The maid's words shocked Xu Ziling.

Ming Xia also looked at Yue'er in surprise. Only the old man was not shocked, and reached out and plucked his nostrils.

The maid noticed the problem in her words, and said with a red face, "I mean I want to ride your sword to the sky." ”

Xu Ziling smiled, took out Chixiao and handed it to her: "Come, take it and fly." ”

The maid thought he was telling the truth, took the sword, put it on the ground, and stepped on it. I waited for a few breaths, but I still didn't move. The maid reacted suddenly, her apricot eyes widened, and she said to Xu Ziling, "Why don't you let it move?" ”

Xu Ziling said with a smile: "The consumption of internal force is too great, so there is no need to use it at this time." ”

The maid was out of options, so she looked at Ming Xia pitifully.

Ming Xia was about to speak, but she heard the old man next to her say, "Girl, stand firm." ”

The maid was stunned for a moment, but she still stood up obediently.

But I saw the old man raise his foot in tattered straw sandals and kick it on the hilt of Chixiao's sword, and with the scream of the maid, Chixiao flew out with her, turning a big circle in the sky.

Xu Ziling on the side looked at the old man and was shocked. At that moment, Chixiao's contact with him was broken, which had never happened to him since he established contact with Chixiao, and the Chixiao Sword that the maid was stepping on now did not consume his internal strength, but it could fly in the sky.

The old man looked at him with a shocked look on his face, and said disdainfully: "Boy, do you know who the previous owner of this sword was?" ”

Xu Ziling subconsciously asked, "Could it be you?" ”

The old man raised his eyebrows: "Of course it's not me, and I'm not a person from the Daomen." ”

"Then why are you asking this question?" Xu Ziling was puzzled.

The old man plucked his nostrils again: "Just ask so casually, there is no superfluous meaning." ”

Xu Ziling was speechless when he was speechless, and asked in a changed tone: "The old man should be a master of the hidden world, right?" ”

The old man glanced at him and said lightly: "Don't think that the old man will tell you who the old man is, you just need to know that your sword was given to Zhou Dong by me back then." ”

Xu Ziling was shocked again, with the old man's meaning, he must have a great relationship with the master, and hurriedly arched his hand: "Then I want to thank the old man." ”

The old man waved his hand: "No need, the Zhou Dong I gave is not you." And you kid is a little interesting, there are not many people who can get the Daomen magic sword and recognize the lord for hundreds of years. ”

Xu Ziling also knows very little about this: "But the old man knows what it says? ”

The old man was about to answer, but he heard the maid in the sky cry, and it turned out that he was dizzy.

Xu Ziling was also afraid that something would happen to her, so he drove Chixiao to take her down. As soon as she landed, the maid felt dizzy, unable to stand on her feet, and was afraid of falling to the ground, so she threw herself into the arms of her own lady.

Seeing that Ming Xia hugged her, Xu Ziling turned his head to look at the old man, wanting to return to the topic of Fang Cai. But when they heard someone shouting something at the entrance of the village, the people in the fields stopped what they were doing and walked towards the village.

Xu Ziling saw Dongzi and his father also hurriedly walking towards the village, thinking that something had happened in the village, he turned to Mingxia and said, "You wait for me here for a while, I'll go back and see what the situation is." ”

Ming Xia nodded and said softly, "Don't get hurt anymore." ”

Xu Ziling smiled: "It doesn't have to be a fight." Then he hurried to the village.

The old man glanced at the two girls and followed.

Approaching the village, Xu Ziling heard the noise in the village, and heard a man's voice say: "Aunt Bajin, don't you make it difficult for me, I am just acting on orders, if I can't pay the errand and make the boss angry, it will not be good for you and me." ”

Then a woman's voice said, "I want to see which corrupt official it is." Where is the reason for imposing a three-year tax. ”

Someone next to him chimed in: "That is, the tax in our village is already heavier than that of other places, and we will be taxed for three years now, so do we want to live." ”

The man pleaded: "Fellow villagers, when did my Xiao Liu come to collect taxes not for everyone?" This time it was really a death order from above, saying that the court needed to use it urgently, and borrowed taxes from the people for two years. I am also for the good of everyone, if I don't cooperate with the work, not only will I lose my official uniform, but there will also be officers and soldiers who will come to collect taxes in person, and then I may have more than two years of borrowing. ”

Most of the villagers knew the official and knew that he did take good care of their village, and after listening to the man's words of pleading and persuasion, most of them believed his words and fell silent.

There was a sudden silence in the room.

Suddenly, I heard a sharp voice coming: "Wang Fugui, did you steal the old lady's dirty clothes?" ”

The sound was like thunder on the ground, and the surrounding area was even more silent.

Xu Ziling was also stunned for a long time, only to hear the old man behind him say loudly: "Don't frame a good person. ”

Xu Ziling was still stunned, but saw a woman who was nearly half a hundred years old walking over, crossed her hands on her waist, looked at the old man behind her viciously, and said, "Frame a good person? No one in the whole village knows what kind of virtue you Li Fugui is. ”

The old man reluctantly said, "You have to tell the evidence when you speak." ”

The woman snorted coldly and said, "Don't let me find it near your house, or the old lady will have to burn down your house." ”

The old man clasped his hands in his arms, looking indifferent.

The woman glared at him again, spat at him, and walked away in a rage.

The crowd, who had been discussing it fiercely, were so made by the quarrel between the old man and the woman that they remembered the matter of taxation after a while.

The official surnamed Liu spoke up again: "The deadline given by the boss is to collect Qitian tax within ten days, I really can't help you in this matter, let's discuss it in the next few days, and I'll come back in a week." After saying that, the official sent a bow to everyone and turned to leave.

In the village, firewood, rice, oil and salt are the biggest things for the women, and after the official left, the village suddenly exploded, and the women were always unwilling to accept this matter of borrowing taxes. This is the only thing that the tongue-in-cheek women in the village share in love with.

The men are naturally indignant, but they are not as fierce as the women, most of them dare to be angry and dare not speak, it has nothing to do with weakness or not, but the men have to think more and understand the words of the officials better.

A few coughs suddenly came, and the gossiping women suddenly became much quieter, but they saw an old man on crutches in the crowd and said loudly: "Xiao Liu's words, everyone can hear them clearly." Xiao Liu has been in charge of our village's field tax for so many years, how can he ever oppress us and others? I believed what he said. The court did this, which was really unacceptable to everyone, but we still have to pay this tax. A mu tax of nine buckets of rice is a bit more, but with the yield per mu of our village, there can still be some surplus, but it will not starve to death. ”

Stomping on his crutches, the old man raised his voice again: "As for those who want to refuse to pay, and move to another place on their own, or directly move their families to the grass, don't lead the officers and soldiers to the village." ”

The old man was the only talent in the village, and he was also the most respected, and when he said this, the women did not dare to refute it openly, but could only whisper a few words.

A middle-aged man asked the old man: "Uncle Wen Zheng, you said that the imperial court suddenly made this matter of borrowing taxes, is it a corrupt official who oppresses us or is there another way to say it?" ”

The people around him suddenly focused on hearing the old man's opinion.

The old man glanced in the direction of Bianliang and said slowly: "Taxation is related to the prosperity of the country, ordinary officials should not dare to change it without authorization, and suddenly increasing the land tax is an order of the imperial court." And why the land tax was increased should be used by the imperial court for emergency purposes. If it wasn't for the relief of the victims elsewhere, then there might be a war. ”

Hearing the old man's words, everyone was in an uproar again, and the voices of dissatisfaction with the court came and went.

Xu Ziling also heard the old man's words clearly, and couldn't help nodding, he had also heard the news that the imperial court was going to join the gold to cut down Liao in Jiangning City, combined with the tax matter and what the old man said, there is a good chance that the matter of the joint gold war against Liao is true.

He also hated the Liao people to the core, and it was impossible for him to let go of the hatred of slaughtering his village and killing his father-in-law. But six years have passed, and there is no way to find out whether the Liao people's horse team was an army or a bandit, and he can only take this matter to heart.

At this time, he was convinced of the news that the Great Song Dynasty was going to crusade against the Liao State, but he sincerely hoped that the Song Dynasty army would kill more Liao people.

The old man looked at the war-weary villagers on his face, his heart was a little touched, and he sighed a few times secretly.

Since ancient times, fighting a war must cost the people and money, so the ordinary people are extremely resistant to war, not to mention that Song Liao has been peaceful for more than a hundred years, and the people have lived and worked in peace and contentment for a long time, so they are naturally unwilling to break the tranquility.

But scholars and scholars who know some geography know that as long as the sixteen states of Yanyun are not under the control of the Great Song Dynasty, the Song people will never be able to sit back and relax. Without the Great Wall and towering mountains in the Yanyun region as a barrier, the Central Plains would always be exposed to the iron hooves of foreigners.

Emperor Taizong's two northern expeditions, the ultimate goal was to recapture the land of Yanyun and stabilize the foundation of the later generations of the Great Song Dynasty, but they all ended in failure.

Therefore, in the eyes of people like the old man, it is imperative to destroy Liao, and now that there is the Jin State to contain the main force of the Liao Army, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to recover Yanyun.

After arguing for a while, the villagers slowly dispersed and returned to their previous work. Whether the court fights or not, it has never been up to the people to have the final say, and they can only say a few words to vent their dissatisfaction. After venting, life has to go on, and the crops in the fields still have to be taken care of.

Seeing that there was nothing to do, Xu Ziling turned around and prepared to go back to Ming Xia, but found that the old man behind him before was gone.

Then he returned to the field with Dongzi and the others and told Mingxia about the things in the village.

The maid Gu Yue'er is no longer dizzy, but she no longer wants to "go to heaven".

The three of them continued to walk along the stream, but they were not much interested in enjoying the scenery. There is nothing beautiful around the village, but most of the flat land has been reclaimed for farmland.

After wandering around for half an hour, the three of them lost their interest and returned to the village.

After having lunch at noon, Xu Ziling practiced swordsmanship in a corner of the village, Ming Xia brought a small bamboo stool, sat on it, quietly watched him practice swords, and occasionally saw him stop, so he said a few words to him.

The maid Yue'er was not interested in watching Xu Ziling practice swords, so she and Dongzi went to pick mulberries.

The villagers also started their afternoon work, and the whole village was peaceful and leisurely.