Starting from the Tiger Demon Yaksha, the demon immortality

Chapter 339 349 The magistrate has arrived, and the blue sky is here!

On the city gate of Changsong County, dozens of neatly arranged human heads are inserted into bamboo poles.

Despite their ferocious expressions, the passersby could easily recognize them as the powerful figures who once held sway over the world.

"This is Magistrate Liu, and this...this is Clerk Zhang, and Registrar Xu."

"My goodness, has the entire county government been raided? It's all been wiped out in one fell swoop!"

"Good riddance! These beasts have harmed countless villagers. They deserve to be killed! If you ask me, beheading them would be too lenient; they should be subjected to slow slicing!"

"This new Prefect Li is ruthless when it comes to killing, but who knows if he's planning to eliminate others so he can take all the spoils for himself?"

"I don't think so. Look at those soldiers, they talk to us ordinary people so kindly, when have you ever seen anything like that?"

"Really? Aren't soldiers just bandits in official robes? All crows are black."

The people in the county whispered among themselves, still harboring doubts, but they couldn't help but cast expectant glances at the soldiers at the city gate, whose spirits and demeanor were vastly different.

The latter seemed to be used to the people's reactions. The leader, without changing his expression, directed his men to post notices while shouting loudly:
Why kill these people?

"Because they are using Lord Li's name to extort money from the people and oppress the good!"

"They were beheaded so that everyone would understand the consequences of harming the people!"

"Not only corrupt officials and cruel bureaucrats, but also the local tyrants and gentry of Changsong County will not escape being dealt with."

"A public trial will be held in front of the county government office in a few days. At that time, the innocent will be exonerated and the victimized people will be compensated with land and gold and silver!"

"With the arrival of the magistrate, Wenzhou is at peace!"

"With the arrival of the magistrate, the blue sky will surely return."

Li Cunxiao stood on the city wall, looking down at the soldiers shouting and the crowd watching.

Li Guangyi, standing beside him, held the official register and intelligence gathered from his own investigations, analyzing each item one by one:

"Generally speaking, the situation in Changsong County is similar to that in the other counties of Wenzhou."

"Because of the remote location and the wars outside in recent years, the imperial court has been unable to intervene in the local area. The positions of county magistrate and registrar have long been passed down from father to son, and some have been held for three generations."

"Several families in the government colluded with powerful clans in the village to control tax collection, exploit the common people, and train private soldiers."

"As long as the tribute and taxes are paid to Wang Jian on time, the King of Shu will not interfere. In this way, a county is equivalent to a small vassal state, and the county magistrate is a military governor who has a firm grasp on military, political and legal matters."

"Ninety percent of the land in the county belongs to those eight or nine families, and the farmers are basically tenant farmers."

"Wenzhou is still relatively good. I heard that Fuzhou has even more mountains and less land. Several county magistrates are forcing the people to abandon rice cultivation and plant mulberry trees. The silk they harvest is then sold in Sichuan, and the money is used to buy grain."

"The people's lifeline is in the hands of these people."

Li Guangyi's expression was solemn. During the year he lived in the capital region, he was surrounded by luxury and ease, which made him almost forget the hardships of the past.

Now that I am personally in charge, I have come to understand the suffering of the people during the war.

"There is Shu brocade in Sichuan. A single piece of top-quality Shu brocade is worth several gold coins. It is because of this that Wang Jian has been able to continuously obtain silver from the outside world."

Li Cunxiao seemed to be thinking, "I heard that this person had people collecting auspicious omens before the New Year?"

"That's true. But what's strange is that he started collecting auspicious omens much earlier than His Majesty announced his ascension to the throne."

"How early?"

"Two months later, the army had not yet returned."

Li Cunxiao laughed, "The King of Shu is not honest."

"This auspicious omen is not prepared for His Majesty, but for himself."

"Indeed, who wouldn't want to sit on the throne, the most powerful person in the land?"

"Unfortunately, he was both reckless and cowardly. As soon as the imperial decree was issued, he immediately became submissive."

This decree was both Li Yisheng's decree to become emperor and Li Cunxiao's decree to be appointed to govern Wenzhou and Fuzhou. The two were issued one after the other.

Qici, as a master, accompanied Li Cunxiao, thus blocking the pass out of Shu, the implication of which was obvious.

There are no immortals in Sichuan. If Wang Jian had any sense, he should have behaved himself.

"But we've been here for over half a month, and I've already cleared out the entire Wenzhou. The King of Shu still hasn't sent an envoy. He's quite patient."

Li Cunxiao descended from the city wall and rode with Li Guangyi to the county government office.

What we saw along the way was neither desolate nor lush, much like the situation in Wenzhou city.

This place is located in a remote area with a small population and few counties under its jurisdiction, so the city is naturally not very prosperous.

Wenzhou and Fuzhou each had only three or four counties under their jurisdiction, and each county had only tens of thousands of people.

Li Cunxiao still remembers that he led 6,000 soldiers out of the capital region and through Qin Prefecture, Cheng Prefecture, and Wu Prefecture.

The further south you go, the fewer people there are and the more barren the land becomes.

In particular, Wenzhou, the first stop, was like a county town, far inferior to Songzhou.

Changsong County, needless to say, is called a county seat, but in reality it is just a larger town.

Even at this point, the local corrupt officials, tyrants, and gentry still tried every means to squeeze money out of the common people.

The people in several counties remained in a state of limbo, neither truly dead nor truly rebelling.

Upon seeing this, Li Cunxiao was naturally furious.

On one hand, there was his bottom line; on the other hand, as an outsider, he planned to use Wenzhou and Fuzhou as his base, and then look for opportunities to seize control of Sichuan.

Six thousand soldiers were far from enough; he needed more ordinary people and good families to join his forces.

These wealthy locals in the county have undoubtedly undermined their own core business.

Whether it's for redistributing benefits or for winning people's hearts, these people must die!

Therefore, Li Cunxiao sent a letter to Fuzhou, ordering him to come to Wenzhou to pay homage to the imperial envoy's entourage;
On the other hand, he led his troops to seize land from local tyrants in one county and distribute it to them, while also eliminating demons and monsters to accumulate evil energy.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the original rentier class should be completely wiped out. Having local strongmen under their command makes things easier.

Those who haven't committed that many sins can still be given a chance to atone for their mistakes.

Now that he has taken Changsong County, the entire Wenzhou is under his control, and time has moved from the beginning of March to the end of March.

It's not surprising that Wang Jian wanted to wait and see; as the King of Shu, he had the right to do so.

But the powerful families in Fuzhou are slow to arrive. Aren't they afraid that I, the imperial envoy, will be furious?
"The magistrates of the four counties in Fuzhou did send letters, all of whom declined to participate in spring plowing and agricultural exhortation, saying they were too busy with other matters to get away."

Li Guangyi looked strange. "Brother, I'm afraid your plan to hold the Feast at Hongmen won't work out."

“That’s not necessarily true,” Li Cunxiao said calmly as he sat down in the county government hall.

With a wave of his hand, guards brought over three piles of documents as tall as a person, all of which were backlogged administrative cases from Changsong County.

After the Xuan Guan was perfected, how astonishingly strong was his primordial spirit?
Often, a single glance is enough to make a decision, and the speed of the brushstroke is as fast as the fluttering of a bee's wings.

While dealing with the pile of debris, he also talked with Li Guangyi:

"How's the investigation into the four major families going?"

"The four major families of Liu, Chen, Yang and Huang each control a county under Fuzhou, with thousands of members."

"Among them, the Huang family controlled Goose City, and there was a waterway in the territory that led directly to Longzhou in Sichuan."

"For this reason, the Huang family relied on trade routes to sell raw silk and other goods, making a fortune." "Huang Bairen, the magistrate of Echeng County, was the fourth son in his family and was known as Huang Silang."

"It is said that he used this to make contact with a true disciple of the Taoist sect Qingcheng Mountain, thus enabling the Huang family to rank first among the four major families."

Li Cunxiao paused slightly at the tip of his pen.

"True teachings? I remember the head of Qingcheng Mountain was only a Grandmaster. What level are the true teachings of his elders?"

"Most are at the sixth realm, with only a few elderly elders at the seventh realm."

The brush tip began to flow smoothly across the paper again.

"Then there's nothing to worry about."

The current Li Cunxiao is no longer the same as before, starting from scratch and fighting alone, with six or seven thousand people below him opening their mouths to eat every day.

Fighting someone of a higher level sounds impressive, but it's actually a last resort.

If given a choice, the best course of action would be to use the strong to bully the weak and the powerful to attack the vulnerable; this is the essence of military strategy.

In less than half an hour, Li Cunxiao put down his brush, took the booklet from Li Guangyi, and gestured for the other to sit in his seat.

Since arriving in Wenzhou, he has always done this: first, he handles the official business, and then he has his younger brother review it.

This was both an opportunity for Li Guangyi to familiarize himself with government affairs and a way for him to identify and fill any gaps in his knowledge.

When you first arrive, it's necessary to personally sort out the intricate relationships in the local area.

Once you have a clear understanding of the situation, you should naturally delegate authority to your subordinates.

Li Guangyi was his secretary and confidant, and Li Cunxiao took this opportunity to train him.

He himself carried the booklet in his hand, flipping through it as he left the county government office and wandered around the city.

Strangely, despite the fact that such a large, living person was walking around, not a single person, whether a peddler, a waiter, or a shopkeeper, noticed.

The person's aura completely blended with the surrounding environment; all the true energy in their body was gathered and stilled.

With the entrance to the inner world complete, the connection between the microcosm of the human body and the macrocosm of the outside world has become increasingly close, and only one opportunity is needed to break through to the Grandmaster level.

If one were to use malevolent energy to break through the barrier, it would require a considerable amount of energy.

Li Cunxiao was new to the area and hadn't yet established himself. Since he wasn't in a hurry to kill Wang Jian and seize Shu, he decided to focus his energy on training the Daoist soldiers.

After many twists and turns, we arrived at the Hita-in in the city.

This place, like the Beitian Academy in Songzhou City, was a place specifically for taking in orphans.

When I first arrived a few days ago, it was dilapidated, but now it has been completely transformed, and I can faintly hear the sound of reading coming from inside.

Delving deeper, we can see that upbringing here is also divided into two parts:
Children aged seven or eight are mostly still learning to read;
Meanwhile, teenagers have already been assigned to different masters and are learning skills such as carpentry, masonry, forging, and medicine.

After Li Cunxiao arrived in Wenzhou, he set up literacy classes and vocational classes in every county he visited, not just in Beitianyuan, in order to cultivate his future workforce.

Those with exceptional martial arts talent will be selected through bone analysis and sent to specialized martial arts schools to be trained as future junior officers.

The loyalty of these orphans to Li Shijun, who provided them with food and shelter, goes without saying.

Five or ten years from now, they will become the backbone of the army.

As for the headmasters who oversee these schools...
Li Cunxiao smiled and pushed open the door, where he saw Ye Shuyi holding a calligraphy brush, frowning and deep in thought.

Who could be more suitable than a noblewoman who is both literate and skilled in martial arts?
"Sanlang, you've come at the perfect time."

"The grain recently seized from homes must be used for disaster relief, military expansion, and supplying schools across the country, barely enough to break even."

"Spring planting has just begun, and it will be some time before the first batch of new grain is harvested, you see."

"Don't worry, I already sent a letter to Brother Siqi asking him to send another batch over."

She finally breathed a sigh of relief, "Senior Brother Siqi really put in a lot of effort this time."

"Not to mention the various grains and medicinal herbs, the intelligence you have on Wenzhou and Fuzhou was also collected and compiled by him, right?"

"Indeed. The Li family of Longxi is a large clan with extensive connections, which will be of great help to my governance of the two prefectures."

Li Cunxiao walked behind his wife, and Ye Shuyi leaned back, resting her head on his broad chest, and sighed.

“In the past, when I was in the sect and the marquis’s mansion, I never worried about making a living. I thought that although the Great Qin was in chaos, the officials’ salaries were ultimately taken from the people, and the common people would not be unable to make a living.”

"Now that I have personally governed this area, I realize that people's desires are insatiable and their exploitation is so cruel that they even wish they could kill people."

Such is the way of the world; all we can do is try our best.

Li Cunxiao gently combed through his dark hair, softly comforting him:
"Thank you for your hard work, ma'am."

"What's so special about this?" Ye Shuyi shook her head, sat up again, and, as if thinking of something, joked:
"But Uncle Qici was also sent by you to preach and spread the Dharma. Didn't he dislike being worshipped? How did you persuade him?"

“What’s so difficult about that?” Li Cunxiao smiled.

"Ordinary people may not worship Bodhisattvas, but they will worship the Taoist patriarch."

"Life is hard, but you always need something to look forward to in order to get through it."

"Besides, I'm not here to gather followers and extort money from them."

"On the contrary, what was said at the Dharma assembly were simple medical prescriptions and agricultural proverbs."

“What we hear at the Dharma assembly are the real demands of ordinary people. They dare not beat the drum to appeal, but they are happy to complain to the monks.”

"With such official sentiment and popular support, and with this information effectively communicated from top to bottom, isn't this a good thing?"

“You are a living enlightened king. Your manifestation of the Dharma form is not to show off your supernatural powers, but to educate the people. Isn’t this a great deed that surpasses building a seven-story pagoda?”

As Li Cunxiao spoke, he turned around and saw that Qici had appeared at the door of the study at some point.

The latter smiled helplessly, but was also somewhat surprised.

Once the gateway to enlightenment is perfected, one will be able to perceive the ripples generated by the interaction between a Grandmaster and the heavens and earth.

"The student surpasses the master. Even your eloquence is several times better than mine, what can I say?"

"However, I'm afraid I'm the first monk to hold a Dharma assembly without giving a sermon."

As he spoke, a slight smile appeared on his lips.

He doesn't spout empty talk about the Form Realm or the Formless Realm; he focuses on practical things that benefit people's livelihoods. He really enjoys these kinds of Dharma assemblies.

Moreover, as a grandmaster and the teacher of Li Shijun, no one dared to deceive him, nor could anyone deceive him.

This feeling of chivalry is somewhat different from being a lone wolf before.

Qi Ci sometimes couldn't help but think, what if his disciple could uphold righteousness for the world?
"Master, I'll leave the situation in Wenzhou to you for now."

Li Cunxiao's words interrupted the divergent thoughts, and the great monk nodded.

"You're going to Fuzhou?"

"Yes, I can manage two squads of guards by myself."

Li Cunxiao's expression was amused.

"If the four major families refuse to come, then I'll have to go myself."

(End of this chapter)