The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

On July [-]th of the second year of Qingli, Su Jin formally took over the seal of Weizhou Mansion from Wang Yan, the envoy of Jingyuan Road who also knew Weizhou. After handing over all matters, Wang Yan also left Weizhou to return to Beijing. Not long after Su Jin's appointment, the imperial court ordered Wang Yan to return to Beijing, and was awarded the title of direct bachelor of Longtuge and the post of doctor of the Ministry of punishment; It will be five or six years before Bao Zhishi returns home.

The Weizhou government office is on the edge of a square in the center of the city. This square is actually the largest barracks in the city—the Zhongying garrison. , Lanzhou, Deshun, and the three lines of He and Xi, but in fact the most important frontier states are Jingzhou, Yuanzhou and Weizhou, because a north-south mountain separates Lanzhou Deshun and other places from Xixia. The mountain is the big snow mountain that Su Jin came to see on the road. The southern foot of this mountain is called Longshan Mountain, and the northern foothill is called Liupan Mountain. It is this big mountain that divides Jingyuan Road into east and west parts. The state is on the plain at the east foot of it.

There are more than [-] troops stationed along Jingyuan Road. Weizhou is the place where Luzhi is located, so there are slightly more troops stationed at about [-]. Weizhou is also the largest and strongest city. It is only relatively speaking that it is the largest. The whole city actually only has four main streets, two horizontal and two vertical, and the rest are alleys and alleys. It is only three miles away from east to west, and from south to north. It is actually a city smaller than Luzhou.

This is more understandable. After all, the northwest border, the place of bitter cold and windy sand, the city will not be that big, and the population is not large, so the city does not need to be big.

It's just that it was in the past, but now it is a big trouble. In order to prevent the looting and harassment of the Xixia cavalry, Fan Xiwen's strategy of building a city and defending it, the people with a radius of tens of miles were gathered in the city. Even soldiers and horses gathered more than 16 people to live there, and the whole city suddenly became a bustling market, full of noise all day long.

On the second day after Su Jin came here, he took people to the streets to inspect. As expected, there were very few shops in the city. Bringing a large group of people here is almost robbed, not to mention the echelon of merchants, and they dare not come here easily.

The south of the city is a concentrated residential area for the common people, where the mess and stench are reeking, and the sallow and emaciated common people in tattered clothes stand in the alley full of sewage and excrement with dull eyes, silently watching Su Jin and others pass by; They followed Su Jin and the others with their noses dragging their noses like charcoal to watch the excitement.

Looking at these houses again, most of them are various simple shacks and earthen houses, which can only serve as a shelter. Let alone keep out the cold and rain, even simple wind and sand protection cannot do it.

Su Jin saw that his brows were furrowed. Wang Yan was also a road envoy, so he had no time to take care of the affairs of the city. The general judge Xu Wei was in charge. It seemed that this Xu Wei did not fulfill his duties. The city was in a mess. Do it without thinking.

"Xu Tongpan, the city is so messy, don't you want to clean it up?" Su Jin turned his head and asked.

Xu Wei is a big fat man, his belly can block his feet. After following Su Jin and others for half the city, he was already sweating profusely and panting. When he came to patrol the streets, a group of local officials in the government office had already made an appointment to visit him, but he left him alone in the government office and ignored them.

"Master Xu, Fu Zun asked you something." Wang Chao reminded loudly.

"Oh, I'm going to report back to Master Su, the officials also want to govern, but how to govern? There are so many people here, and it takes a huge amount of property to feed them every day. How can there be money and things to govern? The officials also know that the city is dirty enough. It's messy enough, but there's nothing I can do about it." Xu Wei had a respectful demeanor, but his tone was indifferent and impatient.

Su Jin frowned and said, "How many households are there in the city?"

Xu Wei shook his head and said, "I don't know, there are new arrivals every day, and a lot of people have been sick and died recently, the numbers are changing every day, I can't teach people to count."

Su Jin held back his anger and asked again: "Since there is no statistics, what evidence do you usually use to distribute food? There is no household registration and no register, how can you ensure that everyone has food, and how do you recruit them to build cities for the army? Those who do hard labor in the village?"

Xu Wei was sweating profusely on his face, he hesitated for a long while and said, "I have to ask Liu Cangsi about the food and labor, but the lower officials didn't bother."

Su Jin angrily said: "Then what did you ask? Are you asking about important national affairs? How can this be reasonable? If you occupy the latrine and don't shit, is your general judge just doing nothing all day long?"

Xu Wei's face turned pale, and he bowed his head and said: "Yes, Master Su taught me that the lower officials must change, definitely change."

Su Jin said suddenly: "You go back to your yamen now, call the warehouse department and other relevant departments to immediately register the people in the city and distribute the household registers, and give you two days, if you can't do it, pack up and leave here. My Su Jin subordinates don't raise trash."

Xu Wei resisted the urge to retort, turned around and left without saying a word; Su Jin stopped him and said, "Why didn't you say goodbye to me and salute when you left? You are still a scholar, don't you understand etiquette?"

Xu Wei's face was pale, and he had to bow his hands to salute, but Su Jin turned his buttocks and walked away without even looking at him. Xu Wei stayed where he was in embarrassment, looked at the backs of Su Jin and others, spat fiercely, and cursed Said: "What the hell, there are five people and six people, offended me, can you stay in this Weizhou for long? Soon you will know who is in charge of this Weizhou." After finishing speaking, he stomped his feet and turned around .

Su Jin knew that Xu Wei couldn't ask anything, so he could only ask the people himself. The reason why he got angry with Xu Wei was because he hated his inaction. From the day he came to Weizhou, Su Jin could I feel the pessimism of the officials in this city, as if they are ready to run away at any time, and they are muddled and sloppy in their work. Maybe they feel that the Xixia people will come in sooner or later, and the construction is useless no matter how good it is. .

Su Jin hates these people the most. They don't think about making progress, but only think about how to avoid disasters. Let's make a point: "Officials are fat and people are thin, so they must not be good officials. When Li and Tang ruled the world in the previous dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong said, 'Although my appearance is thin, the world will be fat'. Putting it here makes the whole city thin. How can these people be good officials when officials are fattening alone?"

The people who followed nodded frequently. This Xu Wei claimed to have been in office for three years. Under such circumstances, he was able to grow so white and fat. I am afraid that it is due to the pampering all day long.

Turning the corner, there was a row of thatched houses in front of him. A tall old man bent over and turned something on the muddy ground in the yard. Everyone looked at it and saw purple vines covered with a lot of plant ash. I don't know what's the use.

Su Jin cupped his hands and asked, "Dare to ask my father, what are these things?"

The old man was startled when he looked up and saw a group of people standing in front of his house. Looking at the clothes of Su Jin and others, they were all from the government. A trace of resentment and contempt flashed in his eyes, and he said angrily: "Of course the official is not Yes, this is a delicacy in the world, do you want to taste it?"

Su Jin pointed at the vines with ash on the ground in astonishment and said, "Is this edible?"

The old man said: "If you can eat it, we ordinary people can eat anything."

Su Jin heard the furious meaning in his words, bent down, stretched out his hand, took one and looked at it for a long time, broke off a small piece, wiped it clean and put it in his mouth, a numbing smell filled his mouth, Su Jin quickly vomited When he came out, he spit a few mouthfuls again and again, and got goosebumps all over his body.

The old man said with a smile: "How does this official feel?"

Wu Hengxin was already the leader of the yamen servants, and he followed around with a few yamen servants under him. Those yamen servants were all locals. Wu Hengxin asked them softly, "What is this?"

A yamen servant hurriedly said: "This is Malan vine, which is everywhere in the mountains and fields. The people used to eat it during the famine years. This thing is numb and astringent. If you eat it, it will entangle your intestines. It can’t be pulled out. The common people thought of a way to mix it with plant ash, rub it together, and wash it after exposing it in the sun, which can slightly remove the numbness and astringency, but it is still difficult to eat.”

Su Jin heard the words and asked: "Then why are you still eating him?"

The old man posted: "The old man also wants to have a lot of fish and meat every day, but he can't even eat a few decent meals a month. If he doesn't eat this, will he starve to death?"

Su Jinqi said: "Isn't the imperial court distributing food every month? Why can't you even have food? Even if the food is not enough, it's not like you can't even have a meal of porridge."

The old man sneered and said, "Is this official just kidding? Ordinary people are not as blessed as you say. Drinking porridge? Drinking northwest wind is almost the same. You officials like to pretend, and you know the reason and still say so If that’s the case, gentlemen, please go ahead, the old man still has to rub these delicacies, otherwise he’ll be hungry again at noon.”

Wang Chao shouted: "This is the new magistrate Su Jinsu, who just arrived here the day before yesterday, so don't be rude."

The old man was stunned for a moment, with a look of hope on his face, he immediately returned to his original state, waved his hand and said: "Even the new magistrate must not disturb others indiscriminately, and the old man has not violated the law, but he is hungry. In front of your lord, that’s not good; the poor man just said is right, this Malan vine can’t poop after eating it, but there is one thing he didn’t say, that is, it eats a lot of stinky farts, if the old man is not careful Farting out and poisoning the magistrate, that's called being rude."

Su Jin heard that the old man's words were full of mysteries, and he thought in his heart that there must be a problem with the distribution of food. The military rations allocated by the third division every ten days included the amount for the relief of the people. Why do these people want to eat it? It can kill people There must be something strange about it, let alone the old man's thorny words at this time, even if Su Jin is beaten with a whip, Su Jin will not leave.