"How to deal with it", this is indeed a very troublesome question. There is a huge distance between understanding the intentions of the "thieves" and being able to crack their tricks. This distance was not crossed by a few gentry present at the meeting. To crack it, it is actually quite simple, as long as the imperial court officials and troops can quickly fight over and expel Huang Zide's forces from Xiangyang and even the entire Jianghan Plain. But if there is no army of the imperial court that can defeat, or at least hope to defeat Huang Zide, then what these gentry can do is actually very limited.

Thinking about this clearly, the gentlemen at the party only sighed, and after a while, someone sighed: "There is no dead to repay the court; There is no future without the living. Now that our gentry in Jianghan have come out of Li Yuanwai, reporting the deceased of the imperial court, the rest of the heavy responsibility of 'planning for the future' will fall on us people. 'The only death through the ages', it is naturally not easy to kill yourself and serve the court. However, it is even more difficult to endure humiliation and bear the burden for the future. Cheng Yingjiu, we should share it with Li Yuanwai. ”

Cheng Ying and Gongsun Pestle were both guests of the Zhao family, a famous family in the Jin Kingdom in the Spring and Autumn Period, and characters in the legendary story "The Orphan of Zhao". When the Zhao family was facing the catastrophe of extermination, Gongsun Pestle sacrificed his life to protect the Zhao orphans; Cheng Ying raised the orphan Zhao Wu to adulthood, and eventually revived the Zhao family. This person mentioned Cheng Ying and Gongsun Pestle at this time, and the meaning was very obvious, that is to say, everyone should not be the first bird, first and the thief and the snake, and then the court will be prosperous in the future, and then seize the opportunity to suddenly attack and remove the filth for the court. To put it more clearly, it is to pretend to be cowardly first, and then wait for the opportunity to copy the guy and do it.

Everyone nodded one after another, after all, "the only death through the ages is difficult", not a last resort, "then why not those who can be lived"? As for whether Cheng Ying will really be done in the future, then who knows, but at least, there is no need to be a gongsun pestle for now.

Several people are sighing, and some even propose to write a poem to commemorate Li Yuanwai, who made Gongsun Pestle. Saying this, someone turned out the rhyme book and began to limit the rhyme, and someone was about to write a preface, and when everyone was about to write a poem, suddenly a small servant came in to report, saying that Huang Zide's Marshal's Mansion suddenly gave an order, saying that it was to ask each household to report the population and property.

"Huh?" The gentry who were still brewing poetry just now, and their hearts were full of loyalty, and their faces changed. A white-bearded man trembled and said, "Everyone, Zhang Gong, how is this good?" ”

That "Zhang Gong" was still a little calm, and he said first: "Don't panic, gentlemen. Let's wait for Lao Er to ask about the situation before making a claim. ”

Everyone fell silent. The "Zhang Gong" asked, "How many thieves came?" ”

The little guy knelt there and replied, "Master Qiqi, more than 20 cavalrymen have come from the thieves. They only shouted twice outside the village, then posted a notice on the big tree outside the village and left. ”

Hearing that the thief had left, everyone sitting in the small flower hall breathed a sigh of relief. Then I heard "Zhang Gong" ask again: "What about the notice?" ”

"Here." The kneeling little guy said as he took out a folded piece of paper from his bosom.

"Hand it over." "Zhang Gong" said.

The little man got up from the ground, handed the notice with both hands, and then took a few steps back, hung his hands, and waited there with his head bowed.

"Zhang Gong" raised his eyes and glanced at him, waved his hand, and said lightly: "You go down first, close the door, and don't let people approach." ”

The little guy answered, and went out backwards, shutting the door with his hand.

Seeing that the little guy had gone out, "Zhang Gong" unfolded the notice and looked at it. The text on this notice is so simple that it is almost vernacular. There is not much content, basically what the little guy said earlier, but he just asked each Zhuangzi to send people to the general's mansion in the county seat to register the population and land.

"Zhang Gong, what do you say here? But to collect taxes? One person couldn't help but ask.

"It's just that the land and population are reported, and there is no mention of tax collection, but it is said that it will be exempted this year. In addition, he also said that if we didn't report it, the bullshit Marshal's Mansion of the thieves would not be able to effectively protect us. Hehe, we still need him to protect him? But that's some kind of threat, isn't it? "Zhang Gong" said as he handed the notice in his hand to the person who asked the question, "Brother Meizhi can take a look for yourself." ”

Hearing that the notice did not require the payment of taxes, and that it would be exempted this year, the people in the flower hall breathed a sigh of relief. But when they heard the second half, everyone generally raised their hearts again. The "beautiful brother" took the notice, and the others also came up to see it together. Looking at it, they all let out such a sneer.

"Is it ridiculous that thieves don't even have children? A notice, so crudely written! Don't you know how the official documents of the government are written? "A way.

"If you can be a child, who will be a thief?" Another disdainful way.

"Not necessarily." The "beautiful brother" said, "I heard that in Henan, there are people who throw people into thieves!" ”

"Huh?" Everyone was taken aback, and then they all asked.

"I heard that it was a man surnamed Niu," "Brother Mei" replied, "It is said that he was once a student of Wang Yannian." Some time ago, this nephew surnamed Niu sent his nephew to visit Wang Yannian, trying to persuade Wang Yannian to be a thief. was beaten out by Wang Yannian, and it is said that Wang Yannian recited Mr. Wen Wenshan's sentence 'Who has not died in life since ancient times', saying that he would rather die than be a thief. ”

"Wang Yannian's house is a eunuch, and he is also worthy of reciting Mr. Wen Wenshan's poems? I said how could there be a thief, it turned out that Wang Yannian, a eunuch, taught it! If there is a teacher, there must be a disciple! The other said with disdain.

So everyone showed a disdainful color together.

"If you want to say that this king is prolonged, there is one thing that is still very admirable." "Brother Mei" said, "That's death for money!" Hehe, if you provoke a thief, it's too late for people to save their lives, only this Wang Yannian actually continues to do his grain business with all his heart. I heard that he has earned a lot this year. ”

"This guy shouldn't be a set on the surface, but behind the scenes, he is ...... with thieves," one person said suspiciously.

"It's hard to say, it's hard to say." The others said the same.

"It's not clear." "Brother Mei" also said, "But this guy sent his son and mother-in-law to Jiangnan, and it shouldn't have fallen to the thief." But this guy has always been shameless, maybe he is stepping on two boats. ”

"That's it!" Everyone despised Wang Yannian again.

After everyone scolded for a while, the "beautiful brother" said again: "Wang Yannian's guy has another sentence that is very interesting." He said, "You can't keep too much of this grain." If one day, thieves suddenly rush over, won't they all become thieves? It's better to exchange it for silver. Silver is not like grain, but it can be hidden everywhere. Find a place to dig a pit, and you can hide a large pile of silver; If one person hides it, ten thousand people, one hundred thousand people can't find it. Therefore, if there is a way to exchange grain for silver, it is better to exchange it for silver as soon as possible. To say that this guy has spent a little bit of caution on such a thing, he is really a complete villain. ”

Everyone shook their heads together, but secretly kept these words in their hearts. Some people wondered how to find a way and quickly sold the grain. At the same time, he was secretly jealous that Wang Yannian might have stepped on two boats.

"Let's not talk about this, how to deal with the matter of registering the land population? The thief said, 'It can't be effectively protected,' which is not a good thing. One man said again.

Everyone fell silent. After a while, the "Zhang Gong" said: "This is only improvisation." In short, drag it if you can, but don't have a hard top. We want to be Cheng Ying, not Gongsun Pestle. ”

Everyone nodded their heads together. Then someone said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid that my family has also received this notice from the thief, and I will rush back to deal with this matter as soon as possible." ”

So more people stood up and said goodbye to "Zhang Gong......

……

After attacking Lijiapu, Luo Mengde rested for a while, then set out again and attacked a Zhuangzi called Hujiawan. He still used a cannon to blast open the wall first, and then killed it, killing Master Hu's family, and then robbing Master Hu's money and food. Like last time, he didn't kill indiscriminately among ordinary people.

It's the same as last time, when Luo Mengde finishes killing people and robbing things, and there is no shadow left, the people from the Marshal's Mansion will come to preside over the division of land and land.

If anything, the frequency of Luo Mengde's attacks on Zhuangzi everywhere has increased significantly. A day after this attack, Luo Mengde attacked Zhaojiazhuang again; Then, after a day's rest, Luo Mengde attacked two more Zhuangzi in one day.

And the rich people soon discovered that those who were attacked by Luo Mengde had not completed the reporting of the land population, and even deliberately obstructed it, and there was a conflict with the military reclamation of the "thieves" who recruited the displaced people. As a result, the speed of declaration of land and the expansion of military reclamation villages was greatly accelerated.

At the same time, in order to avoid the death of the whole family in the attack of the "thieves" and the looting of all the family property, the gentry constantly sent their children away from Jianghan, and at the same time competed to sell the grain into silver that was easy to hide. In the whole market, while grain prices have risen markedly, grain prices in the Jianghan area have unexpectedly shown a downward trend.

In the midst of such changes, Huang Zide's grain reserves, which were already close to exhaustion, began to grow rapidly, and he not only stored enough grain to support the summer harvest, but even sold a lot of grain to the surrounding areas at a high price, recovering a lot of money.

"Now that there is enough food and grass, as soon as this winter is over, we can go to Sichuan." Looking at the grain on the account, Huang Zide said to Xuan Yi.