Chapter 615 Private Visit

When the people heard Wang Ping'an's shouting, they stopped and looked over here. The young people said, "I just wanted to ask for a drink, not to catch us. I just said that I didn't violate the king's law, why should I arrest us!"

The old people said, "Do you do not violate the law of the king? If you say you are arrested, you will be arrested. How can officials be reasonable?"

The people nodded together and whispered: "Yes, no one who is an official can be reasonable. Can a reasonable person become an official?"

He said this, but no one dared to touch the place anymore. He was afraid that he would offend the officials, so he could only wait for Wang Ping'an and the others to come.

Wang Ping'an ran to the front, got off the horse, bowed and smiled at the people, "Thank you for your hard work, fellow villagers, are you here to get water? There is no well at home?"

The people looked at each other, and no one dared to come up to talk to them. They had never dealt with officials, and even the minor officials had never seen many. At most, the minor officials came to urge grain and looked up at them. They had never seen half of the officials who could speak with them in a friendly manner since they were born!

Che Sitong arrived immediately. Seeing that the people were still standing still, he shouted: "This is the new governor of this state, Lord Wang. Why don't you greet the people and others!"

Although the people did not understand the officialdom, the governor was the largest official in the state. They still knew that the young man was the high-ranking official, which scared them all to kneel down, kept kowtowing to Wang Ping'an, and shouted loudly to Master Qingtian, Master to spare his life.

In the hearts of the people, if you don’t kowtow when you see a high-ranking official, you will violate the law of the king. If you violate the law of the king, you will be arrested to do heavy work. I don’t know what else is going on. Anyway, this is the rule in Qingzhou.

Wang Ping'an looked back at Che Sitong and thought to himself: "With these people, I'm afraid I can't ask anything. If you want to understand the people, it seems that you have to rely on private visits in private. Oh, no wonder the officials have loved to conduct private visits in private from ancient times to the present. It's because they want to digest food after eating too much, but they really can't find anything!"

Wang Ping'an reached out to help the people and said, "Get up, get up. I have something to ask you." He asked the people to get up, looked at the bucket beside them, and asked, "What's the name of this river?"

The people still don’t speak, they are waiting for others to say, and no one dares to speak first.

Che Sitong was afraid that Wang Ping'an would be unhappy. Anyway, if he was based on the temper of the previous governor Ji, if he asked whoever he would not answer, then governor Ji would definitely be unhappy and might lose his temper. He said, "If you go back to the prince, this river is called Daliang River. There is also a small Liang River two miles away from here. These are the two largest rivers in our Qingzhou."

Wang Ping'an said, but I didn't hear that these two rivers were very different from those of the Tang Dynasty. Even the Yellow River has been changed countless times, not to mention the big and small Liang Rivers... let alone the rivers, even Qingzhou is modern, he doesn't know.

He walked to the bridge and saw that the wooden bridge was a long time ago, but it was well maintained. At least it could leave, and it seemed that it could pass the carriage. He walked slowly onto the bridge, waved to the bottom, and said, "My fellow villagers, please come up and speak."

Che Sitong hurriedly glared at the people and whispered: "Whatever the governor asks you, you will answer whatever you want, and don't talk nonsense!"

The people left, but Wang Ping'an didn't move. He stood on the bridge, patting the dilapidated railings, and didn't speak for a long time. The officials stood behind him and looked at the governor with fear. The more silent Wang Ping'an was, the more scared they were. It was hard to guess what the duke was thinking. The subordinates could not figure out the boss's thoughts. This was the most terrifying thing in the officialdom, which meant that the official road was blocked!

After standing straight for nearly two quarters of an hour, Wang Ping'an turned around and said, "Where is Xiaolianghe in? Show me."

Che Sitong quickly stepped forward, pointed to the northwest direction, and said, "It's more than two miles away from here, less than three miles away. However, the Xiaoliang River is narrower than the Daliang River, but it's longer. It runs through most of Qingzhou, and there are more villages by the river than here. The lives of ordinary people are better than those in Daliang River. In the year of disaster, fewer people will flee."

Wang Ping'an looked towards Xiaoliang River, blocking the woods, and could not see anything. He frowned and said, "Forget it, it's probably not much better than here, so I won't go and see it. I just came to Qingzhou and couldn't take care of too many things. I can only take care of the city first. Let's go into the city and take a look!"

He got off the wooden bridge, turned over his horse, and returned to the city, with the officials following him.

After entering Qingzhou City again, Wang Ping'an pointed to the dilapidated houses on both sides of the street and said, "What do you see first when the foreigners enter the city? It cannot be the governor's mansion, but these residential houses facing the street. Lord Che, and everyone, look at what the house is like. Some walls have urine marks and feces... Is this akin to it? The foreigners enter the city and see this look, and then see the appearance of the governor's mansion. What do you think they would think?"

Other officials slowed down their mounts and could only stay away from Wang Ping'an as far as they could. But Che Sitong could not hide, so they could only listen with a stingy head. He thought to himself: "We can't blame us for this, not only Qingzhou, but which other prefectures and counties are not like this?"

Qingzhou City is Heshui County. Di Renjie is the county magistrate here and the serious local administrative officer. He was also very dissatisfied with the situation in the city and said, "There should be shops at the gates of the city. This is a good place to do business and a place to distribute goods. This is the case in Chang'an. You know Zhuque Street, that is the first thing that foreigners see after entering Chang'an."

As a Shangguan, Di Renjie was very conscious of the leader, and what the leader was best at was nothing more than speaking and speaking to his subordinates, who had to listen.

He also said: "The Zhuque Street gives the feeling of foreigners only two words, that is prosperity. It is because of the prosperity that businessmen in all parts know that doing business in Chang'an can make money, so they are willing to start a business in Chang'an. If there are too many business, there must be someone to work. Locals have work and have money to live in their families. It will not rain, and the people's homes will be cut off, and they will not flee and beg for fun. Therefore, the skill on the store must be done!"

Qiu Tingxuan also said: "Yes, at least you can't be covered in feces all over the street!"

Che Sitong thought to himself: "It's fine if the governor scolds us, but who made him a senior official? Although you two are county magistrates, they are smaller than my official position. They dare to teach me a lesson. It's so outrageous!"

It doesn't matter what he thinks in his heart. What's important is that he dare not say it. Che Sitong smiled and said, "The people in Qingzhou cannot compare with those in Chang'an. If you want to talk about houses... I really can't say that the people are poor, so they can't afford to repair houses. As for the dirty things on the street, they used to pick them up and transport them out of the city to make fertilizers, but this year it's going to be drought. The people don't have the heart to fatten the fields. No matter how fat they are, they can't grow crops without water. If there is less fertilizer, naturally no one will pick them up, so..."

Wang Ping'an did not listen to his explanation and waved his hand and said, "Anyway, in a word, all responsibilities are because God does not rain. It has nothing to do with you officials, right?"

Che Sitong not only had his scalp numb, but his eyebrows were even numb. He had never seen his boss so difficult to serve. He said, "I dare not shirk responsibility. However, but... this natural disaster..." He could no longer say anything, so he turned around and stared at the officials. If you don't talk anymore, be careful to turn around and I will deal with you!

The officials had to harden their scalps and said, "Yes, yes, this natural disaster is really impossible. The humble officials are helpless!"

Wang Ping'an hummed twice, quite dissatisfied with the officials in Qingzhou. These people were doing too much, and it depends on how they repaired them.

I walked along the street for a while and then I saw several prosperous places. The merchants were quite concentrated, which were considered a large market in Qingzhou. There were hundreds of merchants, and Jin Sanquan's shop was also here.

When the merchants saw a large group of officials coming, they thought to themselves: "No, the governor Wang brought so many subordinates to collect taxes on his first day of office?"

Jin Sanquan, headed by Jin Sanquan, led a group of merchants of all sizes and big, and ran out to greet Wang Ping'an and the officials. People in the Qingzhou officialdom, including small officials like Cui Dawei, looked down on merchants. When they saw merchants coming to curry favor with each other, they all looked at Jin Sanquan and the others proudly. As long as the merchants were not allowed to pay money, they would never look at these merchants in front of them.

Wang Ping'an was very polite. He got off immediately, bowed to the merchants, talked and laughed with them, and even asked the merchants to point out their own shops, which had several shops. He actually went in and bought a few things.

This pretentiousness is "overly easy-going" in the eyes of the officials, but in the eyes of the merchants, they all feel that the governor Wang is simply a model of loving the people as much as his son, the master of the Qingtian, capable ministers and officials, and the candidate for the first prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. Anyway, the merchants think of Wang Ping'an and how they like it!

After inspecting the city, Wang Ping'an returned to the governor's mansion and scolded the officials. Then the meeting ended. After a while, he changed into civilian clothes, called Di Renjie and Qiu Tingxuan, and asked them to go out of the city with him and go on a private visit in a private place.

The three of them rode their horses, and after they left the city, it was already dark.

Di Renjie said: "Brother, it's already such an hour. I'm afraid I can't go back to the city tonight. Do you want to spend the night outside the city?"

Qiu Tingxuan also said: "I'm afraid I'll get a stay at the people's home."
Chapter completed!