Thief Emperor

Chapter 94 Borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha
It was two days later when Mr. Xue arrived in Xuanzhou City by carriage.

County Magistrate Xue, who was exhausted from the long journey, did not dare to delay after getting off the car and went straight to the prefectural government office.

At this moment, the county magistrates of Taiping, Jingde, Shidai and other counties under the jurisdiction of Chizhou had already arrived in Xuanzhou early, preparing to meet their new superior who had parachuted in.

After all, for a considerable period of time in the future, this new governor will be the new ruler of Xuanzhou.

In the early years of the Zhou Dynasty, the Inspector was the pinnacle of local officials. For example, the state of Xuanzhou had more than ten counties under its jurisdiction and had a very large area of ​​jurisdiction.

Generally speaking, for an official like Inspector Tian, ​​not to mention collecting a little more tax from the people, which led to local rebellion, even if he extorted a lot of money from the people and made the local people live in misery, as long as he had connections in the court, it would still be difficult to take him down.

After all, if it weren't for the frequent chaos in the local areas in recent decades, the imperial court would have set up observation and disposal envoys in each province, and the prefect would be a serious local official with direct access to the imperial court.

In fact, the reason why Governor Tian fell was not because he violated any national law. It was the incident in Shidai County that gave some people in the court the opportunity to intervene in Xuanzhou. It was because of the court struggle that Governor Tian was involved and taken to the capital to be punished.

The county magistrates of Xuanzhou naturally did not dare to neglect such a local big shot and came to greet him early. Some counties even had the county magistrate and the county magistrate together to pay homage to the new envoy of Xuanzhou.

Mr. Xue looked around among the county magistrates, first greeting a few he knew, and then he saw Xu Du, the deputy governor of Xuanzhou. He rushed forward and bowed, "Your Excellency."

Beijia is the deputy of the governor. If the governor was present, Mr. Xue would most likely call him deputy envoy, but now that the governor was not there, he called him envoy.

Xu Du was sitting in a chair in a trance. Hearing this, he looked up at Xue Song, a little stunned. After a long while, he came back to his senses and said with a wry smile, "I am just a criminal. Brother Yue Ji, please don't call me that."

At this point, he sighed, looked around at the county magistrates present, and said with emotion: "Among so many old friends, only you, Brother Yue Ji, are willing to take the initiative to come forward and talk to Xu."

He was also one of the participants in Xuanzhou's additional taxation.

After all, the leader has taken it, so as the deputy, he has no choice but to take it. Not taking it would mean cutting himself off from the leader.

The reason why he was fine after Governor Tian was taken away was that Xuanzhou had such a big mess that it had to be taken care of. Mr. Gu was busy rushing back to the capital and had no time to stay in Xuanzhou waiting for the court to send a new official.

Therefore, Xu Biejia was arranged to stay in Xuanzhou to handle official business on behalf of the governor, which was a status of staying in office and waiting for consultation.

This state of affairs is naturally unpopular, and other officials in Xuanzhou are now avoiding him like the plague god.

Magistrate Xue no longer had any interest in the officialdom, so he didn't care about these things at all. He smiled and said, "They are all people who want to make progress. I am old and no longer want to make progress."

After a pause, he asked, "When will the new governor arrive?"

"Mostly in the afternoon."

Xu Biejia replied: "They are discussing how far out of the city to go to welcome them."

Magistrate Xue turned his head to look at his fellow travelers, shook his head, and said, "Sir, do you have any news about Governor Tian?"

Xu Du shook his head and sighed silently: "Once we enter the capital, there will be no news. The various government offices in the court may have to fight for a while..."

"The future of Governor Tian is uncertain, but the future of Xu is easy to predict."

He shook his head and smiled bitterly, "Once the new governor arrives, I will most likely be thrown into prison."

Xue Song sighed and was about to speak when a county magistrate called out, "It's almost time, my colleagues, let's go out of the city together to welcome the new envoy."

Everyone responded, and County Magistrate Xue was also pulled by several familiar county magistrates to go out of the city to welcome the new governor.

Before leaving, he looked at Xu Du who was still sitting on the chair and said, "Sir, are you not going with us?"

"I'm not going."

Xu Du shook his head and said, "I am a criminal. It makes no difference whether I go or not."

Xue Song had no choice but to follow his colleagues the county magistrate out of the city to welcome the new governor.

It was still early spring, and a group of gentlemen in official uniforms were walking in groups of three or four on the official road. The cold wind froze them like quails, and they walked with their necks hunched.

After waiting for a long time, the carriage of the new governor slowly approached. After the carriage slowly stopped, a young man's head popped out from the carriage.

The young man looked to be only about 28 or 29 years old, with sharp eyebrows, bright eyes, a moustache, and a very heroic appearance.

After seeing the county magistrates waiting on both sides of the road, he frowned slightly, then stood on the carriage and bowed to everyone: "My colleagues."

"I am Cui Shao, the new governor of Xuanzhou."

He shouted, "Don't waste time here. I'll go into the city first and wait for you at the prefectural government office. We'll meet there!"

After saying that, the carriage started moving again and rushed into Xuanzhou city.

The Taiping County Magistrate standing next to Xue Song was also in his forties or nearly fifty. He was familiar with County Magistrate Xue. Seeing this, he shook his head slightly and said, "The carriages won't even get off."

"It's so cold today. We are really putting our cold faces on other people's butts."

Mr. Xue said helplessly: "Didn't you hear the last name?" The Taiping County Magistrate was stunned at first, then smiled silently.

"Yes, my last name is Cui."

"That makes sense."

The Taiping County Magistrate pulled on Magistrate Xue's sleeve and said with a smile, "Let's go and see what the new envoy can do."

The dozen or so county magistrates present had different expressions at this moment.

When some young county magistrates heard the surname "Cui", they suddenly became excited and started discussing it with great enthusiasm.

There are also some who are the "confidants" of Governor Tian, ​​who are all somewhat uneasy at the moment.

The group of people walked all the way back to Xuanzhou City, and finally met the new governor in the prefectural office.

Cui Shao, who was wearing casual clothes in the carriage just now, had now changed into the official uniform of the governor. He nodded politely to the county magistrates and had seats arranged for Xue Song and other county magistrates to sit in a row in front of him.

After everyone was seated, the new governor slowly said, "I am new here, and I am not familiar with many people and things in Xuanzhou. In the process of getting familiar with them, if there are any mistakes or omissions, please speak frankly without being shy."

He paused for a moment before continuing, "But there is one thing that Cui wants to make clear to all my colleagues right now."

After clearing his throat, Governor Cui said, "You may have heard about this matter. The Qiu bandit in Yuezhou is causing chaos."

"Yuezhou is an important city in the southeast. After His Majesty learned about this, he was extremely concerned about the changes in Yuezhou. When I left the capital, His Majesty specifically asked me to pay more attention to Yuezhou in Xuanzhou."

"Since Xuanzhou is not far from Yuezhou, it is our duty to take charge of this matter. While I was on the road, I had already contacted Lord Zheng, the governor of the Jiangnan East Road."

"Mr. Zheng said that the most important thing to suppress bandits and put down rebellions is money and food. As long as the money and food are in place, the Qiu bandits in eastern Zhejiang will be wiped out sooner or later and sent to Beijing for questioning."

At this point, Governor Cui coughed and said, "I have already made an agreement with Lord Zheng that Xuanzhou will do its best to support Yuezhou in suppressing the bandits."

"The thief Qiu has become very powerful now. He has robbed all the local granaries, and the money and grain pressure there is very high."

Governor Cui said in a deep voice: "Therefore, we in Xuanzhou must provide money and food to the Yuezhou army. We cannot let the soldiers on the front line be deprived of food."

"I have already discussed this matter with Lord Zheng."

He looked at the passers-by, stroked his beard and said: "We in Xuanzhou provide two thousand dan of grain and corresponding money and materials to the front line of Yuezhou every month to ensure that the battle on the front line can continue."

"This matter should be resolved sooner rather than later. The sooner it is resolved, the less pressure there will be on Yuezhou."

Governor Cui glanced at the people present and said expressionlessly, "All the counties should come up and each acknowledge their portion of the money."

“Very strong.”

Upon hearing this, the Taiping County Magistrate next to Xue magistrate muttered, "He is really ambitious. He just arrived in Xuanzhou and has not even sat down yet, but he is already thinking of using Xuanzhou's money and grain to do favors for himself."

As soon as Governor Cui took office, he used the resources of Xuanzhou to please two groups of people.

The first one is naturally His Majesty the Emperor. The second one is the governor of Yuezhou who is fighting against the rebels...

Mr. Xue looked up at the young Governor Cui, then quickly lowered his head and spoke slowly to his old friend.

"It looks like he is a man of action."

The Taiping County Magistrate bowed his head slightly.

"That depends on how you do it. Some things can actually harm the people."

"Say less."

Xue Song lowered his voice.

The Taiping County Magistrate chuckled and said, "Brother Yue Ji, just watch over it."

"There is such a superior."

"I'm afraid that the next few years for you and me will not be easy."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Cui Shao calling their names.

"Xue Song, Du Ying."

When the two came on stage, Governor Cui looked at them calmly and asked, "How much money and grain can you Qingyang County and Taiping County provide?"

(End of this chapter)