Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 127 What is the appearance?
"My lord, there is a small village five miles ahead. We can rest there for a while." Zhou Tai reported to Bai Tu.
Bai Tu is now in the northern part of Wu County, inspecting deep wells and spring plowing conditions in various places. By the way... he can also inspect the usual conduct of officials at all levels, so he did not make too much fanfare to alarm the local officials. He brought a hundred-man guard team with him, along with Zhou Tai and Lu Su, and is now in Yangxian County, more than 200 miles southeast of Jinling.
Zhou Tai had once been in charge of suppressing bandits in Wu County and was very familiar with the surrounding terrain .
"Let's go and take a rest! Prepare some property and don't disturb the people." Bai Tu has always felt that the White Dragon Fish Costume is a very cool thing.
Of course, Bai Tu will not be as confident as Sun Ce in history, and defensive power is indispensable.
Bai Tu also felt what he saw along the way. The people living outside the city still had a hard life. After all, the yield per mu was one shi, and the average household had 100 mu of land. A certain unscrupulous governor still collected 30% tax and even exchanged the rest for relief food...
At the same time, we also believe that the future is bright. The low per-mu yield means there is a lot of room for improvement, and the tax rate will not always be 30%.
However, after walking only two or three miles, the guards who had gone out to explore the way ahead came back and reported with some embarrassment: "My lord, the village ahead is a bit turbulent, it's not suitable for rest..."
"Turbulence? Are there bandits?" Bai Tu immediately frowned.
Zhou Tai stared at him intently - he was the one who captured the bandits in Wu County, and he had previously assured his lord that although the small-time thieves who robbed the road could not be completely killed, there would be no large-scale bandits who dared to rob the village.
"No, not bandits..." The young guard seemed a little hesitant.
Bai Tu also realized that things were not simple. If there were really robbers, he had to kill them quickly. Although Bai Tu only brought a hundred people, they were all guards wearing armor. How could they be afraid of the bandits?
"You are my guard. As long as you are loyal to me, you don't need to worry about anything else." Bai Tu said.
The young guard calmed down and said, "My lord, there seemed to be a riot not long ago. Now a family in the village wants to go to the county to file a complaint, and they are arguing with the elders in the village!"
"Insurgents... lead the way!" Bai Tu's face became much gloomier, and then he gave the order directly.
Apart from the Jiangdong Army, there are no other armies in Wu County, and it is only 200 miles away from Jinling. This so-called "rebellious army" is definitely not the defeated army of other forces, so whose army could it be?
Zhou Tai also felt Bai Tu's silent anger. When he heard about the rumor of "hard drive deep well disease" among the people, Bai Tu did not show any anger at all, but now...
Soon, about a hundred people arrived outside the village and had already alarmed the farmers in the village.
However, because Bai Tu's guards had not worn armor before, but rode ordinary civilian horses for transportation, they were just treated as nobles of a wealthy family.
"My dear gentlemen, there is something going on in the village and we are unable to entertain you. Please take a detour." An old man came forward with a sad face and said.
"Don't be nervous, old man. We are not bad people. We just want to see what's happening in the village." Bai Tu got off the carriage and said to the old man in a gentle voice.
"This..." The old man was still a little hesitant.
But at this moment, there was another commotion in the village. Bai Tu saw a woman who seemed to have taken advantage of the chaos to slip out and was about to jump into the deep well at the entrance of the village. Fortunately, she was discovered by others and quickly stopped.
This is not how my deep well is used - Bai Tu couldn't control his anger and asked, "What on earth is going on?"
Frightened by Bai Tu, the old man dared not say anything. Lu Su stepped forward and said, "Father, if you have anything to say, just tell me. I have a cousin who works in the governor's office. If you have any difficulties, you may as well tell me. If I can solve it, I will tell my cousin, and maybe it will be his contribution. If I can't solve it, I will just pretend that I didn't hear it."
The old man felt relieved after hearing what Lu Su said. His eyes turned red as he said, "It's... a general from Yangxian County. It's OK that he came to the village to eat and drink in the past, but this time... the girl from the Li family... Hey!"
"What generals are there in Yangxian County?" Bai Tu asked, trying his best to control his tone.
"I heard that... other soldiers call him 'General Pan'." The old man said, then gritted his teeth and added with great determination: "We all call him Pan Sanchi!"
"The sky is three feet high wherever I pass by? Ha... What a good three feet! This place is less than three hundred miles away from Jinling!" Bai Tu suddenly felt that he had taken it for granted before.
" General ... Pan... Is the person stationed here Pan Zhang, the Sima of another army?" Bai Tu turned his head and asked Zhou Tai.
"My lord! I admit my guilt!" Zhou Tai's face turned black when he heard the name "General Pan".
It was he who promoted Pan Zhang, how could he not know ?
Of course, he was really unaware of Pan Zhang's audacity. He only promoted him because Pan Zhang had fought bravely and was not afraid to be the first to climb the ladder, and although he was of common origin, he had a talent for commanding troops. Zhou Tai felt that he had done nothing wrong in this regard.
He was not completely unaware of some of Pan Zhang's bad habits, but he always felt that the good outweighed the bad. After all, when Pan Zhang was under Zhou Tai, he did not dare to be so arrogant.
Lu Su, who was standing aside, looked at Bai Tu with some surprise.
I didn't expect that this "cousin", who usually looks cheerful and leaves everything to the six ministries, is actually so concerned about military and political affairs?
Just by hearing a surname, you can immediately know the Sima of a special tribe here?
The Sima of the other divisions was only a low-level officer. In the various armies of Jiangdong, he commanded a few hundred men at the least and only one or two thousand at the most. He was also an officer promoted in Yangxian, not an old subordinate of Bai Tu...
How much "homework" did you do to be able to reveal his name in one sentence?
Of course, what Lu Su didn't know was that the reason why Bai Tu remembered Pan Zhang was because he was "Pan Zhang" - one of the Twelve Tiger Ministers of Jiang Biao, and also one of the Twelve Tiger Ministers of Jiang Biao who had mixed reviews like Gan Ning!
His character was at the bottom even among the generals in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. He was greedy and cruel. Historical books described that when he was in charge of an army, he would set up a market in the army for soldiers to trade "trophies", and... he would also rob and kill his colleagues just because other soldiers had more money.
However, such a villain was praised by Chen Shou in "The Three Kingdoms" as "the tiger minister of Jiangbiao", which also shows that his ability is indeed outstanding. He can be said to be outstanding in Jiangdong. He was brave and fearless of death in battle, and his command to the soldiers was able to discipline them. When Sun Quan was defeated by Zhang Liao in Hefei, Pan Zhang also led his troops to fight back, winning the army a chance to regroup and retreat in an orderly manner.
He can be said to be a weakened version of Gan Ning, and unlike Gan Ning, he is not as arrogant and never acts rudely to his superiors or his lord.
Therefore, Chen Shou's historical evaluation of Sun Quan's appointment of Pan Zhang is "Quan is able to forget faults and remember merits, and it is appropriate for him to maintain control of the southeast"...
But in Bai Tu's opinion, Gan Ning was too wronged - there was another way of praising Sun Quan in later generations: Quan tolerated Gan Ning's extravagance and Pan Zhang's lawlessness.
Compared with Pan Zhang’s lawlessness, is Gan Ning’s extravagance a big deal?
To some extent, this is also a concept recognized by current values. Even gentlemen with moral obsession and identity burden will avoid similar problems in their own camp and not comment on them. They will only focus on similar behaviors in other camps to boost their reputation.
However, Bai Tu asked himself that he could tolerate Gan Ning's extravagance, but not Pan Zhang's lawlessness.
After seeing Pan Zhang's name on the recommendation list of Zhou Tai and Chen Gong, Bai Tu did not take any immediate action because according to historical records, Pan Zhang became more of a bastard as he grew older.
Now that Pan Zhang has just begun to emerge, Bai Tu is still thinking in his heart that it is very likely that he was led astray by the social order at that time. Growing up in an environment where he repeatedly emphasized military discipline, he should not have those bad habits.
Moreover, Pan Zhang's abilities were impeccable, and Zhou Tai and Chen Gong recommended him because of his real achievements. Besides, one cannot convict him based on his name alone.
However, Bai Tu did not expect that Pan Zhang's "bastard" character had already been cultivated long ago...
After Zhou Tai apologized, Bai Tu was silent for a moment, then said calmly: "Bring Pan Zhang here."
When the old man saw Zhou Tai, a big black man, bowing to the young man in front of him and calling him "Lord", although he didn't fully understand what was going on, he vaguely knew that the identity of the person was not simple.
Especially since the other party actually said very naturally "bring Pan Zhang here"... Pan Zhang, is that Pan Sanchi?
"Yes!" Zhou Tai immediately accepted the order.
The garrison in Yangxian was not far from here, so Zhou Tai was not worried about Bai Tu's safety - with hundreds of guards protecting him, it was impossible for an assassin to succeed.
Moreover, Zhou Tai put on his armor and sped away. Although Zhou Tai was not good at speed, the top-grade gilded armor, without the restrictions of the military formation, made his speed so fast that he disappeared in a moment.
Bai Tu tried to appease the old man who had just answered him with kind words. However, even though they vaguely knew Bai Tu's identity, at least they knew that Bai Tu was a high-ranking official in the governor's mansion, no one in the village dared to come out and talk to him. Instead, most of them hid in their houses. Only a few elders came out and waited on the side...
"My lord, let's rest in the village first and wait for General Zhou to come back." Lu Su could see that Bai Tu cared about this matter more than anyone imagined.
"What's his appearance?" Bai Tu muttered softly.
Lu Su seemed not to have heard clearly, and Bai Tu repeated, "How can I go in there?"
Seeing that Bai Tu was getting angry, Lu Su stood at the entrance of the village and waited with him without saying a word.
After a while, Bai Tu was heard saying in a low voice: "It's useless if the cousin doesn't yell at the cousin..."
Hearing this, Lu Su rolled his eyes and didn't say much. He knew that Bai Tu was apologizing for not controlling his emotions and taking his anger out on Lu Su.
However, Bai Tu still did not enter the village. If it were another occasion, it might be a very satisfying thing for Bai Long Yufu to have his identity revealed. But now Bai Tu felt only shame in his heart, and he didn't even dare to make eye contact with the people present.
