Number of People

  Chapter 2117 Guizi Juan chooses officials and employs people without any scruples

  Standing on top of the city wall of Mizhi, Feng Ziying looked to the north with her hands behind her back.

   From Wubao to Mizhi, in fact, it can be reached in one day, more than 200 miles, if you don't spare horsepower and don't worry about fatigue, if you start in the morning, you can arrive in the evening.

  However, Feng Ziying still stayed in Suide for one night, and arrived in Mizhi the next day.

   It was agreed with He Shixian to meet in Mizhi County.

There are some differences between what is called northern Shaanxi today and the northern Shaanxi of later generations. The title of northern Shaanxi in this dynasty follows the pre-Ming Dynasty, and Shaanxi is not just Shaanxi of later generations. Much bigger.

  So now northern Shaanxi refers to the three prefectures of Yan'an, Qingyang, and Pingliang, which can be regarded as the Great North of Shaanxi.

  The terrain of these three prefectures is dominated by the Loess Plateau and mountains. The climate has always been dry, cold and hot. To the north are Yulin and Ningxia towns, and to the west is Gansu town.

  It is not an exaggeration to describe the northern Shaanxi region from the ten years and nine droughts since the Yuanxi period, that is, the drought covers a vast area and whether the drought is serious or not.

  However, after entering the Yonglong period, the drought suddenly intensified. Not only did the area almost cover the entire northern Shaanxi, but the drought became increasingly serious, which also made the livelihood of the people in northern Shaanxi the biggest hidden danger.

  In fact, since the second year of Yonglong, the number of refugees in northern Shaanxi has become an indisputable fact. After the sixth year of Yonglong, this situation has become more prominent.

To be precise, the border villages ushered in a stage of rapid growth after six years of Yonglong. Whether it was the number of border villages or the population of the border villages, a large number of refugees fled north, and some Tumed herdsmen outside the border fled south, making people like Boyan The forces of the frontier villages such as Datu's Village and Big Rabbit's Village rapidly expanded.

   It can even be said that a considerable part of the weapons and armor of these border villages came from the Yulin and Ningxia armies, and the other part was secretly sold to these border villages by some Shanxi merchants.

  The connivance of the border towns and the turn-a-dozenness of the local government have resulted in the existence and growth of a series of border villages between Suide, Mizhi and the Yulin Army. Now it is finally time to clean them up.

   Not all the frontier villages have joined the southward foraging team, and some are still dying, or they don’t have the ability and courage to join the rebel team, and they have no way to survive.

But when the disaster intensifies further and endangers the survival of the entire border village, then those strong and strong people in the border village will inevitably go south and east. Suide, Mizhi, Jiazhou, and even the counties in Hedong may all be destroyed. endangered.

The fighting power of these frontier troops is different from that of the chaotic army evolved from ordinary mobs. They have weapons and armor, and even have combat experience and organization. Once they fight for survival, their explosive fighting power cannot be underestimated. The reason why Yan Village and Baitang Village are willing to win over the border villages like Datuhu Village and Poluo Temple Village.

After all, it takes more energy and time to train an ordinary rebellious army into an army with fighting will and experience. It can be seen from Wang Chengwu's Yueshan camp. Feng Ziying needs thousands of dollars to buy a horse bone, which is really not cost-effective in terms of cost.

   Fortunately, Wang Chengwu made up for it with his loyalty, which can be regarded as something else.

  Feng Ziying came to meet He Shixian this time, in fact, to completely solve the hidden dangers in these border villages.

  The system of Dazhou is relatively complicated and contradictory.

Governors of Shaanxi, like Feng Ziying, who have been appointed as the right servant of the Ministry of War, theoretically command the troops of the border towns in Shaanxi, but there are certain limits to the command and mobilization. To suppress the governor, how to mobilize the frontier army depends on the governor's own ability and prestige, and of course the relationship with the border town.

  Feng Ziying certainly doesn’t have much prestige, and besides, his father was the general soldier of Yulin, so he is also a father, and he is just a junior in front of He Shixian, but with this level of origin, many things will be much easier to handle.

   "How many border villages still exist in Mizhi?" Feng Ziying suddenly asked Xu Junyang, the magistrate of Mizhi, beside him.

Xu Junyang was stunned and immediately replied: "There are nine border villages, big and small, but they are not as large as Boyan Village, Baitang Village, Datuful Village, and Poluo Temple Village. The slightly larger border villages have more than a thousand people, and the smaller ones are Six to seven hundred people, the total population is about seven or eight people, and the overall scale is smaller than that of Suide."

  "The population of seven to eight thousand is not small, and Mizhi is only tens of thousands. One-fifth of the population is an implicit number. Master Xu, are you qualified as a county magistrate?" Feng Ziying glanced at Xu Junyang.

  Xu Junyang's back was sweating.

From the fact that Feng Ziying did not cross the Yellow River from Laoniuwan to enter Shaanxi through Yulin Town, but quietly entered Shaanxi from Qikou Ferry, and even made such a big battle in Wubao, Xu Junyang can feel that the governor is quite serious. A maverick, if he comes to Shaanxi, he will definitely stir up huge waves. For local officials like them, it may be more dangerous than drought, army chaos, and plague.

"My lord's criticism is that the lower officials are limited by the situation and afraid of difficulties in cleaning up the hidden households, so they haven't made much progress." Xu Junyang hesitated and said: "However, your lord should also be aware that the population of these border villages in the northern mountainous area has changed rapidly. It is large, and the refugees are intertwined with it, so it is not easy to clean up. If it is forcibly cleared, it will be difficult for the county to do it, and it will easily cause riots,..."

  Seeing that Xu Junyang was still defending, Feng Ziying didn't say much.

  The problem of border villages is not left over by any one term, but a problem that has gradually accumulated over decades of local officials.

   It is more because Suide and Mizhi counties are close to the Yulin Army, and the Yulin Army has more and more fugitives, entrenched in the mountainous area and it is difficult to clear them, and the local police officers dare not enter the mountainous area.

  Combined with the fact that after so many years of disasters, the people have no way of making a living, and simply fled to the mountains to seek refuge, reclaim the wasteland in the mountains, and avoid taxation and labor.

  Feng Ziying has no intention of holding anyone accountable. As far as he is concerned, what he has to do is to grab a bunch of officials and let them do things for him, otherwise he will not be able to sort out the huge Shaanxi in a year or two.

  Wang Wenyan was in Shaanxi for half a year before, and he wanted to sort out these local officials and understand their various aspects.

  Ability, attitude, connections, and conduct, these four elements are important indicators for judging the officials of the Great Zhou Dynasty, but the emphases and standards of employing people by the court or bigwigs are different.

For Feng Ziying now, ability and attitude are the most important. This is also the first choice for him to employ people. Those who are incompetent can only do bad things and are useless, and they are not willing to do things for themselves, so they can only be put aside or even asked to work. Find a way to deal with it and avoid getting in the way.

  Contacts have some role, which can be regarded as a derivative of ability, but for Feng Ziying, who is ready to kill gods and Buddhas with a quick knife, it has little meaning, and everything needs to obey his own will.

As for conduct, it may be very important in a peaceful and prosperous age, but at least in Shaanxi now, it is the least important. As long as it can be used for oneself, whether it is greedy for money, lustful, or playing power, it is fine for fame and fame. All can be put aside for the time being, and everything is to solve the current overall situation as the top priority.

  Wang Wenyan's evaluation of Xu Junyang is that he has outstanding ability, but he is easy to exercise power, has cruel means, has a good reputation, is strong in clinging, and doesn't value money or women.

  Easy to exercise power means that they have a strong control over the Mizhi county government, and the methods are cruel, which means that they treat the gentry and the people very harshly.

A good name is a bit difficult to judge. To get a name in a place, it means to have a good relationship with the gentry, but it is difficult to win the favor of the gentry by means of cruelty, or the purpose of his good name is to give Shangfeng Look, it is good for promotion, which seems to make sense, and needs to be observed.

   As for the strong desire to cling, it is easy to understand. If you want to get promoted, if you don’t have any connections before the imperial examination, then naturally you have to rely on yourself to make friends and cling after you become an official.

  Xu Junyang and Lu Chuan have been in touch for a long time. It is said that there is never a shortage of Lu Chuan's birthday and holiday gifts every year. Xu Junyang himself does not value money and women, and he himself is from an ordinary farmer in Huguang. His family cannot support him. Where did this gift come from? It is estimated that earning some money in Mizhi is a filial piety to Lu Chuan, no wonder Feng Ziying can feel that Lu Chuan usually wears ordinary clothes.

"Master Xu, these reasons were acceptable in the past, but now, I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain to the court." Feng Ziying said indifferently: "The rebellious army besieged Wubao and almost broke the city. The rebellious army is far from being able to compare with the rebellious army in the frontier villages, if these frontier villages are allowed to continue to survive, once the situation changes again, I am afraid that it will cause trouble, is it possible that Mr. Xu is confident that Mi Zhi will not be favored by the rebellious army?"

  Xu Junyang lowered his head and frowned, "What your lord said is true. It's time to clean up the land here. If the Yulin Army helps, it will not be difficult."

   "Relying solely on the Yulin army to clear up and suppress the symptoms does not cure the root cause. Although there are many fugitives in the border villages, their main composition is still refugees from prefectures and counties. If we want to eradicate them, we need to gather these refugees back." Feng Ziying glanced at Xu Junyang again.

  Xu Junyang hesitated for a moment before biting his bullet and said: "My lord, the cause of these refugees must be clear to you. The border people are lazy, don't like to work, and are even more afraid of labor. If there are more dry locusts,..."

  Feng Ziying naturally understood that laziness is an excuse, but the land is narrow and the land is poor, taxes and labor are heavy, especially the labor in the border areas is the heaviest because of the need to supply military supplies.

  The more refugees fled and the more hidden households, the more labor was allocated to other common people, and more people were forced to flee, which became a vicious circle.

   "Does Master Xu have any countermeasures?" Feng Ziying asked back, and the selection of officials and personnel must also be verified by oneself.

  (end of this chapter)