A group of gentry in Lujiang Prefecture had already been waiting outside the city gate. After seeing off batches of occupiers, they welcomed a group of new occupiers. However, this group of occupiers seemed different from the first two batches. His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire, the Northwest King with great military achievements, and the vanguard of external expansion. This series of names made the merchants and gentry feel that perhaps the continuous wars during this period were probably coming to an end. Although starting from the Taiping Rebellion Army and experiencing the rule of the Lin family, even the Lang family took over for a short time, and the three families did not make much changes and adjustments in their policies, the frequent wars still brought a lot of harm to Lujiang.

The trade routes are open and interrupted, the damage to the city by siege wars, and the interruption of water transportation have inevitably affected the normal life of the people and gentry in Lujiang. Now that the new owner is here, the neighboring Bashan has changed hands first. What changes will the new owner bring to Lujiang are what everyone urgently needs to know.

The officials in charge of receiving the Northwest did not adopt a unified policy of taking over. Almost all ordinary officials retained their original work. Except for the officials sent by the Northwest, everything else seemed to have not changed. The officials appointed by the Lang family disappeared when the Lin family took over the management of Lujiang, and the officials of the Lin family also gave way with the withdrawal of the Lin family army. All these changes did not seem to have brought much chaos and inconvenience to the situation in the Lujiang Prefecture City. It can be seen that the gentry in Lujiang City is already unsurprising of this situation of changing the king's flag on the city.

However, there are many people who are eagerly looking forward to the new master. During the period when the Taiping Army entered Lujiang, the exile of many noble landlords left a lot of things to exploit for the Taiping Army's plunder and auction. The Taiping Army confiscated these things for auction without exception. Some people who have certain special relationships with the Taiping Army are naturally beneficiaries in this regard. However, with the end of the Taiping Army's rule in Guanxi, the Lin Lang family took over one after another, and the forces attached to these two families also appeared one after another. The continuous changes in strength in Lujiang City also caused many changes in the economic interest structure of all forces in Lujiang City. Taking advantage of the new master's entry, everyone hopes to take this opportunity to make a break.

For a time, undercurrents were surging in Lujiang City, and all forces were trying their best to use their relationship to win the favor of the new owner, hoping to get a share of the subsequent profit distribution war.

The Lin family army in Hanzhong obviously accepted the reality that it could not control Hanzhong City anymore. The huge losses caused by continuous fierce fighting have made them the last. They were completely resistant to the crazy attack of the Lang family army with a sense of inertia. The commander's own opinion, if the Imperial Army was slowing down for another two days, I was afraid that the Hanzhong City had changed hands. The arrival of the imperial army solved their upside down and handing over the defense of Hanzhong City to Situ Jun was the result they could accept, at least far better than handing it over to the Lang family or the Northwest Army. After all, the Lin family had a deep exchange of opinions with Situ Jun. Even without this reason, the control of the Imperial Army was stronger than another evil neighbor who looked at Hanzhong - Li Wufeng in the Northwest.

Therefore, when the Lang family army began to evacuate the outside of Hanzhong Prefecture City, the Lin family also sent envoys to discuss the ownership of Hanzhong and the remnants of the Lin family's remaining troops in Hanzhong City. Everything was carried out in a peaceful and friendly atmosphere. The northwest representative agreed to the Lin family army to return to Sanjiang through the Lujiang River, and the representatives of Situ Jun also promised to temporarily control and manage the six towns in the northwest of Hanzhong Prefecture in accordance with the original proposal, but the northwest will not garrison in these six towns. The control of Hanzhong Prefecture City and the remaining twelve towns were handed over to the new Hanzhong City Guard issued by Situ Jun, appointed by the Imperial Administration. Both sides also agreed to temporarily wait for the position of the county magistrate of Guanxi County, and wait until the situation in Guanxi is stable, and then discuss with the six towns of Hanzhong Prefecture City.

In short, everything passed in this slightly calm mid-October. Whether it was Bashan and Lujiang taking over from the northwest or Hanzhong's change of flags, everything seemed so calm, as calm as everything was originally it was. But there was a faint undercurrent in the calm, and many people were looking forward to a change that broke the dull situation. Of course, this does not mean that all this was intact. The economic policies of Bashan and Lujiang changed as those merchants wished, the unity of tariffs, the adjustment of commodity taxes, and the

The renovation of the road to Lujiang has given merchants a new hope, but it is not as wonderful as imagined. First of all, there is no discount on the northwest in terms of tax rates. Although the tariffs are unified, this only refers to the unification of tariffs with the northwest region. The goods in Kansai are exported to the mainland of the empire rather than to the northwest. There is actually not much change. The reduction in commodity tax once made merchants ecstatic, but it still seems much higher than the northwest. These disappointed all forces in Lujiang.

The road between Bashan and Lujiang was undergoing large-scale repairs, not only for the purpose of developing commerce and transportation, but more importantly from a strategic perspective. Without Hanzhong, between the Lin family, the Empire and the Baling Mansion controlled by the Maqi Khans, the geographical location of Lujiang seemed too remote and far away. This is precisely its crucial point. This is a tentacle, a tentacle that stretches to the south of the empire. It can clearly feel the pulse of this large granary in the south of the empire, and it can also touch the body of the Lin family, one of the three major vassals. It can even pull the bow and arrow to make the Maqi Khans feel the chill from the northwest. In short, its position is too important.

Wufeng naturally knew the importance of the Lujiang location, so he did not accept the suggestion that some people below should immediately reorganize in Lujiang. First, the foothold in Lujiang was not stable, and second, the situation within Lujiang was indeed complicated. Whether it was the Taiping Cult or the Lin family, there were a large number of remnants of forces in Lujiang. Military occupation could not remove all the intricate hidden forces. Wufeng was very clear about this. Even during the short period of time when the Lang family occupied Lujiang, their intelligence forces began to infiltrate into Lujiang, combining with the forces in the dark that had already existed to maintain the existence of the Lang family here. Of course, these intelligences were mainly provided by the intelligence department for Wufeng.

The Maqi Khans, like the empire, have never forgotten this place. Since the Maqi Khans occupied Baling, the number of Maqi Khans infiltrated into Lujiang from Baling has increased. Although there are many of them that are normal business travel activities, there are also a large number of spies hidden. They use various professions as cover in Lujiang to continuously develop and consolidate their existence here. Even during the control of the Lin family, the Lin family's anti-espionage forces failed to eliminate these Maqi Khans. What's more, many merchants have seen Maqi.

The Khans' powerful strength believed that the Maqi Khans might be the future masters of Lujiang, so they spared no effort to get the Maqi Khans together. These all allowed the Maqi Khans to greatly protect the hidden power of the Maqi Khans in Lujiang. The empire retained considerable strength in Lujiang. This was originally a fairy and authentic empire with a good foundation was still a symbol of orthodoxy in the eyes of local gentry. It was difficult for both the Lin family and the Lang family to win their full recognition, let alone the Taiping scholars and the Maqi Khans.

Perhaps his intervention would break this subtle situation, but Wufeng did not intend to do so immediately. He would take some time to understand the details of Lujiang, and to perform a thunderous plow-like sweep to completely eliminate these complex forces. But to achieve this goal, the power he has mastered is obviously insufficient. He needs to set up a force in Lujiang that is well-known and well-informed to help him. Unfortunately, the power of the Bashan Gu family is still weak in Lujiang. It seems that he needs to find another helper who can serve him.

There are many candidates, and there are no shortage of forces to express their loyalty to the Northwest King. Everyone knows that it is not others who can call the wind and rain in Guanxi now. Situ Jun is just an open person. He is the real person in charge of the power of the six palaces in Guanxi.

"Sir, it's better to make a decision early, especially in Lujiang. This situation seems not clear now. I'm worried that it will be difficult to completely integrate Lujiang into our northwest by relying on the army alone." Seeing that his boss seemed a little absent-minded, and seemed to be undecided. The intelligence director Gu Quan, who had been waiting for the instructions, couldn't help but suggest, "I have already set several goals and discussed with Lord Diao. I hope that Lord can determine one or two of them, and use their power to integrate Lujiang quickly and wipe out those rebellious forces."

After not saying anything for a long time, Wufeng gently placed a letter presented to him on the table, just playing with the Xuanyu paperweight in his hand. Anyone who is familiar with Wufeng knows that this is the Jiedushi thinking about the problem, and Gu Quan is no exception. He can only wait patiently for his boss's decision.
Chapter completed!