It cleared after the rain, and white clouds floated in the blue sky, dancing in the gentle breeze, wiping the blue sky brighter.

The air was still wet, but news came from the south of the county that the stone bridge had been repaired, so Hao Fenglou couldn't wait to prepare to set off.

The bridge was called Jinshi Bridge, connecting the two palaces. At this time, it was full of mud, and soldiers and merchants blocking both sides of the bridge were already in an endless stream. Countless people began to move south along the muddy official road, including servants transporting grain, small teams of officials led by military officers, and merchants carrying trucks of goods, which were extremely lively.

Hao Fenglou and others naturally attracted attention, especially the 300 soldiers wearing personal uniforms, carrying muskets, dry food and water bags, and were tireless all the way, which made people constantly guess their identities in secret.

Some people who have seen the world are speculating in their minds that they all have the latest muskets. They have seen these muskets, which are very powerful. There are some of them among the army of conquering the barbarians. Only three hundred people have one, but they are unprecedented. In addition, the uniforms of their own soldiers make people even more strange. Therefore, the officers and soldiers who have always been bold are obediently staying away from this group of people, not daring to get too close, and not daring to go up to cause trouble.

After passing through several prefectures and counties, Luzhou was in front of you.

However, the fief of the Hao Fenglou family was not Luzhou Prefecture. It was said to be the Marquis of Luzhou, but the actual fief was only Langsan County south of Luzhou.

Hao Fenglou did not go to Luzhou City, but led his people to continue south and arrived directly at Lang Son.

Lang Son has now been recovered, and this place is already a real territory of the Ming Dynasty. Since this is the case, it naturally became the territory of the Hao family.

The court has sent a county magistrate to manage it here, but this county magistrate is really a bit obscene, she is thin and extremely ugly, with a deer-headed and mouse-eyed look. If he is said to be an official, Hao Fenglou will not believe it.

Moreover, the county magistrate was ungrateful, covered in mud and dirty, and hadn't been washed for a long time. The weather here was damp and hot, so that the stinky smell could be smelled from afar.

Zhu Zhiling frowned and had already gone to the back team. Hao Fenglou had to bite the bullet and step forward.

The county magistrate stepped forward and said, "Do you dare to ask if you are the minister Hao? The magistrate of Qiongshan County Xi Fan has met the lord."

Hao Fenglou nodded and said, "It's Xi County Magistrate, there's no need to be polite. Why did Xi County Magistrate recognize me at a glance?"

Xi County Magistrate said: "When Xiaguan was in Jinling, he met his elders."

"Oh?" Hao Fenglou smiled: "Why don't I know?"

Xi County Magistrate said: "The lower officials met the adults when they were observing the politics of the Ministry of Revenue, but later they were transferred to Qiongshan."

Hao Fenglou really has no impression, but the Ministry of Revenue seems to be a bit famous in its view of politics, but for some reason he chose to come here in the end.

Seeing that Hao Fenglou had a question on his face, the county magistrate Xi was frank and said: "Xiaguan was originally a Jinshi in the Gengchen rank in the second year of Jianwen. He ranked fourth in the second place. He should have been selected as a Hanlin, but unfortunately he was not lucky, but he was sent to the Ministry of Revenue to observe politics."

Hao Fenglou smiled and said, "The luck is not good? Does this mean that he is selected as a Hanlin?"

"This is natural." Xi County Magistrate said: "The Xiaguan is from Shandong. Hu Guang, the top scholar in Gengchen, Wang Gen, and Li Guan, Tanhua, are all from Ji'an Prefecture, Jiangxi. Even Wu Bo, the first in the second place, and Zhu Ta, are from Jiangxi. The Jinshi people account for more than 30% of the world, and most of them are the top Jinshis. Some ministers in the court also named Jiangxi people as the most. The Hanlin only selected seven Shujis, so the Xiaguan had to stand aside."

Hao Fenglou was amused. Suddenly, he felt that the person with Xi was quite cute. This guy was honest and spoke pertinently. In fact, it was not just the imperial examination in the second year of Jianwen. It was the imperial examination this year. Hao Fenglou heard that the top scorer Zeng Xi, the second place Zhou Shu, the second place Zhou Mengjian, the second place Yang Xiang, the second place Song Zihuan, the third place Wang Xun, and the fourth place Wang Zhi were all from Ji'an Prefecture, Jiangxi. As for the examiners, Xie Jinren, they all came from Jiangxi. The Jiangxi people didn't know where they took guns and medicine, and they always did things that others had nowhere to go. These people were both fellow villagers, teachers and students, and some were classmates. They were very powerful in the court.

Hao Fenglou couldn't help but say, "But you are a Jinshi after all, and you are also observing politics in the Ministry of Revenue. Logically speaking, you will always give you a good place to choose an official, but why did you come to Qiongshan?"

The Xi County Magistrate sighed and said, "This is the second time that the Xiaguan is not lucky. At that time, the Ministry of Personnel selected the Xiaguan and called Xiaguan. When the Ministry of Personnel saw Xiaguan, several adults immediately showed disgust. Then they hurriedly discussed the political affairs and examined Xiaguan's knowledge, and asked Xiaguan to retreat. Xiaguan knew in his heart that it was over, and he was indeed sent to Qiongshan. Alas... Xiaguan was born from Shandong, and had no choice. He was born ugly and ugly, but he had no choice. The so-called luck is also the luck. Xiaguan recognized it. He only hoped that he could govern in Langshan. Although it was a little bitter and cold, he could at least leave a name for himself."

After saying this, Hao Fenglou could hear that the county magistrate Xi was very dissatisfied with the Jiangxi Gang. After all, he was in the capital before, and he knew the things he had not dealt with in the capital. Now he was "intimate" with him and acted quite enthusiastically. It can be seen that what he was hiding in his heart was the thought of the enemy of the academic master being a friend.

Hao Fenglou sighed for him and said, "Okay, you can take us to the county town."

This is just a ten-mile post pavilion, and I have to go to the county town but I still have a long way to go.

The Magistrate Xi asked someone to lead an old horse. The horse was as thin as a hair, which made Hao Fenglou unable to bear to sit down like this. However, the Magistrate Xi sat quite steadily, and pulled the horse rope lightly and shouted: "You must not be lazy, beasts." The horse actually left obediently and caught up with Hao Fenglou.

The Xi County Magistrate smiled and said, "Although the lord's horse is so majestic, the road to Qiongshan is far less than that of Xiaguan's horse. This horse is produced in authentic Qiongshan. It may not run fast on a flat road, but it is like walking on a flat ground here."

Hao Fenglou had no intention of studying horses with him, but wanted to know the Hao family's fiefdom, so he said, "Qiongshan has just been recovered, and there are not many people in the county."

Xi County Magistrate said: "The total population of households in the county is 194."

When Hao Fenglou heard this number, he almost fell from his horse. It was unreasonable. There were only 194 households, and at most, there were more than 500 people. Is this a county? Even the township is not as good as the one in the township. The Marquis of Luzhou should be called the Chief of Village Hao.

Hao Fenglou asked again: "How much grain field is there?"

County Magistrate Xi said: "More than 9,000 acres, but they are all mountain fields, so they don't produce much grain."

Hao Fenglou began to feel that the Hao family would not have any harvest on this fiefdom, but they were afraid they would pay it back. Now that I think about it, it was ridiculous that I just sympathized with County Magistrate Xi, and that I was the one who deserves the most sympathy.

Seeing Hao Fenglou being depressed, the county magistrate Xi said again: "However, although there are only 194 households in the county, there are probably tens of thousands of officials below the population. Since the expedition to the south, the population has increased sharply. Now the entire county is probably less than 100,000."

Hao Fenglou was stunned for a moment and said, "What's the reason?"

Xi County Magistrate knew everything about his family. He glanced at Hao Fenglou and patted the poor thin horse while saying, "This is a wilderness, not as good as the mainland. Besides, it is mountainous, and there are many villages in the mountains. The natives in these villages do not accept Wang Hua, refuse to go down the mountain, and refuse to pay taxes to the court's government. It is impossible to register the household registration. In addition, since Taizu organized military, civilian, and craftsmen, in the past few years, there were more and more households fleeing households, and these fleeing households did not go in and out. Naturally, they went to places like Qiongshan, where the kings of heaven could not control when they came. They hid in the mountains and cultivated the mountains. The large gathered hundreds of people, and the small dozens of people settled in the village, ignored the government, and lived their own lives. There were also many such people. In the past few years, most of them were fleeing households from Guangxi. Now, even the fleeing households from Lingnan, Jiangxi and other places have fled here."

"There are also a small number of Annan people. Annan actually has a hundred ethnic groups. The people in power in the country are inevitably discriminated against other ethnic groups. Other ethnic groups cannot bear the oppression, so they moved to the vicinity of Lang Son."

Hao Fenglou suddenly thought of a place name in his later generations - Jinshanjiao. It turns out that Lang San is at the junction of the two countries and the power of the government is weak, so all the messy people fled here and regarded it as a nest of thieves.

Xi County Magistrate smiled bitterly and said, "In addition, this is a must-pass place for the two countries to exchange, so many merchants are entrenched, with more than 30 merchants, each recruiting personnel, but it is not easy to provoke. Some of them do business with the Annan people, some directly do business with the government troops stationed nearby, and some even directly do business with fugitives, natives, and Annan people. Over the past few years, their business has become increasingly large and gradually become more and more powerful. When the Annan people once occupied this place, they had to look at their eyes and dare not provoke them. Now that the army has recovered this place, they immediately have a relationship with many government troops. They are so happy that they can't afford to provoke them. In fact, they are the county magistrates here. If there are any government orders in the county that make them unhappy, the officials will be in trouble tomorrow."

Hao Fenglou pursed his lips and sneered: "A group of merchants dares to be so powerful?"

The Xi County Magistrate looked at Hao Fenglou deeply and said, "Sir, merchants are actually not powerful. What's amazing is silver. With silver, you can win over the natives and recruit people; with silver, you can make friends with the government army and share weal and woe with them; with silver, as long as you are unhappy and throw the money down, hundreds or thousands of desperate people will burn down the government's yamen. Sir, this is not Jinling."

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Chapter completed!