County. It is not a governor's prefecture. Therefore, like the states and counties in the mainland, it has a complete civil service system such as the governor, chief secretary, Sima, etc. The governor of Jincheng County is still Du Ya. This parents of Jincheng County did not change because of the change of Longyou. He still worked diligently to handle every government affairs. If a major event occurs, he would still send people to report to the court in time. At the same time, he would also strictly implement every decree issued by the court.

This is the difference between Longyou and Hexi. Hexi is only one county in Wuwei, with high mountains and far away emperors. Zhang Huan appoints officials as he pleases. The court may not know. Even if he knows, he will turn a blind eye. However, Longyou is completely different. The local officials here are still appointed by the court. Although he can interfere in some government affairs and impeach local officials to the court, the court still has strong control over the local area. What Zhang Huan really completely won was actually only one army control.

Since he did not enter the cabinet in the court, he could not even have the right to recommend officials like Wei Yan, but he did not. In addition, Wei Yan actually controlled Longyou by serving as local officials by family members. Zhang Huan does not have this condition at present. In fact, he still has a long way to go if he really wants to completely turn Longyou into his own territory.

This is also the fundamental reason why the court can tolerate Zhang Huan but cannot tolerate Zhu Li. What Zhang Huan only seized was the interests of a noble family, but did not violate the interests of the court. His army did not exceed the upper limit of 140,000, and Zhu Li completely trampled the interests of the court.

Du Ya had just returned from the Yellow River. He heard that the Yellow River was thawing, and was afraid of the formation of a flood. He rushed to inspect. Before he could drink a sip of hot tea when he returned to the government office, the yamen runners came to report, 'The governor is here.'

"Please come in quickly!" Du Ya put down the teacup and quickly met him out. He saw Zhang Huan's face unhesitant from a distance, and his heart was "splied!" and he didn't know what happened.

He smiled and welcomed Zhang Huan to his room, and asked the pen boy to pour tea. After Zhang Huan sat down, Du Yacai smiled and asked, "What is wrong with Zhang Jun?"

Zhang Huan snorted and said coldly: "I'll ask you, I've issued an order before the New Year that every elderly person over 70 years old gave three dou of rice, ten kilograms of meat and a consistent amount of money. To spend the New Year, why did they only give rice and meat, but they were deducted but not given? Or the money had been allocated but was intercepted and embezzled by some people!"

"It turned out to be for this." Du Ya picked up the teacup and sucked it slowly and said, "There is no corruption, I haven't approved the money."

Zhang Huan stared at him tightly, and after a while, he asked word by word: "Why doesn't governor Du criticize? Could it be that Zhang's order was disdainful?"

"No, the governor is serious." Du Ya felt the murderous intent in Zhang Huan's eyes, and he quickly explained: "If I didn't take the governor's order to heart, I wouldn't have sent rice and meat, but I'm going to have difficulties!"

"What's the difficulty?" Zhang Huan asked nervously.

Du Ya sighed and said, "I have roughly calculated that there are 6,500 people over 70 years old in Jincheng County, which means that they have to use 6,500 stagnant coins. According to the court's laws, more than 5,000 stagnant coins in the official treasury must be submitted to the Ministry of Revenue for approval. I have reported this money and will be issued immediately after the Ministry of Revenue approved."

Speaking of this, Du Ya hesitated and smiled, "Otherwise we can make some adjustments, each person will send 500 documents first, and then send 500 documents during the Cold Food Festival. This will be divided into two and become two sums of money, so I can explain it to the Ministry of Revenue."
Chapter completed!