Chapter 91 Conflict Escalation
October of the third year of Zhongping.

The southern barbarians in Wuling County rebelled, but were ruthlessly suppressed by the state and county troops, and did not cause any trouble.

Shangyu County, Kuaiji Prefecture.

From September to October, Jinmao was very busy.

The autumn harvest in the northern five counties is over, and the first round of rapeseed planting is about to begin. Jinmao can send people to the other four counties, but not Shangyu County.

Although Zhu Fu is a fool, Zhu Jun and Zhu Hao are not.

Moreover, Zhu Jun was still protecting Jin Mao in the court, which was very rare. In addition, he had to rely on the Zhu family to help buy iron, but Jin Mao did not have the manpower to buy iron.

Therefore, Jinmao really does not want to lose this super ally.

Sowing seeds on Zhu Jun's family's more than 5,000 acres of land is naturally a small matter; the main purpose is to build relationships.

"Second Young Master, the seeds I brought this time are all the ones that are highly resistant to diseases."

Jinmao doesn't look like an official, but more like a businessman.

"I also sent you a thousand scoria of tea bran (rapeseed waste). It is not only the best for killing insects, but also the best for bathing!"

Zhu Hao kept smiling. How could he not understand these effects? He had tried them a long time ago.

"Yuzhang Taishou, just call me Wenming." Zhu Hao asked, "I wonder what you want to tell me?"

Get on the road!

Jin Mao was very satisfied with Zhu Hao's attitude and felt that he and Zhu Fu were not like real brothers.

"Second Young Master, you're welcome."

"Nothing much. The recent riots in Yuzhang County have not stopped yet, and I recruited 4,000 soldiers in anger."

Jin Mao began to cry poor: "Looking back, I realized, what weapons should these 4,000 people take to the battlefield?"

"I can't let them fight for their lives with sticks, right, Second Young Master?"

Zhu Hao nodded first, then shook his head when he felt something was wrong, and had to explain: "You are right, Governor. I have sent people to Xuzhou to buy iron, and I think they will return soon..."

"Oh no! It's too late." Jin Mao pulled Zhu Hao's hands and said, "The military situation is urgent. The 1.6 million people in Yuzhang County are waiting for me to save them!"

"Second Young Master, can you bear to watch countless people die tragically?"

In fact, whether it is chaotic or not is just a matter of Jin Mao's words. Now the weather in Yuzhang County is sunny and sunny, and all that is left is singing and dancing.

But Zhu Hao is a gentleman, unlike Zhu Fu, which also made it difficult for Zhu Hao to bring himself to refuse.

"Then how can I help the governor?"

"Yes! That's right!" Jin Mao was overjoyed: "I heard that last time in Ye County, your family's private soldiers... ahem."

Jin Mao reorganized his words: "You have 800 sets of armor and weapons lying around, why don't you lend them to me first? I'll return them to you when I'm done with them!"

"Ah? This... this won't do." Zhu Hao said incoherently: "My father... my father never mentioned this."

"Look at this!" Jin Mao was like a tempting demon: "Second Young Master, you are the head of the family now, do you still need to ask Mr. Zhu about such a small matter?"

"Mr. Zhu is half my mentor, how dare I not repay him?"

"Moreover."

Jin Mao lowered his voice and said, "Wujun Governor Sheng Xian is a hypocrite. He will not be in this position for long. Don't you want to become a governor or something?"

"Ah? Can I do it?" Zhu Hao was obviously tempted: "But I am not well-known, how can I..."

The big fish took the bait.

Jin Mao couldn't suppress his smile: "What's the big deal? Sheng Xian was just a villager last year. Do you know how he became the governor of Wu County?"

Zhu Hao shook his head. As a gentleman, who would care about this matter?

Jinmao explained the process.

"I am now considered a prefect of a county, and next year I will be eligible to recommend a filial and honest official. I plan to follow Prefect Fan's example and recommend you as a filial and honest official."

"When Sheng Xian abdicates, you might become the governor of Wu County!"

Suddenly, Zhu Hao asked with a heavy breath, "Is it really possible?"

"Don't worry, my support in the court is not from Lord Zhu." Jin Mao said calmly: "You have also seen how fast I was promoted."

Zhu Hao nodded heavily: "Okay! I'll lend it to you! But you have to keep your word and return it on time."

Jin Mao was overjoyed: "Second Master, please rest assured. I will definitely return it after the rebellion is quelled."

If the chaos continues, there is nothing we can do.

Eight hundred sets of weapons are obtained!
The equipment of Zhu's private soldiers is really good. Even those that have been repaired are better than those in Jin Mao's hands.

Among the eight hundred sets, there are three hundred full armor sets and five hundred half armor sets.

After this wave of reinforcement, Jin Mao's subordinates had nearly 800 sets of full armor and 2,000 sets of half armor.

The soldiers of Kuaiji County still have a thousand sets of weapons and equipment, and the soldiers of Yuzhang County also have almost a thousand sets of weapons and equipment. If they were all taken over.

"Six thousand fully armed men?!" Jin Mao smiled evilly: "Who else in the six counties of Yangzhou dares to stand and talk to me?"

As the saying goes, when heaven is mad, there will be disasters; when people are mad, there will be misfortunes.

Jinmao had not been proud for two days when Zhu Hao received bad news, very bad news!
The Zhu family’s caravan that went out to buy iron was robbed in Wujun!

The 500 private soldiers of the Zhu family who escorted the caravan suffered no casualties. From this we can tell who the mastermind is.

“Sheng Xian!”

Jin Mao gritted his teeth and said, "I will kill him!"

Zhu Hao did not want to participate in the struggle between the two county governors, so he backed off and begged, "Junzhou Magistrate Jin, please forgive me for not being able to help you with the purchase of the iron ore."

Jin Mao showed an ugly smile and comforted him: "Second Young Master, don't panic. I won't let this matter involve the Zhu family."

"However, the Second Young Master can write a letter to inform Mr. Zhu, and leave the rest to me."

After saying this, Jin Maogang set out from Shangyu County and sent out messengers to gather troops from all directions.

At the same time, he wrote a letter to Tang Mao and joined forces with Zhu Jun to report Sheng Xian's actions to the higher authorities.

He started making trouble as soon as he was sent out. How can he be a famous scholar?
They are simply bandits!
In short, Jinmao has made preparations for both scenarios. No matter what kind of response is made from above, it will take immediate action and use thundering means to eradicate the problem completely.

...

Wushang County.

Literacy class school building.

Recently, Sheng Kuang has been feeling very uneasy as there has been no news from his father Sheng Xian since he took up his post in Wujun, as if he had forgotten about his son.

These were all acceptable, and Sheng Kuang could only comfort himself by thinking that maybe he was just busy after taking office and everything would be fine after a while.

He was not taken seriously by Jinmao, and could even be said to have been put on ice. Calculating the time, it was exactly the same time when Sheng Xian went to the capital.

Sheng Kuang didn't know what exactly happened, but he still felt aggrieved.

Therefore, when Sheng Kuang heard that Sheng Xian had taken office as the prefect of Wujun, he was very excited and wanted to fly over immediately to reunite with his father.

The tutor told him that he couldn't do that.

But today, everything seems to be heading for the worst.

The literacy class taught by Sheng Kuang happened to be a preferential class for soldiers.

Before class started, many people were discussing Jin Mao's gathering of troops.

"Have you heard? The Lord of the County has gathered 4,000 soldiers to attack Wu County."

"Four thousand? I heard eight thousand."

"Eight thousand? To tell you the truth, it's more than ten thousand..."

The story became more and more outrageous.

Sheng Kuang understood, and was so worried that he no longer had the heart to attend class and hurried to find Jin Mao.

However, Jin Mao didn't want to see him.

Sheng Kuang was not discouraged. He knelt outside the temporary county governor's mansion and persisted until the evening without giving up.

Jin Mao still met him.

"Mingsir, please don't resort to violence. I don't know what happened, but Aung is definitely not that kind of person!"

Sheng Kuang stumbled in, bowed deeply, and fell to the ground, saying loudly: "Please find out the truth first!"

Jin Mao stopped what he was doing and looked at Sheng Kuang helplessly.

Sheng Kuang has been working hard during this period, but Sheng Xian's important matter cannot be mixed with personal feelings. This is why Jin Mao does not want to see Sheng Kuang.

"You are father and son, connected by heart, but I am not!"

Jin Mao finally spoke up: "You should know why I need iron so much. I need iron to cultivate the land, to open up wasteland, and even to dig manure pits!"

"Tell me, how can people live without iron? Can't people use sticks to work?"

"But look at Sheng Xian again, what is he doing?"

"Wujun won't sell me iron. Fine, I'll go to Xuzhou to buy it. Isn't that enough tolerance?"

Jin Mao slammed the table and said, "But Sheng Xian wants to cut off my iron supply! He even wants to take away Xuzhou's iron supply!"

"This is intolerable, what is intolerable?!"

Sheng Kuang then understood the whole story and kowtowed, begging, "There must be a misunderstanding here! My Lord, please give me and my son a chance."

Sheng Kuang, who had hit his head, raised his head suddenly, blood flowing down his eyebrows and around his eyes, "I will definitely convince Aung, please give me another chance!"

Jin Mao pondered for a long time and said, "Okay, I'll give you this chance."

"The time limit is one month. If I don't see the batch of iron from Xuzhou by this time next month, you don't have to come back."

(End of this chapter)