"Light fur is gentle and handsome, and the splendid bushes are still ...... to ride"

It is the so-called southeast scenery, the rivers and mountains are picturesque, the scenery is beautiful, after being accustomed to seeing the majestic and majestic of the north, then calm down and feel the southeast scenery, the beauty and delicacy of the mountains and rivers are also unique.

Although it is still a similar route, compared with the thousands of miles of exile many years ago, the escape of the wolf bèi all the way incognito to the south, this time it can be regarded as a "spring breeze proud" style of returning home.

Therefore, you can put down your feelings and steps a little, feel the people and customs along the way, and enjoy the public hospitality of the places along the way as a big vassal.

By the way, I bought some local flavor specialties such as sugar lotus, oil crab, water chestnut cake, poria cake, and honey-roasted small fish, and gave them to the women at home as souvenirs.

Well, at least I can go home, to be honest, once I have been able to relax for so long, I wonder I miss the women of the family a little.

Especially after holding back in the army for a long time, all kinds of longing and longing are like surging rivers out of control, and with a line that is about to be outdated, my big axe is already hungry and thirsty.

It's just that the fly in the ointment is that since that time when I made a mistake and couldn't help but taste it, the three have reverted to the conservative style of the past, and I have tried to keep it at a distance.

Even when I have to be alone at close range, I have to find a way to keep Gaga by my side as a shield and a means of protection to stop my harassment and incursion.

Although I didn't have much discipline, I couldn't do it for a while, and I forced the bow in front of the little girl, so the strange relationship between us was so deadlocked.

After leaving Jiangning Mansion, he traveled all the way through Jurong, Yanling, Qu'a, and especially in the nearby Jintan County, the famous Maoshan Mountain.

It is known as "the first blessed land, the eighth cave heaven", and it is also the ancestral court and birthplace of the Shangqing school founded by Ge Hong and Tao Jinghong hundreds of years ago.

Therefore, there are many relics of historical sites up and down the mountain, and all dynasties have repaired and built.

It is said that in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty in the previous dynasty, there are more than 300 Taoist buildings of various sizes such as palaces, temples, halls, and Yu in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, and there are more than 5,000 Taoist priests, known as the southern holy land of "three palaces, five views, and seventy-two thatched hermitages".

Although many of them have been destroyed after years of turmoil, there are still many relics of great shape. It's just that the Maoshan I know is mainly from later generations, and various Hong Kong-style ghost-hunting movies and online novels are far-fetched.

Anyone who has anything to do with gods and strange things, if you don't say that you are from Maoshan origin, you are embarrassed to take it out and be embarrassed.

Therefore, after receiving the hospitality of the local palace envoys, I could not help but be a little disappointed after a few cursory tours.

Because it is located in the rich southeast and close to the prosperous resort of the Six Dynasties gold dust, the vast majority of them are Taoist cultivators with official bodies, but there are not many real hermits.

There are no so-called supernatural means at all, most of them are daily rituals such as praying for blessings and sacrifices, and using lively and grand scenes to fool people.

After spending a few hundred dedications, the only thing I gained on the mountain was a few small talismans that looked delicate and tall enough to take back to coax the little girls at home, and a set of precious ancient books related to Qi training and said to be able to assist in improving the art of the house.

After walking through Maoshan Mountain, Fangshan Mountain, Jiangyan Mountain, and Zhanggong Mountain, which are low and undulating, but can be called a small piece of mountains with good scenery, you will enter the Hangjiahu Plain, which is known as the southeast granary and the land of fish and rice.

This is also the most developed area of water conservancy and irrigation in the southeast, with river networks and bridges all over the country. And at this time,

In the late autumn harvest, near Taihu Lake, there is a common scene of "the fragrance of rice flowers says a good year, and the sound of frogs is heard", and the fields that have been harvested early are full of straw stacks. It looks like a silent watchman,

Along the edge of Taihu Lake to the south, you can see the sparkling waves, the fishing boats singing at night, and the lights are not embellished at night. Fish catches are piled up at all kinds of ferry terminals of all sizes.

Then at a very low price, buy some fresh fish, shrimp and crabs, just boiled and steamed without any flavor, it is enough to feast.

It's just that after crossing the boundary of Changzhou and entering the territory of Wucheng in Huzhou, this kind of leisurely style of painting suddenly changed.

Outside the gates, there were all sorts of people who had been flailed for more than half a mile, men, women, and children, while others, apparently old and weak, of their families, gathered in the surrounding lowlands and wailed for something.

"Go see what's going on......"

I was in the car, and I was instructed to go to the left and right.

Then I rode away from the team and took the answer I wanted with me in a short time.

The soldier asked the doorman a little and found out that these were not ordinary prisoners, and they were actually accused of tax arrears. Among them, the typical elements who resist taxes and do not pay have been punished by the Ming Dynasty, and they have been put in wooden cages to hang their heads in the city, and they are full of black pressure.

This result made me, who was in a good mood all the way, feel a little uncomfortable. This is a land of fish and rice that is always familiar in all seasons and suitable for both water and drought.

In a normal year when there are obviously few disasters, this kind of thing can happen, which shows how far the exploitation and exploitation have become, let alone other places.

Therefore, I declined the invitation of the local officials to entertain me, and only replenished my feet and horses in the official post, and continued on my way, and then I found out in other cities and towns that this phenomenon was not an isolated or local problem.

On the rest of the journey, I just sent someone to understand a little bit and carefully questioned the guards who had returned from visiting relatives, and I already felt a little shocked.

It is said that in order to support the Northern Expedition and clean up the mess after the defeat, in the past six months, more than a dozen donations under various names have been repeatedly levied, and it has reached the point where there is no tax for more than ten years.

therefore

Nowadays, in the southeast provinces, in addition to the normal household money and field endowment, as well as the taxes on tea, salt and wine, there are also traditional names such as rice consumption, folding silk, branch distribution, and basketry, and the new front branch, charging piles, military payment, and subsidies and other irregular additional patterns have reached as many as thirty or forty kinds.

So much so that now the local tax collection projects have been hit on the seedlings and tiles in the field, that is, the so-called bud money and stacking money.

Among them, the tax collection is so complicated that even the coolies and sailors with greater mobility, such as the lowest-level groups at the bottom of society, do not let go, and they also have to pay the so-called "local money" and "fixed pump", and they are collected once in one place.

Therefore, I asked people to temporarily recruit some porters in the local area, almost all of whom were followers, and even a number of merchants came to give gifts, hoping to follow them in groups.

I didn't quite understand that there should be no risk in the southeast. Now they knew that they were afraid of something more vicious than beasts and bandits.

Because following my team, those officials along the way did not dare to extort and forcibly extort at will, and they could save a lot of money.

In fact, there are occasionally a few people who do not believe in evil on the road, or people who have little eyesight, who brazenly come up to interrogate and question.

However, as a result of the negotiations, my men stripped them naked and hung them on a tree on the side of the road on the grounds that they had violated the honor guard given by the national court, and the road has been completely stopped since then.

It also made me leave a certain reputation and reputation in the local government called domineering, arrogant, and not goodwill, and also made my journey much quieter.

But what does this have to do with me, my future and considerations, and I don't need to rely on them, and a proper non-name is beneficial to my position. If you are not arrogant and domineering in the place, is that still called a party a vassal?

It also somewhat obscures things like the local intelligence gathering that I care about.

Before that, those soldiers who had returned from visiting their relatives had also asked me for instructions in advance, hoping to transfer their only family members to the places under the rule of Huaidong for resettlement, but they also had the same reasons and considerations.

And according to them, at the local level, many times it is a tax that is levied more than one tax without giving it a hand, and then different people repeatedly levy it again in a short period of time. Among them, in order to encourage and motivate officials at all levels to work hard to urge the collection, I don't know how many times the administrative costs in addition to the actual collection will have to be paid.

As far as I know, Daliang has had these places for a short time, and because it is a comprehensive change of banner in the south of the Yangtze River, the original structure and status quo have been preserved. Therefore, at present, it has only been preliminarily completed, and the replacement of officials at all levels in the prefectures and counties of the prefecture has been completed, while at the local grassroots level, the original system and manpower have almost been retained.

Therefore, some local veteran officials and powerful families have almost changed their names and banners, and they continue to do things for the new dynasty, and they don't even need to change their original uniforms.

Obviously, the dynasty did not have enough time to carry out proper rectification and digestion, so it had to be forcibly put into operation to serve the war ahead.

Therefore, there are naturally not a few hidden worries left, such as the sharp increase in administrative costs caused by man-made, and all kinds of drawbacks and chaos, in the case of countermeasures under pressure, they have begun to emerge in an endless stream.

And these newly appointed officials are also not good. A large part of them were made exceptions because of their donations to help the country. Therefore, in terms of color, it is inevitable that the good and the bad are uneven and the mud and sand are all down.

Most of them are thinking about nothing more than earning back the expenses they spent on running for official positions as soon as possible, rather than thankless tasks such as pacifying the land and reassuring the people.

Therefore, on this point, it is consistent with those local officials, so after the upper and lower layers of urging and multiplying, it is the so-called "every lesson must be more than ten times its cost", in this case, no matter how rich the land in the southeast is and the production is abundant, it cannot help but toss like this.

It is true that big families can bribe and collude with officials, and then transfer the burden downward and even make profits from it, but ordinary people are not so lucky.

Perhaps, among the people who fled from these places, there were also some people who lost to our Huaidong. Thinking of this, it really makes people feel mixed and mixed.

At the same time, it also strengthened my determination to cultivate a set of administrative teams with my own characteristics and concepts.

As a result, my entourage of Yu Hou had another task, which was to conduct social survey reports and people's livelihood assessments along the way, as well as to investigate the efficiency and administrative costs of government implementation.

I don't want to, but this gives birth to a right and wrong.

Because it was an informal survey, I deliberately slowed down the trip, and then sent these people out in the name of searching, purchasing, visiting, and contacting places.

As a result, three days later, near Wukang County on the border of Hu and Hangzhou, when the new town was stationed, a Yu Hou, who had gone out in civilian clothes and was conducting a market investigation on the pretext of purchasing, did not return it in time.