Chen Lifu and his entourage of the carriage swayed in the cold wind, and walked for more than an hour before arriving outside Jinling City, when they arrived outside Jinling City, Chen Lifu looked out from the window of the carriage, and saw a group of young people building the road in the cold wind, looking into the distance, the young people who built the road were afraid that there were no less than thousands of people, from this vicinity to the vicinity of the city wall, and the ditch in the distance also had a large number of young people digging ditches.

There are also pseudo-Tang thieves armed with swords and spears on the side, supervising and guarding these young people.

Seeing this scene, Chen Lifu immediately frowned, and then muttered: "Harsh government, just after seizing Jiangnan, you want to build a lot of construction!" ”

After sighing, he simply asked the groom to pull up the curtains in front of the carriage and look on.

This place is not far from the city gate, looking from a distance, there is a large group of people waiting to enter the city at the city gate, and at the city head, you can vaguely see a lot of pseudo-Tang sergeants patrolling the city head, and there are many thousand pounds of heavy artillery placed on the city head.

The carriage continued to move forward, the closer it was to the city gate, the more people and carriages on the official road, and when it was dozens of meters away from the city gate, it turned out to be crowded, and a large group of people in front of them were queuing up to enter the city slowly, and there were many patrolmen wearing black uniforms on both sides to maintain order.

In addition, you can also hear someone at the gate of the city occasionally saying loudly: "After entering the city, you must keep order, do not litter, do not defecate anywhere, do not cross the road indiscriminately, and violators will be severely punished!" ”

However, the convoy of Chen Lifu and his party also stopped in the crowd, and at this time, without Chen Lifu's orders, the housekeeper had already stepped forward with a small servant, ready to find the patrol guard guarding the city gate to say a few words, and let them enter the city first.

Their master is a Jinshi, how can he wait in line with those mud-legged people, this is undignified!

After the housekeeper stepped forward to explain his intentions, the patrol police on the side did not stop him, nor did he ask for bribes or anything like that, but pointed to the small door next to him and said: "That's the fast lane, you can enter from where you don't want to queue!" ”

As soon as he heard this, the housekeeper turned his head to look, and sure enough, outside the city gate, it was separated by several wooden fences, and the other two were ordinary passages, and the crowd had to go through a search and queue up to enter the city, and there was another passage but there was no one there.

But when he walked in, there was a sign on it, with a line of big words on it: "Fast lane, skip the queue, one person or two!" ”

Seeing this, the housekeeper's face was a little weird, but naturally he didn't dare to say anything in front of the patrol police, so he immediately walked back quickly, and then told Chen Lifu.

When Chen Lifu heard this, this entry into the city is only for one person and one tael of silver, and their group of fifteen people, isn't it fifteen taels of silver?

Although their Chen family is a family of gentry, they can't help but be stunned when they hear this number, this pseudo-Tang thief is crazy about money.

But it is absolutely impossible for him to be a jinshi and go to line up to enter the city with those mud-legged people, not to mention that he also brought his wife and little sister.

Immediately, he said: "Take the fast track to enter the city!" ”

After the housekeeper listened, he nodded, and then prepared to pay the fee to enter the city, at this time, a carriage on the side was also heading towards the fast lane, but when he got there, he was stopped, and a person who looked like him outside the carriage muttered: "Our Wang family and even the Liyang Wang clan, why can't we take this fast road!" ”

Unexpectedly, the patrol officer sneered: "I can't take out a few taels of silver, and I still want to pay the money, so I will line up obediently to the side!" ”

It didn't take long for the carriage to obediently go to the side of the queue to line up, this person into the city for a tael of silver, this is really not cheap, and the queue is an extra quarter of an hour.

It's not worth spending a few taels of silver for a mere quarter of an hour's wait!

Chen Lifu looked at it and shook his head slightly, although he felt obedient when he heard it, he felt that what the patrol officer said was quite reasonable, but it was just a few taels of silver.

After the housekeeper stepped forward and handed over a full fifteen taels of silver, the Chen family and his envy and envy directly entered the city through the fast track, and some people exclaimed: "This is the big family, obediently, it is fifteen taels of silver, and it will be given in the blink of an eye!" ”

"I heard the housekeeper say just now, this is the Jinling East Chen family, otherwise, how can ordinary people have such a style!"

"The East Chen family, is that the Chen family with a three-entry scholar?" Someone else exclaimed: "No wonder, no wonder ......"

Hearing these words, Chen Lifu was a little depressed because he gave fifteen taels of silver, and he disappeared without a trace in an instant, and this money didn't seem to be spent very unjustly!

After entering the city, Chen Lifu simply sat on the side of the carriage and looked at the streets and shops of Jinling City, because as soon as he entered the city, he found that this Jinling City seemed to be different from before.

The street is still the same as before, and the shops on both sides of the street have not changed much, but it is very strange and gives him a feeling of great change.

Because the streets are extremely clean, there is no littering and debris, and the shops on both sides of the street, the streets that were originally illegally occupied, have also disappeared.

The whole street looks like it has a refreshing feeling!

What's also quite strange is that he didn't see beggars and homeless people on the streets.

You must know that even though Jinling City is one of the most prosperous cities in the south of the Yangtze River, beggars are still indispensable, especially in winter, when the corners of the streets are full of homeless beggars and beggars, and in the deep winter, there are often beggars and homeless people who are frozen to death.

But now, he didn't see any of them!

With doubts, Chen Lifu continued to look at the scene of Jinling City.

When the convoy passed by an intersection with a large number of people and carriages, it found that there was a patrol officer in the middle of the intersection who was maintaining order, and when the pedestrians and carriages at one intersection were advancing, the other three intersections were stopped.

After this succession, the Chen family's convoy only took a little waiting time to pass, which was unthinkable in the past.

Well, in the past, the Chen family's Chen team could pass through on a rampage without waiting, because they were the Chen family's team, but if it was an ordinary carriage, I am afraid that it would not be able to wait for a long time, and there were many accidents between carriages, horses, and pedestrians.

Jinling City is a bit big, and his old friend's house lives a little far away from the gate where he entered the city, so he first sent his wife and little sister to his wife's mother's house, and then continued to go to his old friend's house with a few retinues.

It's been a long walk before we reach the old friend's house.

This old friend of his, named Zhong Cai, is his classmate and friend, and he is also his predecessor in the field, a sergeant earlier than him, but like him, he was also dismissed because of the impeachment of important ministers, but Chen Lifu impeached Yan Song, and Zhong Cai impeached Wang Yiqi.

As a result, these two were dismissed within a month of each other!

Speaking of which, they are all unlucky babies, who tried to impeach important ministers and made a name for themselves, but they ended up losing their official positions, and they were all sad and tearful.

Soon, this group of brothers and sisters sat down together, and at this time, Chen Lifu couldn't help but ask about the situation in the city.

Although Chen Lifu also ordered the Tang Dynasty newspaper and was a loyal reader of the Tang Dynasty newspaper, the things said in the Tang Dynasty newspaper were generally big things, and ordinary small details would naturally not be said.

Therefore, he can only hearsay about many things in the Tang Dynasty, not to mention, he is also very confused about whether he will encounter many things when he enters the city.

"This fast-track matter, although it is convenient for us and other gentry, but it is indeed suspected of being unfair, the little brother has never heard of it, this Li Tang still has such a thing!" After the two talked, Chen Lifu asked.

Zhong Cai listened, and smiled: "As far as my brother knows, this entry fee was indeed not there before, it was only implemented in our Jinling City in the last few days, ordinary people enter the city, and it is naturally not necessary to take the ordinary city gate, and if you don't want to queue up, you can spend a small amount of money to enter the city through the fast lane."

As for why this fast track is set up, it is naturally to collect money! ”

"Collecting money?" Chen Lifu suddenly looked puzzled: "The weight of this Li Tang tax is unprecedented in all dynasties, it is rumored that this Li Tang tax can reach more than 10,000 taels a year, and the tax is so heavy that the people's livelihood is poor, why is there no money after such a heavy tax, why do you want to do such a small thing to collect money?" ”

Zhong Cai smiled slightly when he heard this: "This Li Tang collects a lot of money, but they also spend a lot of money, it is rumored that his army military expenses alone will cost more than 10 million taels a year, and the navy will have several million, and they also have a guard, this year, the more than 10 million taels of silver collected are enough, and the others don't know, but I have a classmate who is working in the Li Tang Rite Department in the past, and he said that their yamen often owes money, and in order to make up for office expenses, they all got a royal publishing house to compile and print books for sale. He also said that if it weren't for this royal press, most of the officials of their Ministry of Rites would have to drink the northwest wind! ”

"So serious?" Chen Lifu said: "This doesn't look like it, some time ago, the junior brother heard that the Jingshi Patrol Police Station set up by Li Tang recruited five hundred patrol officers at one time, and these are all paid!" ”

Zhong Cai said: "At this time, it is true, I have a son who is also recruited for the examination, although this patrol officer is suspected of being a servant of the previous dynasty, but this Li Tang official system is a little special, this patrol police also has an official body, and the lowest patrol officer is from the ninth grade." As for why the Jingshi Patrol Police Bureau recruits so many patrol officers, it is naturally because there are not so many people, and there are not enough hundreds of patrol officers in this huge Jinling City, as for what money to use to support them, I think, Brother Chen should be able to guess it! ”