Chapter 108

Two days later, Pang Jun led a group of officials from Songzhou to the Wuliting outside Songzhou City to welcome the imperial envoys. Here, Pang Jun finally saw Guo Chonghou's appearance. He said to Guo Chonghou: "I am Liu Jun, your humble servant, and I greet the imperial envoy."

　　Guo Chonghou nodded and began to read the imperial edict as an imperial envoy. The gist of the edict was almost the same as the one decided by Yang Shao in the court. That is, although Pang Jun had made merit in suppressing the Zu family this time, it did not comply with the court laws and regulations. He was punished to serve for one year, and Guo Chonghou would investigate the situation and decide on subsequent rewards and punishments.

　　After receiving the imperial edict, Pang Jun stepped forward and asked, "Master Guo must be tired after the long journey. Why don't you go to the inn to rest first? I will host a banquet for you in the evening. As for the investigation, we will start tomorrow. What do you think?"

　　Guo Chonghou waved his hand and said, "Don't bother Sir Liu with the expense. I am under the Emperor's order and dare not neglect it. Sir Liu, please send all the files about the Zu family's rebellion to the post station. I want to check it myself."

　　Pang Jun said, "Lord Guo is loyal to his country, and Liu Jun admires him. How about this, Lord Guo, send one of your subordinates to supervise, and I will immediately send someone to go to the government office with Lord Guo's subordinates to obtain the files. As for dinner, how about this, Lord Guo, I will pay for it myself and invite the best chef in the city to go to the post station to cook a good meal for Lord Guo and everyone else. Otherwise, I will feel really bad, and I can't let everyone think that I, Liu Jun, am a stingy person, right? Haha."

　　"Hahahaha, okay, let's do it this way. I would like to thank Lord Liu in advance."

　　Pang Jun called over a subordinate and ordered, "Come here, go to Xiejia Lane and invite Chef Fan to the post station to cook a good meal for everyone. Don't worry about the money, I will pay for it. Then you accompany Lord Guo's subordinates to get the files. Also, during this period, no matter what Lord Guo asks, try your best to cooperate and don't make any mistakes."

　　"Okay, I understand." The subordinate was a subordinate of the Exiled Immortal Sect who was sent by Song Hao to Pang Jun. After receiving the order, he saluted to the subordinate sent by Guo Chonghou and said, "Sir, please." Then the two of them left the convoy and rushed back to Songzhou City first.

　　The rest of the people also started their journey to Songzhou. Along the way, Pang Jun introduced to Guo Chonghou the Songzhou officials of all ranks who accompanied him to welcome the imperial envoy, as well as the current situation in Songzhou. While listening, Guo Chonghou compared what Pang Jun introduced with what he saw during his incognito visit the day before, and found that there was no discrepancy. He was quite satisfied with Pang Jun's impression of him and his cooperative attitude. They did not part until they arrived at the posthouse, where Pang Jun had to go back to work.

　　As for the matters concerning the Zu family, whether in the files or in the eyes of the public, Pang Jun's actions were all reasonable and logical. He killed the Zu father and son in public because they were disrespectful to their superiors and offended them. As for the Zu family rebellion, Fei Qingyu was just a fuse. The core was still that the Zu family was dissatisfied with Pang Jun's actions and their own arrogance and domineering, so they took the lead in taking action, which led to Pang Jun's strong suppression. Although the means were excessive, they were reasonable, so Pang Jun was not afraid that Guo Chonghou would find out anything unfavorable to him.

　　Obviously, Guo Chonghou also knew this. Since Pang Jun cooperated with his work so generously, he also knew that nothing would be found by checking according to the script. Everything was just routine. He refused to attend the banquet just because he was cautious. What's more, the biggest purpose of his visit this time was to examine whether Pang Jun was capable of stabilizing Songzhou. Now it seems that Pang Jun really has no problem. He stabilized the originally chaotic Songzhou in just three months. If he reports truthfully, I believe the emperor will be even happier.

　　After leaving Guo Chonghou, Pang Jun returned to the governor's mansion and started his new job. Due to the establishment of the trading field, more and more people came to Songzhou. Many businessmen who were originally active in Yanzhou also came to Songzhou to see the trading field here. The increase in people also meant an increase in the labor force. Some of these laborers worked as porters. They usually waited near the trading field, waiting to be hired by sellers or buyers to move some goods and earn some money to support their families.

　　However, there were still quite a few surplus porters here, which led to a continuous decline in the price of their labor in order to compete, resulting in vicious competition. So Pang Jun came up with an idea: he sent people to mark out pieces of wasteland in the wild. These lands were called "guanzhuang". He hired these surplus laborers at a reasonable price and asked them to go to the official villages to farm. The hiring fee was just about the same as the price of the porters. Most of these porters had plowed the land before, and the black soil in Songzhou was fertile enough. Soon, the crops here grew one by one.

　　This is different from military farming. After the harvest, the civilians in the military farming would hand over a portion of the crops as tax, and the rest would be their own. However, it was different from the official farming. The harvest from the official farming had to be handed over to the Songzhou government, and as a reward, the employees would be given a sum of money every month. At the time of harvest, they would be given a little grain as an additional reward based on the quality and quantity of the grain.

　　The advantage of this for the employed farmers is that they can get a stable income regardless of drought or flood, and they will get a sum of money no matter what. As for the extra reward of grain, it depends on the weather. The corresponding disadvantage is that these farmers will not get much grain, and if they need food, they can just use money to buy it.

　　Of course, if the employees do not do their farm work well and the crops fail, that is, if the crops are not failed due to natural disasters or war, not only will their wages be reduced by 30%, but they will also be flogged 30 times and will never be hired again. However, even so, many people flock to them. After all, having a stable salary every month is much better than slowly dying in vicious competition in the trading market.

　　Doing so will allow Songzhou to quickly accumulate a large amount of grain. Coupled with the hundreds of stones of Jiangnan rice secretly smuggled in from the Jiangnan Province, this will allow a huge amount of grain to be accumulated here.

　　In addition to the incident in Guanzhuang, there was another matter that caught Pang Jun's attention. According to the news from Lu Tao, there were rumors in the martial arts world that a tomb robber found a large tomb of the previous dynasty a few months ago. In addition to taking out several jade antiques, he also took out a batch of books. Later, after identification, those books were found to be martial arts scriptures of some sects. The tomb robber was so scared when he found out that he took the scriptures and disappeared until a few days ago, when someone saw him near Yanzhou and Songzhou. Now all the major sects in the martial arts world attach great importance to this matter and have sent people to Liaodong to compete for these martial arts books.

　　Thinking of this, Pang Jun couldn't help but have a headache. Since ancient times, heroes have used force to break the law. The gathering of a large number of martial artists means that the current stable environment will be disrupted and become chaotic. The main purpose of the imperial envoy's visit this time, in addition to investigating the Zu family's affairs, is to investigate whether Songzhou can be stable. If this group of martial artists cause any major trouble, it will be a big trouble.

　　However, although this is a test, it seems to be an opportunity for Pang Jun. He needs to calm down and make detailed plans so that the power of this group of martial artists in this martial arts gathering can be transformed into the sword in his hand to gain more benefits.

　　Therefore, he immediately sent a message to Lu Tao, asking Lu Tao to mobilize as many people as possible in the sect to go to Songzhou, make preparations in advance, and be prepared to deal with this group of martial artists and find the so-called tomb robber.

　　In the evening, the servants came to report that Pan Tong and Yue Siwan, with a man and a woman, were chatting in the side hall. Pang Jun was curious: Pan Tong should have no relatives in Songzhou, so why would there be guests? After a little thought, he immediately understood that they must be here for the batch of martial arts secrets, and the visitors should be disciples of the Taishan School of the Five Mountains Sword Sect.

　　At this time, in the side hall, Pan Tong was chatting with a man and a woman. The man was about forty years old, with a sturdy build and a mighty look. He was wearing a dark black brocade robe and a sword on his waist. The woman was a middle-aged beauty, wearing a black and red four-panel dress. She had a slender figure and charming charm. Although she was not as charming as Pan Tong who was trained by Pang Jun, she was also a pretty woman.

　　The couple, the man is called Jin Tuo and the woman is Zhou Yunru. They are a couple from the Taishan Sect and are also Pan Tong's senior brothers and sisters. Zhou Yunru said, "Junior sister Pan, after you married Uncle Yue Tai and his family, it has been more than ten or twenty years. If it weren't for the people from Songshan who came to ask about it a few days ago, we wouldn't have known that something happened to the Yue family. I didn't expect to meet you again in Songzhou. What happened? Why are you living in the governor's mansion in Songzhou? Also, why did the people from Songshan come to the mountain gate and ask for you by name?"

　　"Alas," Pan Tong sighed and said, "It's a long story. Back then, Master Yue was harmed by a villain, and Yue Lun focused on managing the family property and did not compete with the world. As a result, the Yue family's status in the world plummeted. Wan'er was also bullied in Songshan because of this. In a fit of anger, she left Songshan and returned to Jiangnan. Who knew that Yu Lingfeng from Songshan would bring his disciples to the door and try to take Wan'er away. In the end, Yue Lun was so angry that he suffered a heart attack and was so angry that he... just..." As she spoke, Pan Tong shed tears.

　　Zhou Yunru was filled with righteous indignation after hearing this: "How could such a thing happen? This Songshan disciple is too bullying. Is he bullying me because there is no one in Taishan Sect?"

　　Pan Tong wiped her tears and continued, "When Yu Lingfeng and his men saw that something had happened, they panicked and left in a hurry. Since then, I have never seen them again. Perhaps that is why the people from Songshan came to the mountain gate to inquire about my whereabouts."

　　"Then, now you..."

　　"At that time, I was already disheartened. Wan'er and I were both women and didn't know how to run a family business, so we planned to sell our property, leave Zhejiang, and go to a place where no one knew us and start a new life. As a result, I met my current husband."

　　"Could it be, could it be that the governor of Songzhou is, is your husband?" Zhou Yunru was extremely surprised. She didn't expect that this little junior sister would be favored by a local official.

　　"Yes," Pan Tong nodded and said, "He is a very good and considerate man. At that time, I was already at a loss, exhausted and close to collapse. He pulled me out of the sea of ​​suffering. Moreover, he did not despise me and Wan'er, our broken bodies. He accepted us and cherished us."

　　"Ah? Oh my God!" At this moment, Jin Tuo and Zhou Yunru's faces changed. "You, you and Wan'er? You and Wan'er, mother and daughter, have all become the same person's women? Oh my God, you and your daughter are sharing the same husband? This..."

　　Pan Tong nodded shyly: "Yes, he, he took great care of me and Wan'er. Wan'er and I were willing to follow him and serve him."

　　Jin Tuo and Zhou Yunru were silent at this time. They lived in the underworld and had heard of the saying that there would be mother-daughter and sister relationships in the homes of high-ranking officials. They didn't expect that their own junior sister would become a concubine of a high-ranking official and share a husband with their daughter. Looking at Pan Tong's happy little woman appearance,

　　They couldn't say anything against it. As for the world's opinion? Is that something that the nobles care about? Looking at Pan Tong's elegant and noble lady's dress, and comparing it to their own travels, they couldn't say anything.

　　At this time, Pang Jun walked in from outside. Jin Tuo and his wife were very puzzled when they saw this young man who suddenly broke in. They thought he was a junior of the governor. However, when they saw Pan Tong, who was sitting on the side, stood up, walked up to him, and called him "husband" sweetly, their jaws almost dropped in shock...