The speed of sailing along the river is really fast, in less than a day, the three official ships have arrived in the Dongting Lake area, which belongs to the rule of Yuezhou, Shannan Province, where you have a wide water area and a small population is not much, once a small group of water bandits fall into the grass in the lake area and do not send a large army, it is difficult to find their traces.

Fortunately, some time ago, Wu Shitong had already sent someone to contact them, and after resting on the shore for a night, early the next morning, a small fishing boat from the lake area found them.

After walking for more than half a day, it was considered to be a place, and the location of the shore was a relatively hidden lake col, even if Zhang Ke had a telescope in his hand, it was difficult to find this place without the guidance of this small boat.

There are a lot of fishing boats parked on the shore of the lake, but they are not big, and they may not be able to withstand the wind and waves in the Yangtze River, which shows that these water bandits who are interested in accepting Zhao'an are not very professional.

"Governor, it's here."

It was cold and windy outside, Sun Xiangfu would not run out to blow the wind if he was fine, and after Zhang Ke came over to spread the word, he put on a padded jacket and led Wu Meiniang out of the cabin together.

In the woods on the shore, two dark-skinned men, one tall and one short, were relieved to see that the people on the official ship did not look like soldiers who had evil deeds, and the short man said, "Big brother, this official came to talk about Zhao'an, and he also brought a little girl, so it can be seen that he has no intention of using swords with us, and those brothers who are in ambush in the forest can almost be withdrawn, so as not to cause any misunderstanding." ”

Sun Xiangfu couldn't have imagined that Wu Meiniang's appearance had special effects, and instantly lowered the vigilance of the bandits, hugged the little girl, followed by Zhang Ke and others from the gangplank, and then followed the people who led the way, and walked to the yellow mud road on the hillside.

"You live in such a shack?"

Sun Xiangfu didn't ask the names of those who greeted him, so he first pointed to the sheds made of mud and bellflowers.

"You officials, who live in a mansion carved with dragons and phoenixes, naturally can't look down on our bitter shacks."

The tall man led by Sun Xiangfu saw Sun Xiangfu's appearance, and said in a slightly sour tone.

"Hehe, this big brother, I think you misunderstood, a few years ago, when I was not an official, the house I lived in may not be better than yours, I said that you live poorly, but I don't dislike you, but to say, why would you rather live such a hard life here, than let the court help you find a way to improve your life!"

The sentence just now was a dry button that Sun Xiangfu began to flicker into mode, and this water bandit leader was very good, so that Sun Xiangfu opened the topic without difficulty.

"The imperial court, can the imperial court manage us ordinary people?"

The big man listened to Sun Xiangfu's words, and his face was a little kinder, but he already had a prejudice against the people in the government in his heart, except for the government when collecting taxes, the government would find them, and at other times, he didn't bother to care about their life or death.

"I may not have been in charge of it before, but now, I will definitely take care of it, no, Your Majesty has sent this official to solve your problems."

"You, you were sent by the Emperor?"

Although the Han Dynasty had not read any books, they also knew that the words of His Majesty in the mouths of these officials meant the emperor, however, with the degree of their information blockage, it was obviously impossible to know about the imperial court sending a messenger to Jingzhou.

"Exactly, the official Metropolitan Governor of Anbei, Sun Zhengming, the secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, in addition to being able to manage all the things of the Anbei Metropolitan Protectorate, is also in charge of the farming of the common people in the world."

For Sun Xiangfu's list of official titles, Dahan has obviously heard a lot, after all, the newspaper has already come out, Sun Xiangfu has repeatedly spread some news about the capital of Anbei throughout the country, at that time, they have not yet fallen here, and must have heard some rumors.

"Chao, the imperial court sent an official like you to deal with the affairs of our people?" Dahan was very worried in his heart, so much so that he stammered a little.

Even if he doesn't know how to read, he used to hear others talk about Sun Zhengming, the story of the world's most skilled farmer, in the summer, many melons and fruits from Guanzhong were sold to Shannan Road, it is said that Sun Zhengming led the people to plant, at that time, they were local boatmen, and they also accepted the employment of the steward on the big ship, helping to unload the ship, transport, etc., I didn't expect to see him here.

"There is no trivial matter in the people's livelihood, the imperial court used to have troubles in the north, and now it is about to start a national war with Goguryeo in the east, and there is no way to take care of the place for a while.

However, Your Majesty has not forgotten you, and in the midst of your busy schedule, you have specially asked me to come over and make a proper settlement for you, and in the next step, the new development policy will be implemented in Shannan Province, and you will be able to live a good life like the people of Guanzhong. Sun Xiangfu had a kind face and said to the big man with a smile on his face.

From these people, the big man didn't feel any aggression, even the heavily armed guards like Zhang Ke didn't seem to have that domineering posture, and they didn't defend against them.

Of course, what he didn't know was that if Sun Xiangfu's guards wanted to deal with these guys with hoes and bamboo sticks, where would they need to put on a posture like a great enemy, not to mention the crossbow on their waists, even if the stainless steel war knife in their hands was wielded, they could also chop melons and vegetables and clean them all up.

"You, what you said is true?"

Before the big man could react, the short man who had persuaded him to withdraw from the ambush in the forest took the lead.

"Is it necessary for this official to lie to you? I heard that there is a group of bandits on your side who robbed some Miao people who moved out of the mountains from the imperial court, do you know what the imperial court moved those Miao people out for? Assign houses to them to live in, and allocate good fields for them to cultivate, for these ethnic minorities who live in the mountains and forests, the imperial court can do this, let alone you and other Han people? ”

Hearing Sun Xiangfu say this, the two water bandit leaders, one tall and one short, were stunned, although those Miao people were not robbed by them, but they were actually connected with the water bandits, or rather, the water bandits in the entire Dongting Lake area are more or less connected, once the imperial court sends a large army to clean it up, they are bound to resist together, but this time, the imperial court did not send a large army, but just came a young official who is said to be the best at farming in the world.

Then, they immediately thought that this matter might have a deeper meaning, because they knew that the bandits who robbed the Miao people decided to do it because they received the benefits of Huang Cai and a few others, otherwise, with their courage, at most, they would extort some money, rice and noodles and other things on the small merchant ships, and they would not dare to fight the idea of the official ships, because it would inevitably attract the officials and soldiers to clean up.

"I was desperate at the beginning, so I thought that the grass fell on this lake, and the blame was only on the big water, which destroyed the fields in the village, and those big families refused to lend us grain for turnover······"

What big things can the small people in the village do? Sun Xiangfu didn't even need to listen to them to know that it must be some cliché stories that were affected by disasters and could not be rescued, and local officials, heroic and strong, joined forces again, did not help, and even deliberately forced them to be cornered.

Come to think of it, the original fields of these water bandits have now fallen into the hands of local officials or those powerful people, and natural disasters have ruined the lives of ordinary people, but they have become rich.

However, through what they said, Sun Xiangfu can be sure that the Yicang set up by the imperial court has not played its due role in the local area, and after the Yicang is under the control of the Ministry of Agriculture, this situation should be difficult to happen.

Sun Xiangfu waited for the short man to fully explain the reason for his fall into the grass before he said, "I haven't asked the two names yet." ”

"Adults can call me Zhang Mu, or Zhang Dalang, this is my second brother, called Zhang Chong, adults can call him Erlang."

Sun Xiangfu was also accustomed to the title of Dalang Erlang in the Tang Dynasty, nodded and said, "Since your brother has the heart to accept the court's recruitment, then report the number of these villagers you led to Luocao to this official, in addition, if you can help the official contact other bandits and tell them the court's recruitment policy, then the official will have a wealth to give you." ”

"Rich? Adults don't want to use this to lure our brothers out and then catch them all! You can't be like this, the villagers are all poor and poor, and they are all forced by natural disasters. Zhang Chong was already a little smarter than his brother Zhang Muchong, and he took the lead in begging with a bitter face.

Sun Xiangfu smiled as kindly as possible, "Don't worry, if you want to wipe you out, it won't be the official who comes, compared to exterminating you and recruiting you, it is more beneficial to the imperial court, and it is actually those corrupt officials and local heroes who really hurt you to the ground, they hate you for not dying, so they use all kinds of tricks to kill you." ”

Hearing this, Zhang Mu and Zhang Chong both looked at Sun Xiangfu with puzzled expressions.

It seems that if they don't explain it clearly, they don't understand the Tao at all, so Sun Xiangfu said, "The imperial court has set up Yicang in various states and counties, according to the normal situation, if you are affected by the disaster, the grain in Yicang should be released and lent to you for consumption, however, the actual situation is that you should only know that you have to pay Yicang grain, but no one has ever told you that you can use Yicang grain."

After that, you go to those big local households to borrow grain, and it stands to reason that you have a lot of land, and you produce a lot every year, and if you lend some money, they can earn a lot of interest, but they don't lend it to you, do you know why? ”

The biggest shortcoming of the people is ignorance, the government, especially the government controlled by the local tyrants, will not tell them what kind of social security they can enjoy except how much tax they have to pay, and they don't know at all when those tyrants use means against them.

Therefore, the two of them just shook their heads in a daze, and at this time, Wu Meiniang, who had already been placed on the ground by Sun Xiangfu and had seen the whole process of their conversation, chuckled and said, "You guys are so stupid." ”

Sun Xiangfu touched her head with interest and said, "Little Meiniang, tell me, where are they stupid?" ”

Wu Meiniang smiled cutely and said, "Those people don't lend them food, so they naturally force them to fall into the grass, so that their original fields will belong to those heroes." ”