Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather.

Chapter 617 Officials Are Worse Than Thieves
"I've seen him, but I'm not familiar with him!" Li Dagui said with a smile, "But he was a disciple of the Martial Arts Pavilion fifteen years ago."

Yang Mingzhao's eyes lit up, "Disciple of the Martial Arts Pavilion!!"

Yang Ze also revealed a faint smile.

The others showed puzzled expressions. They didn't understand what use it was to them that the commander of the Shangwu Division had once been a disciple of the Yanwu Pavilion.

"What is his background?" Yang Mingzhao asked.

"The Li family of Baoning Prefecture!" said Li Dagui.

Background is the key. All the disciples of Yanwu Pavilion from more than ten years ago have a master-disciple relationship with Yang Zhengshan, but this relationship may not necessarily make Li Baoshan join Yang Mingzhao.

For example, those disciples of the Yanwu Pavilion who came from noble families would definitely not easily surrender to Yang Mingzhao. After all, they have families behind them and their families are still in Kyoto.

But it would be different if Li Baoshan just came from an ordinary martial arts family.

He doesn't need to worry too much, and it may even be possible for him to bring the entire Li family to join Yang Mingzhao.

In fact, Li Dagui had only met Li Baoshan once, but Li Baoshan had something special about him. He was the first disciple of Yanwu Pavilion who came from a local martial arts family.

When the Martial Arts Pavilion was first opened, most of its disciples were nobles from Kyoto. It was not until the second year that disciples from martial arts sects began to join the Pavilion. It was not until the third year that children from martial arts families from all over the country gradually joined the Pavilion.

Li Baoshan happened to join the Yanwu Pavilion during its second year of enrollment. At that time, Yang Zhengshan went to the Yanwu Pavilion quite diligently, and Li Dagui would occasionally follow Yang Zhengshan to the Yanwu Pavilion.

When Li Baoshan was in the Martial Arts Pavilion, Yang Zhengshan had instructed him many times, and his aptitude was also very good, so Yang Zhengshan had a very good impression of him.

However, Li Baoshan's background limited his development. The Li family of Baoning Prefecture was just a small family. After Li Baoshan graduated from the Yanwu Pavilion, although he was recommended by the Yanwu Pavilion, he only got an official position of a small flag in the Shangwu Division.

In the first few years, Li Baoshan's development was quite good. He was promoted several times in four or five years, from a small flag to a general flag, and then to a centurion.

But later on, that no longer worked. After Zhang Luan resigned from the post of Shangwu Temple's chief minister, the nature of the Shangwu Temple gradually changed. Now disciples from various sects in various places control the Shangwu Temple and use it as a tool to abuse their power for personal gain.

It is difficult for a warrior with a relatively small background like Li Baoshan to continue to advance in the Shangwu Division.

In this way, Li Baoshan served as a centurion for five years. Finally, he had no choice but to find a way to transfer himself back to the Shangwu Division of Baoning Prefecture, hoping to use the power of the Shangwu Division to gain some private benefits for his family.

The commander of the prefectural-level Shangwu Division sounds like an important official position, but in fact it is similar to a centurion. The prefectural-level Shangwu Division has only dozens of military guards in total.

After hearing Li Dagui's suggestion, Yang Mingzhao said with a smile, "Then please ask this Senior Brother Li to help!"

"My subordinates can sneak into the city!" said Li Dagui.

Yang Mingzhao laughed and then wrote a letter.

"Did you bring our brand?"

Li Dagui shook his head. "How can we bring that thing out? If someone finds out, it might cause a lot of trouble!"

Every family has its own identity symbol, and the Yang family is no exception. The Yang family’s guards and servants all used to have an identity token.

But if you are rebelling in Darong now, how dare you hold the Yang family's identity token?
Yang Mingzhao thought about it, took out his private seal, and stamped it on the letter.

"Let's go tonight. If Li Baoshan is willing to remember our past friendship, let him help open the city gate. If he is not willing~~"

Yang Mingzhao did not say the rest.

What should we do if Li Baoshan does not recognize the Yang family?
Li Dagui said: "I understand. If he doesn't want to, I will take the opportunity to kill him!"

Yang Mingzhao nodded slightly and handed the letter to him.

Since Li Baoshan does not recognize the Yang family, it means that he no longer has any friendship with the Yang family, and his relationship as master and disciple with Yang Zhengshan is over, so the two sides can only become enemies.

In order to ensure that his identity was not revealed, Yang Mingzhao had no choice but to kill him, and he had to do it decisively and kill him right then and there.

……

In the city of Baoning Prefecture.

The prefect Li Wenchun, the associate prefect Xu Fusheng, the commander of Lizhou Guard Sun Derong and the commander of Shangwu Division Li Baoshan were sitting in the lobby discussing the defense of the city.

Although the Shangwu Division of Baoning Prefecture has only forty-odd military guards, it represents the underworld forces within the territory of Baoning Prefecture.

Let’s not talk about anything else, just say that there are three martial arts families in this city.

These three martial arts families are nothing in the entire Dayong, but they represent the highest level of martial arts in Baoning Prefecture.

There may be only a dozen or twenty warriors in a county, but there will not be only one or two hundred warriors in a prefecture.

Again, there is a clustering effect in the distribution of warriors.

The more prosperous the place, the more warriors there will be.

The number of warriors in a city may include more than half of the warriors in the entire city.

The residence of a sect can be located in a deep mountain or old forest, but the residence of a family must not be located in a deep mountain or old forest. This is because the disciples of a sect are all warriors, while a large part of the children of a family are actually ordinary people.

Li Baoshan is 38 years old this year. He is thin and has a regular face. He is not handsome, but not ugly either. He looks like an ordinary person.

The fact that he could graduate from the Martial Arts Pavilion proved that his cultivation and aptitude were not bad.

To graduate from the Martial Arts Pavilion, one needs to have acquired the fourth level of cultivation, and now Li Baoshan’s cultivation has reached the seventh level of the acquired level.

He is already one of the best masters in Baoning Prefecture.

Therefore, he was qualified to sit in front of the prefect Li Wenchun and the commander of Lizhou Guard Sun Derong.

The prefect, Li Wenchun, is a skinny old man. He has been the prefect of Baoning Prefecture for seven years. It can be seen that he is just an official without any background in the court, otherwise he would never have stayed in Baoning Prefecture for seven years.

Li Wenchun was very experienced in doing things. It was he who made the decision to close the city gates and defend the city waiting for help.

In the hall, Li Wenchun looked at Sun Derong and Li Baoshan, and said in a hoarse voice: "Master Sun, Master Li, do you have any way to repel the enemy?"

Sun Derong looked at Li Baoshan. He, the commander of Lizhou Guard, was actually just a figurehead, and the military households under his command were just a group of farmers.

The entire Lizhou Guard should have 5,600 soldiers, but in reality he could only gather more than 2,000 soldiers, and these 2,000 soldiers took turns to garrison in the city.

It is not easy for him to achieve this.

As for repelling the enemy, don't joke. Most of the soldiers of Lizhou Wei have never fought in a war, or even seen blood. It would be better to recruit young and strong people from the city than to expect them to fight.

At least the young and strong men in the city are willing to fight to the death to protect their families, while the soldiers of Lizhou Guard are probably thinking about how to escape now.

Sun Derong knew that he was not capable enough and also knew the quality of the soldiers under his command, so he placed his hopes on Li Baoshan.

Li Baoshan looked solemn and asked, "May I ask if the governor knows anything about the bandit army outside the city?"

To be honest, he didn't know the origin of the Taiping Army, nor did he know much about Taiping County, because there were several groups of rebels in Bashu, and Yang Mingzhao from Taiping County ranked last among them. Therefore, even if Li Baoshan paid attention to the rebels on weekdays, he would focus on the Black Tiger King and the Nine Heavenly Kings in the southern part of Bashu.

However, Li Wenchun was more familiar with the situation in Taiping County. He said, "The bandit army outside the city came from Taiping County. Their leader is named Yang Zhao. This man's origin is very mysterious. Not to mention outsiders, even their internal staff are not clear about the origin of this Mr. Yang."

"Some people speculate that he comes from a wealthy merchant family, and some people speculate that he has the support of martial arts forces because there are many martial arts masters around him!"

"He distributed farmland in Taiping County, built irrigation canals, trained peasant soldiers, and built forts. In just over two years, he managed Taiping County in an orderly manner, ensuring that everyone in the county could have enough food and every household had surplus food!"

After hearing his words, Li Baoshan and the other two looked at each other.

"This isn't a thief!" Li Baoshan said with some doubt.

Li Wenchun's expression was also quite complicated. "To the gentry and the rich, he is a thief because he distributed the land of the gentry and the rich to the poor people. But to the poor people, he is a good man, a great judge!"

The four of them fell silent.

Thieves, they all hate them.

But they don’t know how to evaluate the rebels like those in Taiping County.

"Ah~~" Li Wenchun sighed and said, "I have been an official for thirty years and served as a county magistrate for several times, but I have never made the area under my jurisdiction as peaceful as Taiping County!"

Li Wenchun was a capable official. Whenever he took office in a place, he would build water conservancy projects and encourage farmers to develop agriculture.

Unfortunately, he was subject to too many restrictions in the officialdom.

You can’t do this, you can’t do that. You can’t suppress the gentry, and you can’t offend the powerful.

This made it difficult for him to do anything and he could never get anything done.

"Governor, now is not the time to talk about this. Let's think about how to repel the enemy!" Tongzhi Xu Fusheng reminded.

"Well, let's talk about the strategy to repel the enemy first!" Li Wenchun nodded.

Although he approved of many of Taiping County's policies in his heart, as an official appointed by the imperial court, he had the responsibility to defend the city and absolutely could not hand over the city to the rebels.

Li Baoshan pondered for a moment and said, "If we want to repel the enemy, we must take a long-term approach!"

"The soldiers in the city are useless. The first thing we need to do is to train a group of young and strong people who dare to fight!"

"First, we need to ask for help from the Dusi Yamen. If the Dusi Yamen has reinforcements, we just need to defend the city."

"Secondly, we need to train young and strong men. If the Dusi Yamen does not have reinforcements, then we can only rely on the young and strong men in the city to repel the enemy!"

Xu Fusheng asked, "Will it be too late to train the young and strong now?"

Li Baoshan shook his head. "This can't be helped. We have to prepare for both situations. Compared to the reinforcements from the Dusi Yamen, I think it's more reliable to train young and strong men. It only takes three months to form an army!"

Li Wenchun agreed and said, "That's right. We only need to defend the city for three months. There are not many bandits outside the city. We should be able to hold out for three months."

This is the situation in Bashu Province now. The Dusi Yamen is unreliable, and the prefectural, state and county governments can only rely on themselves. However, the prefectural, state and county governments do not have much money and food, so they can't do anything unless the situation arises. Only when the enemy is at the gates can they raise as much money and food as possible and train young and strong people.

"Money and food are a problem!" said Sun Derong.

Li Wenchun said: "I will visit the wealthy families in the city and ask them to donate money and food. I believe that they will be willing to use money and food to recruit young and strong people at this time."

Those wealthy gentry would not give out money and grain unless the situation arises.

Now that the rebels were outside the city, Li Wenchun believed he could persuade the wealthy families to donate money and grain.

After the four of them reached an agreement, they each went about their business. Li Wenchun and Xu Fusheng were responsible for raising money and food, while Li Baoshan and Sun Derong were responsible for recruiting and training young and strong men.

……

At night, under the dim moonlight, a shadow silently passed through the city wall and entered the city.

After Li Dagui entered the city, he immediately began to look for Zhang Mo and Li Cheng who had sneaked into the city ten days ago.

He searched for a full hour, almost walking around the city, before he found the marks left by Zhang Mo and Li Cheng.

In an ordinary house, Li Cheng, who was sleeping, suddenly sat up and asked, "Who?"

"It's me!" Li Dagui entered the house quietly. Li Cheng breathed a sigh of relief after seeing his appearance clearly.

"Hello, senior, but does the young master have any orders?" Li Cheng quickly got up from the wooden bed and asked.

Li Dagui nodded and said, "Do you know where Li Baoshan lives?"

Li Cheng said without hesitation: "I know. He lives in the Shangwu Division. He went to the government office this afternoon. After leaving the government office, he returned to the Shangwu Division. The Shangwu Division is preparing to recruit young and strong people for training."

They didn't just do nothing when they sneaked into the city. They kept an eye on the actions of various government offices, explored the city's defensive strength, looked for ways to break into the city, and so on.

As the commander of the Shangwu Division and the person with the highest cultivation level, Li Baoshan was naturally their main target of surveillance.

Li Dagui didn't say much, just left after saying a few words.

"Wait for now, I'm going to meet Li Baoshan!"

Just now when he was wandering around the city, he had already found the location of the Shangwu Division Yamen.

After leaving Li Cheng, he quickly sneaked into the Shangwusi Yamen.

The Shangwusi government office was not big. In addition to the military guards, there were also some clerks and able-bodied men.

Li Dagui quickly determined the room where Li Baoshan lived.

Li Baoshan's home was in the city, so his family did not live in the yamen.

He usually lives at home, but today he was busy recruiting young and strong people for training, so he lived in the yamen.

Li Dagui sneaked into Li Baoshan's room quietly, found a chair and sat in front of Li Baoshan's bed.

"Now that you're awake, get up. Guests are welcome. Lord Li, are you planning to hide and not see guests?" Li Dagui chuckled.

Inside the curtain of the bunk bed, Li Baoshan's hand was already on the hilt of the knife.

He had already noticed someone sneaking into his room when Li Dagui was moving a chair.

To be honest, he was so scared that he almost jumped up and chopped someone.

However, he knew that the person who came was much stronger than himself, so he chose to pretend to sleep and see if there was a chance for a counterattack.

But he didn't expect that the visitor would actually wake him up!

(End of this chapter)