"Fart!" Lin Youkun said angrily, "This afternoon, I have obviously sent someone to inform you in advance, haven't the rooms been booked?" ”

The people inside replied helplessly: "I'm really sorry, there are important people stationed in this post station tonight, and idle people are not allowed to enter, even if they book a room." Distinguished guests should look elsewhere! ”

Lin Youkun is responsible for escorting Zhu Youzhen, how dare he rush on a snowy night? He immediately became furious, kicking the door hard and shouting, "What bullshit? Without further ado, open the door quickly! ”

At this time, there was a sudden chaotic footsteps in the door, followed by a crisp sound of "pop", and the post man who had just answered screamed miserably.

Lin Youkun was wondering, and a gloomy voice came through the crack in the door: "Where did the lonely soul and wild ghost come from, hurry up and get out of our house!" Dongchang Fanzi is here, if you dare to make noise again, our family will skin you alive! ”

Lin Youkun suddenly realized that the post station was occupied by the people of Dongchang. Immediately sneered, took a dozen steps back, and suddenly rushed towards the high wall, jumped up, used his hands and feet together, and tapped a few times on the wall. The courtyard wall more than four meters high was jumped over by him.

Zhu Youzhen saw it really in the car and couldn't help but be surprised. He originally thought that the so-called "flying eaves and walking on the wall" only existed in martial arts novels, and they were all made up by later generations. Now seeing is believing, only then do we know that the ancient martial arts are broad and profound, and it is only because the martial spirit of later generations has disappeared that these profound kung fu have gradually disappeared.

said that Lin Youkun crossed the high wall and landed lightly in the spacious front yard of the post station. Several Dongchang fans inside the gate were taken aback, drew their swords one after another, and shouted: "There are assassins!" ”

In an instant, dozens of Dongchang fans rushed out from the front hall of the post station, each holding a sword in his hand, and surrounded Lin Youkun three layers inside and three layers outside.

Seeing this, Lin Youkun was not afraid, only raised the scabbard high, and shouted: "Open your dog's eyes and take a closer look at what this is?" ”

The first person in the crowd was wearing a brown robe, a jade belt around his waist, and soap boots, and he was the eunuch who spoke just now. He looked at it fixedly, but was shocked and said, "It's not... Is Lin Youkun, Lord Lin Qianhu, the right guard of Tengxiang? ”

Lin Youkun glanced at him, and seeing that he was also an acquaintance, he immediately pouted and sneered: "Who should I be, it turned out to be the foreman of the East Factory, Sun Jixiang and Sun Gonggong!" Father-in-law Sun is so powerful, Lin is afraid that his father-in-law will peel off his skin! ”

Sun Jixiang hurriedly changed his face, and said with a smile on his face: "How do we know that it is a thousand households, otherwise it is to borrow our family's courage, and our family will not dare to turn away thousands of households!" You don't have long eyes, don't you open the door quickly! ”

It turned out that although Dongchang was rampant outside the palace, it couldn't afford to provoke the four guards in the palace. Even Wei Zhongxian, the governor of Dongchang, had to be polite when he saw the commander and deputy commander of the four guards. Although Sun Jixiang is one of the twelve leaders of the East Factory, he holds real power in the East Factory, but he also knows the proportions. Teng Xiang's right guard, although the official position is only five grades, is the emperor's personal guard, and he is definitely a figure he can't afford to offend.

Lin Youkun said unrelentingly: "Xiaguan went out of the palace on a business trip with the secret order of Long Live Secret, and he had already booked a room here tonight. But I don't know why Gonggong Sun wants to let the lower officials eat a closed door? ”

Sun Jixiang's head was sweating, and he couldn't stop explaining: "Don't be surprised, our family really doesn't know that you have booked a room, otherwise there must be no such misunderstanding." Besides, our family also has a hard time, so we have to close the post station..."

"If you have any troubles, you might as well tell me about it!" Lin Youkun sneered.

Sun Jixiang couldn't resist it, so he had to tell the truth: "In fact, our family was escorted to Beijing from Shanhaiguan by the holy decree of the Lord of Long Live and the strict order of the nine thousand years old. Due to the heavy snow blocking the road, I couldn't rush back to Jingshi tonight, so I stayed at the post station. This Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen are important criminals of the imperial court, and our family is also afraid of leaking the news, so in order to prevent accidents, we closed the post station and drove out the idlers. Please forgive me! ”

Lin Youkun also knew that Liaodong was newly defeated, the government and the opposition were shocked, and the apocalypse was furious, and Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen were brought into Beijing to discuss the crime. He knew that this was a big case, and it was understandable that Sun Jixiang was so cautious. That's why his face calmed down and said, "That being the case, it's the official's mistake to blame Grandpa Sun." It's already night, and Xia Guan also has the emperor's order, I wonder if the room booked by Xia Guan can still be allocated to Xia Guan? ”

Sun Jixiang hurriedly said: "That's nature, that's nature!" ”

Zhu Youzhen didn't know the situation inside, and when he saw Lin Youkun coming out, he didn't think much about it, and led everyone into the post station.

At this time, the post man of the post station dared to come forward and greet him politely. And Sun Jixiang didn't dare to find out what the imperial order Lin Youkun had, so he led dozens of Dongchang fans back to their respective rooms.

Zhu Youzhen entered the post station for the first time, but he felt very fresh. Turning around the wall, there is a spacious front yard. In the middle of the front yard, there is a tall drum tower. Further to the north, there is the magnificent front hall, through the front hall, you can still faintly see the back rooms, at least dozens of them. On either side of the vestibule, there are also wide aisles for horses to pass through.

Yicheng let Zhu Youzhen and his party to the front hall and served wine and food diligently. Zhu Youzhen asked him with interest: "Are you the chief here?" Dare to ask your name? ”

The post man didn't dare to guess Zhu Youzhen's identity indiscriminately, and when he asked himself, he replied with a smile on his face: "Your Excellency is joking, how dare you call a 'chief' if you are a lowly post man." The lowly king is long-term, you can call the lowly 'old king'. ”

Zhu Youzhen felt that the title "Lao Wang" was quite modern, and asked with a smile: "Lao Wang, how many rooms, how many post guards, and how many horses do you have in this post station?" ”。

"If you go back to the distinguished guests, Tongzhou Post has a drum tower, three main halls, three back halls, three gift rooms, two warehouses, ten corridor rooms, one horse temple, fourteen horse rooms, sixteen wing rooms, and one post room. There were sixteen post guards and forty-three horses. ”

"It's not small!" Zhu Youzhen said with a smile, "This post station has to have a lot of funding a year, right?" How much do you earn? ”

Lao Wang listened to Zhu Youzhen's question, but grinned and said: "It's not a secret, this Tongzhou post is only a few hundred taels of silver allocated by the imperial court every year. With this little bit of silver, where is it enough to deal with the arrival of passing officials, feed the horses, and keep the mail route open? Don't say a few hundred taels, just a few thousand taels is not enough. In this way, Tongzhouyi has not received the grant for several months. According to the rule, there are forty-two stones per year, and even if you count your true character, you should also have one stone per month. But I'm not afraid of the jokes of the distinguished guests, and I haven't received it once since I was a postman. ”

Zhu Youzhen was a little incredulous, and asked in surprise: "What is the difference between this old man and his true color?" If you can't get it, then don't you want to drink the northwest wind? ”

Lao Wang smiled: "The distinguished guest doesn't know anything. This 'Sui Yu' is the nominal Yu Lu stipulated by the imperial court, and this 'True Character Money' is the actual grain and rice that must really be issued to officials, and the rest is called 'Folding Color', which is replaced by other things according to a certain conversion rate, or converted into silk, or into silver, or into treasure money. Now the treasury is empty, and even the true colors cannot be distributed, and those folded colors are all worthless treasures. If the post station doesn't make an entry, then it will really have to drink the northwest wind. ”

"According to what you said earlier, the post house is a place to spend money, what can you earn?" Zhu Youzhen asked.

Lao Wang smiled shyly and said: "These are all things that can't be put on the table, since the distinguished guests ask, they don't dare to hide it." In fact, in the final analysis, it is just the word 'apportionment'. ”

"To whom?"

"Naturally, it's the people of this county." Lao Wang said eloquently, "For example, for horses, every farmer in the county must provide forage for the stagecoach. But this horse doesn't eat all kinds of grass, and our grass here is not good at all, it is all transported from other places. The common people could not get the fodder, so they had to fold it into silver taels and hand it over. ”

"Another example is hard labor. The post guards in the post station don't have any money. The common people either went out of labor and came to the post station to be a post officer, or they paid some silver taels to cover the labor. Moreover, this post road has to be overhauled every year, and the artificial nature is also the people of this county. If you can't get out of the labor, you have to pay the silver. All in all, without more names to fill the holes, the inn simply wouldn't work. ”

Zhu Youzhen was secretly frightened when he heard it, he thought that the common people in ancient times were nothing more than paying some land taxes, whether it was ten taxes or five taxes, after paying the public grain, the rest was their own. After listening to Lao Wang, I realized that there was still so much labor. This is just a post station, and I don't know how many other harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes there will be! The burden of the common people is so heavy, it has been a long time, and it is no wonder that there is no rebellion!

He looked at the table full of wine and food, thinking that these are all the people's fat and ointment of the people of this county, and he eats and drinks here, but he doesn't know how many poor people can't even drink a meal of gruel.

Thinking of this, he lost his appetite, and hurriedly ate a few bites, that is, he said that he was unwell, and left the front hall and went to the back room.

As soon as I entered the backyard, I immediately saw two tall wooden prisoner carts parked in the courtyard. The cart was laid with some thatch, but it was empty.

Zhu Youzhen was taken aback, and hurriedly asked Lin Youkun what was going on. Lin Youkun lowered his voice and said: "These two prisoner cars are pressed by the imperial court, one is the former Liaodong Jingluo Xiong Tingbi, and the other is the former Liaodong governor Wang Huazhen. ”

Zhu Youzhen's heart sank suddenly. He listened to a few scholars talking on Wanghai Tower that day, and also mentioned Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen, but it was only a few sentences, and the language was unknown. As for how these two people were defeated by Houjin, and what the situation in Liaodong is now, I don't know anything, and I really want to ask it in person.

But on second thought, it seems that the course of history cannot be changed, so what is the difference between knowing and not knowing? These two people are also prisoners of the imperial court, although they are princes, they don't seem to have the right to interrogate, it's better to have more than one thing!

Thinking like this, he entered the guest room that had been prepared for him, and just wanted to catch his breath, but from the next room, there was a fierce quarrel.