Chapter 528 Promise
In June of the fourth year of Jianxing, news of Cao Pi's death reached Jincheng.
“Prime Minister, Prime Minister! Great joy, great joy!”
With a face full of joy, Jiang Wan rushed into the study room where the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty was dealing with political affairs. He shouted loudly without paying any attention to salutes.
Looking at the usually gentle and elegant Jiang Wan, Zhuge Liang laughed and said, "What kind of happy event makes Gong Yan so gloomy?"
“What a happy event, Prime Minister,” Jiang Wan hurriedly stepped forward, “Cao Pi from the north is dead!”
Zhuge Liang was startled and stood up suddenly, "Who?"
“Cao Pi!”
When Zhuge Liang heard this, he was overjoyed at first and asked, "Can you believe it?"
"The news came back from Xizuo, and the same news came from Liangzhou. Cao Cao's thieves have already spread the word to the world."
Zhuge Liang laughed first and said, "Okay!"
Then he suddenly remembered something, and his expression became sad again. Finally, his face gradually turned pale, and he just stood there blankly.
“Prime Minister?”
Jiang Wan saw that Zhuge Liang looked wrong and asked softly.
Zhuge Liang came back to his senses, looked at Jiang Wan, trembled his lips, but said nothing. Then he suddenly coughed violently, and finally couldn't stop it. He bent down, holding his stomach, and almost couldn't breathe.
“Prime Minister, Prime Minister, what’s wrong with you?”
Jiang Wan quickly stepped forward to support Zhuge Liang and asked urgently.
Zhuge Liang closed his eyes tightly and his face was pale. It took him a long time to sigh, "God will not bless me, a big man!"
When Jiang Wan heard this, he thought he had heard wrongly. This Cao Pi was a traitor to the Han Dynasty. Shouldn't his death be a good thing? Why did he become such a big man?
Zhuge Liang did not explain, but asked in a low voice, "Gong Yan, I remember that two days ago, news came from Zhang Ji, saying that the rebels in Guanghan County who looted the Northern Expedition's military supplies have been rounded up, right?"
Although he didn't know why the prime minister suddenly mentioned the matter in Guanghan County, Jiang Wan still replied, "Prime Minister, it is indeed true. Governor Zhang has completely wiped out all the rebellious people in Guanghan County."
"Although these rebellious people were bewitched, it is a fact that they violated the laws of the Han Dynasty. I want you to go to Yuesun to see Feng Mingwen, how about it?"
Jiang Wan understood immediately upon hearing this, "Does the Prime Minister want to exile these rebellious people to Yuexi?"
"Yes." Zhuge Liang nodded, "Didn't he write a letter a few days ago about the uneven distribution of Han and Yue tribes? These rebellious people took desperate measures because they had no land and food."
“However, the laws of the imperial court cannot be ignored lightly. Exiling them to Yuexi can be regarded as punishment for them.”
“I understand.”
Jiang Wan agreed.
It is an inherent tradition of the Han Dynasty to move criminal prisoners to the frontier areas.
After giving these instructions, Zhuge Liang sat down heavily on the chair and waved his hand, "You go out first, I want to be quiet."
Jiang Wan looked at Zhuge Liang worriedly, but was unwilling to move.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine, I just want to be quiet for a while.”
Zhuge Liang leaned on the back of his chair, closed his eyes, and said feebly.
At this moment, a servant came to report, "Prime Minister, General Li wants to see you."
Zhuge Liang then opened his eyes. His brows were full of fatigue, as if he had suddenly aged. He managed to cheer up and said, "Invite him in."
Then he saw the worry in Jiang Wan's eyes and smiled immediately, "If Gong Yan is worried, then he might as well stay here and listen."
Li Yan came in and saluted Zhuge Liang, "Yan has met the prime minister."
“Brother Zhengfang, please sit down. I wonder why I’m here this time?”
Li Yan didn't even look at Jiang Wan, he just sat down and said, "I just heard about the great joy, so I came to express my congratulations to the Prime Minister."
“It is indeed a great joy.”
The look of loss and exhaustion on Zhuge Liang's face disappeared instantly after Li Yan came in, and at the same time he changed into a look of joy, "I didn't expect that Cao Pi would be so short-lived."
“Yes, this is God’s retribution for its usurper.”
Li Yan echoed, "Once Cao Pi dies, there will probably be chaos in the north for a while. Prime Minister, the time is right for the Northern Expedition!"
"Northern Expedition?" Zhuge Liang sighed after hearing this, "I also want to Expedition to the North as soon as possible, but now I don't have enough troops and horses, and I haven't prepared food and grass. How can I Expedition to the North?"
“I asked Brother Zhengfang to move to Jiangzhou just because I wanted you to prepare food and fodder for me to help me with the rear when I go north. However, Brother didn’t understand what I meant. Why did I stay in Jincheng for too long?”
Hearing this, Li Yan smiled awkwardly, "It's just that I had some trivial matters, so I stayed a little longer."
He was really jealous and envious when he saw Zhuge Liang speaking the truth in the court, and even the emperor had to obey his orders.
He and Zhuge Liang were the same people who were entrusted by the late emperor. However, because he had to guard the dangerous place of Yong'an and had been away from Jincheng for a long time, his influence in the court was not as good as that of Zhuge Liang, so he was naturally unbalanced.
Now that I have finally returned to Jincheng, how could I leave so easily?
But the situation is different now. There are changes in the north. It seems that Zhuge Liang will go north soon. So who else can guard the rear besides himself?
So he hurried over to find out what Zhuge Liang was talking about.
When he heard Zhuge Liang himself say, "When I go north, help me manage the rear area", he couldn't help but feel overjoyed: Doesn't this mean that after the prime minister goes north, he will be the one to manage the rear area on his behalf?
At that moment, he said quickly, "Now that I have finished everything, I will rush to Jiangzhou soon to make early preparations for the Prime Minister's Northern Expedition."
Li Yan was filled with joy when he thought that he could be like Zhuge Liang in the future and be able to speak the truth in court.
“Zheng Fang has worked hard, Liang would like to thank you.”
Zhuge Liang looked at Li Yan's joyful expression, but his eyes drooped, preventing Li Yan from seeing the glimmer of light flashing in his eyes.
"How dare I not do my best when I was entrusted by the late emperor? I just wish I could defeat the thieves and revive the Han Dynasty as soon as possible."
Li Yan talked a lot about horse racing and looked impassioned.
Zhuge Liang nodded, looked at Li Yan, and said meaningfully, "I only hope that Brother Zhengfang can remember what I said today, and don't forget the late emperor's entrustment."
“I will never forget something.”
Li Yan just patted his chest and made a promise.
Jiang Wan who was on the side heard the two talking about the Northern Expedition, and suddenly realized that the prime minister acted like that when he heard the news of Cao Pi's death. Could it be because of the Northern Expedition?
In June of the fourth year of Jianxing, Li Yan returned to Jiangzhou and began to build a big city.
In the same month, Jiang Wan was ordered by the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty to go to Yuexun.
At the same time, the Yi people from Dingchen County, Yuexun County were unable to attack Jufu's camp. They also saw Huang Chong and Wang Xun leading their troops to reinforce them. They were frightened and fled in all directions.
In the past few days, Jufu had already found out where Lang Cen's tribe's stronghold was. After the Han army entered Dingchun, they separated some soldiers, broke into Lang Cen's stronghold, captured him, and killed him in public.
At the same time, the Ghost King's order was passed down to all the barbarians: Do not move rashly, and kill them if they do.
When the Yi people saw that Lang Cen was dead, they were even more frightened and did not dare to make any move.
Huang Chong also heavily rewarded those tribes who secretly helped Jufu. The leaders of those tribes were very happy and expressed their respect and gratitude to the Ghost King. So the Dinglu barbarians obeyed and the Dinglu Salt Lake returned to the Yuexun government. .
Feng Guiwang began to carry out large-scale construction and reclamation along the Sunshui River Valley.
At the same time, they also lured the Yi people with food, salt and other materials to help them.
With the intimidation of the Han army, the power of the Ghost King, and having enough to eat, there was no need for any more disputes among the tribes. For a time, everyone in the Yi people was happy and worked hard.
Even the Yi people from far away came over after hearing the ghost king's kindness.
Yuexun, which had been in chaos for a long time, returned to peace in just three months. Even with Qiongdu as the center, the Sunshui River Valley began to become lively.
“Hurry up, hurry up! Are you okay? If it’s not good, it’ll be the next one!”
The largest courtyard in Qiongdu City is part of the temporary prefect's mansion. At this time, there are about twenty young men inside. Some are running back and forth, and some are writing quickly with charcoal pens.
Wei Rong sat next to the largest table at the top and called loudly.
"I'm coming!"
A man of fourteen or fifteen years old responded, running over without stopping, holding a piece of paper in his hand and handing it to Wei Rong, "Master Wei, there are a total of 316 people in this department, including men. One hundred and five people, one hundred and twenty-five women, and the rest are all old and young.”
“Should we farm or graze?”
ification
“Then we will divide another area B and Thirteen in the south to accommodate them.”
The area around Qiongdu is divided into areas A and B. Area A refers to the pastures left for nomadic tribes to stay in winter, while Area B refers to the farming area divided for tribes who are willing to farm.
A district represents a tribe.
District B13 means that there are already thirteen tribes that are willing to move to flat land for farming.
"But Lord Wei, there are no farm tools in the warehouse."
"It doesn't matter. Dongfeng Express will send a batch of farm tools over in two days. You need to settle them in these two days, pay attention to the food rations, use them sparingly, mix in half of the fried flour, and you can start work after the farm tools arrive."
Stir-fried flour is to fry wheat, mung beans or soybeans, grind them into powder, and mix them with some salt. When you are hungry, you don’t need to light a separate fire, you can just grab a handful and drink the boiling water that has been dried in advance.
It is both convenient and very hungry, and it is not easy to break, is durable in storage, and is not difficult to transport. It can be carried in a long cylindrical grain bag and can be carried by one person, which can provide a month's rations.
This kind of food is considered the second generation dry food.
To be precise, it is the second generation of white dry food.
After all, the first generation was too unpalatable, and it was as hard as a rock and could kill a dog.
Unlike yellow dry food, it is also mixed with oil, salt, and chicken eggs, which makes people who first eat it want to eat it every day.
For most of the lower-class barbarians, being able to eat fried flour mixed with salt is truly a blissful life.
So everyone is very grateful to the King of Ghosts for his kindness.
That's right, Feng Yong made it based on the dry food of the army that singled out seventeen countries.
That army, with one mouthful of fried flour and one mouthful of snow, defeated the coalition armies of seventeen countries.
So you barbarians should be grateful for being able to eat such rations - a certain ghost king secretly said in his heart, even though a little less oil and water was added.
I didn’t do it before because there wasn’t a large supply of beans.
This thing, the ratio of flour to bean flour is about seven to three.
Now that Xinghanhui has stored a large amount of beans, Feng Yong finally got it out, and the first batch of test subjects were the Yi people from Yuexi.
New things always need to be constantly tried, tried again, improved, and improved again to achieve the most suitable level!
From the current point of view, the reaction of the Yi people is still broad. They even think it is delicious and think that the Ghost King is really the most generous person in the world.
“Stand up!”
Suddenly someone shouted in the noisy courtyard, and everyone subconsciously stood up straight. The noisy courtyard suddenly became extremely quiet.
I saw a tall figure walking in with his hands behind his back.
“Hello, sir!”
Wei Rong took the lead in shouting.
All the gentlemen paid their attention to Feng Yongxing and shouted, "Hello, sir!"
Feng Yong looked around and said with a smile, "Just be busy and don't worry about me."
"yes!"
Wei Rong shouted again, and everyone started to move again.
The weather in June is already at its hottest. Although Qiongdu is at a high altitude and not as sultry as Jincheng, it is still enough to make people sweat if they really get busy.
Everyone in the yard was dressed as simply as possible. Some even took off their coats, leaving only a vest. Even if they saw Feng Yong coming in, they didn't care.
Because when they were at Nanxiang Academy, they often saw their husband wearing such clothes when the weather was hot.
Later, this kind of clothing became an unwritten standard for people who came out of school.
"how's it going?"
Feng Yong walked to Wei Rong, picked up a booklet at random, flipped through it, and asked, "How many statistics are there?"
Wei Rong stood up quickly and said, "Mr. Hui, there are currently 96,101 Yue Yi people and 32,600 Han people, for a total of 128,701 people." .”
Feng Yong nodded, "That's right. According to your estimate, how many people will there be in the end?"
"Mr. Hui, I'm not sure. According to the number of Dingkou that can be calculated in each county in Yuexun, the minimum number will not be less than 150,000. However, tribes are still moving out of the mountains, so I don't dare to know what the final result will be. explain."
Yuexun County leads eleven counties, including Anshang County, which is closest to Jianwei County, Beishui County, which is the halfway station from Anshang County to Qiongdu, and Qiongdu, Suqi, and Taideng counties located along the Sunshui River, plus There are five counties in total, which are the main population gathering places of Yuexun.
At the same time, the area actually controlled by the Han Dynasty - Dinglu has just been pacified. Apart from getting salt from the salt pond, other matters have not yet begun and can only be discussed later.
The population of the five counties was estimated to be about 120,000, which was a quite large population for the Han Dynasty at this time.
From Feng Yong's arrival in Yuexi, he destroyed the Dongqu Tribe, the Capture Tribe, retreated the Niu Tribe, and beheaded the handsome commander Lang Cen. These actions greatly frightened the Yi people in Yuexun, so the Ghost King's prestige was established in Yuexun. More and more powerful.
Coupled with the kindness shown to the Yi people, the Yi people in the areas actually controlled by the Han Dynasty were also willing to cooperate with the investigation and statistics.
It took less than two months to compile these data. Compared with later generations, it was really slow.
But compared to the current era, it is extremely fast. Look at the imperial census in Shuzhong, it has been almost half a year, right? No results yet.
Of course, the obstruction from aristocratic families may also be one of the reasons for the slow progress.
Feng Yong turned around to look at the students in the courtyard. He saw that the oldest of them was only sixteen or seventeen years old, and the youngest was thirteen years old. However, they were already considered to be the top and most efficient working team of this era.
“Are you tired?”
Feng Yong asked.
“Sir, I’m a little tired, but I can learn something.”
Wei Rong smiled sheepishly.
“It’s good to have this idea. This kind of tedious work is the most training for people. Only when you get to the lowest level, understand these most basic things, and do the most basic work well in a down-to-earth manner.”
“In the future, whether you work as an official or work as a manager in a ranch or workshop, no one will be able to deceive you.”
Feng Tibi began to feed his slave students with sour chicken soup.
This kind of rancid chicken soup is extremely effective for these young gentlemen, because the gentleman in front of them is a living legend.
“Sir, can we really become officials?”
Everyone has a look of longing in their eyes. Their families used to be made up of Guizhou heads, barbarians, and slave laborers. Being able to live a life like today is already a dream.
Being an official is something you can’t even dream of.
“Isn’t the person in front of me my master?”
Feng Yong touched Wei Rong's head and said, "You all know that he used to be the banker of my village."
Wei Rong lowered his head in embarrassment.
"Besides, I am now the chief historian of Yuexun County. If others don't want me, why can't I conquer the country? I'm not used to those Confucian scholars who have only learned Confucian classics! How can any of the students I taught personally use them? smoothly?"
Since all of them were his students, Feng Yong was not afraid of being overheard. He only heard that someone started to use power for personal gain in front of the students, without any appearance of being a role model for others.
“Don’t worry, the more things are settled, the more people will be needed. When everything is settled, various positions will be appointed.”
“Many of these Yi villages were arranged by you yourself, and I sent soldiers to **** you to count some of them, so you are the ones who are most familiar with the situation of the Yi people.”
“Even if you can’t become officials by then, being a subordinate will be more than enough. In addition, you are young and good at calculations. This is your advantage. As long as you work hard, are you afraid that you will have no future?”
When a certain pseudo-Huangpu principal said this, everyone breathed heavily, and the hot light in their eyes could not be concealed.
Then the pseudo-Principal Huangpu finally added fuel to the fire, "Don't forget, your husband is also a prince after all. Now he can be regarded as a long history. It's okay to support a few of my students."
When the young men in the yard heard this, their chests felt like fire.
“Good job!”
Feng Yong patted the shoulder of a student in front of him and walked out.
The yard is in full swing.
Hmm, I got involved in an author circle a few days ago. Because of the influence of a certain visual picture website, the circle launched a copyright protection campaign. I was too embarrassed to refuse. After all, I still had to hang out there, so I just decided to prevent theft for ten minutes per chapter. So don’t be anxious during this period, just wait ten minutes and then refresh. And I usually post it in the middle of the night, so it won’t have any impact.
(End of this chapter)