Qin Official

"Madam, this place is really old and shabby. It's not as good as the house in Nanjun."

On the first night when she came to Yiqu City, Yuan, who was already dressed as a housekeeper Fu Mu, dusted off the dust on her body, saluted Ye Zijin, and started her complaints.

Yuan is the trafficked woman that Heifu rescued from Blind Mountain many years ago. She and her father came to help at home when Heifu became the captain of Anlu County. Her father raised horses and cattle for Heifu's family, and Yuan and her mute husband Help in the kitchen.

After Hei Fu settled in Xianyang, the couple also followed him and mastered many recipes privately taught by Hei Fu, which greatly enriched their family's table food.

Heifu went to be the captain of the Northland County and was accustomed to eating the food cooked by the two of them, so he naturally let them accompany him.

In Yuan's impression, many years ago, after she was rescued from the blind mountain, when she went with her father to express her gratitude to Heifu's old house in Chaoyangli, Yunmeng Township, it was just an ordinary five-acre home. After Heifu became the county captain, he moved into a small manor near the county seat. When Heifu was an official in Xianyang, His Majesty even gave him a large mansion, which was very grand on the north bank of the most prosperous Wei Bridge. Every time she and her husband came in and out, they could feel the envy of others, and their faces suddenly felt bright.

Now that Heifu has been promoted again and became a feudal official, he thought that the place he lived in would be more spacious and majestic. Unexpectedly, it turned out that behind the county temple, there was only an old courtyard of thirty acres square...

She and the servants who came with her were a little disappointed, and they even thought that the local county guard might have done this on purpose!

Ye Zijin said with a straight face: "Although Yiqu City is a county, its population and size are only comparable to Anlu County. How can it be a big house? Although this mansion is not big, it is second only to the county. This is the house of the governor, the last county captain lived here, so you can’t complain!"

Yuan and others quietly agreed. They were more afraid of this lady and had long been treated to be docile.

At this time, Ye Zijin walked to the door of the main room again, stretched out his hand and gently wiped the top of the window. There was no dust. Then he saw that the floor was clean and the house was in order, which showed that although the servants complained, they still did their jobs honestly. Finished work.

So she didn't make it too difficult for everyone. She just remembered something Heifu often said:

"It's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it's hard to go from luxury to frugality!"

After living in the capital for more than a year, these servants from small rural areas have also acquired some bad habits. This time they came to Beidi County with Hei Fu, just in time to let them experience the life in the border areas and take care of themselves. Those problems that came out of being pampered in Xianyang City!

She began to inspect the mansion for the first time and kept the mistress' internal affairs in mind.

After going around in a circle, I felt confident, and arranged for Yuan and other servants to go to the market tomorrow to inquire about the prices of various types of meat and vegetables, and arranged a car to buy them every day. Unlike the past, dozens of people were fed, clothed and chewed every day. However, compared to when her father was in Nanjun, where he had at most hundreds of people, it was still a small thing, and it would not be difficult for Ye to deal with it.

"We just need to recruit a few locals with innocent family backgrounds as translators, preferably Qin girls who are idle at home."

Most of Heifu's family members are from Nanjun. When they arrived in the North, they could only stare at those dialects mixed with Rong vocabulary and couldn't understand them at all.

Finally, she asked how the guests' accommodation arrangements were going. In particular, Chen Ping's family is the focus of care.

Ye Zijin asked his servants to place Chen Ping's wife and son in a separate small courtyard. They had the same clothes and food as the owner, and provided carriages and horses. He also told doctors to pay special attention to the health of Chen Ping's youngest son. He was less than one year old and followed his parents to the bitterly cold Northland for fear of something wrong.

"I still have to hire a hospital doctor and a pediatrician from Xianyang..."

Ye Zijin looked at her belly. In the past half year, she and her husband had been together less and apart, and now they were finally together. The couple are not young anymore, and she decided that while they were in Yiqu City, she would give birth to a boy and a half girl for him...

After everything was arranged, it was getting late, and Hei Fu came back smelling of alcohol. After being helped out of the car by Sang Mu, he found his wife waiting at the door to greet him, so he smiled and said:

"My wife came back earlier than me."

Hei Fu went to the reception banquet arranged for him by Beidi County Governor Zhao Hai, County Magistrate Yin Tong, and Supervisor Shi Yancheng.

If we say that the county guard is equivalent to a senior provincial official; the county lieutenant is equivalent to the commander of the provincial military region and in charge of the public security department; the county magistrate is a senior political and legal official; then the censor is equivalent to a senior official in discipline, supervising officials, and discovering and recommending local talents.

The county, the governor, the prime minister, and the prisoner constituted the four horses of the county government. These three were important colleagues of Heifu. They followed him to Handong Province and had to follow the secretaries Sha Ruijin, Gao Yuliang, and Tian Guofu. Just like building a good relationship, you must treat your husband politely.

It was inevitable to have a banquet at the banquet, and their wives, at the invitation of the county governor's wife, went to the county governor's mansion for a banquet. Hei Fu did not expect that it would end so early.

Knowing Hei Fu's habits, Mrs. Ye asked someone to boil hot water and let him burn his feet. She reached into the barrel and personally helped her husband test the water temperature. She said:

"We are both women. We neither drink nor talk about government affairs. We are just chatting and enjoying ourselves. It won't take too long."

Then, she talked about some things that happened at the banquet hosted by the county governor's wife today.

"I gave a gift to each of the three ladies, including brown sugar and cakes. The portion given by the Sheriff's wife was heavier, while the other two gifts were the same. However, among the three gifts, there were more of each. Something different..."

"oh?"

Heifuxiao said with interest: "What did you add?"

Ye Zijin said: "The Sheriff's wife's share is a few rolls of the best mulberry paper."

Heifu smiled and said: "The governor of the county, Zhao Hai, was an old minister from the time of King Zhuang Xiang. Although he did not make many meritorious deeds, he has enough qualifications and is now a senior official. I heard that he was born as a swordsman and penman, and he can also write well. , just now, he toasted me with two cups of wine on the pretext of papermaking!"

As he spoke, Heifu also let out a loud wine burp. He was a little embarrassed, scratched his face and said: "The three officials are all elders, but the officials from the North who were sitting with them had a good capacity for drinking. They came up one by one in turn." Toast..."

"I know that according to the custom of Rongdi, anyone who cannot drink alcohol is not a man."

While Ye Zijin was being amused, he mixed a bowl of honey water with Heifu to relieve his hangover, then sat next to him and continued talking about the gifts for the wives of officials. They all inquired about their backgrounds in advance and catered to their preferences. The gifts were not expensive. Even if someone deliberately reported them, it did not constitute bribery.

When they were happy, they treated Ye Zijin very warmly, and each gave her something in return. They even invited her to taste the specialty of the North: roasted sheep.

After some conversation, she also discovered that the three ladies had different personalities. The county guard's wife was from a noble family and was polite to others. However, she was older and became sleepy at night.

The wife of the censor, on the other hand, likes to complain. She happens to be from Han, so from the moment Ye Zijin sat down, she was very kind to her, and even began to "pity" her, saying that she came to this desolate northern Xinjiang in her good years. Then he complained about the life in the North: how cold the winter here is, the food here is unpalatable, the people here are vulgar, and they are as common as Rong Di, and they want to leave here immediately...

"The wife of County Cheng Yin Tong is different. She is the daughter of a wealthy businessman from Shandong. She is luxuriously dressed and likes to talk. She is the protagonist at the banquet. She tells all kinds of rumors and legends about Beidi County vividly. Moreover, she also Boast.”

Ye Zijin looked at her husband and said, "She boasted that Yin Tong will be transferred next year, to the south!"

"When she said this, she was showing off. I secretly glanced at the others and found that the governor's wife had an unchanging expression and a light smile, but the governor's wife was a bit jealous..."

Although it only happened for a moment, Ye Zijin was still aware of it.

"You mean, there may be some trouble between the censor Yan Cheng and the county magistrate Yin Tong?"

The Qin Dynasty paid attention to starting from the grassroots level. Even the second generation had to work at the grassroots level. Therefore, those who could get into the ranks of county officials were all veteran officials. Even if there were conflicts, they would not stand out in front of others and they would all be harmonious. Angry.

After the banquet, the censor Shi Yancheng even took Hei Fu and talked about something: "The officials in the north are all from other places. They must work together to compete with the local heroes."

Therefore, the information that Heifu cannot obtain from them can be supplemented by the gossip that his wife has learned from his wife's social circle. This can be regarded as "lady diplomacy".

Heifu had no impression of these three colleagues. They were either not historical celebrities, or they were just passing supporting roles, so he didn't care much.

"I have just taken office. Within this month, I will not be in a hurry to do anything. It is first important to familiarize myself with the government's powers, build a good relationship with my colleagues, understand the wisdom and wisdom of my subordinates, and understand the local situation."

Under the Qin system, the commander-in-chief generals and soldiers assist the commander-in-chief. Together with the county governor, he was appointed by the Silver Seal Department and became the deputy general of the county. However, they are all responsible for their military duties and do not interfere with civil affairs.

Originally, a very important task of the county lieutenant was to preside over the county's "August Capital Examination". During the slack season after autumn, he gathered young and strong men and asked them to teach shooting skills in various counties to prepare for emergencies. But Heifu arrived by chance. When he arrived in Yiqu City and completed the handover with the former county captain, the one-month "August Capital Examination" had just ended, and the young men had already dispersed.

After winter came, the main task of the county lieutenant became to prepare for the invaders.

As early as when he was the director of the pavilion in Anlu, Heifu knew that every winter was the peak season for cases. The number of thieves in various townships and pavilions in counties and counties has increased significantly, especially in remote areas, where robberies often occur. At the end of September, when winter was approaching, Heifu encountered three thieves by the Yunmeng River. .

There are some real evil thieves among these thieves, but most of them are desperate poor people. It is better to fight to the death than to die of hunger and cold!

This is one of them, and Beidi County is located on the border. The Rong tribes inside and outside the country may also take risks and plunder villages due to snow.

Therefore, Heifu does not plan to make any big moves before the beginning of spring. In accordance with the principle of "the rule of a king is better than that of thieves", he will first improve public security and allow the Northland to survive the winter safely.

But Heifu didn't want to look for trouble, but things quickly came to his door. On the fourth day after he came to Yiqu City to take office, Heifu was checking the list of county soldiers with his chief historian Chen Ping in the office, and the military commander Zuo Shi Zhai Chong came to the office. He hurriedly entered, prostrated himself on the ground, and said nervously:

"Lieutenant, something happened over there in Ohara!"