Chapter 2117 Gui Zi Juan selects officials without scruples

Standing on top of the city wall in Mizhi, Feng Ziying looked north with her hands behind her back.

 From Wubao to Mizhi, it can actually be reached in one day, covering a distance of more than 200 miles. If you don't spare the power and are not afraid of fatigue, you can start in the morning and arrive in the evening.

However, Feng Ziying stayed in Suide for one night and arrived at Mizhi the next day.

 The agreement with He Shixian was to meet in Mizhi County.

There are some differences between what is called Northern Shaanxi today and what was later called Northern Shaanxi. The title of Northern Shaanxi in this dynasty was inherited from the former Ming Dynasty. Shaanxi was not just Shaanxi in later generations, but also included Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and part of Qinghai in later generations. Much bigger.

 So now Northern Shaanxi refers to the three prefectures of Yan'an Prefecture, Qingyang Prefecture, and Pingliang Prefecture, which can be regarded as the greater Northern Shaanxi Province.

The terrain of these three prefectures is dominated by the Loess Plateau and mountains, and the climate has always been a combination of dry, cold and hot. To the north are Yulin and Ningxia Towns, and to the west are Gansu Town.

It is not an exaggeration to describe the northern Shaanxi region as having nine droughts in ten years since the Yuanxi period. That is, the drought covers a vast area and the severity of the drought is nothing more than that.

However, after entering the Yonglong period, the drought suddenly worsened. Not only did it cover almost the entire northern Shaanxi, but the drought also became increasingly serious. This also made the livelihood of the people in northern Shaanxi the biggest hidden danger.

 In fact, starting from the second year of Yonglong, it has become an indisputable fact that the number of refugees in northern Shaanxi has increased day by day. After the sixth year of Yonglong, this situation became more prominent.

To be precise, Bianzhai ushered in a stage of rapid growth after the sixth year of Yonglong. Both the number of Bianzhai and the population of Bianzhai, a large number of refugees fled north, and some Tumut herdsmen outside the border wall fled south, making Boyan The forces of border villages such as the Big Rabbit Village and the Big Rabbit Falcon Village rapidly expanded.

It can even be said that a considerable part of the weapons and armor of these border villages came from the Yulin and Ningxia armies, and the other part was secretly sold to these border villages by some Shanxi merchants.

The connivance of the border towns and the turning a blind eye of the local officials have resulted in the existence and growth of a series of border villages that lie between the Suide, Mizhi and Yulin armies. Now it is finally time to clean them up.

 Not all border villages have joined the team going south for food, and some are still lingering, or they do not have the ability and courage to join the rebel team, and there is no way to survive.

But when the disaster further intensifies and endangers the survival of the entire border village people, it is inevitable that the strongest people in the border village will go south and east. Suide, Mizhi, Jiazhou, and even the counties in Hedong may all be destroyed. Endangered.

The combat effectiveness of these border troops is no different from that of ordinary mobs. They have weapons, armor, and even combat experience and organization. Once they fight for survival, the combat effectiveness they unleash cannot be underestimated. This is why Feng Ziying is willing to give Bo The reason why Yan Village and Baitang Village are willing to win over border villages such as Big Rabbit Falcon Village and Boluosi Village is the opportunity.

After all, it takes more energy and time to train an ordinary rebel army into an army with fighting will and combat experience. This can be seen from Wang Chengwu's Yueshan Camp. If this was not the first rebel army to surrender to him, Feng Ziying needs thousands of gold to buy horse bones, which is really not cost-effective in terms of cost.

 Fortunately, Wang Chengwu made up for it with his loyalty, which can be regarded as another gain.

This time Feng Ziying came to meet with He Shixian, the purpose was actually to completely solve the hidden dangers in these border villages.

 The system of the Great Zhou Dynasty was complex and contradictory.

Shaanxi governors like Feng Ziying, who have the status of right minister of the Ministry of War, can theoretically command the troops in border towns in Shaanxi. However, this command transfer has certain limits. The main responsibility of border towns is to control the border externally, not internally. To suppress the governor, how to mobilize the border troops depends on the governor's own ability and prestige, and of course his connections with the border towns.

Feng Ziying definitely doesn't have much authority in terms of prestige. Besides, his father was the commander-in-chief of Yulin. He was also his father. In front of He Shixian, he was just a junior. But with this level of connection, many things would be much easier to handle.

“How many border villages are there left in Mizhi?” Feng Ziying suddenly asked Xu Junyang, the magistrate of Mizhi next to him.

Xu Junyang was stunned and immediately replied: "There are nine border villages, big and small, but they are not as big as Boyan Village, Baitang Village, Datu Falcon Village, and Boluosi Village. The slightly larger border villages have more than a thousand people, and the smaller ones are There are six to seven hundred people, and the total population is about seven or eight, and the overall size is smaller than that of Suide."

“The population of seven to eight thousand is not too small. Mizhi is only tens of thousands, and one-fifth of the population is considered a hidden number. Mr. Xu, are you qualified as a county magistrate?” Feng Ziying glanced at Xu Junyang.

Xu Junyang felt sweat running down his spine.

From the fact that Feng Ziying did not cross the Yellow River from Lao Niu Bay and enter Shaanxi via Yulin Town, but suddenly and quietly entered Shaanxi from Qikou Ferry, and even created such a huge formation in Wubao, Xu Junyang could feel that this governor was quite powerful. He is a maverick, and his coming to Shaanxi will definitely stir up huge waves. For local officials like them, it may be more dangerous than drought, army rebellion, and plague.

"Your Majesty's criticism is that the lower officials were limited by the situation and were afraid of difficulties in clearing out the hidden households, so they have not been able to make much progress." Xu Junyang hesitated and said: "But your Majesty should also be aware that the population of these border villages in the northern mountainous area has changed rapidly. It is large, and the refugees are intertwined with it, so it is difficult to clean up. If it is cleared by force, it will be difficult for the county to do it, and it will easily cause riots..."

Seeing that Xu Junyang was still defending, Feng Ziying didn't say much.

 The problem of border villages is not left over by any one term, but is a problem that has slowly accumulated over decades of local officials.

The reason is more because Suide and Mizhi prefectures and counties are close to the Yulin Army, and the Yulin Army has many deserters and is entrenched in the mountainous areas and is difficult to clear out, and the local patrol officers do not dare to enter the mountainous areas.

Coupled with the fact that after so many years of disaster, people had no way to make a living, so they simply fled into the mountains to seek shelter, reclaim the wasteland in the mountains, and avoid taxes and labor. This situation became more and more rampant.

Feng Ziying has no intention of holding anyone accountable. For himself, what he has to do is to grab a group of officials and let them work for him. Otherwise, he will not be able to smooth out the huge Shaanxi Province in a year or two.

Wang Wenyan was in Shaanxi for half a year, just to sort out the officials in these places and understand all aspects of their situation.

Ability, attitude, connections, and conduct, these four elements are important indicators for judging officials in the Zhou Dynasty, but the focus and standards of hiring people in the imperial court or the big bosses are different.

For Feng Ziying now, ability and attitude are the most important, which are also the first criteria for employing people. Incompetent people can only do bad things and cannot be used, but are unwilling to do things for themselves, then they can only be put aside or even asked to Find ways to deal with it and avoid getting in the way.

Human connections have some effects, and they are a derivative of ability, but for Feng Ziying, who wants to prepare for a quick knife to cut off the hemp, to block the Buddha and kill the Buddha, it is of little significance, and everything needs to obey his will.

As for conduct, it may have been important in the peaceful and prosperous times, but at least in Shaanxi now, it is the least important. As long as it can be used for oneself, whether it is greedy for money, lustful, powerful, or selling one's reputation to gain loyalty, They can all be put aside for the time being, and everything should be focused on solving the current overall problem.

Wang Wenyan's evaluation of Xu Junyang is that he has outstanding abilities, but he likes to wield power, uses ruthless methods, has a good reputation, is clingy, and does not value money or women.

 Being good at wielding power means having strong control over the Mizhi County Government and ruthless means, which means treating both the gentry and the people very harshly.

It’s a bit difficult to judge a good name. To gain a good reputation in a local area, it means having a good relationship with the gentry. However, it is hard to win the favor of the gentry with his cruel methods. In other words, the purpose of his good name is to gain high status. Look, it is conducive to promotion. This seems to make sense, but it needs to be observed.

As for being clingy, it’s easy to understand. If you want to get promoted, if you don’t have any personal connections before taking the imperial examination, you will naturally have to rely on yourself to make friends and cling to them after you join the officialdom.

 Xu Junyang and Lu Chuan have a long history of contact. It is said that Lu Chuan is never short of gifts for his birthday and festivals every year. However, Xu Junyang does not value money and women, and he is from an ordinary farmer's family in Huguang. His family cannot support him. Where does this gift come from? I guess making some money in Mizhi was a tribute to Lu Chuan. No wonder Feng Ziying could tell that he usually wore ordinary clothes.

"Sir Xu, these reasons were acceptable in the past, but now, I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain to the court." Feng Ziying said calmly: "The rebels besieged Wu Fort and almost broke the city. The main force was the border village rebels, and the others The rebel army is far from being comparable to the rebel army in the border villages. If these border villages are allowed to continue to exist, once the situation changes again, disaster will happen. Is Master Xu confident that Mi Zhi will not be taken advantage of by the rebel army?"

Xu Junyang lowered his head and frowned, "It's true what your Excellency said. It's time to clean up the land here. If the Yulin Army helps, it won't be difficult."

“Relying on the Yulin Army to suppress the symptoms does not cure the root cause. Although there are many deserters in the border villages, their main composition is still refugees from prefectures and counties. If we want to eradicate them, we need to gather these refugees back.” Feng Ziying glanced at Xu Junyang again.

Xu Junyang hesitated for a moment and then said bravely: "Sir, I must know the cause of these refugees. The border people are lazy, don't like to work, and are even more afraid of labor. If there are drought locusts again,..."

Feng Ziying naturally understood that laziness was an excuse, but that the land was narrow and the land was poor, and taxes and labor were heavy. Especially the labor in the border areas was the most heavy because it needed to supply military supplies. It could be said that labor was fiercer than tigers and was hated by the border people the most.

The more refugees flee and live in hiding, the more labor will be distributed to other people, forcing more people to want to flee, which becomes a vicious cycle.

"Does Mr. Xu have any countermeasures?" Feng Ziying asked, selecting officials and appointing people must be done through personal research.

 (End of this chapter)