After Yuan Zhutou left, Pi Yang stared at the straw mat for half an hour, the sky was bright, he took a pistol and a dagger, hid the burden, and after going down the mountain, he arrived at Guandu River Town along the river bank, this town is much more than Duhe Town, and there are market streets in the town, most of the streets are inns, and the merchants from Jiangling Mansion to and from Padang County mainly gather here.

After the east archway, there is a narrow mouth in the tributary of the Yangtze River, only about 50 meters wide, a stone and wood structure bridge spans in the meantime, the bridge pier is made of big stones, the bridge is connected by giant trees, the wide and thick wooden planks are laid on it, the name of the bridge is called Sidu River.

There are small officials and a small number of officials on both sides of the bridge, in order to prevent the bridge from breaking, during which the passage of cars and horses is prohibited, the merchants must store the carriages and the goods on both sides of the bank, and then cross the river on foot, if you need to carry a certain weight of trade materials, you can declare to the small officials in the small building, and then transported by manpower.

Manpower is naturally not free, a large number of porters gathered at the bridgehead can be hired, these people are in rags, each hand is a flat shoulder, and the hemp rope is dusted on the shoulder, and when they meet people, they will smile and ask: "Guest officer, do you have any goods?" ”

If you do big business, you usually have a small house around you, so is it not possible to move and run by your own small house? - No, you can't move it yourself! You have to hire a porter, or you won't let it go.

However, there is more ruthlessness, the cost of hiring manpower to carry it is not determined by the porter, but by the clerk according to the weight of the goods, and the porter must register his name, the time of crossing the bridge, and the amount of money he can get before crossing the bridge. Before the clerk leaves work, half of the manpower fee will be charged as tax according to the registration form.

It is said that this is the rule set by the former magistrate, and it is said that it will increase the tax revenue of Padang County, but in fact, it is a clever name to fill his own pockets. The merchants who came and went were miserable, and they jokingly called it the bridge miscellaneous tax, which means extortion tax.

When Pi Yang came empty-handed, the porters saw that he was not carrying the goods, and after automatically filtering them out, they looked forward to the next taxpayer.

He walked straight to the bridge, and was just about to get on the bridge, when two officials set up weapons to block the way, and said angrily: "You kid, you don't know the rules!" Register to go! ”

"Registration?" Pi Yang was stunned for a moment, and said suspiciously: "I didn't carry the goods, where did I go to the door?" ”

The official said angrily: "If you are told to go, you will go, don't be verbose!" ”

Pi Yang suppressed his anger and took a deep breath, saying that more things are better than less things, so he turned around and walked towards the duty building. ”

Isn't this nonsense? But who is Jiang here? Pi Yang glanced at him angrily, walked around, the thin man hurriedly stretched out his hand to stop, glanced around, and lowered his voice and said: "Guest officer, slow, if you hit the bridge, with your physique, this number!" ”

Pi Yang saw him gesturing with two fingers, and exclaimed: "Twenty dollars? Now pedestrians have to pay taxes when crossing bridges? Is there a fucking royal law left? ”

The thin man said: "Who said it wasn't, they all said that the new Master Kou was an honest official, but I didn't expect it to be more ruthless than Cheng Zhixian, I'll tell you a more terrible one," he smiled: "It's not twenty dollars, it's two hundred dollars!" The guest officer is not as good as...."

Pi Yang was furious when he heard this, pushed the thin man away, pulled his legs and walked to the duty room, my day, one person is two hundred yuan, five people are consistent, and the pedestrians who pass by in a day will have to be two or three hundred, that is, sixty times, not counting the 'extortion tax' paid by the porter, the benefits here are not small, he Kou Zhun dares to risk the world's condemnation, and do such a thing that loses his conscience?

He walked to the door of the duty room, stepped in, and saw that the hall was full of businessmen waiting for registration, and the registration clerk sitting behind the desk was surrounded by water, wiping sweat while writing like flying, and shouting loudly: "Don't worry, don't worry, come one by one!" ”

Pi Yang didn't care about thirty-seven twenty-one, he squeezed in with brute force, and the people who were squeezed away were furious, and shouted one after another: "Eh-are there any rules?" He ignored the crowd, but in a moment he squeezed to the desk.

The registered clerk had never seen such an unruly person, holding a pen in his hand, glaring angrily: "Bold, you dare to disturb the order of the public court, come here!" ”

"Smack!" only heard a crisp sound, and before the cruel words were finished, what responded to him was a loud slap, and the little official suddenly felt that his eyes were full of gold stars, and there was a roar in his ears. The merchants in the room were also dumbfounded, who did they not know life and death so much?

Pi Yang grabbed the collar of the little official, lifted him in the air, and said coldly: "Let me ask you, this pedestrian has to pay taxes when crossing the bridge, but Kou Zhun's order?" ”

The little official shook his head vigorously with his eyes in confusion, and when he woke up, he found that he was half-lifted in the air, and suddenly screamed, and then fluttered desperately: "Beat your life, beat your life, shrimp!" Half of his face was swollen, his mouth was like a ball of cotton, and his speech was slurred.

Pi Yang was impatient when he heard this, and simply threw a big mouth at the other half of his face: "Damn, it's like killing a pig, and if you call me again, I'll fight again!" "How can the little official still have the energy to scream, he has already been fanned to a lot, his head is drooping, and blood foam is flowing in his mouth.

At this time, a beautiful man with a beautiful beard slowly walked on the second floor, about thirty years old, with long eyebrows and thin eyes, a high nose bridge, thin lips, wearing a satin gown, a jade belt around his waist, and long boots, staring at Pi Yang coldly, and said unhurriedly: "Who is Your Excellency?" What do you want? ”

Pi Yang waved his hand: "You wait, I'll throw a garbage first!" As soon as he turned around, he was about to go to the door, but there was no need to squeeze now, and the merchants automatically gave way to a passage. A handsome young man in the crowd saw his face clearly, and whispered to the black-faced boy next to him, "Little... Young master, you see, it's the guy in the broken temple. ”

"I've seen it," the black-faced man said softly, "don't squeak yet, and see what he wants to do." ”

With a scream, Pi Yang had thrown the little official out of the door, and when he turned around, he saw the beautiful man with a gloomy smile on his face, and there were six more men in horse coats behind him, all of whom had horizontal faces, their arms thicker than the bowl, and the placket on their chests was tightly propped up.

Pi Yang dusted his eye sockets, as if he didn't see the six big men, and while walking inside, he turned around and pointed out the door and said, "I guess he can't answer the question I just asked, this brother, why don't you answer me?" ”

"Oh? I wonder what question you asked? The man sneered.