Tianliangyuan

Chapter 323 Moisturizing things silently

The magistrate of Chang'an County was a fifth-rank official position.

Although his rank wasn't very high, he mainly held real power.

Liu Qi has only been in this position for a short time, so he will have to wait a while before he can be promoted.

However, Liu Qi has also clearly noticed the Duke of Su's coldness towards him lately.

Perhaps he felt that he was dissatisfied with his own performance, or perhaps he felt that his current official position was too low to meet the old man's approval.

Liu Qi was somewhat surprised to hear that officials from the Ministry of Personnel had come to the area.

After inviting the person inside to talk, they learned the other person's purpose.

"This is an official document that has already been signed by the Minister of Personnel. Congratulations, Lord Liu."

Liu Qi was bewildered for a moment, then cupped his hands and said, "Please enlighten me, my esteemed brother, what is the source of this joy?"

"Lord Liu is now concurrently serving as the Vice Magistrate of the Capital Prefecture. This is the official document. I hope Vice Magistrate Liu will take good care of me in the future."

The position of Junior Magistrate of Jingzhao Prefecture is a fourth-rank official position, and most importantly, its scope of authority extends to the entire Jingzhao Prefecture.

Although he was only a junior official, he was the chief official when Zhao Changqing was not around.

Currently, there are two junior prefects in Jingzhao Prefecture. One is Liu Qi, and the other is said to be a man of Prince An.

Liu Qi understood what was going on and quickly cupped his hands in thanks, saying, "Thank you for making this special trip, brother. If you have some free time today, how about we have a few drinks together?"

"It's probably not going to work out today. The lord has ordered that Liu Shaoyin complete the handover procedures as soon as possible. The Jingzhao Prefecture is in complete chaos right now, just waiting for Liu Shaoyin to take up his post."

"Thank you for your guidance, brother."

It is rare for someone who is already a county magistrate to also serve as a junior magistrate.

After all, they are all officials in real positions.

Liu Qi couldn't worry about anything else right now; he had to hurry to report to Zhao Changqing in the Jingzhao Prefecture and then ask him which prefecture would be most suitable for him to work in in the future.

In fact, there isn't much official business in Chang'an County.

The county magistrate is Zhou Shiqian, who was recently transferred. He is capable, low-key, and reliable. The county lieutenant is also a veteran, so he doesn't need to worry about him much.

Only now did Liu Qi remember the grand gift Xu Zhaozhao had mentioned. Could it be this?

The head of the Jingzhao Prefecture was Zhao Changqing, and because of the Prince Qing case last year, many officials were indeed implicated.

This time, the official document issued by the Ministry of Personnel was because a junior magistrate was implicated last year, and since then there has only been one junior magistrate.

There were as many as four people holding the position of Junior Magistrate!

This happened during the previous dynasty. It's estimated that the practice of buying and selling official positions was rampant back then, so naturally, more people would be assigned to some official positions, since the court was paying their salaries anyway.

But things are different now.

The Jingzhao Prefecture has been very busy ever since the case of Prince Qing last year.

This year, the Yongzhou flood case was added to the mix, which even implicated several military advisors and chief clerks of the Jingzhao Prefecture.

The Jingzhao Prefecture is short-staffed.

Xu Zhaozhao was clever; she didn't dare to openly send people to the Jingzhao Prefecture, but she could still do it secretly.

Who would have thought that Liu Qi would actually stand on the same side as Xu Zhaozhao?

Since he also served as the Junior Magistrate, Liu Qi's main place of business would be moved to Jingzhao Prefecture. However, he was still the Magistrate of Chang'an County, so Zhao Changqing asked him to go to the yamen every three to five days to handle the official documents there.

This demonstrates Liu Qi's competence.

With capable county magistrates and county lieutenants, Liu Qi spent most of his time in the Jingzhao Prefecture handling official business, and everything in Chang'an County remained in good order.

It was precisely because of this that Liu Qi officially caught Zhao Changqing's eye.

Zhao Changqing is a capable, loyal, and honest man.

Therefore, Xu Zhaozhao's attempts to curry favor with Zhao Changqing were all made under the guise of official business or things that were beneficial to the people.

This indirect attempt to win him over made Zhao Changqing never believe that the Princess of Anle was deliberately trying to win him over.

It has a subtle and pervasive effect.

That day, Xu Zhaozhao sent Gao Da Kui over again.

If Gao Da Kui were just an ordinary merchant, how could he be qualified to request an audience with the Prefect?

But he was sent by the Princess of Anle County, so that's a different story.

Zhao Changqing was discussing matters with the two junior magistrates when he heard that the person sent by the Princess of Anle County had come. He did not ask them to leave but invited the person in directly.

"This humble man, Gao Da Kui, greets Your Excellency the Prefect and the two Junior Prefects."

Zhao Changqing raised his hand: "No need for formalities. May I ask what brings you here, Senior Executive?"

"Reporting to Lord Zhao, I am here on the orders of the county magistrate to inform you that the land reclamation in Lantian County is progressing smoothly, and some medicinal herbs have also been successfully cultivated. While collecting herbs on the mountain, our men accidentally discovered a jade mine and have come to the government office to register it, and we need an official mining document from the government."

Lantian County also belongs to Jingzhao Prefecture, and since it concerns jade mines, it is not only necessary to register in Lantian County, but also in Jingzhao Prefecture.

Moreover, discovering a jade mine does not mean you can mine it. The relevant permits must be issued by the Jingzhao Prefecture, and Lantian County does not have that much authority.

In fact, Magistrate Fang Youwei of Lantian County would have reported the relevant matters to the Prefect, but Gao Da Kui mentioned it again here specifically to tell Zhao Changqing that Princess Anle was willing to befriend her.

Zhao Changqing's focus was not on the jade mine, but on planting medicinal herbs.

"You just said that medicinal herbs can be grown in Lantian County?"

"Your Excellency, when we were clearing wasteland last year, some land simply couldn't be used to grow crops. If we had, we estimated that at most one shi of rice could be harvested per mu, which is far too low a yield. Moreover, it would have taken three to five years for the land to recover. At that time, the county magistrate had taken in many disaster victims, so she simply invited some experienced people to come and see for themselves. In the end, we planted medicinal herbs instead."

Zhao Changqing's expression improved somewhat.

Under normal circumstances, the Daxing Dynasty encouraged the reclamation of wasteland for growing grains, not medicinal herbs.

Because the demand for food is greater.

Zhao Changqing was worried that if the county magistrate planted medicinal herbs on a large scale just for profit, what would happen if there was no food?

Now that he knew what was going on, Zhao Changqing was naturally less worried.

"Yes, it's good that the county princess understands."

"Your Excellency, the county magistrate also instructed me to plant a considerable amount of crops from the Western Regions there. I estimate that we will be able to harvest them in about two months. Before I came, I made a special trip to the fields to check on the crops and make sure they were growing well before I dared to report to you."

Zhao Changqing was completely bewildered. How could there be fresh crops?

Is he trying to give himself credit for his achievements?

Zhao Changqing thought about it again. Although Xu Junting was currently working in the Ministry of Revenue, the actual planting area was in Lantian County, which was under Zhao Changqing's jurisdiction. It was perfectly normal for the report to be submitted to him.

Moreover, if Xu Junting has already reported it to him and he is still completely unaware, then that would be truly unlucky.