The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

() That night, the delivery team arrived. Fortunately, Liu Zhiyuan, the prefect of Xiezhou, collected more than 100 carts, which relieved Su Jin of the urgent need. The [-] Xixia war horses could only temporarily condescend and become inferior horses pulling carts , who told them that they were surrendered animals.

In the early morning of the next day, Su Jinxian and Fan Zhongyan jointly wrote the memorandum of victory, and then counted and compiled the dead soldiers, and arranged for pensions. The ground was cremated, and fifty soldiers were sent to send the ashes and list back to the capital.

Since Fan Zhongyan is here, the food and materials will be delivered on the spot, but the military salary will not be paid for the time being. Su Jin will explain to Fan Zhongyan about the establishment of Yinzhuang in Weizhou. Fan Zhongyan is very surprised. He did not expect the emperor to agree to the general salary The money was exchanged from the private bank opened by the Su family, but this was very convenient and saved the worry of being robbed on the way, so there was nothing to say.

Everything was settled, Su Jin and Fan Zhongyan each led their troops to leave Jiezhou, went east to Qinfeng Road, went north to Yanzhou, and parted ways.

After four days of slow marching, the brigade finally arrived at Qinfeng Road. The seat of Qinfeng Road is Qinzhou. Sitting on Qinfeng Road and the original Yongxing Army Road is the guarantee that the situation in the northwest will not collapse.

Su Jin is also deeply honored. It is like a dream for Su Jin to meet the famous officials of this era; Han Qi is tall, long-faced, and handsome, but sometimes he looks angry, He speaks mercilessly, and has criticisms about various affairs of the imperial court. He looks like an "angry old man". The young man who was not as weak as the crown was quite critical of the magistrate of Weizhou's important place, even in front of Su Jin, he did not hide his contempt.

"What about Zhuangyuanlang? The imperial examination is one thing, being an official is another thing, and being an official in the northwest border is even more so. I hope Su Zhuangyuan will not cry and ask for resignation."

Su Jin already had selective immunity to this look of looking down on him. Before coming here, Yan Shu talked to him about Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan's temper, so he was somewhat prepared; The battle of Zuiya was quite praised, and he did not hide his praise at all, but he did not forget to hit the stick when he praised, and warned Su Jin not to be complacent about it. After all, he met Li Ningming, who is not very knowledgeable rookie.

On the opposite side of Weizhou, the troops of the two military divisions of Xixia were stationed. In the front, there was the Chaoshun military division in the right wing, and in the back there was the Baotai military division stationed in Huizhou.However, the Jingyuan Road where Weizhou is located has a total strength of less than 5 troops. Regardless of military equipment, the strength and weakness are clear at a glance just by looking at the number of people.

The commanders of the Chaoshun Army Division and the Baotai Army Division are both experienced veterans and cunning. Su Jin has just left his study and is about to face the joint coercion of the two major army divisions. The critical situation is evident.

Su Jin was poured with cold water from Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi, and finally became more cautious. Han and Fan are the souls of the Northwest Army. Both of them have a clear understanding of the situation in the Northwest. The sensational and exaggerated words, Su Jin naturally understands the seriousness of the problem.

However, Su Jin is not a person who admits defeat. After his stubborn temper came up, he was looking forward to the upcoming challenge. When handling the food affairs, he also felt the same way, as if he had no way to start, and at that time his life was in danger. I am just a bird envoy with no official position. If I hadn't borrowed the gold medal bestowed by the emperor and pretended to be a tiger, I would have been unable to do many things;

After staying in Qinzhou for half a day, Su Jin took the five hundred horse army guards, Su Ji's buddies, Xiao Sui'er and Xia Siling all the way north to Weizhou.

The farther north you go, the more desolate and desolate the scene is. The vast land on both sides of the official road is scorched and cracked by the sun. There are very few trees and grass. Even if there are any, they look yellow and half-dead. The villages along the way have been ruined. Unbearable, it is clear that the flames of war have also swept here; looking around is full of bare loess, the strong wind blows, the dust is flying, and the eyes are charming.

Su Jin smacked his tongue inwardly, the conditions were indeed difficult, it seemed that this trip was really hard work; the flat loess land did not last long, one day later, after turning over several upward ridges, Su Jin was pleasantly surprised to find , You can actually see a majestic and continuous mountain range in the distance, the white snow on the top of the mountain is clearly visible, the accompanying people are here for the first time, and I don’t know which mountain it is, but it’s summer, but there is It is snowy, and the height will definitely not be low.

Wangshan ran a dead horse, although he saw that the mountain was not far away, but after walking for half a day, the mountain was still far away, but he encountered several big rivers, which must have been formed by melting snow on the mountain. .

Su Jin felt at ease, a place with mountains and water would not be too bad. If the war is over, agricultural production can go on. Maybe he will lead people to dig canals and build roads to promote water conservancy in the future.

In the evening, Su Jin and others finally arrived at the south gate of Weizhou City. Under the evening sun, the walls of Weizhou City looked unusually tall and strong. Strict appearance.

From far away, soldiers shot arrows to warn, and seeing a cavalry of hundreds of people at first sight woke up the soldiers on the top of the city.

"Who is coming? Don't get close to the city gate, or the arrow will have no eyes." Someone shouted.

Wang Chaoce immediately stepped forward to the cage and shouted upwards: "The new prefect of Weizhou, Mr. Su, is here to take office, please open the door quickly to greet him."

The soldiers on the top of the city were startled, and someone immediately reported to the generals guarding the city. Not long after, a man with a beard and a hairy head went up to the tower and shouted loudly: "You can't open the city gate without the permission of the king's envoy. Let's wait for a while, someone has already reported to Lord Wang."

Ma Han hopped and shouted: "You guys are quite courageous. The new magistrate refused the door when he arrived. You will suffer from it in the future."

Su Jin hurriedly stopped him and said, "What are you talking about? Weizhou is the frontier city, so it's natural to be careful. These soldiers are just obeying orders."

Ma Han said: "I don't even look at our attire, can a Xixia dog be dressed like this?"

Su Jin scolded: "It's not easy to dress up? Tuoba Feng and others who assassinated the Liao envoy disguised themselves as Han Chinese and sneaked into the capital. If you hadn't caught them, even if you met them face to face, you would never recognize them. Party member, now that you are the head of the Ma Jundu, you must act with your brain and don't talk nonsense."

Ma Han snorted, and suddenly reached out and took out a cloth towel from his bosom to tie it on his face. Su Jin asked in amazement, "What are you doing?"

Ma Han said: "Follow my son's order, and act too wisely. After entering the city, my appearance will definitely scare the girls and daughters-in-law, so I tied it up with a cloth so as not to scare others."

Everyone burst into laughter, and Su Jin scolded with a smile: "I really can't help it. It's not easy to think of this episode, but don't you think that when you put on a cloth scarf, it will make us look more sneaky and have ulterior motives?"

Ma Han was stunned, and quickly stretched out his hand to pull the scarf and said, "That's right, it's like a strongman who robbed his house."

After about a stick of incense, there was movement at the city gate, the tall suspension bridge was lowered suddenly, and the city gate was slowly opened. A group of Song soldiers galloped out on horseback. Aim at everyone.

Ma Han couldn't help but shouted again: "You guys have to be steady, it's not good if you can't hold the arrow and shoot it and hurt someone."

At this moment, another group of infantry walked out of the city gate surrounded by a man with a fluttering white beard. He looked old and strong, looked up and down at Su Jin and the others, and an accompanying official said loudly: "Excuse me? Is this the new Zhizhou Master Su?"

Su Jin cupped his hands and said, "It's me."

The official looked at Su Jin suspiciously and said, "It's you? You are the new Lord Fu Zun?"

Su Jin smiled and said, "Isn't it? Dynasty, show him the document."

Wang Chao handed over the appointment document, the man glanced at it, and hurriedly handed it over to the old man beside him, the old man looked at it carefully, immediately smiled, cleared his throat and said: "Sure enough, Mr. Su came from a long way away. , Old Wang Yan, I’m sorry for being late to welcome you.”

Su Jin hurriedly stepped forward to salute and said, "It really is Wang Lushi. The next official, Su Jin, has seen Wang Lushi."

That Wang Yan laughed and said: "You are finally here, the old man can go back to the capital to enjoy the blessings, please hurry up."

A group of people marched into the city, the heavy city gate was closed again, the suspension bridge was pulled up high, and calm was restored at the city gate after a while.

After the sun set, the twilight quickly enveloped the earth. The temperature difference between day and night here is huge. As soon as the sun set, the sky and the earth suddenly became cold, but a fire ignited in Su Jin's heart. It was all about the unknown future. The fire of hope inspired; what kind of future will be waiting for him in the grand pass of the frontier.