Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 116 Even the worst order is still order

At the beginning of the year, Liu Hong checked his inventory and found that he didn't have enough goods.

In other words, there weren't enough official positions to sell—the lucrative positions were sold out, while the less lucrative positions were simply unwanted.

So Liu Hong provided after-sales service.

An imperial edict was issued, ordering all officials to report incompetent officials in various prefectures and counties based on folk songs and rumors, and to vacate their positions.

The current Grand Commandant Xu Ji, Minister of Works Zhang Ji, and others racked their brains over this issue.

They dared not offend the sons and retainers of eunuchs, nor could they report the powerful clans and aristocratic families...

Therefore, those who were impeached were all officials in remote counties. Whether they were honest or not was uncertain, but they certainly did not have much of a background.

Dozens of officials were falsely accused and impeached, including magistrates and county heads from most of the counties in Zhuojun.

This matter is also related to Liu Bei. When the Taihang bandits attacked Zhuo County, they purged the officials of Zhuo County. Subsequently, Liu Yu, the governor of Youzhou, and Liu Wei jointly accused the Yuan family of ordering assassins to kill people. Everyone in the court knew that Liu Yu and Liu Wei were at odds with the Yuan family.

Liu Wei sold many county officials at the time. The local officials in Zhuojun were controlled by powerful local families, and these officials could be regarded as Liu Wei's subordinates.

Liu Yu, holding the imperial insignia, inspected the regions on behalf of the emperor, and no one dared to touch him. Consequently, no one from the Yuan family went to serve as an official in places like Zhuojun and Guangyang, otherwise it would have been easy for Liu Yu to find fault with them.

The only official from the Yuan faction was the newly appointed Prefect of Zhuojun, Wen Shu. However, since all the officials in the prefecture were sold off by Liu Wei, Wen Shu could only be cautious and did not cause any trouble. The previous change of the location of the transport station was also a reasonable and legitimate matter.

The Yuan family had only replaced the officials in charge of the trade market with their own people to secure the profits of the horse market, and had not placed any more county-level officials in Youzhou since then.

Youzhou, being a border region, was prone to warfare and not a lucrative post, so the sons and disciples of eunuchs were unwilling to come.

This gave some scholars with little backing an opportunity.

In the past two years, most of the county magistrates who have taken office in Zhuojun have not had much of a background.

Because Liu Yu, the governor of Youzhou, always handled official business strictly, and Wen Shu, the prefect, was always cautious, they kept a close eye on these newly arrived county officials... These county officials were naturally very honest in their posts, either doing practical work conscientiously or following the rules with trepidation.

In the past two years, the counties of Zhuojun have been governed with a sense of laissez-faire governance, with smooth administration and harmonious people.

This is also why no one has caused trouble in Zhuojun in the past two years. A delicate balance has been maintained among all parties, and no one dares to cause trouble.

This is also why Liu Bei has had difficulty recruiting people in the past two years—Zhuojun is a very peaceful place, officials haven't caused any trouble, people can make a living, so naturally not many people are willing to break the law and become private soldiers. And Liu Bei is limited by his mourning period, so he cannot recruit a large number of household servants.

Just like in later generations, even if billionaires spend a lot of money, it is difficult to build a private army; at most, they can hire people as security guards.

This time, many officials in Zhuojun were impeached. Most people were not surprised, since even a good official like Le Yin had to resign because he couldn't afford to buy his way into office.

Since Zhuo County did not have a magistrate, this matter did not affect Zhuo County or Xihe Pavilion, and Liu Bei did not pay much attention to it. For the current emperor, replacing officials in batches was really normal.

But the local officials in each county are very concerned about this matter...

These days, it doesn't matter whether an official is honest or not; as long as they don't openly harm the people, they're considered a good official.

If someone can do some decent work without harming the people, then they are a good official—anyone who can maintain order is a good official.

Soon after, officials from various regions who had been falsely accused were brought to Luoyang. Their families gathered in Luoyang to file a petition. Minister Chen Dan and Consultant Cao Cao jointly submitted a memorial, saying that most of the accusations made by the high-ranking officials were to protect their own cronies, which was "releasing owls and imprisoning phoenixes."

Liu Hong therefore reprimanded Xu Ji and Zhang Ji, and appointed all the officials who had been punished for spreading rumors as Imperial Consultants as compensation.

However, the official positions in the prefectures and counties were still vacated. This vacancy lasted for several months.

Other counties were fine, but too many officials in Zhuo County were relocated.

Most importantly, the officials of Zhuojun also resigned. The previous officials had been sold off by Liu Wei in secret and had dirty hands. Seeing that the Grand Commandant and the Minister of Works were personally investigating the officials, these officials were all in danger and of course dared not stay in their positions.

The same applies to county officials. Their county magistrates were personally recommended by the Three Dukes, and they were all subordinates recruited by the county magistrates. Wouldn't it be suicidal to stay in office?

As a result, almost all the officials in Zhuojun, from top to bottom, were wiped out...

Zhuo County was entirely populated by Jian Yong's people, and things were already going quite well, so the impact wasn't significant. However, most counties, including Gu'an, Fanyang, Rongcheng, and Fangcheng, were simultaneously without anyone in charge.

All the counties in the southern part of Zhuojun were out of control.

Wen Shu was immediately faced with the same situation Liu Wei had faced – all the county officials had resigned, and even if someone wanted to take charge, there was no one available.

The situation was even more complicated than when Liu Wei was alive, as Liu Wei at least had Liu Bei leading troops to help him.

But now, Wen Shuzhen can't find any help.

Wen Shu was from Taiyuan, and he was completely unfamiliar with the wealthy and powerful families in Zhuojun. He had no one at his disposal, and the wealthy families were not very willing to be ordered around by the court officials, having witnessed the three high-ranking officials of the court framing good officials.

Before long, the counties of Zhuojun had basically lost order at the same time.

Whether it's good order or bad order, there are still rules and regulations... What would happen if several adjacent counties lost order at the same time, and hundreds of miles around were left uncontrolled?
Of course it's a riot.

First, public security issues arose in various counties, and then theft and robbery increased in various places, but no one took action.

Subsequently, more and more cases of bullying men and women, murder, robbery and plundering occurred in various counties, and no one cared.

Military supplies at the Fangcheng transfer station were looted, and no one seemed to care.

After that, some people with ulterior motives began to organize mobs to loot supplies, coerce the poor, and rob merchants and travelers... In a short period of time, large-scale riots broke out.

Wen Shu quickly dispatched county soldiers and transport troops from the transport depot to suppress the mob, but he had very few officials and soldiers in Zhuojun County, and the transport troops from the transport depot were untrained—from command to manpower, they were all unreliable and were easily defeated by the rioters.

This crackdown, however, emboldened the mob, causing the riots to escalate even faster.

Wen Shu had no choice but to ask Jian Yong to seek help from the Protectorate of the Wuhuan.

But at this time, Qian Zhao had just led his army north to discuss cooperation with the Wuhuan people of Shanggu—Zou Jing wanted to counterattack the Xianbei and needed to get as much support as possible from the Wuhuan people.

Zou Jing and Liu Yu were in the same boat. To prepare for their departure from the pass, Zou Jing led his army to Youbeiping to recruit Wuhuan cavalry. Liu Yu went to Liaoxi and was colluding with Wang Men to ingratiate himself with the Wuhuan people there.

Since neither of the two powerful figures was in Guangyang, the Guangyang Prefect Liu Wei needed to have the county troops strictly guard all the passes and had no troops available to support Zhuojun.

Meanwhile, the mob had swept through the Fangcheng area and traveled westward to Fanyang, Gu'an and other places, and was now heading northwest—towards the Juma River area.

The southern prefectures of Ji Province certainly had troops, but the rioters had already blocked the road to the south, and Wen Shu had few men at his disposal, so he had no way to ask for reinforcements from the south.

For a time, Zhuojun had no army capable of suppressing the riots.

(End of this chapter)