Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 505 Certificate of Surrender

When General Hou returned to his loyal Chengdu, looking at the gentry on both sides of the road, Hou Jing was not even willing to make a gesture. He just greeted the officials who stayed behind and rode into the city of Chengdu.

But these nobles were just cowards. Even though Hou Jing clearly looked down on them, they respected him more than when Hou Jing first entered Yizhou. Some of them even wrote poems to praise Hou Jing, believing that an outstanding military general should have a proud character.

There were also young scholars on both sides of the road who rushed to Hou Jing's troops in admiration, scaring Hou Jing's guards into drawing their weapons.

Hou Jing was riding on his horse, looking at these young scholars. No matter how bold the gentry in Chengdu were, they could not assassinate him like this. He ordered his attendants to leave and rode forward.

The young scholar in the lead raised the paper tube in his hand high and said:
"Governor! These are the poems we wrote for the Grand Governor. They are all praising the Governor's achievements!"

It turned out that they were not coming to assassinate but to present poems. Hou Jing was also in a good mood. He asked his secretary Chen Baxian to step forward, take the poems handed over by these scholars, and asked Chen Baxian to recite them in public.

Although Hou Jing's cultural attainments were not high, the words used by these scholars were straightforward and simple, and they wanted to praise Hou Jing to the sky, which made Hou Jing happy.

He waved his hand and said:

"Write down their names, and when it's time to recommend them to study at Chongwen Pavilion, report their names."

This group of young scholars cried with joy; their adventure was a success!
Ever since the officials from Guanzhong entered Shu, all the scholars in Shu knew about the existence of Chongwen Pavilion. They also knew that in order to become an official in Guanzhong, one must graduate from Chongwen Pavilion.

In the entire Shu area, Hou Jing was the only one who could recommend people to study in Chongwen Pavilion.

Hou Jing paid a huge sum of money to buy the bones this time. He would never get such benefits again if he presented such poems in the future. Those scholars who did not take action slapped their thighs so hard that they were blue in anger.

After returning to the Yizhou Military Governor's Office, Chen Baxian handed over the accumulated military affairs of those days to Hou Jing for review.

As the governor of Yizhou, although Hou Jing was able to read the official documents submitted by local officials, he found it very difficult to read them over a long period of time.

However, as the governor of Yizhou, he was in charge of the military and political affairs of the entire Yizhou, and he had to read these official documents, so he was very troubled.

Hou Jing finally came up with a solution. He asked his staff to use notes to extract the key points from the documents submitted by local officials, and then asked Chen Baxian and other military officers to read them to him.

Hou Jing soon realized that this was too inefficient, so he asked his staff to write down their own suggestions for handling the matter after reading it and attach them to the document for submission.

However, Hou Jing did not completely trust these scholars. He required that every document be cross-reviewed by two people and then submitted to him.

Through this method, Hou Jing, who was fighting in Baidi City, managed to handle the government affairs in the rear in an orderly manner, which made Hou Jing very proud.

What Chen Baxian brought today was the various official duties squeezed into the city of Chengdu.

"Governor, this is a death penalty case that needs to be reported to the Ministry of Justice for inspection. The prosecutor of the Governor's Office has reviewed it and there is no problem with the file."

Hou Jing took over the file. His staff had already summarized the cases, written in vernacular on white paper and pasted them in front of the file. The three cases were all very simple and fell within the range of unforgivable crimes. As long as they were submitted to the Ministry of Justice for inspection and review, the execution could be carried out in the autumn.

"Governor, this is a case where five families in Chengdu are suing Princess Nanyang for hiding their slaves."

When Hou Jing heard the name of Princess Nanyang, he immediately became excited. When he came to Shuzhong, his mistress, Princess Chenliu, specifically asked him to take good care of her imperial sister.

But more importantly, Duke Su also sent someone to greet Hou Jing, asking him to protect the Princess Nanyang.

Hou Jing is also a shrewd man. Is there something between the Duke and Princess Nanyang?
The more Hou Jing thought about it, the more it seemed possible that his lord, like himself, liked these noble ladies.

Hou Jing also heard that the princess was a cold beauty, and might actually have an affair with his master!
The more Hou Jing thought about it, the more possible it seemed!

Princess Nanyang was married, and Su Ze was quite nice to his old boss Xiao Baoyin. He gave him a mansion and land and did not treat him unfairly at all.

However, Princess Nanyang refused to live with Xiao Baoyin and insisted on living alone in Shu.

Perhaps it was because she had a secret affair with the Duke that she wanted to stay away from Xiao Baoyin?
Hou Jing had already imagined the entire plot in his mind. How dare these ignorant fellows compete with their lord's woman for slaves?
Hou Jing immediately opened the file. This time he did not read the contents of the staff summary, but read the entire file from beginning to end.

After reading it, Hou Jing slammed the table and said:
"How dare these families falsely accuse Her Royal Highness the Princess!"

The facts of this case were also simple and clear. When Hou Jing attacked Chengdu, many gentry fled from the city.

Of course, they couldn't take all of their slaves away, so many of them remained in Chengdu.

Later, after Princess Nanyang came to Shu, she took in many local women and children in Chengdu, taught them weaving techniques, and opened a Shu brocade workshop to train them to weave Shu brocade.

But when these wealthy families came back and saw the weavers trained by Princess Nanyang, they started to have evil thoughts again. They took the slaves' indentures and went to the government to sue Princess Nanyang, demanding that she return the slaves to them.

Hou Jing clapped his hands and said:

"These ignorant people! Don't they remember that the first decree issued by this governor after entering Shu was to abolish illegal slavery?"

Chen Baxian was very quick to learn government affairs. He quickly reminded him, "Governor, you prohibit illegal slavery, but legal slaves must be redeemed."

The abolition of slavery decree issued by Hou Jing at that time was a liberation from illegal slavery. In order to ensure the stability of Yizhou at that time, Hou Jing still made a loophole. For slaves with complete sales contracts, the government would pay to redeem them.

Of course, the government at that time had no money to redeem these slaves, and this policy only left a loophole for the complete abolition of slavery in the future.

Hou Jing was no longer the reckless man he used to be. He calmed down.

As the governor of Yizhou, he was no longer a bandit, but a senior official under the command of Duke Su.

It is easiest to use a knife, but if using a knife delays the Duke's great cause, Hou Jing will not hesitate to die.

Hou Jing suppressed his urge to kill and said to Chen Baxian:
"Tell me, is there any way to teach these guys a lesson?"

Chen Baxian said:
"Governor, in fact, as long as you give the order, these nobles will definitely give you face and send the indentures to the Governor's Office."

Hou Jing understood what Chen Baxian meant. In fact, this was a test by the Chengdu gentry. They wanted to establish a relationship with Hou Jing through this lawsuit.

Hou Jing frowned and said, "Do these guys have to do things this way? As long as they obey the county lord's decree, this governor will naturally not make things difficult for them."

Chen Baxian was not as good as Hou Jing in fighting, but after all, he had been in the big melting pot of the Southern Liang officialdom, and had more experience in this regard than Hou Jing.

He said: "In fact, what these nobles are asking for is just a favor from the governor."

Hou Jing understood what Chen Baxian meant. Having been in officialdom for some time, he also knew that it was difficult to repay a favor.

Hou Jing's disgust for these nobles reached an extreme. Chen Baxian saw Hou Jing's disgust and said:
"Commander-in-chief, in fact, these people can all be used."

As a surrendered person, Chen Baxian also conducted an in-depth analysis of the situation in Yizhou.

Although Yizhou has been pacified now, internal strife continues in various places.

In addition to the remnants of the Southern Liang Dynasty, the conflicts between the Liao and Han people throughout Yizhou, the Nanman tribes in southern Yizhou, and even the increasingly powerful Tibetans on the plateau were all considerable threats.

In fact, the Southern Liang’s previous rule over Yizhou was nothing more than controlling a few important cities and adopting a control policy towards other regions.

This is a world of difference compared to Yizhou controlled by Shu Han back then.

This is also what Hou Jing was worried about. Due to the situation in Yizhou, Yizhou could not obtain enough tax revenue to support Hou Jing's continued attack on Jingzhou.

So Hou Jing returned to Chengdu to deal with internal affairs.

Chen Baxian said:
"In fact, when I was in Guangzhou, the local tyrants did the same thing. The Guangzhou governor's method was to use money to buy slaves from the Li people and tempt the local tyrants to fight against the Li people."

Hou Jing's eyes lit up.

Although Hou Jing always called for abolition of slavery and acted like a pioneer in abolition, what he believed in was the abolition of Han slaves.

As for the Liao people, the Nanman people, the Tibetans and the like, in Hou Jing's view they were just two-legged sheep and could not be considered human beings at all.

The Liao people in the Ba County area were fine. In fact, many of their customs were similar to those of the Han people. Hou Jing at least treated them as human beings.

However, Hou Jing did not treat the Liao people living in the southwestern mountainous areas as human beings.

Hou Jing decided to follow Chen Baxian's advice. He first invited the nobles who had sued Princess Nanyang to the Governor's Office.

Just as Chen Baxian said, after these people were summoned by Hou Jing, they took the initiative to hand over the contract to Hou Jing, and also took the initiative to offer gifts to Princess Nanyang to apologize to her.

Hou Jing was both angry and amused. He could only say that it was just as Chen Baxian had said, these Yizhou nobles were all lowly and could not even speak properly.

However, seeing that these people were so sensible, Hou Jing changed his mind. His main target was still Jingzhou, and he really didn't have the energy to get entangled with those savages in the mountains.

According to the plan drawn up by Chen Baxian, Hou Jing announced the new policy of the Governor's Office to the representatives of the Yizhou gentry present.

The Governor's Office would redeem these foreign slaves and sell them through a unified caravan.

Hou Jing abolished slavery in Yizhou, but there was a strong demand for slaves in Jingzhou. Hou Jing planned to transport these slaves to Jingzhou for sale and make another fortune from Xiao Yi.

These representatives of the aristocratic families were also very happy. The fact that Governor Hou could use them meant that they had finally entered Hou Jing's circle, and now it was time to show their loyalty.

(End of this chapter)