Han official!

Chapter 52: Walking
At dawn (5:15-6:00), Guo Jie and his entourage took advantage of the slight dawn, took a carriage, rode a red Hexi horse, and rushed to Kunchi where Qiu Jing was.

Ever since the chief of the Chang'an City Gate secretly stored armor, the chief officials of the Chang'an government, Zhao Yu and Zhang Tang, issued a series of decrees to prevent Weiqi Hou Dou Ying from using the many capitals in Chang'an to plot evil and recreate the Tian family's replacement of Qi and try to replace the Han Dynasty.

One is the armored guards in the numerous pavilions in Chang'an, the number of whom cannot exceed twenty.

Secondly, the guards were to be confined to their respective pavilions to avoid contact with each other. Unless on leave, they were not allowed to leave the streets of the pavilion without permission.

Yi Zong is dressed in black and wears an iron crown on his head, also known as the legal crown, with iron supporting the crown pillar, which means that the law enforcer wearing the crown is strict and harsh in punishment.

He knelt inside the chariot, with Guo Jie and Zhang Qian sitting on either side.

Mang Tong sat on the mud screen, holding the reins and driving the car.

An appearance that is mainly based on righteousness.

"Remember this, Ersanzi."

Guo Jie said sternly, "You and I are apprentices of the Chang'an official temple, and we are following Yi Zong to the Lingzhao area."

The Gaojie Duting governed more than ten li in Gaojie. Qiu Jing's hometown was under the jurisdiction of the Xiangting outside the city, so he could only go to Kunchili with the help of Yi Zong's identity as a minor official.

The movements of the junior officials in Chang'an prison.

Zhang Tang, the prefect of Chang'an, often dispatched prison guards to the capital and township pavilions to inspect criminal cases and investigate illegalities, so as to prevent the pavilion chiefs from abusing their power for personal gain, perverting the law, oppressing the common people, and creating unjust imprisonment.

Yi Zong went to Kunchili and lied that he was checking whether the villagers had any grievances.

Kunchili is located in Lingzhao, which later became Kunming Lake, the place with the most abundant river water in the southwest of Chang'an.

Lingzhao is where the Zhou Dynasty built Biyong, a school palace built by King Wen of Zhou in the suburbs of Fengyi. It is now abandoned, with only the ruins of Xiyong Beacon Tower, Kunchi, Jiantai Gao, Yongzechi and so on.

The village where Qiu Jing lived was close to Kunchi, so he named it Kunchili to flatter himself and asked Doctor Di Shan to erect a Kunchi sign in front of the gate.

"We need to be cautious this time."

Guo Jie warned, "Don't alert Qiu Jing and force him to take risks that could cost Yi Shuo his life. My friends, remember not to alert the enemy."

We set off at daybreak. The Chichi Road along the way was relatively flat and sparsely populated. We only met a few common people in plain hats, holding plows and heading to the fields to loosen the soil. Common people in plain hats who got up early rarely went out during the day.

In front of the flat farmland, there is a slope that is more than ten feet higher than the flat ground and about two stories high. It is the destination of this trip.

皋。

Gao is a high ground beside Lingzhao. It used to be the arrow platform Gao of the Zhou Dynasty. It was used for archery ceremonies such as grand shooting, guest shooting, banquet shooting, banquet shooting, and water shooting. It was also used to check chariots by standing on the high slope.

Kunchili was built on a deserted hill. The edge of the slope was built with an inner wall using the rammed earth method. A sloping rammed earth road led to the inner gate of Kunchili, and at the entrance was the Kunchi watch.

Behind the inner wall was a sentry post. Several villagers wearing linen jackets and trousers, holding two-foot swords, knelt beside the horseshoe-shaped stove in the sentry post and warmed themselves by the fire. When they heard the sound of wheels outside, they were startled and climbed up the inner wall vigilantly to guard against the bandits in the village.

"Stop! Who are you?"

The village official was a middle-aged man in his forties with a thick beard and a burly build. He wore a black cloth jacket and trousers and held a ring-handled sword in his hand.

He said in a deep voice, "If you are short of food, I have two stone of millet in Kunchi for you. There are fifteen soldiers here who used to guard the border, and dozens of strong men. Take the food and leave quickly."

Deliver the food, then show the knife.

The village official's methods were quite clever. He didn't seem like an ordinary village official, but more like the chief of a beacon tower at the frontier.

Guo Jie and the others felt nervous and became even more alert, thinking that it would be very difficult to find someone this time.

"I am an official under the command of Zhang Tang, the governor of Chang'an." Yi Zong stepped down from the carriage and explained his identity. "I have been ordered to investigate each village to see if there are any unjust imprisonments. I am not a bandit in the village. Please open the gates and let me in to ask the villagers if they have any grievances."

Zhang Tang's subordinate?
The village official did not relax his vigilance and still held the ring-handled sword tightly. When Yi Zong came closer and saw that he was wearing an iron crown on his head, his expression relaxed.

"Hurry and open the inner gate to welcome the passing official."

The village official hurriedly came forward with several villagers to greet him and apologized, "Outside the city is different from inside. We need to be on guard against bandits. I beg your forgiveness for not opening the gate in time."

The village official kept smiling and doing things in a smooth manner, not as upright as one might imagine a frontier official to be.

It's not that he doesn't want to be upright. If he meets another official under the Chang'an Wei Zhu Anshi, he will put on an upright face when facing the official.

The young official in front of him happened to be Zhang Tang's subordinate.

Everyone inside and outside Chang'an was afraid of the reputation of the cruel official Zhang Tang.

"Ok?"

Yi Zong, feigning rage, led Guo Jie and several others into the inner gate and said, "You're on guard against bandits? You claim I'm a bandit that's causing trouble for the village! How dare you! Take him away and charge him with false accusations."

Zhang Qian and Wei Guang immediately stepped forward, ready to arrest the local official and pretend to take him to Chang'an Prison for questioning.

Guo Jie, standing nearby, nearly laughed out loud. Yi Zong was equivalent to a section officer from the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs going on a rural inspection. No matter how low the rank of the members of the inspection team was, they were all leaders in the eyes of township officials.

Don't dare to offend.

Yi Zong shouted angrily, scaring the clerk so much that a layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

The local officials would never dare to go to the Chang'an prison under Zhang Tang's jurisdiction. In the past, they could get out by simply giving some money to the jailers.

Since Zhang Tang took over the Chang'an Prison, not to mention bribes, even the nephews of the dukes and marquises who violated the Han law and were arrested in the Chang'an Prison had to serve their sentences honestly as city laborers, pounding rice, burning ghost firewood, and making white rice, and they could only leave the Chang'an Prison after serving their sentences.

Not even a moment less.

The clerk subconsciously took out three zhu coins and prepared to bribe the jailer, but suddenly remembered that since Zhang Tang took office as the Chang'an Wei, the bribery culture in the government has been largely eliminated.

I dare not say that all the minor officials did not accept money, but at least none of the minor officials under Zhang Tang accepted money.

"hehe."

The village official laughed dryly and said, "It's all a misunderstanding. The higher-ups should rectify the grievances in the village as soon as possible and stop wasting time on petty officials."

"Go and invite the clan leader."

The village official had originally planned to deal with Yi Zong on his own, but now that he had angered the jailer, he had no choice but to quickly call the clan leader Qiu Jing over. "Sir, please come this way. I will immediately arrange for someone to prepare a meal for the morning. The clan leader learned of your arrival and prepared a bowl of fine wine for you."

Common people had two meals a day: breakfast and dinner.

The nobles and powerful had four meals a day. The morning meal was called the Pingdan meal, and there was also the lunch meal, the afternoon meal, and the evening meal.

Qiu Jing was sleeping on his couch and didn't know that Yi Zong, the jailer of Chang'an Prison, had come to him. It was just that the jailer was afraid and asked Qiu Jing to come and mediate so that he wouldn't be arrested and sent to Chang'an Prison.

Guo Jie felt relieved, having completed what the others thought was the most important thing.

Detain the clan leader Qiu Jing in Kunchi.

Because Qiu Jing was the only one in the whole village who knew Guo Jie, as long as Qiu Jing recognized him, the conspiracy of several people would be exposed on the spot.

(End of this chapter)