The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#580 - Entering the city

After Ge Ping and the others left, Lu Jing took out the small bag containing the ginseng seeds and scattered them in the furrows. Reading М

This time, he brought about five thousand seeds, which was exactly one thousand seeds per mu. He scattered them much more sparsely than on the back mountain of the academy, which could also fully simulate the natural environment of the wild.

After that, as usual, he threw down a bunch of verdant energy as if it didn't cost him anything.

Watching the green shoots, whether weeds or ginseng seedlings, break out of the soil, Lu Jing felt refreshed.

What he saw was not ginseng seedlings, but silver notes fluttering in the furrows.

When the remaining secret power was almost exhausted, Lu Jing set up a maze, the simplest kind, which could make people or beasts who strayed into it run around in circles, trapped by its magic.

After that, he rested in the village for one night, and the next morning he took the dozen or so women who wanted to go home, as well as the boy he had met at the foot of the mountain, down the mountain.

The reason for taking the boy was because Lu Jing would go directly back to the academy after finishing his business, and someone needed to deliver a message to the village.

Firstly, Lu Jing was quite familiar with the boy and didn't bother to find anyone else. Secondly, he was young and it was easier for him to enter the city without attracting attention.

Because it was dozens of miles away from the county seat, Lu Jing also drove an ox cart. As a result, he personally experienced the terrible public security environment of Yu Prefecture along the way.

Perhaps because there were more women in the group, they were often targeted.

Lu Jing simply let the boy drive the cart, while he got out of the cart and walked, using his excellent hearing and eyesight to pay attention to the movements within a mile. When he saw suspicious people, he would rush over to deal with them in advance.

In the end, they returned to the county seat smoothly without wasting any time.

Lu Jing stopped the ox cart at the city gate, and then asked the boy to open the box on the cart, which was full of gold and silver utensils, the loot of Ge Ping and his gang over a long period of time.

Lu Jing roughly divided it up, according to the standard of fifty taels per person, and distributed it to the women in the ox cart. Those who had been robbed and taken to the mountain earlier were compensated with an additional ten taels, and then he let them go home.

Lu Jing and the boy continued to drive the ox cart forward, and after being checked by the gatekeeper soldiers, they arrived at the entrance of the yamen.

Lu Jing got out of the cart, told the boy to wait, and walked in with the land deed.

As a result, he encountered trouble at the first hurdle. The county magistrate, as the local official, was in charge of all matters in the county, and was usually very busy, so he couldn't be seen whenever someone wanted to see him, especially if the visitor was just an ordinary citizen.

Not to mention the county magistrate, Lu Jing couldn't even see the county clerk or the registrar.

Of course, he could ask the Department of Celestial Observation for help. The Department of Celestial Observation had a special organization to deal with these state and county officials, but unfortunately, Lu Jing was not yet an inspector, and even if he was an inspector, he could not abuse the power of the Department of Celestial Observation during non-official periods.

Fortunately, Lu Jing still had a universal cheat. He took out two taels of silver and handed them to the gatekeeper of the yamen without leaving a trace. The latter took him to see a trusted advisor named Wan, who was by the county magistrate's side.

Advisor Wan invited Lu Jing into the study, and after looking at the land deed Lu Jing handed over, he stroked his beard for a long time without saying a word.

Seeing this, Lu Jing handed over a two-hundred tael silver note from under the table. Advisor Wan accepted the silver note with a satisfied smile on his face.

But he said, "This matter is a bit difficult to handle."

So Lu Jing increased the intensity and handed over another one hundred tael note, but this time Advisor Wan did not accept it.

"Although I, Lao Wan, love money, I am not a greedy person. Thirty taels is my hard-earned money for running errands, and the remaining one hundred and seventy taels is for the superiors. I won't deceive you because you are new here. I will take as much as I should."

Speaking of this, Advisor Wan paused, picked up the tea on the table and took a sip, sighed, and then continued, "Alas, originally this matter was not too difficult, but now the world is in chaos, and although you are not a local of Ju County, you must have known how rampant the bandits outside are when you came. They are like bamboo shoots after the rain, and they can't be exterminated."

"Therefore, the local gentry and wealthy families are willing to build fortresses to help the imperial court resist those vagrant bandits, and we are naturally willing to support them. Logically speaking, you have a land deed, and if I help you a little, your fortress can be built."

"But the problem is that your place is now occupied by a group of bandits. This matter is basically known to everyone in Ju County. Who knows what kind of people will live in your fortress after it is built? Will it be occupied by that group of villains again?"

"You also have to understand our county magistrate. It is already enough to make the county magistrate feel bad that those bandits are burning, killing, and looting everywhere in his jurisdiction. But the vagrant bandits who come and go are one thing, it is a big trouble to really gain a foothold and recruit soldiers and horses."

"If it is not handled well, the county magistrate's official position will also come to an end, so he must be cautious and cautious in this kind of matter, but..."

"But what?" Lu Jing asked.

"Didn't you say before that you have a lot of manpower under your command, enough to deal with that group of bandits? That would be easy. As long as you wipe out that group of bandits and take their heads, the county magistrate will naturally allow you to build a fortress there."

"Oh, there are many bandits in that group, and it may be difficult to kill them all. Kill or capture those few bandit leaders, and leave the rest to me, Lao Wan." Advisor Wan patted his chest and said.

Lu Jing frowned when he heard this. He knew that Advisor Wan didn't trust him, so he wanted the heads of Ge Ping and others as a pledge of allegiance.

And the key is that this request is also reasonable, and Lu Jing is also difficult to refuse on the surface.

So he could only agree first, and got up to leave.

As a result, as soon as he went out, he saw a group of yamen runners rushing over, as many as thirty or fifty people, and all of them were carrying weapons.

Seeing this formation, the boy, who was a bandit, panicked because he had a guilty conscience. He wanted to drive the ox cart away, but remembering Lu Jing's instructions, he didn't dare to abandon Lu Jing and leave.

On the other hand, he also had some luck, thinking that these yamen runners should not be coming for him.

But the next moment, he saw the yamen runner running in the front pointing in his direction, "There is an ox cart here, and the boy driving the cart is also the right age, but there is another person, forget it, let's take him down first."

After saying that, the group of yamen runners rushed up. The poor boy realized that something was wrong at this moment, and wanted to escape, but it was already too late. He was pulled out of the cart and pressed to the ground.

Then those yamen runners also saw Lu Jing who was coming out, and shouted, "Another bandit has been found!"