Chapter 372: Baokang County

Hejian Prefecture, Baokang County. This is a county bordering the grasslands under the control of the Huns. Although it is called Baokang, it is actually a place full of disasters. In the past, the Huns always came here once a year, just like harvesting a village. Over the years, the area of ​​nearly a hundred miles along the border of Baokang turned out to be uninhabited, and the good fields were completely deserted. Only a few dozen miles around the seat of the county seat could one see one village after another. Once something happened, here The people can go straight to the county seat to seek refuge.

But for many years, the Huns only harassed on the border, but did not rush hundreds of miles to attack the seat of Baokang County. , Outside of this circle is a desolate and uninhabited place.

Today's autumn, the situation is much better. The Huns fell into the scheme of the Qin people in the summer and were defeated. Even the king of the Huns was beheaded. The Huns are no longer as prosperous as before, and there are more and more people It began to expand outward. After all, the price of the land around the county government is already ridiculously high, and it is increasingly concentrated in the hands of some rich and powerful people. Although the villages are densely populated, in fact, here Most of the people in the village are tenants, renting other people's fields, working hard for a year, paying the rent, paying taxes, and there is not much left. If there are too many people in the family, they will definitely not be able to eat enough.

The increasing concentration of land in the hands of a few people is contrary to the increasing population, and troubles often occur. Either the landlords seize the land of the tenants by force, leaving the tenants with nowhere to go, or the tenants It is not uncommon for people to take risks when they are forced to do nothing, kill their masters and take money and then run away.

Against this background, Wu Ci'an, the county magistrate of Baokang County, issued an order that anyone willing to reclaim wasteland within 50 miles from the border with the Xiongnu. Whoever reclaims the land will belong to him, and the county government will give him a new title deed to recognize his ownership.

Those lands have been barren for many years, but they were fertile fields before. As long as you work hard, at most one year, you can turn them into fertile fields again.

With this order, the landless tenants in Baokang County became excited and dared not go before. That's because the Huns keep coming to plunder, and wherever they go, it's basically a life-saving business. poorer. It was a bit bitter, and I didn't dare to go anywhere, but now it's different, the Huns have been defeated in a mess. There will be no more large-scale looting.

But just when countless tenants were packing up their belongings and preparing to reclaim wasteland and change their own destiny at the same time, a bad news came that the three thousand Hejian elites led by General Chen Ying of Hejian County were wiped out on the grassland. Everyone was killed, and no one came back. This news is like a bucket of cold water. All the enthusiasm of these tenants was extinguished, the packed salutes were scattered again, and the packed luggage was put back to the original place. It turned out that those vicious Huns on the grassland had not completely perished.

When the news came, Wu Ci'an also jumped three feet high in shock,

But what happened next was quite unexpected. The mysterious team that wiped out Chen Ying's 3,000 troops disappeared without a trace. If any clues were found, it was only from the analysis of the wounds on the dead soldiers that it was the hands of the Huns.

Although that force never appeared again, Hejian County still sent 3,000 soldiers to be stationed in Baokang to avoid fatigue. After half a year, nothing happened. Therefore, Yan Shenghao, the owner of Hejian County, has a new goal. He needs to gather his elite to demonstrate against someone.

But after such a toss, Wu Ci'an's painstakingly contrived plan to calm the people has come to naught. No matter how much he persuades, no commoner is willing to take risks. Seeing that winter was approaching and there were more and more refugees in the city, the wrinkles on Wu Ci'an's face became deeper and deeper.

He can't drive these people out of the city, because these people are also his subjects, but when winter comes, they have nowhere to escape from the cold, no place to beg for food, so they can only come to the more prosperous county towns to survive.

When they have something to do, these people will go to do odd jobs to earn some food. If they have nothing to do, they will naturally sneak around and extort money. Therefore, at this time of the year, the law and order in Baokang City is the worst. It has to continue until tomorrow when the spring weather warms up.

But this year the situation is different, because there are still a thousand county soldiers in the city.

Baokang is a border county, and the city is built tall and tall. Like Fufeng, it is unlikely to attack hard. Baokang originally had 500 county soldiers, plus 1,000 county soldiers stationed in Baokang. There is nothing to worry about above, not to mention that the Huns are in danger now, even when the Huns are strong, it is impossible to attack the city without paying a huge price.

"Wu Gang, in the past few months, you have to cheer up and ensure the security of the city and the villages outside. This time of year is the most difficult time. When there is heavy snow, life will be sad, and there will always be some difficulties. People who are not involved will take the risk." Looking at his nephew Wu Gang, who is also the county captain of Baokang, Wu Ci'an urged.

"Uncle, it means that you are too soft-hearted, catch such people, drag them to the gate of the city, chop off their heads and hang them up, kill them as an example, and see who dares to take advantage of the fire?" Wu Gang said: "But you only need to catch, catch After being closed for a few days and then released again, regardless of food, after they go out, can they still commit crimes?"

Hearing what Wu Gang said, Wu Ci'an couldn't help but lower his face and said: "You said it lightly, it's easy to cut off the head, but can it grow back after cutting it off? These people are not big treacherous and evil people, they just can't survive. , in order to have a way out, are you beheading someone? If you can live and work in peace and contentment, who is willing to commit crimes, mainly punishing, understand? Go on and do business."

Seeing Wu Gang leaving the hall dejectedly, Wu Ci'an turned around and looked at a general with a helmet and armor sitting on one side, "Wu Gang is young and reckless and ignorant, but General Zheng is laughing at you."

Zheng Shuang, who is in charge of the thousand people stationed in Baokang in Hejian County, heard Wu Ci'an's words, he said with a smile: "I think Wu County Lieutenant's method is neat, but Mr. Wu, you grew up in the same township, and you are all fellow villagers. It’s justifiable not to go.”

Wu Ci'an smiled wryly, knowing that this general would not have any good ideas. As far as they are concerned, holding a knife is the easiest thing to do, but what problems can be solved by killing alone? One batch will be killed this year, and a new batch will come out next year. It's a mess.

For the sake of long-term stability, it is still necessary to find a way for these people to live and work in peace. Originally, going to the frontier to cultivate wasteland was the best way, but Chen Ying's death blocked his own way.

"Wu Gang has only a few hundred people under his command, and he has to go to patrol the villages outside the city. The manpower in this city is unavoidably tight, and I have to ask General Zheng to take care of you and help me!" Although he was upset, Wu Ci'an still had to keep his voice low. begged Zheng Shuang.

"That's no problem!" Zheng Shuang waved his hand, "I've taken care of the law and order in the city, so nothing will happen to it, but Mr. Wu, my thousand brothers need food and drink, and it's about to snow Well, there are still quite a few people who don’t even have thick padded jackets, so I have to ask you to take care of this, my lord!”

Wu Ci'an took a deep breath. The county has always been responsible for the logistics supply of the county soldiers. Originally, it was not his turn, but when Zheng Shuang came to the door, he made it clear that he wanted to fight the autumn wind, but he had to ask him. If the money is allocated to him, it will be in his own pocket in a blink of an eye. There is no way, even if you don't want to, you have to give it, otherwise this guy will indulge his soldiers to make trouble, and he really can't do anything.

"General Zheng, don't worry about this. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I will send all the necessary supplies and silver to your barracks." Wu Ci'an said.

"That's good, that's good!" Zheng Shuang was overjoyed, stood up and patted his chest, "Don't worry, Mr. Wu, with me here, there will be absolutely no trouble in the city."

"General Zheng, you must not kill rashly!" Seeing Zheng Shuang taking everything, Wu Ci'an felt relieved, but at the same time, he did not forget to tell him that if this soldier starts to act violently, he will do it himself. All the hard work was in vain.

"Naturally, naturally!" Zheng Shuang succeeded in rip-offs, thinking that it would not be easy not to kill someone, and if he arrests someone and sends them to your county government office, you will be relieved of your headaches. Immediately, he cupped his fists towards Wu Ci'an, and went happily.

Zheng Shuang didn't want to stay and protect health. The other two battalions went back to Hejian County to stand by. They didn't do anything else, but went to blackmail Langya Princess Ye Tiannan with Lord Yan Shenghao, the governor of the county. Go, Ye Tiannan used to be the Prime Minister of the country and didn't dare to provoke him, but now that he has fallen, it is natural that the wall is overthrown by everyone, not to mention that when Ye Tiannan talked about mobilizing Yan Shenghao to send troops to support him to overthrow Linghu, he promised Yan Shenghao a county It belongs to the territory, and now Ye Tiannan has no power and no soldiers, so naturally he has to ask for it. A county in Langya is not comparable to a county in Hejian. When my colleagues went there, I thought they would all make a lot of money. I stayed in this bitter cold place and didn't try to make some extra money. I really felt sorry for myself.

This Wu Ci'an is quite sensible, since that's the case, he will send several teams of soldiers out to patrol every day in the future, so as to have an excuse to come to blackmail him again. (To be continued..) u