novelsite Chapter 2893: The County Magistrate's Shock
Chapter 2893: The County Magistrate's Shock
Chapter 2893: The County Magistrate's Shock
three months later.
After the previous county magistrate died suddenly, another one finally came to fill the vacancy.
The county magistrate is very old.
He was an old Jinshi, having passed the exam at the age of 55.
It can be said that I will retire after working for a few years.
That means he will serve as the county magistrate.
This old county magistrate is obviously much smarter, or he is more cunning.
He spent a lot of money to get this real position.
It is common for a county to be poor but its magistrate to be rich.
Even a rotten boat has three points of nails, it just depends on how you scrape the flesh.
When the old county magistrate came to Daqing County, he had no other needs but three things.
Make money, make money, and make money!
Of course, he also felt that the sudden death of the previous county magistrate was somewhat strange.
After all, according to the documents, the other party is only in his 30s, which is the prime of his life.
Although it is normal to get sick when traveling to remote areas due to unfamiliar climate and water.
But I always feel that there is something wrong here, mainly because the timing of the illness was too coincidental.
He died of a sudden illness not long after taking office. This is too fast.
But these days, it’s normal for a county magistrate to get sick, let alone the emperor.
The emperor died of a minor illness. This kind of thing should not happen too often.
Countless emperors died in their thirties.
So when the old county magistrate arrived, he did not do anything rashly.
He simply asked his old servant to invite the county gentry, scholars, and old juren to a banquet for drinks.
After drinking a few times, he slowly asked his old servant to investigate the local area.
As for himself, he was, of course, the son of a wealthy family, and he could not sit idle in the hall.
He never left the yamen.
Except for a very few people, most county magistrates like him only had one or two servants and two legal advisors when they took office.
They can't afford many bodyguards.
Only the children of wealthy families can have special bodyguards and servants to protect them.
Since many county magistrates take office in debt, how can they afford to hire them?
Spending money to buy something, getting rich and paying off debts, this is the common routine.
After the old servant investigated, the old county magistrate felt terrified.
There are dozens of mountain god temples in the local area, and the mountain gods are very effective.
It is said that when the mountain god appeared, he killed more than 40 robbers.
The village heads, county yamen runners, and gentry were all bribed by the mountain god temple.
They have deep faith in the mountain gods.
Many people who were seriously ill were cured by the medicine given by the mountain god.
In fact, it was penicillin and some antibiotics that Zhao Qingyu brought from the modern world.
Most of the ancient diseases were caused by inflammation.
For example, colds, pneumonia, and inflamed wounds.
It can be said that most of the incurable diseases in ancient times were various inflammations.
Ancient people also had surgical procedures, but they did not become popular in the end because of the limitations caused by inflammation.
If there is no surgery, the patient can survive for several months, but once surgery is performed, it will become inflamed and die in a few days.
This has a lot to do with the fact that surgery has not developed.
With the advent of antibiotics, surgery was no longer a problem for many ancient doctors.
What's more, with the power of the mountain god, it was very easy for Zhao Qingyu to remove the lesion.
Just restore it.
This mountain god can cure illnesses with one hand and wield a knife with the other. In the eyes of the old county magistrate, he is naturally invincible.
Which country gentleman’s head is harder than a knife?
Since believing in the mountain god has so many benefits, they will naturally believe in it.
After listening to this, the old county magistrate decided to do something.
That is "harmony in the world".
Since others believe in it, he also believes in it.
Of course, he also knew that the people above him hated these supernatural things.
Because it could easily get out of their control.
Ambitious people who want to rebel often make excuses about things related to gods and ghosts.
Too many things to deal with.
The most typical ones are the Taiping Dao Yellow Turban Rebellion and the unchanging Bai for thousands of years.
In short, he decided to pretend to be submissive on the one hand and deceive his superiors and subordinates on the other.
In this way, with the old county magistrate doing nothing, the entire Daqing Mountain and Daqing County became more prosperous.
The old county magistrate just pretended to be deaf and dumb and held banquets every day.
As long as the taxes are paid and the regular taxes are paid to him, he doesn't care about anything else.
Under Zhao Qingyu's control, it was very easy to pay the full tax.
There was not much silver, but food was still easy to produce.
With the help of modern grain varieties, fertilizers and pesticides, it is easy to double the output.
There is often groundwater and underground rivers in the mountains.
After all, there are cold air currents where there are mountains.
Where there is cold air, there will be precipitation.
In the past, there were always flash floods.
Precious fresh water resources are wasted in summer.
It can be said that the water wasted is enough to irrigate several times the amount of fields, and there is still some left over.
Therefore, building reservoirs was a very important matter in ancient times.
But it is very, very tiring work.
But for the mountain god and Zhao Qingyu, it was not a problem.
So under Zhao Qingyu's arrangement, things became very simple.
The reservoirs in the mountains are all made of stone and are very neat.
Able to reserve plenty of water every time.
Whenever there is drought, the gates can be opened to release water.
Apart from anything else, just controlling the mountain reservoir is enough to make the people believe it.
There were countless cases of people fighting for water, and this continued until the modern day, when large-scale wells and electric power construction eliminated this problem.
In this way, the old county magistrate and the mountain god did not interfere with each other.
It was very good and comfortable to get along with each other.
Another three years passed.
The old county magistrate received high praise from the Ministry of Personnel.
After all, being able to pay the taxes in full is the best achievement of a county magistrate for them.
Most counties are well behind on their payments.
Not to mention the poor counties, even the rich counties will default on their payments.
This is inevitable.
And now that he can hand it in as he pleases, that is naturally a good thing.
Soon, Daqing County became a lucrative position.
The old county magistrate was forced to leave early just a few months before his term expired.
Because there was no one behind him, he was not promoted but just transferred horizontally.
But this is not bad. Under normal circumstances, people would just find a mistake and demote you directly.
Do you really think the feudal dynasty is a joke?
If a county could pay all the regular taxes, then the profits it would receive would surely be even greater.
No one is stupid.
So a new county magistrate came.
Because he was cheated, the old county magistrate resigned without saying anything.
But he knew that this was a hidden danger and he didn't want to be troubled any more.
……
The old county magistrate guessed correctly.
Because at this time, Zhao Qingyu had already been deeply rooted and finally began to expand his territory.
He has not yet had any potential conflict with the court.
The new county magistrate is also a master at making money.
He soon found out what was going on here.
He also deceives his superiors and subordinates.
Are you stupid? It looks like a big deal here.
He had to make quick work of the past two years and then be transferred immediately.
As for exposing it, he would never do that.
……
It’s just that the new county magistrate was unlucky because Zhao Qingyu took the initiative to expand outward.
Although in the county, the new county magistrate was still helping him conceal it, the population of the county was certain.
At least within the next 20 to 30 years, it is impossible for the population to grow too much. It would be great if it could increase by 30%.
Zhao Qingyu has already figured out that as long as a mountain god temple is built, the area around the temple will also be able to display divine power.
In short, he needs more people, larger territory, and more incense.
At first, Zhao Qingyu also thought about whether he should continue to hide.
But he discovered a fatal problem.
Even though he became a mountain god, even though he was a god and still had incense to worship, his own lifespan was still limited.
Those land gods are not immortal either.
Even if you become a god in heaven, you still need to eat peaches regularly.
He also needs to expand for the sake of his own longevity.
The incense of the people in this county can last for about 300 years, which is actually very long.
Like a dynasty, it only lasts 300 years.
After that, he will die.
If you want to survive, you have to expand outward.
But when expanding outward, problems arise.
Fortunately, this place is remote and transportation is inconvenient, otherwise it would have been discovered by the master of the county town long ago.
And now that he has expanded into the county, he can no longer conceal it.
He asked his men to take the medicines and good seeds to bribe the local gentry and persuade the people to worship him.
Soon the county magistrate finally learned about this matter.
In fact, in the past two years, some people have reported this to the county magistrate.
But the county magistrate would rather have less trouble than more, and he would be leaving after two more years anyway.
So he didn't interfere much.
But things can't always go smoothly.
When the old county magistrate saw that something was wrong, he quickly retired and returned home.
And the new county governor arrived.
He is a rare upright person.
This man is born strict and upright.
There were also such people in feudal dynasties.
After all, there are always people who are truly fooled.
Deep in my heart, I believe in benevolence, righteousness and justice.
They are individuals who have betrayed their class.
For the sake of the court and the people, he would rather suppress the gentry, restrain annexation, and uphold justice.
There aren't many people like this, but they definitely exist.
Among dynasties that can last for more than two hundred years, such people account for 3%.
When he learned from his subordinates that there were mountain temples in 6 out of 5 counties, he became angry.
"The imperial court has repeatedly warned against engaging in wild god worship."
"These people are still messing around. They are simply ignoring the court!"
He was very angry and immediately took his relatives, young and strong men, and soldiers from the county.
However, the soldiers were not under the command of the county governor, but under the command of the county garrison.
He went to investigate on his own first.
After investigation, it was found that it could only be suppressed by military force.
So he reported this to his superiors.
Afterwards, he requested an order to mobilize troops.
……
The imperial cabinet.
When several bigwigs saw Daqingshan's memorial, they immediately frowned.
You have to know that if it were someone else, they would definitely not be willing to report it.
Because reporting this matter means that his political achievements are questionable.
He himself would suffer a lot of accusations and suspicions, but this upright county magistrate did not care about his own future and reported the matter.
But after the report was submitted, the cabinet took a look and declared it an "ignorant person."
“Be more missionary.”
That's it, they won't spend money to deal with it.
After a few years, it became cold.
That's what they think.
However, they did do something.
That is to order the garrison to cooperate with the county governor to demolish these temples.
Educate them.
This is the advice given by the Cabinet.
If you can avoid spending money, don’t spend it. If you can spend less, spend less. There are too many places to spend money.
They can't do anything about it.
Although they can make some money every time they spend it, they are often in a dilemma and can't get things done.
So the county magistrate, after receiving the order, took the decree and went to mobilize the troops.
He took 2000 men and started to attack.
It would have been fine if we didn't attack, but once we attacked, things would have gotten serious.
It's like some fancy talk, with all kinds of fancy words, such as "a little effort can achieve great results", "overcoming the strong with the weak", "connecting and transforming"... There are many theories.
The result is that once he gets on the ring, he can't move a thousand pounds with just 10 ounces of force. He falls down when someone throws him, and becomes crooked when someone touches him.
The real “four ounces to move a thousand pounds” requires that you have ten thousand pounds, or at least the same thousand pounds of strength, so that you can defeat your opponent with less strength.
That's it for now.
The 2000 men dispatched by the county magistrate suffered a crushing defeat as soon as they showed up.
They first attacked the first mountain temple located in the suburbs.
At a command from the new county magistrate, the garrison led their men to surround the temple.
However, the soldiers were all doubtful.
They are also local people and they know the efficacy of this mountain god.
There are only a few ruffians who want to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune.
They thought to themselves that at least they had support from above.
So under the order, he rushed to the temple first.
Their first target is the golden body.
They found out that the statues used to be made of gold foil, but now they are all made of pure gold.
At least one layer is made of gold.
Because gold is soft, if you want to carve it into a gold statue, it must be filled with bronze or iron.
The thugs approached the temple, shouting and yelling.
"People from the imperial court, get out if you don't want to die!"
"Are you gathering here to rebel?"
"Assholes, you can't disturb the mountain god!" An old country gentleman cursed there. Conservative and backward country gentlemen and mountain gods are the best combination...
At this moment, many spikes immediately appeared on the ground.
In broad daylight, stone pillars emerged directly from the flat ground.
Among the first hooligans who rushed forward, more than fifty people died.
My goodness! At this moment, thousands of other county soldiers collapsed immediately!
"The mountain god has appeared!"
"The gods have appeared!"
Who can bear such an inexplicable death?
Even if they were hacked to death or shot to death, and more than 100 people died, they could still hold on.
However, now that only a few dozen people were killed by the extraordinary power, they collapsed.
Because their deaths were so inexplicable.
The person in front knelt down immediately after seeing this.
When the people behind saw this, they turned around and ran.
Running and shouting:
"You can't fight!"
"The people in front have been punished by God!"
"Run!"
Just like that, the county governor was stunned, the garrison was terrified, and everyone collapsed.
This is the normal behavior of county soldiers.
Those soldiers who are truly capable of fighting are often the direct commanding officers of the governor or governor-general.
It belongs to the recruitment system.
They were given one tael and five cents of silver, or two taels of silver, every month, in addition to food, clothing, and armor.
This kind of people are capable of fighting.
Local people like them, who were recruited as county soldiers, did not have much fighting power.
They are often owed money and have to rely on food delivered from home.
In fact, it is a form of forced military service.
When the upright county magistrate saw this scene, his mouth opened wide.
"Impossible, are there really gods?"
"Why didn't this deity appear during previous disasters?"
This scene shocked him greatly.
This is a battlefield, a bloody battlefield!
The person is really dead!
He reached for the bodies.
He even slapped himself hard in the face.
He found out it was not fake.
Not a charlatan!
"This is actually true?"
"Isn't this different from those tricks?"
He has a big head.
He didn't know what to do.
This went against his decades of hard study.
The county magistrate knew very well that any Taoist priest or so-called magician would never dare to show off their skills on the battlefield.
There was such a Taoist priest in the early Song Dynasty, and he was killed directly.
But now it's different.
This mountain god is actually real.
The county magistrate was still a capable elite feudal official.
He quickly led his men to retreat and ordered people to gather the defeated soldiers.
(End of this chapter)