Chapter 70 Secretly assassinating Chen Cang
Outside this battlefield, on the Ying River, a small fleet from Yangzhou was slowly going upstream.

The flow of Ying River dropped sharply and the fleet could barely sail.

Jiang Ji, the governor of Yangzhou, wore a black gauze crown and sat on the platform of the sparrow room, squinting his eyes to bask in the sun.

On the small mast in front of them, a bloody man was tied and a soldier was whipping him with a whip.

The wound opened and blood dripped onto the deck.

A soldier dragged a man out of the cabin. It was Heiyun who had just been tortured.

Another military officer raised his hand and grabbed Heiyun's hair and forced him to look at Song Wu who was being tortured. Song Wu just opened his mouth, but was too weak to make any sound.

Then Heiyun was brought to the front of the Queshi Terrace. Jiang Ji stood up and looked down: "We are almost at Xutian. It will be too late if you don't say it now. Is that bandit chieftain Heixiong your Sanlang?"

"Unfair! My third son, Xin, died in the corvée service in Chenliu!"

Heiyun was really wronged, with an innocent look on his face: "Axin is really dead, I really don't know who is called Black Bear!"

"Then why did your family flee?"

Jiang Ji asked knowingly, leaning forward slightly, narrowing his eyes and speaking in a gentle tone: "Now let me make it clear, not only will you not suffer any physical pain, but you will also be Jiang's honored guest! As the saying goes, a man who knows the current situation is a hero, why are you doing this?"

After the exiled Pei people reported to the authorities in Shouchun, he sent people to track down the fairy peach. Three people died due to carelessness, which made him really take it seriously.

After he escaped from his White Goose Thief, he continued his pursuit and captured Song Wu, who had assisted Zhang Jun in his escape.

But Heiyun was really unlucky. When the officials arrested Song Wu, Heiyun and a group of Mengze people were working together, so they were arrested as accomplices.

It happened to be the Hei family. Jiang Ji only recently found out that the leader of the White Goose Bandits was called Black Bear.

However, he repeatedly checked his memory and found no similarities between the black bear and the black cloud.

But it is the Hei family after all. What if it is?

After all, Black Bear and Black Letter are of similar age. If this is true, there will be no regret medicine for Jiang Ji.

If there was no such relationship, even if Heiyun was wrongly accused, what would it have to do with Jiang Ji?
This was something that Xudu had repeatedly ordered to be investigated. Even without Jiang Ji, someone else would have been responsible.

People like Heiyun, who migrated thousands of miles with their families to Huainan, are not considered good people.

If he dies, he dies. The most that can be said is that the charge does not match the crime... not that the crime does not deserve the death penalty.

It’s just that Jiang Ji always feels his scalp itchy from time to time, and it does feel more comfortable to scratch it after his hair becomes shorter.

Killing a hundred Black Clouds by mistake would not affect Jiang Ji's drinking, eating and receiving salary, but what if he really killed the relatives of Black Bear Commander?

Jiang Ji patiently advised Heiyun: "This Song warrior has said everything he should and shouldn't say. He is a former official of Liu Xuande, and the escaped Zhang Jun is not a native of Lu. This one is from Shouzhang, Dongping, and is the cousin of Zhang Miao and Zhang Chao, and a former subordinate of Lü Wenhou."

"Look, these two bandit leaders who are stirring up trouble and inciting the villagers to flee are not good people. Why are you still holding on?"

Jiang Ji carefully observed the changes in Heiyun's expression, and his tone became gentler: "I suffered a lot of humiliation at the hands of Bai'e General, but I also remember his kindness in saving my life. Besides, you also know that your Sanlang is not dead. That Bai'e General called himself Black Bear, maybe he borrowed your child's surname."

Hearing this, Hei Yun turned to look at Song Wu and asked, "Then... can my people still survive?"

"You don't know how much the court values ​​this Baiequ commander."

Jiang Ji lowered his head and looked down: "Song Wu was a captain of the army, but he couldn't stand the torture, let alone you. I shouldn't ask you the rest of the questions. Someone will ask you when we get to Xudu. Your wife and children, the lives of your fellow villagers and their wives and children are all in your hands."

"I just hope that you will cooperate well. The court will be generous with your rewards. Your two sons are also old enough to go to primary school. If you cooperate with the court, they will have the opportunity to go to school and become officials."

Jiang Ji glanced at Song Wu who was tied to the mast and told the people around him, "Heal this man's wound."

"Here."

The followers obeyed the order, and Jiang Ji said to Heiyun: "You should think carefully. If this is feasible, all your companions can survive and not lose their wealth."

Heiyun nodded slightly. He was really confident in his heart and asked curiously, "What exactly is Bai E Shuai capable of?"

"Some people speculate that he has learned the secret technique of Hu Gong. Don't ask too much. There will be someone in Xutian who will take care of this matter. In the future, they will also contact you. As long as I am in Yangzhou, Paul and his family will live a prosperous life."

Jiang Ji waved his hand to signal the black cloud to go away, and he continued to look at the outline of the buildings in the north.

That is Xutian, located thirty miles south of Xudu.

More than 10,000 families settled here for farming, and the annual output of rice, corn, wheat and beans exceeded 5 million shi.

A soldier needs 20 dan of grain a year; the grain obtained from Xutian is enough to supply the officials, slaves, and idle personnel of Xudu, and there is even a little surplus.

After all, Xu Du is the face of the imperial court, so the rent of Xutian is really not high and is levied according to the tax system.

However, in addition to farming, tenant farmers always have to buy and sell other daily necessities.

The surplus grain harvested will eventually flow into the Xudu market to supply food for the non-working population.

There is an office of the General of Agriculture in Xutian, which is located on the bank of Yingshui River. There is also a simple dock to facilitate the loading and unloading of grain.

The Diannong Yamen was more like a military town, with a low earthen wall on the outside, a parade ground inside, and a rudimentary arsenal and granary.

The food stored here is considered as Cao’s army’s emergency reserve food.

Inside the Dian Nong Yamen, Ren Jun, the Lieutenant General of Dian Nong, was playing chess with Cao Bin, while Ding Fei, the Captain of Dian Jun, was watching.

Ding Fei was from the Ding family of Qiao County, and the Ding and Cao families were relatives for generations.

After Cao Cao was defeated in Nanyang and Cao Ang was killed, his cousin Mrs. Ding divorced him.

That year, Ding Chong, the Inspector of the Imperial Guards who had been friends with Cao Cao since childhood, died of a hangover due to intestinal rot, but this did not affect Ding Fei's status.

He was still the commander of Cao's army, responsible for assessing the discipline of officers.

This time he was ordered to come to Xudu in order to conduct an in-depth investigation into the matter of the White Goose Thief.

In order to avoid intervention from court officials, only Ren Jun's Department of Agriculture and Cao Cao's younger brother Cao Bin participated in this event.

Ren Jun was not an outsider either. In the early days of the war against Dong Zhuo, Ren Jun led his troops to support Cao Cao, and Cao Cao married his cousin to Ren Jun. Ren Jun did not want to get involved in this matter, but now only his military farming system was completely independent of the Xudu court, with its own territory, population and army.

In order to motivate the tenants and settlers in the agricultural departments of each county, Ren Jun even applied to the court for quotas for selecting filial and honest officials.

Each county has a different number of quotas for filial and honest officials based on its population and support policies for border counties, but his proposal has not yet been approved by the court.

It was a very important move to allow the General of Agriculture, who was at the same level as a county or state, to have the qualification to recommend filial and honest officials.

At the county level, there was the General of Agriculture, and at the county level, there was the Commandant of Agriculture.

A county has a county magistrate, and it is also possible that a separate area will be carved out to establish a commander of agriculture.

The county magistrate and the commander of agriculture were close to each other, but they were not subordinate to each other.

Compared with the counties, Cao Cao now trusts the Diannong system more.

Ding Fei was watching the chess game when an official came in and whispered, "General, the Yangzhou ship is five miles away."

Ren Jun just nodded, and couldn't help but sigh to Ding Fei: "Wen Hou, what is the basis for such a weird technique? You have gone to such trouble. If people knew about it, wouldn't they laugh at you?"

Ding Fei said seriously, "It's definitely not a monster. This is something witnessed by more than 400 soldiers in the Central Army. How could it be false?"

The top leaders of Cao’s army have discussed the sudden and incomprehensible phenomenon and found a reasonable explanation.

Seeing that Ren Jun didn't believe him, Ding Fei didn't want to describe what happened that night in too much detail.

In fact, he was inspecting somewhere else that night and was not in the camp, so he did not experience it personally.

Seeing that Ren Jun was about to speak, Ding Fei said, "Even if this is an order from Lord Cao, it is the Lord's concern. As his subjects, we should be loyal and resolve this problem."

Cao Bin, who was sitting opposite Ren Jun, put the chess piece in his hand back into the box and looked at Ren Jun seriously. "This is something that my brother has repeatedly told me to do, so I really shouldn't question it. The Department of Agriculture doesn't need to contribute much, just coordinate with Yangzhou to set up a Department of Agriculture Lieutenant General in Shaobei."

Although there were several Generals of Agriculture, the real head of the military farming department was always Ren Jun.

Ren Jun frowned as he listened. "This is not easy to do. I have been lobbying everywhere recently, hoping that each county's military headquarters can select filial and honest people, which will help motivate officials and people to work hard. If there is one more military headquarters, there will be many more variables."

Military farming was a hard job, and the overall quality of his military farming officials was not very good, but they were carefully selected and appointed by him, and they were useful.

But after a system has been running for a few years, it will become dull.

Especially after the danger to survival disappeared, the enthusiasm of the military and civilians participating in military farming began to decline.

In order to motivate the villagers, he wanted to get some quotas for filial and honest officials.

Allowing the General of Agriculture at the county and state level to recommend officials and civilians as filial and honest officials is the best way to motivate the residents!

If ordinary people are filial to their parents, no matter how poor they are, they will one day be recognized as filial and honest; the same goes for ordinary officials.

However, the officials and people of the military farming departments in various places were excluded from the original system of selecting filial and honest people.

This is very unfair. Ren Jun just wants to restore it and ask for an independent nomination quota to strengthen the cohesion and enthusiasm of the local military settlements.

When Zhang Yan surrendered with the Black Mountain Army, he was given the rights, during the negotiations, of being nominated as an incorruptible official and a civil servant, which were equal to those of a county or state.

Being selected as a filial and honest official is the most correct career path.

Since last autumn, this matter has not been confirmed or implemented, but many people have been trying to get people into the military farming system in order to get the quota for filial and honest officials.

Yangzhou would not object to setting up a General of the Central Army in Shaobi. If his proposal was passed by the court, it would be equivalent to giving Yangzhou people one more quota for filial and honest officials every two years.

However, this fixed quota for filial and honest officials, as well as the control over the quota, would add personnel troubles to his job beyond his main duties.

Farming is really hard work, and Ren Jun is a relatively pragmatic person.

He didn't want to set up a new army of generals just for a white goose thief, and then have the personnel appointments of this army disrupt the previously determined distribution plan.

Seeing that Ren Jun was still shirking his responsibilities, Cao Bin said bluntly: "Boda, this is not only a business matter, but also a family matter."

"In this case, I am willing to cooperate with Lord Wen."

Ren Jun stopped trying to shirk his responsibilities and went to see Ding Fei: "Lord Wen, who do you want to be the General of Agriculture in Shaobei?"

"I will not interfere in the affairs of the military farms. If Boda is interested, please give me a seal of the military farm commander and I will select someone to take up the post."

Ding Fei said in his first sentence that he would not interfere, but in his second sentence he asked for the official seal of a military farm commander, which made it clear that he did not want to get involved in the matter of selecting filial and honest officials for the military farm.

Ren Jun's proposal was very reasonable and the benefits involved were too great. Regardless of whether it could be accomplished or not, Ding Fei did not want to get involved.

While the two were talking, Cao Bin opened a scroll of bamboo slips and examined it with his eyes lowered.

The above are the legends about extraordinary people from various places in the Later Han Dynasty, including famous immortals in the Central Plains such as Hu Gong of Runan and Fei Changfang, as well as Ji Zixun who could teleport hundreds of steps; and Liu Gen from Yingchuan who lived in seclusion in Songshan Mountain and practiced Taoism and could ward off ghosts.

A few years ago, there was a man named Ji Zixun who was living in Jiyin. He accidentally dropped and killed his neighbor's baby, but his parents did not blame him. More than a month later, Ji Zixun returned the resurrected baby to his neighbor and disappeared.

The files suspected that Ji Zixun was Ji Zixun, as the pronunciations were similar, and the people of Jiyin may have written the name wrong.

More recently, during the Guandu period two years ago, Le Gong invaded Hanoi and killed Song Jinsheng, a man who was able to guard the camp gate with a dog.

There was a strong Taoist atmosphere in Jiangdong. In addition to the popularity of Ganjun Dao and Lijia Dao, there were also Wei Boyang and Ge Xuan, two children of high-ranking families with a family history of over 2,000 stones, who lived in seclusion and practiced Taoism.

Therefore, the white-robed warrior who suddenly appeared and disappeared was very likely to have mastered Ji Zixun's teleportation method.

There is another possibility that the other party has learned the secret technique of Hu Gong and can hide in treasures such as the cave in the pot.

In short, the Cao family’s tradition is to believe in these things.

Cao Bin also believed it without a doubt... because he secretly ate a yellow plum that came from the Laozi Temple.

The effect was outstanding. He was not sure whether it extended his life or not. He just felt that in that half month he seemed to have returned to his youth, and was extremely brave and strong.

(End of this chapter)