"This official Fu Zhiren is the patrol officer of the Cao Xihe River on the road of the Prime Minister's Mansion of the Xia Kingdom." Fu Zhiren turned over the saddle and dismounted, and according to the rules, he first informed the two fugitives of his identity, so as not to speculate wildly. In order to screen out the spies and make the people of the Song State adapt to the environment of the Xia State as soon as possible, the Prime Minister's Mansion Lu Cao specially set up a resettlement center, where the escapees from the east of the river also talked about how they crossed the border, so the road Cao knew everything about the river crossing channels of those gods and ghosts.

Zhao Xingde and Li Ruoxue glanced at each other, and arched their hands: "Zhao De, a native of the Kanto region, this is the Inner Son Li Clan, see Inspector Fu." Fu Zhiren was dressed in a gray cloth robe, with open wolfskin shoulders, thick-soled boots suitable for long journeys, riding a horse with a bow, a long sword hanging on the side of the saddle, and a blanket tied behind the saddle. Zhao Xingde originally thought that he was a sergeant of the Xia State patrolling the border, but who knew that he was a subordinate of the Prime Minister's Mansion.

Fu Zhiren smiled slightly, and arched his hands to Zhao Xingde and Li Ruoxue respectively. He knew that a group of Kanto peasants crossed the river, and when he saw that they were safe and sound, he was not in a hurry to hurry, so he rested here for a while, who expected to see the whole process of Zhao Xingde and Li Ruoxue crossing the river.

"Why did you two take the risk of crossing the river from this cable?" Fu Zhiren asked slowly. Zhao De and his wife are polite, and they don't seem to be forced to make a living. However, Xia Guo has always been very lenient in screening fugitives from Kanto, and Fu Zhiren only asked casually out of curiosity.

"Well," Zhao De and Li seemed to be a little embarrassed, both of them lowered their heads, and after a while, Zhao De raised his head and said: "The two of us have already had a marriage contract, and we are in love, so I was forced by the wicked to leave my hometown." Li Ruoxue leaned on his side, and the little couple looked like they were dependent on each other for life and death.

"Oh." Fu Zhiren nodded slightly. The river had already washed away the black ash on Li Ruoxue's face, her skin was like clotted fat, and she knew at a glance that she was a peasant woman who had worked very hard for many years, and Zhao Deyan did not speak like a farmer. Seeing the appearance and behavior of these two people, he had already guessed that they had eloped, but Zhao De said it more implicitly.

"According to the government order, people from Hedong need to go to the resettlement center to screen and teach them about our country's system. Let's go with the officer. Fu Zhiren said with a straight look. In the national system, the Zhuguo Mansion promulgated the decree, the Protectorate decided the national policy, the Prime Minister's Office formulated the decree, the Emperor issued the Imperial Decree, and the General's Office issued the military order, and the name and effect were different. Fu Zhiren retired from the Praetorian Guards and Cavalry last year, and in order to pass the assessment of the inspectors, he also had a headache by memorizing the law. The subordinate officials of the Prime Minister's Mansion have certain rules for doing things and speaking, and they should not be taken lightly.

Zhao Xingde helped Li Ruoxue to stand up, and before he could take a step, Fu Zhiren motioned for Li Ruoxue to ride on the horse.

Zhao Xingde's eyes showed a look of vigilance, Fu Zhiren handed him the reins and explained: "When it is not during the war, the sergeant will not ride his own horse, but let the women and children walk on foot. ”

Zhao Xingde hesitated: "You and I don't know each other, aren't you afraid that we will take the horse and escape?" ”

"You can try it," Fu Zhiren said with a smile, "This horse has been with me for seven or eight years, and if you kill it, it won't go with you." After speaking, he whistled in his mouth, and the horse seemed to be human, and he also snorted, lowered his head and rubbed Fu Zhiren's body, and the person and the horse seemed extremely intimate.

The two couldn't shirk it, so they found a remote mountain rock and changed their clothes one after another. Li Ruoxue rode on a horse with the help of Zhao Xingde, she was still wearing men's clothes, but she didn't apply black fat on her face to hide her complexion.

Zhao Xingde walked in front of the horse reins, Fu Zhiren walked side by side with him, did not walk for long, only to feel that the trees on both sides of the road are gradually dense, the giant trees hugged by several people can be seen everywhere, there are faintly many foraging fox squirrels in the forest, songbirds are pleasant, there are eagles hovering in the sky from time to time, and there is no impression of "eight hundred miles of Qinchuan dusty" in Zhao Xingde's impression. In the flat and wide fields, about half of the peasants are driving horses to prepare the land for planting winter wheat at the end of the month, and a small half of the field is covered with pasture, and sometimes you can see barns and pens with 100 head of cattle and sheep and other livestock.

After less than two hours of walking, there were already seven or eight clear streams and channels, the narrow one was only used for irrigation, and the wider one could be used for small boats, and Zhao Xingde saw a small boat full of neat coal, docked on the wharf, and nearby farmers driving horse-drawn carts to buy it for winter heating. Zhao Xingde was surprised to find that there was a wooden track leading directly to the charcoal field of the wharf, and there were constantly horses pulling charcoal carts to stop beside the trestle, and several strong men packed the charcoal into bales one by one, and then loaded them into small boats, transported by water to all parts of the village, and then transported back by the farmer's horse-drawn carts.

Seeing Zhao Xingde looking at those giant trees along the way, Fu Zhiren smiled and said, "These big trees have been growing for almost a hundred years. He pointed to the ship transporting the charcoal and said: "In order to avoid indiscriminate felling of wood for firewood, the Prime Minister's Office has planned a number of channels that extend in all directions. Before joining the army, Fu Zhiren undertook the labor of dredging the channel under the sergeant's organization, and the woods maintain the water and soil, and the channel is the lifeblood, all of which are indispensable, and it is well known to the people in Guanzhong.

Zhao Xingde nodded with emotion, hundreds of thousands of homes in Bianliang also use charcoal for heating in winter, but before that, the surrounding forests had been cut down. However, most of the rural areas are far away from the main canal, and the transportation of coal is inconvenient. Every winter, in order to keep out the cold, the people even cut down the mulberry elm, and the imperial court still does not hold the people accountable for the ban, and now the populated places in the Kanto region are rarely seen such thick and dense forests.

"The price of this charcoal is not cheap, can ordinary farmers afford it?" Zhao Xingde groaned, as far as he knew, even in Bianjing, Kaifeng Mansion had to sell hundreds of thousands of catties of charcoal to the poor every year, and it was like this, and it often happened that people froze to death in winter.

"The price of using charcoal and firewood is about the same," Fu Zhiren thought for a moment and explained, "The price of charcoal dug out of the ground is mostly due to freight, and after the channel is opened, this piece has been greatly reduced." According to the law, if you want to cut wood for firewood, you must first plant a sapling nearby, and after ten years, it will grow into a large tree, and then the original big tree can be cut down. With this effort, it is better to buy charcoal at a cost-effective price. He paused and said, "Some businessmen who are in the forestry business can spend ten years planting trees and obtaining timber, but most of them are used to build houses and utensils, and they are reluctant to burn them." ”

"It is forbidden to cut wood for firewood at will, but I am afraid that it will be very difficult to implement." Zhao Xingde sighed. This era was colder than later generations, and the Song Kingdom also forbade the indiscriminate use of forests for heating, but in the cold winter, the law still did not blame the public, and even the feng shui forest near the imperial tomb was secretly cut down by the people, not to mention other places.

Fu Zhiren also sighed: "Yes, in the bitter cold of winter, cutting wood for firewood can solve the urgent need, and leave the worries of eternity." If it weren't for the Prime Minister's Office to make a policy first, build channels year by year, and reduce the cost of carbon transportation, Mr. Bachelor's Mansion has taught the people for more than ten years, and millions of soldiers and civilians are convinced, it is really not easy to implement. ”

Zhao Xingde is a scholar from the Kanto region, Fu Zhiren is also a little polite to him, as long as it does not involve military affairs, they will explain it to him in detail, and the two of them came to a house with a rammed earth wall and thatched roof, Zhao Xingde saw at a glance that the dozens of peasants who had crossed the Yellow River before him were already standing in the courtyard, and were lining up in front of a table to do screening and registration.

"The law does not allow idle and homeless people, and all people from the Kanto region must register their whereabouts, and they must not wander around the country wantonly." Fu Zhiren explained with some apologies, "My colleagues will arrange a place for you to go according to their respective circumstances and wishes. He and Zhao Xingde were able to talk, so he said one more sentence: "Born in sorrow, died in peace, when you ask, you have to remember." ”

Pan Shaowei, the official of Cao Road, was born with a harmless and kind face, he looked at the honest Kanto farmers in front of him, and was tirelessly repeating the question: "The first place to go, stay in the Guanzhong Workshop, take care of your food, manage your residence, work is simple, and there is money to get every month." The second place, arrange for you to do short-term work in the Grange workshop along the way to earn entanglement, good luck to go to Shishan, bad luck to go to Xiaohai, say not to eat and sleep, there are barbarians burning and killing and fighting is certain, do not guarantee your life to return to the hometown, the third place, if there is a skill, the Prime Minister's Mansion, the General's Mansion can be hired on the merits, or issued a confession, within three months to go to the city to find a way to live, if you can't make a living, then obey the Prime Minister's Mansion. ”