Goose Three Kingdoms

Chapter 579 No pain or itch
Outside Datong City, frost dyed the grass.

The black bear went out on patrol as usual, and after traveling dozens of miles out of Gaoliu Pass, it arrived at the first transfer station outside the Great Wall.

The migrating soldiers and civilians who were going to stay here overnight had packed up their luggage. Women, children, the sick and a few elderly people traveled by car, while the vast majority of people walked.

This was a migrating team, and each transit station was also assigned with newly formed Youzhou troops and slaves from the various Hu tribes, who were responsible for eliminating bandits, or cutting grass to feed livestock and supply fuel for the transit station.

Humans are actually very tenacious. As long as they are guaranteed basic food supply and fuel or heating, the losses during long-distance migration are much less than those of cattle and horses.

The army now has sufficient cattle and horses under its control, as well as a stable vehicle-making base.

Therefore, these transfer stations are located every hundred miles. Only by traveling a hundred miles a day can the migrating soldiers and civilians obtain stable supplies and overnight accommodation.

Today, the black bear did not go deep into the second transfer station and returned to Datong.

His patrol route was not fixed. The farthest he would go was as deep as the third transfer station and directly to the vicinity of the Yunzhong County seat.

Or after checking the first transfer station, turn east and patrol hundreds of miles before returning to Datong before dark.

When they returned this time, the dense white frost outside Datong City had melted in the sun. The horses' hooves trampled on the frost, and dew splashed, wetting the cloaks of many riders.

He went straight into the city's government office. When he took off his armor, Fa Zheng went to the outer hall with the accumulated official documents and lunch to wait.

Soon the black bear came out wearing fluffy black bear skin slippers. Ever since the victory over the coalition forces of You and Ji states, bear fur products have been unsalable in the market.

He had no scruples in this regard, so he sent people to buy them at the market price, and even issued a decree to encourage remote counties to organize brave bear hunts, so as to prevent the bear population from multiplying and becoming a scourge if left unchecked.

As a result, within a few months, the three nearby counties of Shanggu, Yuyang, and Dai were able to hunt and obtain a lot of bear furs under the organization of officials.

Whether it was presented as a gift or sold, it would end up in the military residence.

Things like bear hunting can be big or small, he just didn't want the local people to suffer because of the officials' rigid thinking; an order to encourage bear hunting was passed down, and the new and old officials who had nothing to do recently organized people to hunt bears, as if using the bear hunting performance as a bargaining chip to curry favor and seek credit.

He felt that these officials were too idle, so he simply ordered that in spring and autumn, dates, chestnuts, mulberry trees, as well as plums, apricots and other fruit trees should be planted in cities, villages and roads in preparation for famine.

Now that the weather is cold and it is the slack season for farmers, it is convenient for people to dig up saplings or plant them while collecting firewood and grass.

The old officials in the three surrounding counties were used to being lazy and would only move once they were whipped. Most of them lacked subjective enthusiasm.

Don’t these people know what they are doing?
Many people are aware of this, and Black Bear feels that these people just don't take it seriously, so the administration is perfunctory in their work, and they all think they will leave soon.

This kind of perfunctory attitude does not mean not doing anything, but rather being unwilling to do things according to your original intention and not making reasonable human resource arrangements.

Either don't do it, or expand it and do it in droves.

Simply, Black Bear was not in a hurry to return to Guanzhong. He stayed in Dai, inspected everywhere, expanded the size of the migrating team from time to time, and then selected military officers from the army to fill the grassroots level of the three counties.

After more than half a month of cultivation and pruning, these three counties finally began to resemble Guanzhong.

This is just a resemblance in appearance, so he plans to stay until the twelfth month before withdrawing his troops.

As for the war in Jingzhou, he had always hoped that Lu Yi would let go and fight hard. Lu Yi commanded too many troops, which was by no means an advantage.

As a result, Lu Yi, who had been very aggressive in advancing the front line, actually claimed to be sick, which made him more or less disappointed.

Lu Yi and the Southern Coalition were like a sharp yet brittle sword, and he was looking forward to the outcome of a head-on confrontation.

But Lu Yi seemed to sense the danger and took the initiative to jump out of the whirlpool.

As usual, Fa Zheng looked at the pair of furry and fluffy slippers on the black bear's feet and felt extremely out of place, with a sense of distortion in his cognition.

This was made by the black bear's guards, and the material is the skin of the little black bear, including two little black bear heads stuffed with goose down and inlaid with red and blue gems. At first glance, it looks like two little black bears crouching there side by side.

How to say it, facing the cute, healthy, chubby little black bear, Fa Zheng can more or less inspire some strange thoughts.

But making slippers out of black bear skin and goose down was something Fa Zheng had never imagined in his life.

Hei Xiong looked through the meeting report of the various departments of the Guanzhong Shogunate. He looked serious and focused. This was the first meeting since he went on a military expedition.

After briefly reading the records of everyone's speeches, Black Bear put the book aside, picked up the soup spoon and ate beef meatball tofu soup. After eating two meatballs, he said, "What do you think, sir?"

"Sima Zhang is from Nanyang. He was worried that the rebels would break through the Han River and Xiangyang defense line, so he indulged Pei Qian's strategy of recruiting and inciting rebellion."

Fa Zheng sat upright and expressed his own views after analysis: "If the rebels are infected with the disease and their offensive is disrupted by instigation, this is not the best result, but it is not the worst result either. Your Majesty went on an expedition to Yan and Zhao, and the land of Jing and Chu remained undefeated, then the civil and military officials have made contributions to the shogunate."

Black Bear drank the soup and felt that it was not tasty enough. He picked up the vinegar pot and poured some vinegar into the bowl. After stirring it, he drank a spoonful and said, "No mistakes were made and the border was preserved. This is meritorious. I also understand the actions of Zhang Ding and Pei Qian, but we should be cautious about recruiting refugees and traitors. We may as well take this opportunity to announce to all places that in the future, we should first report to the shogunate before taking action to recruit refugees and traitors, and then we can implement it after approval."

As he said this, he opened the book again and looked at the speech record on it. He couldn't help but smile: "Otherwise, I am really worried that a county governor in the future will dare to persuade the emperor of Southeast to surrender."

He also said to Fa Zheng: "To recruit surrenders and traitors is no small matter. It implies the power to pardon previous crimes. Pei Qian is too arrogant. But the governor inspects a region on behalf of the emperor and has the right to act at his own discretion. I can't punish him severely for this. I will just send an envoy to Jingzhou to reprimand him as the meeting requested and let the matter be over."

Fa Zheng restrained his expression and became more serious.

But we also know that Black Bear is very confident, confident in both his civil and military skills. The benefit of this high level of self-confidence is that he has great tolerance.

No matter how happily you dance, your own Sima will not be angry. It is only a matter of time before he beats you to death. It is not worth getting angry.

Even if it involves the power of pardon like this time, the most it will do is to reduce Pei Qian's perception of him, and suppress him in the future so that he will not rely on killing to maintain power.

Fa Zheng already had a premonition that if the new dynasty had a position similar to the prime minister, Pei Qian would not have the opportunity to serve as the prime minister even if he lived to be eighty years old.

To put it more seriously, Pei Qian's faction has been cut off from the Three Dukes.

Then Black Bear continued to eat, and Fa Zheng went to draft a document of reprimand, which he quickly brought to Black Bear for review.

While wiping his lips, Black Bear frowned and said, "This is not my tone. Tell him that he owes me 500 households of fiefdom this time. When he has made meritorious contributions and accumulated 500 households of fiefdom, I will adjust his position as the governor of Jingzhou."

Upon hearing this, Fa Zheng immediately said, "Your Majesty, there are more than 200,000 rebels in Jingzhou. It is not difficult to make meritorious deeds."

"Then let him stand."

The rebel army was over 200,000 strong... Strictly speaking, Pei Qian's surrender was the same as the merits of prisoners and beheadings.

But Pei Qian was the kind who accepted the rebels without permission and should be organized into an organization; this was also the reason why the shogunate decided to organize the troops of Cheng Pu and others into garrisons during the meeting.

In the final analysis, Pei Qian ate a big bite of the cake without telling anyone.

Therefore, many people refused to admit their mistake and resisted Pei Qian who stole the chicken.

Even if there was resistance, he also helped Pei Qian vaguely handle the key "pardon" authority; from Pei Qian's perspective, the governor was an external dispatch of the emperor's censor, and he always had the authority to handle these matters exclusively.

Ultimately, this is the shortcoming of the shogunate system.

This is just a governor of Jingzhou. If he were to do something stupid in the future and set up a series of governors of various states, after these people took office, they would nominally be Han officials of the Jian'an court, just like Black Bear. In theory, they would be colleagues, with the only difference being the level of their positions.

It can also be said that Pei Qian's incident was neither big nor small nor painful, but it also blocked the way for others to be promoted to provincial governor in the future.

There may be a series of governors, but there will never be a second governor.

(End of this chapter)