The three of them went out of the parlor together, and An Ning went to call two more shrewd and capable sergeants to accompany them. Let people go to the stable to lead the horse, and Liu Erniu, the official in front of the head, led the way, and a group of five people went straight to Qingyang Town.

After more than half an hour, Lin Fan and the others saw the outline of Qingyang Town from a distance.

From the outside of the town, it looks a bit dilapidated, with little decent architecture other than a few shops along the street.

There were a few thatched huts scattered around the outskirts of the town, and now it was noon and they could see a few wisps of smoke rising from the town's courtyard.

It's mid-March, and in the paddy fields around the town, some farmers are busy planting early rice.

The turquoise seedlings in the paddy fields flutter in the wind, undulating and contrasting with the yellow muddy water.

Not far away, a few buffaloes were leisurely soaking in the pond, mooing from time to time, and a few were tied to wooden stakes in the field, boringly using their tails to drive away the gadflies.

Along the way, Lin Fan learned from the mouth of the official that Qingyang Town was actually not big.

At most, there are only a few hundred families in the town, and most of the townspeople make a living from farming, facing the loess with their backs to the sky all their lives, and they have never seen much of the world, and they are all honest and poor people.

He also knew that Qingyang Town also had another name, called Tianjia Town!

It's not because most of the people in the town have the surname Tian that they are called this name. It is because most of the industries in the town, including the fields, are owned by outsiders, so it is named.

And this Tian member is also a legend! Almost everyone here, even children, knows about his story, but everyone gritted their teeth when they mentioned it!

Tian Yuanwai was a well-known scoundrel in the town when he was young, his family was poor when he was a child, his mother died early, and his father was a gambler, and he owed a lot of debts, and in order to pay off the debts, he sold all the land in the family.

When he was thirteen or fourteen years old, his father was beaten to death because he was in debt and could not afford to pay it, and he became an orphan.

At first, the villagers saw that he was pitiful and helped him from time to time.

But he didn't want to find a job to do in a down-to-earth manner, so he could find a living job, but he mixed with some green-skinned guys, and he was idle all day long and didn't do his job.

Otherwise, he just thought of some crooked ideas to steal chickens and dogs, which made the people complain about him, and slowly no one was willing to deal with him anymore.

Later, the villagers could not tolerate it anymore and drove him out of town.

Without a place for him in this Qingyang town, he could only leave his hometown, live on the streets, and even beg to live.

Later, I don't know how he got to Anzhou City, but he still had the habit of not becoming, colluding with some bastards in Anzhou City, and doing some things that were cheated and abducted, and bullied and oppressed the good. But this was just a small fight, and he couldn't get on the stage, and at that time he could only be regarded as the lowest gangster in Anzhou City.

Later, somehow let him hook up with the prince of the Zhizhou Mansion, mixed into the Zhizhou Mansion, and became the follower and dog leg of the Zhizhou Prince.

It's terrible now, he follows his son all day long in the big and small casinos and Qinglou Chu Pavilion in Anzhou City.

The prince in the Zhizhou Mansion is the number one gentleman in Anzhou City, relying on the power of his family, few people in the entire Anzhou City dare to provoke.

Following this master, he has done a lot of bullying and acting for the tiger, and he has a lot of bad ideas for that master.

Because of his thoughtful service, he is quite loved by the prince in the house and is regarded as a confidant.

And he also relied on the favor of his son, the fox and the tiger, and bullied the common people, and reaped a lot of benefits for himself.

It's a pity that the good times didn't last long, and once the prince of the Zhizhou Mansion was jealous with a local family in Anzhou, and in order to compete for a top-brand Oiran, he started to work in the Qinglou.

But the result was that the strong dragon did not suppress the head snake, and they did not bring enough manpower, so they suffered a loss.

He once worked as a lost dog, he knew that if something happened to his owner, the dog would not end well, and he no longer wanted to experience the feeling of being in fear.

In the scuffle, he could only try his best to protect his master, and he was broken in the fight.

Although Lord Zhizhou doesn't look down on his son on weekdays, he reprimands him twice in three days.

But that is hatred of iron does not become steel, no matter how you say it, it is also your own son, even if it causes trouble this time, it will not be too punished, but it is just grounded.

However, he was not so good to speak to such a pimply servant, but he was faithful to him, and seeing that he was really pitiful, he rewarded him with some silver and sent him home.

With the silver rewarded by Lord Zhizhou, and the savings he had accumulated over the years, he limped back to this Qingyang Town. After that, he began to buy houses, land, and family businesses.

Although he is lame, he knows the rules and will do things. Whenever there is a New Year's holiday, I buy some valuable gifts from time to time and send them to the governor's mansion; The prince is true, but he is also a nostalgic person, and he often sends people to see him and send some scattered silver or something.

In this way, you come and go, and his relationship with the governor is not only not rusty, but closer.

Even Lord Zhizhou, when he occasionally talked about him, praised him for being sensible and filial, saying that it was rare for a subordinate like him to be seen now.

In this way, the entire Qingyang Town slowly knew about this ploppy and now lame man who was originally despised by everyone, and met a big man as tall as the sky, and everyone's attitude changed from the original contempt to fear.

He is still the same as before, he has never changed, he is still the same scoundrel, or the only thing that has changed is that he is lame more than before.

But no one dared to shout at him and shout at him as before; Even when they met, they had to call him respectfully: Master Tian. In this way, unconsciously, Tian Xiaozi became Master Tian!

Later, the life of the common people became more and more difficult, and the disaster year after year. And with the reputation of the Zhizhou Mansion, Master Tian's life has become more and more moisturized.

And whenever the green and yellow crops are scarce, the common people can't survive, and when they find him to borrow grain, he will take the opportunity to buy the villagers' fields and land at a very low price.

Since ancient times, people have taken food as their sky! There was no way, just for a bite to eat, the villagers had to grit their teeth and agree, and the land that their ancestors had managed for generations became someone else's.

If someone is unwilling to sell the land, he will pretend to be kind and give usury in the name of borrowing grain.

By the time the disaster had passed, the interest had already reached the point where the villagers could not afford to pay it back, so he used IOUs to force the villagers to return the land to his name.

Some people really didn't want to, so they sued him to the county with a complaint, but as the saying goes: the yamen is open to the south, and there is no reason to come in without money!

What kind of place is the county government, how can ordinary people win a lawsuit.

Especially after he gave up the money, and added his relationship with the governor's government, those who complained not only did not get their land back, but were tortured by the government, tortured into a confession, and arrested on false accusations and framed crimes, and some even died directly in prison.

Since then, he has become even more aggressive, acting more and more unscrupulously, and sparing no effort to embezzle the people's property.

He bought and sold by force, and he was almost robbed by open fire, and the people were afraid of his might, and dared to be angry but did not dare to speak.

In this way, his family's industry became bigger and bigger, and within a few years, most of Qingyang Town was returned to their family.

After that, in addition to Master Tian, he got the name of Tian Banzhen.

And the original owner of these lands can only depend on him and become tenants of his family. The people toiled in the fields every day, but they could only send all the grain they planted into the granary of the Tian family, and they could not eat themselves, and they relied on some leftovers from his charity to survive.

It wasn't until later that Lord Zhizhou was promoted and transferred to another place, the mountains were high and the road was far away, and the road was not smooth, and communication was inconvenient, so the relationship between the Tian family and the Zhizhou Mansion gradually became separated, and gradually lost contact.

Due to the loss of the backer of the Zhizhou Mansion, Master Tian has converged a lot, and Tian Banzhen has not become Tian Quan Town.

As for the property he had embezzled before, by this time it was already a boat, and he had already eaten the fat in his mouth, and he would never spit it out.

After he became prosperous, he raised a group of thugs to take care of the family and nursing home, and knew many powerful people in the county. And everyone is a powerless ordinary person, who dares to oppose him without opening his eyes and go back to his own land? There is no choice but to break teeth and swallow blood, and consider yourself unlucky.

In the past few years, the harvest in the field has become more and more bad, and the rent to be handed over to Master Tian cannot be less. Coupled with the Tian Fu apportioned by the imperial court, there is not much grain left for the first time of the year, and it is not enough to even serve as a ration for their own family, so the people can only go to Master Tian to borrow it.

Since it is borrowed, it must be returned! But how many people can afford the frightening interest rate?

If anyone dares to pay back even a penny, the group of people under him will rush to people's homes like wolves to grab money, food, and things.

The townspeople are ordinary people, their ancestors have been poor for generations, and they can have a few valuable things at home, and if they are all moved out and it is not enough, they will pull people to pay off the debt.

If it is a boy, it will be sold into slavery, if it is a girl, it will be even worse, the better ones will be sold to large families as maids, and if they are unlucky, they will be bought to pick up customers in the county brothel. I heard that there have been several female babies who were humiliated and committed suicide!

Speaking of this, Liu Erniu was also a little indignant about this!

He is also from a poor family in Qingyang Town, starvation and cold are commonplace for him, and he has been bullied by the Tian family since he was a child, so he has some personal experience of this.

When he grew up, he was sold into a lowly status, and later became a servant by chance, and the life of the family was a little better.

For him, no matter how poor and miserable he is, he can endure it, after all, his ancestors have come over like this, as long as he can give him a way to live.

But this Tian family is so hateful, they want to drive people to a dead end!

He wanted to help everyone, but he was just a small servant and couldn't do anything about it!

In his opinion, the theft of the Tian family this time is really happy!

Although no one dared to say it, Liu Erniu knew that everyone was secretly happy in their hearts, and the people had long been fed up with the oppression of the Tian family, so they were naturally happy to see it happen!

All of the above were told to Lin Fan by Liu Erniu. Maybe it's because the two are almost the same age, Lin Fan is not an official, he is approachable, and he has won his favor, and he is willing to believe that Lin Fan is not a bad person!

Along the way, he told the experiences of the villagers over the years and what the Tian family had done in one breath as if he was complaining.

It's just that he still kept an eye on it, and there was one more thing he didn't say! That is, on the second day of the theft of Tian's house, every household in Qingyang Town had more or less more silver and grain in front of their doors. This also included their family, but this matter was hidden by him and did not tell Lin Fan.

Lin Fan didn't notice his careful thoughts, or maybe even if he did, he wouldn't care. Along the way, he has been pondering Liu Erniu's words.

Lin Fan didn't listen to him because of his one-sided words, for example, according to Liu Erniu, when he was a small fielder, the villagers often helped him, and Lin Fan didn't believe this sentence.

Otherwise, even if this person is natural and mean, he will not be so ruthless to everyone, and he will not miss a little affection!

Of course, Lin Fan didn't think that Liu Erniu was lying to him, and there was no need to lie about these things that could be figured out with a little inquiry.

This may be due to the fact that Tian Yuanwai himself is unkind and ruthless; Or maybe this is a story that the villagers made up to deceive themselves in order to cover up their indifference at the time, but it was taken seriously by Liu Erniu, who was still young at the time.

However, in Lin Fan's opinion, Liu Erniu's words may be untrue, but nine times out of ten they are still credible.

If you look at it this way, over the years, what the Tian family has done in Qingyang Town is no different from that of robbers!

Lin Fan secretly thought about it, the Tian family's behavior was like this, and it was reasonable to be targeted by Fu Tianlin, a thief.

Seeing that the town was getting closer and closer, Lin Fan also retracted his thoughts, and with a "driving" sound, he raised the speed of the horse and was about to enter the town. Seeing this, An Ning and the others didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly followed.