Gu Chen was stunned. Why did he fall down before he even made a move?
Could it be that he has finally mastered the ability to fight cattle from afar?
The young man fell down, and only the head of the family was left standing. He was very abrupt and uncoordinated, and looked very much like that bird that everyone was shouting to beat.
With a clang, he dropped the machete and lay on the ground holding his head, crying out in pain.
Gu Chen angrily kicked the boss and shouted, "Don't pretend to be dead, I didn't even touch you."
Yao Yao took a bite of mutton skewers and looked at the boss lying on the ground with a smile.
It turns out that the work of touching porcelain has been done since ancient times.
Han Changmu waved his hand: "Okay Gu Chen, tie up everyone else and bring the leader over."
The three people tied a dozen bandits to the tree very neatly, cut off the arms of the eldest master and the young man, and pushed them in front of Han Changmu.
Before Han Changmu could speak, the leader shouted preemptively: "Either you kill me with a knife, or you let me go. I won't say anything."
Han Changmu smiled, held up the mutton skewers, and waved them in front of the young man's eyes: "Want to eat?"
"I think." The young man nodded while sipping his saliva.
"Xiao Liuzi, how dare you." The boss realized something was wrong and shouted loudly.
The half-grown boy curled his lips in grievance: "Brother, I'm hungry."
The boss closed his eyes.
They took over the mountain and became kings and became bandits just to have enough to eat. However, over the past few years, life has become more and more difficult. Not to mention losing all the money they saved, the boys can't even get enough to eat. .
Despair, no wonder Xiao Liuzi is greedy, he is greedy too.
He swallowed hard and said stiffly: "That, I want to eat too."
"..." Yao Yao hurriedly grabbed all the meat skewers he could get and looked at the boss with a wary expression.
This guy looks like a loser at first glance.
Han Changmu had a calm look on his face and said calmly: "If you want to eat, just tell me. I'm satisfied with what you say, and you will all have enough to eat."
Xie Mengxia heard that the words sounded wrong and hurriedly filled a large bowl of mutton soup. The large pieces of mutton were piled on top.
Just kidding, there are more wolves and less meat, so one more bite is just one bite.
The head of the family looked at the big copper pot that had reached the bottom. He felt that if he hid it any longer, he might not even be able to drink the soup. He quickly said like pouring beans from the bamboo tube: "Well, our brothers were originally from the Qilian Mountains. The villagers down there were really poor and couldn't survive anymore, so they went up to the mountains and became bandits."
Han Changmu frowned slightly. In the place where the sage ascended the throne, the population was greatly reduced due to the war, and the farmland was deserted and uncultivated. In the past fifteen years, the sage promoted land granting, advocated light corvee and low taxes, recuperation, and tax exemption in case of disaster. There are no major disasters or wars, and life should be getting better and better. How can there be people who fall into the trap of banditry because they cannot survive?
He tilted his head and asked doubtfully: "You are all in your prime, and the court is allocating land to each person, so why can't you survive?"
When the head of the family heard this, he was a sensible man. He cursed angrily: "Young master, you don't know that the court allocates the fields according to the head, but the fields are distributed to the county, but the county says that all our villages are from Hu land." The refugees who moved into the Qilian Mountains were not given land to us."
"If we don't allocate fields to you, how can you live without a field?" Xie Mengxia was extremely surprised. No matter how dandy he was, he knew that without a field, farmers would have no way of living and would have to starve to death.
The boss had a sad look on his face: "That's right. We went to the county and the state to explain the situation. Finally, the county said we could rent land and pay two shi per year."
"It's fair to pay two stones of millet, which is equivalent to the imperial tax." Han Changmu nodded.
"The imperial court's tax is two shi of millet per ding per year, and the county's tax is two shi of millet per den per mu per year!!!" The head of the family roared.
"What!" Han Changmu punched the ground angrily.
Yao Yao was also shocked.
In this dynasty, there were no pesticides and fertilizers, no two-crop rice, and no mechanized harvesting. Farmers relied entirely on heaven for harvest.
Farmers work exhaustingly all year long, and one or two acres of land only yields about 200 kilograms of millet, and they all have to pay rent. Isn't this a rhythm that drives people to death?
When Huang Shiren and Zhou Bapi met, they were all willing to be defeated.
Han Changmu held back his outburst of anger and asked in a deep voice: "Then you fell into trouble?"
"No, no." The big boss shook his head repeatedly: "The county said that every Ding pays ten shi of millet seeds every year, and the rest of the harvest is his own. We are all honest farmers. If we work harder, we will have more. After planting some land, I still had enough to eat, so I rented land in the county.”
As he spoke, he, a rough man, actually wiped away tears of bitterness: "But I didn't expect that we people have worked hard to cultivate the land for five years. Not only can we not even have enough to eat, but we also owe money to the county." There are tens of kilograms of millet in it." He touched the half-grown boy and said, "That's it, Xiaoliuzi's family. They can't pay the rent during the autumn harvest. The county is going to seize the land, and Xiaoliuzi's father and mother will be killed alive. I was so angry that Xiaoliuzi was only seven years old at that time. I was blinded in this eye at that time. The old people in the village, the young ones, I, I saw that there was really no way to survive, so I took the villagers, We went up to the Qilian Mountains together and did this for four years."
Everyone heard this and sighed.
Han Changmu's face was extremely gloomy, and he guessed where the crux was.
The saint took back the land granted to the dignitaries, and reduced the number of acres of permanent land allocated to various officials and lords, and distributed it to the people who had been dispersed and moved due to the war and had no fixed residence, and increased the amount of permanent land allocated to the common people. The number of acres of land was divided into fields and mouths, and taxes were reduced.
In this way, the life of the common people will naturally be much easier, but the dignitaries will quit their jobs.
Although only a very small part of the land was taken back, it was still cutting flesh from their bodies, and it would be painful.
Since the forced land granting, the opposition in the court has not stopped for a day. Zhongshu ordered Jiang Shen to become a living target because he firmly implemented the saint's will. The accusations against him almost buried the saint.
Over the past fifteen years, although the voices of opposition have gradually become less heard, what is unexpected is that the price of no one's opposition is that officials protect each other and deceive the superiors and the inferiors, and abuse heavy gifts.
Han Changmu took a deep breath: "Just now, Xiao Liuzi said that you arrested a person who looked exactly like the King of Han before. What happened?"
The first master was also confused and said in a rough voice: "We caught that kid from the foot of Qilian Mountain. He said he was the King of Han, so we took him back and served him delicious food and drink. Our second master is a learned man." Yes, it is said that with the King of Han here, we can let the court absolve us of our sins in the future." He raised his chin towards Xie Mengxia: "It's strange to say, that boy looks exactly like him."
Everyone looked at Xie Mengxia in surprise.
Xie Mengxia chuckled and scratched his head in embarrassment: "That, yes, that is the person in my house who raised him specially. I sneaked out of the capital for fear of being discovered. "
Everyone nodded understandingly.
They all understand.
The richer and richer you are, the more you fear death.
It’s also appropriate to have more substitutes.
Han Changmu coughed slightly and continued to ask: "The second in charge of your family who ran away is not from your village, right?"
The first head of the family shook his head: "No, there have never been any scholars in our village. The second head of the family is a scholar and has a lot of knowledge. He said that he failed to pass the exam several times. The clan did not tolerate it. There was really no way to survive, so he came to seek refuge in the village. "
During the questioning process, Han Changmu looked at the boss carefully. He was indeed a heartless and rough man. He nodded and said, "Since you have established a stronghold in the Qilian Mountains, why would you go to Yinshan to rob?"
The first master said: "It was the second master's idea. He said that someone wanted to meet the King of Han and asked us to escort the King of Han to the Luntai of Qiuci Kingdom. After the event is completed, we will be given a reward of one hundred taels of gold. So we brought the King of Han here. , But, that King of Han ate too much, and we didn’t even have enough water and food to bring, so we just wanted to do something big before we left.”
Yao Yao gasped and laughed.
He ate too much, so much that he ate all the bandits and went bankrupt.
She turned to look at Xie Mengxia.
The real King of Han is a loser, and the fake King of Han is also a loser.
Kucha Guoluntai is this place again, where all the clues are gathered.
Han Changmu asked in a deep voice: "Where is that fake King of Han now?"
The boss said: "Just after passing the forest, there is a cave over there. I left someone to guard it."
Han Changmu nodded: "Take us there."
The boss swallowed his saliva: "I'm hungry."
Han Changmu couldn't help laughing: "I'll take care of your food when I come back."
The boss has nothing to say. People under low eaves have to be subdued.
"Brother, brother, you can't leave me." The young man quit, his arms were twisted behind his back, unable to move, but he kept shouting.
The boss was untied and slapped the young man on the back of the head: "Are you stupid? If you stay here, you can enjoy the rich and spicy food."
The half-grown boy sobbed and said, "Brother, they are too fierce. I'm afraid they will eat me."
Xie Mengxia choked and coughed, looking at the young man and shaking his head: "Eat you, huh, I think you are too thin and have no meat."
Han Changmu turned to Yao Yao and said, "I'll leave this to you and His Highness."
Yao Yao nodded: "Don't worry, I will keep an eye on the food and not let His Highness finish it."
"..." Xie Mengxia was speechless, she really treated him like a loser.
The forest was deep and dense, with knee-deep snow. Under the guidance of the master, Gu Chen and others dug out dozens of animal traps from the snow.
Gu Chen looked at the densely packed tongs on the snow, which was completely dark. He put his hands on his hips and sighed happily: "Brother, you are too fierce. Are you going to crush people? We have to collect firewood." Didn’t come in when the time came.”
The headmaster rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.
