Soon, a shocked look appeared on the face of the stout man, he had thought that a fierce battle was going to break out, but the battle began to show a one-sided situation. Bayi ??? Chinese Network ? ??.

The many bandits seemed to have suddenly become papier-mâché people, and they were knocked to the ground by the guards with three punches and two kicks, and one by one they fell to the ground and groaned in pain, which shocked him.

"Big brother, the idea is piercing, you go quickly, we are in the way." Seeing this, the two big men standing behind the sturdy man hurriedly carried knives in front of him.

With a whoosh, before the stout man could react, a whistling arrow flew past his scalp and landed on a tree behind him with a snap, the body of the arrow trembling slightly.

Several of the guards drew their bows and aimed their arrows at the stout man and his two men.

"Oops!" The sturdy man's face suddenly changed, realizing that he was in big trouble this time, and these powerful guys seemed to have a lot of background.

In the face of the overwhelming combat effectiveness of the guards, the battle on the scene ended quickly, and the bandits squatted together with their heads in their hands, one by one they hung their heads and looked quite depressed, they didn't expect to meet such a powerful opponent today, and they didn't have the slightest power to fight back.

"Are you Liu San's person?"

The sturdy man with his hands tied behind his back was brought to the carriage, and Li Hongyu helped Zhao Xin down from the carriage, looked at him and asked quietly.

"Lao Tzu is the third master's person, if you want to kill, you have to listen to the respect, if Lao Tzu blinks his brows, he is not a man!" The sturdy man sneered, stared at Li Hongyu and said loudly.

"What, are you still justified in blocking the road and robbing?" Li Hongyu's face sank when he heard this, and he asked in a deep voice.

"Hmph, some of you gentlemen's money is clean, Lao Tzu is just robbing the rich and helping the poor." The sturdy man said not to be outdone.

"Robbing the rich and giving to the poor?" Li Hongyu's brows furrowed, and he opened his mouth to scold, "If people in the world are as lawless as you and do whatever they want, wouldn't this world be chaotic, wouldn't everyone be able to do evil under the sign of doing evil for the way of heaven?" ”

"It's better to say than to sing, the so-called law and discipline is just a tool for you magnates to bully the people, the people are starving to death, who cares about the law and discipline!" The sturdy man looked at Li Hongyu coldly, with a mocking look on his face.

Li Hongyu couldn't help frowning when he heard this, and he didn't know how to refute for a while, do you want to talk to this illiterate guy about etiquette, righteousness, benevolence, filial piety, and starvation?

"You really can't get by?" Seeing this, Zhao Xin opened her mouth and asked the sturdy man, she knew that Li Hongyu was not the kind of person who was unreasonable, otherwise she would not have fallen into silence.

"If we can get by, who will be a bandit?" The sturdy man sneered, looked at Zhao Xin and said, "How can you rich children with fine clothes and food know what kind of life our poor family is living!" ”

"Do you have a human life in your hands?" Li Hongyu groaned for a moment, and asked the sturdy man with a serious expression.

"Lao Tzu only robs money, not life." The sturdy man raised his head and said proudly, "It was Lao Tzu who planted it in your hands today, and it is a big deal that he will be a good man again in eighteen years." ”

For the water bandits, there is only one way to do it in the yamen of the state capital around Dongting Lake, that is, to cut off their heads to show the public, so the sturdy man thinks that he is dead this time, and Li Hongyu will definitely send them to the official.

"Don't look for death at every turn, is it so easy for your parents to pull you apart?" Li Hongyu's brows suddenly frowned when he heard this, and he said to the sturdy man.

Hearing Li Hongyu mention his parents, the sturdy man's eyes suddenly darkened, he didn't refute Li Hongyu this time, but just glared at him angrily.

"Let him go!" Seeing the sturdy man's unconvinced look, Li Hongyu shook his head when he heard this, this guy was completely stunned, and then said to the guards on the side.

Hearing this, the guard did not hesitate at all, and stepped forward to untie the rope on the strong man's hand, which made a puzzled look suddenly appear on the strong man's face, and he didn't know what Li Hongyu meant by this move.

"Tell me, what do you want ten thousand taels of silver for?" Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin exchanged a few words in a low voice, and then asked the sturdy man quietly.

"The villagers owe Chen Papi 5,000 taels in taxes, 3,000 taels to save the brothers who were caught in prison, and 2,000 miles to celebrate the New Year for the brothers." The sturdy man hesitated for a moment when he heard this, and then said seriously, anyway, he was not afraid to tell Li Hongyu about these things.

"Chen Peel?" Li Hongyu frowned slightly when he heard this, Poyang Lake is the property of the government, so the fishing tax should be collected by the local yamen, why should it be handed over to that "Chen Papi".

"Shouldn't your fishing tax be handed over to the yamen?" Zhao Xin also realized the strangeness of the matter, so he asked.

"Chen Papi said that Poyang Lake is his family's ancestral business, and all those who fish in it must pay him fishing tax, otherwise don't think about fishing." A look of anger suddenly appeared on the face of the stout man, and those who did not pay the fishing tax were not only severely beaten, but also had to confiscate the boats, which were the lifeblood of the fishermen.

"Doesn't the government care?" Zhao Xin's willow eyebrows frowned slightly, and asked in a coquettish voice, it is obvious that Chen Papi is talking nonsense, how can the imperial court sell the huge Poyang Lake to an individual?

"The people in the government are secretly colluding with Chen Papi, and they don't care about the lives of our people at all." The sturdy man suddenly said angrily, and his words looked quite angry.

"My son can give you five thousand taels to pay those fishing taxes." Li Hongyu glanced at the sturdy man who was full of righteous indignation, and said quietly.

"Will you give us money?" The sturdy man was taken aback when he heard this, and a stunned look appeared on his face, looking incredulous.

"If what you say is true." Zhao Xin smiled slightly, and said Li Hongyu's conditions, although she and Li Hongyu came out to play, but now they have encountered the evil act of occupying Poyang Lake, so naturally they can't sit idly by.

"Of course, what Lao Tzu said is the truth, if you don't believe it, you can ask the fishermen here casually, and they can all testify." The sturdy man hurriedly patted his chest and said, with a look of excitement on his face, if there are five thousand taels, the fishermen will be saved.

"Lady, I'm sorry, my husband has to take care of the affairs here." Li Hongyu hesitated for a moment after hearing this, and then pulled Zhao Xin to a secluded place on the side, and said apologetically.

"As officials of the imperial court, we are naturally the people first, and the concubines have no way to sit idly by." Zhao Xinwan smiled and said disapprovingly, she prefers Li Hongyu, who asks for the people's life, and doesn't want Li Hongyu to be bound by the love of her children.

"Thank you, lady." Li Hongyu breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, and held Zhao Xin's hand with a smile, for fear that this matter would make Zhao Xin unhappy.

"Huh?"

Although the sturdy man couldn't hear what Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin said, he could see the behavior of the two, and saw Li Hongyu holding Zhao Xin's hand with an ambiguous expression, he was stunned at first, and then felt a chill.

Early in the morning, a cargo ship stopped at a pier on an island in Poyang Lake.

"Childe, Zaixia's house is there." A big man got off the boat, and it was the sturdy man who had robbed Li Hongyu, pointing to a village on the island at the foot of the mountain and saying to Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin, who were following behind.

Li Hongyu helped Zhao Xin off the boat and followed the sturdy man to the village, followed by a group of escorts accompanying him.

Before coming to this island, Li Hongyu had already figured out that what the sturdy man said was true, and the fishing tax in Poyang Lake was indeed in the hands of that Chen Papi, and this Chen Papi was the famous local gentry Chen Old Man who had a feud with Liu San.

This made Li Hongyu quite surprised, he didn't expect that Old Man Chen would be able to occupy the Poyang Lake of the government, and the local government turned a blind eye to it.

Originally, according to the fishing tax set by the imperial court, the fishermen only had to pay a small amount of tax every month, but when it came to Mr. Chen, the tax became several times the fishing tax locked by the imperial court, which made the local fishermen complain bitterly and dare not speak out.

Li Hongyu naturally can't look past this kind of thing, the original tax system of the imperial court was for the benefit of the people, but it ended up in the hands of these corrupt officials and corrupt officials.

Obviously, Mr. Chen's ability to monopolize the fishing tax on Poyang Lake must have been tacitly approved by the government, and the government will not let Mr. Chen scavenge oil and water in vain, and he must have gained a lot of benefits from it.

In the eyes of Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin, this is actually just a trivial matter, and it is not worth mentioning compared to the court affairs that the two have handled.

But then again, the livelihood of the thousands of fishermen in Poyang Lake is at stake, so the two decided to step in, not to ensure that the fishermen's troubles will be solved once and for all, but at least they will be able to live a stable life for a few years.

"Iron Bull is back." As soon as they entered the village, the villagers along the way greeted the sturdy man one after another, and at the same time curiously looked at Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin and others who followed behind the sturdy man.

Especially the girls and daughters-in-law in the village, they pointed to Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin, the two handsome and elegant sons, and discussed with great interest, bursting out with laughter like silver bells from time to time.

The sturdy man's surname is Chen, and his name is Tie Niu, and the children of poor families like them rarely have big names, and they are all called by small names.

"Father, mother, my son is back." Chen Tieniu led Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin to a house in the village, pushed the door and shouted loudly inside.

"Second brother is back!"

In the courtyard, a young man of fifteen or sixteen years old was chopping wood, and when he heard this, he hurriedly put down the axe in his hand and happily greeted him.

Soon, several men, women, and children came out of the house, and they were Chen Tieniu's parents, eldest brother and sister-in-law, and nephews and nieces.

Chen Tieniu has five brothers and sisters, he is the second, there is an elder brother above, two younger brothers and a younger sister below, except for the eldest brother, they are not married, after all, it costs a lot of money to get married, and no one in the family is poor and no one wants to marry their daughter.

As the second child in the family, Chen Tieniu's parents are ready to use his little sister to change him for a parent, but Chen Tieniu is resolutely opposed, because in this way, his sister wants to marry a fool, and he is not willing to ruin his sister's life.

It is worth mentioning that Chen Tieniu's younger sister and youngest brother are dragon and phoenix fetuses, which is a rare thing in ancient times, but it is a pity that they were born in a poor family and had to endure hardships.

"Father, mother, this is Li Gongzi, this is Zhao Gongzi, a friend of my son, I came to see you at home." After greeting his family for a while, Chen Tieniu hurriedly introduced Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin to his family who had entered the courtyard.

"Uncle, aunt." Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin smiled and stepped forward to salute Chen Tieniu's parents, and then waved their hands, and the guards who followed behind took the gifts they brought into the courtyard in an orderly manner, both silk and satin and wine supplements, which looked very rich.

"Two sons, please inside." Chen Tieniu's father, Chen Laohan, was taken aback when he saw this, he didn't expect Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin to bring so many gifts, and hurriedly stretched out his hand to invite the two of them into the house.

Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin are not only the children of rich families, but also important ministers of the imperial court, so how can the gifts they prepare be shabby?

"These two sons are iron bulls or something?"

"Tie Niu's luck is really good, he actually met the children of a rich and noble family."

"Look at the silks, they are all the best goods on the market, and each horse costs a few taels of silver."

"Those silks are worthless, look at the wine, but the powerful men in the county can afford to drink it, and a jar costs more than a dozen taels."

"Tie Niu Niang is always worried about Tie Niu's family affairs, this is good, he is about to arrive, I don't know how many girls are vying to marry him."

"I heard that Tie Niu is not a water bandit, are those two sons a water bandit?"

"Don't talk nonsense, how can such a good child as Tie Niu be a water bandit!"

……

As Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin entered the house, the people gathered in the courtyard to watch the excitement began to talk about it.

The descendant who was chopping firewood in the yard was Chen Tieniu's fourth brother, and he summoned the little brothers in the village to happily carry the gifts brought by Li Hongyu into the house on the side, and with these gifts, Chen Tieniu's bride price for marrying was prepared.

In fact, what Chen Laosi didn't know was that when Chen Tieniu was mistaken by the outside world for getting acquainted with two rich children, not only did the people who used to ask the Chen family for a bride price before they were willing to marry their daughters no longer ask for a bride price, but many people would rush to marry their daughters to Chen Tieniu.

The reason is very simple, in the eyes of the outside world, Chen Tieniu is about to arrive, so who cares about such a little bride price, and can get more rewards from Chen Aniu in the future.

However, Chen Tieniu didn't think about these things now, because Li Hongyu didn't send them to the official but let them go, which made him have a lot of good feelings about Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin, thinking that the two are reliable friends, otherwise he wouldn't bring the two home, otherwise his family would be in danger, after all, what he is doing now is a water bandit.

(End of chapter)