Xuzhou, known as Pengcheng in ancient times.

It is bordered by Yanzhou in the north, Linyi and Si Erzhou in the east, Song and Hao in the west, and Haozhou in the south, which belongs to Henan Province.

Xuzhou is a place where soldiers must fight since ancient times, and later generations have the name of "the thoroughfare of the five provinces" and "Oriental Athens", and it is the hometown of Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, and Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu.

In order to relive the warmth of his homeland, Zhu Li passed through Sizhou without stopping, and went straight to Xuzhou, whether it was in the past life or in this life, this is his hometown, and the local love is deep, and it is impossible to give up.

Yongfengli, Feng County, Zhu Li's ancestral land, was originally a small town, but now it is a ruined wall, ten rooms and nine empty.

Occasionally, a villager in ragged clothes with a vegetable-covered face secretly poked his head out, glanced at Zhu Li and the others, and quickly shrank back.

Now the people, not only afraid of the government, but also afraid of the army, Zhu Li and his party, most of them are tall horses, armed with guns and swords, and the villagers are not afraid, this cowardly scene makes people sad in vain.

Since the sixth year of Qianfu, Zhu Li fled his hometown with his parents, and four years have passed so far, he has grown from a thirteen-year-old boy to a sixteen-year-old general, and he is about to celebrate the New Year, and he will be seventeen after the New Year.

But what about the hometown, compared to the scene in the memory, it seems to be even worse, in the memory of fusion, the hometown at that time was not as poor and dilapidated as it is now.

The vicissitudes of life, things are people, and it is chilling to look at.

Suddenly, in the oblique thorn, a figure appeared, the old bedding, which was already dirty and could not distinguish the color, was wrapped in the whole body of this person, and I saw him staggering, like a headless fly, rushing towards everyone.

The person who came was unsteady, three or two steps was a heel, and the short distance made him fall four or five times.

This situation Zhu Li is very familiar with, I remember that in the ranks of the homeless, there are often people who have such a situation, which is hungry, hungry and cold, making people dizzy, limbs weak, and even unable to walk.

As soon as he saw the arrival, Zhu Li hurriedly jumped off the horse, walked quickly to meet the man, and reminded him eagerly: "Be careful." ”

Before the voice fell, he greeted the man, didn't mind the dirty smell on the other party's body, hugged his shoulder, and held the person steadily.

It was a young man, his face covered in thick dirt, his lips were dry, his eyes were blank, and he was shimping, as if he wanted to speak, but in the end he didn't say anything.

"Zaixing, let's find a place, boil some hot water, and soak the steamed buns." In this case, Zhu Li knows how to deal with it, people are so hungry that they can't give him steamed buns directly, if they are not careful, they may choke the other party to death, which is the experience left behind.

Zhu Li's instructions, everyone did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly chose a larger courtyard, the courtyard has long been gone, and a group of people directly settled in it.

The search for firewood, the pot of pots, and the boiling of water, hurried, very urgent, the ladies in the carriage also stepped out of the carriage, and there were familiar little maids and servants, who hurriedly stepped forward to help, and the others began to clean and clean the room.

Zhu Li hugged Xiao Lang, who was about to starve to death, and with the help of Yang Zaixing, he sorted out an empty bed and laid Xiao Lang flat on the bed. hurriedly took out a steamed bun, carefully tore it into small pieces, and fed it to Xiaolang's mouth piece by piece.

The other party was already half starved to death, Zhu Li was afraid that if he didn't wait for the hot water to boil, if this person died, he would be busy in vain, so let him eat some food first, just be careful.

A group of people, busy for most of the day, finally snatched this half-starved little man back from the ghost door, this little guy is only twelve or thirteen years old, even the steamed buns with soup and water, he ate seventeen in one go, even Yang Zaixing, who has always been known for his meals, was stunned by the other party's ability to eat, is this the reincarnation of a starving ghost?

After eating, Xiao Lang also had the spirit, looking at the eyes of Zhu Li and the others, he was indescribably grateful, he never thought that these high-ranking nobles would help him, he was just very hungry and wanted to come out to find something to eat.

"Why are you so hungry that no one in the town has anything to eat?" Zhu Li frowned slightly, he was also a villager in the village, could he just watch a villager starve to death directly, and no one would pay attention to it?

Xiao Lang glanced at a few people timidly, and finally opened his mouth: "No, the government has taken away all the surplus grain, everyone can only lie in the house next to each other, and when they are hungry, they will rub a few snow balls to deal with it, so that they can last a few more days." ”

"If all the grain is taken away, will the government not care if you live or die?" Yan Keqiu was puzzled and asked.

Xiao Lang was a little cowardly, turned his head and peeked at him, and whispered: "I can't take care of it, I heard that the probation army is fighting again, and the military rations cannot be arrears; Also, what we turn in is only what we should hand. ”

"It should be handed in, what do you mean?" Zhu Li was puzzled.

"Even our income is not enough to pay taxes." The boy was cowardly, and his voice was lower.

All the income is not enough to pay taxes, what taxes are so heavy, is this really a local parent official, can he do it, if this is the case, I have to wonder if this probationary military festival makes Shi Pu want the people to commit suicide.

Zhu Li is naturally not the only one who is puzzled, the others are also very confused, Yan Keqiu frowned, and said: "For the way of the king, the people must be saved first, if the people are damaged to save their bodies, they will still cut their shares to eat their stomachs, and their stomachs will be full and they will die." ”

"At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Datang took the "Rent Adjustment Law" as the tax collection standard; After the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, due to the massive loss of household registration and serious land annexation, Dezong adopted Yang Yan's suggestion to tax from the land, commonly known as the "two tax laws"; As far as Yan knows, neither the "Rent Adjustment Law" nor the "Two Taxes Law" have ever appeared that it is not enough for all the people's income to pay taxes, unless it is ......" Yan Keqiu seemed to think of something, and he stopped talking.

Seeing that everyone didn't believe him, Xiaolang was a little panicked, for fear of being treated as a bad boy who lied, so he hurriedly reminded him: "Haven't you heard of tax evasion, sir?" ”

"Tax evasion?" Zhu Li's expression became more and more puzzled.

But as soon as these three words came out, many people in Zhu Li's party looked shocked, and their faces immediately turned pale, giving people a feeling of palpitations, and Yan Keqiu also looked like this.

"Sir, know about this tax?" Zhu Li frowned, glanced at Yan Keqiu, and asked suspiciously.

Yan Keqiu naturally knew that their father and daughter were reduced to black households because they could not bear the burden of this kind of tax, and in the end, they had to beg along the street to barely survive.

Swallowing a mouthful of spit fiercely, Yan Keqiu said in a low voice: "General, this kind of tax appeared in the early Tang Dynasty, but later, it became more and more serious. ”

"At the end of the day, it is the consequence of the increasing annexation of land, which is serious, making the people's taxes more and more onerous, and in the end, they can only end up with no way to make a living, this place can no longer survive, and the people have to leave their homes and become runaways."

"Yes, after the rule of Zhenguan, the evasion has not been eradicated, but the local government does not care about these at all, in order to collect enough taxes with quality and quantity, the government will share the tax service of the evasion households to the neighbors to bear, this kind of tax is called 'tax evasion', the implementation of tax evasion, but also forced more and more fugitives in the Tang Dynasty, and the people are getting poorer and poorer." Han Zhong took Yan Keqiu's words and continued to add.

When Zhu Li heard this, he was speechless for a long time, no wonder the villagers who stayed in the town lived so hard.

When the war disaster was first encountered, the townspeople fled almost eight or nine times out of ten, just imagine, the people originally paid one stone of grain per household, which was enough to offset taxes; But after ninety percent of the people fled, they needed to pay ten stone of grain to be considered a full tax, and the tax skyrocketed tenfold, so it was strange if they didn't starve to death.

Speaking of which, these villagers are so poor, and there are also reasons for their own family, which makes him feel very guilty.

But the root cause is not the fleeing villagers, but the local government, but now is not the time to think about these, I am afraid that the other villagers left in the town will not be in a good situation.

Zhu Li didn't dare to slack off, and immediately ordered Yang Zaixing and Jing Ming to lead nearly a hundred ghost warriors to buy food in the nearby more prosperous towns, and at the same time asked Shen Ji and Xu Jian to explore the town, count how many villagers are still here, and personally take Yu Chijin to appease and visit.

Although these villagers almost don't know him anymore, and he can't call each other's names, these people, after all, are his fellow villagers, and he has to take care of the relationship between bones and tendons.

After a busy day or two, the remaining fifty or sixty villagers in the town were finally fed, warmly dressed, and a little angry, and Zhu Li was relieved.

In the dilapidated and dilapidated courtyard, Zhu Li looked at Yan Keqiu and said seriously: "Sir, these villagers of mine all fled at the beginning, and then they came back, obviously because of the difficulty of leaving their homeland; I can't get them away, and if I let them stay here, the end will be miserable, and how can I help them? ”

Yan Keqiu heard this, frowned slightly, and arched his hand: "General, it is Shi Pu who reforms the military festival, this person is cruel and deceitful, and there are greedy officials such as Chen Fan to help him abuse, if you want to change the lives of these people, you must kill Shi Pu, Chen Fan and others, otherwise, even if the general can save them for a while, it will definitely not be a long-term solution." ”

Zhu Li's face was gloomy, but he had to admit that what Yan Keqiu said was very reasonable, since the root cause came from the government, then he had to change the parents of the people, which was the way to cure the root cause.

Zhu Li was silent, obviously agreeing with his opinion, so Yan Keqiu continued: "My subordinates have heard that last year, the former Wuning Jiedu envoy sent Shi Pu, Chen Fan and others west into Guanzhong to suppress the grass thieves; The army marched to Heyin, when Pu Jiao Zhi was detailed, slaughtered Heyin, raided Zhengzhou, and then returned to Pengcheng, forced away Zhi Shen, claiming to stay behind, it can be seen that this person is by no means a good kind, there is such a person sitting in Xuzhou, the people of Xuzhou can not be bitter, as long as their people reign for a day, the people of Xuzhou do not think about it. ”