Zhang Xi was surrounded by the people of Xiaji County.
Yes, it is incredible that Zhang Xi was surrounded by a group of people in the county government office of Xiaji County, and everyone looked at Zhang Xi eagerly, and some people had already started to copy wooden sticks.
This is so fucking outrageous.
This is the county government office.
Zhang Xi wouldn't be surprised if he was surrounded by a group of government officials or dead soldiers raised by the county magistrate, but how dare people like Baixin be so courageous these days to enter and leave the court at will? !
No one in a thousand years can do this.
At first, there were not many people surrounding Zhang Xi, only a dozen or so, but as time went by, the number of people increased, so much so that Zhang Xi blocked the market at a glance.
And these people are not here to watch the fun, some young and strong people have already begun to come over carrying wooden sticks.
Judging from the expressions on the faces of this group of people, it didn't look like they were here to see Zhang Xi interrogate a corrupt official. Instead, they looked like they were here to rob the court or, to put it more bluntly, they wanted a civil uprising.
Zhang Xi suddenly looked serious, and the thirty guards were also facing a formidable enemy. Zhang Xi was thinking, should he rush out of the encirclement before there are many people and go to E County to mobilize troops to suppress the rebellion? !
But the magistrate of Xiazhi County stood up at this time.
"What do you want to do?!"
Zhao Lei broke away from Zhang Xi's control, straightened his clothes, walked up to the people, and yelled loudly, "Uncle Liu has sent an envoy to inspect the place. I want to discuss official business with the envoy. You guys broke into the government office without permission and rushed into the government office." Are you here to rebel?"
Zhao Lei's speech was quite acceptable. He did not mention Zhang Xi's identity as Jiangxia County Magistrate, but only said that he was an envoy from Uncle Liu Huang. He did not mention that the common people were holding wooden sticks and other objects. He only said that Zhang Xi broke into the government office without permission and bumped into Zhang Xi.
Finally, asking if it was a rebellion was not to convict him at all, but to make the people deny it, which would make it difficult for Zhang Xi to be held accountable.
Sure enough, the leader among the people immediately denied that he wanted to rebel, but he also said, "We see that this dog official is in trouble, so this is the reason."
After all, the culture is limited, so dragging articles and so on really makes things difficult for the leader.
Zhao Lei did not wait for Zhang Xi to speak, and waved his hand directly and said, "Don't talk nonsense, this is the Prime Minister of Jiangxia County. Uncle Liu cares about the people and has ordered him to come and resettle the refugees. He is about to negotiate with me, but you still won't retreat." Come on, make preparations early?!"
As soon as Zhao Lei said this, the people suddenly became quiet, and then...
"Uncle Liu Huang is here to accommodate me!"
"I just say that Uncle Liu is benevolent and will not ignore me."
"Yes, yes, last year I think it was because Cao Cao's thieves were so fierce that Uncle Liu didn't take care of me. Come back quickly, come back quickly."
"Yeah"
The people were noisy and gradually dispersed.
Zhang Xi, on the other hand, finally noticed something was wrong. What happened to the county magistrate? !
This popularity is very telling. If this is a dog official who doesn't care about the life and death of the people, how can the people protect him like this? ! Will they break up just because of his words? !
At this time, Zhao Lei also bowed to Zhang Xi and apologized, saying, "I have neglected Jun Cheng. This is too tiring to discuss in detail here. I wonder if Jun Cheng can condescend to go to support and let Lei be accused one by one." "
What can Zhang Xi say? !
If we talk about things here, if the county magistrate screams, and I have to be wrapped up like a bun, I might as well go to the backyard, with thirty guards of my own, I bet the county magistrate won't be able to find out. Come in tricks.
Zhao Lei led Zhang Xi to the backyard and introduced himself on the way.
As soon as Zhang Xi heard that the county magistrate's name was Zhao Lei, he immediately dropped half of his guard.
Zhang Xi was very familiar with the name Zhao Lei, one of the four worshippers in Guandi Temple.
It's just that Zhang Xi is not sure whether this Zhao Lei is the future governor of Guan Yu. After all, there are many people with the same name these days, so he doesn't completely let down his guard. It's also because of this.
Zhang Xi knelt and sat down in the back hall with Zhao Lei, and then listened to Zhao Lei's story about the people outside the city.
Zhao Lei was different from Magistrate Cheng in Qichun City. He was a native of Jingzhou and was originally the magistrate of Jingzhou appointed by Liu Biao.
But because Liu Cong surrendered to Cao Cao, Zhao Lei was unwilling to submit to Cao Cao. When Liu Bei went south, Zhao Lei gave up his official position and followed Liu Bei.
After Liu Bei basically took control of Jiangxia County, he searched repeatedly for people with grassroots talents among his entourage, and finally found that Zhao Lei had experience as a county magistrate, so he appointed Zhao Lei as the magistrate of Pheasant County.
After Zhao Lei came to Xiazhi County, the first problem he had to face was the resettlement of the refugees.
Liu Qi moved all the people who followed Liu Bei south to Dongsi County in Jiangxia. However, Liu Qi really didn't think much about it. He thought that when the people arrived, they could farm and live in peace, and he never thought about resettlement.
Liu Qi had no plan, and the magistrates of the four counties were not ready to survive. Therefore, the original magistrates of the four counties ignored these refugees and allowed them to fend for themselves.
Fortunately, Sun and Liu later formed an alliance. In order to ensure the food supply of Jiangdong Army, Liu Bei arranged for new county magistrates to take office, and some changes occurred.
The population that Liu Qi moved to in Lu County and E County was not large. The two areas were divided into one area, and each county had only a few thousand people. It could be arranged with a little absorption.
But I don’t know what Liu Qi was thinking. He arranged for nearly 50,000 people to come to Xiaji and Qichun.
Magistrate Cheng of Qichun County basically followed the same strategy as before. As long as he ensured that the refugees did not rebel, he would not care whether the refugees were alive or dead. He would only focus on governing the county and he would take credit for it. .
County Magistrate Zhao of Xiazhi County. He really couldn't bear to see so many refugees trapped in the wild, without enough food and clothing. In winter, they might freeze to death at any time.
Therefore, he wanted to resettle these refugees.
But the problem is that Zhao Lei is just a county magistrate, and what he can do is really limited.
During the Battle of Chibi, because he had to ensure Jiangdong Army's food routes and help Jiangdong Army build granaries and transport ordnance, Zhao Lei could organize the young men to work, and then report to the superiors to apply for rice and grain subsidies.
This also caused Zhao Lei to be reprimanded by Chen Zhen.
All counties use corvee methods to solve this kind of problem. Why is it that you, Xia Pheasant County, need subsidies? !
Zhao Lei had no choice but to report the actual situation to his superiors. There are more than 20,000 refugees here, and the number of registered civilians under the rule is less than 1,000. Even if I want to launch corvee service, no one will join the force. ah.
Chen Zhen was also considerate of Zhao Lei. Although he still issued a document to reprimand Zhao Lei, he helped him solve some food problems and barely allowed the refugees to survive the winter of that year without a large number of people dying of freezing and starvation. Condition.
On the contrary, in Qichun on the other side of the river, because Magistrate Cheng did not care about the refugees, many refugees had to fend for themselves. As a result, after one winter, they either fled or starved to death, or fled to the south bank of the river, where they could still live, in Xiaji County.
This is why Zhang Xi only saw more than 10,000 refugees in Qichun, but when he arrived at Xiaji, the number suddenly increased.
According to Zhao Lei's statistics, after winter, the number of refugees outside Xiazhi City has grown to more than 30,000.
Zhao Lei had no choice. He couldn't drive these refugees back to Jiangbei, so he could only take them in.
Fortunately, spring is coming, and there is not much else in Xiazhi County, but there is a lot of unowned land. When the time comes, Zhao Lei will organize these refugees to work in the fields, and then the government will guarantee the living needs of these refugees before the harvest, and then deduct the money after the harvest. That's it.
Although it is a bit tiring, it can at least keep these refugees alive.
But before the spring plowing started, many noble servants suddenly came to Zhao Lei's palace.
These people, without exception, all came to Zhao Lei for land registration with Liu Qi's documents.
Liu Qi sold most of the ownerless land in Xiazhi and Qichun counties to others. He gained a lot of money and continued to eat, drink and have fun.
Theoretically speaking, it is impossible for the people abducted by Jiangdong to return to Jiangxia, so their land will naturally become ownerless land.
But this ownerless situation is only relative to other common people or aristocratic families. As for Liu Qi, who is the governor of Jingzhou, he has control over these lands.
Then Liu Qi sold these lands to noble families in exchange for money to support his reputation as the governor of Jingzhou.
In other words, it was legal for Liu Qi to do this, and it was also legal for nobles from aristocratic families to buy land.
Zhao Lei was about to cry.
These people have bought all the land, so where can they find free land to resettle the refugees and organize reclamation and farming?
Zhao Lei was forced to donate all his eight hectares of land, plus some poor forest land that the noble family looked down upon, and collected about twenty hectares of land, temporarily handed it over to some refugees for planting, and then organized The refugees go hunting in the mountains and fish along the river to supplement their daily needs.
But these things were simply not enough to meet the dietary needs of tens of thousands of people. Zhao Lei gritted his teeth and decided to open the county government treasury and store grain to help the people.
This was a clear violation of the law, and in this era, it was also taboo, but Zhao Lei had no choice but to watch the people starve to death.
Fortunately, Liu Bei captured the four counties of Jingnan and organized production there. No one came to check the accounts of the Pheasant Treasury for the time being, so Zhao Lei could continue to fool around.
But no matter how fooled he is, he can't make it through the end of the year.
After all, Xiazhi County was plundered by Jiangdong. When Zhao Lei took office, although Chen Zhen allocated a batch of money and food for emergencies, it was not too much. Zhao Lei could use the money and food to support more than 30,000 people for half a year. The level of life has reached its limit.
When Zhang Xi came, the government treasury was all empty of money and food, and Zhao Lei was dying of anxiety, but there was nothing he could do.
Even when Zhang Xi came, Zhao Lei felt relaxed.
What Zhao Lei can do has been done, and Zhao Lei has done what he can't do. At this stage, Zhang Xi even cut himself, and Zhao Lei admitted it.
But one thing is, you cannot ignore these more than 30,000 refugees.
You must know that I have just said that you are here to deal with the refugee problem on behalf of Uncle Liu Huang. If you don't care about the refugees and leave, then try it and see if you can get out of the Xiaji territory.
(End of chapter)
