Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 468
Those witches and sorcerers who had ferocious faces when they oppressed the people and used the stories of ghosts and gods to cause harm to the people, faced the officers and soldiers who were as ferocious as wolves and tigers. They cast all kinds of curses on Hulu Guihan and his soldiers on the altar by the Yongding River.

However, Hulu Guihan had already ordered the soldiers in advance not to block the mouths of these witches and sorcerers, but to let them utter the curses loudly.

But until they were captured, the river god of Yongding River did not help them at all.

Facts speak louder than anything else.

The people are not fools. The curses of these witches and sorcerers are completely useless. Otherwise, why didn't they curse the soldiers to death when they were facing life and death?
Do they really need to ask the river god whether he is satisfied or not?
Those people who were frightened by the witches' sorcery and witchcraft finally came to their senses.

There is no such thing as witchcraft. These sorcerers are just mortals.

Thinking about how they had been intimidated by these witches and sorcerers with their sorcery in the past and how they had helped them do many things, many people lowered their heads in shame.

The onlookers did not take any action to resolve the issue. Instead, some of them began to cheer, and Hulug was determined to return to the Han Dynasty.

As long as they cannot hide behind the people, these witches and sorcerers are nothing but mortals and can be easily captured by a yamen runner.

When Hulu returned to Han, he ordered that all the sorcerers and witches be thrown into the Yongding River.

At this time, some people finally felt fear. With tears and snot streaming down their cheeks, they begged for mercy from Hulu Guihan.

But Hulu Guihan pointed at the young woman who was almost drowned and said:

"When you drowned the girl from your mother's family in the river, did you ever think about this moment?"

"If ghosts and gods really exist, even if I let you go today, the brides of the river gods who were sunk into the Yongding River will definitely not let me go."

"Sink the river!"

Following Hulu Guihan's order, the soldiers pushed the witches and sorcerers tied with stones into the Yongding River one by one.

The river was surging, and humans were just like ants in front of nature. The Yongding River directly swallowed these people, and then all their traces in other people's places were smoothed out.

The wicked are dead, but the living are still here.

The river water was still churning, and at this time a group of people were already kneeling on the bank of the Yongding River.

Among them are Liu Shenhan's disciples and servants, as well as a number of local ruffians.

There are also local nobles who collude with these sorcerers.

Even some ordinary people who were once accomplices of the evil.

Looking at the people kneeling on the ground, Hulu Guihan said loudly:

"The county lord has issued an order prohibiting all evil sacrifices. Since I took office, I have repeatedly issued orders prohibiting living sacrifices to the river gods. Why are you violating this order?"

Everyone kowtowed on the ground one after another, and Hulu Guihan said in a slightly gentler tone:
"Today, the main culprit has been executed! From now on, all obscene sacrifices will be prohibited in Beiping County. If anyone, like Liu Shenhan, secretly gathers disciples and practices ghost, god, witchcraft, and sorcery, he will be charged with treason!"

The powerful families who colluded with the sorcerers and witches were also trembling at this time. They were afraid that Hulu Guihan would take the opportunity to kill them.

However, Hulu Guihan changed the subject and said:
"The sacrifice to the river god has been concluded, and everyone can return to their hometowns."

After hearing this, everyone understood that Hulu returned to the Han Dynasty with the intention of letting bygones be bygones, and they all kowtowed to him to express their gratitude.

The powerful families who originally had some intention of fighting to the death now stopped their activities and just wanted to behave themselves for a few years and wait until Hulu returned to Han and was promoted in a few years before making any further moves.

Hulu Guihan sneered in his heart. The reason why he declared that bygones would be forgiven was to stabilize these powerful families.

But we will let bygones be bygones, except that we will not pursue the matter of offering sacrifices to the river god.

The worship of the river god was an event in which the entire Beiping County participated. If Hulu returned to the Han Dynasty and used this as an opportunity to start a large-scale purge, these powerful families could easily incite the people and deliberately stir up a civil uprising. They could avoid this incident by simply hiding behind the scenes.

Even when they see that the situation is not good, they can decisively abandon the incited people and stand up to help the government "suppress the rebellion."

Therefore, when Hulu returned to Han and announced that he would forgive the past incident in the sacrifice to the river god, it also gave the people of Beiping County a reassurance and made them feel at ease.

At the same time, it was also to divide these noble families and prevent them from uniting with a common goal.

But this matter will be forgiven. The powerful and aristocratic families are rampant in the village, and these people have committed too many crimes.

After this incident, with the powerful army under the command of Duke Su above and the support of the people of Beiping County below, it was only a matter of time to deal with these aristocratic and powerful families.

Hulu Guihan had followed his brother hunting before, and he knew that the most important virtue in hunting was patience.

A trapped beast will still fight. If the beast has been shot by an arrow, you just need to chase them. They will bleed to death while running away, and then you can easily pick up the fallen prey.

Hulu Guihan had plenty of patience. The clerks under him had already picked out several cases in a targeted manner. Each case could implicate the big families in Beiping County. As long as he started from the weak ones, he would be able to promote the equal-field system and the military system in Beiping County soon.

As long as the Zhechoufu is established, these powerful people will no longer have the power to resist the government.

Hulu returned to Han and was satisfied with everything, but he brought back a burden from the Yongding River.

The woman who was chosen to be the river god's bride did not return home after being rescued, but followed Hulu back to the county government office.

"My lady, the sacrifice to the river god has been banned. You can go home now."

"My grandfather said that I have married the river god and he doesn't want me anymore." "Then you can't stay here, right?"

"Has the county lord ever married?"

Hulu Guihan almost choked. Are all the women in Yan so unrestrained?

Hulu Guihan looked at the woman in gorgeous clothes. The woman who was chosen as the bride of the River God must be extremely beautiful. He said inexplicably:

"Never married."

The woman smiled slyly and said:
"Then I will stay and serve the county lord. County lord, you said last time that I am plain-looking and unworthy of being the river god's bride. Can I be your concubine?"

Hulu Guihan was dazed for a moment, but didn't know how to answer.
-
When Liu Lingzhu arrived outside the city of Beiping, he heard that Hulu returned to Han and defeated Liu Shenhan in a short time.

His disciples asked where to go.

Liu Lingzhu sighed and said:
"Don't go into Beiping City. Those noble families are like frightened birds. If you go there, they will sell you out for credit."

"Let's go directly to Zhuo County. The Lu family is very powerful in Zhuo County, and the local government can't do anything to them."

The disciples, as if they had been pardoned, immediately turned their cars around and headed towards Zhuo County.

Zhuo County.

The new county magistrate, Jia Zhi, got off the carriage and was helped into the county government mansion by his personal servant. Lu Wenwei, the head of the Fanyang Lu family, who came to see him off, bowed and saluted. Only after Jia Zhi entered the mansion did he get on his own carriage with a mocking expression on his face.

"This Lord Su is nothing special. He actually sent such a fool to Zhuo County."

The confidant in the carriage immediately responded:

"I heard that Jia Zhi is a descendant of the Liangzhou Jia family. When Su Ze started his rebellion, he received a favor from the Liangzhou Jia family. Among all the officials assigned to Youzhou this time, Jia Zhi received the best treatment. Our Zhuo County is one of the only two upper counties in Youzhou."

Youzhou is not the prosperous Jizhou. The only two superior counties are Ji County, the capital city, and Zhuo County, an important town in Youzhou.

Ji County was a city government, and those who had served as an official knew that "If one is unlucky for three generations, the magistrate will be located in the suburbs; if one is evil for three generations, the magistrate will be located in the neighboring provincial capital."

The county official was called Baili Hou, who held a low position but great power. However, if he was in the same city as the county governor and the provincial governor, he would no longer be Baili Hou but the grandson of the Bai family.

Under the supervision of your boss, if you do a good job you get no credit, but if you do a bad job you could be making a capital mistake.

Therefore, Zhuo County is the best place in the entire Youzhou. This is not only the consensus of the people of Youzhou, but also understood by any scholar with a little background.

So when Jia Zhide was appointed the magistrate of Zhuo County, everyone congratulated him.

The only person who looked sympathetically at Jia Zhi was Hulu Guihan, who was assigned to Beiping County.

Lu Wenwei also smiled. Ever since Jia Zhi took office, he had been won over by the local wealthy families and had been drunk every day.

Lu Wenwei looked at the county government with contempt, his heart filled with resentment.

The Fanyang Lu family is a high-ranking Han family several levels higher than the Guzang Jia family.

However, after Su Ze came to Youzhou and Dingzhou, he did not summon Fanyang Lu, nor did he invite him to come out of retirement to serve as an official.

After many nobles in Dingzhou and Youzhou took the initiative to surrender to Su Ze, their children had already entered Chongwen Pavilion to study or entered the army to serve. However, the Lu family of Fanyang, as the head of the entire Youzhou nobles, did not gain any benefits in this reshuffle in Youzhou because of their self-esteem.

This is something Lu Wenwei cannot tolerate.

This is also why he conspired with Liu Lingzhu, wanting to gain a better position for the Fanyang Lu family by continuing to disrupt Youzhou.

This is the thinking of the aristocratic families. They don’t care who is the master of the world. What they care about is the development and continuation of their own family.

Especially during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, these complete aristocratic families were like cancer cells parasitic on the empire. If they were allowed to continue to expand, the entire empire would be buried with them in the end.

Lu Wenwei said to his confidant:

"The master has sent a disciple here. He will come to Zhuo County soon. He has been visiting the local clans through banquets these days to discuss raising an army."

"As for that idiot, let him live a life of drunkenness and debauchery for a while."

When Jia Zhi returned to the house, he immediately started to hold his throat and spit out all the wine he had drunk.

Then the servant quickly brought over some sobering medicine, and after Jia Zhi drank the medicine, he finally regained consciousness.

At this time, the clerks and staff he brought with him brought the official documents of the day. Jia Zhi listened to the opinions of his followers under the lamp while processing these documents.

It has to be said that although each of the clerks assigned by the Duke of Su County had various faults, for example, the clerk in charge of the Household Department loved to complain, and the clerk in charge of the Criminal Department liked to gossip.

But these are minor flaws. The most important thing is that they work diligently and are loyal to the Duke.

What satisfied Jia Zhi the most was the messenger that every county magistrate was equipped with.

(End of this chapter)