A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 279 Zao Qiang’s Story
Qinghe County, Zaoqiang County

Zaoqiang County is located at the junction of Qinghe County and Xindu County, on the west bank of Zhangjia River and on the east bank of the river.

A large area of ​​fertile land is formed between the two rivers. Except for a few rocky hillsides, almost all of the county is arable land. Therefore, Qinghe County is a famous grain-producing county.

And because of its unique geographical location, its military value is extremely low, and it is far away from the county seat of Qingyang City. For Zaoqiang County, it does not matter who occupies this place, it is just a change of flag.

After Xin Mang went against the grain, the world was in chaos, and Zaoqiang County was unsurprisingly affected.

But fortunately, Zaoqiang had enough food, so it did not provoke too much popular uprising. However, during this period, a powerful and powerful person appeared who made people change their minds - the Li family.

The Li family was originally a small clan in Zaoqiang, a local clan in Lizhuang, west of Zaoqiang County.

In the second year of Xinmang, Wang Mang's implementation of the New Deal aroused opposition from powerful people in the world. As a powerful powerful person in Zaoqiang County, the Li family would of course strongly oppose it. However, the Li family produced a smart person, namely Li at that time. Li Hou, the leader of the clan.

The Li family first fled from Hedong to avoid the Xiongnu during the period of Emperor Wen, and settled in Zaoqiang.

With the efforts of several generations, the Li family successfully developed the original settlement into the current township. After a hundred years of development, Lizhuang has developed from a refugee area of ​​dozens of people to a population of more than a thousand people. of the large townships, among which the surname Li accounts for 80%.

When Li Hou became the new generation head of Lizhuang and was recommended as a thief in Zaoqiang County, he actively wanted to become a famous surname in the county, because at this time, there were three powerful men in Zaoqiang County who controlled all aspects of Zaoqiang. , even the county magistrate wants to see their faces.

The largest one is the Wang family, who controls Zaoqiang's grain. The chief bookkeepers in the county are usually held by members of the Wang family. The second one is the Zhang family who controls the county soldiers and horses. They control the county soldiers all year round.

The last one is the Liu family who controls most of the shops in the county and is related by marriage to a wealthy family in the county. The position of court official in the county is often named Liu.

Among them, the Wang family and the Liu family are mostly in power in the county, while the Zhang family mostly relies on small clans in the lower towns.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the Li family in Li Zhuang has always been attached to the Zhang family, and Li Hou often went to drink and socialize with several military princes surnamed Zhang in the county.

Now the court wants to confiscate his land and distribute it to the refugees and untouchables, which they cannot bear.

So all the powerful men in the county, led by Wang Ku, the head of the Wang family, hosted a banquet for the county magistrate Yan Chaowen at Taibaiju, a famous restaurant in the county, and reached a cooperation with him.

Yan Chaowen was a person who went to Chang'an as a minister of Jizhou Prefecture. As a disciple of Confucianism, he had the heart to serve the country. He was appointed by the imperial court as the magistrate of Zaoqiang County, and he had to make decisions for the people and protect the country.

Ask him why he agreed so readily.

Three days ago, his personal entourage was in the county office one second, and suddenly disappeared the next second. Not only that, there were two more boxes in his study the next day, one of which contained items that he did not have. One of the classics I have seen is a box full of copper coins.

Just yesterday, his entourage suddenly appeared, bringing with him a beautiful-looking woman who said she had voluntarily entered Yan Chaowen's house to become a concubine.

Combined with what the court said a few days ago, Yan Chaowen still doesn't understand what happened, but what can he do now? Without life, everything is nothing.

That's why he agreed so quickly at the banquet.

Originally, Li Hou thought that this matter would end here, and that he would live the same "ordinary and repetitive" life as usual, county government office - mansion - Wenxiang building - government office - county government - Wenxiang building·· ·

A few years later, the imperial court sent a reform envoy to Jizhou and arranged for the Jizhou shepherd to be a descendant of the clan.

With the support of the state pastor and the governors from various places, the Jizhou restructuring envoy quickly sent a team of more than ten people to Qinghe County to supervise the advancement of the New Deal in Qinghe County.

This made Zaoqiang's heads nervous. Liu Kan, the head of the Liu family in the county, even went to the county in person to find his in-laws and ask them for news.

After Liu Kan came back, they knew that the adults in the county did not agree with the New Deal and believed that the New Deal was their root cause. With the support of the adults in the county, the leaders in Zaoqiang County felt a lot more relieved.

Soon, the restructuring team sent three people to Zaoqiang County. The county magistrate Yan Chaowen and the bosses of various departments in the county personally greeted them at the city gate.

Li Hou also followed and saw the big shot from Chang'an.

Because Zaoqiang is a major grain-producing county in Qinghe County, the person who came this time was the deputy of the Qinghe County restructuring group and a confidant of the Jizhou restructuring envoy. His name was Wang Mian, and he was said to be a descendant of the royal family.

I saw Wang Mian riding a horse, stopping less than three steps in front of the county magistrate, sitting upright on the horse, and returning the salute to his colleagues in Zaoqiang County.

Li Hou could clearly feel the anger of the bosses and county magistrates at Wang Mian's refusal to dismount and his rude contempt for them.

But on the surface, they still behave cordially.

When Wang Mian entered the county government office, Li Hou could clearly feel that something was wrong with the atmosphere in the county, so he immediately asked the clan members to restrain themselves, and even he stopped making arrangements to go to Wenxiang Tower and went to patrol and suppress it conscientiously. thief.

It didn't take long for Wang Mian to take action first. He first attacked the Wang family, the largest powerful man in Zaoqiang, and collected a lot of evidence. He captured many of the lawless Wang family's children on the spot and put them in jail. He also wrote a letter requesting the county to exempt the king's cave. The main position is thin.

Li Hou didn't know what price the Wang family paid. Anyway, the county dismissed Wang Mian's opinion and believed that it was only the fault of the descendants of his clan. Wang Ku had not made any mistakes and should not be implicated.

In the end, many of the Wang family's lawless descendants were either imprisoned or exiled. Two of them were even found to be carrying people's lives and were sentenced to death. Li Hou knew that a strong wind was coming, so he immediately arranged for the children in the county to return to their hometown, leaving him alone in the county to see the situation, and asked them to organize training for the children in the village to prevent unexpected events.

In this confrontation, Wang Mian got several key positions, such as the position of the county's chief minister.

Through the Shaofu's account books, Wang Mian discovered that there was a financial problem in the county. At this time, the county magistrate Yan Chaowen reminded him not to check the account books, but to deal with those powerful people first.

Wang Mian refused to listen, and thought that as a Confucian disciple, he should serve the people and the world, so there was no reason to retreat when faced with difficulties. Because he believed that these account books were the key to overthrowing the wealthy families in the county.

As long as the big clans in the county are moved and the county soldiers are controlled, won't it be difficult to deal with the small clans in the township?
Yan Chaowen shook his head and gave no more persuasion.

Half a month later, Wang Mian successfully mastered several boxes of evidence that the wealthy families in the county had embezzled taxes, created clever names, concealed the population, and transferred benefits to each other. Even the county magistrate fell into it, and the entire county was destroyed. It's like a devil's cave.

Wang Mian looked at the account book in his hand, feeling frightened and just wanted to escape quickly.

So he immediately asked his confidants to seal the evidence, and then said goodbye to the county magistrate Yan Chaowen on the grounds that his father was seriously ill because of the family message. Yan Chaowen sent him out of the yamen, and then said coldly to the yamen servant on the side: "Tell the county captain that I want to eat fish."

The Yamen servant immediately mounted his horse and galloped out of another city gate.

Because they were carrying several boxes of evidence, Wang Mian and his party did not walk very fast. For the safety of the road, Wang Mian had already asked the county to send dozens of sergeants for him.

On the carriage, Wang Mian looked at the bamboo slips in his hand, thinking that when he arrived at the county, he would hand them over. With these, the prefect would have to send troops to assist him, wipe out Zao Qiang's tyranny, and the New Deal could be implemented smoothly. .

At that time, he might be able to see his idol Xuangong, or even meet him in person.

Thinking of this, he was very excited.

"I opened this road, I planted this tree. If you want to cross this road, leave money to buy your life!"

Wang Mian was still a little nervous when he saw the convoy stopped, but when he stepped out of the carriage and saw hundreds of thieves in ragged clothes and holding simple weapons in front of him, he felt relieved.

His convoy has dozens of sergeants sent by the county. They are well-equipped. How could these thieves not think about robbing themselves? Are they blind and unable to see the armor and weapons of those sergeants?

At this time, many arrows were shot from the woods on both sides, piercing the leather armor of the convoy guards.

Crossbow arrows.

Wang Mian's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly understood something.

The thieves in front saw the arrows shot from both sides knocking over many sergeants, and they were overjoyed and said: "Reinforcements are coming. Boys, rush forward and grab the money!"

He said and rushed forward with his men.

The convoy was attacked by crossbows and hundreds of thieves on both sides. In less than half an hour, the small-scale battle was over.

There are still dozens of thieves left, but this is the result of being attacked by crossbows, killing most of them, and leaving only about twenty sergeants in the convoy.

Seeing that the battle was won, the bandit leader's eyes lit up as he looked at the two carriages parked on the road. Although the casualties were a bit heavy, he had won.

He pulled a dead man who was clearly dressed in gorgeous clothes out of the car and dumped it on the ground. He turned into the carriage and saw the stacked boxes inside. He rubbed his hands and said, "Get rich!"

When he opened it, he saw that they were all bamboo slips. He said angrily: "xxx, how dare you lie to me!"

After getting out of the carriage, the people on both sides fired crossbows again, and hundreds of sergeants appeared. Soon, the dozens of remaining thieves were killed.

"County Lieutenant, what should I do with this carriage?" A military prince asked County Lieutenant Zhang Tu.

Zhang Tu snorted coldly: "Burn it!"

Soon, Wang Mian and others encountered robbers and robbers on the road and died. The county soldiers did not have time to rescue them, and the news spread to the county that they only captured dozens of robbers.

At this time, the Green Forest Army had captured Luoyang and was approaching Guanzhong. Many peasant armies also appeared in Hebei, but the news had not yet reached Zaoqiang County.

Wang Mian was a descendant of the clan, and his death was so strange that it aroused the suspicion of Zhou Mu. Zhou Mu forced the prefect of Qinghe County to investigate the truth and sent a hundred cavalrymen to supervise and cooperate.

So the leader of the Qinghe County Reorganization Group personally led the group, and the Qinghe Prefect sent a thousand county soldiers, led by the leader, to Zaoqiang to investigate the truth.

In order to prevent the real murderer from escaping, the principal led a hundred cavalrymen to Zaoqiang to investigate the truth.

(End of this chapter)