After leaving Kuye Temple, the journey became faster, and it took less than a day to reach Chen County. In the evening of the next day, we could finally see the city walls of Xiang County.
Speaking of Chen Jun, one cannot help but talk about the famous Xie family. The one with the highest prefecture here is the Xie Clan, who is as famous as the Wang Clan of Langya.
It is a pity that the Chen County conquered by the Great Wei only has half of the territory. But even so, it is also the county where the Han people of Wei Kingdom live the most.
The city walls of Xiangcheng are extremely strong, probably because it was Liu Song in the south in the past, so the Great Wei has never dared to relax its control over Xiang County. There are many veterans in the town who will be switched here. The county soldiers here are by no means the mixed situation of other state capitals.
It was for this reason that Chen Jie came to serve as an official here with his family. He is the commander-in-chief of Chen County, and he is like a coach. It stands to reason that he should be very popular, but he doesn't seem to have any friends here.
Under the setting sun, the city wall was faintly glowing red, and it looked like it was stained with blood. This kind of association made He Mulan uneasy, so she quickly looked down from the city wall, dismounted, and headed for the city with the others.
"What are you doing in the city? Visiting friends? Running an errand?"
Because He Mulan was dressed in Xianbei people's clothes, and was accompanied by many "attendants" and "concubine", the city gate official did not dare to stop her, but just stood under their horses and asked.
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In half an hour, the city gate was about to close. They rushed to the gate of Xiangcheng at a very fast speed. Everyone looked exhausted, especially Tuoba Huang, who always wore his hair. When riding a horse in the cold winter wind, the hairstyle is no different from that of a madman.
"...Visiting friends." He Mulan thought for a while and felt that this was the only reason that was closest to her purpose.
"Eight people, visiting friends in the city." He stretched out his hand.
"This is?" He Mulan looked at Di Yefei for help.
He ran all the way from Dunhuang to Pingcheng, and he must know what he wants.
Di Yefei didn't speak, he took out a bronze medal from his arms and shook it.
As long as everyone in the army knows what it is, the city gate officer is a small official, but he is also subordinate to the army, so when he saw the bronze medal, he was surprised and quickly made way for them.
"What exactly does he want? Identity certificate?" Tuoba Huang asked Di Yefei with a frown.
"He wants something." Di Yefei snorted coldly, "Yan Guo plucked his hair, he just wanted something good."
Tuoba Huang was furious when he heard this.
"A small city gate official, how dare you collect city fees for the imperial court!"
Dawei does not have the "city entry fee" tax. In the early years of the Great Wei Dynasty, the trade routes were blocked, the people's livelihood was poor, and after years of wars, all emperors agreed that merchants and craftsmen would travel around to promote commerce and handicrafts, and they did not charge fees for entering the city.
"Everyone has no salary. If you don't rely on this to get some benefits, I'm afraid you will starve to death." A Luhuan didn't think there was anything wrong with the city gate officer, but instead said something for him.
Hearing A Luhuan's interjection, Tuoba Huang snorted lightly, but said nothing.
He Mulan didn't know what they were talking about at first, but then she flipped through her memory and couldn't help being shocked!
No wonder Mulan doesn't want to be an official!
Omg! Officials in the early Northern Wei Dynasty had no salary!
Perhaps it is because the Xianbei people are of tribal origin, and all the officials and soldiers used to be tribal elders and tribal soldiers, so since the founding of the country, there is no such thing as "salaries".
Although each official will give fields according to their grades and will also give out rewards as "welfare" during the New Year's Festival, but there is no other income from Situ Sikong to the 9th grade sesame official.
For those with big officials, when the land gets bigger, renting or farming the land can be done by renting people or at home, and the yields from the fields can be sold and exchanged for other things. If you rent it to someone else, you won't be able to charge much if the land is small.
In this case, it is not surprising that oil and water are being fished from top to bottom.
Defects in the official system, such as lack of official governance, unclear systems, and overlapping responsibilities caused by the three official positions, made the imperial court system of Great Wei very bloated, and corruption was also very serious.
The army is relatively good, and they will distribute food and fields according to military merit and grade, and if everything obtained in the war, from needles and threads to women, are the spoils of the victors, and they are more nourishing than the officials in the rear. many.
This also led to some poor families and small nobles who tried their best to enter the army to experience, rather than being reluctant to go to the local government. Most of the local officials in the Great Wei Dynasty were the children of aristocratic families and manor owners. Most of these people were children of the Han people.
He Mulan was amazed by the awesomeness of the Han people. Such a messy official system can manage such a large country well, and she admired Tuoba Huang and Tuoba Tao even more.
Thinking again, Tuoba Tao has been fighting to support war, so the country has not been dragged down for so many years. Now that several surrounding countries have been wiped out, how can they make money from war
But in just a moment, she put all these doubts behind her.
She is not Shang Shulang, nor is she an official in the DPRK and China, why is she worried about this for them!
"General Hua, are we going to Duwei Chen's house now, or should we go directly to the yamen to see Duwei Chen's situation?" A Luhuan is now the head of an egret, so he is asking some questions now.
"... I want to go to the prison to see Chen Jie first." He Mulan glanced at Tuoba Huang and A Danzhuo, "You are still the same as yesterday, you took the Egret official brand and went to find a yamen to stay and wait for me. Ask Chen Jie what happened, and come back to discuss it in the long run."
"It's so late, why don't we go to the prison tomorrow, let's go to live together first?" Di Yefei looked at the sky, it was getting dark quickly in winter, the sky was red just now, and now it's dark to purple.
"The prefect of Xianbei here in Chenjun is my former comrade in Yulin, and Xiangxian also has my former subordinates. The news will arrive tomorrow, so please rest assured and wait for the news."
When Di Yefei wanted to stick to his own opinions, He Mulan was always accommodating. This is probably the consciousness left by the original owner.
So A Luhuan once again showed He Mulan and others the power of the "Emperor's Eyes and Eyes", and with just a few bronze medals from Egret officials, he successfully moved into the county chief's home.
The county magistrate not only respected them, but when they asked about Chen Jie, the commander of this place, he immediately explained what happened clearly.
"The commander's official voice is very good, and he is not too involved with other military attaches. There is only one point, this commander always takes a leave of absence every few months, saying that he is visiting his old comrade. The governor appreciates His bravery always paid for his falsehood."
"It's nothing in the first place. Military officers are not like civil officials. If there is no war, it's not a big problem to go out and leave for a while. The blame is that every time he leaves, the food distributed to the soldiers from the warehouse here will be less, and so on. If he comes back again, the storeroom will be full again."
"Because the amount borrowed was not large, and Chen Jie didn't bring much food every time he went out, and even a little more when he returned it, Kucao in the warehouse also turned a blind eye. For a month, Duwei Chen took five cartons of grain from the warehouse without authorization. It was a month after he left. He said he would make up for it when he came back. But after he came back, not only did he not make it up, he also didn’t tell Kucao where the grain went. Seeing that this matter could not be concealed, I had to report it…”
"As soon as the incident broke out, Duwei Chen was imprisoned, and Kucao was also given 50 whips and sent to the north to repair the city wall. Because the whereabouts of the food were still unknown, Duwei Chen was imprisoned. During the interrogation day and night."
The county magistrate has no control over the affairs of the county. The commander who trains the army is directly under the charge of the prefect of Xianbei, and the prefect in charge of the prison is in charge of the name of the sentence. But because Xiang County was the county seat of Chen County, the county magistrate also knew a lot of inside information.
He Mulan had a bad premonition in her heart after listening to the ins and outs of the county magistrate here.
All those who were imprisoned and interrogated must have been tortured to the core.
Even if Chen Jie was a military general who had a lot of military exploits in the past, five cartons of food was not a small amount, so there was no reason for the prefect here to treat him alone.
Thinking about it this way, Chen Jie is still in jail without a sentence, it must be because of clenching his teeth.
Di Yefei didn't expect things to be so serious, so he comforted He Mulan and persuaded him to relax.
After a while, Di Yefei's subordinates who stayed at the Xianbei prefect also received a letter and rushed to the county office, and the result was no different from what the county chief said.
"Master Huyan has already sent someone to the prison to let him know. If General Hua wants to visit Duwei Chen, he can go there at any time. The county is also having a headache with this case. Duwei Chen has always refused to admit that he smuggled military supplies. If you don't say where the rations are, the case will not be closed. He heard that Duwei Chen's old general is coming, so he hastily asked us to tell you, and I hope you can persuade Duwei Chen to tell the truth. "
The soldier was also embarrassed.
"I heard that Mr. Chen is also a good man. His ribs were broken by the criminal officer with a knife ring and he still refused to let go. If he hadn't had an official position, if he was tortured too much, Shangguan would have to sit on his back, fearing that he would suffer even more. many."
When He Mulan and the others heard the phrase "Breaking the Ribs", everyone frowned.
This is the old type of Xianbei, specially dealing with the servants of the seller. This torturer's torture of his body was second. Chen Jie was a brave general who had participated in the Battle of Rouran in the North and the Battle of Xiliang. Using this punishment was also a kind of humiliation to him.
He Mulan didn't sleep well at all, and went to the "Inner Official Prison" where officials were imprisoned early the next morning.
"I heard that you are Duwei Chen's sergeant?"
Because of the order of the prefect of Xianbei, the head of the cell held a torch and led He Mulan to the lower floor.
"Yes." He Mulan replied indifferently.
Walking in such a place, of course, will not be very interesting.
Even if He Mulan visited the "ancient cell" for the first time, she didn't want to come in again.
Like most prisons, this prison is built underground, with narrow passages and many bends, and the air is filled with a fishy smell. Even in broad daylight, it was pitch black, and the torches illuminated the gloomy masonry of his prison walls red, a color that looked disgusting.
They went all the way down to the very bottom, and the guards along the way looked grim and terrible, and looked at them with distrust. But because they were with the head of the cell, there was no one to stop them.
"Many people think that he was wronged, and everything was a trick of Kucao's envoy. But in any case, the rations must be retrieved, otherwise many people will be implicated."
What the jailer said was true.
After walking for about a quarter of an hour, he took He Mulan to the outside of a sturdy-looking house and shouted at the barred window:
"Hey, Chen Jie, someone is here to see you!"
Then something seemed to move in the dark prison, and after a while, Chen Jie, wrapped in a blanket, stuck his face out. He only showed half of his face, and his body was still lying down. The prison head knocked on the bars and shouted, "Get up, your old master is here!"
"What old master?"
Some hoarse voices came out, and then the whole face protruded from the blanket.
"it's me."
He Mulan walked to the barred window and looked inside.
The moment their eyes met, the familiar dizziness and headache hit He Mulan.
…
Is it a memory from the past again