Bianhe Town, here is the place where Li Zhang and Douzi and their children sell orioles together, struggling to survive, but since moving to the capital, Li Zhang has not been back for a long time, the Yizhuang of the year is still there, but it seems more dilapidated, in fact, Li Zhang later wanted to buy Yizhuang to build a courtyard, and you can bring your family to play when you are free, but thinking of Yizhuang is too unlucky, even if he doesn't care, but the family may not approve, so he can only give up.

As one of the hubs of the river transportation in the capital, Bianhe Town has become more and more prosperous in recent years, the area of the town has expanded several times, in addition to the shops, there are many more residences, after all, the land price in the capital has soared sharply, and there are too many people, so that many people have to move to settle outside the city, and Bianhe Town is a good choice here.

Li Zhang walked on the familiar and somewhat unfamiliar street with wild dogs, he returned to the capital last night, but because it was already dark at that time, the city gate had been closed, although Li Zhang suggested to Zhao Zhen that the curfew in the capital be completely lifted, but this matter was still being discussed, so Li Zhang could not enter the city gate, so he simply stayed in the inn in Bianhe Town for one night.

Revisiting the old place, so Li Zhang was not in a hurry to go back today, but only took the wild dog here for a while, and the wild dog has not been here for a long time, thinking of the scene when he met Li Zhang here, he also felt a little emotional.

The Bianhe wharf is still as busy and messy as before, the topless coolies with shoulder pads, like worker ants loading and unloading goods, and the outside of the wharf are all kinds of vendors, and Li Zhang also saw the signboard of cooking cake Liu from afar, thinking that when he sold ori and braised pork, his favorite food was their cooking cake, and later Li Zhang entered the capital and handed over the braised meat business on the wharf to the cooking cake Liu father and son.

"Do you want to eat cookbread?" Li Zhang asked the wild dog next to him with a smile.

"Fifteen!" The wild dog smiled and said, this was his previous amount of food, and fifteen heads of cooking cakes could barely fill his stomach.

Li Zhang also laughed when he heard this, so the wild dog walked over, the stall where Liu Flowing was cooking cake is now a fixed shop, and there is a braised meat shop next to it, which is also theirs, and the braised meat is also from the braised meat shop of Li Zhang's family in the capital, so many years have passed, and the two still maintain business contacts.

There are tables and chairs outside the braised meat shop, and there are also part-time porridge sellers, it is now past the busiest time in the morning, but there are still many people eating here, Li Zhang and the wild dog found a seat to sit down, after asking for four bowls of porridge, Li Zhang went to cook cakes, and the wild dog went to buy braised meat.

"How many cookcakes do you want?" The middle-aged man in the cake shop saw Li Zhang and immediately greeted him warmly, Li Zhang also recognized the other party at a glance as the son of Cooking Cake Liu, I haven't seen him for so many years, Li Zhang has grown up from a child, so it is normal for the other party not to recognize him, as for the cooking cake Liu, he didn't see it, it is estimated that he is old, so the business matters will be handed over to his son.

"Sixteen large pancakes!" Li Zhang smiled and discharged eight copper coins and said with a smile, not recognizing the other party.

Seeing the copper coin given by Li Zhang, Liu's son was also stunned, and then couldn't help laughing: "Guest officer, the cooking cake in the small shop is a copper coin." ”

"The price has gone up? Didn't it be one or two before? Li Zhang also asked with some surprise when he heard this.

"That's the price of the old age's month, and now the price of everything in the capital has risen, and the flour is more expensive than before, and the small shop can't do business at a loss, right?" Liu's son could only open his mouth to explain.

Li Zhang also slapped his head when he heard this, really, after so many years, it is impossible for the cooking cakes to be the price of the year, so he also smiled and made up eight copper coins, and then sixteen cooking cakes were piled up in a bamboo basket and sent to him.

Returning to his seat with a bamboo basket, the wild dog also bought his own braised pork, the two of them got up in the morning and didn't have breakfast, they were going to eat in the town, but now they met Liu's shop for cooking cakes, and naturally solved it here, and according to the wild dog, the price of braised meat has also risen, which Li Zhang really didn't pay attention to, don't look at the business is his, but the family's business has long been handed over to Qingzhi to manage, and he usually doesn't have time to ask.

However, although the price has risen, the cooking cake and braised pork are still the taste of the year, and the rice porridge of the Liu family is also boiling well.

After breakfast, Li Zhang and the wild dog walked around the town, but when they came to the east of the town, they found a hot scene in front of them, and Li Zhang also walked over curiously, but found that the river was being dug here.

Because the river water will bring sediment, which will be deposited year by year, which will lead to siltation of the river, it is necessary to clean the river regularly, that is, after the upstream of the river is blocked, the river water will dry up, and then the silt in the river will be dug out, and the river digging is generally organized by the government to recruit the nearby people to work without compensation, which is also a kind of forced labor, even in the era in which Li Zhang lived, this kind of forced labor still existed, and it was not completely abolished until the nineties.

In general, the conscription is the unpaid labor of the people under the requisition of the government, and the rich can spend money to hire people to serve on their behalf, and this kind of conscription generally has a huge amount of labor, such as the digging of the river in front of him, in addition to the construction of the Great Wall on the side of Yanyun, and the reconstruction of Xinzhou City, etc., those conscripted people are serving in the conscription.

I saw that although there is no water in the river, there is silt everywhere, and people who have never worked may not know that the silt is simply heavy, and the silt still has suction, and it takes several times the strength to shovel up a piece of silt, and the people in the river are also tired at this time, and their bodies are splashed with mud, which looks like a mud man.

Relatively speaking, digging rivers is still relatively easy, although tired, but not dangerous, if you are conscripted for military service it will be even worse, military service is not for you to go into battle, but to be responsible for the transportation of materials, as well as the construction of roads, etc., these are near the battlefield, in case the enemy kills, maybe even the life will be lost.

Looking at these people in front of him, Li Zhang also thought of the recent criticism of current affairs by Song Qi, Han Qi and others, and now this trend has swept from the court to the people, and when many scholars gather, they are no longer discussing poetry and songs, but discussing whether the Great Song Dynasty needs to be reformed, what aspects will be moved if the reform is to be moved, and what kind of risks will be caused.

In fact, if it is a normal conscription, such as digging a river in front of you, it will not have much impact on the people if you take out a few days every year, after all, the country needs these water conservancy, and after repairing the river, the people will benefit, but the key is that the conscription of the Great Song Dynasty is too heavy, which has affected the normal livelihood of the people, and even some people have gone bankrupt due to conscription.

And conscription is only one of the internal ills of the Great Song Dynasty, and there are other shortcomings in various aspects, some of which are more serious than conscription, such as land annexation, which is also the main reason why Han Qi and those people advocate change, after all, if this continues, sooner or later, the Great Song Dynasty will one day repeat the tragedy of the later dynasties, even earlier and more violent than other dynasties.

Li Zhang is very clear about the history of the Great Song Dynasty, although he helped the Great Song Dynasty make many changes, especially the military weakness was completely reversed by him, and even recovered Yanyun and defeated the powerful Liao State, but the internal ills of the Great Song Dynasty have not been eliminated because of this, and even some aspects are more acute, if it is not changed, maybe a few decades later, the Great Song Dynasty will embark on the original old path, after all, the inertia of history is too strong.

Thinking of the above, Li Zhang couldn't help but sigh, it seems that he is destined to work hard, he has just finished solving the external threat of the Great Song Dynasty, and the internal problems have come, if Zhao Zhen really decides to clean up the internal ills, he will definitely need to worry about it.

Although Zhao Zhen's attitude is not known yet, with Li Zhang's understanding of him, especially after defeating the party and the Liao State one after another, Zhao Zhen's self-confidence has greatly increased, so he is likely to agree to use the knife internally, it is just a difference in time.

"Let's go into town!" Li Zhang immediately said to the wild dogs beside him, and after speaking, he turned around and left the embankment, since he has returned, these problems above will have to be faced sooner or later.