Chapter 56: Jingchang’s people are not to be manipulated...
Now that the second national war has been concluded, there is an empty task bar. Shen Zhiwei thought about it for a long time and finally decided to give it a try.
Since I have already held a funeral in my mind for the main quest, there is no need to hold on to this quest anymore.
Very good, the next goal is to unify the world!
For a moment, Shen Zhiwei was so excited that he wished he could work for another ten hours right now!
When she really faced the work, her enthusiasm was like the air in a balloon with a hole in it. In a moment, nothing was left.
Who in this world really enjoys work? Who?
It's definitely not her!
What do you mean by unifying the world? She has only governed two and a half states, less than one-third of it, and she is already exhausted. If she governs five more states, she will go out shopping without walking or going through windows, but will directly climb up the tower and take the leap of faith. Do you believe it?
"No, still no, let's put it aside."
Staring at the batch of government affairs that he had finally finished handling, Shen Zhiwei muttered to himself.
After much thought, I think it is more suitable for her to be bad.
It turns out that what affected her youthful spirit was not only her age, but also her own laziness and the dullness of her work.
That's right. It's been like this since I was a teenager. I cheer myself up every day and push myself to work hard, but after trying for a while, it's hard to persist.
There's no way around it. Working hard is really tiring, but playing badly is really comfortable.
Shen Zhiwei knew that this kind of mentality of his was not good, but in life, if you don’t have any hobbies at all, then it will only take a moment for you to die.
So she knows how to balance work and rest, has self-awareness, and is a good person who loves herself.
Shen Zhiwei quickly convinced herself to continue posing. Giving up was actually a very simple thing.
It's just that even if she wanted to, none of her subordinates would do it. Since Gui Yang returned to Yongming City, she has been frantically focusing on infrastructure construction. Today she repairs the city gates, tomorrow she repairs the roads, and then she keeps improving the living environment of the common people.
After he returned to Jingchang, he saw that most of the houses where the common people lived were waterproof and could even be heated in the winter to keep warm. They were not luxurious, but they were comfortable for people to live in.
Shen Zhiwei had previously divided the area into various alleys and markets, separating them with layers of city gates. This way, public security could be improved. At night, the gates of each market would be closed, and the city guards would only need to patrol back and forth in the market.
Preventing the movement of people prevents some people from committing crimes and reduces the pressure on the city guards. This was an inspiration that Shen Zhiwei got from Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty and directly used it.
Gui Yang felt that this arrangement was particularly good. Since Yongming City was captured by Jingchang, some of the nobles died and some fled. Their departure took away too much of the city's defensive power. Without their oppression, the common people could indeed breathe a sigh of relief, but all sorts of petty crimes followed.
Robbery, theft, fighting, etc. occurred. Yongming City lost its political advantage as the capital of Bian State, and most of the students in the city left. As a result, the level of chaos rose again.
Last year, Gui Yang was busy fighting the snow disaster and post-disaster reconstruction and had no time to take care of these small matters. Now he has begun to take charge of this type of case, and by the way, he has copied Jingchang's successful case and divided the market.
The difficulty of dividing the market into districts in Yongming City is even higher than in Jingchang, because Jingchang was actually just a small city before, and it was not very prosperous. As the residence of the declining royal family, Jingchang had long been in decline like the royal family.
Shen Zhiwei rebuilt on the dilapidated foundation of T and did not have to worry about anything else. She only had to tear it down and rebuild. She would not feel bad and the obstacles would not be particularly great.
But Yongming City is different. It was originally the capital of a prosperous country. Every street and every corner here bears the traces of the Bian Kingdom.
Hu Youan had previously been instructed by Shen Zhiwei to purge the nobles and royal family of Bian State, but he only cleared out the upper class. The historical imprint left by this city was not so easy to clean up.
If you want to clear away those historical imprints, various conflicts are bound to occur. As soon as the first market town was built, someone gathered a group of people and started a conflict with the government officials.
Perhaps they discovered that Gui Yang was not an unreasonable corrupt official, nor was he a foolish person, so this group of people blocked the government officials in broad daylight and prohibited them from demolishing their houses.
The matter became quite serious, and Gui Yang was quickly called over.
Seeing that the leaders were two elderly men, Gui Yang felt a headache. He squeezed into the crowd and saluted the two old men who said nothing.
He was an official, and the two men opposite him were commoners. How could they dare to accept his salute? The two old men quickly turned aside.
They did not avoid them directly because the people in Bian believed in the elderly and believed that the elderly had lived longer and had more life experience, and the older they were, the more respect they deserved.
"Two elders, some time ago the central government wanted to demolish houses and build the city wall. This matter has already been notified, and every household has signed a written contract and arranged new residences. We clearly agreed on this before, so why are you suddenly going back on your word?"
Gui Yang was really confused. Everything had been completed and no one had said no before. Now the people who were digging holes and building walls had arrived, but suddenly they were not allowed to start work. Why?
The two old men looked at each other, and the younger one stood up and bowed to Gui Yang.
Logically, Gui Yang should have turned sideways to avoid it, just like they did before, but Gui Yang didn't move at all and let the old man bow down.
Even after the old man bowed, he did not shout, but just looked at the older old man with a smile, as if waiting for the answer to the question he had just asked.
The young man next to him blushed when he saw this, thinking that Gui Yang was deliberately making things difficult for them. He clenched his fist and was about to step forward to argue, but was stopped by an older man.
The old man sighed, knowing that Gui Yang was angry, and then he said, "Please allow me to explain the key points one by one."
"Okay, this isn't the place to talk, but can you please excuse me?"
Gui Yang acted as if she didn't notice the figure that had begun to tremble, and only spoke to the older old man. The old man was afraid that his cousin's old waist would be in trouble due to the strain, so he nodded quickly.
Gui Yang then smiled, as if she had just seen the old man who had been bending over. She asked in surprise, "Why is the old man still bowing? I am still young, how can I accept such a great honor from an old man? Please stand up quickly."
The old man straightened up with a grim expression and didn't dare to move for a long time. At his age, his joints were not flexible to begin with, and now they were in even more pain.
The old man straightened up and looked at his cousin. He realized that this young county magistrate was not easy to deal with. He sighed in his heart. He thought he could pick on an easy target, but ended up hitting a wall.
But I absolutely cannot sit back and take action. I can't just watch my ancestral land being demolished, right?
Gui Yang and the old man walked to a remote corner, and the old man came up and stated their demands: demolition is allowed, but the ancestral land cannot be demolished.
"Which one is your ancestral land?"
Gui Yang was too lazy to argue with the old man and just wanted to bypass the ancestral land for construction.
As a result, the old man stretched out his hand and pointed, basically pointing to the entire area in the east.
If the construction is carried out bypassing the ancestral land, the boundaries of the two original market towns will be directly moved into one market town. At that time, there will be no need to divide the markets into different areas. It will be better to just maintain the original status quo.
Gui Yang was so angry that he laughed. He narrowed his eyes, and the smile on his face remained unchanged, but his tone had a hint of warning and gloom.
"Old man, don't be so shameless. Previously, your clansmen personally signed their fingerprints and agreed to hand over the land to the government. The government also agreed to give silver and new land as compensation. It's written in black and white. Now you are blocking the government's actions and want to break the contract with them. Are you trying to play tricks on the government?"
As a commoner, playing tricks on the government officials is simply courting death.
This big family has lived in Yongming City for hundreds of years. At first, they were not commoners, but aristocrats. Later, each generation was weaker than the previous one. When there was the Bian Kingdom in Bian area, they were still considered a poor family. Now that the Bian Kingdom has disappeared, they are not even considered a poor family, but can only be said to be relatively wealthy commoners.
No matter they were from humble families or common people, because they were numerous and the clans were relatively united, the nobles around them did not like to provoke them. It was not because they could not beat them, but because they found it troublesome.
The original government was in the same situation, but after it came under the command of Jingchang, the county magistrate, it was frequently suppressed.
That’s right, this group of people deliberately caused trouble for Gui Yang.
Gui Yang was actually also surprised. On his way here, he got to know a little bit about this group of people. Their ancestors had some relationship with the Jiang family, but later they split off and changed their surname to Yu. Up to now, the Yu surname has existed for five generations.
The old man in front of me is the great elder of this clan.
The Yu clan has long held a grudge against Gui Yang.
It was because when Gui Yang repaired houses and distributed food for disaster relief, they had no share.
Their tribesmen help each other, and their houses are well maintained. There is not much that needs repair. When they encounter snowstorms, their tribe has food. When other families have no food, their whole family can still eat dry meals, and there is no shortage of firewood.
Gui Yang wanted to help the victims who were about to freeze to death or starve to death, not to help those who were alive and well, so of course he would not care about this big family.
But in the eyes of the big clansmen, Gui Yang was targeting them. Why couldn't they have what others had?
"County Magistrate, we are not teasing the government. Our ancestral land is here and we cannot give it up. If our ancestral land is demolished, wouldn't we be considered unfilial? How will we meet our ancestors in the underworld a hundred years from now?"
"So this is what the Yu family is worried about? That doesn't matter. Before coming here, Yang has already sent a letter to the General of the Central Army outside the city. I wonder if the Great Elder has heard of the good name of General You'an?" Gui Yang smiled happily, but there was a haze in her eyes.
Are you afraid you'll be ashamed to face your ancestors in the underworld a hundred years from now? Okay, then go down and face them now. Explain to them how you fought bravely to protect your clan's land and ultimately died a heroic death!
Gui Yang didn't mind being a bad guy. The reason why he was friendly to the common people was because the king cared about the people of the world, and he just wanted to make the king feel good.
This doesn't mean that Gui Yang is a good person.
The Great Elder's expression froze, his pupils rapidly shrinking and then expanding. It was obvious that he was in great mental turmoil and unable to calm down.
"General You'an...but he was the one who put down the rebellion..."
"Yes, it's General You'an who slew seventeen families in a row and pacified Yongming City. Yongming City was originally conquered by General You'an. Perhaps the descendants of the Great Elder have met General You'an on the battlefield, so they are considered acquaintances."
Gui Yang's smile was extremely vicious and her words were extremely hellish.
He really didn't understand who gave these big families the confidence to go against the imperial court?
Did they think that the people from Jingchang were all soft persimmons that could be squeezed at will? How ridiculous! Could it be that Bian State was a small country that was defeated by a bunch of soft persimmons?
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