Chapter 301 County Inspection, Problems and Solutions
North of Yunmengze (Dongting Lake), Huarong County.

A group of young and strong men, about 300 in number, were building a dam by the lake, and there was also a small settlement nearby.

The smoke from the kitchen is rising, it will be lunch time soon.

This is a military settlement. Most of the residents are refugees from Jiangbei who came to Jingzhou, and only a small number of twenty people are from the army.

It was already April and the weather was getting warmer. The people didn't have much clothing to begin with, so these clothes were just right for the season.

"Captain, I heard that the general is coming to Huarong County for inspection. Is that true?"

The news that Jin Mao had become the general was known to everyone in the four states of Jiangnan, even in the distant Jiaozhou.

This military settlement numbered 8371 was headed by a man who had participated in the Yizhou Campaign. After recovering from a serious injury and being unable to return to the battlefield, he was demoted here.

Due to his late joining the army, the garrison commander was not promoted to the main battalion, otherwise he would not have been assigned to such a poor position.

However, he was a little better than those eliminated from the recruit camp. Only by staying in the third echelon could he become the chief of this military settlement.

"Li Dahu, do your job well!"

The head of the settlement was from Yangzhou, and his elegant dialect sounded a bit strange, but the soldiers in the settlement had long been accustomed to it and had no problem understanding it.

"Hehe." Li Dahu disagreed and said, "I heard that the captain has met the general. Tell us what kind of person the general is."

"That's right."

"Townmaster, please tell me."

The military households began to make a fuss one by one, even the twenty or so retired soldiers under the village chief joined in the commotion.

Today, Jin Mao's status and position have already reached a level that is beyond compare. Not to mention the common people, even many of the soldiers at the bottom have never seen him, let alone communicate with him.

The village chief had only seen him from a distance during the general's swearing-in ceremony, and he probably didn't even know what he looked like.

However, this did not prevent the village chief from admiring the general.

Almost the entire Yangzhou became a believer of the general, and the village chief was no exception.

Who would say bad things about the God they believe in? Not even a single word from others is allowed!

"The great general is mighty and wise, he is a god sent down from the sky to save the people..."

The village chief didn't know how to describe it, so he just recited the scriptures of the Shenxin religion.

At first, everyone was listening with great interest, but within two minutes they realized something was wrong.

Isn't this the doctrine of the Shenxin religion that the village chief often preaches to them?

"Why am I getting more confused the more I listen?" Li Dahu leaned on his hoe with both hands and expressed the doubts in everyone's mind: "Captain, you haven't seen the general before, are you trying to fool us with your doctrine?"

The village chief's old face turned red with humiliation and he shouted in anger, "Get out!"

"Get back to work!"

“Everyone is so idle!”

Everyone booed but didn't dare talk back. They went back to work and continued to reinforce the dam.

After a while, Li Dahu stopped what he was doing and pricked up his ears as if he heard some sound.

Interestingly, this Li Dahu was from Bingzhou and was once a member of the Bingzhou Wolf Riders. After getting separated from Lu Bu in the Battle of Luoyang, he became a bandit and a robber.

Later, Dong Zhuo was defeated and fled to Chang'an. The area near Luoyang was ruled by Jin Mao, and bandits and robbers could no longer survive. Li Dahu pretended to be a refugee and came to Jingzhou to escape food.

After many twists and turns, he finally settled down in Huarong County.

Although the days of living on the edge of a knife were exciting, Li Dahu had long been tired of them and just wanted to spend the rest of his life in peace and stability.

It just so happened that the new policy provided refugees and captives with a smooth path forward, so Li Dahu decided to become a good citizen, marry and have children.

The road is difficult, but at least there is hope, which is much better than having to tie your head to your belt before.

Therefore, Li Dahu was very familiar with the movements of large numbers of cavalry.

Feeling that a large group of cavalry was approaching, Li Dahu didn't care about attracting attention. He dropped the work in his hands and lay on the ground to listen carefully.

The village chief was already embarrassed by Li Dahu's criticism, and when he saw something unusual, he immediately shouted, "Li Dahu!"

Suddenly, everyone was attracted by Li Dahu's strangeness and turned their heads to look at him.

The scene fell silent.

"What are you yelling about?"

Li Dahu's ferocity hidden under the mask of honesty was fully exposed: "The cavalry is charging!"

"If you don't want to die, run away!"

Considering that they had worked together for nearly half a year, Li Dahu gave him a special reminder and began to look for a way out.

cavalry?

Huarong County is in the heart of Jingzhou, where did the cavalry come from?

"Li Dahu, who are you trying to scare?"

"Only you can!"

The military households all laughed out loud. Li Dahu's previous image was that of a boastful old man, and he had nothing to do with bravery.

"Humph!" Li Dahu said disdainfully, "Believe it or not."

There's no need to pay much attention to it, it's better to run away quickly.

However, the military settlement is not such a relaxed environment. If Li Dahu escapes, everyone here will be punished.

"Where are you going?"

"Want to run?!"

After the military households reacted, they surrounded and intercepted him, blocking the only upgrade in Li Dahu's eyes.

"If you guys want to die, don't drag me along!"

Li Dahu dodged left and right, but was still pinned to the ground. He shouted angrily: "A large group of cavalry! Everyone must die!"

"I don't want to die!"

At first, everyone thought Li Dahu was crazy, until the ground began to shake and the thunderous roar came from far away, then they realized that Li Dahu was not wrong.

They stood up blankly and looked into the distance, giving Li Dahu the opportunity to escape.

Suddenly, a row of dark cavalry appeared from behind a small hill a few hundred meters away. The horses were fat and strong, and the knights were mighty and majestic.

The captain recognized at a glance that this was the most elite troop under the general, the personal guards!
As he breathed a sigh of relief, he was shocked to find that Li Dahu was gone.

"Don't look at me stupidly!"

"These are the general's personal guards!"

"Catch Li Dahu back now!"

After three sentences, everyone woke up from their dream.

Most people stared blankly, perhaps wanting to see the general's true appearance, or perhaps simply because they were frightened.

After all, most of the people here are refugees. How could they have ever seen such a scene?

Only the retired veterans reacted and started chasing Li Dahu.

An even more puzzling scene happened!

The royal guards actually turned around and chased after Li Dahu.

This time, the refugees were truly stunned and didn't know what was going on.

"Boom!"

The horses' hooves lifted up the grass that had just grown on the ground. Without even a glance, the group of frightened soldiers quickly surrounded Li Dahu and his men.

Li Dahu was almost scared to death. When he followed Lu Bu to charge into the battle, he had never seen such a fierce cavalry unit. He thought his identity had been discovered and he would have to die here today.

But on second thought, he was just a little Karami and not Lu Bu, it was not worth making such a big fuss to take his life.

Soon, the Royal Guards separated to both sides like a tide, and a general wearing Ming Guang armor rode a divine horse and slowly came to the front. The sunlight shone on the chest guard on the Ming Guang armor, making Li Dahu unable to open his eyes.

"What's the injustice here?"

Li Dahu only heard the general asking, "Tell the truth!"

Before Li Dahu could react, he saw the village chief leading a group of retired veterans kneeling down and shouting, "Great General!"

Li Dahu turned his head and caught a glimpse of the general's appearance. He sighed in his heart: "So this is the general, so young!"

On horseback, Jin Mao looked at the stupidly fighting soldier, patiently pointed his whip at him, and asked again: "You! Why are you running away?"

"Is there any injustice here?"

It turned out that Jinmao was passing through Huarong County during his county patrol. He originally wanted to take a boat to the nearby pier, but he happened to see the riot and temporarily changed direction.

The journey south from Wancheng was peaceful. The common people and military households were very satisfied with their current lives. There were only some trivial matters, which could be handled by the sheriff.

There were cases of grievance, but not many, and none of them were caused by the new policy. Jinmao recorded them all.

I happened to see a riot here and thought something big had happened, so I turned around to take a look.

Seeing that Li Dahu still didn't speak, Jin Mao asked, "Who is in charge here?"

The head of the garrison stood up and bowed again, saying, "General, I am the head of the garrison of the 8731st."

"Get up and answer. You all should get up too."

"Thank you, General!"

The retired veterans looked at the figure on horseback with burning eyes. In the entire village, except for the village chief, no one else had ever seen the general.

Now I have the opportunity to observe her beauty from such a close distance, which will give me bragging rights in the future.

Especially in the future, new recruits may only have seen the portrait of the general and never seen the real person.

"From your accent, you sound like a mountain dweller from Yangzhou?"

Jin Mao looked at the village chief, leaned over and asked with a smile: "Which mountain are you from?"

The village chief's face flushed with excitement, and he stammered as he spoke in his hometown dialect: "Dongye... Dongye Wuyishan!"

"Oh?" Jin Mao was very surprised and asked in Dongye dialect: "How is Dongye County now?"

"I haven't been there for many years. Are the people doing well?"

The village chief became even more excited, the legends were true!

The general is a god who has descended to earth. Judging from his fluent Dongye dialect, no one would doubt that he has lived in Dongye County since he was a child.

The village chief, in a mood of pilgrimage, spoke incoherently about what he knew.

"Everyone is doing well, there are many more people, and the county chief has been promoted to county magistrate."

"The cotton grows very well, and the workshop can produce many, many quilts every year."

"Everyone is grateful for the great general's grace, and every household has built a shrine to you."…

Blah blah, the village chief seemed to have opened his mouth and started talking quickly and urgently in his hometown dialect.

Everyone around was confused, except Jin Mao, who was listening with great interest.

Dongye County is Fujian in later generations. It is a vast area with a sparse population. Even in such a large area, the population does not exceed 10,000 households.

In recent years, with the rapid development of agriculture in Fujian, the large-scale planting of cash crops such as cotton and rapeseed, and the opening of the fishing industry, many people moved there, and people from nearby mountains also moved down to settle down, making the population finally exceed 10,000 households.

According to the village chief, the population is probably approaching 20,000 households.

There will definitely be greater development in the future.

However, Dongye County has a poor geographical location. It is surrounded by mountains and is hit by storms in summer, making it unsuitable for large-scale development.

The focus of immigration in the future will still be in Jiaozhou Panyu, Jiaozhi, and Rinan (Vietnam).

That is a precious land where we can harvest three crops a year!
After learning about the development of Dongye County, Jin Maocai asked what exactly happened here.

The village chief did not hide anything and told him everything about Li Dahu.

"You mean to say that Li Dahu dared to assert that there was a large-scale cavalry charge without seeing us, and even fled despite the ban?"

Jin Mao looked at Li Dahu suspiciously.

As they were communicating in Dongye dialect, Li Dahu had no idea what the two were talking about. When he saw the general looking at him, he smiled what he thought was a sunny smile.

In fact, it is very obscene.

"Tsk." Jin Mao noticed something suspicious and asked in elegant language, "Why are you running?"

"Don't you know that the collective responsibility system will implicate others?"

The system of collective responsibility here was inherited from the Han Dynasty law, which was inherited from the Qin Dynasty law. Within fifteen days of a deserter's escape, all the merits of the other soldiers in the same year would be confiscated.

If they escape for more than 15 days and less than three months, the rest of the group will be made slaves for two years.

Li Dahu's behavior is obviously intended to put everyone in an unjust position.

But Li Dahu didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Neither the Bingzhou Army nor the Xiliang Army had any regulations in this regard.

"General, I know I was wrong." Li Dahu said shamelessly: "Give me another chance."

The smell of this old soldier hit me straight in the head, and he wasn't even from his own army.

Jin Mao simply asked directly: "Who did you work for?"

"You are definitely not a refugee!"

Li Dahu smiled awkwardly and asked, "General, if I tell you, can you forgive me?"

"No!" Jin Mao said decisively: "I have always emphasized that rewards and punishments are clear, merits are merits, and faults are faults!"

"I can absolve others of their guilt, but not you!"

Suddenly, Li Dahu turned into a bitter melon face and started to act arrogantly: "Do whatever you want!"

"Are you sure?" Jin Mao said with a half-smile, "Deserters should be executed according to the law."

Li Dahu panicked and knelt on the ground, kowtowed, "I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!"

So, Li Dahu recounted all his experiences since he joined the Bingzhou Army, even his experiences as a bandit and robber.

Deserter from Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry?

He didn't expect that there were so many hidden talents in the military settlement. Jin Mao frowned. He realized that they had absorbed too many refugees from the north without careful screening.

The military settlements scattered everywhere have now become a destabilizing factor.

Who knows how many deserters, bandits and robbers have mixed in with the refugees.

If someone breaks into Jiangnan in the future, all our efforts over the years will be wasted.

After all, these people won't play by the rules and will definitely turn against you when the time comes.

After listening to Li Dahu's explanation, Jin Mao did not respond for a long time, and his mind had already drifted to Jiangbei.

"We must keep the war contained to the Jiangbei area!"

In this case, Cao Cao could not be treated lightly and had to be taught a lesson, even if it meant making Cao Cao completely side with Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shu is no longer in power, and the question is what to do with Yuzhou.

Previously, Jinmao was thinking of sending troops to garrison, but now it seems that it has to make some changes.

"You can use Yuzhou and Xuzhou as a buffer zone. If you want to fight, you should fight here!"

Cao Cao and Yuan Shao now have few cavalry units under their command, so they don't have to worry about a head-on confrontation with the infantry.

No one in the world can defeat him at the infantry level!
"It seems that this county inspection was extremely correct."

Jinmao decided to continue to visit Yangzhou in the east, and even go to Xuzhou to meet the strongest hero of the Three Kingdoms.

Cao Cao!

(End of this chapter)