The golden sunlight reflected a brilliant illusion on the tips of his already gray hair, and the playful breeze swept through the azure Huzhou brocade robe on his body, outlining a layer of the sun's light wheel on the edge. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

I followed, and the two of us drove side by side.

"It looks like a pair of ranger father and son," Cao Qin said with a cheeky but still chic attitude, "Most of the rangers in Beiming are aristocratic sons and brothers, and they can only do this in a day."

In my hometown, rangers are no different from rogue boys, there are no exquisite saddles, there are not many horses, most of the declining samurai become ronins, and then do nothing to be a ranger, if you are lucky, meet the right master, make some military achievements and gradually return to the samurai class,

Those who are skilled in martial arts can go to the martial arts hall to be martial artists, and more people live by robbery without a meal. ”

He turned his face and saw that I was listening intently, and smiled slightly, "I haven't been running outside so comfortably for many, many years."

For decades, he lived in darkness and struggle every day, just so that one day when he died for the emperor and shogun, he could be enshrined in the temple. I didn't believe that, but there was nothing more credible for me to grasp. ”

I almost felt a little sympathy for him, and Yoyo said, "So, can't you farm?" ”

"Farming?" He laughed, and a subtle trace of compassion in that laughter infected me, and then I heard him say, "The peasant has no name and no surname, and there is not even any trace of life and death, which is an insult to a samurai." ”

"But aren't you from a farmer's family?" I shook my head, saw a refreshment shop on the way, and pointed lightly with my horsewhip, "Let's go and rest." ”

"I don't want to be a farmer anymore, do you know why?" While he and I went to the tea shop to tie up the horse, he sat down and looked at the tea shop owner next to him and said, "Boss, two bowls of wonton noodles and a pot of tea." ”

We sat down at a square table, and Fang heard him say again: "The peasants have worked hard for generations, but they have nothing, and the land is not the state, that is, the officials and nobles, the generals, the landlords, the arrears of loans in the disaster year, the tax increase in the harvest year, and the exploitation of the tax in the harvest year, and finally they can only sell the land to become tenant farmers.

If you catch up with some military disasters again, how can the people of Shengdou make their lives? Is it a country as rich as Beiming, with abundant land yields, isn't it also that the proportion of tenant farmers is increasing unabated, and farmers are living hard all their lives? ”

The hot wonton noodles are served, the blue spring vegetables accompany the egg flowers in the wonton and fine noodles, and there is a pot of emerald wolfberry bud tea, which looks unique.

I pushed a bowl to Cao Qin's side, and seemed to have some sympathy, and a pity and hateful sigh, so I dragged my own bowl again, and said while eating, "The peasants in Beiming have very few taxes, and Uncle Fu's agricultural taxes have been very low from the beginning.

I have never thought about exploitation, and I often introduce various policies to rest with the people, but I really don't know how to turn the corner in the implementation" While saying, I felt that this wonton tasted crispy and tender, but it was a bit of a home remedies, which made people's lips and teeth fragrant.

He only ate half a bowl, then put it down, just looked at me and said, "Don't you know if you check it this time?"

You see, there will not be any secret news in the past few days, and those local officials, squires, grain merchants, and subtenants will first give kind words and so-called hospitality to delay time, and then to those envoy officials

Entertain the money privately one by one, and then take the time to make a book that has a slight problem but can also be handed over, avoiding the important and light, and then fishing out their own people one by one, picking them cleanly.

If the messenger thinks that it is difficult to make a deal, he sings a double reed with the messenger to show the subordinates, and asks the subordinates to do it again, and then there is another round of bribery, and a new data book is put up, until the messenger has almost made a profit, and the account also looks like something real in the past

- If you can use this to catch the mistakes of political enemies or family enemies, it will naturally be better, if not, you can leak some unimportant people at the bottom to go out, and then a few parties will feel at ease. That's it. ”

"Isn't it all like that? There are still white crows in the world, and the messenger of inquiry dares to do such an errand? Besides—"

I was about to say that besides, there were envoys all the way to the grassroots level to check the facts, but I thought that Cao Qin might not know Fu Shao's arrangement, so it was better not to say more, so I raised my face, looked at the sun, Mimi's eyes, stretched my waist, and continued to pick up the bowl and said, "Besides, we have a secret investigation." ”

Who knew that he squirted out the tea in a sip, and the boss who came to interrogate was confused. I was quite puzzled, and I couldn't see what tricks he was playing, so I just stared at him in a daze.

"How old are you?"

"Twenty."

"Who is there to send?"

"Nope."

"Then do you rush to a certain secret box in the backyard of the government to check the annual tax accounts, rush to the county government to check how much of the salary of the officials comes from the sheep's body, or do you run to the village with the temperament of a son-in-law to grab an uncle and ask their family how much tax they pay this year, and then go to the county government, the government office or the court to check and reason?

How old are you? Why should others take care of you?

A few families are going to knock you out of the door, so just ignore it, right? Besides, it is a thorough investigation, whether it is a landlord, a grain merchant, a dignitary, or a general, who will go and sign the contract with the tenant farmers themselves?

It's all the subleasers in the middle who sublease from it and then sign the picture, and when the time comes, the subleaser will be caught and dealt with, and it's just a rabbit for death. Besides, it is the New Year, and it is just when the previous accounts of last year have just been settled, and I really don't know what Fu Shao thinks when I check the accounts at this time. ”

While talking, I finished the bowl of wonton noodles, drank tea, put down the silver coin, and then led the horse with Cao Qin and rode towards Jiagu Pass.

I thought about it, but there are a lot of things Cao Qin said that it is a common sense, not to mention agricultural affairs, that is, all commercial affairs from all walks of life, military affairs, are officially undertaken, and then subcontracted and transferred many times, saying that it is an official supervision of commercial operations, but in fact it seems to be a kind of comprador trend at all levels, and this tax burden is indeed not a paper decree that can be seen.

In the final analysis, after all, the vast countryside, the large population, and the illiterate or limited knowledge of the many people, the local squire officials only need to put on a pro-people posture, and then bitterly say that everything is an order from the superiors, and they are helpless.

You can completely complete their own layer of exploitation and drilling, as for the upper layer, probably each layer has to be connected to a layer of skin, which is to compete with the people for profit, except for a few people who see through the official character, more cunning than officials, will make trouble to toss the people, most of the people are just let the fish and meat.

However, after hearing what Cao Qin said, I should not have anyone to contact or check for a few days, and I am rarely idle. But after thinking about it, the eldest princess must have already released clues about where Cao Qin was trapped, and it didn't take long for something to come to the door.

It's completely different from the last time I came alone, and I went out to move the rescuers from the gloomy mountains and mountains.

At this time, Fang felt the difference and beauty of Jiagu City,

The merchant ships on the water and land transportation wharf of Jiaguguan are weaving, the river is covered by the boat, the mast lights reflect the shore, and the mountains on both sides of the land road are stacked on top of each other.

The pedestrians' skirts are woven in the wind, the robe sleeves are elegant, with the nostalgic new and ancient style, the cedar trees like the Futu Pagoda and the perennial green pine forests, cypresses, and trees are stretched out in a line like guards on both sides of Jiagu Pass, and the mulberry field green seedlings in a radius of 100 miles are sent to greet them.

Jiagu City and its suburbs surrounded by Zhou Qingshan have been newly cultivated, and the four counties we are going to go to, Dongfu County, Liyang County and Wuya County, embrace Qingping Lake, the largest lake in Jiagu, the lake water is as clear as a mirror, sparkling in the sunny day, and the mountains and forests are beautiful and the trees are in the wind. It is very convenient to drive horses and drink horses according to the suburbs.

When night fell, we came to a farmhouse according to the arrangement, knocked on the door, and a fifty-year-old man dressed as a mulberry farmer and a mulberry girl in her twenties and eighteens ushered in the door and laid out the arrangements for us.

"Dare to ask what the two of you are called?" Cao Qin asked with a smile.

"Old man Qi Bai, this is the little girl Wanniang." As the old man spoke, the four of them saluted each other.

I looked around, this is a very ordinary farmer's household, there are three small rooms in the wall of the arched Beiming bamboo row, and the backyard is two small shacks, different from the pink walls and tiles in Pengcheng, this kind of ancient wood and green brick farmhouse also has a special interest,

On the left side of the courtyard is a tofu factory with wisps of smoke, while on the right side is an ordinary salt drying workshop, all of which seem to be hidden in the bamboo forest, quiet and pleasant, as if they are in a paradise in the world.

After dinner, I climbed onto the roof of the farmer's house, lay on the roof of the house on all fours, and watched the stars.

When Cao Qin saw me like this below, he climbed up by the moonlight and lay down under the stars together. The two of them had a match, but they didn't talk a lot, and I didn't really care about that. "Do you have any ideals?" Cao Qin asked me in a leisurely playful voice.

"Ideal? I want to be Prince Jing's lieutenant! I replied with a fluttering eyebrow.

"Hahaha," Cao Qin was happy, and continued to joke, "What a big ambition!" But when I was twenty years old, it was the same, when I wanted to be the first retainer in the general's family, and serve the general's wives and concubines full-time. ”

"Where am I like you," I hastened to argue:

"I think Prince Jing was too handsome during the naval battle, you know, those sailors and soldiers can know how many degrees the sail rises and a few stone bows when they look at the sky at will, and Prince Jing seems to know the weather and ocean currents in the blink of an eye.

The battle situation between the enemy and me, the psychology of the soldiers, and the moon is breezy and bright, and he is a dignified husband. Standing next to such a person is to be a deputy general, and he must be extremely majestic. Where do you only think about all kinds of fantasy things in the gentle township. ”

"Zi Fei Fish, the joy of Anzhi fish? There have been lovers in the world since ancient times, and this matter has nothing to do with the wind and the moon. Cao Qin said very indifferently, "Okay, I'm going back to sleep, the weather is not very warm, you can fall asleep here carefully." ”

I watched him go, and I fell into the stars and the vast night again, hazy, and in a daze, as if I was looking for her a thousand times in my dreams, and like a person waiting for Prince Jing by the withered vines and old trees, as if he had become his lieutenant,

But when I saw that he was covered in blood, and his mouth and nose were oozing blood, I woke up from my dream in great trepidation, and felt that my mouth and tongue were chapped, and my body was like a fire, and there was a blazing fire around me.

After I rubbed my eyes and carefully confirmed it again, I found that the entire courtyard had been burned, and there were already twenty bandit-like black-clothed people below, mingling with Qi Bai and Wan Niang, who pretended to be the old men of Sannong, at this time I understood that these two should be the spies around the eldest princess, but I saw that the group of black-clothed people surrounded the two of them in their hearts and were not allowed to rush out.

The moonlight was as bright as day, but I looked carefully but I couldn't see Cao Qin's figure, so I hurriedly rushed into the bedroom where Cao Qin lived in the side hall to look for it. When I went in, I saw a person lying on the couch, and I stepped forward to identify it as Cao Qin.

I hurriedly dragged him out, but unexpectedly he didn't get up in a while, his body hung down softly, I poked through his mouth and nose, and felt a hand of blood, but not the slightest breath, I was shocked, and repeatedly confirmed, but I could only confirm that this was a dead Cao Qin

——Just took the first stop, the mission of luring the enemy has just begun, and it ended like this, is this Cao Qin committing suicide in order to protect the network of Luo Wei ninjas, or is someone coming to kill people? Who wanted to kill him at this time, and how many people knew about it?

A thousand questions came to my mind, and the bandits outside the door also came in together, I overturned the table, rolled out from behind, drew the full moon scimitar, and fought the enemy with Qi Bai and Wan Niang.

In the hands of the assassins, all of them are one-color Mo knives, the knives are eight feet long, and they are all Tang Dao Mo knife hand formations, slashing and slashing, like a wall, fighting and stabbing, very fierce. I whispered to Qi Bai to discuss the plan, and only then did the old man hold the wolf rattan card and only pounce on the assassin with a black belt in the middle.

The assassins around him came one after another, Wan Niang's meteor hammer was already like a hail, snow, rain and hail, and the four people who hit it at one time were bloodied in their eyes and fell on their backs, and I knocked on the side and back to shoot the rainstorm pear flower needle directly into the black belt assassin's vest, and the assassin fell to the ground in response.

The rest of the people gathered together, as if they didn't know that Cao Qin was dead, and fought to the death, and soon the assassins fell to eight people, and the three of us were covered in blood, and when I ran straight to the stable, I was unexpectedly foamed at the mouth and knocked me to the ground.

An assassin took the opportunity to stab two strange knives in his hand. I didn't feel good, but I saw Wan Niang rushing to me, struggling to pick away the Mo knife, but another assassin rushed straight and turned over and stabbed Wan Niang, and it was too late for me to block again.

Wan Niang was stabbed in the lower abdomen by the Mo knife, and the remaining assassins came again in the whole formation, Qi Bai yelled at me, "Go away"

I hesitated slightly, and hurried out of the hill, straight up the hill.

Unsteady under his feet, he tumbled down, stumbling into many trees, until he overturned the river, as if he was covered by broken shoes, and then he looked back and saw that the group of assassins were still chasing after him.

I was surprised, and I saw the mulberry field bird and the grass man by the river, and I made up my mind, and directly pulled off my shirt and criticized the mulberry field grass man by the river, and then hid sideways on the side of the mountain yin.

The group of assassins followed their clothes and bloody breath to sweep through the mulberry field, looking for them, and when they were far away, we hurriedly turned back to look for Qi Bai and Wan Niang's mansion to see how they were doing.