Chapter Nineteenth: Bandits and Gentry

  The county magistrate of Rong County, Li Shunchun, is quite interesting.

  This man has a triangular face, with two particularly large eyes. When he speaks, his eyeballs like to roll around randomly, heaven knows what kind of idea is brewing in his mind. His fingers are slender and feminine-like.

  As soon as he saw Zhao Xi, "Master Xiang" this and "Master Xiang" that, it was as if they were especially familiar with each other. He repeatedly apologized, saying that he had been extremely busy the past two days and hadn't had time to visit.

  After Zhao Xi introduced Wang Hengyue, Li Shunchun repeatedly said "I've long admired you" and talked about his experience in the West. Li Shunchun was even more humble, almost calling himself "your subordinate" in front of Wang Hengyue.

  Wang Hengyue talked about the task of training new troops, and Li Shunchun again made a passionate speech about "the court is in danger, we as officials have no choice but to do our duty". In short, it was all clichés. When the conversation turned to serious matters, Li Shunchun repeatedly complained that Rong County was small, and he, as the parent official, was very poor and had a hard time, fearing that he had the heart but not the ability, and could not help much, so he asked Wang Hengyue to be more understanding.

  Originally, Wang Hengyue didn't expect Li Shunchun to be of much help anyway, this time he came just to see him, in the future he would take care of his own place and he would take care of his military affairs, everyone would mind their own business.

  "It's not peaceful in the local area." Afraid that Wang Hengyue would ask him to do something, Li Xunchun quickly changed the subject: "The revolutionary party is causing trouble everywhere, even in Chengdu. With the revolutionary party causing so much trouble, bandits have also risen up. Not long after I took office, I heard that there was a group of bandits on the border of Rong County, called 'guests', who frequently plundered local areas and caused unrest all around. My head is aching with worry, and I want to personally lead the constables to fight the bandits to the death, but I couldn't bear to leave my hometown. Now that Commander Wang has arrived, it's the best thing that could have happened. Commander Wang will lead the crack troops of the new army, and we can work together to sweep them away and bring peace back to the local area."

  One death in exchange for the nation's safety, damn it! What a fine new army with birds as its elite troops! Wang Hengyu cursed loudly in his heart and casually asked what kind of bandits were so arrogant.

  "It's not for no reason that they call him a bandit." Li Shunchun sighed: "This man is called Lu Baoyin, and he has an elder brother named Lu Baogen"

  Lu Baogen? Wang Hengyue's heart was greatly moved.

  Just arrived in this era, for saving Qin Guangcheng, didn't I have a fight with Lu Baogen? Is Li Shunchun talking about the same person?

  As expected, Li Shunchun's subsequent words confirmed Wang Hengyue's idea: "This Lu Baogen is unbearable. He is a notorious bandit leader who has been entrenched in Jinyan Lake in Guanghan. He has many weapons and has defeated the government troops several times when they tried to eliminate him. As a result, the officials are also afraid to go there. This Lu Baogen relies on his brother's power and is lawless!"

  Wang Hengyue quickly began to think, the bandits were not a problem, his brother was a great thief, and he himself was probably not much worse. There must be many good things hidden away. The only problem was that he didn't have many people with him, and they didn't have any weapons either. Was he really going to use those broken goods to fight the bandits?

  Just then, a man burst in with an air of fury and shouted loudly as soon as he entered the door: "Lawless, lawless! That bastard Wang from Yurui Township is leading the way again and refusing to pay!"

  Seeing so many people there, he was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said: "Master Xiang is also here, forgive me, forgive me."

  Li Shunchun hastily introduced Wang Hengyue, this is Li Qizhang, who was once mentioned by Deng Xia, the head of the Investigation Bureau, also known as "Sanfei Bureau", formerly known as the General Manager, now called the Director.

  Li Qizhang still looked angry after meeting, and Zhao Xi smiled and asked what was wrong. Li Qizhang angrily said: "It's that Mo Lin's inferior official Yu Rui Xiang again! He regards one cent as more important than the sky, and always likes to delay paying the required taxes. Today I went there again, and he came up with all sorts of excuses to shirk responsibility. Master Taigong, Master Xiang, if it goes on like this, I won't be able to do my job."

  Li Shunchun also frowned deeply. This matter of not being able to collect the silver was not just related to Li Qizhang, but also meant a significant loss of income for himself.

  Wang Hengyue found it somewhat strange: "Since he refused to pay taxes, taking his deed would be the end of it. What kind of waves could a small rural landlord stir up?"

  "King's team has something unknown." Li Xuan Chun shook his head repeatedly: "This person had accidentally saved Lu Bao Yin's life in the past, after Lu Bao Yin became a bandit, he spread the word that anything related to Yu Rui Xiang was his business, whoever dared to move against Yu Rui Xiang would be going up against him. This official once took over Yu Rui Xiang before, but as a result, in the middle of the night, the main gate was sealed with flying darts. This official is not afraid of death, but thinking about his wife and children at home..."

  "Great-grandfather, don't worry, Lu Baojin will be eliminated sooner or later." Zhao Xi added: "Our Rong County originally had no garrison troops, which allowed Lu Baojin to grow powerful. Now that Wang Qiguan has arrived and the new army is being trained, why worry about a small gang like this?"

  Li Xunchun and Li Qizhang both said "yes", but their expressions were quite disapproving. What about those new troops? They had already seen them, thinking of relying on them to suppress the bandits?

  After chatting for a while, Wang Hengyue and several others stood up and bid farewell.

  When they went outside, Wang Hengyue asked about Yu Rui Xiang again. Zhao Xi smiled and shook his head: "This Yu Rui Xiang has also dealt with me a few times. He is very cunning and stingy, able to earn every penny, and will not miss out on any opportunity to make money. Those who help him with work at the end of the year not only don't get paid but also owe him money after calculations. His reputation is extremely bad. But he has Lu Bao Yin backing him up, so no one dares to say anything about it."

  "Doesn't anyone care about him?" Wang Hengyu asked casually.

  Zhao Xi let out a long sigh: "Now who can still manage? When I went to Chengdu, I also talked to Du Xian about it. What did he say? He said 'Xiang Gong, my affairs are really too many, both the imperial court and foreigners and revolutionaries, it's not that I don't want to give you face, but I really have no time to manage.' Think about it, as a governor-general, can't even handle a bandit."

  Speaking in a serious tone, he said: "To tell you the truth, the government can't control it, we can take care of it ourselves. The bandits are getting more and more rampant, several times they even wanted to make a move on Rong County, if I wasn't here, the Elder Brother Society people had also been instructed not to move against Rong County, the bandits have something to worry about, I'm afraid Rong County will soon have a great disaster. Once you've trained a new army, the first thing you'll do is to take down Lu Bao Silver!"

  Wang Hengyue nodded, if he really could bring Lu Baoyin to justice, he would have done a good deed for the local community. However, it was still too early to say that now.

  The top priority now is how Yu Le's matter has been handled. Can the silver and weapons be retrieved?

  Yu Rui Xiang, Lu Bao Yin. These two names are also deeply imprinted in Wang Heng Yue's heart!

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