Chapter 10 Zhu A
The distant shadows in the high sky are gone in the blue sky, and the white sails are waving in the Jishui River.
Seeing that everything went well, the pavilion chief Sun Xun was very happy.
He sat on the horse on the bow of the boat, humming an unknown Qingzhou tune all the way, slapping his thighs and beating time.
He waved his hand and motioned for Zhang Chong to come closer.
Zhang Chong took a few steps and stood respectfully aside with his hands lowered, listening to the teachings of Chief Sun Ting.
"Second son, I have watched you since I was a child. You are just like my nephew. When I saw you volunteering to take the lead yesterday, I felt that you can be successful and do things in the future. But if you only have the heart to do things, , If you don’t know how to do things, it will be a recipe for disaster. As an uncle, I will tell you about the scenery and customs of our Jishui, so that you can know the pros and cons when you go out to work.”
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"We will arrive at Zhu'a in the afternoon, and I will tell you about Zhu'a's favors first. There are three wealthy families in Zhu'a, namely Zhang, Chen, and Gao. Let's talk about the Chen and Gao families first. They are all He is a military hero of this dynasty.”
"The Gao family was a hero during the reign of Emperor Taizu of the former Han Dynasty. They were granted a title in Zhu'a. Although they committed crimes and were expelled from the country within two generations, they were still a powerful family in Zhu'a."
"The same goes for the Chen family. This family was a military lord named during the Guangwu Zhongxing. They were originally Nanyang County officials during the New Dynasty. Later, they went to Hebei to join Guangwu and became the Twenty-eight Yuntai Generals. Later, Zhu'a was assigned to us. In the Kingdom of Jinan, the Chen family was transferred to another place, but they also left a branch here.”
"In addition, their children are still practicing crossbows and martial arts are prevalent, so I wish that the Chen family is still a powerful one."
"But no matter how arrogant these two families are, they are nothing compared to the first family. This Zhu A Zhang family should be called Zhu A Hou to be precise, and they were granted the title during the Xiaoshun years."
"In terms of wealth, it has only lasted sixty years, and it is incomparable to the last two. But in terms of power, it has to be this one."
"Why?"
"It's just because this family is of the eunuch lineage and one of the nineteen princes who supported Emperor Shun. At that time, the Yan family, a relative, controlled the government and established a new emperor."
"At that time, there was a man named Zhang Xian in the Zhang family, who was working as a small yellow gate in the palace. He and eighteen other eunuchs swore together under the bell tower to support the then deposed prince. It turned out to be true."
"Zhang Xian was directly granted the title of Marquis of Zhu'a, with a settlement of 4,000 households. You must know that Zhu'a is a small county, with less than 10,000 households. And the taxes of 4,000 households among them belong exclusively to the Zhang family. It can be seen that Zhu'a is basically a They belong to the Zhang family.”
"Although Zhang Xian later had a falling out with Cao Jie, the eunuch who succeeded him, and his settlement was reduced to 3,000 households. But in Zhu'a, you still have to look at the Zhang family."
"The three families are here to wish each other the same spirit, and the local tycoons also support the three families, so the county chiefs are not looked down upon by them."
"There was a time when Zhu Achang came to take office. He asked his subordinates how powerful the Honma was. The subordinates mentioned these three companies. Who knew that Zhu Achang was angry and said these were some stinky fish and rotten shrimps? What I said The powerful ones were Fan, Yin, Ma, and Liang, and after speaking, they drove away the assistant officials."
"But guess what, later on when Zhu Achang visited the county, he was stabbed to death on the road, and his head was placed at the intersection. Since then, no one who took office later has not treated these three families with respect."
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"This is Zhu'a's favor. Just as officials need to know local favors, we who transport water must also know it. Otherwise, if we offend randomly, we will die without knowing how."
"You saw it just now. The old Chiang Kai-shek holding the pole has a bald head. Despite his plain appearance, he doesn't seem to have any martial arts skills. He seems to be an ordinary person."
"But you must know that this man is a cruel and ruthless desperado, and he has countless murders in his hands. He was not like this before, but then he was killed because of trivial things, and then he became like that."< br>
"But if a big thief like this is on the run, he will be taken in if the Zhang family says he will take him in. If he dares to offend him, he will have his head hurt at night. But there are advantages to this. I hope that with such a family, we can walk on the water and feel safe. If we encounter You also know who to look for.”
"We are afraid of chaos. If there is chaos, this business will not be able to continue."
"Cough cough ~ cough cough"
After all, it was because of his age that the river wind in February was still biting. By the time Sun Xun finished speaking, he was already feeling a bit overwhelmed.
He wanted to say more, but his body didn't allow it, so he ordered Zhang Chong to keep an eye on him, and he was helped into the warehouse by his handsome disciple.
Watching Sun Xun leave, my little dad came up to him.
He also said to Zhang Chong:
"Second son, Lao Sun is fine with you. I also have familiar friends, and it is exactly what Lao Sun said. Zhang's family is the emperor of the land in this area, not to mention ordinary people, they are the ones with two thousand stones. It’s also something you can’t mess with.”
"It's not because of the weight of the title, but because of their status as eunuchs. If you grow up in the countryside, you may not know how heavy the eunuch is."
"They seem to have only a few dozen people in one generation, but from generation to generation, the number of party members, relatives, friends and guests who rely on them may be hundreds of thousands. These people are all over the government and the public, looking for people and money."
"The former Qingliu Party members couldn't defeat these people. Later, when these people suffered the consequences of the Party's imprisonment, the power of these eunuchs became even greater."
Zhang Chong was surprised by what his father said.
Because the knowledge involved here is definitely not something that a landless refugee can have.
He knew that his little dad had gone out to work a long time ago, but he never knew what he was doing outside. Looking at it now, his little dad probably had a story.
……
The water transport fleet arrived at Zhua in the afternoon.
They arrived at a pier in Jishui called Chaoyangdu.
When they arrived here, there were already five hundred-stone cannons parked on the pier. At this time, some disciples, under the command of the warehouse officials, began to load the grain and load the ships.
There are special warehousemen on the dock who count the quantity of goods shipped.
Their responsibility is to let Chief Cancao know the data on the rice sent to Xingyang every year so that he can cope with the annual calculation.
But in fact, these real data will never be known to Shangguan.
These warehouse officials will keep two records. One contains the real data, but is only kept for internal records, and the other is for the Cao officials who lead the Cao team.
Only one seal will be stamped on this document, and the specific number will be filled in by the Cao officials based on the specific amount of rice on the ship when they arrive at Aocang.
Why do this? If you ask a warehouse official like this, he will definitely teach you in the tone of an old official:
"This water transport is subject to losses. The millet and beans eaten by the porters on the boat are all on the boat. And when they arrive at the place, the Aocang officials have to inspect them, because they will find that the millet is too old or too damp. Let them take it to dry.”
"After this back and forth, the amount of corn at the time of departure and the actual amount of corn arrived were wrong."
"At this time, if you give the official list of the statistics at departure to Ao Cang officials for sealing, they will not recognize it. They will seal it based on the actual arrival of corn in the warehouse."
"In this case, the magistrate will have to go back one more time, which will waste time."
"So, in actual government affairs, we give the magistrates a blank seal and let them go to Aocang and then actually write it."
"If you are a new official, you may be deceived by the words of this old official. You really think that this is because of actual implementation, but you don't know that this is all to facilitate the river and lead to corruption."
At this time, the dock was full of ships, and the fleet could only anchor in the center of the river.
Afterwards, five or six warehouse officials and their assistants came closer with oars and oars. They wanted to inspect the fleet's cargo and identity symbols.
Just when everyone was putting down the rope and preparing to pull them onto the boat.
There was a sound of fighting on the dock, followed by flames shooting into the sky.
It turned out that the hayyard on the dock was set on fire.
Duman and Zhang Dan also went on the deck at this moment.
They had united around Zhang Chong since they got on the boat. They had been rowing below and only came up when they heard the call from above to check the talisman festival.
As soon as they came up, they saw the wharf blazing with flames. The concubines who were weaving rice figurines by the forage field had already run away crying, but most of them were killed by a group of countrymen.
Under the firelight was a pile of humanoid corpses. They were called humanoids because these concubines were tortured by a miserable life. They were all like skinny monkeys and no longer looked like humans.
But because of this, those country soldiers were even more brutal in their killing.
They chopped the concubine's body into pieces, cutting off her hands, heads and feet, and some of them had a sword stuck in their severed heads.
After killing the concubines, they then killed the warehouse officials. The closest person was the warehouse clerk who was keeping the records, and he was beheaded immediately.
There was a country soldier who was wielding a gun. He hung the warehouseman's head on the gun and kept shouting wildly.
Panic spread like a tide, and the entire dock was in chaos.
The porters and porters ran to the boat like crazy, and the boatmen on the boat also panicked. They subconsciously wanted to push the boat away. But when he heard someone shouting below, he still hesitated and stopped.
The few men who were close immediately seized this opportunity and climbed up along the cable. But after climbing a few times, their legs were grabbed by someone from behind, and they fell into Jishui together.
Everyone has gone crazy. They have no idea why the country soldiers who were used as guards started killing people like crazy.
The boatman on the boat didn't care about the people on the shore. Seeing that the boatmen were still hesitating, he drew his knife and pointed at them to punt the boat.
But the boat was stretched too fast and collided directly with the boat next to it.
One of the five ships overturned directly, and the entire people on the ship were covered under the water.
At this time, the water transport fleet in the middle of the river saw the soldiers killing people and robbing ships, so they all weighed anchor and tried to escape.
But at this moment, a group of people came out of the pavilion not far from the dock.
They were carrying a flag with the word "Chen", about twenty people, led by a knight on horseback, and rushed towards them.
The country soldiers who were still killing people randomly had no formation at all. When they encountered this strict team, they were immediately killed and dispersed.
A rustic soldier with disheveled hair was waving his sword wildly, shouting at the top of his lungs.
But the knight on horseback took out a crossbow from his horse bag, cocked the arrow, and hit the soldier's forehead with one shot.
The soldier looked into the distance and opened his mouth to say something, but seven or eight knives came down on him and reduced him to a pulp.
The chaos started suddenly and was quickly subsided.
Except for those who were hacked to death, the rest of the group of country soldiers were dragged to the mounted warriors.
The warrior looked down and asked:
"Why the rebellion?"
When a soldier with a bloody face and his right hand chopped off heard this, he spat out blood foam and shouted:
"That stupid warehouse official took our salary and rice to load the ships, leaving us with Chensu that even dogs wouldn't eat. This left the family with nothing to eat. If you don't kill him, who will he kill?"
The warrior immediately sneered:
"I gave you the new millet, but who will eat the old millet?"
After saying that, without even looking a second time, he waved his hands to drag the random soldiers down and chop them down.
Suddenly, by the Jishui River, heads were billowing and a fishy smell filled the air.
(End of chapter)