Straight man of steel

Chapter 126

When Zhang Yuan rode his horse to the gate of the city, he saw hundreds of ragged people in addition to the local officials.

The face of the prefect of Berkshire is very ugly. Everyone knows that after this matter is over, his prefect will be considered to be over.

Tang Meng is a general, and the people in the army can only reprimand him a few words, but he, the prefect of Berkshire, is not like that.

The emperors of the Han Dynasty killed all their courtiers and killed basically civilian officials, and those who had the rank of general were executed were still a small number.

Even if the emperor wanted to kill a military general, he would be given a civil post after the war, and then he would find an excuse to kill him.

Li Guang made so many mistakes, in the end Liu Che had no way of killing him, so he could only force him to death, letting him die in the battle with the Huns.

"Zhang Lu, the prefect of Chenba County, pays homage to the envoy of the Son of Heaven."

Unlike the prefects of the other two counties, the prefect of Berkshire knelt down when he saw Zhang Yuan, and got along with Zhang Yuan in an extremely low profile.

"Get up and behave."

Zhang Yuan didn't have a good look on this family. If Zhang Lu hadn't reported it to the court as soon as possible and didn't let Liu Che know how much harm this matter had to the people, it wouldn't have been like this.

The current population of Bajun is about 30, and there are only 8 men eligible for corvee service. Now 3000 people have died, and more than [-] people are still building roads. This is a blow to the entire Bajun.

It is very likely that by the beginning of next spring, one-fifth of the land in Berkshire will be uncultivated.

The imperial court doesn’t care what happened to you, it only thinks that you don’t pay as much tax this year as last year. In order to solve this kind of problem, the officials are likely to ignore the decree of the Thirty Tax One and increase taxes to deal with the imperial court’s inspection. At that time, it will still be the people who suffer.

Zhang Yuan wanted to go to the city on his horse, but was stopped by a hundred or so ragged people, all of them were women and children, they all looked pitiful.

"Prefect Zhang, what's going on?"

Zhang Lu said in a difficult way.

"Honored Envoy, all the adult males in these villages died of accidents when they were serving corvee.

It was they who reported the matter to the minister, and then the minister learned that it was reported to His Majesty.

They didn't know where they learned that the envoy would come to Jiangzhou City today, so they gathered here to ask for an explanation.

I have tried to dissuade you many times, but they still don't listen. "

At other times, such people would have been treated as disorderly people by the government.It's just that now that Liu Che sent Zhang Yuan and the others to Berkshire under the banner of appeasing the hearts of the people, no matter how impulsive Zhang Lu was, he would never do such a thing.

Now he is very likely to be dismissed or demoted. If there are other troubles, there is really only a dead end left.

"Messenger of the Son of Heaven, you must decide for those of us who are lonely and helpless."

The old woman in the lead started howling, and then hundreds of people all burst into tears.

The crying made Zhang Yuan feel uncomfortable and his scalp numb.

"Old man, please take these people from your village out of the way first, and I will ask Taishou Zhang to take you to the Taishou's mansion. After my tour of the city is over, how about you come to see me one by one and explain the whole story clearly?
This time, the emperor asked me to bring enough money and food, and you will all have due compensation. "

Although Zhang Yuan has always felt that human life is greater than the sky, it is not his original intention to say that he will be compensated with money and food.

It's just that now we can only use these benefits that everyone can see to win the trust of the people.

A group of Berkshire officials also stepped forward to try their best to persuade them, and even took out some copper coins and handed them to the women and children on the spot, so that they all got out of the way.

If the news of preventing the emperor's envoy from entering the city reaches Liu Che's ears, these people will commit another crime.

After a quarter of an hour's delay outside the city gate, Zhang Yuan entered Jiangzhou City on horseback holding a talisman. Zhang Yuan felt more malicious eyes here than in other places.

After more than 60 years of development in Berkshire, the officials of Dahan can only control the places around the city.

There is no way to form an urban agglomeration like Shu County.

More than half of the cities in Guanghan County and one-third of the cities in Shu County formed an urban agglomeration around Chengdu that was only second to that of Chang'an.

Only there can one see the richness of the land of Bashu, as for other places, they are all wild lands.

Two-thirds of the land in Bajun is still occupied by various ethnic groups, and the Han people can only gain a sense of security by gathering around the city.

Now when his own people start to attack him, such a group has no sense of trust in anyone.

When Sima Xiangru read out Liu Che's will, only a few thousand people gathered in front of the prefect's mansion in the entire Jiangzhou city to listen to the holy voice.

"Zhang Xingren, this Berkshire is obviously different from other places. Our mission is very difficult."

Sima Xiangru had already gotten out of his emotions and started to take this matter seriously. He knew that Liu Che's main purpose of asking Zhang Yuan to come was to discuss with Tang Meng about expropriating the people of Yelang Kingdom to build roads and carry out colonization.

It is Sima Xiangru's job to appease the people, and it is because of this that Zhang Yuan dares to keep making soy sauce.

"After I finish seeing those women and children, I will go to rest. Tell Zhang Lu and the others not to bother me anymore. Tomorrow I will take someone to Fuguan to find Tang Meng. As long as I can release those peasants from their corvée in a short time, When they return to their hometown, the hearts of the people will be able to stabilize quickly.

What we said before was all empty talk, even the people of Shu County have never really regained their confidence in the government. "

Sima Xiangru agreed with Zhang Yuan's words very much, nodded and retreated, and began to order the officials of Bajun Prefect's Mansion to bring the women and children outside the city gate to Zhang Yuan.

Although there were hundreds of people, in fact, the only one Zhang Yuan really wanted to see was the old woman at the head. Relieving her mood was the most important thing.

As for knowing the whole story, it is just for others to hear. At this time, who doesn't know how the males in their village died.

Zhang Yuan promised a lot of benefits to the old woman, and even exempted her village from taxes for five years, and let those half-children grow up to collect taxes and so on.

Such a proposition is naturally impossible, and neither can Zhang Lu, but Zhang Lu can make up for that part of the taxes for these women and children. Zhang Yuan does not believe that Zhang Lu is unwilling to spend the money and food, on the contrary, Zhang Lu should be very happy.

Before dark, Zhang Yuan sent the group of women and children out of the prefect's mansion accompanied by praises from good officials.

Then ask Zong Xing to clarify the conditions of his promise to Zhang Lu, and make it clear that if Zhang Lu is unwilling to bear it, then he will bear it himself, but Zhang Lu should not think that he will say a few words for him in front of Liu Che Good word.

(End of this chapter)