The conversation took place at the home of the village elder here.

When the village elders saw the county magistrate coming in person, they were very nervous and waited carefully.

There were more than thirty people in Liu An's party. There were not enough beds in his hometown, so he hurriedly asked his family to go to a neighbor's house to borrow beds for the officials to sit on.

Liu An stopped the village elder, pulled up a hut and sat down in the courtyard. Liu Bei and all the guards insisted on standing guard. Liu An ignored them and asked the village elder to sit down.

The village elders have arranged for people to invite Youzhihe Youyou here, and there are guards guarding the door. Liu An asked the guards to wait at the door until Youzhihe Youyou arrived.

There are few people in border counties, and most of them are small villages.

In the Han system, there were three elders in each township, namely, the township elder: responsible for the education of a township; the stingy husband: responsible for the administration of a township and collecting taxes; and the wandering elder: responsible for catching thieves and managing public security.

Among them, the position of miser is owned by Daxiang, while in small township it is called ordered and has the same functions as miser.

Liu An chatted with the village elders about the people's livelihood and farming affairs in the village, and learned that the drought in Jiuyuan was not as severe as that in Zhuo County, but because there was no one to lead the construction of water conservancy projects, field irrigation was very inconvenient, and the people lived on food all year round.

A life without enough food can sometimes lead to starvation.

Last year, the barbarians invaded and robbed a lot of food. After the little food they hid was eaten, they could only survive by borrowing food from the powerful people in the city.

However, the borrowed grain must be repaid sooner or later, and it must be paid back twice as much. If you really can't afford it, you can only sell the land to repay it. Once the land is sold, you will turn it into a family property. If the family property is gone, you will have to sell yourself to the powerful.

But without borrowing food, they wouldn't be able to survive even ten days, and they would starve to death.

After chatting with the old man for a while, Liu An saw that the old man’s face was full of sadness, but his nervousness was reduced a lot.

So he asked: "My officer sent people to the countryside to recruit soldiers yesterday and the day before. If the young men in the family apply for the army, they can eat military rations and receive military pay, but very few people apply for the army. I wonder why?"

Are the people so disillusioned with the court that they would rather sell themselves to the powerful than contribute to the court?

Liu An did not say this sentence. If he said it, the villagers would be frightened. It would be disrespectful to admit this sentence. Since it is impossible to admit it, there is no point in Liu An asking.

When the village elder heard Liu An's question, he suddenly became nervous again.

He first glanced at Liu An in fear, and when he saw that Liu An showed no signs of getting angry and questioning, he said unnaturally:

"Perhaps the young people in the village are afraid of the barbarians and are afraid of dying on the battlefield, so they dare not apply for the army? I don't know the reason..."

Liu An felt that the old man was not telling the truth, but he did not want to force him. He said calmly: "In that case, I will use the old man's yard for a while. I have some things I want to ask you about."

"The little man will go wait at the house next door first." Seeing that Liu An did not continue to ask, the village elder hurriedly bowed and left. After walking out of the yard, the village elder nervously wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead.

Then Liu An called You Zhi and You You into the courtyard respectively, and after the same chat, he asked the same questions, and the results were the same, with little difference.

Seeing this, Liu An called the village elder back, said goodbye to the three village elders, and went to the next village.

I visited Sanxiang continuously and the results were almost the same.

During this period, Liu An also found more than 20 ordinary people and asked Liu Bei to inquire about the news alone. Some of them either did not know about the conscription at all, or had no men of suitable age in their families, or the young men in their families did not intend to apply, but most of them did not.

Everyone agrees with everyone.

That is the fear of never being able to borrow food again.

Liu Bei asked them why they could no longer borrow food after joining the army, but they were hesitant and speechless.

Finally, Liu An went to the township that had recruited the most soldiers before, and finally got the answer.

According to local tours, the three elders in those villages depended on the powerful for many years and had a very close relationship with them.

They knew that the powerful people were not at odds with the prefects and county magistrates, so when they saw Liu An coming to recruit troops, they all showed their loyalty and threatened to the villagers that those who dared to apply would never be able to borrow food again, hoping to further their relationship with the powerful people.

This matter was not the intention of the powerful leaders, but their own initiative.

Only then did Liu An understand the reason why the three elders were nervous and fearful when he asked why he couldn't recruit soldiers.

However, there are still three elders who are interested in the imperial court.

Liu An looked at Youyou in front of him and asked, "If you tell me this, aren't you afraid that they will retaliate against you? Aren't you afraid that local powerful people will target you?"

This Youyou was a young man who was less than twenty years old. He looked like he was still young. Hearing Liu An's question, he said angrily:

"I have been determined to serve the country since I was a child, sacrifice my life for the country, and shed blood for the people. I have long been disgusted with what those powerful people have done!"

Having said this, a touch of arrogance flashed across his face, and he continued: "My uncle is the captain of Wuyuan, even they would not dare to be so bold!"

Liu An nodded in sudden realization. He turned out to be a powerful young man who was still in the stage of chuunibyou.

The village elders in this village have a high rank. It is probably because he vented his anger on this person and obeyed his advice, so he did not flatter the local powerful and hinder Liu An from recruiting troops like the other three elders in the village.

However, since this man is the nephew of Captain Cheng Ze, he will be of great help to Liu An's subsequent actions, whether it is convincing the other three elders to stop obstructing him or surrendering to Captain Cheng Ze.

The captain of the border county is an official of the imperial court. He should not be moved lightly without any reason. If he can, he will accept it.

Of course, if you were looking for a reason, Liu An would definitely be able to find it. After all, no powerful person is clean.

It's just that Cheng Ze is both a court official and a local powerful man. He has been operating here for many years. With his help, Liu An will get twice the result with half the effort by recruiting his subordinates.

So Liu An nodded and greatly praised this person's ideological ambitions, which made the weak-headed young man look satisfied.

Finally, Liu An asked again: "You still don't know the name of the righteous man?"

"Back to County Magistrate Liu, I'm Meng Lan, named Yuan Pu," the young man said to Liu An, cupping his fists and cupping his hands.

Liu An had just seen this person's attribute panel and knew that his force value was 51 points, so he naturally developed a love for talents.

He tried to recruit: "I want to rectify the local powerful people, and I need the help of a righteous man like Meng Youjiu. I wonder if Youjiu is willing to join me in the great cause?"

"It's my wish, but I don't dare to ask my ears!" Meng Lan clasped her fists again and said happily.

Liu An was overjoyed, stepped forward to hold Meng Lan's hands, and said excitedly: "With Yuan Pu's help, I will be like a tiger with wings!"

Seeing that Meng Lan's affinity turned into loyalty, Liu An immediately used the Death Card on Meng Lan.

After that, Liu An called Liu Bei and others, entered the living room of Meng Lan's house, closed the door, and secretly discussed how to persuade the three elders from other villages.

At first, Liu Bei was a little wary of Meng Lan, who had recently joined Liu An. After Liu An explained that Meng Lan was trustworthy, Liu Bei felt confident and made suggestions.

"To be prepared, it is better to recruit people under the pretense of building a manor. The three elders dare not help my uncle. The only thing they worry about is that his uncle is hostile to the powerful. As an official of the imperial court, he will definitely leave if he is promoted in the future, even if it is temporarily

Suppress the powerful ones, and they will retaliate against the three elders after leaving. If the powerful ones cannot be suppressed, the result will be the same."

Liu An nodded, feeling that what Liu Bei said was very reasonable, and motioned for him to continue.

"If you recruit Xiangyong in the name of building a manor, and then ask Yuan Pu to come forward and say that Cheng Duwei also agrees with his uncle to build the manor, and has a close relationship with his uncle, Yuan Pu is Cheng Duwei's nephew, and if he comes forward to say something, it will definitely be possible

Let the three elders be convinced!"

Liu An looked at Meng Lan again and asked, "What do Yuan Pu think?"

Meng Lan solemnly replied: "Lan should do her best!"

"Besides..." Liu Bei continued: "You can also encourage the three elders with money and let them voluntarily persuade the young and strong to participate in the recruitment."

When Liu An heard what Liu Bei said, he already guessed what Liu Bei was going to say, but he still said: "Tell me more specifically."

"You can order the three elders to persuade the young men and women in their respective villages to apply for the army, and reward them with ten coins for each person they bring to apply. In this way, after they have dispelled their concerns, they will actively lobby the young men and women in their villages to apply for the army."

Seeing that what Liu Bei said was indeed what he thought, Liu Andao said:

"Okay, let's do it! Xuande, after lunch you arrange for the escort team to invite all the village elders in Jiuyuan County here. We will solve this matter today!"

"No!" Liu Bei responded.

At noon, Meng Lan hosted Liu An and his party for lunch. After the meal, all the escorts dispersed to various villages on horseback, and invited all the three elders to come to Meng Lan's home to discuss matters in Liu An's name.

It was not until evening that all the village elders in Jiuyuan County arrived at Meng Lan's house.

Liu An was sitting in the living room, while Liu Bei took Liu An's place and told the village veterans that the county magistrate wanted to build a manor and wanted to recruit village braves.

It was also said that during the construction of the manor, all the villagers were provided with enough food, so there was no need to prepare their own meals.

Then, Meng Lan came forward and said that her uncle ordered her to work with County Magistrate Liu, and at the same time told Cheng Ze that Liu An had recruited Xiang Yong to build the manor.

Now many village elders could not sit still.

They originally wanted to thwart the county magistrate to curry favor with the powerful, but now that the powerful and powerful are wearing the same pants as the county magistrate, then they and others will not only have a warm face but a cold butt, they will also have to worry about the county magistrate punishing them.

Liu An saw the three elders with different looks in the hall, but did not make any move.

However, some of the three elders, who originally disliked powerful people and wanted to be the county magistrate, but had no choice but to follow the general trend, now looked worried.

This county magistrate has also colluded with powerful people, and the lives of ordinary people will probably be even worse in the future.

The previous county magistrate was determined not to succumb to the powerful. The people's life had just passed a little bit, and now they are back to the starting point.

well!

They are just three little old men who cannot decide the fate of the people and can only swallow their helplessness.

Liu An noticed several people with different looks in the hall, secretly remembered them in his heart, and whispered to Zhang Fei who was nearby, asking him to investigate the details of those people.

Then, Liu Bei told the elders of each township who had good rank and were able to persuade the young men in their respective villages to apply for the army. Every time a young man successfully applied for the army, he would be rewarded with ten coins.

The three elders in the hall were immediately overjoyed when they saw that the county magistrate did not investigate their faults and distributed benefits.

It was only then that Liu An stood up and said: "That's what happened. I believe you all know that tomorrow the Japanese official will send people to each township to recruit local braves. I look forward to your performance. Don't let me down!"

"

After saying that, Liu An walked out of the living room first, followed by Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, Lu Bu and all the guards.

When he came outside the yard, Liu An took his horse. When Meng Lan came out, he told him:
To be continued...