For hundreds of years, powerful right-wing officials relied on holding these grassroots positions to gain a foothold in the local area, and then carried out large-scale mergers and expansions, which became a routine.

However, some of these people surnamed Qin were young and energetic, and they could not help but feel angry... In their view, perhaps they were unconsciously oppressing the poor people in Lu Zuo, but the people above them could not help but feel angry...

Don't the officials oppress them, the big families in the countryside? Didn't Zhao Ping, the doctor's order yesterday, just stop Luo Fu, who is regarded as a treasure among their clan, on Sangmo and prepare to take it away? Isn't this kind of behavior even more unbearable?!

After all, layer by layer, who is cleaner than whom?

If the person in front of him was not a marquis with a purple ribbon and gold seal, and the magistrate of Handan County, otherwise, based on these words just now, he would have been beaten and thrown out.

"Speaking of which," Gongsun Xun seemed to have remembered what happened before, so he looked at the tall building on the right again and said, "Yesterday, King Zhao suddenly invited me, but before I could settle the case, did your Qin Luofu return safely?"

Home, have you ever been frightened?"

"The Lord of Duomeng County enforces the law impartially." A middle-aged man from the Qin family came forward and praised with a smile. "My little girl is not seriously injured, and she is innocent and lively by nature. Early in the morning, she went to Moshang to pick mulberries with her sisters-in-law.

went."

"That's good." Gongsun Xun finally managed to be cheerful. "Don't worry, as long as I'm here in Handan, people like Zhao Ping will never be able to do anything arrogant..."

"yes."

"Speaking of mulberry farming, how much can one acre of the best land in the south of the city produce?"

"Reporting to the county prince, one acre produces three stones of millet. This is local common sense."

"Where's the cheap land?"

"It's also three stones... There is no cheap land in the south of the city."

"Why is this?"

"In the early years of this dynasty, Duke Bai was the Prime Minister of Zhao. He renovated water conservancy and built ditches on the Fuyang River, which are now smooth. Therefore, from the south of Handan City to the Fuyang River at the junction with Wei County, there are good and fertile fields, and the harvest is guaranteed despite droughts and floods... According to our

What Qin recorded in these hundred years is that unless it is labor, banditry, or plague, there is nothing wrong with it."

"It's such a beautiful land, so according to this dynasty's method of using the last to gain benefits and use the roots to strengthen the family, there should be a large number of wealthy families gathered here, right?"

"It's just as your Majesty said." Seeing that the county magistrate was starting to get serious about 'asking about customs,' the old man from the Qin clan inevitably relaxed a little. "In fact, in the past, although Handan was the ancient capital of the Zhao Kingdom, it was just the mountain behind the mountain.

Linhe is a place with a prosperous military presence, and connecting Yecheng has become increasingly prosperous, and even called the two capitals together, but it started from Baigong... The fields here are excellent, and Yecheng is the hub from Hebei to Henan.

Over time, the wealthy households and heroes in Yecheng began to buy properties here, and Handan gradually prospered."

"The nobles claimed to have been established for hundreds of years. I guess they moved here in a similar way, right?" Gongsun Xun suddenly interjected.

"The county magistrate is aware of it," the other party immediately admitted with a wry smile. "Each clan has been here for many years, and they know their roots and have nothing to hide... Our Qin family was just a traveling merchant at the beginning, selling gifts to and from Yecheng. After making profits,

So they bought property here and multiplied. However, it is precisely because of this that other local tribes also look down on our Qin family. Even though the Qin family has been rooted for hundreds of years and devoted itself to cultivating the education of its children, it has always been difficult to produce a six-hundred-stone court official.

Being a governor of a county is already your limit."

"What about merchants? I lost my father when I was young, and it was my mother who raised me as a merchant." Gongsun Xun could only laugh.

Is this the same thing? People around you couldn't help but smile bitterly. Your clan has been a giant clan in border counties for generations, and your widowed mother did this alone...

Gongsun Xun naturally understood what these people were thinking, and he sighed inwardly, but suddenly changed the subject: "In fact, there are only four origins of the right-wingers in the world. One is the pre-Qin nobles from ancient times; the other is the officials who left their posts.

Villages or immigrants; one is the merchants who gain profit and use it to colonize; the last one is the strongmen in the village annexing it with force... Before I came to Zhao State, I knew that there were three aristocratic families in Zhao State, including the Wei family, the Handan family, and the Li family.

There are four well-known tribes such as Wang, Zhang, Lu, and Shen. Since you said that each tribe has been here for many years and its roots are well known, can you tell me where they came from?"

The elder of the Qin clan was startled. He was stunned for a moment, and then he replied to this extremely simple question, which was also a regular question asked by county chiefs during their inspections:

"Reporting to the County Lord, this is quite simple. Among all the clans in the country, the Wei family is respected, and the County Lord knows about his prominent family background. And according to the County Lord, the Wei family should have one or two origins.

… Their family was originally the descendants of the Wei royal family in Yanzhou, Henan, and later turned to Confucian classics. Their ancestors served as the prefect of Wei County, and after resigning, they settled in Handan, north of Yecheng.”

Gongsun Xun nodded slightly. Of course he knew the details of the Wei family in Handan. From the current perspective, the previous patriarch Zeng Guan to Jiuqing was Guang Luxun. There are still two people with two thousand stones. One is the current patriarch Wei Qing, who is in the court.

He has just been appointed as Shangshu Pushe (Adjutant of Shangshu Ling), and has been given the title of Shizhong; one is Wei Qing's younger brother Wei Song, who previously served as the Prime Minister of Lu, but now he has resigned from office due to business reasons and is at home, actually taking charge of the affairs of the clan. The previous two

A county official said that last year, everyone publicly recommended Wei Qilin's son as Xiaolian, referring to Wei Qing's son, who has now joined the court as a Langguan, and happened to be at the same time as Gongsun Zan.

As for the other clans, they are said to be as famous as his family, but in fact they may not be as prominent as the Wei clan. Gongsun Xun had already inquired about this matter clearly when he met his senior brother Shen Yu in Bai Ren.

"As for the Handan family and the Li family," the elder of the Qin clan continued with a smile. "This is the origin of the first standard. The Handan family is named after Handan, which is the Zhao family's small clan, and the Li family of Zhao is Li Mu.

After that… they were all giant indigenous tribes that had been here for five to six hundred years.”

Gongsun Xun nodded repeatedly, but he didn't care much... As I said before, although the Handan family and the Li family are as famous as the Wei family, they were only chosen to make up the numbers because of their long history. Moreover, there is a huge gap between the two families.

The Handan family has a larger population and is distributed throughout Zhao State. At least one has produced two thousand stones. It is estimated that if this generation works harder, another one can be produced. As for the Li family, the highest one is only a thousand stone county magistrate.

Relying on the name of the ancestors to stand tall.

Of course, this is also because Gongsun Xun was blind... The Li family of Zhao State lasted for thousands of years. Together with his teacher Lu Zhi's family and Wang Yun's family, they were called the Five Surnames and Seven Hopes, while the Wei family and the Handan family disappeared.

In the long history.

Of course, that will happen later, and it may not come true.

"As for the four families of Wang, Zhang, Lu, and Shen," the Qin family elder continued. "They are neither nobles of the pre-Qin Dynasty nor officials of this dynasty who have resigned, nor are they from small families like our Qin family.

...Otherwise, how can we be one step ahead of our Qin family?"

The faces of the rest of the Qin clan turned pale for a moment, and the two county captains also looked green and red. They didn't know what was going on, but Gongsun Xun was dumbfounded and laughed.

After laughing, Gongsun Xun didn't wait any longer. He just waved his hands and walked out of the inner gate. However, he ordered the ceremonial guard to move to the northwest of Handan City, as if he had no idea about the rich land in the south and east of the city, and was ready to go see it.

I looked at the poorest and most miserable place in Handan County.

This trip lasted three full days.

But the city of Handan was already in chaos.

"This is the home of Shen Meng, the junior high school meritorious officer. Is Shen Meng here?" Under the blue sky and white sun, a group of warriors riding white horses with swords and bows kicked open the inner door with a roar, and then cleared a building facing the street in the city.

The courtyard of the high-rise building was surrounded from the front and back. "An official in the county confessed that he was instructed by you to tamper with the accounting books. Follow us quickly to the county to see the king to explain the matter!"

Shenmeng's family lived in the most prosperous area of ​​Handan, so a large number of relevant people quickly gathered in a high-rise building on the opposite street, and then they gathered into a group, looking down at the situation opposite, and talking about it, everyone was terrified.

"It's over, even Shen Gongcao's family will be in trouble!"

"It's okay to arrest all the officials in this county. After all, it belongs to Handan County, so no one can say anything. But Shen Gongcao is an official of the county and state directly under the Prime Minister, and the Shen family is a big family in the country, so what?

Can we catch him?"

"I can even kill Wang Fu and Duan Xi, and destroy an entire country. Why don't I dare to capture Cao Cao?!"

"But how can there be any reason to use a county to conquer a country?"

"Where is the Prime Minister of the country?"

"When such a powerful person comes to our Zhao country, but the prime minister behaves like that, it is also a big misfortune for us!"

"Didn't you say before that the state minister looks just right?"

But soon, what brought the group to an abrupt halt was that, probably because Shen Meng was getting older and his sons were used to being bossy, they actually blocked the door, set up a barrier, and directly resisted questioning.

, even the third son of Shenmeng led some young men from his family, holding bows and arrows, to climb up to the pavilion facing the street to intimidate.

This group of white horse warriors had no means to attack the enemy, so they had no choice but to remain in a stalemate for a while.

The people on the street dispersed far away, but did not hide away. Although the people on the opposite floor were speechless, they all looked at this scene with a hint of excitement, secretly hoping that Shen Meng's sons could stop them.

That evil wind in Handan County...

By the way, three days ago, the new Commander-in-Chief of Handan, Gongsun Xun, took away two county captains and most of the county soldiers, then burrowed into the hilly area in the northwest of the county and disappeared without a trace. And that one got it.

The county magistrate clerk, the king who takes over the affairs of the county, is very meticulous. From prison to litigation, from calculation of taxes to corvee labor, from promotion to dismissal, he has carefully filtered through all the affairs in the county.

To be honest, I am afraid of taking everything seriously in this world, let alone the messy stuff in the first place?

As a result, the county officials in Handan County were completely unlucky. Faced with account books and files full of loopholes, almost none of the current Cao officials and deputy historians escaped. They were all merged by this group of mysterious people.

The Border County warriors were caught cleanly and thrown into the county prison without any fuss. At that time, bad words came out, saying that the border barbarians would not give the Zhao people a way to live and so on... But now, in this county,

It was just a matter of rectification, but they actually followed the clues and started to connect people outside the county.

How can this not panic the various wealthy families and county officials inside and outside Handan?

What's interesting is that despite being panicked, I stopped hearing those strange words.

"Then the king is here." As someone shouted, a group of white horses galloped from the street in the distance. The person surrounded was the most famous Wang Xiu and Wang Shuzhi in the city recently, and his appearance

It also made the people upstairs on both sides of the street nervous or excited.

"Is Cao Shen Gong at home?" Wang Xiu dismounted directly on the street and asked in a loud voice.

"My father is right at home, but he will not let you go!" Shen Zhi, the third son of the Shen family who was standing on the building facing the street with a bow and arrow, showed his head and shouted loudly. "You want to enter my house.

, we must kill our brothers first!"

"Exclusively for the king!" Another person poked his head out, and it was Shen Jing, the second son of the Shen family. "It's not that we are maliciously resisting the law, but that there are differences between counties. My father is a prominent official in the county.

Merit, if the case in your county involves my father, please ask the county to submit documents to the Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister has an official document, we will naturally have nothing to say."

"Exclusively for the King." As the two people retreated into the attic, another person, Shen Ning, the eldest son of Shen, also appeared upstairs facing the street. He slightly raised his hand towards the downstairs. "Exclusively for the King.

, It’s not that we want to go against Wulihou, we also know Wulihou’s achievements and reputation, but my father is already over sixty years old, and almost all the people the king has invited these days have been sent to county jail...

As a son, how can you sit back and watch your old father go to jail? Besides, you are just Wulihou's official in charge of county affairs. Is it really Wulihou's intention to be so tyrannical? It's better to wait until Wulihou returns from his inspection tour of the county.

Let’s decide this matter again.”
To be continued...