At the end of the 28th year of the king, Princess Xiangrui did not return to Xuchang.

According to the latest news from Heihu Mountain, the restless princess took a hundred famous villages from Heihu Mountain some time ago to hunt bears.

Because Chu Jiao, who was born in Laoshan, led the team himself, and the princess was surrounded by Gong Jiao and others, Zhao Yu was not worried about anything.

On the contrary, if the princess doesn't come back, his family will be harmonious. After all, at least Miss Li doesn't have to worry about being coldly attracted by the princess - both girls are from the Li family, and even in terms of seniority, they are distant cousins.

Since early November, the Chief Commander Office has begun to summarize the gains and losses of the county government that year.

This matter is under the responsibility of Zhang Ji and officials from the Duwei Office, and a written report to Zhao Yu, can be called an annual report.

The content of the report involves the public security situation throughout the year, the number of county soldiers in each county, the approximate strength and equipment, and finally counts the shortcomings and hidden dangers in public security in this county.

It is undeniable that even Yingchuan County still has various disadvantages that need improvement in public security. However, compared with other counties in the world, Yingchuan County is well deserved to be the one with the best public security. With the three-level garrison of the county, department and county, there have been no serious attacks in Yingchuan County that year. The only Wuyang County, which was harassed by bandits in Woniu Mountain, the county magistrate Qin Shi has organized officers and soldiers to enter the mountains to encircle and suppress them as revenge. Although there was no actual gain, it has gained the reputation of the Wuyang County Army and correspondingly increased the prestige of the Yingchuan County Army.

Regarding the suppression of the bandits, the Yingchuan Chief Commander Office heard a message: "When you run into a bandit in the mountains, you hang it on a tree; when you run into a bandit by the river, you drown it in the water."

In short, it is never tolerated.

Regardless of whether Yingchuan County has achieved "never tolerate it", the words spread throughout Yingchuan County really made Yingchuan people feel proud.

Look at Nanyang, Henan, Runan, these counties are not rampant, and then look at their Yingchuan County, will any thieves dare to come in?

In addition to being proud, the people of Yingchuan were generally satisfied with the county. The only thing they were not satisfied with was that the rice price in Yingchuan had not dropped - this was all because the court had requisitioned millions of stones of grain from their Yingchuan side. Otherwise, given their Yingchuan harvest in recent years, how could the rice price continue to remain at a high price of 350 yuan per stone?

This reason has caused Yingchuan people to have a certain degree of xenophobia, but in general, public opinion is relatively stable. At least as the governor of Yingchuan County, the county governments and Xuchang County governments still have considerable prestige in the minds of many people.

Sure enough, the key is to compare with whom - when we learned about the chaotic situation in Nanyang, Henan and Runan counties, the people of Yingchuan felt that their lives were still very good, especially when the government promised that "no one would starve to death."

In addition to reporting the above, the newly established "official field" coordination area in the past two years is to let the county lieutenant report the expenses of the official field they manage. Although the official field used to support local county troops will not interfere, they must at least know the general situation.

Given that Yingchuan County has twenty counties, including sixteen counties, the county magistrates arranged by Zhao Yu, the work went very smoothly.

The statistics also made the Chief Commander Office very satisfied, especially Xun Yi, who joined the army.

He excitedly said to his colleagues at the Chief Commander's Office: "When the Chief Commander proposed the plan to support the army, I was still a little suspicious. Now, looking at the result, the Chief Commander is still far-sighted, so I might as well."

The other officials agreed. In the face of actual conclusions, everyone agreed that the strategy of "official land to support the army" proposed by Zhao Yu was indeed feasible. In the past year, the official land controlled by the county magistrates of each county were not only enough to support the county army, but also had surplus grains to be sold in the county to fill the granaries of the county.

When Zhao Yu learned about this, he sneered secretly.

He knew very well that the reason why it was feasible to raise the army was because the Changsha Yishi and Jiangxia Yishi eliminated many local gentry and tyrants for them in the past few years, and the government took back hundreds of thousands of acres of land in vain. Otherwise, if these fields were still in the hands of the gentry and tyrants in each county, how could each county have sufficient official fields to support the army?

It has to be said that the righteous army led by Guan Shuo, Chen Xu and others destroyed most of Yingchuan County, which was actually not entirely a bad thing. At least it allowed the Yingchuan government represented by Zhao Yu to take advantage of it.

During this period, the county magistrate's office was also making the summary of the county government of that year.

The matter was led by the county magistrate Chen Lang and the county magistrate Shi Cui Zhi. They were first handed over to Zhao Yu, who was the county magistrate, and then Zhao Yu accompanied Chen Lang to report to the county magistrate Li. Finally, these three people formulated county policies for the coming year under the framework of the national policies formulated by the court.

The main things are agriculture, public security, taxation, and water conservancy.

In the past two years, the agricultural and public security situation in Yingchuan has been very good, but the tax cannot be collected - for example, Kunyang, after the shocking battle of Kunyang, nearly 70% of the males in Kunyang died. The court, thinking of the tenacity and bravery of the people of Kunyang, promised that Kunyang could be exempted from taxes for five years, so Kunyang has almost never levied taxes in recent years.

As for Zhaoling, Wuyang, Dingling and other counties in southern Yingchuan, which were severely affected by the war, the county magistrate Li also requested tax exemption to the court, and was finally allowed to be exempted for three years.

Therefore, in recent years, the deficit of the Jin court in the state of Jin has been severe. With the continuous natural disasters and wars in the entire area south of the river, it has almost been barely maintained by taxes from various counties in Hebei. It is no wonder that Tai Shi Chen had no money and food to encircle and suppress the bandits of Mount Tai.

By the way, although the counties in Yingchuan County have reduced taxes to varying degrees, considering that the entire county has "borrowed" millions of stones of grain in neighboring counties free of charge, the people of Yingchuan have not become rich due to policy preferential treatment. They probably maintain the level of "can be kept together", which is not good or bad.

Based on the above-mentioned appearance of the county, Li Jun Governor Li discussed with Zhao Yu and Chen Lang and decided to make some policy changes in the coming year.

For example, after more than a year of observation, County Magistrate Li could relax restrictions and allow merchants who jointly operate the five livestock farms to gradually expand their scale and increase the amount of meat, so as to strive to meet the needs of the twenty counties under his rule as soon as possible.

During this period, Zhao Yu also mentioned the two mines in Kunyang and Wuyang under the name of the Duwei, and the Zhubingfang located in Yingyang County. He suggested that the county replace the county army and the county army to improve the combat strength of the Yingchuan army.

This made Li Junzhu hesitate a little, mainly because it was too much money.

How many troops are there in Yingchuan County now?

Xuchang County’s army had 30,000 troops--there was 50,000 units in total, and the actual unit was 30,000;

Then three ministry-level troops were garrisoned, each with 10,000, totaling 30,000;

Adding to the county troops of twenty counties, each county ranges from 2,000 to 3,000 county troops.

In short, Yingchuan's army had almost 100,000 people, and even slightly exceeded it.

How much does it cost to replace equipment for these 100,000 troops?

In response, Zhao Yu advised: "The cost of replacing the armies of each county is naturally due to their 'official land income' expenditure. The county needs to bear the actual amount of 30,000 Xuchang County Army and three 10,000 troops, a total of 60,000."

Although Li Junzhu still felt that the expense was not small, he nodded and agreed after weighing the pros and cons.

After all, he also understood that the reason why Yingchuan County has been able to have such a stable situation in the past two years is because of the total of more than 100,000 troops.

What's more, it was his son-in-law who brought up this matter, so he naturally would not object to it anymore.

In the end, this matter naturally fell on Zhao Yu.

It is no exaggeration to say that Zhao Yu now has the power to mine iron ore, smel up weapons, and replace armaments. As long as he does a little trick, no one will know how many weapons built by Yingyang County are used to equip the army of Yingchuan County.

Of course, if there were no special circumstances, Zhao Yu would not do that. After all, almost 80% of the troops in Yingchuan County were directly dispatched by him, and the other 20% had to obey him. Of course, he was willing to use new equipment to arm the army under his command, so there was no need to make any moves.

At most, the replaced weapons were pretended to be scrapped or destroyed, but in fact they were handed over privately, secretly supporting their incorporation and annexing the thieves of Woniu Mountain.

By the way, He Yun's land was quite good. The "Nanyang Yishi" who was almost desperate under Wang Yan's encirclement and suppression, gradually grew stronger after fleeing to Woniu Mountain after receiving the secret support of Zhao Yu.

According to what Zhao Yu knew, He Yu now suppressed the Woniu Mountain bandits and gradually eroded and annexed them, while sending people to Nanyang from time to time to retaliate.

Of course, He Yu, who was born as a "regular righteous teacher", his "revenge" was naturally not to attack a county town, burn, kill, loot or something in the county town. He sent people to encourage the people of Nanyang and encourage some people to stand up and fight against the Nanyang army.

The situation of the people of Nanyang in recent years is far inferior to that of the people of Yingchuan. They have long been holding a fire of namelessness in their hearts, but after the "Nanyang Yishi" retreated to Woniu Mountain, they also lost the guide. Now why do you send someone to guide them? Naturally, some people are willing to contact them.

This also made Wang Yan, who replaced Wang Shangde, hate him to the core.

Unfortunately, He Yun's main force was hiding among the mountains of Woniu Mountain for more than a hundred miles, and Wang Yan had no choice but to do anything about him.

In the blink of an eye, the work of the county magistrate's office and the lieutenant office had basically come to an end. Although there were officials on duty, most of the officials had already returned home to accompany their families at this time, and prepared for the family dinner for the family reunion on New Year's Eve. If you have some spare money, you can also hold a banquet to invite some people.

For example, Zhao Yu was wondering whether to hold a banquet to entertain officials from the Second Department before New Year's Eve, and use this banquet to further narrow the relationship between each other.

He was not worried about spending it. After all, as the commander of Yingchuan, he enjoyed the treatment of "2,000 stones" and his annual salary was as high as 1,200 stones. Including the entire city of his three wives, there were about 1,200 people in the mansion, and he could not spend these amounts a year.

What's more, he also has a lot of private income, such as Huang Shao's Kunye Mutual Chamber of Commerce, Wei Pu's Ruyang Mutual Chamber of Commerce, and the five livestock farms. The income from the two mines, if calculated in detail, is nothing compared to the salary of two thousand stones.

The reason why he did not hold a big banquet at the end of previous years was that he was worried that County Governor Li would be wary of him, but now that he has married County Governor Li's daughter, Ms. Li, what else should I worry about?

It's just a little more troublesome to do it, and at the same time it will attract some shameless guys - such as Wang Qing, Chu Yan, and Le Gui. If they learn that he wants to hold a big banquet, these people will definitely come to join in the fun.

But in the end, Zhao Yu decided to hold a banquet.

In order to take care of his father-in-law Li Junjun, he decided to set up three banquets, one at the county magistrate's office, and to invite all the officials of the county magistrate's office in the name of Li Junjun. The second was set up in the Duwei Office, asking Zhang Ji to come forward to take charge and invite the officials of the Duwei Office. As for the third, it was naturally set up in his palace. In addition to inviting Zhang Ji, Xun Yi, Chen Lang, Cui Zhi and other important officials, they simply invited Wang Qing, Chu Yan, Zhang Feng, and Ma Hong to come and have fun.

By the way, since he had decided to hold a banquet, Zhao Yu would naturally not be stingy with the invitation of a few more people. Therefore, he invited the minor officials and soldiers of the county magistrate's office and the minions' office, and all of them were arranged, which made the invited minor officials and officials flattered, and at the same time won Zhao Yu the reputation of being respectful and approachable.

He is not for fame, he is just for weighing pros and cons - although these little officials are insignificant most of the time, God knows when these people can help you?

Naturally, he would not miss the Xuchang County Army and specially sent people to send some wine and meat to Cao Wu and Zhou Gong's military camps.

Although Zhao Yu's private gifts were small compared to the size of the county's reward army, he was pitiful. After all, he was given less than a glass of wine or a piece of meat, but at least he was given a gift - at least Zhou Duwei was still thinking about them.

Based on the above, Zhao Yu naturally gained an excellent reputation in Yingchuan County.

On New Year's Eve, Zhao Yu sent Niu Heng, He Shun and others to the front yard to accompany Wang Qing, Chu Yan, Zhang Feng and others who came to join in the fun. He and the three wives had a drink in the side room in the inner courtyard and talked about some topics at home.

I have to say that the atmosphere was still very good when a certain princess was not present, at least both sisters, Jingnu and Xiner, were very nice to her.

Especially the sister Jingnv, who saw that Miss Li could write and calculate, took the initiative to invite Miss Li to take care of the mansion together, which made Miss Li quite flattered. After all, logically speaking, the family's livelihood was under the control of the main wife, so she would rather give it to her confidant maid than to her second wife.

Therefore, Miss Li never thought about interfering in the mansion after marrying into the Zhou mansion. Unexpectedly, her official sister took the initiative to bring it up enthusiastically.

When Miss Li mentioned this with respect and gratitude to Jingnu, Zhao Yu was secretly amused.

Jingnu has been with him for more than ten years, but he still doesn't know what the former likes? Jingnu doesn't like to manage family plans at all. In her opinion, that's just her so-called responsibility of the wife, and it's not the power that others do. Now there is a Miss Li who can write and calculate in the family. Jingnu is naturally happy to throw these trivial matters to the latter. Miss Li is grateful for this.

Maybe someone will ask, aren’t Jingnu worried that her power as a real wife will fall?

It depends on the situation. At least Jingnv herself thought it very clearly. Her status comes from the young master Zhao Yu's favor. As long as this does not change, other things will naturally not change.

After drinking with the three girls for a while, the topic of conversation gradually became wider. Even Ms. Li, who was a little restrained at first, blushed and lowered her head under the influence of drunkenness, said, "...A few days ago, I went home to visit my father and mother. The aunt and mother pulled me to the inner room and said that they had prepared some clothes for children and asked me to bring them back..."

Hearing this, Zhao Yu thought to himself that something was wrong.

He glanced at Jingnu and found that Jingnu had pouted rarely.

Turning back to look, he found that Xin'er's eyes seemed to be eager to try.

This really made Zhao Yu feel a little headache.

In fact, Jingnu wanted children in the early years, but he didn't want to be tied up by his children, so he kept dragging on this matter, and Jingnu also tactfully did not mention it.

Unexpectedly, Miss Li told this matter today.

Perhaps because she noticed the expression of the sister in the house, Miss Li hurriedly said: "...That's what the aunt and mother meant. In the end, it depends on the husband's meaning. I, I'm not in a hurry..."

She spoke softer and softer, and she didn't seem to be in a hurry.

It’s no wonder. After all, in modern times, women get married at the age of fifteen or sixteen, and have children the next year. Ms. Li is already seventeen years old this year. After this year, she will be eighteen. It’s still a bit strange that an 18-year-old woman has no children.

But it's nothing in this family. After all, the two sisters who had passed by her earlier were older than her.

Jingnu is the same age as Zhao Yu, and she will be twenty-one years old this year, and Xin'er is one year older than Zhao Yu. In front of these two sisters, Miss Li naturally has no time to say anything to worry, so as not to cause unhappiness from both sisters.

Even Zhao Yu couldn't resist being stared at by the three ladies, and smiled dryly and changed the subject.
To be continued...