Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 93 Weizhou
The Emperor of Chang'an and the Wei Palace Army.

This is a theory that emerged after the Anshi Rebellion due to the separatist rule of the Hebei vassal states.

Some people say that the eunuchs in the palace can kill the emperor for fun, and the guards in Wei Bo can also kill the military governor for fun.

This is of course an exaggeration, but the number of military governors killed by Wei Bo's soldiers is definitely more than the number of emperors killed by their fathers.

As a result, Weizhou Town developed a strong social mobility. For example, Tian Jun's great-great-grandfather, Tian Chengsi, was the first governor of Weizhou. By the time of her grandfather, he was only a junior military officer earning five kan a month.

However, Wei Bo had another advantage: the salaries paid to the soldiers were very high, with one guan equaling one thousand coins. Even when the imperial court paid salaries, one guan was customarily only worth a little over seven hundred coins.

Zhu Wen was now wearing a luxurious brocade robe, a dark green undershirt underneath, and a gold and jade-studded belt around his waist. He looked very different from his usual coarse clothes and linen scarf. Looking in the mirror, he was truly a handsome young man with a graceful demeanor and elegant personality.

Not only did Lan Suting praise this outfit, but even Tian Jun couldn't help but take a few more glances.

Zhu Wen, who now walks on the streets of Weizhou, has changed his name to Zhu Huang, a pseudonym given to him by Lan Suting. His real identity is the great-grandson of the late Lulong Jiedushi Zhu Tao.

"You're too lazy to change your surname this time. Finally, you don't want Qin Yan to take the blame for you." Tian Jun said sarcastically.

"Because the descendants of Qin Qiong are worthless. It's been two hundred years, who would care about you?" Zhu Wen said lazily, as if otherwise he was planning to use the name Qin Yan again.

In contrast, although Zhu Kerong's branch of the Zhu Tao family in Lulong was completely wiped out by the rebels due to a mutiny, other branches still had people who held prominent positions. Of course, it was Lan Suting who told Zhu Wen about the twists and turns among these descendants of generals, and only then did he know about them.

"Qin Yan is so lucky to have you as a friend."

"It's okay, it's nothing serious. There was this idiot who was spied on while taking a shower, and he foolishly treated the person as his little brother..."

"What can I do?" Tian Jun said angrily. "We've been together for years, and I can't just break off my friendship with him! By the way, how did you know?"

"Don't doubt Zhizhen. She's not that kind of person." Zhu Wen said calmly, "You often vomited all over the floor when you were drunk, so I paid Zhizhen's maid to take care of you. You were quite grateful at the time. Coincidentally, she discovered that you talk in your sleep when you're drunk..."

"Then I asked Zhizhen about it, and it happened to be confirmed."

"You are a rotten person." Tian Jun gritted his teeth.

"If I were a jerk, I wouldn't tell you. Who would deliberately send someone to spy on you? As for that chatterbox maid, she came to me and asked for a reward. Can you blame me?" Zhu Wen said, "I just want you to drink less and be more careful."

Tian Jun was speechless for a moment.

Although Zhu Wen was a man with a bad temper, he seemed to be really nice to her, except that his words were often a bit harsh.

This time I came to Weizhou, it was also for her matter.

The governance level of Wei Bo was the worst among the three towns of Heshuo, which were famous for their abuse of the people. The people "had their headscarves exposed, their shirts torn and their bellies exposed. They had no trousers and no shoes." The peasant women often worked naked in the fields, and they were not decent at all.

In winter, the poor, without bedding, could only gather in the homes of farmers with slightly better financial resources, huddled together like quails, and roasted thin firewood to avoid freezing to death.

Seeing this scene, Zhu Wen wanted even more to kill all the Wei Bo soldiers.

The city was much more prosperous than Zhu Wen had imagined. The streets were wide and clean. Because the generals did not like to impose a curfew, even the city walls were demolished. Vendors could sell their goods directly along the streets, making it quite lively.

After all, Wei Bo is a town with a large population. Even though the Yabing Group is poorly governed and many people have fled, its foundation is still there.

Miraculously, the droughts and locust plagues that had plagued areas south of the Yellow River in recent years had avoided reaching Hebei. Therefore, despite the people's poverty, they had experienced few instances of cannibalism—a crucial factor in Heshuo's ability to avoid being swept by popular unrest. Tian Jun suddenly fell silent.

"The back city is a slum. Every year, two to three thousand people die of starvation and cold. Their bodies are thrown into the mass graves west of the city, where wolves and foxes devour them. In the end, not even bones are left."

"Two miles north of the mass grave are the villas of the governor and his generals. I heard from my grandfather that fifty years ago, there were vast tracts of fertile farmland there. Then, due to disrepair, the Zhang River embankment collapsed, flooding the area into a network of ponds and swamps. The nobles thought the dense reed marshes and crisscrossing riverbanks evoked the charm of Hangzhou's Xixi River, so they built gardens there, and colorful boats were lined up. In spring and summer, charming children and dancing girls would row their boats in the water..."

Zhu Wen rarely saw Tian Jun so serious.

She is a descendant of Tian Chengsi, and to this day, her family is still a member of the Wei Bo Ya Bing rent-seeking group.

If she hadn't met Tian Xiang and Kou Qianzhi, she would never have thought there was anything wrong with this way of living.

Just like Zhao Yaoniang and other girls, before they were captured from the manor by Zhu Wen and sent to be camp prostitutes, they did not think that there was anything wrong with their parents watching the people eat each other while continuing to hoard food and refusing to donate a single grain to help with the disaster relief.

"Every time I see these so-called nobles, I mistakenly think that I am a good person." Zhu Wen sighed.

"At the time, I thought the kids in the slums were ungrateful, so I killed most of them," Tian Jun said softly. "Then I thought about it carefully. If Sister Tian Xiang hadn't used the money she earned from her own body to save them, most of them would not have survived to grow up."

"You took those grateful children to the Taining Army and taught them martial arts. You did a good thing after all." Zhu Wen consoled him, "Don't blame yourself. You were only fifteen at the time, and you were just a child too."

In this turbid world, Taining Town could at least be considered a piece of pure land. Qi Kerang and Kou Qianzhi's style of protecting the territory and the people had indeed saved many lives.

As he spoke, Zhu Wen suddenly took Tian Jun's hand.

Tian Jun was a man of generous character. When they first met, she agreed to pretend to be Zhu Wen's fiancée for money. Now that they had known each other for so long, holding hands was no big deal.

But when she thought that this was the first time she had returned home in four or five years, and that she was bringing a man back with her, Tian Jun's pretty face suddenly felt hot.

"Actually, I know I can't completely imitate the ways of those nobles," Zhu Wen whispered. "I can't walk around with such arrogance and completely treat the common people as worthless."

He suddenly changed the subject: "But there is one thing, even if he is really a descendant of the Youzhou Zhu family, he will definitely not be as good-looking as me."

Such narcissistic words made Tian Jun want to punch Zhu Wen on the nose immediately, making his handsome face concave.

But she had to admit that Zhu Wen was telling the truth.

No matter how prominent the Zhu family of Youzhou was, they were just soldiers from a border town.

Zhu Wen's appearance and temperament make people suspect that he is a descendant of the Wujun Zhu family.

However, this famous Jiangdong aristocratic family, which had been glorious for hundreds of years, had completely declined by the time the Tang Dynasty was established and was removed from the aristocratic genealogy list - just like the Wang family of Langya and the Xie family of Chenjun, they were also victims of the Hou Jing Rebellion.

It's said that dynasties last for centuries, and aristocratic families for millennia. However, as history unfolds, the rise and fall of aristocratic families is not uncommon. It's only the way aristocratic families control worldly power that remains unchanged.

"Go to my house now?" Tian Jun asked in a low voice.

"No, let's buy a house first. A big one, so that we can give the impression that we will live in Weizhou for a long time." Zhu Wen replied.

(End of this chapter)