Yang He and others naturally entered the city from the "Wanghuai Gate" in the south of the city, and there were some strong people guarding the city gate. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

These strong squads all wore arrow-sleeved green clothes, covered with red cloth uniforms, wrapped in red ribbons around their waists, wore yarmulus scarves, feathers in the brim of their hats, and pinned iron rulers and waist knives, similar to the dress of Liu Kedi, the fat soap.

There are three classes of officials, and the strong class is responsible for guarding the city gates, yamen, and warehouses, escorting prisoners, escorting food and wages, and patrolling places, and there are hundreds of them in each state and county.

Most of these people are foxes and fake tigers, and they have no combat effectiveness, and the people also call them "fox classes", which means that these people will only rely on official authority, and they can't count on it if they really fight.

It has even become a civil scourge, such as robbing along the road when escorting prisoners, and part-time bandits.

At this time, these people were also lazily basking in the sun, eating snacks and chatting, and the head of the team was leaning on the city gate to close his eyes and recuperate.

They have the responsibility to be responsible for the safety of the city and to check the pedestrians, but they dare not stop those who are a little brightly dressed.

There is also a tax bureau in charge of tax collection, and when the trucks enter the city, there are tax collectors who specifically check the tax guide, so the only role of these people may be to prevent refugees from entering the city, or to blow their beards and glare at some small people, and see an opportunity to blackmail one or two people.

There are commanders and thousands of households in Pizhou City, but in the case of the army and the people in the same city, the city gate is generally in charge of the people, although there are military households and banner troops in the city, in fact, they are not necessarily better than these people.

When Yang He and the others rode over, they didn't care about it after a few glances, and even turned a blind eye to the weapons and equipment obviously carried by the horses.

The second is that the Han regime generally acquiesces that the people can have five soldiers, bows, arrows, knives, shields, and short spears, all of which can be held, especially in this troubled world, it is common to carry weapons for self-defense.

At this time, the people in the north can basically find one or two bows, and there are even more swords and shields.

However, the long soldiers can not be collected, the crossbow can not be collected, and the armor is strictly prohibited.

However, Yang He and the others went over, and Liu Kedi, the fat soap who led the horse, was still recognized by these strong officials, and they greeted one after another: "It's Liu Fatzi......"

"Liu Sanlang, why did you skip work? Beware of your head's wrath. ”

"Master Liu, it's rare to see you, drinking on the street at night."

"Liu Sanlang, how did you become a leader?"

Liu Kedi, the fat soap li, also skillfully greeted these people, and he said proudly: "What is leading the horse and not leading the horse, do you know who this is?" defeated the Jiaoshan bandits' Xin'an Zhuang Yang Xianggong. ”

Immediately, the eyes of these strong people were different, and the team leader who was leaning against the city gate and closed his eyes to recuperate was also solemn.

Yang He glanced at these people a few times, shook his head secretly, and said, "Old Han, reward a few poor masters with silver." ”

Han Daxia responded, each Minzhuang was rewarded with a tael of silver, and the head of the team was rewarded with two taels, and the expressions of all Minzhuang were even more affectionate.

Fat soap Liu Kedi inquired: "Qi Bantou, can you see Deng Sanye and Fourth Master?" ”

Qi Bantou said lightly: "I don't know, maybe I'm playing on the other side of the street." ”

The four brothers who were promoted to make a fortune, Deng Sheng is the inspector of the Xin'an Inspection Division, Deng Guan is the ambassador of the Xin'an Delivery Office, Deng Fa is the official of the Zhuang class, and Deng Cai is the official of the soap class, but although the two of them are servants, they are more like nominal names, and they don't go to work every day.

It's just that the eldest brother of the two is an inspector, the second brother is an ambassador, and the backstage is extremely hard, and their officials are all turning a blind eye and don't care much about their affairs.

Qi Bantou's Huiyuan Street is the red light district of Pizhou City, there are many Qinglou teahouses, and many unscrupulous people are fooling around there all the year round.

……

After this small episode, Yang He and others entered the city, the north and south of Pizhou City were important on land and water, the thoroughfare, the merchants and people were divergent, especially after the opening of the canal, to avoid the danger of the Yellow River, it was rapidly prosperous, and the commercial goods from the south to the north were turned over here.

The mountain fruits, wood, medicinal herbs, skins, miscellaneous grains, cotton, oil, hemp, etc. in the north go south, and the bamboo and wood, porcelain, silk, tea, rice, paper, and cotton cloth in the south go north, and they are distributed and radiated through the two rivers.

There are also a lot of markets here, just the special market, there are cloth market, rice market, board wood market, bamboo pole market, grocery market, porcelain market, iron market, felt goods market, bamboo strip market, seat market, pig market, fruit market, vegetable market and so on.

After walking into the city, I saw the merchants and the department stores gathered, and it was very lively, as if the tragic situation of Yang He's escape from Suzhou that day was just a dream.

This is also the result of the north-south contours, the traffic of the important place, after the opening of the canal, the prosperity of Pizhou, the decay of Xuzhou.

However, the city is not without gloom, the roads are broken, the ditches are clogged, and there is a lot of garbage and water, and it is clear that the government has no money to repair it.

There are also a lot of poor people, all of them are in rags, beggars and refugees can be seen everywhere, many people have nowhere to live, just like a pile of piles crowded under the eaves, obviously the government's relief capacity is seriously insufficient, these people sleeping on the streets, this kind of cold winter weather, afraid that sooner or later they will freeze and starve to death.

Along the way, there are well-dressed businessmen and wealthy people everywhere, and there are displaced refugees everywhere, which can be described as a stark contrast.

Yang He sighed deeply, the situation in Pizhou is the epitome of the entire Ming Dynasty.

If this continues, Encore won't have a big problem?

Fat soap Liu Kedi wants to take Yang He to the best inn in Pizhou City to rest, but Yang He plans to go to see the blacksmith in the city first.

It seems that the iron shop is mostly in Yujia Lane, and this side is not far from the iron market.

The group rode over, and walked around all kinds of wide and narrow alleys, and came to a street that was not wide, the color was a little dark, and the sound of Ding Ding was faintly heard.

"Xianggong, the most famous blacksmith in Pizhou City is the Yu family shop, which has been passed down for many generations, and now this Yu blacksmith is almost seventy years old, and he is still very neat at work."

Liu Kedi introduced Yang He, while leading the horse to an iron shop, looking from a distance, the shop was dark on all sides, with iron furnaces, iron piers, and large and small iron hammers stacked on the ground, but at this time, there seemed to be some people watching at the door of the shop.

There was also a faint voice of dispute: "...... You are deceiving people too much, I don't want my granddaughter to be harmed, so I increased my classsmith's silver fifty times, does this Ming still have a royal law? ”

“…… Wang Fa? Old man Yu, you are almost seventy people, and you are still so uninteresting, you must know the head of my family, but for the Han commander, you are talking to me about the king's law in Pizhou? ”

“…… My Yu family is not easy to deceive, and there are people above me......"

“…… Someone...... Haha, in this area of Pizhou, who wants to offend Niu Bantou and Commander Han? Old man Yu, you better know more! ”

"That's it, I really don't know what your old man thinks, don't ...... if you put a good glory and wealth"

Yang He and the others heard it from afar, and Hu Employment said excitedly: "Robbing people's daughters? Go over and take a look. ”

Yang He and the others came to watch closely, and saw some people arguing over there, on one side was an old man with gray hair, hunched over, wearing an apron full of soot, and behind him stood a middle-aged man and two young people, all of whom were flushed, as if they were holding back their anger.

Opposite them were two men with red belts, wearing fox hats, rather like green-skinned singles, who were triumphant.

There were also some people on the side who watched and talked in low voices, all of them daring to be angry but not daring to speak.

Fat soap Liu Kedi listened for a while, and whispered for Yang He, but it was the commander of Pizhou Wei who made Han Lan take a fancy to the granddaughter of the blacksmith, and then Niu Xuejun, the head of the fast class, volunteered to come and coerce.

Of course, it was impossible for them to come forward in person, Han Lan acquiesced to Niu Xuejun's action, and Niu Xuejun instructed his younger brother Niu Xuezhu to do it.

However, Niu Xuezhu is a regular servant, and he also has dog legs, that is, a group of white servants under his command, who come to harass Yu Blacksmith every day, either openly or secretly, and even use various means, anyway, this matter has been in Pizhou City for a while.

Yang He glanced at the two smug white servants and frowned, these people belong to the temporary workers of this era, and they have always been pretending to be powerful, and they are disgusting.

The government servants belong to the untouchables, but they are inferior and powerful, these people have a guaranteed income, and even have all kinds of gray income, and those who can make money, in a generation, can mix dozens of acres of fertile land, a large mansion, and even a few shops and industries, so the people flock to it.

These people have a fixed quota, which is called a total service, but in various cases, the number of additional servants is also very large, and these people are called white servants.

After each service, there will be almost a dozen, or even dozens of white servants, who will take the initiative to follow, so the number of government servants in a state or county will often reach an astonishing level.

For example, in Shiqian, Ba County and other places in Guizhou, there were originally 100 government officials, but the final number reached 7,000.

The servants may still be a little reserved, and these white servants who are not included in the establishment will try their best to make money, and they will do bad things and do bad things, and the people will suffer deeply.

And the class craftsman silver they are talking about is the service money levied by the Ming court on craftsmen.

In the Ming Dynasty, craftsmen were divided into three types: military craftsmen, resident craftsmen, and shift craftsmen, and the military craftsmen were managed by the Metropolitan Department of the Guard and the Ordnance Bureau, and the resident craftsmen were generally located in Gyeonggi and needed to serve for ten days a month, while the shift craftsmen lived in their hometowns and served once every four years for three months each time, and the rest of the time was at their disposal.

Because the shift craftsman had heavy labor and harsh carving, the craftsman often fled, so in the twenty-first year of Chenghua, it was stipulated that the shift craftsman could lose money to serve on behalf of the worker.

In the 41st year of Jiajing, it was stipulated that the service of class craftsmen was changed to levy silver, and craftsmen were not allowed to go to Beijing to serve in the division without permission.

According to the old system of four years, each person will be levied one hundred or two or eight cents of silver per class, which will be levied in four years, and each person will be levied four cents and five cents of silver every year.

After the implementation of this system, shift craftsmen actually lived a better life than ordinary people by losing silver, after all, they had craftsmanship and did not worry about having no food wherever they went.

Of course, in the Ming Dynasty, the law of service was chaotic, all kinds of forced labor were harsh, and the private demands were uncertain, and the craftsmen lived a hard life, just like the blacksmith in front of him, because he didn't want his granddaughter to fall into the fire, the silver of the classman was increased fifty times.

According to the situation at this time, although the imperial court said that each person would levy four dollars and five cents of silver every year, it would generally reach ten times or twenty times, such as Zhang Zhugong's brothers, who fled because the silver of the craftsman class was too heavy.

However, it was raised to fifty times, which is still appalling.

Speaking of this, Liu Kedi, the fat soap, was quite disdainful: "Commander Han did a bad job, what girl on Huifu Street didn't have it?" It is really undignified for a dignified commander to force others. There is also a cow squad head, not kind......"

He painted a colorful depiction, saying that the commander Han Lan was a demon in the middle of the sex, and when he saw a good-looking girl, he would harm one, and there were dozens of concubines in the family, and he was not afraid that his body would not be able to bear it.

also said that when she saw Mrs. Yan from Huai'an Mansion once, she never forgot the beauty of others, and she didn't look at her identity.

Everyone snorted coldly when they heard it, and Hu Cheng sneered and said, "The toad wants to eat swan meat." ”

At this time, the two white servants threatened the blacksmith family, and they were about to leave proudly, when they saw Yang He and his party on the horse, they couldn't help but look at it a few times and crack their mouths.

They can be powerful in front of ordinary people, but they can only be envious and jealous of Yang He and others who are riding high-headed war horses.

Hu Employment suddenly said to a white servant: "What are you looking at?" ”

The white servant was stunned for a moment, looking at Yang He and his party who were riding a war horse with a cold expression, and his heart was a little weak.

However, he had just finished threatening the Yu Blacksmith family, and if he kept his voice down, he couldn't help but lose momentum.

At the moment, he said stiffly: "What's wrong with a look?" Da Ming has no king's law, can't you look at it? ”

Hu Employment suddenly dismounted, he strode in front of the white servant, and shouted angrily: "I'm in charge of the day, can you take a look at Lao Tzu again?" ”

The white servant said, "What's wrong with me? I ......"

"Kill you, turtle grandson."

Hu Cheng scolded angrily, raised his big hand like a fan, and slapped it away heavily.

There was a loud "pop", and the white servant's body was turned, only to feel that the Venus in front of him was rising, and his head was buzzing continuously.

There was a sweetness in his mouth, and blood flowed out, and then several teeth spat out with blood.

He was stunned, and suddenly shouted: "There is no royal law, there is no heavenly reason......"

Hu Employment slapped him again and pulled him away, causing him to turn around again, and another mouthful of blood spurted out.

The white servant shouted: "Lao Tzu is fighting with you." ”

Hu Cheng punched the white servant in the lower abdomen, causing his body to bow into a shrimp, his eyes bulging out, and another mouthful of blood spurted out.

The rest of the white servants looked at it dumbfounded, and then looked at Yang He, a look of horror flashed in his eyes.

The blacksmith Yu family watched happily, and the onlookers also secretly applauded.

Zeng Youyu rode on a horse and looked at it with a smile, Zhang Songtao's expression was cold, it was these disasters that ruined the great tomorrow, and he fought well.

Han Daxia and Chen Qiuao looked at each other lightly, still on guard.

Only the fat soap Liu Kedi opened his eyes wide and kept inhaling the cold air.

Hu Cheng punched and kicked, knocked the white servant to the ground, and kept screaming miserably.

Yang Daodao: "Okay. ”

When Hu Employment heard this, he came back triumphantly: "Han Mozi, dare to look at Lao Tzu and kill you turtle grandson." ”

Yang He looked at the two white servants and said lightly: "You can't wait to appear on this street again, get out." ”

The rest of the white servants hurried to help, and the beaten white servants cried: "There is no king's law, and the Ming Dynasty has no reason...... I was beaten up ...... good one."

He cried and was helped away, and said intermittently: "I want to report to the head of the team......"

But he heard the white servant say, "You are stupid...... Know who the leader is? …… That man was Xin'anzhuang...... Exterminate the Jiaoshan bandits...... I don't want to live anymore......"

The cold hair of the beaten white servant shuddered, and it was rumored in the city that it was not only a talent, but also a person with strong force.

Such a person sticks out a little finger, afraid that he will not be able to afford to eat it.

Obviously, he could only be beaten in vain.

He was helped to walk, muttering and crying aggrievedly: "If the strong dragon doesn't suppress the head snake, can Haoqiang bully people casually?" (To be continued.) )