Tiger Guards

Chapter 479 The Female Official Repays Her Kindness
With the war plan to recapture the three prefectures in winter finalized, the subsequent assessment of merits and the allocation of government slaves also began to be rapidly distributed and implemented in accordance with the new war requirements.

The people from Chen, Liang, and Shanyang who were rescued by Sun Ce were registered as commoners and migrated to Xihe County.

For the vast majority of ordinary people, if the entire village or township migrates together and still lives in a familiar society, then whether or not to migrate is not so important.

The saying "it's hard to leave one's homeland" refers to the familiar people and climate that are hard to give up.

These people received the best possible resettlement and will become registered residents of various counties in Xihe Commandery; young and strong men with military service experience will be given priority to be recruited as soldiers of Xihe Commandery and various counties.

However, Xihe belonged to Bingzhou, and its household registration seemed to be less important than that of Hedong, which had the prestigious household registration of Sizhou.

However, this is not very important. Xihe Commandery has always had a close relationship with Taiyuan Commandery and Hedong Commandery, and they belong to the same geographical and cultural unit.

Now, with Jinyang as its base, the future of the registered households in Xihe County is on par with that of Hedong.

In order to settle these approximately 20,000 immigrant households and to better undertake the logistical work for the campaign to liberate the three counties, Jia Kui also migrated with them.

As for Liu Xuan, the governor of Xihe Commandery, he had no choice but to cooperate if Zhao Ji wanted to move him away.

The powerful Han families and various Xiongnu tribes in Xihe Commandery all directly obeyed the nominal Bingzhou Governor's Office; this governor's office was only responsible for relaying and issuing military and political orders from the Grand Marshal's Office concerning Bingzhou.

Liu Xuan had long been sidelined, and this year Xihe County was to recommend a group of Imperial Guards to the court, with Zhao Ji deciding on the selection.

Once the people are sent over, whether the Emperor or Lü Bu wants to use them is their business. In any case, these people are already from the Imperial Guard. They can be transferred to other institutions and eventually transferred back to Xizhou.

In addition, all other people were demoted to government slaves and scattered and resettled in Hedong, Pingyang, and Taiyuan.

The concentration of population also has its advantages. In addition to the rapid development of the government-run economy in Hedong and Taiyuan counties, various industries in the private sector also experienced rapid growth.

Civil disputes and lawsuits are also increasing rapidly... The fact that ordinary people are willing to litigate is a good thing in itself.

In order to strengthen the ability of each county to adjudicate cases, Zhao Yan and Jia Xu, based on common cases and with reference to the spirit of Han law, drafted a provisional "Jinyang Code".

Currently, if a case is a novel one, it will be adjudicated according to Han law; or similar precedents will be cited.

Relevant laws and regulations are essential skills that officials need to be assessed and learn.

The "science" refers to various provisional management measures, which have a greater influence in actual implementation.

Zhao Yan was essentially a follower of Huang-Lao thought, and Jia Xu could not be considered a member of a traditional Confucian family. Therefore, the "Jinyang Examination" drafted by the two of them was mainly based on strict enforcement of the law and severe punishment.

Instead of corporal punishment or fines, the punishment was primarily physical labor.

When adjudicating cases, the defendant is often slapped and then the plaintiff is slapped in return. If the party involved has a military rank, the rank may be reduced by one or more ranks depending on the severity of the case.

In principle, lawsuits are discouraged, and measures are taken to prevent military households and officials with military ranks from bullying registered households and official tenants without ranks.

Those without noble titles and registered households, or those who were government tenants, would at most be punished with corvée labor in lawsuits, unlike those with noble titles who would pay a heavy price.

Severe punishments are necessary to reduce unnecessary cases and disputes, and to curb the oppression of unranked people by officials and military households with titles and connections.

The starting point of the "Jinyang Examination" was not to maintain fairness, but to fundamentally suppress the emergence of unnecessary disputes, so that officials and people could focus their lives on production, rather than profiting from lawsuits.

When the contradictions and conflicts are significant enough, then everyone should be punished together... As long as the culprit is severely punished, the aggrieved party is often willing to be punished with corvée labor as well.

Zhao Yan advocated the rule of Huang-Lao philosophy, and his legislative approach was to suppress powerful families and support the weak.

Jia Xu's approach seems simpler: he pushes the conflict down to the parties involved, letting them scramble and pull against each other; when the scrambling fails and the losing party is willing to flip the table and lose both sides, then both are punished.

The "Jinyang Ke" was first proposed by Zhao Yan and compiled for his use in the Marquisate of Jinyang. As for whether other counties in the surrounding areas would adopt it, that was up to the individual choices of those county magistrates.

Historically, cases like these have been resolved at the county level. Only when the matter becomes truly unsolvable will it be escalated through the ranks and used as a model or precedent for future rulings.

Therefore, while Zhao Ji was away on campaign, Zhao Yan introduced the "Jinyang Examination," which was based on Huang-Lao thought. When Zhao Ji returned, many cases in the counties under his jurisdiction were withdrawn on their own.

The population that migrates voluntarily or involuntarily is processed quickly, and the same applies to the military.

The spoils of war were quickly valued and converted into cloth, five-zhu coins, or cattle, horses, and servants for distribution.

As the army was disbanded in batches, Zhao Ji would have to take a short break in Jinyang before starting a new round of war.

During vacation, one can also adopt a static observation approach.

Only after receiving news from various parts of Guandong and waiting for them to exert themselves and wear each other down will Zhao Ji launch the campaign to recover the three counties.

Before going to Jinyang, he first needed to go to the northern suburbs of Pingyang to meet the eldest prince.

Liu Xie has yet to officially name his eldest son.

After being busy until October 18th, Zhao Ji finally set off for the Queen's palace.

Along the way, some hardy pine and cypress trees are lush and green, and the leaves of elm and poplar trees on both sides of the road are still intact.

The newly transplanted peach trees, no thicker than a finger, had large, swollen flower buds, showing signs of blooming.

It was a mild winter; winter came exceptionally late.

Zhao Ji sat upright on the chariot, holding a cluster of peach branches in his hand, the tips of the buds slightly pink.

In my memory, these past years have been characterized by cold winters and scorching summers; such mild winter memories are truly rare.

Even the winter wheat planted along the roadside is now a vibrant green, resembling chives that have already taken shape and are waiting to be harvested. Zhao Ji has no worries about the climate change brought about by the warm winter; even if it's raining knives from the sky, he can only try to avoid it, or if he can't avoid it, he'll just have to endure it.

He didn't know much about climate, and he only felt that the harm of a warm winter was not imminent, and even if it did occur, he would suffer from it later.

However, a mild winter is actually very unfriendly to Lü Bu.

It may have been due to the combined efforts of Zhang Ji, Hua Tuo, and Yu Fan, or perhaps the drop in temperature or reduced population movement, but Lü Bu managed to suppress the spread of the epidemic in his army.

The mild winter weather was not conducive to eliminating potential threats to Lü Bu's army stationed in Huaibei.

Lü Bu was ruthless enough to hold out in Huaibei and not withdraw his troops. If he had withdrawn to Xuchang, he could have brought disaster to the officials and nobles.

While pondering Lü Bu, Zhao Ji looked at the dozen or so guards and cavalrymen carrying flags who were advancing in the front row.

At this moment, only a hundred or so carriages and horses followed, along with another hundred or so young girls in their early teens. They were all government slaves or orphans of officials and commoners of the Chen Kingdom who had no family burdens.

Zhao Ji didn't know what to send to the Empress, but he felt that sending these people was the most practical thing to do.

When he set off from Pingyang, the messenger arrived at the Empress's temporary palace, which was forty miles away, to inform him.

After more than a year of recuperation, and continuous construction and expansion, the Queen's Palace has been completely transformed into a manor.

Almost all the nearby land belonged to the Empress's palace, and the remaining land belonged to Emperor Yao's sacrificial fields, so it was impossible to annex it.

These fields were also enclosed by elm, willow, and poplar trees, covering an area of ​​about 100 square miles in total.

In such a large area, only a very small portion of the land has been cultivated; the rest of the area is mainly used for grazing and gardening.

At Consort Zhao's villa, a hundred paces outside the gate, she led several palace servants to wait. One of the servants, dressed simply, had a sword at his waist and carried a blue parasol.

When Zhao Ji's vehicle arrived, he looked up at the azure sky, jumped out of the car, adjusted the belt around his waist and the headscarf on his head, and stepped forward to greet her with a cupped hand: "Sister."

“Yuan Si has become even more robust.”

Consort Zhao raised her hand to help Zhao Ji up, then withdrew it and said, "I heard that Yuan Si has come to pay his respects to the prince?"

"Yes, if it's not appropriate, I don't mind not seeing you today."

Zhao Ji handed over a stack of booklets: "These are for my elder sister and the Empress. There are nearly 100,000 officials and soldiers in Xizhou now. I want to make sure that the prince is safe and sound, otherwise, if the situation changes, it will be difficult to explain to the officials and soldiers."

Determining the prince's health was crucial to the possibility of establishing a separate court.

When such an alternative is available, Liu Xie and the imperial court will not go to extremes.

Consort Zhao took the gift list and said, "I will go see the Empress now. The prince has always been healthy and well. If he suddenly sees someone as new as Yuan Si, he may be frightened."

After thinking for a moment, she turned to Zhao Ji and said, "Yuan Si, please take a bath and wash up in my villa. If the Empress agrees, I will come to lead Yuan Si to Consort Dong's villa to pay respects to the prince later."

"Thank you for your help, sister."

Zhao Ji thanked him and looked around, noticing two palace maids holding halberds standing in front of the villa.

As he surveyed the area, his entourage of tiger-like warriors, armed with halberds, advanced and quickly took over the defenses of the manor.

Consort Zhao led Zhao Ji to a separate garden to settle in, and then she also took a carriage to see the Empress.

The two manors were not far apart. While Zhao Ji was waiting inside, Guan Shang hurried in and said, "Grand Marshal, a female official has come and says that she has been ordered to bestow winter clothes upon you."

"Female officer?"

Zhao Ji was puzzled and went to look at Guan Shang, who looked even more puzzled. Judging from his expression, it was clear that Guan Shang hadn't gotten the information clearly from the other person.

He also didn't like Guan Shang to be too clever; he preferred someone who was simple, hardworking, and didn't require extra care.

So he got up and went out of the house, and saw a group of palace servants coming into the small courtyard of the living room. The leader was a female official who looked somewhat familiar and kind.

The female official bowed to Zhao Ji and said, "I am here by order of the Empress to bestow winter clothes upon the Grand Marshal."

As she spoke, two palace maids bowed and stepped forward with a wooden tray. On the tray was a brocade robe with embroidered patterns in crimson and purple. The robe, along with the undergarment, trousers, socks, and other items, were all folded and arranged.

The two palace maids carried the clothes into the living room, and two more palace maids quickly followed, each carrying a caged scarf, a sable crown, and a pair of colorful leather shoes.

Zhao Ji bowed deeply, saying, "Thank you for the Empress's reward."

The female official nodded in agreement, then rolled up the silk scroll in her hand and handed it to the accompanying palace maid. She then bowed and scraped before Zhao Ji, saying, "This servant is here on the Empress's orders to help the Grand Marshal change his clothes."

At this moment, Zhao Ji carefully examined the other party and suspected that he was an assassin.

Seeing the changes in the expressions of the other palace maids who remained near the female official, they no longer seemed like assassins.

Seeing Zhao Ji's resistance, the female official said again, "Grand Marshal, you have crushed the two traitors, Li and Guo, and we have been able to escape from their den of wolves. We have always regretted not being able to repay your kindness. Now that the Empress has sent you, we have come here at all costs. We humbly beg the Grand Marshal to grant our request."

He then knelt down and looked expectantly at Zhao Ji.

Seeing that her red-trimmed white blouse was taut, Zhao Ji concluded that she couldn't be hiding a dagger on her, so he nodded and said, "Thank you for your trouble."

(End of this chapter)