Zhao Shiyan felt a little moved, and felt that he had heard of it somewhere, so he asked someone to find Liu Daguan's resume. After reading the resume, he remembered that it turned out that when Yuan Mei came to Beihai Town last year, he mentioned this person to himself.

Liu Daguan, whose courtesy name was Zhengfu, was from Qiu County, Linqingzhou, Shandong Province. In the 42nd year of Qianlong's reign, he was recommended by the academician and entered the Imperial College in the capital as a tribute student. The following year, he was a second-class in the imperial examination and then selected Guangxi to be the magistrate for the trial. This person worked in Guangxi for ten years, and had worked in Guilin Prefecture, Liuzhou Prefecture, Pingyue Prefecture, and Zhen'an Prefecture in the east. At its peak, he served as the prefect of Zhen'an Prefecture. His official reputation was very good, and he was not greedy or corrupt, but he was brave enough to serve.

After so many years of the 18th century, Zhao Xin knew a lot about the imperial examination. He knew that in addition to the "regular tribute" that spent money, other tributes such as grace, tribute, and deputy tribute, annual tributes are considered to be the right origin of the imperial examination, and fame is equivalent to the deputy juren. For example, tributes are students who are both excellent in literature and profession selected by the academic and political education of each province, and they are only selected every twelve years. If you use the situation of later generations as an analogy, it is similar to the 985 special enrollment.

The tribute students must take the imperial examination. The first-class person who is selected will be appointed as the seventh-rank official in Beijing, the second-class person who is placed in the magistrate, and the third-class person who is appointed as the teacher. As for those who are not qualified, they can only go back and forth, which is called "abandoned tribute".

As a Jinshi, you can become an official, and if you are successful, you can eventually become a chief official, and military ministers are no problem. Because you only have the fame of Juren, you can only go around in the sixth and seventh ranks of grassroots positions in your life. Of course, it is not impossible to still want to go up. In addition to having a good reputation for the official, you have to pay for "donate more than one class", but at most you can only become a fourth-rank Taoist. Like Zuo Zongtang in later generations, being able to become a chief official with his fame of Juren, or even going straight to the center is a completely special case in troubled times.

In the 54th year of Qianlong's reign, Liu Daguan's stepmother passed away and returned to his hometown to worry. After the funeral, Liu Daguan went out for a trip and made a special trip to visit Suiyuan in Xiaocang Mountain. Because he was very familiar with Yuan Mei's friend Li Songpu and Li Shaohe, the latter two had served as officials in Guangxi, so the two had a great time.

Zhao Xin considered that He Xiwen and his men were all brave and lacked enough literature. Once the Northern Navy entered Guangxi, with the rapid collapse of the Qing court's rule, regulating chaos and maintaining stability became the top priority, and someone familiar with the local government affairs and people's sentiments must be assisted.

You should know that although the Yongzheng period had carried out drastic changes in the southwest, there were still many chieftains in the southern part of Guangxi. Although these people were obeying orders when the Qing Dynasty was strong, as the old regime collapsed, the local officials must have done so much.

Liu Daguan has been an official in Guangxi for many years, and he works as a county magistrate at the level of a civil servant. He should be very familiar with both clerks and people's livelihood. Thinking of this, Zhao Xin decided to meet him.

The next morning, Liu Daguan, who had been staying in the backyard of Kaiyuan County, followed a staff officer from the headquarters to the living room inside Xuanzhenguan. After waiting for a while, he heard the guards outside the door shouting a low "salute", and then Zhao Xin walked in with great strides.

Because he was told in advance that Beihai Town did not have the rules of kneeling when he saw the official, and the staff officer who brought him did not say who would see him, so Liu Daguan just stood up and bowed to Zhao Xin, saying, "Liu Zhengfu, a student of Qiu County, Linqingzhou, pay homage to the general!"

Oh? When Zhao Xin saw that his words and behavior were neither humble nor arrogant, he thought it was interesting, but he did not mention the identity of a county magistrate given by the Qing Dynasty, but only said fame. He smiled and said, "Hello, Mr. Liu. I'm invited you here today. I want to ask for some advice. Please sit down."

"I don't know the surname Gao of General?"

"My surname is Wang, and I am currently responsible for logistics affairs." Zhao Xin did not intend to reveal his identity, and he was worried that if he said it, he would scare the other party, so he would not be able to talk later.

"Mr. Liu, I have read the resume you wrote before. Last year, Mr. Yuan Zicai came to Beihai Town as a guest. I had the honor to talk to him a few words, and he also mentioned you, which I appreciated."

Zhao Xin's tone was very plain, but in Liu Daguan's mind, Huang Zhong Dalu sounded, which made his mind buzz. No matter what, he never expected that Yuan Zicai would have an affair with Beihai Town! No wonder this person was called "Tongtian Old Fox" and was hiding so deeply.

Yuan Mei had a good impression of Liu Daguan. When he recommended to Zhao Xin, he also compared Tianbao County, which he had governed, to a paradise: "......... There were three autumns in the year, and there were no offenders in the prison. Every month, one or two papers were collected. The clerks came to listen to the service, and then returned to farm. There were no beggars in the county, advocated the excellence and thieves, and they did not know that there were pilafs (gambling), sea vegetables, silk and satin. They raised 800 gold, and each year's wages, rice, chickens, and pigs were all carried by the elderly and children. Yangges rose everywhere under the moon, and they realized that the scenery of Taoyuan was still in the world."

To be honest, Zhao Xin was very dissatisfied with the people recommended by Yuan Mei. Those who can talk about friendship with this old man are generally good at writing poetry, and their political ability is purely accompaniment. Besides, the so-called "paradise" in this year is nothing more than being in remote location and backward economy, otherwise the people would not even know about gambling or silk.

Seeing the unconscious surprise on the other party's face, Zhao Xin smiled slightly, and then threw out another bomb, which completely shocked Liu Daguan. "There are also Mr. Oubei who went to Beihai Town with Mr. Cangshan. I believe Mr. Liu has heard of it?"

How could Liu Daguan not know about Zhao Yi? He was an official and even a model of life. He was admired by the mountains and acted in the Jingxing. The latter was once in Zhen'an, Guangxi for two years, but it was more than ten years earlier than him. When he first arrived in Tianbao County, Zhen'an Prefecture, the local people still missed Zhao Yi very much.

By the way, Zhao Yi originally planned to wait until the border negotiations between Beihai Town and Li Dynasty were over before leaving, but he would have waited until the beginning of winter before he could go back. If Yuan Mei hadn't gone back in advance and greeted Yangzhou Anding Academy, the academy would have thought something had happened to him.

Afterwards, Zhao Xin asked about Liu Daguan’s appointment in Guangxi. When the latter heard this, he started talking endlessly. During the conversation, Zhao Xin asked about the situation of Nanning Prefecture, Sien Mansion, and Zhen'an Mansion many times. Liu Daguan was only very familiar with Zhen'an Mansion in western Guangxi, and the other mansions picked up what he knew and said.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! As the two talked, it was noon after noon. Liu Daguan was also hungry and his stomach sounded unhappy. Zhao Xin was a little embarrassed and quickly ordered the meal to prepare. The guards outside had been waiting for a long time and hurriedly brought four dishes and one soup. When Liu Daguan saw that the dishes were two meats and two vegetables, the dishes were very ordinary, but there was only one tomato and egg soup.

"General Wang, please forgive Liu for being ignorant. What is this?" Liu Daguan scooped a bite with a spoon and felt that it tasted good.

"Tomatoes, tomatoes." Zhao Xin saw that the other party didn't understand, so he thought about it and said, "Have you heard of them?"

"Oh, I think I've seen it in some book."

The Chinese have not had a long history of eating tomatoes. Although they were introduced and planted since the Tianqi year of the Ming Dynasty, they have always been ornamental plants and were not eaten until the late Qing Dynasty in another time and space. Moreover, the ornamental tomatoes planted in this year are incomparable to the kind of plump people in later generations. The tomatoes eaten in Beihai Town are the seeds brought by Zhao Xin from another time and space; specifically to the troops, they are all homemade canned food.

During the meal, Zhao Xin suddenly remembered something. When Liu Daguan had almost finished eating, he asked curiously: "Mr. Liu, I heard that the candidates in the capital now regard outside the pass as a dangerous road, and no one is willing to come. How dare you come to Kaiyuan to take office?"

Liu Daguan couldn't help but be stunned. He put down his bowls and chopsticks, remained silent for a moment, and sighed: "I'm not afraid of General Wang's jokes. Liu came here to take office, and originally planned to find an opportunity to surrender to King Zhao. Unexpectedly, you opened the original situation like a fierce fire. Before I could find an opportunity to contact you, you were already at the city."

It was Zhao Xin's turn to be stunned. After asking, he understood what was going on.

Didn’t it be said that Liu Daguan went out for a trip during his Dingyou period? It was this trip to Jiangsu and Zhejiang that allowed him to see the cloak of prosperity advocated by the Qing Dynasty, covering up a bloody and tears picture, hiding a crisis that is difficult to save.

Yangzhou was originally a place where wealthy businessmen gathered, but in the face of the critical moment when the Qing Dynasty was about to collapse, salt merchants and officials still regarded luxury as their own, competed for luxury, marriage, funerals, food, clothes, horses and other officials, often spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. They squandered money, managed gardens, kitchens, preached, singing and dancing, and had fun, and were drunk and dreaming. Whether it was officials or clerks, they lost all their integrity and shame, but only profit was the pursuit of money, extorted the people, exploited them layer by layer, and officials and businessmen worked together to collude with each other. It can be said that people's desires were rampant and dirty. What they saw and heard along the way made him fall into a deep thought that could not extricate himself.

After Liu Daguan arrived in Yangzhou, he first went to Anding Academy to visit Zhao Yi and expressed his confusion. Zhao Yi was also very moved when he heard it, and even showed him his poems from over the years. After Liu Da watched it, he realized that the other party was also confused and confused, even worse than himself. However, after a painful reflection, Zhao Yi had already cut off his idea of ​​becoming an official and regarded the article as "a great cause of the country and an immortal event". He moistened his body with literature, supplemented the world with literature, and made a name for himself with literature, and was unwilling to be in fame, wealth and wealth, and go with the flow.

However, Liu Daguan is not Zhao Yi, who is over 60 years old. He was less than forty years at that time, so he could not return to his hometown to retire, right? The "Zuo Zhuan" talks about "three establishments" - establishing morality, making contributions, and making words. His ambitions have not yet been realized!

As a scholar in the feudal era, Liu Daguan was influenced by traditional Confucian thought since childhood. In the choice of life, he could not surpass the requirements of the general ethical principles of self-cultivation, family management, country governance, and world peace. However, what could he do with a lower-level official who was born as a tribute student?

When he learned that Wang Zhong, Liu Taigong, Hong Liangji, Jiang Fan and others had already fled to Beihai Town and defected to Beihai Town, his shock was hard to describe. Because he had been an official in Guangxi for a long time, he didn't know much about Beihai Town. He didn't understand why these people who had made him look up to rebel against the bandits who were called "monsters" by the court.

However, as he learned more and more about Beihai Town from the folk and literary people in Jiangnan, especially in the 50th, 52nd and 56th years of Qianlong, rumors that millions of disaster victims were taken away, and the thoughts also underwent potential changes.

In another time and space history, during the sorrow of Liu Daguan, his father also died, so he did not become an official until the winter of the 59th year of Qianlong's reign. However, in this time and space, because those merchants who went to Anping Port trade introduced the self-produced anti-inflammatory drugs produced by Beihai Town to coastal provinces for private sale, Liu Daguan's father, who suffered from lung infection, finally escaped and recovered completely after several months of care.

So he went to Beijing the winter of the previous year and learned from his fellow villagers who were officials in Beijing that the fastest candidate was the Kaiyuan County Magistrate, so he became interested. The official of the Ministry of Personnel was originally worried. When he saw that someone dared to go, he finished all the procedures he should leave on the next day after the interview.

When "Binwen" - that is, after the imperial court's appointment was released, some familiar friends advised him not to take office outside the customs, but Liu Daguan was very stubborn and it was useless to let others get rid of their mouths. At the farewell banquet before leaving Beijing, several friends sent them to see each other shed tears, thinking that it would be a good fortune for him to leave this time.

Now it seems that if he had known that Yuan Mei and Zhao Yi had a relationship with Beihai Town, what would it take to do? The Beihai Army fired the cannon and washed the city wall, which scared him very much. At that time, he was commanding the city on the North City Wall with a fake command. If he ran slower, he would just explain it.

After listening to Liu Daguan's self-analysis, Zhao Xin couldn't help but look at him with admiration.

You should know that in such an environment that is like the end of the world, it is indeed very rare to be able to be independent, keep a clear mind, and even make a resolute choice. In this person's conversation, there was neither the pretentious words of "Yu Ling Lianshi" Chen Zhongzi, "spoiling it out", nor the noble attitude of Boyi and Shuqi Kunzhong, "not eating Zhou Mi", which was very suitable for Zhao Xin's appetite. However, out of insurance, until Liu Daguan left, Zhao Xin did not say about recruitment, but only said that he would report to the superiors and let him go back and wait for a few days to understand.

Afterwards, Zhao Xin asked his subordinates to send a telegram to Wang Changsheng, and asked the Intelligence Bureau to investigate Liu Daguan through the intelligence stations in Beijing, Yangzhou and Jiangning to see if it was as if it was a background investigation. If there was no problem, let his subordinates talk to him and go to the administrative school in Beihai Town for two months to go to Guangxi. In addition, he had to pick a few of them from the people who took the imperial examination last year to go with him.

After several days, Zhao Xin devoted his main energy to the progress of the battle. Just as the Qing army in Shengjing was cut off from retreat and was about to fall into three sieges, the battle between the Northern Navy at the southernmost end of the Liaodong Peninsula finally began.

At dawn on July 20, the North Navy fleet that drove through Anping Port from Mokuowei used four sailboats and gunboats to launch artillery bombardment on the Qing Dynasty's water village in Lushunkou. In an instant, the sky collapsed and the earth swayed. The dense shells flocked to the docks and the military camps on the shore with a terrifying roar. For a moment, explosions inside and outside the Lushun River Camp were repeatedly, ships and houses were destroyed, and fires were shining on the forts in various parts of the Qing army, and plants and trees were burning.

On the same night, the Northern Navy in Jiaodong dispatched a regiment of troops to cross the Wansui River in the eastern part of Laizhou Prefecture, and approached the Yexian County Town, where Laizhou Prefecture was located. To the south, another regiment crossed the Baisha River on the southern foot of Daze Mountain and took the Pingduzhou City.

Faced with the Northern Navy's full-scale attack on Laizhou Prefecture, Liu Yong, who had been staying in Jinan, finally couldn't sit still. When he sent an emergency report to the capital again, he brought more than 30,000 green camps and group soldiers recruited from all over the eastern and western Shandong to Qingzhou Prefecture.
Chapter completed!