Three Kingdoms: I rely on system loopholes to survive

Although Zhong Ping was in charge of agricultural affairs in Dongjun, he was only in charge of a county after all. Besides, he also had Xun Yu to help him. Most of the time, Zhong Ping just gave advice.

Now he really has to handle it alone, and Zhong Ping feels a little unsure.

Cangwu did not have a prefect, so Liu Bei's entry into Cangwu was legitimate, and he had Zhang Jin's support behind him. Apart from the Nanman and Baiyue who often caused chaos in the county, Liu Bei encountered almost no resistance.

However, there are too few civil officials available under Liu Bei, and the officials in each county are basically still the same, with not much change.

For the vast majority of the people, apart from the fact that there were no more raids by the southern barbarians and their lives became a little more stable, everything else seemed to be no different from before.

Zhong Ping took Li Meng and Wang San out of the city and wandered around for a whole morning, basically getting a general idea of ​​the surrounding terrain.

The seat of government of Cangwu is Guangxin, the intersection of several water veins in the territory. There are many lakes in the area, and fishing is the main industry. There are also rice and mulberry planting, but it is not on a large scale. It can be seen that farming is done on a household basis.

After all, Zhong Ping is a liberal arts student. When he saw the lake, he thought of the polder fields and then of the mulberry pond. Ideas came to his mind quickly, but his performance in questions and practice were very poor. Without a thorough examination, Zhong Ping did not dare to submit the policy paper directly to Liu for filing.

"Brother, I see that although Cangwu is far away from the Central Plains, the county system is the same. There is also a pavilion every ten miles outside Guangxin City. Please ask for me how the local people make a living."

Zhong Ping stopped his red horse and said to Li Meng.

Li Meng subconsciously wanted to salute, but when he met Zhong Ping's gaze, he stopped abruptly and replied awkwardly: "Tai... Since Bo Heng has spoken, there is no reason for me to disobey. I will go now."

"Wang San! Protect Bo Heng well."

Wang San rode a horse this time and finally had some sense of presence. Although Zhong Ping almost forgot that he was still with Wang San, Li Meng's timely reminder made Zhong Ping remember that there was a second person around him.

"I know, don't worry."

The black horse beside him snorted. Zhong Ping looked at the horse's back and felt that the person on the horse looked unfamiliar. He recalled for a long time before he could barely match him with the Wang San in his memory.

"Boheng, what are we doing now?"

Wang San changed his words very naturally. As soon as Li Meng left, Wang San went close to Zhong Ping. Perhaps it was because compared with Wang San's strong body, Zhong Ping was really weak, so Wang San couldn't help feeding Zhong Ping when he got the chance.

Zhong Ping ate the cake handed to him by Wang San with a wooden face, and felt his cheeks sore: "Wait here, it's almost noon, someone should come to tend the fields. I see the rice seedlings in the fields are quite neat, as if they have just been raised not long ago."

"Did you make this cake yourself?"

His teeth knocked against the pancake, and Zhong Ping tried to remind Wang San tactfully: "In fact, you can put more water in the pancake... The ingredients don't have to be so solid."

Wang San scratched his head and said, "I made it myself. This is my mother's recipe. The cakes can be kept for a year."

He realized belatedly that Zhong Ping might not be able to chew such a hard cake, so he quickly took off the water bag from his waist and said, "You can eat this cake by soaking it in water or boiling it. One piece can make a big pot."

While pouring water, Zhong Ping was thinking, according to Wang San, this cake is good for dry food during the march. Bringing a bag of dried meat and cakes during the march is convenient to carry and easy to store. When camping, just cook a pot of it. Isn't it much better than eating cornmeal?
"The recipe for this cake..."

Just as he was about to ask how the cakes were made, he saw a man coming over with a basket on his back. He was wearing a short brown robe, his hair was unkempt, and he had a pair of straw sandals on his feet.

When this person saw Zhong Ping standing by the field, he couldn't help but look at him a few more times, with a hint of vigilance and caution in his eyes. It seemed that he thought Zhong Ping was a young man from a wealthy family who was riding a horse for fun. He was afraid that Zhong Ping would ruin the rice fields, but he didn't dare to show it.

"Excuse me, to whom does this field belong?"

Zhong Ping got off the horse, straightened his clothes, and walked forward to bow.

The man subconsciously took a step back, a bit of confusion showing on his face, and said a few words in a rather strange accent. It was so confusing that one could not make out what the other person meant.

The other party seemed to realize that Zhong Ping didn't understand what he said, and stretched out his hand to gesture a few times. Zhong Ping guessed and vaguely realized that the man wanted him to leave with the horse.

Zhong Ping never expected that he would die before he could accomplish his mission, and he was stumped by the language barrier as soon as he left the city.

Knowing that the other party couldn't understand what he said, Zhong Ping had to ask Wang San to lead the two horses to a distant place and tie them up, while he stood there alone waiting for Li Meng to bring the pavilion chief back.

Seeing that Zhong Ping was the only one here, the big man muttered something in a low voice, took out a sickle from the basket, rolled up his trouser legs, went down to the paddy field, bent over and started weeding.

Zhong Ping stood by and looked at the paddy field. It was not very large, just enough for one family's food needs. The seedlings in the water were planted neatly, and it was a sea of ​​green.

Not far from the field are two mulberry trees that have just sprouted. Birds with blue backs and black tails are perched on the branches, turning their heads from time to time and preening their wings.

At first, Zhong Ping thought that the mulberry trees were also planted by local villagers, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that it was a bit strange to plant only two trees. He thought that perhaps they had originally grown here and did not belong to anyone.

Wang San held the reins and led the two horses a little further away. There were many plants and trees here, so Wang San specially found a strong tree with fresh grass nearby and tied the reins to the waist of the tree. Chizhui was docile and stood quietly, occasionally shaking his tail.

The black horse, however, stayed on the spot, put its nose close to the short grass on the ground, sniffed it, raised its head, and soon began to chew it with relish.

Wang San saw that his horse was eating so happily, so he thought for a moment, took out the half of the cake that Zhongping had left, broke it into pieces and put it to Chizhui's mouth.

Chizhui licked it, slowly walked around to the other side of the tree, and wagged its tail towards Wang San.

The black horse, on the other hand, was impatient. He barked twice to attract Wang San's attention, took a bite of the cake, swallowed and chewed it, and finished it in two or three bites. Then he continued to eat grass.

Wang San couldn't help grinning, thinking that this good horse takes after its owner, even its temperament is the same.

Zhong Ping waited by the field for a long time. Even when Li Meng came back with the local headman, there was still no sign of Wang San.

However, with Wang San's uniquely low presence, even if he had returned, he would not have been aware of it.

Thinking of this, Zhong Ping put Wang San out of his mind and asked the headman to communicate with the man in the field on his behalf.

The old guard only said a few words to the man, and then introduced him to Zhong Ping: "... This man was originally a barbarian slave of the Xian family. He speaks Baiyue language, so you can't understand him. The Tian family was also a powerful local family. They were robbed when the southern barbarians came. Now they only have a young man to support them. Young Master Xian is kind-hearted and released many of his slaves. This man is one of them."

"Xian?"

Zhong Ping looked curious: "This is the first time I've heard of this surname. What's its origin?"

"To be honest, my dear, Xian is a surname from the Baiyue people. The ancestors of the Xian family were originally Baiyue people. Later, they came to Guangxin to avoid disaster, married the Han people, learned about culture, and had good skills in fishing, hunting and weaving. Then they gradually became local tyrants."

I don’t know what Li Meng said to the pavilion chief, but the pavilion chief was extremely respectful to Zhong Ping and told him almost everything he knew.

"So does this field belong to the Xian family or this man?"

Zhong Ping asked again: "I am new to Guangxin. Are there more fishermen or farmers here?"

"My dear, you don't know."

The head of the pavilion shook his head and pointed to the lake behind the paddy field and said, "We have many lakes here, including the Yushui River and the Lijiang River... We can catch fish all year round. Not to mention Guangxin, even in the whole Cangwu, there are many Sanmiao and Jiuli people. Don't look at me speaking Chinese, my ancestors may also be barbarians! We are used to fishing and hunting for a living, how can we grow crops? I don't know about other places, anyway, there are few people farming here."

Zhong Pingxin thought this was a bit troublesome, so he could only continue to ask: "I saw many people selling fabrics in the city, so I think they should be planting mulberry trees and raising silkworms here, right?"

"That's true."

The pavilion chief pointed to a few gentle slopes of distant hills and mountains and said, "All the mulberry trees in this area are planted on those plots of land."

“Why not use river mud to grow mulberry trees?”

Taneping recalled the county seat and the local topography: "Guangxin is located at the intersection of water veins, the terrain is low-lying, the rainy season is long, and it often suffers from floods. Didn't officials build vertical and horizontal ponds in the past?"

"This……"

The head of the pavilion was somewhat at a loss for words: "In the past, they only built dams and diverted canals. I have never heard of anything else... I am only a head of the pavilion, how can I know all this? Why don't you go ask the county magistrate?"

Zhong Ping hurriedly apologized. Now that he had some understanding of the situation in Guangxin, he put aside the issue of introducing rice seeds and promoting paddy fields. Since the local industry was mainly based on fishing and also involved in textiles, the most suitable area for the local area was the Sangji Fish Pond, which could also be used to control floods.

Although he thought so, before leaving, Zhongping still asked the headman to buy some rice seeds from the man who worked in the fields.

Cangwu County does not have the same unique geographical conditions as Guangxin, so Zhongping still hopes to promote rice cultivation.

Food is the most important thing for people. It is extremely difficult to govern a county well. Zhong Ping can only do his best and find ways to solve the most basic problems.

"…If the people of Cangwu all farm and wear silk and hemp, it won't be long before education and customs change."

Zhong Ping felt his scalp tingling at the thought that there were several languages ​​in Guangxin alone. No wonder no one wanted to come to Jiaozhou. Not to mention the miasma and poisonous insects, just the customs and languages ​​in each place were enough to make people feel overwhelmed.

"It seems that I still need to write a letter to Mr. Kang Cheng and the teacher... We have to bring in more talents, otherwise this place will be impossible to govern!"

(End of this chapter)