The tragic battles at the head of the city in the past few days have been heard by all kinds of people in Rizhao City. Some people rejoice and some people worry. Seeing that the sun was setting again, the twilight was shrouded, and a golden gong sounded outside the city, and the Jing'an soldiers who were besieging the city retreated one after another. Both sides know that the day's fighting is over.

Listening to the sound of the golden gong outside the city from afar, a group of servants in the city, under the scolding of the Yuan soldiers and officials who had finally relaxed their spirits, hurriedly carried the earth, stones, and wood, repaired the damaged battlements, and carried the dead and wounded off the city one by one. By the time all the miscellaneous work was over, it was already the middle of the moon. Most of the servants were finally able to return to their homes to rest for the night.

A middle-aged man carried a flat burden, sang with a dozen companions who had been tired for a long time at the corner of the street, and turned into an alley alone. The alley is not far from the city wall, but it is only more than 400 steps.

This emaciated man, who was less than seven feet tall, gasped, pushed open the door of his house, and entered his own small courtyard. There was already a big bowl of gruel for him, put it in the pot and kept it, and when she saw him enter the house, the mother-in-law hurriedly stepped forward to take the flat burden he unloaded, a few rolls of hemp rope, and then handed over a sweat towel.

The man washed his hands roughly, sat at the wooden table, and saw the big bowl of gruel served by the woman, with the faint jumping candlelight, the gruel could almost reflect his hazy face, he couldn't help but sigh, raised his eyes and asked, "Has Grandma ever eaten?" ”

"My mother-in-law has already eaten, and her spirit seems to be better today, and as soon as it gets dark, she goes to sleep." The mother-in-law cleaned up the house. Today is another battle, not only the old men in the city are terrified, but the low-level households are also secretly praying for the safety of their families who are working at the city wall, hoping that their lives can have a chance to change. Some of the Jing'an Army's policies to benefit the people have also spread to some extent in the city, and the miserable people only hope that the rumors are true.

Everyone secretly looked at it, the soldiers who had been killed and damaged in the past few days had crowded many courtyards in the city, and now there were fewer and fewer Yuan troops and righteous servants who could go to the city to defend the city, and they knew that the city would not be broken in a long time.

Wen Xian sighed slightly, picked up the coarse porcelain bowl, and slowly swallowed the gruel one bite at a time. Speaking of which, I have to thank the Jing'an army for attacking the city on a large scale, and the county Yin issued a notice to summon young people everywhere to assist the officers and soldiers in defending the city. Participants will receive a certain amount of rice per day. If it weren't for that, the family wouldn't be able to eat white rice.

Wen Xian only has an old mother and a clumsy wife in the family, and has given birth to several children, all of whom died due to poverty and frailty. In order to subsidize the family, he had to secretly take some illicit salt with his accomplices.

His mother is already old, now it is difficult to walk, the body is old and strong, although the eyes began to be dizzy, but the amount of food is acceptable, the livelihood in this troubled world is difficult, the family is to eat the last meal without the next meal, but she has been able to persist so far, except for a few illnesses every year, just do not breathe. In the past few days, he was reluctant to eat the white rice that he had received from helping to guard the city, and most of them gave his mother porridge. His own family cherished him and left some porridge soup at the bottom of the pot every day for him to replenish his body.

Looking at his daughter-in-law's slightly pregnant belly again, it was a new life being conceived, and Wen Xian was full of worries about how to survive the hard days ahead. After thinking about whether to be peaceful this time, he continued to follow the leader to run the salt road a few more times.

He was thinking, and suddenly heard many sharp sounds of breaking the air outside the house, the couple was curious, pushed the door and looked, and then in the faint moonlight, many small black shadows like flying spring swallows, swished down from the night sky. Two of them fell into the courtyard with a pop, digging deep into the earth, and their tail feathers were still alive and making a buzzing sound.

"It's an arrow!" Wen Xian was taken aback, although he was a dilapidated household, he had also seen the Han army's drills, and even sold illicit salt and fought with officers and soldiers.

"Why is it coming in from outside the city? Do you have to attack the city at night? "In the past few days, the Jing'an army has attacked during the day and rested at night, and the city has become accustomed to this rhythm. This happened three or four times at the same time around the city.

This wave of arrow rain soon stopped, and it was obvious that the Jing'an army outside the city was just taking advantage of the carelessness of the defenders at the head of the city, seizing the opportunity, quickly approaching the city wall, and quickly released several waves of arrows. When the defenders realized and began to counterattack, the Jing'an army on horseback had already returned to the camp on horseback!

Wen Xian's Hun family was so frightened that he pulled the man into the house to hide, Wen Xian had seen blood after all, he was bold, and quickly walked over and pulled out the feather arrow on the ground,

When the two entered the house, they approached the candle and examined it carefully, and found that a narrow piece of coarse cloth was still tied to the shaft of the arrow. He hurriedly took it off and unfolded it to see several inexplicable black symbols depicted in charcoal.

"This is Leader Cui's secret mark! This is the mark of the promise! Wen Xian was taken aback. Ignoring the Hun family's questioning, he opened the door again and poked his head out, looking carefully at the dark sky. In the distance, a rain of arrows seemed to be heard falling sharply towards all parts of the city.

At this time, a burst of golden gongs at the head of the city was sounded in a hurry, which was a warning signal from the Yuan army defending the city.

This rain of arrows was only a message, not an injury to the enemy. None of the arrows had sharp arrows, but a coarse cloth was tightly tied to the shafts. The arrows in the city suddenly alarmed the disturbance of the Yuan army and the people in the city, and soon the coarse cloth on these arrows was discovered, but the signals drawn on them were only understood by insiders, not by outsiders.

Some of the marked coarse cloth was quickly handed over to Meng Sanjie, Liang Si and others who were restless by the Yuan soldiers who were patrolling the night, both of them frowned, although they didn't know the role of the mark for a while, but the Jing'an army suddenly shot so many arrows into the city, obviously to contact the internal response in the city.

At the same time, in a county government compound in the distance, dozens of men in brocade clothes sat nervously in the hall, and a few incense stoves placed in the corners of the house could not bring them much warmth.

When the Jing'an army attacked the city during the daytime, it also shot a lot of leaflets into the city, calling on the people in the city to gather to resist the tyranny, promising that as long as they made a contribution, after the city was broken, the Jing'an army would naturally reward them for their merits and deeds, and would not investigate the past crimes.

Tonight, countless arrows with coarse cloth fell into the city, and the speed of the news they received was by no means slower than that of Meng Sanjie and the others.

"Hongda, what do you think this means?" One of them asked nervously.

"Needless to say? It's clear that the message is being delivered from outside the city to the inside of the city! The man called Hongda was dressed in green silk, with a cold face, and his left hand kept rubbing a huge jade wrench on his right finger, and replied in a deep voice.

"This city is about to be unsaved, and the reinforcements have not yet arrived, what do you say?" Someone said in a hurry.

The house was full of these people, young and old, dressed in bright clothes and silk and satin. There are a few fat heads and big ears, and the body is bloated, like Maitreya in the temple. If it weren't for the gray face, walking out into the street, it would inevitably be recognized by the foolish villagers as Maitreya's birth.

"If the Jing'an thief enters the city, everyone's fate goes without saying. If you want the sergeant to sacrifice his life to garrison, everyone has to continue to increase the weight, and donate some silver and treasure money! "Someone gritted his teeth and proposed.

"Donate! Lao Tzu has already offered 30,000 taels of silver! Donate again, there is no need for thieves to enter the city, Lao Tzu's wealth is exhausted, just go home and hang yourself! Immediately, there was a lot of distress.

"Don't be noisy! Who doesn't know that your Gu family is so rich? Over the years, you have handled less salt packets and salt leads? Sweeping the corners of the house is a jar of silver! Someone next to him ridiculed him.

"Nonsense, everyone knows the situation in my family, although there are some salt bags, but there are many gods of wealth who need to be honored! Not to mention the officials in our city, there are also checkpoints on the road, that is, Fucheng, Jinan Road, Jining Road, Baoding Road, Zhending Road, Zhangde Road, Guangping Road, is there still less dots along the way? ”

"Brother Bangyan's family has a big business, and this business has been done in Shaanxi and Gansu, where are we still struggling on Dongping Road and Hejian Road. It's just tens of thousands of taels, so why do you need pain? A colleague in the seat said lukewarmly. is also a salt taker, and the scale of his business along the way is obviously weaker than that of the other party, if it weren't for the hard background of the other party, each other would have broken their heads for the salt road.

Gu Bangyan jumped to his feet in anger. In terms of financial resources, almost all of the people under the seat are stomping their feet in Rizhao, and the ground is shaking, and none of them are good at stubble. The Gu family and the Yidu Lin family have intersected for many generations, and the industry has long blossomed and borne fruit in various parts of Shandong, especially the official salt and private salt.

Since ancient times, salt and iron are the most profitable, and whoever climbs these two will have no worries about wealth for several generations!

In today's troubled times, the profits of salt and iron are even more ferocious, and it is the time to make a big profit. It's a pity that this place was affected by the war, and the roots of the family were destroyed, and the local riches headed by the Gu family were naturally angry, so they actively responded to the official army to suppress bandits, exterminate thieves, donate silver treasure money, cattle and sheep silk silk, etc.

Although each family donated no less than 450,000 taels of silver with a market value, as soon as the war came, the money was like water, and in order to encourage the enthusiasm of the soldiers of the Yuan army and the righteous servants to defend the territory, Meng Sanjie and others wantonly rewarded the so-called meritorious soldiers, and spent seventy or eighty percent within three days.

These rich people, most of them accumulate money and only hate the little masters, watching the white flowers and silver handed over, anyone has the feeling of cutting meat. Thankfully, the real money did make a difference. The low morale was stimulated by the heavy rewards, and the defenders repelled the opponent's strong attacks several times.

However, this morale is one drum, two drums are declining, and three drums are exhausted. After all, the battlefield is like a slaughterhouse, countless enemy soldiers have been killed and wounded one after another, and after a long time, the army is trapped alone, and there are no reinforcements, and the army's morale is inevitably shaken. Seeing that most of the money was exhausted, Wu Yanerduo, Meng Sanjie and others had to raise donations from the wealthy families in the city again.

Everyone immediately talked about it, and no one wanted to pay more if they wanted to raise money. As he was talking, Liang Si, who was dressed in official uniform, strode out of the inner hall, and some officials had already told him about these people's discussions.

Liang Si had a cold face and coughed slightly, and all the rich people hurriedly dressed solemnly, nodding and bowing their heads.

Since ancient times, there has been a county order to break the family, and Yin Zhi, the government of the exterminating clan, said that Liang Si is the Yin of Rizhao County after all, and he holds the life and death of countless small people in the place.

"The war is fierce, the officers and soldiers are fighting hard, and now there are many dead and wounded, at this time, we should be united in hatred of the enemy and unite in the country. Now that the county treasury is empty, we still need to rely on your generosity to do more for the officials and soldiers to defend the city. ”

Seeing the bitter look on everyone's faces, Liang Si said impatiently: "The thieves slaughtered the place and brutalized the gentry's subordinates, you have already heard about it, this official does not need to say more, if the city is broken, what will happen to us." For the future, for the sake of Sangzi, although you have the pain of cutting flesh at the moment, but you can greatly increase the opportunity to protect the lives of the whole family, which is more important, why do you need to say more? ”

Everyone naturally knew that he was right, but the share of the donated money fell on him, and it always hurt, and he bared his teeth for a while and gasped for air. The sun is already near the sea, the sea breeze is cold, and at this time in winter, the cold wind blows into the hall, and everyone feels even more cold.

Liang Si changed his smile and said: "If you are generous, Rizhao City will turn from danger to safety, and this official will play a book to benefit the capital, and implore the governor's office to pardon the taxes for this year and next year, and the commission of the waterway pipe card will also be reduced to 30%. ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone in the hall couldn't help but be moved. Exemption from local taxes is just a drop in the bucket for them. In the later period of the Yuan Dynasty, finance and taxation gradually collapsed, land annexation was serious, and tax evasion and tax reduction by large households were already common. If they already pay less, they will not benefit much if they are reduced for another two years. However, the reduction of the proportion of the pipe card commission is of great significance. Each family privately buys the officials who manage the cards everywhere on the land and sea routes, and the county government officials everywhere, and the cost of passing the card for the circulation of this goods is really not low, and for this alone, each family can pay at least 80,000 taels of silver less every year.

Gu Bangyan's brain turned fast, so although he temporarily cut the meat, he could at least make up for most of it later, if he took the opportunity to take away some illicit salt, the profit would definitely be enough to earn! Looking at Liang Si's eyes, if he didn't express his stance tonight, no one would be let go easily, and he simply took the initiative to be a good person again.

"Since Lord Liang promises, the small people are naturally obedient. In addition, if the country is in trouble, how can there be any reason to stay out of the matter? Gu is willing to donate another 40,000 taels of silver and 60,000 treasure notes! ”

Some people took the lead, and the rest of the rich families looked at each other, and reluctantly signed and pledged to donate money, and the county master bookkeeper copied the details of each family, totaling no less than 400,000 silver bills.

Liang Si is overjoyed, with these rewards, there is no need to worry about the military in the next few days! Without further ado, a banquet was immediately held in the back hall to entertain everyone. Then let people fly to report to Wu Yanerduo and Meng Sanjie, and at the same time send the generals to each family to withdraw, the money cannot be withdrawn, and these rich people who donate must not leave.