On July 15 of the second year of Qingli, Su Jin officially took over the seal of Weizhou Mansion from Wang Yan, the envoy of Jingyuan Road and knew Weizhou, after the handover of all matters, Wang Yan also left Weizhou and returned to Beijing. Later, Wang Yan successively served as the prefect of Yuzhou, the governor of the river and other positions, and finally added the crown prince Shaobao to the glory of the Shi, which was five or six years later.

Weizhou Mansion is on the edge of a square in the center of the city, this square is actually the largest barracks in the city - the camp is stationed, the territory of the entire Jingyuan Road is indeed not small, there are Weizhou, Jingzhou, Yuanzhou, Lanzhou, Deshun and He, Xi three lines, but in fact, the most important frontier state capital is Jingzhou Yuanzhou and Weizhou, because a north-south mountain separates Lanzhou Deshun and other places from Xixia, this mountain is the big snow mountain that Su Jin saw on the road, the southern foot of this mountain is called Longshan, and the northern foot is called Liupan Mountain, It is this mountain that divides Jingyuan Road into east and west, and Weizhou Yuanzhou and Jingzhou are on the plain at its eastern foothills.

The whole Jingyuan Road garrison is about 50,000 people, Weizhou is the place where the road is located, so the garrison is slightly more, about more than 20,000 people, Weizhou is also the largest and strongest city, it is said that it is the largest but relatively speaking, the whole city is actually only two horizontal and two vertical four main streets, the rest are alleys, from east to west, from south to north is only three miles away, in fact, it is a smaller city than Luzhou.

This is also more understandable, after all, in the northwest border, in the bitter cold and sandy land, the city will not be very big, the population is not large, and the city does not need to be very large.

In order to prevent the plundering and harassment of the Western Xia cavalry, Fan Xiwen built the city and defended the policy, and the people within a radius of dozens of miles were concentrated in the city, and more than 160,000 people gathered in the small Weizhou city, including soldiers and horses, and the whole city suddenly became a bustling bazaar, and it was noisy all day long.

Su Jin came here on the second day to take people to the street to inspect, as expected, there are few shops in the city, even if there are a few occasionally, they are all few goods, the supply of goods is scarce, this is not unexpected, the war is swarming, he brought a large group of people here are almost robbed, not to mention the echelon of merchants, but also dare not easily come here.

The south of the city is a concentrated residential area for the people, and the people in tattered clothes and yellow muscles stand in the alleys full of sewage and feces with dull eyes, silently watching Su Jin and others pass by; The children dragged their noses like black charcoal and followed behind Su Jin and the others to watch the excitement.

Looking at these houses, most of them are all kinds of simple shacks and earthen houses, which can only play a sheltering role, let alone keep out the cold and rain, even simple wind and sand can not do.

Su Jin's brows furrowed, Wang Yan was also a road envoy, and he had no time to take care of the affairs of the city, and Xu Wei was responsible for it, so this Xu Wei seemed to have not done his duty, and the city was in a mess, and it seemed that he didn't care to do it.

"Xu Tongju, the city is so chaotic, don't you want to manage it?" Su Jin turned his head and asked.

Xu Wei is a big fat man, his belly can block his feet, and he was already sweating and panting after following Su Jin and others for most of the city, and his mind was full of complaints that the new young prefect had nothing to do and came to patrol the streets.

"Lord Xu, what does the Mansion ask you?" Wang Chao reminded loudly.

"Oh, back to Lord Su, the lower officials also want to govern, but how to govern the law? With so many people here, it costs a huge amount of money just to feed them every day, how can there be money and materials to govern, and the lower officials also know that the city is dirty and messy enough, but the lower officials can't help it. Xu Wei looked respectful, but his tone didn't care at all, and he was quite impatient.

Su Jin frowned and said, "How many families are there in the city now?" ”

Xu Wei shook his head and said: "Xia Guan doesn't know, there are new arrivals every day, and they have been sick and died a lot recently, the numbers are changing every day, and Xia Guan can't teach people to count." ”

Su Jinqiang held back his anger and asked, "Since you can't count it, what kind of credentials do you use to distribute food?" Without a household register or a roster, how can we ensure that everyone has something to eat, and how can we recruit them to serve as soldiers in building cities and villages? ”

Xu Wei's face was sweating like pulp, and he said for a while: "You still have to ask Liu Cangsi about food and labor, but the lower officials didn't ask." ”

Su Jin said angrily: "Then what did you ask?" Are you asking about national affairs? How can this be reasonable, occupy the pit and don't, is your general judgment just a muddy idle all day long? ”

Xu Wei's face turned pale, and he lowered his head and said: "Yes, what Master Su taught is that the lower officials must change, they must change." ”

Su Jin said abruptly: "You go back to your yamen now, call the warehouse division and the relevant departments to immediately register the people in the city, distribute the household registration book, give you two days, if you can't do it, you will leave here with a roll of cover, my Su Jin's subordinates do not raise waste." ”

Xu Weiqiang resisted the urge to reply, turned around and left without saying a word; Su Jin stopped him and said, "Why didn't you say goodbye to this official when you left?" You are still a scholar, don't you know etiquette? ”

Xu Wei's face was pale, so he had to bow his hand, but Su Jin had already twisted his ass and walked away, without even looking at him, Xu Wei stayed in place in embarrassment, looked at the backs of Su Jin and the others and spat fiercely, and scolded: "What the hell, there are five people and six people, offending Lao Tzu, can you stay in Weizhou for a long time?" Soon you will know who has the final say in this Weizhou. With that, he stomped his foot and turned away.

Su Jin knew that he couldn't ask anything in this Xu Wei's mouth, so he could only ask the people in person, the reason why he was angry with this Xu Wei was that he hated his inaction, from the day he came to Weizhou, Su Jin could feel the pessimism of the officials in the city, as if they were all ready to run away at any time, and they were also confused and so-so, perhaps from the bottom of their hearts, they felt that the Xixia people would come in sooner or later, and no matter how good the construction was, it was useless.

What Su Jin hates the most is these people, he doesn't think about enterprising, he only thinks about how to avoid disasters, he looks like he has done nothing, and as soon as he sees Xu Wei's white and fat body, Su Jin's anger does not come to one place: "The officials are fat and the people are thin, they must not be good officials, when Li Tang ruled the world in the previous dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong said, 'Although I look thin, the world will be fat', and put it here and become the whole city is thin, and the officials are fat, how can these people be good officials?" ”

The people who followed nodded frequently, this Xu Wei claimed to have been sentenced for three years, and he was able to raise such a white fat under this situation, I am afraid it was due to the pampering all day long.

Turning the corner, there was a row of thatched houses in front of them, and a tall old man was bending over and churning on the dirt floor in the yard.

Su Jin arched his hand and asked, "Dare to ask my uncle, what is this?" ”

The old man looked up and saw a group of people standing in front of his house and was startled, looking at the clothes of Su Jin and the others, all of whom were from the official mansion, a trace of resentment and disdain flashed in his eyes, and he said angrily: "The official naturally doesn't know, this thing is a delicacy in the world, do you want to taste it?" ”

Su Jin was stunned and pointed to the vines on the ground that were sticking to the ashes of grass and trees and said, "Can this thing be eaten?" ”

The old man said, "If you can eat it, we ordinary people can eat anything." ”

Su Jin heard the anger in his words, bent down and reached out to take one and looked at it for a long time, broke a small piece and wiped it clean and put it in his mouth, a smell of astringency filled his mouth, Su Jin quickly spit it out, and spit a few mouthfuls of spit, and goosebumps all over his body.

The old man smiled and said, "This official, how does it taste?" ”

Wu Hengxin was already the head of the official team, and he followed with several of his servants, who were all locals, Wu Hengxin asked them quietly, "What is this?" ”

A servant hurriedly said: "This is Ma Lanteng, it is everywhere in the mountains and wilderness, and the people feed on it during the famine years, this thing is numb and astringent, and it will entangle the intestines when eaten into the stomach, and the can't be pulled out." The people thought of a way to mix and knead the ashes of plants and trees, and then wash them after being exposed to the sun, which can slightly remove the numb and astringent taste, but it is still difficult to eat. ”

When Su Jin heard this, he asked, "Then why are you still eating him?" ”

The old man said: "The old man also wants to eat big fish and meat every day, but he can't even eat a few decent meals a month, if he doesn't eat this, will he starve to death?" ”

Su Jinqi said: "Doesn't the imperial court distribute grain every month? Why can't you even eat? Even if you don't have enough food, you won't even be able to drink a porridge. ”

The old man sneered, "Is this official joking? How can the common people be as blessed as you say, drinking porridge? It's almost the same to drink the northwest wind. You officials like to pretend, you know the reason and still say this, you officials, please please, the old man has to rub these delicacies in the world, otherwise he will be hungry again at noon. ”

Wang Chao shouted: "This is the new prefect Su Jinsu, who just arrived here the day before yesterday to take up his post, and he was rude." ”

The old man was stunned for a moment, with a look of hope on his face, and immediately returned to the original state, waved his hand and said: "Even the new prefect can't disturb others indiscriminately, the old man has not broken the law, but his hungry head and eyes are dizzy, if he starves to death in front of adults, it is not good; What the poor man said just now was right, this Ma Lanteng can't pull out after eating, but there is one thing he didn't say, that is, he eats a lot of stinky farts, if the old man accidentally farts out and smokes the prefect, then it is called rudeness. ”

Su Jin listened to the old man's words and said that there were mysteries, and he thought in his heart that there must be a problem with the distribution of food, and the military rations allocated by the three divisions every ten years included the number of relief for the people, why did these people eat these vines that could kill people to live, there must be something strange in this, at this time, not to mention that the old Han said that there were thorns, even if he whipped Su Jin, Su Jin would not leave.