Huang Cheng stood in front of the gate of the Marshal's Mansion. The cold wind that penetrated the valley crossed the city wall and hit his collar. Even though he was wrapped in a short coat whose original color could not be seen clearly, the stand-collar autumn shirt was still not enough to keep out the cold.
His eyes looked at the two stone lions in front of the Marshal's Mansion, then at the clean granite steps, and finally he looked down at the thick cloth shoes with the big toes pierced.
The rag shoes with pulpy soles were already stained with mud.
The mail warrior standing at the door urged him. Huang Cheng was worried, took off his cloth shoes and placed them under the lion pedestal at the door, and stepped onto the stone steps with bare feet.
Tianbao looked at the farmer from the east and did not tell him that according to the law, no one could put anything down in front of the handsome man's house.
He knew that the generalissimo would give the farmer a pair of shoes, perhaps cowhide boots, or perhaps more than just a pair of boots.
Sure enough, not long after the farmer entered the front hall, a guard walked out of the front hall and took back a pair of cotton-padded clothes and leather boots.
Tianbao smiled, tightened the wide belt around the waist of the earth-colored arrow-sleeved long coat with both hands, pressed the handle of the knife with his left hand, and put his right hand into the arms of the long coat to keep warm.
Liu Chengzong and Liu Chengzu, who had returned to Juerwan with him, were sitting in the hall. Looking at the farmer named Huang Cheng, he raised his hand and said, "Change on, sit down and talk."
When he returned from Xining this time, he brought back three people, the most important of whom was Huang Cheng, because according to his father, the people who came from Nianbo to ask for food all followed Huang Cheng.
Huang Cheng is a poor man, but also a very courageous man. He is neither humble nor arrogant, but he dares to move.
Dare to move, which is already very courageous. In a place like the Marshal's Mansion, even a Xining chieftain might not dare to move.
Huang Cheng was given clothes and boots and put them on. In the blink of an eye, he stripped himself naked in the hall, put on a brand new khaki jacket and trousers with a cross-collar and right hem, and black cotton trousers with a belt, and tied up the belt. He put on his cowhide boots, put on his long coat with arrow sleeves, and then sat down after saluting.
Looking at his movements, Liu Chengzong nodded secretly in his heart. His movements were very skillful and he had indeed served as a soldier.
Liu Chengzong was willing to meet Huang Cheng, not because of his poverty or his ability to convince the public, but mainly because this man's resume aroused Liu Shishi's curiosity.
He discovered that he had a constitution that attracted unlucky people.
He asked: "You are a horse household, and your family has land, but it was lost to horses?"
Huang Cheng shook his head and told the truth: "It's not all because of Ma's troubles. The main reason is that I was busy with the funeral and sold the family land."
Liu Chengzong nodded slowly. Being a mahu in the Ming Dynasty meant that he had suffered eight lifetimes of bad luck. However, this was nothing to Huang Cheng. He did not rebel.
Liu Shishi asked again: "After selling the land, you became a postman?"
"Yes, at that time the horse of Datong Horse Station died and there was a shortage of horses." Huang Cheng nodded and said, "I brought the last horse at home to the station and went in."
Liu Chengzong glanced at his father's letter on the table with an expressionless expression, and then asked: "After working as a postman for four years, you were dismissed by the court and you became a soldier?"
"No, I was idle at home for half a year, and then I worked as a part-time laborer for three months at my neighbor Li Shan's house. His family was my old employer. They planted more than 200 acres of alfalfa. I needed help in preparing hay. I used to be in Dada. Whenever there is time, I always go over to help.”
After Huang Cheng finished speaking, Liu Chengzong asked: "I will help you for three months, how much is the salary?"
"I get hungry easily, so Li Shanren takes care of me three meals a day." Huang Cheng smiled happily: "What more wages do I need... Later, Gaodianzi recruited soldiers, so I borrowed two taels of silver from Dashan Ren and became a soldier."
"Um?"
Liu Chengzong frowned, checked the letter again, and asked: "But you are a deserter from Zhenhai Camp, and Gaodianzi is crushing Bo."
"yes."
Huang Cheng nodded, glanced at Liu Chengzong with a strange expression, and said: "It was good at Gaodianzi at first, but then I was transferred to Zhenhai Camp. I ran away when it was too far from home."
In fact, he was transferred from Gaodianzi to Zhenhaiying because Liu Chengzong led his army into the Hehuang Valley, and Huang Cheng was able to desert and return home as if nothing was wrong. It was also because Xining City was controlled by Liu Chengzong, cutting off the connection between the east and the west, and Zhenhaiying did not pursue the deserters. thing.
"Then what happened next? Why didn't I drop grass when I got back?"
Huang Cheng was sitting not far from Liu Chengzong, and his tone and expression had always been upright. But when it came to this question, he hesitated and his tone became a little more bitter: "No horse."
He shook his head: "Others can get by, but I can't. I'm stupid."
In fact, Huang Cheng was only one step away from falling into trouble. He already had a plan in mind.
Those forts and fences cannot be robbed, so he has to start small. He first robs two horses, and then calls on deserters from the same area to rob the road. He robs a merchant who goes to Juerwan, the marshal's mansion, to buy goods. If he has money, he will have food. With food, there are people, and with people, we can become bigger and stronger.
So he squatted in the haystack of Mahu's house in the neighboring village for three days with a guillotine in his pocket, just to steal a horse.
This can only be done at night. There are always people in the village during the day. If someone finds you, it will be difficult to run away. Even if you are shot with an arrow or slashed, it will be very troublesome.
But for three days, the old man had his feet on the ground during the day and stayed awake on the bed in the house at night. He slept in the stable all day long.
When the horse was hungry, he would wake up the old man with his big head, and the old man would kick his rag shoes with exposed toes, hunched over and talking to himself to eat the horse grass.
Huang Cheng listened to himself for three days. Unless the horse could understand human speech, he might know more about the old man than anyone else in the world.
The old man is not old, but his mother-in-law died in childbirth when she gave birth to her second child. When Du Miaomiao was six years old, she contracted smallpox and died. She never took care of herself. The house was a mess and everyone was in a mess. She got old very quickly and looked like an old man. , actually just in his early forties.
Since the year when his mother-in-law passed away, no one has made clothes or shoes for him anymore, so he never wears shoes when going to the field. The shoes are only used to keep his feet warm while sleeping at home.
The old man treated his horse better than his own son, just like when his father was alive, but the horse his father raised like this day and night was given to the inn to be used as a postman.
Until the early morning of the fourth day, when the old man went out during the Qingming Festival, Huang Cheng did not steal the horse.
He tidied up the house, brought two large jars of water from the well, used mud to seal the holes in the window paper, used a guillotine to pile up the old man's hay, and worked until dusk. Only when he walked to the door did he find the old man. Lock the door tightly.
Huang Cheng was tired and hungry from working, and he was blocked by the door. He thought that there was nothing in this broken house, and the old rat had to wipe his tears when he came in. Why the hell could he lock the door?
Then his eyes saw the big head of the horse in the stable, and there were two big mouths on it, which slapped the horse: I have been waited on for several years, and I have never been wronged like this!
The horse was barking and grinning. Just by looking at his yellow expression, you could tell he was scolding him.
But when he heard the horse scolding, Huang Cheng felt comfortable. He sighed, threw the cavalry boots and the mandarin duck jacket that he wore in the same color that Gaodianziying had given him on the old man's bed, and kicked on the pair of bare-chested boots. The rag shoes on the toes climbed over the wall and ran away while the horse was cursing.
He didn't even have time to rest when he returned home. Li Dashan, who heard that he had returned home, rushed to collect the debt. When he saw what he was wearing, he looked so poor that he was almost wearing trousers. He also had a guillotine in his hand, so he said forget it. Now, come to my house and work to pay off your debts. I don’t care about your food. It’s not like you seek wealth and kill yourself just for the sake of two people.
Huang Cheng thought about it all night. If you say he was unlucky, he met all good people; but if he was lucky, he was really not very good at reincarnation.
Good is not good enough; bad is not bad enough.
Huang Cheng felt that the problem still lay with himself. He didn't seize the opportunity to serve as a soldier in Zhenhai Camp. Even Luocao didn't have the heart to grab the old man, and he didn't have the ability to grab the fort's perimeter.
And he was so poor that he was not worthy of being robbed.
If his luck were worse and a wealthy businessman or dignitary tried to bully him, he might get angry and commit crimes.
No matter how bad it is, even if he can't bully others, he can still knock the sleeping old man unconscious in the stable with one punch. At this moment, he will be a big thief on a big horse.
Unfortunately, life has been frozen.
Huang Cheng was still young and worked at Li Shanren's house for a few more months, until Marshal Liu went to war in Huangnan and the imperial court sent troops to the mouth of the river. The price of food in the Hehuang Valley rose faster than when he ran away from the old man's house.
Li Shanren can no longer afford to support him.
Huang Cheng also knows that when food prices were low, he relied on others to support him. It was difficult for him to repay this kindness. Now that food prices have risen so high, if he eats three months of food from others, he can still afford to buy a barrage. He could not afford to pay back his life.
Li Shanren tried many times to persuade him to stay, but he didn't. Knowing that he was going to make a living elsewhere, he gave him two taels of silver and a few kilograms of dry food as payment, and then let him leave home.
Huang Cheng smiled and said: "Before leaving, Li Shanren also said that this will be difficult. It's okay to go out and have a try. If you can't make it, go back. There is food at home, so the commander-in-chief doesn't need to give me rations. I'm just using it as an excuse for others." I can think of another way.”
Liu Chengzong nodded slowly and said with a smile: "This Li Shanren is really nice to you."
"Yes." Huang Cheng nodded and said, "Everyone in the country knows his good reputation. He is a child born and knowledgeable. He always says he is afraid that he will leave me alone, and I will blame him if he goes down."
When Liu Chengzong smiled, the hidden nervousness in Huang Cheng's heart dissipated, and he said imitatingly: "My boss, I have worked hard for you for half my life, why don't you care about the life or death of my Chengba?"
However, his words did not make Liu Chengzong laugh. On the contrary, the smile on Liu Chengzong's face gradually faded: "In your place, wealthy landlords and bosses all help the people like this. Are they not being unkind for the sake of wealth?"
"Well, there are good people everywhere, and there are bad people everywhere, but I have never seen them." Huang Cheng shook his head and said, "People are all in the Baozi enclosure, and they don't even want to bully me."
Liu Chengzong didn't have any special reaction to this sentence. He was just estimating the difficulty of sending troops eastward. When he learned all the news he wanted to know from Huang Cheng, he had Huang Cheng taken to the Fuzhong Porridge House for dinner.
Liu Chengzu shook his head and said: "If the situation is like this, it will be difficult to handle."
Liu Chengzong smiled and said: "Brother, what is the difficulty?"
"It's not easy to handle anything." Liu Chengzu was puzzled by his brother's ease: "I heard from him that there are not many landlords in the east, so robbing the rich and giving to the poor will hurt good people by mistake..."
Before Liu Chengzu could finish speaking, Liu Chengzong waved his hand and interrupted: "Brother, we are not rogue bandits who moved to fight in northern Shaanxi. This is not robbing the rich and giving to the poor."
Liu Chengzu said nothing and motioned for him to continue.
"First of all, can we solve our food ration problem by robbing all the landowners in Hehuang?"
Ancestor Liu Cheng was confused, then thought carefully, and finally said: "It can always last us until next autumn harvest."
Regarding this answer, Liu Chengzong was noncommittal and just continued to ask: "Then what if we still need to distribute food to the people? If we distribute it to the people, how can we ensure that the autumn harvest will be enough to last until the next autumn? The problem in Hehuang is not that we have no food. .”
He spread his hands and said: "The weather has been good this year. The imperial court has closed the country, but grain from outside cannot come in. The grain production in Hehuang has not changed. The problem lies with us."
Chen Shiwen once said that there are 500,000 Han, Ban and Mongolian people in Hehuang. This year, the grain production here has not changed much, but has increased by 80,000. Food from the outside cannot come in. The Marshal's Mansion has bought up all the food on the market in order to avoid starvation. Food, so that people in the east are starving.
For this reason, Liu Chengzong said: "Even if we rob all the landowners, there will still be a ration crisis next year. Who will be robbed then? Is it possible that if you have more than 500 acres of land this year, you will be considered a landlord, and next year if you have more than 200 acres of land, you will be considered a landlord?"
As he spoke, Liu Chengzong even laughed and said a word that seemed to have nothing to do with this matter: "power."
To be honest, Liu Chengzu felt a little unable to keep up with his train of thought: "Huh?"
"I mean, the purpose of this battle is power. Inciting Huang Cheng and other people to rebel and rob big businesses is just a means. My purpose is power."
Liu Chengzong raised his hand and shook his head and said, "It's not because this man has 200 acres of land that I want to rob him; nor is it because this big clan doesn't have much land for each household, so I don't care about him, and it's not because a man can win If the evil-doing and powerful local protector in the countryside has neither land nor food, I will let him go."
"I understand what you mean."
Liu Chengzu nodded slowly and followed this train of thought: "Then this battle must start from Xining. Take back all local power, just like when all dynasties were founded, in the name of robbing the rich and giving to the poor, and to equalize land and avoid paying taxes. To induce you to beat up all the gentry, clans and chieftains?"
Liu Chengzong's eyes were full of enthusiasm and he nodded firmly: "Yes!"
But Liu Chengzu became even more confused: "But as you just said, the total number of fields in Hehuang, except for the tens of thousands of acres we have cultivated, will still be short of food."
"And I have never thought that equalizing land and eliminating taxes is a good idea. We have said it a long time ago..." Liu Chengzu looked troubled and shook his head: "Everyone who fails does this."
"Yes, those who fail do it, and those who succeed do it too. I don't think the problem lies in equalizing land and exempting taxes. It depends on local conditions. There is no law in this world that will last forever, let alone a country that will last forever. It can It’s a period, but not forever.”
As Liu Chengzong spoke, he cut the air with his hand: "It is easy to equalize the land, but the land will become uneven again the second year after equalizing the land. What we have always said is to suppress annexation, which means to suppress the emergence of landlords. But once One hundred acres counts as a landlord, or two hundred acres counts as a landlord? If two hundred acres counts as a landlord, what does one hundred and ninety-nine acres count?"
"It's easy to waive the tax, but after the tax is waived, what will the Marshal's Mansion use to support troops, build roads, bridges, and water conservancy projects?"
Liu Chengzong asked and answered his own questions: "So my idea is to equalize grain and buy taxes... Based on Hehuang, taking back all local power is the first step; establishing households to equalize the people and dividing townships and capitals is the second step."
"Each township formation will appoint four officers, one local elected by the people, one selected by the government from other places, one official appointed by the commander's office, one officer selected by me, and twenty doctors of agriculture and animal husbandry, and centurion captains. Lead the local people to plant and raise livestock in a unified way, and credit according to work."
"The entire Hehuang area is planned by the Marshal's Mansion to plant livestock and livestock, and agricultural and animal husbandry products are priced uniformly. 40% of the harvest is distributed locally according to work, and 60% is purchased by the Marshal's Mansion. Markets are set up along the valleys and managed uniformly."
Liu Chengzong spoke impassionedly, as if a new era was beginning, but when he finished speaking, his momentum dropped by half: "This matter is of great importance. I have to get Chengyun back as soon as possible."
