The airship left the capital and crossed the Yuyang Pass. After flying for a long time, it finally arrived outside a county.
Ao Huang poked its head out of the ship's railing. Nunu stood on the dragon's head, her little claws firmly pressed on the ink tortoise. The little Ink Girl, who was as tall as her index finger, stood on the ink dragon and floated beside Nunu.
Yang Yuhuan held Fang Yun's hand and watched with Fang Yun.
The three words "Ning An County" had appeared frequently recently. Fang Yun was very familiar with them. Even though it was his first time seeing Ning An County, he felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Ning An County was the transportation hub in the north of Jingguo. Almost all the grain transported to the northwest, north, and northeast would pass through here. This was because there was an east-west river outside Ning An County that could be used to transport grain to the northeast or northwest.
That river was the famous Yishui River in the north. Ning An County was also known as Yi County.
Ning An County was a few hundred feet away from the Yishui River. Water was drawn from the river to surround the city, forming a wide moat.
It was almost noon. Smoke rose from kitchen chimneys everywhere in Ning An County. It was peaceful and did not look like a city close to the frontlines at all.
There were no real cities in the north of Ning An County. There were only forts or checkpoints. That was because there was only war and life and death in those places. The demons and barbarians would not give the humans any chance to grow crops or raise livestock.
The city walls were high and there were soldiers patrolling on top.
Unlike the spring scenery in Jiangnan, the spring breeze did not seem to have reached here. Even though the sun was high in the sky, there was still some snow in some places.
Fang Yun saw the spring scenery in Jiangnan yesterday. Today, he saw the winter in the north. It was very strange. It was as if he was in two different worlds.
As he flew closer, Fang Yun realized that the city seemed to be divided by an invisible force.
One part was a serious military camp. Countless soldiers were training. Most of the soldiers here were new recruits. After basic training, they would be sent to the checkpoints on the three sides.
Another part was busy merchants. Many merchant ships from Wu Guo would enter Ning An County along the Yishui River. The cost of transporting goods from Ning An County to the nearby cities was much lower than transporting goods directly to the capital.
The last part was the residents of Ning An County. There was no farm work now. Thanks to the power of the Divine Temple, the county was not cold. Thanks to the prosperity of Ning An County, they would not starve as long as they put in some effort. Therefore, they became the group with the slowest pace of life.
It was serious, lively, and undisciplined. It was obviously full of contradictions. However, they appeared in the same city.
Seeing all of this with his own eyes, Fang Yun finally understood why Ji Zhibai had tried his best last year, but only managed to get a C +, not even a B +.
There were many factors involved in the livelihood of the people, such as law and order, wealth, culture, and so on. Even if Ji Zhibai was a student of the Left Prime Minister and the officials here cooperated fully, there was nothing they could do about those people.
There were many people standing outside a pavilion three miles away from Ning An County.
Fang Yun glanced over there. The various major forces in Ning An County appeared in his mind.
Although there was a Soaring Eagle Cavalry in Ning An County, the most powerful force was not the military, but the transport company.
This department that controlled the transportation of the entire Mi Province was only a fourth-ranked yamen. However, its real power was so great that it even surpassed the three third-grade yamen of the Mi Province, the Mi Province's Provincial Office, the Provincial Literature Institute, and the Provincial Army.
There were only four prefectures left in Mi Province. The other five prefectures either existed in name only or had been occupied by the barbarians.
If the place was small and there were few people, then there would be fewer scholars. The Provincial Literature Institute naturally did not have much power.
In Mi Province, the military was the most powerful. Thus, the power of the provincial government, which belonged to the civil service system, was greatly inferior to the other places.
Although the Provincial Army was also part of the military, it was only the defense force of Mi Province. It could not compare to the Soaring Eagle Cavalry or the Dingyuan Army, so its power was limited.
However, the three armies relied heavily on the transport company. This caused the transport company's position in Mi Province to be higher than the other yamens. At least, it was overseen by Hanlin, who also held the position of the transport company of the three sides.
There were two signs, one department.
Although the chief of the "Mi Province Transport Company" was fourth-ranked, the chief of the "Tri-Border Transport Company" was third-ranked.
The chief of the transport company was called Geng Ge. His wife died of a sudden illness a dozen years ago. Afterwards, he married the niece of the Left Prime Minister Mount Liu as his wife.
The transport company not only had hundreds of thousands of civilians and auxiliary soldiers under its command, but also had six thousand combat soldiers in Ning An County. It was a powerful military force.
Ning An County was under the jurisdiction of the Green Crow House. Previously, the defense of Ning An County was mainly handled by the house army of the Green Crow House. Now, the "Northern Mang Army" of the Soaring Eagle Cavalry had completely taken over the defense of Ning An County.
Other than the transport company, the Northern Mang Army was the second most powerful force.
The third most powerful force was the Ning An Trading Company.
This was a huge business organization created by the local tyrants. The founders of this trading company were many of the founding families of Jingguo. Although they were not Half-saint families, their ancestors were generals who had followed Jingguo's Emperor Taizu. Therefore, even the Half-saint families would not interfere with Ning An's business.
The Ning An Trading Company had already infiltrated all aspects of Ning An County.
The fourth most powerful force was the officials of Ning An County.
Most of these officials were married to the local noble families. They had been in Ning An County for decades or even centuries. Although their ranks were not high, they were directly in charge of all the details of Ning An County. If the county magistrate lost them, he would be no different from a blind man.
The four most powerful forces were all under the Left Prime Minister!
Fortunately, Fang Yun had received help from the Chen Family and the Zhang Heng Family. With the power of these aristocratic families, he was able to gain the loyalty of a small number of officials. At the very least, he was not completely in the dark in Ning An County.
Not only that, the Empress Dowager also gave Fang Yun all the information she had on Ning An County.
Even so, Fang Yun's score had only gone from zero to one. He was still a long way from reaching one hundred.
During the Court Examination, although people would refer to Fang Yun as Xusheng, they would not be able to use any of Xusheng's powers. Fang Yun could only be a normal county magistrate without any special privileges.
The only thing Fang Yun could rely on other than himself was his private army.
With more than two thousand private soldiers, Fang Yun believed that the four most powerful forces would not do anything rash.
However, if the four most powerful forces wanted to mess with a county magistrate, they would not do anything rash.
Ning An County was a tiger's den.
Fang Yun looked up at the sky. It was clear, but it seemed like a storm was coming.
Fang Yun looked down at the Sanli Pavilion.
Ning An County was an important town in the north. There was no Shili Pavilion. The furthest one was the Sanli Pavilion.
The officials stood in front of the Sanli Pavilion. The road from the Sanli Pavilion to Ning An County was sealed off by the provincial army. Swords and spears were placed on both sides of the road. A large number of Ning An County residents crowded the streets behind the city gates. Fang Yun could even see their expressions of joy and curiosity.
The airship landed and came to a stop.
A young man dressed in white stood on the ship's stairs. He had delicate features and looked like he was in his twenties. However, his gaze was deep and he looked like an old scholar. His gaze swept across the crowd as if he was an emperor inspecting the area.
"Welcome, Fang Xusheng!"
The people below, whether it was the third-rank Hanlin who was related to the Minister of the Left by marriage, the fourth-rank Beimang General, the son-in-law of the Cui Sheng Clan, or the officials who had been in Ning An County for more than a hundred years, they all lowered their heads and bowed respectfully. They did not bother with formalities at all.
Fang Yun looked at them.
None of them raised their heads and bowed. They looked at Fang Yun from the corner of their eyes.
"There is no need for formalities. From now on, we are one family."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
