Han officials

Chapter 200 Rising Star
Bohai County, Xiu County.

As a spring rain fell, a fort in the western suburbs of Xiu County quickly fell.

Fortunately, the spring rain came in time and prevented the fire from spreading.

Otherwise, even if we captured this fort, all we would get would be a pile of ruins.

However, looking at Bu's Valley in front of him, Xiu County Magistrate Gongsun Fang's face looked a little ugly.

"Ji Gui...does it have to be this way?"

"It must be so!" Cui Yan answered firmly.

As the military governor appointed by Wei Zhe, Cui Yan was mainly responsible for the reform of the military farming system in the four counties of Yingzhou.

Compared to Gongsun Fang, Cui Yan was already accustomed to the scene before him.

As he walked, looked, and thought along the way, Cui Yan had already known the reasons for this military farming reform.

To crack down on the powerful and develop production is the ultimate goal of General Zuo's reform.

Therefore, anyone who stands in the way of this road is a rat or a parasite, and killing them will only bring merit and no harm.

However, Cui Yan had this awareness, but Gongsun Fang, who was in charge of the order, might not have.

If Cui Yan had not come here to inspect and urge him sternly, Gongsun Fang would still be arguing with the major clans in Xiu County.

Seeing that Gongsun Fang hadn't figured it out, Cui Yan didn't want him to make a mistake on this matter, so he immediately whispered, "Bo Yu, I know you feel sorry for your own kind, but ask yourself, didn't the Bu family deserve to die?"

Cui Yan pointed to the pile of letters and documents he had just copied from the Bu family's fortress and said, "They colluded with the county temple to disregard human life, harbored fugitives, manipulated the prison system, and even drove bandits to kill entire families in order to annex land. As for the servants, tenants, and common people who died at the hands of the Bu family's descendants, there's no need to mention them."

"If they don't deserve to die, then who should die? The common people?"

After hearing these words, Gongsun Fang fell silent.

After a moment, he whispered, "I have no intention of exonerating the Bu family... but this method is too cruel and unbecoming of the nobles. Whether it's relocation or exile, it might be a solution."

However, Cui Yan sneered upon hearing this, "Respectable? The nobles have lost their respectability since Dong Zhuo entered the capital. It's only been two years since the late emperor passed away, and how many nobles have been ruined and their families destroyed? Why is this so? Don't you understand?"

Gongsun Fang was choked up when he heard this and was speechless.

He naturally knew that it was precisely because most of the world's wealth was in the hands of the gentry that they were targeted in times of troubled times.

Thinking of this, Gongsun Fang couldn't help but sigh sadly: "A gentleman is innocent, but he is guilty of possessing a treasure."

Cui Yan shook his head again after hearing this, but did not refute it again.

He knew that Gongsun Fang was kind and upright by nature, and that this was simply due to his background.

After all, although the Gongsun clan of Donglai was a small local aristocratic family, it was still a member of the aristocratic family after all.

Especially after Gongsun Zhao was promoted to the position of prefect of Dongming, the Gongsun family of Donglai became a famous family in the county.

If not for this, Gongsun Fang would not have been able to become Zheng Xuan's disciple.

However, his appointment as Xiu County Magistrate had little to do with Gongsun Zhao, but rather with the fact that Gongsun Fang was indeed quite talented.

It is said that since Zheng Xuan went to Liaodong to give lectures, many of his disciples became officials in Liaodong.

At that time, Wei Zhe was short of staff due to accepting too many refugees, so he hired them all.

Of course, there are good and bad scholars among this group, and not all of them are useful talents.

But they are similar to the scholars in Liaodong County School, and most of them have no problem becoming a grassroots official.

Among them, some outstanding ones are like a needle standing in a bag, the tip of which is immediately visible.

For example, Cui Yan and Gongsun Fang were promoted from military farm officials and agricultural promotion envoys.

Whether it is resettling refugees, organizing production, mediating disputes, or daily training, they all perform the best. It can be said that the military farming system is now Wei Zhe's largest talent pool.

So there is no problem with Gongsun Fang's loyalty to Wei Zhe, but he is still too young and needs experience.

For example, at this moment, Cui Yan taught him a lesson on the spot.

Outside the Bu clan's grove, after glancing at the representatives of the Xiuxian aristocratic families such as Feng, Gao, and Zhang not far away, Cui Yan said meaningfully: "If anyone among you knows other crimes of the Bu clan, please report them to the prime minister as soon as possible. The shogunate has ordered that those who expose the crimes will be rewarded, and those who know but do not report will be punished as well." Upon hearing this, the Gao and Feng clans of Bohai remained unmoved, but the eyes of the other small aristocratic families flickered.

After all, Cui Yan had already made it clear before Gongsun Fang took action that everything except the fields and shade houses would be sold.

After all, the Bu family has been rooted in Xiu County for more than a hundred years, and they have accumulated quite a lot of wealth.

For example, the Bu family dominates the medicinal materials business in Xiu County, and other families have long wanted to get a piece of the pie.

Now that the opportunity has come to them, these people will naturally not be polite.

So a moment later, Gongsun Fang had a lot more evidence of his crimes in front of him.

Even the cause of death of the previous Xiu County Magistrate was dug up, and it seemed to be the work of the Bu family.

Seeing this, Gongsun Fang was completely speechless.

He finally realized how naive his original thoughts were, and felt mixed emotions for a moment.

Cui Yan was not surprised at all, and was even accustomed to this situation.

What about the nobles? There are many greedy people there, some even greedier and more cruel.

In fact, apart from the Bohai Gao family and the Bohai Feng family, the others in Xiu County were not considered major aristocratic families.

The Bohai Gao family and the Bohai Feng family were not considered first-rate in the Jizhou aristocratic circle, and they were even further behind the top aristocratic families like the Runan Yuan family.

The reason why Cui Yan chose to target the Bu family after he inspected Xiu County was because they were the most rebellious.

But then again, this should have been Gongsun Fang's task, but now it has been done by Cui Yan.

If the two of them were not only classmates but also close friends, Cui Yan would not have bothered to help him clean up the mess.

Fortunately, Gongsun Fang was not a fool. After returning to the county temple, he quickly came to his senses and thanked Cui Yan repeatedly.

Cui Yan didn't say much, but just reminded him not to stand in the wrong position.

The shogunate and the garrison troops in Xiuxian County are his supporters, and everything else is just a passing cloud.

Kill some, win over some, and suppress some.

Only in this way can the four counties of Yingzhou be truly brought under the control of the shogunate.

Instead of waiting until one day when Yuan Shao's envoys instigated the uprising, Yingzhou was conquered by an order.

So, from Hejian State to Gaoyang County, from Bohai County to Zhangwu County, Cui Yan has been busy.

Even when facing his fellow clan member Cui in Boling County, he still did not show any favoritism.

However, the two families actually had little contact with each other. After all, they had been separated for almost five hundred years.

You should know that whether in the Western Han Dynasty or the present dynasty, the Cui family of Boling had many sons and daughters serving as officials of the rank of two thousand stones.

In contrast, the Qinghe Cui family became a poor family. Before Cui Yan, they had never even produced a county magistrate. From this perspective, Cui Yan's family background was not even as good as Liu Bei's.

At least Liu Bei did not have to serve in the army himself, but Cui Yan had to serve in the army himself.

Of course, Cui Yan himself also enjoyed fencing and martial arts in his youth. It wasn't until he was twenty-three, when his hometown, as per regulations, transferred him to a regular soldier, that Cui Yan began to study diligently. However, he struggled to find a reputable teacher. At the age of twenty-nine, he traveled thousands of miles to Qingzhou to become a disciple of Zheng Xuan, where he met Gongsun Fang.

But even so, Cui of Boling never said that he wanted to help Cui of Qinghe.

Now that the situation has reversed, Cui Yan naturally will not treat the Cui family of Boling as his own clan member.

……

On the other hand, while Wei Zhe was consolidating his foundation, Yuan Shao was not idle either.

Under Shen Pei's strong advice, he finally sent an envoy to Zhang Yan to recruit his troops.

Since Zhang Yan was appointed as the General of the Central Army to pacify rebellions during the Zhongping period and was in charge of affairs in the mountains and valleys of Hebei, the price Yuan Shao offered this time naturally could not be lower than this.

But when Li Fu, the envoy from Jizhou, presented the letter, Zhang Yan frowned when he saw the words "General Pingbei"...
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[I'm stuck. I've been sitting there all night with no ideas. It's painful!!!]

(End of this chapter)