Chapter Seventy: The Colonel

  Li Qin muttered to himself: "Brother-in-law, brother-in-law, thick-skinned!" As soon as he thought of Jia Yu, the thickness of his skin also increased rapidly. After quickly thickening his skin, he said: "Zhang... sir..."

  "Call me Brother Zhang, we're family!" Zhang Ji had just refused to let Li Qin call him Brother Zhang earlier, but now he was asking for it himself.

  Li Qinfang said, "Brother Zhang, my official position is a bit low, it's just right that you're in Fuping, take a look and see if you can help me get promoted?" Directly asking for an official position, since they are now on familiar terms, there's no need to be polite.

  Zhang thought for a moment, shook his head and said: "It's not suitable. If we arrange a position for you now, it will necessarily squeeze out others, which would offend people and be detrimental to your development in Fuping." He is now thinking about how to protect Li Qin. It's easy to say when he's here, but once he leaves, others will exclude Li Qin, and Li Qin will suffer.

  Zhang Jiudao said, "Li Lang, don't get angry. It's not that our family doesn't want to help, but it's just not a good time to help now. If our family were to ask Tang for an official position on your behalf right now, wouldn't that be the same as telling others that you are one of us? We can't keep it secret, and then we won't be able to use you as a surprise attack, and we won't be able to achieve a surprise victory."

  Li QIN nodded and said: "Still, Brother Zhang thinks far ahead, I'm afraid I can't do as well in considering all aspects." He casually flattered him.

  Everyone loves to flatter, and Zhang Jiu is no exception. He smiled: "When our family was in Beijing, we also learned a few tricks for being an official, let's just say it's hearsay. When you're an official, you have to make others take the blame, and keep the benefits for yourself, so you still need to get along with this Tang Jie. When you benefit, you should also let him benefit, the harder his body is, the bigger the black pot he can carry, that's the logic."

  Li Qigan chuckled and said, "How embarrassing!"

  "No big deal, our family will take a look at him for you, it's not bad!" Zhang Jiudao said: "If you want to work for the people in our palace, then the military marquis is too small, at least you have to be a school lieutenant to be eligible. You can't reach other levels without this experience. It's easy to promote you to school lieutenant, but it's hard to let others know that you are one of us. We need to take a detour, our family has an idea, let's discuss it."

  Li Qindao said: "Please speak, Brother Zhang."

  Zhang Jiubian immediately expressed his intention. The situation in Beidi County is special, Fuping County was once the first county, that is, the county government, but because of the three migrations of Fuping, the wealthy households followed the county governor to migrate south and built a new Fuping County outside Beidi County. Now Beidi County is the old Fuping. The old Fuping naturally became not the first county, and the county governor of Beidi County was not on the actual land of this county. In other words, Beidi County currently has no county governor, but each county is autonomous.

  After Zhang Jiuhui returned to the capital, he asked Zhang Rang to upgrade Fuping County to a first-class county. As a result, Tang Jie became the legitimate and proper magistrate of the first-class county, which was also a promotion in name. In name, he gained an advantage. Once the county was upgraded, the scale of the army would naturally have to be upgraded as well, and the benefits would fall on Li Qin's head. This was not just a nominal benefit, but a real gain.

  Fu Ping originally had only one soldier, and the army was led by Tang Ren. If it expanded, it could only add more troops, which would lead to the emergence of a new officer, definitely not Tang Ren, but Li QIN, who became the new officer.

  The "Hanshu" has a note: The term "school" refers to the name of the camp, so one part of the army is called a school. One part of the army is the bottom line for the school lieutenant to lead the troops, but the school lieutenant has the right to recruit soldiers and can expand the army to five parts. Generally, no school lieutenant will actively expand the army during peacetime, which would greatly increase military expenses. However, once there is a war, the school lieutenant will be in trouble.

  Having said that, Zhang Jiuxiao laughed and said: "Tang Jie has benefited from you, let's hint to him again, the position of school lieutenant can only be given to you, this matter will be settled. At that time, you became the only school lieutenant in Beidi County, wouldn't Beidi County become our palace people?"

  Li Qin hastily put on a delighted expression and thanked him repeatedly.

  Zhang Jiuyou said a few more words to him, then said: "Call Tang Jie in and let's have a word with him. Also, we don't plan on staying here for long, we'll be leaving the day after tomorrow. Before we leave, you must not come see us again. Don't misunderstand, being too close to people from the palace is not good for your reputation, I'm doing this to protect you, understand?"

  Li Qin stood up and said: "Understood, Brother Zhang is considering for the sake of brothers, how can I not understand!"

  Zhang Jiudao said, "As for the supplies, they will be sent from the capital at the end of summer. When our family returns home and passes through Long County, I'll let the governor send a batch to Fuping, and give you a hint to use them on yourself. However, you must also hurry up and expand your strength, or else when the promotion documents arrive, it will be too late for you to recruit soldiers!"

  Li Qin said, "Brother, go back and recruit more troops immediately. Brother Zhang can rest assured!" He walked forward, covered the two treasures with a red cloth, then opened the door to leave, called in Tang Jie who was circling around in the courtyard, and closed the door again.

  Tang Jie entered the house and sat down, just as Zhang Jiou said: "County Magistrate Tang, originally this time our family came to find you, but Li Qin is a sensible person, he replaced your filial piety for you, his offense against our family can be considered settled, we won't bother him about it, however..."

  After hearing the whole story, Tang Jie was overjoyed. He never expected that this disaster would end like this, it was really beyond his expectation. Not only did he not get punished, but he also became the master of the first county, all thanks to Li Qin's help and Li Qin's credit, Li Qin was indeed a lucky general!

  Li Qin arrived at the courtyard, Jia Yu immediately welcomed him and pulled him to a quiet corner, asking in a low voice: "Is everything going smoothly?"

  Li Qin smiled and nodded: "If Fu Ping wants to be promoted to the first county, guess what I will do?"

  Jia Xian was taken aback for a moment, then he was overjoyed and exclaimed in a low voice: "Could it be that you have been appointed as the Colonel? Then you will become the highest military officer in Beidi County!"

  When the world is not in great chaos, the county lieutenant is usually one radish and one pit, with no surplus. When chaos erupts, some lieutenants have troops under their command and often abolish the prefecture governor, taking control of the major powers within the prefecture. However, during chaotic times, official positions become disordered, and there are numerous lieutenants who can even appoint themselves.

  Li Qindao said: "The size of the school also has a distinction, this one should be the smallest, and can't compare with Huqiang School Lieutenant and Sili School Lieutenant!"

  Jia Xu smiled and said, "You still don't know enough, if you recruit soldiers according to the largest quota, 2,000 combat troops, plus 60% auxiliary troops, that's more than 3,000 people. And with the control of the county's soldiers and horses, tens of thousands of men and horses can be taken out, and you can even go north to attack the Xiongnu!"

  Li Qin sighed and said: "But I always feel that taking the path of a eunuch is not quite right!"

  Jia Yu's face sank, saying: "Ah Qian, as your brother-in-law, I can tell you two things. This is absurd. You say walking the door of the ten attendants is not good, then walking the door of He Jin would be better? They are all dogs biting each other, none of them are good things! You are nothing now, if you walk the door of He Jin, he wouldn't care about you at all, and you would still be nothing. But apart from these two groups, there is no one else who can help you, in the imperial court, apart from them, everyone else has to step aside. If you follow those who have been set aside... are you just pretending to be full?"

  Jia Xun paused for a moment, then continued: "I know what you're thinking in your heart. You're afraid of damaging your reputation, right? Don't worry about this. When your power grows stronger later on, and you no longer need these eunuchs, you can just say that back then, for the sake of the people and the country, you had to temporarily compromise with the eunuchs, enduring the blame of your conscience and the misunderstanding of the world. But now, for the sake of the Han dynasty's foundation and the Emperor, you've decided to clear out the evil from within..."

  Li Qin couldn't help but curl his lips and said, "This is too embarrassing!" He was thoroughly embarrassed tonight. Although he knew that Jia Yu was the number one poisoner of the Three Kingdoms era, this move of burning the bridge after crossing the river was particularly ruthless, and it had completely outsmarted the ten attendants!

  "Don't be embarrassed!" Jia Yu came up and said the same thing, "When our power grows to the point where eunuchs are afraid of us, when they oppress you, bully you, will they feel embarrassed? Listen to your brother-in-law's words, it's true!"

  Li Qin slowly nodded and didn't say anything else.

  At this time the gate opened and Tang Jie came out. He seemed to be very excited, shouting loudly, letting the You Lin army go in to serve Zhang Jiou, while he searched for Li Qin everywhere.

  Li Qin saw this and hastily flashed out from the corner, walking over.

  Tang Jiacheng calmed himself down, grasped Li Qin's hand and said: "Li Lang, tonight's matter, this official is grateful to you, don't say anything else, we understand each other. By the way, aren't you short of materials for building the fort? The spoils from the last bandit suppression, this official hasn't distributed them yet... Alas, I've been preoccupied with the affairs of the people coming from the capital, and haven't taken care of anything else. Those materials will all be given to you, and also those 2,000 catties of raw iron, take them together! Now that Zhang Zhongguan's matter is settled, this official can finally put his mind at ease!"

  He spoke in a topsy-turvy manner, seemingly calm on the surface but actually deeply agitated inside.

  Li Qin naturally expressed his gratitude in a continuous voice, and his emotions also began to become excited. It didn't matter about other things, but raw iron was very important.

  Tang Jie felt a bit out of sorts, so he adjusted his expression and said: "The sky is already late, you take the common people out of the city. With so many people staying in the city, it's inconvenient in many ways. It's better to take them out of the city. I'll instruct that the city gate be opened twice for you tonight!"

  Li Qindao thanked him and led Jia Yu out of the county government office, leading the people together out of the city.

  On the way, Li Qin told his men about tonight's events. Everyone was naturally surprised and delighted. Li Qin was going to be promoted, which meant they would also be promoted soon. How could they not be excited?

  Jia Yu summoned Meng Mu over and said: "Li Lang, regarding Meng Tun's matter, what do you think..."

  Li Qin immediately rushed to Meng Mu, cupped his hands and bowed, saying: "Uncle Meng, tonight's affairs are all thanks to you. If you're willing, come to my Fu Jiao Fortress, the position of Military Governor will be yours!" Meng Mu was his former superior, and he still meant well tonight, so he had to arrange a good position for him.

  Meng Mu was overjoyed, and the heart he had been hanging onto was finally at ease.

  The five deputy generals all thought to themselves: "If the old superior has a position, then what about us old subordinates? We should all be able to become garrison chiefs. And as for the position of military marquis, who will get it?" They all started calculating and speculating.