MTL - Poor Family-v2 Chapter 928 Prefect of Chengdu

  Chapter 928 Prefect of Chengdu

  At noon, Li Yanqing's army arrived in Nanzheng County, Hanzhong Prefecture. The prefect Liu Shoushan, the general judge Xiao Yun, and the deputy envoy Zhang Tao led a dozen officials out of the city to welcome Li Yanqing's arrival.

Although the Hanzhong Mansion belongs to Zizhou Road administratively, it is under the jurisdiction of the Shaanxi Economic and Strategic Mansion in terms of military affairs. Li Yanqing got off his horse, handed the horse to the soldiers, stepped forward and said with a smile: "Prefect Liu, Xiao Tongpan, we long time no see!"

   "It's been a long time since I saw you. At that time, Envoy Li Jinglue was still Tongzhi Jingzhao. Four years have passed in a flash."

   "Thanks to the Hanzhong government and Hanzhong people for their support of Jingzhao Army. This time I went south not only for inspection, but also to thank everyone. It is also a trip of gratitude."

   "Master Jinglue is too polite. As a subordinate, it is our duty to support Jing Zhaojun."

   After a few more pleasantries, Li Yanqing entered the city accompanied by a group of officials, and Hu Qinger led 500 female soldiers to the Hanzhong barracks.

  Li Yanqing came to sit down in the inner hall of the government office. A group of officials accompanied both sides. After a while, the magistrate, the general judge and the deputy envoy of the regiment practice reluctantly sat down. Everyone drank tea and briefly reported military and political affairs.

  At this time, Li Yanqing asked Zhang Tao, the deputy envoy of the training regiment, "How many Xiang troops are there in Hanzhong Mansion?"

   "Reporting to the Economic and Strategic Envoy, there are about a thousand people, distributed in three counties, mainly responsible for suppressing bandits and maintaining order."

Li Yanqing nodded, and asked again: "I remember that the last menstruation made a brief statement and asked the 20,000 Xiang troops from the Bashu Third Road to come to Jingzhao Mansion for training. Some of the Xiang troops from the state capital came, and some did not come. , Hanzhong Mansion doesn’t seem to come, why is that?”

Embarrassment suddenly appeared on Zhang Tao's face. He looked at Liu Shoushan, the magistrate, and Liu Shoushan said quickly: "Zhang Tuanlian was going to lead the army north to participate in training, but suddenly there was a group of thieves in Yangshan County. I led the army to suppress the bandits, so it didn’t work.”

  Of course Li Yanqing knew that the prefect Liu was talking nonsense, and he didn't even know how to make excuses. Where would there be any bandits in Yangshan County?

Li Yanqing didn't say anything, but said indifferently: "The training is very good for the soldiers. The Xiang troops from several states on Kuizhou Road generally responded well after returning. Not only the military discipline has been improved, but the physical fitness and quality of the soldiers are also incomparable to before. , It’s like changing the army, anyway, it’s only half a month of training, Zhang Tuanlian had better lead the troops out tomorrow.”

  Zhang Tao glanced at Liu Shoushan again, Liu Shoushan nodded, Zhang Tao hurriedly got up and saluted, "I will obey the order, and I will take my brothers to Jingzhao Mansion for training tomorrow."

Li Yanqing then went to the suburbs to visit several families of refugees who escaped from Hedong Road, asked them about their living conditions, and asked Liu Shoushan and Xiao Yun to care about the refugees. Afterwards, Li Yanqing visited the warehouse and asked about this year's tax situation. After one night, the next day he led his army to head south.

   Just as Li Yanqing led the army to leave, Liu Shoushan immediately flew a pigeon letter to Chengdu.

Chengdu is the political center of the Bashu area, with fertile land, a large population, and rich products. Chengdu Fu Road includes thirteen prefectures, including Chengdu, Mianzhou, Hanzhou, Maozhou, Jianzhou, Meizhou, and Jiazhou. Millions, it is currently the most important taxation area in Song Dynasty after Jiangnan East Road and Liangzhe Road.

The prefect of Chengdu is called Zeng Xiulin. He was born in a wealthy family in Pengzhou. He is the son-in-law of the prime minister Zhang Dun. He was a Jinshi in the second year of Yuanfu. , was relegated to Chengdu as a general judge, and officially served as the prefect of Chengdu in the second year of Xuanhe.

Bashu has always been the territory of Grand Master Liang Shicheng, and Zeng Xiulin is also Liang Shicheng's confidant. After Zhao Huan ascended the throne, Tong Guan, Wang Fu, and Li Yan were killed, Cai Jing retired, Liang Shicheng was sent to Lingnan, and the court no longer had a high-ranking official. He is a local official of Bashu, and with his decades of political experience, he has become the de facto local official leader of Bashu Three Routes.

Zeng Xiulin's political consciousness is extremely keen, and he also has allies in the imperial court. Left Prime Minister Lu Yihao is his political ally. Emperor Zhao Gou intended to promote him as deputy prime minister, but he politely declined and supported Zhu Shengfei as prime minister.

   And when the Supreme Emperor returned from Jin Kingdom, he was the first magistrate to write a letter of condolences. Zhao Ji was deeply moved by his loyalty, and he was promoted to Zheng Erpin Tejin.

Li Yanqing was named the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy Envoy, and Zeng Xiulin also pretended to be a snake. On the one hand, he actively expressed his full support for the Jingzhao Army to fight against gold, and on the other hand, he secretly resisted Li Yanqing's implementation of the jurisdiction of the Bashu Three Roads. It was under his instruction However, the magistrates of the three prefectures of Bashu and Sichuan did not submit their government affairs reports to the Jinglue Mansion, but directly reported them to the imperial court, so that Li Yanqing, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Economic Strategy Envoy, existed in name only, and still only had the real power of the Shaanxi Economic Strategy Envoy.

Zeng Xiulin has been a little restless these two days. He already knows the news of Li Yanqing's inspection trip to the south, and he also knows why Li Yanqing went south. The three million yuan in tax money and 700,000 shi of grain in Chengdu Fulu in the first half of the year have not been released yet. Going to Jingzhao Mansion, Li Yanqing is nominally here to inspect Bashu, but the real purpose must be to Xingshi to question his crimes!

  The tax money and grain are in the warehouse of Chengdu Mansion, but Zeng Xiulin doesn't want to just hand them over to Shaanxi Road.

   "Who is making things difficult for whom?"

In the official room, Zeng Xiulin took a sip of tea and said coldly to Zhang Ji, the transshipment envoy: "We fully support him if he wants to fight against Jin, and we will not give him a penny, but now Song Jin has signed a five-year contract, and we have to do it like last year." I don’t think it is necessary to support Shaanxi Road. We also need to build bridges and roads, run schools, and pay officials’ salaries. If we give him all the taxes, what should we do? So we have to talk about it. Give half, and the other half can be handed over to the imperial court or kept for personal use, all in all, we can no longer support him unconditionally like before.”

  Zhang Ji said with a smile: "The Song-Jin agreement started in May, and this time the money and food are the taxes for the entire first half of the year. What I mean is that I will give them this time and discuss it next time."

   "I know, it's okay to give it to them, but before giving it, you must first explain the regulations, how to give it in the future, and if you don't talk about the future, I won't give it to him this time."

  Zhang Ji secretly sighed in his heart, Li Yanqing is such a powerful person, it is not a good thing to offend, the villain wants to do it himself, and refuses to give himself a workaround, the matter is very tricky!

  Zhang Ji hesitated for a moment, then bit the bullet and said: "I heard that the imperial court sent Wen Yushi to Chengdu. If I don't give you the official position, it will be against the will of the government and the court. I'm afraid that Yushi will impeach me."

   "This may be the meaning of the officials, but it may not be the attitude of the court. As far as I know, the court has been arguing endlessly over this matter. The Zhizheng Hall's opinion is three to three, and the Supreme Emperor hopes that we can abide by the principles."

   "The Supreme Emperor?"

  Zhang Ji was stunned, could it be that the Supreme Emperor also intervened in this matter.

  Seeing Zeng Xiulin's smug eyes, he couldn't help asking in a low voice: "Could it be that the Supreme Emperor is connected with the Fujun?"

   Zeng Xiulin smiled triumphantly, "What do you think? Otherwise, I will tear myself apart with Li Yanqing?"

  Zeng Xiulin got up and patted Zhang Ji on the shoulder again, "Don't worry! I have the emperor's handwriting in my hand, and I won't let you be impeached by the censor."

  At this moment, hurried footsteps came from outside, and Xu Qingwei, the governor of Chengdu Mansion, walked quickly into the inner hall, and said with a smile to Zeng Xiulin: "Master, the pigeon letter from Hanzhong Mansion has arrived!"

   Zeng Xiulin was refreshed, and hurriedly said, "Bring it to me quickly!"

   This must be a pigeon letter from Liu Shoushan, the magistrate of Hanzhong. Zeng Xiulin really wanted to know what questions Li Yanqing asked in Hanzhong Mansion?

Zeng Xiulin opened the carefully written pigeon letter and read it carefully. He nodded to Zhang Ji and Xu Qingwei and said, "He really came to press for money and food. I expected it, but he also mentioned Xiang Jun. Regarding the training camp at Jingzhao Mansion, has our Xiang army gone?"

  Xu Qing smiled and said: "I remember that Commander Hong asked the Fujun for instructions. At that time, the Fujun said that if all other prefectures have gone, then Chengdu can go too."

   "Have you gone to other prefectures?"

   "Some went, but most of them didn't. As far as I know, not even the Hanzhong Xiang Army, which is the closest to Jingzhao Mansion."

  Zeng Xiulin chuckled, "Since that's the case, why are we in a hurry? It won't be too late for our Chengdu government army to go after all the other state capitals have gone!"

   "But we need to find a reason!" Zhang Ji said cautiously.

   Zeng Xiulin glared at him dissatisfied. This Zhang Ji is good at everything, but he is too timid. He needs any reason. No time is the best reason.

   But he was afraid that Zhang Ji was worried too much, so he casually said: "There are thousands of reasons. Don't we need the Xiang army to transport money and food to the north? So we can't go to the training camp. What's the reason?"

   "Good! Good reason."

  Xu Qinghui and Zhang Ji praised each other, and the three laughed together.

   Zeng Xiulin was a little suspicious in his heart. He only brought five hundred female soldiers to the south. What is this Li Yanqing doing?

  (end of this chapter)