Chapter 96 Governance
The prefect was the highest official in a county. In addition to governing the people, promoting talented people, deciding lawsuits, and investigating corruption, he could also appoint and dismiss his subordinates.

Except for a few officials such as county magistrates who could not appoint themselves and needed to be appointed by the Ministry of Personnel, the rest of the subordinate officials could be decided by a single word.

After entering the prefectural government, Li Jiancheng had a thick pile of documents in front of him to deal with, so his first priority was to find a few aides to provide advice on both minor and major matters.

The Li family has been passed down to this day, so it is naturally impossible that they only have family generals. He brought six aides with him, two of whom were old aides who had accompanied Li Yuan through the three states of Qiao, Qi and Long, and were very experienced.

Although Li Jiancheng had no shortage of staff, he still reached out and grabbed representatives of several major families such as Lu, Zu and Liu, expressing his hope that they could send young talents from their families to serve as staff of the prefectural government to help him handle the government affairs of Zhuo County.

This was a naked show of goodwill, and the major families had no reason to refuse, nor did they dare to do so. They had prestige and talent, but were suppressed and had no clan soldiers. Or if they did have soldiers, they simply did not dare to show them in public, and their numbers were not large.

Li Jiancheng was a nobleman who came with more than a thousand elite private soldiers. He also served as the commander of Zhuo County and was in charge of the military power of Zhuo County. If he really went crazy, it would be no problem for him to kill all of their clansmen in Zhuo County.

Li Jiancheng smiled and said to the old man from the Lu family, "Drink the imperial wine I brought. Please tell me when you go back that Jiancheng has long admired the talent of the Lu family. If you are unwilling to come, then Jiancheng will have to go and invite you personally."

The key to controlling Zhuo County lies in the cooperation of the Lu family. If they are unwilling, the other families will naturally follow suit, and the power of the prefect will be greatly weakened.

If the Lu family does not send out a legitimate son with real talent and knowledge to express their sincerity, then Li Jiancheng will not be lenient. It is worthwhile to be tolerant in ordinary matters to gain a good reputation, but on crucial matters, he must not give in an inch.

Everyone's eyes were focused on the old man of the Lu family. After a moment, the old man said, "I am honored that the governor values ​​the Lu family. I will report to the clan leader when I return and select outstanding young men from the clan to serve the governor."

"That would be great. I will hold a banquet in a few days to entertain you all."

"We should be the ones to arrange this. How dare we trouble you?"

After a while of polite conversation, everyone said goodbye. The county magistrate who stayed behind reported the general situation of Zhuo County and the problems that needed to be dealt with urgently. Li Jiancheng said that a day or two would not matter, so they had to leave.

After the others left, Li Jiancheng ordered his family generals to inspect several counties in Zhuo County and find out some officials and bullies who committed crimes and bullied the people. When a new official took office, he would always kill or dismiss some of them.

There is no need to conduct secret investigations, just go to the local areas and ask the people. The dumbest and worst ones will be killed first, and no one will be able to find fault with them.

As for those who are deeply hidden or behind the scenes, we have to wait for the Lu family and other major families to express their opinions. If they are obedient, we will deal with them as appropriate. If they are not obedient, we will investigate them in detail.

How could such a big family not have a few maggots?

"Master, I will give you full authority over the county soldiers. You will have the final say on promotions and appointments. You can take half of the family soldiers we brought with you."

Li Jing sat nearby for a while. Hearing this, he stood up and said, "In half a month at most, the county soldiers will be at our disposal."

He naturally trusted Li Jing's ability in this regard, and Li Jing also believed in Li Jiancheng's ability in government affairs. With the two of them joining forces, the mere Zhuo County would be nothing to them.

After Li Jing left, Li Jiancheng wrote a letter to the emperor, asking for the emperor's blessing so that he could reach Zhuo County safely. He found that the local government was in chaos and the civil and military affairs were in disarray, but he promised to carry out the emperor's will and reach Zhuo County in the north before the construction period so as not to delay the emperor's military and national affairs.

Then I started writing letters to my in-laws and old friends, telling them that I had successfully taken up my new post, how much I missed them, etc…

It took more than an hour just to write the letter. My hands felt sore from years of archery, but this was something that I had to do myself.

After rubbing his wrist, he wrote another letter to Ashina Duji. Qimin Khan was ill and it was said that he was seriously ill. He would probably die in the next few months. As the oldest and most heroic son of Qimin Khan, Ashina Duji had a great chance of winning the position of Turkic Khan. This relationship had to be maintained.

After I finished writing everything, I sat quietly for a while and thought carefully whether there were any important people I had missed.

Only after making sure that there was nothing did he relax and took the vegetarian tea handed to him by Li Jin, that is, tea without so many strange condiments added.

Although it is a bit bitter, it is better than the spicy taste of onion, ginger and peppercorns, the sweet fragrance of jujube and cinnamon, the cool taste of orange peel and mint, the milky flavor of cheese, and the greasy smell of beef, mutton and pork.

Overall, it went smoothly. Although Lu was a little arrogant, I don't think he would be stupid enough to confront him head-on.

As long as he can find a way out, Li Jiancheng will be able to gradually tie their entire family onto the cart. At that time, it will be either prosperity together or destruction together. I believe that for the sake of their family, they will make a wise choice.

…………

At the court meeting, Yang Guang frowned at the short envoy. The envoy was very submissive, huddled on the ground, and muttered something.

The Minister of Rites reluctantly translated, "The King of Japan regards the sky as his elder brother and the sun as his younger brother. Before dawn, the King sits in meditation and does not sleep to govern the country. After dawn, he retires and entrusts government affairs to his younger brother."

Then he held up the imperial edict from Japan and said: "Your Majesty, the letter says, 'The emperor of the place where the sun rises writes to the emperor of the place where the sun sets, and he is well.

Yang Guang's eyebrows jumped. He wanted to kill the envoy and send troops to attack, but he thought that it was not worth doing so to attack a barbarian country that did not know etiquette.

All I can say is: "If there are barbarians who are rude, don't report them to me again!"

But after thinking that this was also a country, he sent someone to teach them the etiquette first and ordered Pei Shiqing to go on the mission to Japan.

The next envoy who came to pay tribute was much more normal. Chitu (Malaysia) presented a golden hibiscus crown and camphor. The emperor ordered Chang Jun, the head of military farming, Wang Junzheng, the head of the Yu Department, and others to go to Chitu and bring five thousand pieces of brocade and a letter from the credible state to the King of Chitu.

Gaochang King Qu Boya sent envoys to request the Sui Dynasty to grant the princess. If possible, the king was willing to come and marry her in person.

The Yang family really didn't have a suitable princess to marry, but it didn't matter. He said whoever was a princess would be the princess, so he agreed to the envoy and canonized the daughter of his relative Yuwen as Princess Huarong.

Then the emperor issued an order to conscript more than 200,000 able-bodied men to build the Great Wall.

Seeing that there were many foreign envoys in the capital, he decided to go to Hengshan to offer sacrifices and let these envoys assist in the sacrifice and watch the ceremony.

But after the sacrifice, Yang Guang began to dislike that among so many countries in the Western Regions, there were only a dozen or twenty that came to pay tribute, so he decided to conquer the Western Regions completely.

The emperor temporarily abandoned Goguryeo and turned his attention to Western Turks and Tuyuhun. Unless these two nails were removed, the Western Regions would not turn to the Sui Dynasty.

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(End of this chapter)