I, Liu Bian, Sanxing Han Dynasty

Chapter 382 Iron-Eating Beast

Historically, Zhang Lu refused to listen to Liu Zhang's orders after Liu Yan's death. In addition to Hanzhong, the areas under his control also included the barbarians in Ba County who were loyal to him, and he occupied Hanchang, Dangqu and other counties in the south of Ba County. Until Zhang Lu surrendered to Cao Cao, these places were still in Zhang Lu's hands.

However, Zhang Lu is no longer in Hanzhong.

Faced with the changes in Hanzhong and Ba County, Du Huo, Pu Hu and Yuan Yue gathered together to discuss the future.

Although the three of them were dressed like barbarians, if someone really treated them as barbarians, they would be deceived to death without knowing it.

Historically, after Zhang Lu broke with Liu Zhang, they chose to follow Zhang Lu and resisted Liu Zhang's attacks for many years. Later, they followed Zhang Lu to surrender to Cao Cao and were granted the title of marquis.

Du Fu was a Qiang, and he had the deepest understanding of the changes in Ba County through the Bandun Man. He first told the two people present about everything that had happened since Xun You took office, and then said, "In the past, our people have suffered from the evil officials and corrupt merchants in Ba County for a long time. Now that Governor Xun has treated our people well and wants to govern the country in a clean and honest manner, no matter what the results are, we cannot fail to give feedback."

Pu Hu was the leader of the seven Ba Yi tribes south of the Bashan Mountains. Although he did not have connections with the Qiang people everywhere like Du Fu did, he also felt that Du Fu's words made sense. After all, they lived under the rule of Ba County. If they did not respond to the governor's goodwill, they might offend the other party and the gain would be more than the loss.

There is no objection that Yuan Yue is the weakest among the three.

After deciding on this matter, he asked again: "I heard that after Zhang Lu left, most of the affairs in Hanzhong were handed over to his brother Zhang Wei... But we have never had any contact with Zhang Wei in the past, so we don't know whether he is greedy or not. He sent someone to visit me a few days ago, and I don't know whether I should respond..."

Du Fu said, "Of course we have to respond. Zhang Wei is our backup. I think we should split into two groups. One group will carry the valuable gifts to Governor Xun, and the other group will go to see Zhang Wei."

Pu Hu and Yuan Yue looked at each other and both understood that what Du Fu said was the safest way.

But who will go to see Xun You, and who will go to see Zhang Wei?
The journey to see Xun You is riskier, but as long as Xun You values ​​the Bajun barbarians as much as he shows, then the person who sees him first will definitely benefit the most!
The three of them often huddled together for warmth, but whenever there was a conflict of interest, they were bound to engage in a few rounds of verbal sparring.

In October, Du Fu set out from Dangqu County with great fanfare, carrying gifts to the prefect.

He used his identity as a Qiang to convince the other two. For safety reasons, he even took a detour and chose to pass through Hanchang Changchengji, which treated the Qiang people very well.

This news was soon passed on to Xun You by Cheng Ji.

Xun You then added another touch to the screen in his bedroom.

When he was in Luoyang, he heard rumors among the people that the emperor had a screen with the names of ministers inside and outside the court recorded on it, and all those who were on the list were important officials and virtuous people.

In the past, Emperor Ming ordered people to paint the portraits of the 28 generals of Yuntai in Yuntai Hall, which were called the 28 generals of Yuntai. Some people with good intentions linked it with the 28 generals, saying that the emperor wanted to paint the 28 ministers again to celebrate the restoration of the country.

Xun You had been walking in the palace for a long time, and he probably knew that the existence of the screen should be real, but the so-called revival was just a flattery among the people. He knew that the emperor was still not satisfied with the current situation in the world.

Now that he was in charge of a region, he also discovered the magic of the screen - when he first came to Ba County, there were too many people he needed to remember, and with the records on the screen, he only had to take a look when he needed to, and he would not make mistakes due to forgetfulness.

Now, many names have been written before Du Fu on the screen, and those listed together with Du Fu are all the barbarian chiefs of Ba County, there are more than ten of them.

He has gotten feedback.

Among them, he had already seen more than half of them. From the mouths of these chiefs, Xun You learned that after his order was issued, some officials indeed restrained their former greedy behavior, but there were also some who did not take it seriously.

Xun You was waiting, waiting for the evidence to be confirmed, waiting for the chiefs to gather together.

In early November, the last chieftain Du Fu who came to Jiangzhou to meet Xun You finally arrived. Du Fu spent a lot of money, and the gifts he brought were not ordinary furs, so in addition to a complete tiger skin, he also brought a living creature -

"My Lord, this is an iron-eating beast. According to legend, it was once the mount of Chi You in ancient times. Don't be fooled by its naive appearance now. Once it is angered, its palm can shatter metal and stone."

"Oh..." Xun You became interested, but looking at the animal in the cage holding a piece of tender bamboo with both hands and chewing it, he always felt that it was not a ferocious beast.

After thinking for a while, he asked Du Fu: "Now, has anyone ever ridden him into battle?"

Du Fu's face froze, and he replied with an awkward laugh: "I'm afraid only Chi You can control this ferocious beast."

After hearing this, Xun You understood that this iron-eating beast could only be used for viewing and could not be used in battle. However, because of Du Fu's existence, he still showed his importance to the iron-eating beast.

The iron-eating beast was the feedback given by Du Fu, so naturally he had to give feedback in return.

After a banquet with more than ten barbarian chieftains, Xun You led them to a hall, invited everyone to sit down, and said: "I have heard that there are still officials in Ba County who disregard the law and oppress the people at will. Recently, the county's inspector and others have arrested many people, but they have not yet been tried. Now that you are here, why don't you be a witness?"

In addition to Du Fu, several chieftains near Jiangzhou had been waiting for many days. They had heard the news a long time ago, and now they were all delighted to see that their favorite moment had finally arrived.

At Xun You's order, the first criminal was soon brought up.

With all the witnesses and evidence available, the guilty official had no way to refute his crime. In the end, Xun You dismissed him from his post, beat him with 40 sticks, and fined him 50,000 coins as compensation.

Because of the thorough preparations made in advance, Xun You made the judgment very quickly.

Among them, there were those who had killed the barbarians, and they were also sentenced to death by Xun You.

It drew the admiration of the chiefs.

Not all of them were involved in oppressing the barbarians. Some officials who oppressed the Han people were also caught. Xun You treated them all equally and dealt with them as they should.

Du Fu didn't know what the other chiefs who arrived early were thinking. Anyway, when he saw that the criminals punished by Xun You could only beg for mercy, he felt happier than eating a piece of ice cream in the hot summer.

Is there any better way to make them return to their faith than to make the criminals who oppressed them confess their crimes?

Anyway, Du Fu felt that after living for so many years, he finally waited for a fair prefect!
After more than 20 criminals were tried, the chiefs, who had already had a good impression of Xun You, admired him even more.

"I was appointed by the Emperor as the governor of Ba County. I came here only to complete the task entrusted by the Emperor - to treat everyone equally!"

Hearing this, Du Fu felt his heart beating violently. He didn't know where he got the courage from, but he suddenly raised his arms and shouted, "Treat everyone equally!"

After a moment's silence, just when Du Fu felt that he was being impulsive, he suddenly heard the chiefs' voices echoing him.

Listening to the cheers, Xun You knew that the foundation for change had been laid.

(End of this chapter)