Royal Gold Medal County Magistrate

A carriage slowly made its way from the inner city towards the outer city.

The old man inside the carriage frowned, holding a book in his hands, glancing at it from time to time, but then sighing, clearly absent-minded.

Suddenly, he felt the carriage body shake slightly, and slowly lifted the cloth curtain to look outside, only to find that they had already entered the outer city, and the smooth stone road had turned into a dirt road.

On both sides of the road, there were also local ruffians and idlers joking on the street.

The old man frowned even deeper and couldn't help but sigh.

The carriage continued to move forward, and after a while, with a sudden bang, the carriage shaft, along with the horse, tilted up a lot.

The old man in the carriage was also suffering unspeakably, his head hitting the roof of the carriage directly, making a thudding sound.

Fortunately, the degree of tilting was not too great, and the carriage did not overturn.

After the carriage returned to normal, the coachman approached the carriage with an apologetic look and said loudly: "Sir, are you alright! I just hit a big pothole!"

The old man rubbed his head, suppressing the anger in his heart, and said: "I'm fine, be careful!"

"I'm fine!" The coachman smiled when he heard this, and then went back to drive the carriage.

The carriage began to move forward slowly again, but the road ahead was not easy to travel, and it was still bumpy. Although the bumps were not large, coupled with the pain in his head, it made the old man feel upset.

He leaned out of the carriage and said to the coachman: "Where is this place?"

The coachman honestly replied: "Reporting to you, sir, this is Pingkang Ward, and Banshan Ward is not far ahead."

"Stop! Stop the carriage!"

The carriage stopped by the side of the road, and the old man, holding onto the carriage frame, jumped out of the carriage and instructed the coachman: "You go to Banshan Ward first, I'll walk there myself!"

The coachman didn't say anything else, responded, and then drove the carriage towards Banshan Ward.

The old man walked slowly on the street, his face full of sorrow.

The scene on the street was really unsightly, in short, a mess.

Seeing someone relieving themselves everywhere, the old man covered his eyes with his sleeve, with an unbearable expression.

Suddenly, another carriage passed by behind him, and two old men appeared in the carriage window, waving their hands at the old man and shouting: "Lord Li! Lord Li!"

Li Yansong turned his head and saw that it was Zheng Qiao and Zhang Dongxiang.

His brow couldn't help but relax, and he couldn't help but say: "Why are you here?"

Zhang Dongxiang said: "We also met on the way. Isn't it the day off? We haven't seen the Crown Prince for a while, and we're worried, so we want to go and see!"

Zheng Qiao echoed: "That's right, that's right!"

Then the two of them got out of the carriage directly, and the three old men walked side by side on the road.

Zheng Qiao asked: "Lord Li, why are you here too?"

Li Yansong stroked his beard and smiled: "I'm the same as you, seeing how the Crown Prince is doing. His Majesty didn't even discuss with us about the Crown Prince managing such a large matter in one ward."

"Fang Zheng is not upright, I'm worried, so I came to see."

Zhang Dongxiang looked resentful: "How can His Majesty rest assured!? The Crown Prince has mistakenly befriended a scoundrel. That Fang Zheng is eloquent and will definitely lead the Crown Prince astray!"

"Not necessarily! His Majesty has been to Taoyuan County and praised Fang Zheng highly, which shows that Fang Zheng's governance ability is outstanding. I think the Crown Prince may be able to learn something.", Zheng Qiao looked like he didn't dare to agree.

"Hehe, I think he can only learn his shamelessness! Don't I know what the Crown Prince is like? Birds of a feather flock together! Lord Zheng!" Zhang Dongxiang said painfully.

Li Yansong hurriedly smoothed things over: "Alright, alright, you two, wouldn't the truth be revealed when we see him in a while! What's there to argue about?"

"However, in my opinion, at best, it's just like Pingkang Ward. What achievements can be made in less than a month... Alas..."

Zheng Qiao said with a smile: "I came to the outer city last year and saw that Banshan Ward was even worse than Pingkang Ward. If Fang Zheng and the Crown Prince can manage Banshan Ward like this, it would be pretty good."

The three old men continued to walk, while constantly observing the surrounding environment.

However, the several Grand Secretaries had obviously spent too much time in the inner city and the palace. In their eyes, the environment of Pingkang Ward was still dirty and chaotic.

Especially after walking for a while, they saw many people actually defecating everywhere.

Such a scene was rare in the inner city! It certainly didn't exist in the palace.

As Zhang Dongxiang walked, he began to beat his chest and stomp his feet: "A son of a thousand gold should not sit under a leaning roof! Fang Zheng is misleading the country!!"

"Look! Look! What is all this! No sense of shame! It's miserable!"

The two of them gave Zhang Dongxiang a contemptuous look, and Zheng Qiao teased: "Look at you! You're being pretentious. It's not like you haven't seen it before. I've never seen you so particular before!"

Zhang Dongxiang said proudly: "The past is the past! Now that the world is peaceful, what is needed is to educate the people. Is it reasonable for the people to urinate everywhere?"

Li Yansong sighed: "It's really unreasonable... It's really worrying to have the Crown Prince in such an environment, and Banshan Ward is even worse... I don't know how bad it will be!"

Approaching Banshan Ward, Zheng Qiao suddenly stretched out his arms, stopped Zhang Dongxiang and Li Yansong, and said in a low voice: "Be careful, you two! The security in Banshan Ward is extremely poor, and there are quite a few thieves and petty criminals. Take care of the money on your body, don't get pickpocketed!"

The two looked at each other and nodded with a serious expression.

..........

Finally entering the territory of Banshan Ward, the flow of people obviously began to increase.

The ground also appeared cleaner and smoother, with small trees planted on both sides of the road, and the walls were painted white, with some words written on them.

Li Yansong blinked, and asked Zheng Qiao in confusion: "This is... Banshan Ward?"

Zheng Qiao frowned... and said hesitantly: "Did we go the wrong way... It wasn't like this before, and why are there so many people here."

Suddenly, a team of officers and soldiers wearing official uniforms appeared, with one hand on the knife at their waist, walking neatly on the street, the leather boots on their feet stepping on the ground, making a neat sound, with an inexplicable sense of solemnity.

Li Yansong immediately imagined the scene of the people detouring when they saw such a team of people.

He had been in the capital for so many years, whether it was the inner city or the outer city, as long as such a team of people appeared, it would definitely arouse the vigilance and awe of the people.

But the three immediately诧异发现, the passers-by around them were actually indifferent!

The officers and soldiers walked quickly and hurriedly, and soon brushed past Li Yansong and others.

The three were stunned... These are ordinary officers and soldiers, when did they become so disciplined?

The people of Banshan Ward seemed to be used to this and didn't care at all. If it were in the past, they should have avoided it from a distance... but here, there seemed to be nothing unusual.

Li Yansong asked curiously: "This place can be called orderly, could it be that we really went the wrong way?"

Zhang Dongxiang was anxious and quick-mouthed, and was curious about this strange phenomenon. He strode forward and walked inside, and said in his mouth: "Who cares! There is such a ward in the outer city, let's go in and take a look first!"

The three began to walk inside together.

It didn't matter if they didn't walk, the more they looked, the more shocked they became.

There didn't seem to be any local ruffians and idlers here, there were many small vendors and merchants, vigorously promoting their goods, and the number of people exceeded their imagination.

Various flags and banners were put out, selling snacks, handicrafts, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea, and there were constant shouts.

But the magic is that so many people can maintain order, and there is not a single bit of garbage on the ground.

This should be due to the large number of officers and soldiers... But what are those old people with red cloths on their sleeves doing?

The three of them had such an idea in their hearts.

Then Zheng Qiao went straight to a teahouse and sat down, and directly asked the waiter: "Waiter! Is this Banshan Ward?!"

When the waiter saw the three old men staring at him with curious eyes, he laughed: "Yo! Three old men, did you just come from somewhere else?"

"Are you here to take a shit?"