"this……"
Liu Hongji's words scared the fat county magistrate until he turned pale again!
He originally thought that by explaining clearly that the people guarding the city were not soldiers, but civilians, he would be able to get a lenient sentence from the superior officer.
But now looking at the Duke's intentions, he doesn't seem to be a generous person!
"This is tragic..." He secretly wiped the sweat from his forehead. Although the fat county magistrate was anxious, he did not dare to acquit those people. He had to ask Xiao Han and others to go to the county government office more humbly.
As for the plan to kill the Duke and the Marquis at the beginning, now he doesn't even dare to think about it. Apart from other things, these twenty or so burly generals alone are not as good as him. Ning Cheng can handle it.
Ningcheng is really small.
The city had a population of less than 10,000 residents, which was incomparable to the hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of counties in later generations.
Of course, this was quite normal in ancient times.
Because at this time, most people still relied on farming and mulberry farming as a means of survival, so living in the city was naturally inconvenient.
Only some wealthy landlords or businessmen can live in the city and become "city dwellers" who are envied by other people.
As for a small county town with only a few thousand people, just think about it and you will know how pitiful its scale is. The east-west wall is only 2 miles long, and the north-south wall is just over a mile. Even if you walk on foot, it won't take long. It can turn the entire county in a circle.
"Is this your county government office?"
Along the street opposite the city gate, after walking through a few alleys, the group arrived in front of the county government office.
It's just that this county government is really broken and has some characteristics!
Standing at the bottom of the steps and looking up, I saw that the door that was originally made of vermilion lacquer with copper nails, not only had most of the copper nails fallen off, but even the vermilion paint looked mottled by the wind and rain.
And inside the gate, there is no courtyard, but you can directly see the lobby where the case is being heard! But should I say it, the lobby of the county government office looks extremely bright!
Of course, this is not because the county government lobby is well designed and has sufficient lighting, but because the roof of the lobby has several holes. Through these holes, the blue sky is so clear!
Tsk tsk, he is indeed the master of Qingtian. Sitting in the lobby, you can directly see the sky. If the case is wrongly judged, you don't have to worry about it being smashed.
Looking at the extremely shabby county government in front of him, Xiao Han bet that he saw an injustice drum standing at the door. Without this drum, he would definitely regard this place as an abandoned Hu Temple Night Temple.
"Ahem, Ningcheng is relatively poor, and it is not easy to collect all the taxes paid to the court every year, so the county government has been putting off repairs."
Seeing Xiao Han and Liu Hongji looking up and down the county government office, the fat county magistrate gave a wry smile, cupped his hands and explained: "But the front hall can't live in people, so if it's dilapidated, it will be dilapidated. The back hall is pretty good, please invite the two adults." Sit down in the back hall!"
"How is the back hall?" Hearing this, Xiao Han and Liu Hongji looked at each other. He didn't believe that if the front room was so shabby, the back room could be so good!
However, now that we are here, it seems unreasonable not to go in.
"Let's go!"
Sighing, Liu Hongji rolled off his sleeves and was the first to enter the county government office.
County government hall.
This place is just as Xiao Han thought. Compared with the previous one, there is not much change. If it must be stronger, it is better because there are no holes.
They say that if you clear the prefecture in ten years, you will get one hundred thousand snowflakes of silver!
Seeing how miserable the county magistrate in front of him was, Xiao Han felt that if he was not an honest official, he must be a treacherous and evil person!
The fat county magistrate didn't know at this time that he was already swinging back and forth between being a loyal person and a traitor in Xiao Han's heart.
When they came to the back hall, they first politely asked Xiao Han and others to take a seat.
However, there were not enough benches in the room, so Lunzi and others could only stand behind Xiao Han. Seeing this scene, the fat county magistrate scratched his head in embarrassment, quickly turned to the master outside the door and shouted: "Go to the restaurant and make a reservation." Put on the mat, then go to the carriage and horse shop and ask shopkeeper Cao to get some fodder to feed the horses!"
When he saw the master running away in a hurry, the fat county magistrate turned around, cupped his hands and said: "There are always few guests at home, so I didn't prepare so many things. Shangguan came all the way, so he must be tired. Let's go to the restaurant later. Let’s get something to eat first.”
I have to say that this arrangement by the fat county magistrate is quite in line with Xiao Han and his friends' psychology. It has been almost a morning, and they are indeed hungry at this time.
"There is no one else here. What the county magistrate couldn't say just now can be said now!" Looking away from the shabby back hall, Xiao Han suppressed his curiosity about the fat county magistrate and prepared to figure out the disaster relief first. Let’s talk about personnel related matters.
"Here!" When the fat county magistrate heard Xiao Han mention this issue again, the smile on his face froze obviously, and then he sighed and explained: "Don't blame me, Mr. Marquis. I was outside just now. I was afraid that something would be revealed to the city." If the people here listen to it, it will cause unnecessary trouble."
After saying this, the fat county magistrate paused, as if waiting for Xiao Han to continue asking, but after waiting for a while, no one spoke, so he could only smile awkwardly and continued:
"To be honest with you, Lord Hou, in fact, as early as a few days ago, Xianguan received the news that Huazhou's embankment burst again and a large number of rescue workers were killed and missing. However, Xianguan blocked the news and did not let the people in the city know it. , otherwise, this city would have been in chaos right now!"
"Oh, where did your news come from?" After hearing this, Xiao Han finally broke the silence and asked.
"I learned about it from the refugees outside." The fat county magistrate looked at Xiao Han carefully and replied quickly: "The refugees outside had just arrived at the city. When the officials saw how pitiful they were, they organized people to give porridge outside the city. The results were okay at first, but then gradually these rumors began to spread among the victims. At that time, the subordinates realized something was wrong and immediately stopped the porridge team and closed the city gate."
"You don't believe this rumor?" Xiao Han continued to ask without commenting on the fat county magistrate's remarks.
"I was somewhat convinced at first." The fat magistrate replied honestly: "But later, when I saw that the refugees spreading rumors were inciting trouble and even attempted to invade the county, I didn't believe it."
"Oh? Are they still attacking the city?" Liu Hongji was still more interested in fighting and killing. Hearing this, he stared at the fat county magistrate suspiciously and said, "You are the only one in this small and broken county that was not captured by them?"
(Ancient counties were really small, such as Taiyuan Ancient County, which covered an area of 0.8 square kilometers, was about 1120 meters long from east to west, about 670-740 meters wide from north to south, and the total length of the city wall was 3732 meters. This is a relatively famous county."
