Shenxi had no intention of sending troops to Jianming Prefecture, but Wu Aimin, knowing the situation, still forcibly conscripted soldiers.

This shows a lack of respect for ordinary people.

They were treated like domesticated livestock.

No, domesticated livestock still need to be fed. Livestock that have to find their own food are even less valuable in his eyes.

They would slaughter animals whenever they needed to eat them, and they would also steal the livestock's feed on ordinary days.

Jianming Prefecture was not a major town. The prefectural city had a total of more than 20,000 troops, and the rest were troops from the various county towns.

There are more than 30,000 people in total, but less than 40,000.

This is the number of regular troops, but Chenxi knows the actual number of soldiers in each county town. Most of the soldiers in a county town have more than a thousand troops.

The actual number of people was only five or six hundred; the rest were just receiving salaries without working.

The prefectural city had more than 20,000 troops, but the actual number was only a few thousand; the rest were just drawing salaries from the imperial court without actually working.

Once war breaks out, soldiers will be conscripted temporarily, and it is the ordinary people who suffer the most.

Even if they don't receive their pay in peacetime, they still have to fight to the death during wartime.

Zhong Ti, the former magistrate of Bian'ai County, was a good person, but he was not strict in disciplining the army. He knew that the army was receiving salaries without working, but he still failed to reform the system.

On the one hand, ingrained habits are hard to break, and on the other hand, his superiors in the army do not obey his orders.

As a result, when chaos broke out in the county town, the county army arrived slowly and failed to come to the rescue in time. Moreover, when they did arrive, the soldiers, who had not been trained for a long time, collapsed at the first blow.

After Shenxi occupied the county town, he also gathered up these defeated soldiers.

Those who performed poorly were dismissed, while those who performed well stayed on to receive rigorous training from Lin Yanjun.

As for the former military officers, those who are guilty will be convicted, and those who are innocent will be judged based on their abilities. If they are incompetent, they will either be dismissed and sent home or demoted to ordinary soldiers.

After more than two months of reorganization, the soldiers in the county town have changed their appearance, and they are all in high spirits and full of fighting spirit.

Of the 5,000 soldiers in the county town, only a little over 1,000 were officially employed; the rest were paid extra by the Shenxi magistrate's finances.

Even though the court stipulated an official staff of over a thousand, the military pay allocated from above was less than a thousand.

Even in the second month, news came from above that military pay would be issued every three months thereafter.

So far, Shenxi has only received one month's worth of military pay from above, and even that was shortchanged.

The prefectural city not only embezzled the salaries of its own troops, but also those of the counties below it.

It would be strange if unrest didn't break out in military camps across the country!

In just the past two months, news has come that there have been several intermittent mutinies in various places.

Upon seeing the conscription order from Jianming Prefecture, Qi Xiuwen frowned deeply: "Chief, if we don't send troops to the prefectural city, we're afraid we'll face suppression from the prefectural city."

The commotion in Chenxi could not be kept secret from the prefectural city.

Even if the prefectural city didn't know she was training troops in the forest, it's impossible that the prefectural city had no information about the basic situation of the county.

The reason why they haven't come to Bian'ai County to cause trouble for the time being is mainly because Bian'ai County has absorbed a lot of displaced people.

Otherwise, most of the refugees would have gathered in the prefectural city, which led to the Jianming Prefecture closing its gates and preventing people from entering or leaving.

Other county magistrates also sent urgent documents to the prefectural capital, requesting the allocation of grain and the control of displaced people.

The situation had already made Wu Aimin very irritable, but now that Bian'ai County has absorbed the migrants from the prefectural city and many surrounding counties, the pressure on Wu Aimin has been greatly reduced.

At this point, he wouldn't come directly to Bian'ai County to cause trouble.

Wu Aimin's principle was that the people should obey and deliver more grain on time, and provide more men and grain when conscription was needed.

He can simply sit back and reap the benefits.

This is an official who is a combination of corrupt, incompetent, incompetent, and lazy officials.

It's already lucky that the prefect of a prefecture, who is so incompetent, hasn't caused any major upheaval.

After all, Xianghe Prefecture, which was adjacent to Jianming Prefecture, was well-managed and its people were in good condition, so some of the refugees went to Xianghe Prefecture to make a living.

However, as the number of refugees increased dramatically, Xianghe Prefecture stopped accepting them indiscriminately. By the time Chenxi fled the famine, Xianghe Prefecture no longer allowed refugees to enter.

Before the chaos broke out in Nanning Prefecture, some refugees from Jianming Prefecture also went to Nanning Prefecture.

With the turmoil in Nanning Prefecture and the ban on refugees entering Xianghe Prefecture, large numbers of refugees began to gather in the various county towns and the prefectural city of Jianming Prefecture.

It was at this time that Bian'ai County, which was occupied by Chenxi, began to develop vigorously, attracting more than 10,000 refugees gathered in Jianming Prefecture and more than 10,000 refugees from surrounding counties.

As a result, Shenxi was under a lot of pressure. If it weren't for the "God of Wealth" Zang Huatian, Shenxi would have also planned to follow the example of Xianghe Prefecture and shut out the refugees.

Zang Huatian sold his deep well-digging technique everywhere, especially to powerful families, but when he asked for money, he offered half gold and silver and half grain and fodder.

It should be noted that most of the major aristocratic families own a lot of land, and they have been struggling to survive for nearly three years due to famine.

Although the first and second years of famine were not bad, there was still some harvest. But this year, there was almost no harvest at all.

They have plenty of stored grain, but they can't just let the land fail to produce crops forever.

So when Zang Huatian brought the technology for drilling deep wells, after some investigation, they realized that the technology was feasible, and reluctantly paid a high price and provided grain to buy it.

It was also because of the abundant food supplies in Shenxi and the large influx of refugees that the pressure on Jianming Prefecture was greatly reduced.

Shenxi couldn't help but sigh at how lucky Wu Aimin was.

However, the fact that Jianming Prefecture remained calm also presented her with an opportunity.

It would be much easier to control or even eliminate a governor who is so incompetent.

When Shen Xi heard Qi Xiuwen's concerns, she smiled and said, "It's alright. Just because I'm not giving him troops doesn't mean I won't send troops over."

Qi Xiuwen's mind stirred slightly: "What does the commander mean?"

"What I mean is that, on the surface, three thousand soldiers have been dispatched, but in reality, the troops will be led by our own people. When the time comes, we will not allow the prefectural city to disrupt the arrangements."

When troops recruited from various places arrive in the prefectural city, the deployment of troops for battle needs to be arranged by the prefectural general.

In some areas, the troops need to be rearranged and reorganized, and will be commanded by the various captains in the prefectural city.

Qi Xiuwen still had questions: "But whether these troops are disrupted is under the jurisdiction of General Tao Feng of the prefecture."

"It's precisely because Tao Feng is in charge that it's easy to make trouble!"

Qi Xiuwen immediately understood. Tao Feng did have martial arts skills, but over the years, he had been eating, drinking, and having fun with Wu Aimin, which had completely drained his body.

Not only that, he also learned Wu Aimin's ways and became greedy by nature.

Such people are the easiest to deal with; you can blind them with gold and silver treasures.

At that point, let alone preventing him from disrupting the troops in Bian'ai County, it's possible that he might even be allowed to give the leader of Bian'ai County more troops.