The Sage of Confucianism and Taoism

The Skywalker left the capital, crossed the Yuyang Pass, and flew for a long time before finally arriving outside a county town.

Ao Huang stuck his head out of the ship's side, Nunu stood on the dragon head, holding the inkstone turtle with his little paw, while the little ink girl with her index finger high stepped 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 have appeared frequently recently, and Fang Yun is already very familiar with it, so that even though it was the first time he saw Ning'an County, he felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity in his heart.

Ning'an County is the transportation hub in the north of Jingguo. Almost all the grain and grass transported to the northwest, north and northeast will pass through here, because there is an east-west river outside Ning'an County, and the river can be used to transport grain to the northeast or northwest.

That river is the Yishui River, which is very famous in the north, and Ning'an County's alias is Yi County.

Ning'an County is hundreds of feet away from the Yishui River, and water is diverted from it to surround the city, forming a wide moat.

It was almost noon, and smoke from cooking fires rose from all over Ning'an County, which looked peaceful and tranquil. It didn't look like a city close to the front line.

There were no real cities in the north of Ning'an County, but only fortresses or checkpoints. Because there were only wars and life and death in those places, and the monsters would not give the human race any chance to grow crops and raise livestock.

The city walls were high, and soldiers were patrolling on them.

Unlike the spring scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, the spring breeze seemed to have not blown here yet. Even though the sky was sunny, there was still some snow in some places.

Fang Yun saw the spring scenery in the south of the Yangtze River yesterday, and the winter in the north of the Great Wall today. It felt strange, as if he was in two different worlds.

Flying closer, Fang Yun realized that the city seemed to be split by an invisible force.

One part was a serious military camp. Countless soldiers were training. Most of the soldiers here were recruits. After basic training, they would be sent to various checkpoints on the three sides.

One part was a lively merchant. Many merchant ships from Wu State would enter Ning'an along the Yishui River. The cost of transporting goods from Ning'an to nearby cities was much lower than transporting them directly to the capital by land.

The last part was the residents of Ning'an County. Now there was no farm work. Thanks to the power of the Holy Temple, the county town was not cold. Thanks to the prosperity of Ning'an County, they would not starve to death as long as they worked a little, so they became the group with the slowest pace of life.

Serious, lively, casual, and full of contradictions, but they appeared in the same city.

Seeing all this with his own eyes, Fang Yun knew why Ji Zhibai tried his best last year, but he only got a C-level in the civil affairs subject of the palace examination, and didn't even get a B-level.

There are many factors involved in the people's livelihood, including public security, wealth, customs, etc. Even if Ji Zhibai is a student of Zuo Xiang, and the officials here fully cooperate, they can't do anything to those people.

Many people were standing outside the pavilion three miles outside Ning'an County.

Fang Yun's eyes swept over there, and the major forces in Ning'an County emerged in his mind.

Although Ning'an County has an army of Yingyang Army, the biggest power is not the military, but the Transportation Department.

Although this department that controls the transportation of the entire Mizhou is only a fourth-grade government office, its actual power is even greater than the three third-grade government offices of Mizhou, including the State Government Office, State Academy of Literature, and State Army.

There are only four prefectures left in Mizhou, and the other five prefectures are either in name only or have been occupied by barbarians.

The place is small and the population is small, so there are few scholars, and the power of the Academy of Literature is naturally not great.

In Mizhou, the military is the most powerful, and the power of the prefectures belonging to the civil service system is much less than that of other places.

Although the state army is also a military force, it is only the guardian force of Mizhou, and it is completely incomparable with the Yingyang Army or Dingyuan Army, so its power is also limited.

It just so happens that the three border armies are particularly dependent on the Transportation Department, which results in the actual status of the Transportation Department in Mizhou being higher than other government offices. At least it is presided over by Hanlin, who also serves as the Three Border Transportation Department.

Two signs, one department.

Although the chief of the "Mizhou Transportation Department" is a fourth-rank official, the chief of the "Sanbian Transportation Department" is a third-rank official.

The chief of the Transportation Department is named Geng Ge. His wife died of a sudden illness more than ten years ago, and then he married the niece of the left prime minister Liu Shan as his first wife.

The Transportation Department not only has hundreds of thousands of civilians or auxiliary soldiers under its jurisdiction, but also has 6,000 combat soldiers in Ning'an County, which is a powerful military force.

Ning'an County is under the jurisdiction of Qingwu Prefecture. Previously, the defense of Ning'an County was mainly responsible for the prefectural army of Qingwu Prefecture. Now, the "Beimang Army" in the North Army of the Yingyang Army has completely taken over the city defense of Ning'an County.

The Beimang Army is the second largest force besides the Transportation Department.

The third largest force is Ning'an Trading Company.

This is a huge business organization jointly established by local tyrants, and the founders of this business are many founding tyrants of Jingguo. Although they are not semi-saint families, their ancestors are all generals who shed blood and sweat with Jingguo Taizu, so even semi-saint families will not interfere in Ning'an's trade.

Ning'an Business has penetrated into all aspects of Ning'an County.

The fourth major force is the officials of Ning'an County.

Most of these officials have intermarried with local famous families, and have been operating in Ning'an County for decades or even hundreds of years. Although they seem to be of low rank, they are directly responsible for all the details of Ning'an County. If the county magistrate loses them, he will be almost blind.

The four major forces almost all turned to the left prime minister!

Fortunately, Fang Yun secretly received help from the Chen family, Zhang Heng family, etc. With the powerful power of the family, he has obtained the loyalty of very few officials, so that he will not be in the dark in Ning'an County.

Not only that, the queen mother handed over the information about Ning'an in the military intelligence department of Jingguo to Fang Yun.

Even so, it would only turn Fang Yun from zero to one, and it was still a long way from one hundred.

In the palace examination, although others would call Fang Yun a virtual saint, they could not exercise any power of the virtual saint. Fang Yun could only treat himself as an ordinary county magistrate without any privileges.

The only thing Fang Yun could rely on besides himself was his private army.

With more than 2,000 private soldiers, Fang Yun believed that the four major forces would not mess around.

However, if the four major forces wanted to mess with a county magistrate, they would not have to mess around.

This Ning'an County was a den of dragons and tigers.

Fang Yun looked up at the sky. It was clear, but it seemed like a storm was coming.

Fang Yun looked down at the Sanliting below.

Ning'an County was an important town in the north. There was no Shiliting at all. The farthest place was only Sanliting.

Officials stood in front of Sanliting, and the road from Sanliting to Ning'an County was completely blocked by the state army. Swords and guns stood on both sides, and the momentum was soaring. A large number of Ning'an County residents crowded on the street behind the city gate. Fang Yun could even see their expressions of joy or curiosity.

The sky-walking ship landed and stopped steadily.

A young man in white stood on the ladder, with delicate features, looking no more than twenty years old, but with deep eyes and a steady demeanor like an old scholar. He looked around like a king inspecting and a great scholar coming.

"Welcome Fang Xusheng!"

The people below, whether they were the third-rank Hanlin who was related to the left prime minister, or the fourth-rank Beimang General of the Beimang Army, whether they were the son-in-law of the Cuisheng family, or the famous officials who had been entrenched in Ning'an County for more than a hundred years, all bowed their heads respectfully, without any response, but fearing that they were not polite.

Fang Yun looked at them.

None of them raised their hands and bowed, looking at Fang Yun above with their peripheral vision.

"No need to be polite, from now on, we are a family."

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