The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 53 Lend You Two People

Wu Jialiang secretly looked at Yue Wenxuan and saw that this young man had fair skin and fair flesh, and it was obvious that he lived a life of luxury. The key point was that he had an unusual temperament that was out of tune with everyone Wu Jialiang had met.

Of course, he didn't know that this was a unique temperament that only modern people have. To be honest, if any modern young person were thrown into ancient times, he would give people a feeling of standing out from the crowd.

Wu Jialiang thought to himself: This man's family is either extremely wealthy or a family of scholars. He is an extraordinary person and cannot be neglected.

The two of them started chatting casually, and I will omit the 100 million words of boring greeting talk here.

Wu Jialiang: "I wonder where the Yue Mansion is?"

Yue Wenxuan casually pointed towards the southeast and said with a smile, "My family lives in seclusion in Laoshan. Our ancestors also produced several kings, princes, generals and ministers, but it's been so long that no one remembers them anymore."

What he said was not a lie. Almost every modern Chinese has ancestors who were kings, princes, generals or ministers.

Wu Jialiang had just arrived and was unfamiliar with the county. He actually thought there was a wealthy family named Yue living in seclusion on Mount Laoshan. He clasped his fists in greeting and said, "I'll definitely come and have a drink someday."

At this time, the waiter brought a teapot over. Wu Jialiang grabbed the teapot and poured three cups of tea himself, passing them to Yue Wenxuan and the other two. "Mr. Yue, Brother Ye, and this brother... There is no wine today, so I will use tea instead. Let me offer a cup to you three brothers first."

The tea was a bit shabby, not very presentable. Wu Jialiang carefully observed Yue Wenxuan's expression, but saw no sign of displeasure. He drank the tea calmly, without a trace of disdain. He thought to himself: This young man must normally eat delicacies from land and sea, but today he doesn't despise this inferior cup of tea I offered him. He has a great character. I don't know anything else, but his character is already top-notch.

Wu Jialiang: "I'm not afraid of being laughed at by Mr. Yue, so I'm telling you this with such a thick face. I've only been assigned to Jimo County as an official for a few days. This county lieutenant's job is to maintain local public order, but after the Jin bandits ravaged this place... well... it's a mess, a complete mess... I don't know how to start."

"Rural law and order has always been maintained by the village head, and most of them are gentry. In recent months, gentry have been killed by either Jin thieves or bandits. I'm now asking each village to re-elect a village head, but the ones who are elected are all illiterate and can't read a single word. How can they get anything done?"

"If there were grain in the county granary, I'd be confident I could maintain public order by giving out more grain and raising more archers. But Jimo County has changed hands several times, occupied by both the bandit army and the Jin army. There's not a single grain left in the granary. The few archers we have now are only being fed with the little grain we managed to squeeze out."

Wu Jialiang drank tea and complained bitterly.

Yue Wenxuan was thinking: Why is he telling me all this? Just picking up anyone on the street to vent his grievances? A retard might be able to do that, but a smart person definitely wouldn't. So he must have a purpose for telling me all this...

After a little thought, Yue Wenxuan understood.

Seeing his attire and demeanor, Wu Jialiang concluded that he possessed strength. Furthermore, he had only two followers with him, and he didn't look tired or exhausted, unlike someone who had come from far away. In other words, he was a powerful local gentry, one who hadn't been harmed by the bandits or the Jin army.

Wu Jialiang obviously understood the principle of "gentry co-governing the local area", so he came to get close to me, find out my background, and then invited me to "jointly govern" the chaos in Jimo County.

Yue Wenxuan had this intention, but he would not cooperate with corrupt officials, only with honest officials.

Yue Wenxuan still doesn't know whether Wu Jialiang is greedy or honest. The resourceful Wu Yong in "Water Margin" cannot be used as a reference, so it is impossible for him to easily agree to cooperate with him at this time.

But we can provide him with a little help! After all, everyone's general direction is the same, which is to restore order. Yue Wenxuan smiled: "Jimo County is in such a mess now, and the people are having a hard time. This is not what I want to see. Since Mr. Jialiang is committed to maintaining public order, it coincides with my idea."

Wu Jialiang was indeed delighted by this news: he was willing to take action.

He immediately seized the opportunity and raised his teacup: "Great minds think alike! I think the most urgent task is to clear out the bandits and roadblocks in the county and ensure that the farmers can carry out spring plowing and sowing normally. What do you think, Mr. Yue?"

Yue Wenxuan: "That makes sense. I think so too."

Wu Jialiang was delighted. "It's great that Mr. Yue thinks so too. To be honest, I've just taken office and only brought four of my old subordinates with me. Although I've started recruiting young men from good families in the county to serve as archers and have formed a team, the initial team is too weak. It's already February, and there's no time to train before spring plowing and sowing... I'm really short of available personnel..."

Yue Wenxuan understood: he lacked fighting power and wanted a fighter who did not need training and could exert strong fighting power as soon as he joined the team.

No wonder when he saw Master Ye "beat ten people", he shouted "good man" and then quickly ran out to get close to him.

"I understand! Since this is for the people's spring plowing and sowing, I will definitely contribute." Yue Wenxuan turned to Master Ye and Bruce Lee and said, "You two, just follow Mr. Jialiang for the time being and obey his orders."

The two men clasped their fists and responded.

Then he slowly walked to a position half a step behind Wu Jialiang, one on the left and one on the right, and began to follow.

Wu Jialiang was immediately overjoyed. "Mr. Yue is so easy to talk to. He actually gave me two of his men just like that?" This man, Ip Man, is incredibly skilled and will be very useful. I haven't seen the other one fight yet, but to be able to stand on equal footing with Ip Man, he must be a master, too.

Yue Wenxuan: "My two subordinates are quite stubborn and follow orders to death. When Mr. Jialiang tells them to do something, the orders must be clear and detailed, otherwise they may not understand."

Wu Jialiang didn't take this sentence to heart, but just clasped his fists to express his gratitude.

Yue Wenxuan: "I have something else to do today, so I'll take my leave now. I'll come back in a few days and wait for Mr. Jialiang to successfully suppress the bandits."

After walking out of the restaurant, Yue Wenxuan mounted his horse and rode out of the county town at a very fast speed.

Now that he had no bodyguards, for the safety of the 500-yuan life-like figurine, he didn't waste time and went straight back to the village. After a crazy jog, he returned to Dongmiaozi Village at the fastest speed. As soon as he entered the field of view of the sandbox, he switched out, reached out and took out his figurine, including the man and the horse, and then he thought about it and switched his consciousness to Master Ye.

As soon as I cut over, I saw Wu Jialiang standing on the training ground, with Master Ye, Bruce Lee, and the four followers he brought with him when he took office. These four followers should be his followers who followed him as bandits back then. They had a murderous aura on them, which was not comparable to ordinary militiamen.

There were thirty-six archers standing in the middle of the training ground. They were all newly recruited young men from good families. They had not been trained for a few days, and their weapons were at the level of local militia. Their fighting power was very weak.

(End of this chapter)