Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 866: Iron-Fisted State Official
In the past, Wang Dabin was a nobody in Lianzhou. Although he was a fourth-rank official in the imperial court, he was always bullied and bullied by others in this southwestern border area, where there were many native chieftains. He did not dare to resist at all.

After all, most of these chieftains of the native ethnic groups are connected. If you offend one of them and cause chaos among all the ethnic groups, it will not be a crime that can be explained by simply losing your official hat.

His decrees were never issued outside the city, and even in the city, there were many chieftains coming and going, so even in the city, as the prefect, he was not allowed to offend or flatter anyone, and suffered a lot of humiliation. It was only recently that the court suddenly stationed troops in Lianzhou for unknown reasons, and sent Prince Zhou to build a market, that his life as the prefect became better.

He had been dealing with the various tribes for a long time, and his sharpness was a little lacking. Now that the duke and the prince were both out of the city, he, as a prefect, was forced to do something, but he could not scare the large group of chieftains who came to seek justice. Soon, the threshold of the prefect's office was almost trampled down by the chieftains. They stayed in the office aggressively, demanding that Wang Dabin release the arrested tribesmen and severely punish the Han merchants who made trouble.

This aroused the resentment that had been buried deep in Old Wang's chest for so many years. He knew that Xie Jin was Zhu Su's confidant, and he had to rely on Xie Jin's promise. Now that he was being bossed around by a group of chieftains and had lost all face, he was able to stand up for once.

"Now that the matter is still unclear, this government is arresting the troublemakers and judging the case impartially! If you feel that what this government has done is inappropriate, go to the Ministry of Personnel or the Censorate and report it to this government! Why do you flock to my door and threaten me with words?"

"I just want to ask one question: Do you have any respect for the law? Is Lianzhou still part of the Ming Dynasty?"

An honest scholar who has been pent up resentment in his heart for more than ten years, when his scholarly spirit is aroused, his stubbornness is even more violent than that of an old soldier.

He had lived in fear all his life and had no hope of promotion for many years. He could not help but feel a bit desperate and despised the barbarism of the South. At the same time, Lianzhou under his rule had finally achieved some political achievements due to the affairs of the market. If his achievements were reported to the emperor in the future, his career might be revived. But now such a big thing happened. If the emperor was angry, his promotion might be ruined.

Both public justice and personal feelings made him furious. Feeling that he had Zhu Su's support, he simply took a tough stance and advocated severe punishment.

All the chieftains were surprised. They had never seen the prefect of Lianzhou so tough that he dared to threaten them. But they had never thought of them rebelling against the court, so they could only return in anger and resentment.

Although they could not do anything to the government, without their support, there would be no peace in Lianzhou. Many chieftains who felt they had been wronged had begun to secretly plan how to cause trouble and bring trouble to the imperial court.

However, what Wang Dabin did was not entirely without benefits. His tough tactics were completely different from those in the past. The tribal chieftains who were used to the Lianzhou government coming out to smooth things over whenever something happened felt unfamiliar and also awe-inspiring. Although they still put pressure on the government with both soft and hard tactics as usual, trying to get the government to release the people and hand over the guilty tribesmen to them for their own punishment, they were no longer so sure that the government would obey their "public opinion."

At the same time, Wang Dabin's move also made the existence of Lianzhou government truly penetrate into the hearts of people of all ethnic groups. Once this sense of authority was established, the foundation for Ming Dynasty's policy of reforming the natives and returning them to the people in Lianzhou was truly established.

"Friend Jie, the situation has been temporarily calmed down. How should we deal with it next? Should we ask His Highness for his opinion?" Since he had already boarded the pirate ship, Wang Dabin simply gave up and began to focus on the aftermath of the incident. Once this happened, his official evaluation would definitely be bad, but if he couldn't even do a good job of the aftermath, he might be demoted to a "low" in the Ministry of Personnel, which was something Wang Dabin absolutely could not accept.

"Hmm..." Xie Jin, sitting opposite Wang Dabin, had already started to think. He had guessed that His Royal Highness King Zhou wanted to use this opportunity to establish the prestige of the Lianzhou government among the various ethnic groups in Lianzhou, so that the various ethnic groups would know that above the chieftains, there were also the government and the court.

In Lianzhou, the government is weak and the people are tough. If not for this, when there was a quarrel in the market, both sides would not have chosen to fight or even kill each other immediately... Imagine if it was a big port in the Central Plains, if there was a dispute in the market, the first thing the people would think of would be to ask the government to judge. These originally small conflicts could cause such a big incident, which is enough to show that in the hearts of these natives and even Han merchants, the presence of the Lianzhou government is really negligible.

Therefore, after using tough measures to stop the riot and demonstrating the "power" of the government, the next step is to show them the "law". While solving the matter beautifully, it is also necessary to appease the grievances of the chieftains and their clansmen. Only in this way can they understand that in Lianzhou, there is still the law of the Ming Dynasty, and even the chieftains should be governed by the law.

But this was also where the problem lay. Xie Jin was also a capable official. As early as when the officers and soldiers had put the rioters in prison, he had taken the trouble to go to prison and interrogate them personally. From the fragmentary confessions of these people, he found clues about the cause of the riot.

Naturally, it was also discovered that there were some traces of the Qin clan throughout the entire riot.

Qin's actions were very covert, and all he did was to exaggerate and fan the flames. His intentions might be punishable, but his crimes were not punishable by death.

Moreover, Qin was one of the most powerful chieftains in Lianzhou. If he was severely punished, it might cause unrest in Lianzhou. But if he was only given a light punishment, it would seem a bit anticlimactic, and the chieftains would certainly not be convinced.

"... Then, I will write a letter and ask Your Highness to make a decision." Xie Jin said. After all, he was just a commoner, and this matter was of great importance, so it was not easy for him to make his own decision. At this time, he could only write an urgent letter about the situation and the information he had investigated, and send someone to deliver it to Zhu Su again.

At this time, Zhu Su was still training with Li Wenzhong's army in the mountains. Over the past half month, the army had become more familiar with the key points of forest warfare. At Zhu Su's suggestion, Li Wenzhong selected the elite troops from the army to form an army. The troops were divided into small teams, painted with camouflage, and used the cover of the dense forest to specialize in reconnaissance and assassination, just like the special forces of later generations.

As the training of this special force began to show results, Zhu Su received a letter from Li Jin. He nodded with great satisfaction when he learned that the Lianzhou riot had been quelled and the government had acted ruthlessly and mercilessly.

When he saw all the things Xie Jin had reported about Qin, his brows couldn't help but frown again.

(End of this chapter)