"Shiro, don't say much, listen to Gong Wen's words more." Zhou Ping stopped Xue Liangyu, turned his head to the old official and asked, "We are indeed ordinary peasant children, but we like to shoot and hunt, learn a little martial arts, and want to win a reputation with a knife and a gun." I just heard that Gong Wen had something to say, and I would like to ask you to elaborate. ”

"It doesn't hurt to hear from you!" Wen Cheng sneered: "In this land of Youyan, Hu and Han are mixed, even the Han is also accustomed to Hu Feng, serving the strong and bullying the weak. Now although Liao's internal affairs are not repaired, chaos is born, but it may not be able to enter the Great Song Dynasty, if it is obtained by others, wouldn't it be a wolf and a tiger? The bigwigs in the DPRK and China all thought that as long as the flag was held northward, Yandi Han'er would look at the scenery, which was really ridiculous. ”

After listening to the old official's words, Zhou Ping lowered his head and thought about it, but Xue Liangyu was strong-blooded, and defended himself: "We are Han people, and Yandi is also Han people, how can there be a reason for Han people to help Hu people fight Han people?" ”

"What about the Han Chinese? The weight of taxes in this dynasty is beyond the reach of previous dynasties. The Liao people prospered the official system in the north and south, and there were few redundant officials and redundant soldiers, and the annual currency was used to replace the Ding tax, and the salt tax alone was far lower than that of my Great Song Dynasty. Would you rather pay less taxes and have a Hu emperor or would you rather pay more taxes and have a Han emperor? ”

"This-" Xue Liangyu was suddenly dumbfounded, he was just a seventeen-year-old boy, how could he argue with the old official opposite. Zhou Ping, who was on the side, patted Xue Liangyu's shoulder, gave the old official a deep look, and said in a deep voice: "Thank you Gong Wen for the lesson!" ”

Wen Cheng didn't answer, and closed his eyes again, as if the words just now didn't come from his mouth. Zhou Ping also fell into deep thought, secretly thinking that most of what the old official said was true, the Song Dynasty has always been known for its preferential treatment of scholars and officials; It is the most expensive recruitment system that is adopted; The history books also mentioned many times the harm of "redundant officials and redundant soldiers", and the number of officials far exceeded that of the previous generations, and both officials and the army could only consume wealth, so it seems that there should be no doubt that the people in the Song Dynasty had a heavy tax burden. It's just that the tax burden of the people of Liao is not very clear, but I heard that there are people who smuggle salt from Liao to Song on the border to make a profit, so I think what he said should be true, otherwise this situation will definitely not exist.

At this time, there was a sudden shouting and neighing of war horses outside the car, and before Zhou Ping and them could react to what was going on, they saw Li Bao's head poking in from the outside, and shouted loudly: "Oh no, I met a bandit!" ”

Zhou Ping and Xue Liangyu hurriedly got out of the car, only to see that the car where the mission was located had slowly stopped, and the cavalry of the Liao army escorting it was under the command of the captain headed by the captain, lined up in battle formation, and on a small hillside hundreds of meters away from the convoy, it was full of black and oppressive human heads, roughly about four or five hundred people, waving the weapons in their hands and shouting loudly to this side, which looked quite scary. However, if you look closely, you can see that most of them are ragged people, not to mention that they have no armor, and even the weapons in their hands are mostly wooden sticks and farm tools, and the threat to the mission is minimal.

"Ah Ping, let's rush for a while, these people are suffocating to death in the car." Xue Liangyu looked eager to try.

"Don't be stupid, our task is to protect Han Xianggong, and the Liao soldiers will do the killing of thieves!" Zhou Ping turned back to Li Bao and said, "You quickly get the bow and crossbow and armor from the back car, let's quickly get dressed!" ”

"Whoa!" Li Bao answered, and ran to the back car, as the escort of the mission, they also carried bows and crossbows and armor, but it was not suitable to take them out in the territory of Liao, of course, except for the emergency situation of bandits at the moment.

"There is fat meat in the blister, there are fat horses in the stables, the people have skin color, and there are hungry people in the wild, and this rate of beasts and cannibalism!" Zhou Ping was observing the situation on both sides, and suddenly a sighing voice came from his ears, and when he looked back, it was the old official, only to see that his face was full of compassion, Zhou Ping's heart moved, and asked: "Duke Wen just said that Yandi Han'er was impregnated with Hu Feng, why is he so lamenting?" "Even if it's a Hu person, it's also born from the pregnancy of his parents in October, and the general good life and evil death, is it not a white ditch, so he divides people into two kinds?" Wen Cheng sneered: "Besides, Yan Di is like this, can my Great Song be able to do it alone?" There is no boundary between the north and south of the river, if he has the idea of being alone, how do he know that this is the case, he said that it will not happen in the Great Song Dynasty? Zhou Ping couldn't help but be dumbfounded, secretly thinking that this old official had been going back and forth between Song and Liao for decades, and he analyzed the shortcomings of both Song and Liao, and he seemed to have witnessed the future disasters, and he was a very knowledgeable person. However, this person is not mentioned in the history textbooks, which shows that this person has not been of great use, in fact, there are enough outstanding talents in every era, but these talents have sunk into subordinates, and the positions of power are occupied by mediocre and incompetent people, which led to the overthrow of the country and produced such a great tragedy. Thinking of this, a thought suddenly flashed in Zhou Ping's heart, his own strength is indeed limited, but if he can gather these talents and use the strength of everyone, will he be able to avoid this catastrophe? Thinking of this, Zhou Ping's heart beat lively, his face became pale, and his mood was already extremely excited. Xue Liangyu had already stopped dressing, and when he turned around, he happened to see Zhou Ping like this, and thought he was scared, so he smiled and said: "Ah Ping, it's not the first time you've been in battle, why is your face so ugly, it's useless!" "Shiro Modo, go and guard Han Xianggong's carriage!" Zhou Ping shouted, the ** of the ten he expected along the way, unconsciously occupied the role of giving orders between the two, Xue Liangyu answered, and then hit the horse and went to the carriage where Han Xiaoxuan was. While putting on his armor, Zhou Ping ordered Li Bao on the side: "No matter what happens later, you guard the carriage we are riding in and protect Gong Wen from harm!" Li Bao lifted a long stick, slapped the knife on his waist, and nodded, Wen Cheng just glanced at Zhou Ping, and without thanking him, he got into the car. Zhou Ping finished his stop, came to the side of the car and bowed his hand to Han Xiaoxuan in the car and said: "Xianggong, don't worry, it's just a group of grass thieves, with my two brothers to protect it, it's no big deal!" Probably because of seeing Xue and Erren, Han Xiaoxuan's face was just a little pale, and he looked quite calm: "Okay, you two worked hard to kill the thief, and I will have a heavy reward after I return to Tokyo!" As he spoke, the Liao military captain had already lined up his subordinates, and the fifty cavalry were divided into two columns, more than ten steps apart, rushing towards the hillside like a wall. But they were dealing with a mob that couldn't even hold a spear, so they didn't think they needed to be so troublesome. Sure enough, before the Liao cavalry rushed up the hillside, the group of thieves on the hillside was in chaos, and the rows of people in front threw down their flags and sticks and fled in all directions. The Liao military captain led by him was even more proud, waving his sword and shouting loudly, presumably urging his subordinates to chase after him, and not to let go of the thief leader. Seeing that the Liao cavalry was about to crash into the group of thieves, suddenly there was a horn from the crowd, the thieves pulled the rope violently, and a row of wooden fences that fell in front of the formation were suddenly pulled up, the fence was fourteen or fifteen feet high, and its sharpened end was pointed obliquely at the Liao cavalry who rushed over, the front row of Liao cavalry could not dodge, and hit a square, and suddenly there was a scream and screaming, many people were stabbed by the pointed wooden stakes, and became flesh and blood gourds. Only the lieutenant was a good horse under his crotch, and he was quite skilled in riding, and in a panic his legs clamped the horse's belly, and with a lift of the reins, he actually crossed over the fence, but he was still in a state of shock, and a big black man rushed out of the oblique thorn, holding a long-handled broadsword, and with a slash, he cut him off the horse. "Kill the Khitan dog!" The big black man slashed and killed the thief leader, raised his arms and shouted angrily, and a burst of harmony erupted in the crowd, waving all kinds of rudimentary weapons and pounced, killing the Liao soldiers who fell to the ground one by one. Although the cavalry in the back did not hit the sharp stake, but only then did they hear the urging of their captain, they all beat their horses to chase after them, lest they fall behind, and now they gathered in the front row only four or five steps away, many people tightened the reins, but were dismounted by the painful mounts, even if a few horsemen were good and did not fall off the horse, but they also made the war horses jump in place and could not fight. The people who had just fled in all directions also turned around and tore the horsemen off their horses and killed them one by one. The cavalry of the Liao army, which had lost their speed, could not resist the onslaught from all sides, except for a very small number of lucky ones with excellent equestrian skills who fled on horseback, and all of them were wiped out in the blink of an eye. "Come back, come back!" Seeing this scene, Han Xiaoxuan's face suddenly turned as pale as rice paper, and he shouted loudly to the Liao cavalry who escaped from the trap, but the few cavalrymen who escaped only fled for their lives, where did they care about the carriages on the official road. "It's over, it's over!" Han Xiaoxuan sat back in the car, the total number of members of the mission was only more than ten people, of which only six or seven could bend the bow and shoot arrows, and the thieves over there were four or five hundred, seeing that the thieves had rushed over here, no matter how they looked at it, they couldn't resist it, even if they wanted to run, this kind of very solemn-looking chariot couldn't run fast at all, even if the thieves were on foot, they might not be able to get rid of it, not to mention that they had just snatched dozens of war horses from the Liao army. "Han Xianggong, get on the horse quickly, with me and Ah Ping, I will definitely be able to protect your safety!" Xue Liangyu said urgently. "This-" Han Xiaoxuan looked at the horse on the side, his face couldn't help but show embarrassment, obviously he didn't have much confidence in his equestrian skills. If you are accustomed to the surname, you want to collect, all kinds of support!

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