"County lord, county lord. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Just as Zhao Hongrun was standing on the edge of the cliff quietly observing Kou Zheng, the hunter had already walked down another narrow path and came to Kou Zheng, the county commander of Shangxian County.

"General Lu of Tianmen Pass?"

A trace of surprise flashed on Kou Zheng's face, and he looked up, but what he saw was not Lu Zhan, but Zhao Hongrun.

"That's not ...... King Su?'

A look of surprise flashed in Kou Zheng's eyes.

He knew Zhao Hongrun, the king of Su, because in the sixteenth year of Hongde's examination, Zhao Hongrun was patrolling the venue as a prince of the jurant.

It's just that Zhao Hongrun at that time didn't have the reputation he has now, and even because he humiliated Luo Rong, the son of Luo Wenzhong, the former official of the Ministry of Officials, on the examination ground, or was criticized by some scholars.

"Didn't His Royal Highness King Su go to Handan County in Korea to fight? …… Have you already won the war?'

Kou Zheng was very surprised in his heart, after all, when he met Lu Zhan, the guard of the Heavenly Gate Gate, a while ago, Lu Zhan told him so.

With a puzzled mind, Kou Zheng was about to run up the narrow path to salute, but unexpectedly, Zhao Hongrun had already led someone down on his own.

Seeing this, he could only stand respectfully in place.

"His Royal Highness King Su."

After Zhao Hongrun came down, Kou Zheng bowed his hand and bowed respectfully: "The lower officials don't know that His Highness is coming, and he has missed the welcome, and he hopes to forgive his sins." ”

"Lord Kou doesn't need to be polite."

Zhao Hongrun waved his hand, signaling Kou Zheng to stand up straight, and then he looked around at the villagers who were digging mountains and opening roads.

At this time, those mountain people had stopped, holding the hoes in their hands one by one, sometimes secretly looking at Zhao Hongrun, sometimes whispering, as if they had seen something strange.

Seeing this, Kou Zheng hurriedly apologized: "The villagers here are ignorant, they don't know the nobility of His Highness, and I hope His Highness won't be surprised." ”

Hearing this, Zhao Hongrun smiled slightly, arched his hand towards those villagers, and said with a smile: "You villagers are busy, this king will talk to you about the Kou County order." ”

But after hearing this, those villagers still stared at Zhao Hongrun, and at this time, an old man with gray hair came over, knocked the heads of several young people with crutches, and scolded: "What are you still doing in a daze? Don't be lazy! ”

This old man seems to have a lot of prestige here, and when he scolded him, none of those young people dared to pay attention to Zhao Hongrun anymore.

Strangely, the villagers were not angry, and even the young people who had been beaten worked hard to build the road after laughing a few times.

Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun was secretly surprised, and asked Kou Zhengdao in a low voice: "Lord Kou, who is this old man?" ”

Kou Zheng glanced at the old man, and said respectfully in his words: "This is the county elder of my Shang County, after the Shang clan in Hedong, and he is also the teacher of the lower officials, and his name is honored. ”

"I see."

Zhao Hongrun turned his head to look at the old man, and it happened that the old man was also looking at him at this time, and after noticing Zhao Hongrun's gaze, the old man bowed his head and bowed from afar.

"Old Clans......

Zhao Hongrun hurriedly returned the salute and reciprocated the kindness.

The old clan in his mouth is probably the early days of the founding of the Wei State, or the big family after the annexation of Liang and Zheng.

For example, the Shang family, as far as Zhao Hongrun knows, is one of the wang clans in Hedong.

Of course, that was once.

Nowadays, the vast majority of these old clans are gradually dying out and gradually forgotten, and only in the corners like Shangxian can you find a trace of the old clan.

In fact, in Zhao Hongrun's view, although the nobility replaced the old clan, in fact this is not a good thing.

The old clan was a family system, and it was also the predecessor of the clan, and in the context of the times at that time, the old clan could only gather more civilians to serve them by spreading good karma, so the people of the old clan were generally clean and self-conscious, and they were quite popular in the local area.

But now the nobles of Wei are different, their status comes from the canonization of the imperial court, and they have no direct interest in the supporters of the commoners, so there is a confrontation between the nobles and the commoners.

To put it bluntly, it is the same exploitation of civilians, but the old clans are more generous and still value the voices of commoners; Now the nobles of Wei are more thoroughly exploited, and their oppression of commoners is becoming more and more unscrupulous.

But then again, although it is a pity, the decline of the old clan is inevitable, after all, it is impossible for the Wei court to sit back and watch these popular old clans continue to grow - if this force that has won the hearts of the local people can survive for a long time, what will the Ji Zhao clan play?

Therefore, it was inevitable that the nobility canonized by the imperial court would replace the power of the old clan.

Under the guidance of Kou Zheng, Zhao Hongrun and his party slowly went to Shang County.

After coming to Shang County to take a look, Zhao Hongrun finally understood why Lu Zhan used such a contemptuous tone to mock Yan Mo at that time, the reason was that the mountain city of Shang County was not enough to become a city at all, it was purely a small mountain village.

For example, Yan Mo guessed that the wall that Shang County might use to defend against the enemy was actually just an earthen wall that was only one person high, and Zhao Hongrun even suspected that Chu Heng, who had the most strength in his sect's guard, could even directly knock down this earthen wall.

How can this kind of thing be used to defend against the enemy?

Glancing back at Yan Mo, Zhao Hongrun was amused to find that when he saw the earthen wall, Yan Mo opened his mouth in shock, and his face was dumbfounded.

It was Lu Zhan who smiled proudly beside him.

"How did Lord Kou resist the rout of those Korean troops?" Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but ask.

Kou Zheng smiled a little shyly, and said with some embarrassment.

It turned out that when the more than 200 Korean troops attacked Shang County, there was only a group of lonely old and strong young people in Shang County who were either hunting or building roads.

At that time, Kou Zheng bravely stood up and said to the leader of the defeated army, a general of 500 men: You can ask for food, but you are not allowed to kill and loot. As long as you promise this, we will give you food, otherwise, we will burn down the granaries in the county and scatter them in two.

Due to Kou Zheng's tough attitude, the 500 general finally agreed, and in order to get the precious time, he waited outside the city according to Kou Zheng's conditions.

But for the sake of prudence, let one of his subordinates a hundred people will enter the city with more than two dozen soldiers to monitor.

Sure enough, Kou Zheng raised surplus food and pickled vegetables and meat from every family, and asked the women and children in the county to make a fire to cook, and then delivered the meals outside the city.

And just when those routs were busy fighting for food and their vigilance was greatly reduced, the young and strong villagers who got the news conveyed by Kou Zheng's people suddenly came out and killed those routs by surprise.

At that time, the rout army was in a great turmoil, and they were reluctant to put down the tempting food, so they actually stuffed the food in their mouths with one hand and fought with the villagers with weapons in the other, but they were defeated by the villagers with hunting crossbows, pitchforks, hoes, and bamboo poles.

Even the 500-man general was shot dead on the spot by a hunter's crossbow.

So much so that when Lu Zhan led his troops to search here, he couldn't believe his eyes: more than 200 Korean regular troops were actually defeated by a group of Shangcheng villagers with hunting crossbows, pitchforks, hoes, and bamboo poles.

I have to say that although Kou Zheng described it very concisely and did not take the opportunity to ask for credit, Zhao Hongrun still saw Kou Zheng's strategy and courage from it.

In the face of Zhao Hongrun's praise, Kou Zheng humbly said that the fact that he was able to repel the more than 200 Han troops this time was due to the unity of the villagers of Shang County, not his credit.

Looking at Kou Zheng's unpretentious expression, Zhao Hongrun's heart became more and more happy, and he intended to recruit this great sage.

But Zhao Hongrun knew that rashly proposing the intention of solicitation would only make Kou Zheng disgusted, after all, this person who had abandoned the splendid future at his fingertips and was willing to return to his hometown to be a small county magistrate, which showed that wealth and glory were not enough to impress the heart of this great sage.

Recalling Liu Jie's plan to "do what he likes", Zhao Hongrun already had an idea in his heart.

"Lord Kou wants to build a road, why don't you go to the court?" Zhao Hongrun asked.

Hearing this, Kou Zheng's face showed a little bitterness, shook his head and said: "His Royal Highness King Su doesn't know, when the lower official pleaded with the imperial court to open up the mountain road from Shang County to Yiyi, the lord in the imperial court was full of surprise and asked the lower official, 'Where is Shang County'......

"Did you borrow it?" Zhao Hongrun asked.

Kou Zheng nodded, and said with some embarrassment: "Yiyi Ling thinks that it is unnecessary to repair this mountain road, but for the sake of each other's colleagues, he still borrowed some money and food to the lower officials. Saying that, he saw Zhao Hongrun frowning, and hurriedly added: "Yiyi Ling is a good official, and he also invited the villagers of my county to live in Yiyi, but ...... The villagers here can live here, and the ancestral tombs and temples are all here, and they are reluctant to leave, so they ......"

Zhao Hongrun nodded slightly.

In all fairness, he felt that what the Yiyi Commander said was actually right, for a mountain town like Shangxian with beautiful horns and no special products, it was really unnecessary to spend a huge amount of money to build a mountain road.

After all, there is already the "Tianmen Path", a mountain road connecting Shangdang and Hedong, and it is unlikely that the Ministry of Industry will build another one.

Therefore, as Kou Zheng said, he can only rely on the villagers of Shangxian County to build a mountain road by themselves.

Just, is it worth it?

In Zhao Hongrun's opinion, it seems that talents like Kou Zheng are too condescending to stay in this kind of place.

Thinking about it, Zhao Hongrun Zhengse said: "Lord Kou, this time my Great Wei and South Korea have fought against each other, South Korea has been defeated, according to the "Wei Han Handan Peace Conference", South Korea will send troops to conquer Hexi as compensation for my Great Wei. …… I believe that Lord Kou can also understand the importance of the land west of the river. ”

Kou Zheng was surprised that Zhao Hongrun actually told him about it, but he still nodded-the importance of the land west of the river is nothing more than animal husbandry, such as the cattle and horses that are most scarce in his Wei country.

At this time, Zhao Hongrun continued: "Hexi is the territory of Qianghu, even if the Han army conquers Hexi, it is not easy for my Great Wei to govern that land. …… In order to prevent Qianghu from counterattacking at that time, the king decided to strengthen the garrison of several cities along the (west) river in Hedong County, namely the four cities of "Beiqu", "Pishi", "Fenyin", and "Puban". …… Among them, the two cities of "Fenyin" and "Puban" are the most important, therefore, this king wants to recommend Lord Kou to be the post, I don't know what Lord Kou wants? ”

"Xiaguan?"

Kou Zheng looked at Zhao Hongrun in surprise.

With his wisdom, how could he not see the important position of the two cities of "Fenyin" and "Puban" in the western part of Hedong County in the future.