When Xu Renjie heard this, he was a little annoyed: "How much income my family earns is my family's business, and you don't have to worry about it." ”

"Actually, everyone used to be from the township, and I know a little bit about your family's income!" Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "Your income is at least equivalent to a farmer with 10,000 acres of land, and now you have raised the price of grain to three taels of silver and one stone, which is more than three or four times the usual amount, that is to say, your income this year is equivalent to a farmer with 30,000 acres of land, but the tax you pay is only at the level of 40,000 acres of land, don't you really think there is a problem?" ”

Xu Renjie wiped his sweat: "I still say the same thing, whether there is a problem or not, it is not up to you to have the final say, our Xu family is paying taxes according to the provisions of the "Daming Law", and it is not your turn to talk." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded with a smile and said: "I understand, if you can't break your fort, it's not my turn, but if you can break it, I'm qualified to say it...... In this world, in the final analysis, it depends on who has the biggest fist, and who is more powerful can make the rules. ”

The two chatted for so long, Ma Xiaotian's group of henchmen who went to cut down trees had already finished their work, and pushed a wooden cart with a strange shape and walked over, this car was extremely rough in workmanship, after all, it only took a short time, and it was nailed into two small trees at random, so it was almost unusable, but just looking at the shape, anyone could recognize what it was at a glance.

"Trebuchet?" Xu Renjie's eyes glared at Lao Yuan: "God, that's a trebuchet, although it is very badly done, it is indeed a trebuchet." ”

Xu Renjie was dizzy for a while, but he was mainly frightened, and together with several gentry around him, he was so shocked that he couldn't speak. It's not that they've never seen rogues, and they've seen a lot of them, but the rogues who can build siege equipment are really outrageous. What mountain kings, bandit leaders, and rogue armies all snatched a vote in the countryside and left, they came and roared away, the organization was scattered, there was no command, there was no military discipline at all, and they did not learn and did not know how to do it. It is impossible for such rogues to attack the city, and it is impossible for them to learn the technology of making Great Wall equipment.

Xu Renjie has gained a lot of knowledge now, and for the first time he has met a rogue who can build trebuchets. The funny thing is that this kind of siege weapon can't even be used by Xu Renjie! He felt a sense of weakness, and he didn't know much about a rogue yet.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded: "That's right, it's a trebuchet, I just asked my subordinates to make one temporarily to show you, and I'm not serious about it, so the quality of this one is a little poor, maybe it will fall apart when you touch it, but ...... If you insist that I break through your fortress and talk to you again, I don't mind telling the soldiers to spend a little more time, let's make a few more and see if we can smash your fort keepers. ”

"You...... You don't have time to build trebuchets outside my fort. Xu Renjie said loudly: "If you delay here for too long, the officers and soldiers will outflank your back......"

"Less!" Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "How many officers and soldiers there are in Baishui, you and I both know that if the government wants to send troops to deal with me, you have to transfer troops from Xi'an Mansion, and you have also seen the speed of the officials, and when they transfer troops after ten days and half a month, your Xujiabao has been burned to the ground by me." And ......"

Zhu Yuanzhang paused and said with a smile: "The officers and soldiers can't beat me when they come, do you believe it or not?" ”

"This ......" Xu Renjie gasped and gulped. Generally speaking, the siege party with trebuchets will first use the range advantage of trebuchets to pour stones into the defenders of the city, smashing the defenders on the city wall and smashing the defenders on the city wall not even daring to probe, and then the infantry outside the city carried the ladder forward, rushed to the city wall under the cover of flying stones, put the ladder on the city wall, and began to climb.

And the army in the city wants to deal with this siege method, at least need some corresponding defensive equipment, the best way is to use cannons to directly knock over the trebuchet on the opposite side, but Xu Renjie is a mere squire, if he can get the cannon, he would have been arrested by the imperial court for the crime of private possession of firearms and conspiracy to rebel.

If there is no cannon, you can only use a trebuchet against a trebuchet, but Xu Renjie doesn't have the ability to do this, he doesn't know how the internal brackets of the trebuchet are made. Otherwise, there is also a divine arm crossbow, which can also threaten the opponent's trebuchet in terms of range, but the god arm crossbow is more difficult to build than a trebuchet, and Xu Renjie can't get it even if he has the ability to reach the sky.

Nothing, how to deal with it?

Can't cope!

Xu Renjie almost wanted to roar to the sky: "Why? Why are you so powerful? Is this still a rogue? ”

He felt a sense of powerlessness in his heart, and couldn't help but say a little weakly: "Zhu Ba, what do you want?" Hurry up! ”

Zhu Yuanzhang spread his hands: "I don't want much, I will pay taxes with your grain turnover this year, and I don't collect high taxes for one." ”

"Ten taxes one?" Xu Renjie screamed: "You want to take away 10% of my family's income?" Why don't you grab it? ”

"Am I not robbing?" Zhu Yuanzhang laughed: "You can understand it as collecting taxes, or you can understand it as robbing!" Anyway, I'm going to take this money from you, and I have to take it. ”

Xu Renjie's face became very ugly, and he couldn't help but mutter: "Robbers, bandits!" To take away so much money...... The imperial court has collected taxes, and it still wants to protect us, what kind of taxes do you bandits collect, it's just nonsense. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "The current imperial court is not doing well, collecting taxes from the people, but not protecting the people well. I'm different, if I collect your tax, I will protect you and prevent you from being bullied by other people, so that I can receive the next tax from you, and the water will flow for a long time! If you're in a bad year, I might even be able to fund it to help you get through. ”

"Don't talk nonsense here!" Xu Renjie shouted indignantly: "After all, it's not a word grab. ”

"Hmm!" Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "It's really too much, it's boring, I'll grab it." Xu Renjie, let me ask you, to pay or not to pay? If you don't pay it, I'll start building trebuchets right away, don't worry, I'll kill you before Xi'an Mansion sends troops, and I won't let you wait too long and suffer too much. ”

Xu Renjie's face changed, from green to white, from white to green, he really wanted to say no, but the threat of this trebuchet does exist, as long as that thing is built, the castle wall is useless, and it will not take half a day to smash his Xu Jiabao into a mess, and he will only lose more than one percent of his income.

A few squires standing behind him quietly retreated, wanting to slip away, but Zhu Yuanzhang stretched out his hand and pointed at a few of them, and said with a smile: "Don't slip, I also know a few of you, obediently pay taxes with Xu Renjie, otherwise I will trample you all down." ”

The men groaned and sat down.

After all, his arms couldn't lift his thighs, and after a long time, Xu Renjie sighed and sighed on the wall: "Okay, I'll hand it over...... Zhu Ba, you remember to me that the humiliation that is said today will definitely be returned. ”

"Well, I'm waiting for you to give it back to me!" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled faintly.

After a while, Xu Jiabao's wall began to hang things with ropes, big bags of silver. In ancient times, people were not like now, now every household can't come up with cash, and all the money is stored in the bank, but in ancient times, there was no such thing as a bank, and everyone's money was stored in their own treasury. If you say you pay the money, you can pay it immediately.

Bags of silver were piled up all over the ground, but Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "Xu Renjie, I received the tax you paid, and now I want to use the money to buy grain from you......"

"Then you just say you want food?" Xu Renjie said unhappily: "I will directly convert it into the corresponding grain for you, so you don't have to move the silver around." ”

"That's not right!" Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "When I buy grain from you, it is also a transaction, and I also have to collect a tax of 10%...... So, you have to give me the food, but I won't give you a hundred percent of the silver, and I have to count the taxes I collect......"

Zhu Yuanzhang asked people to take out a hundred percent of the silver from the silver pile, put it away, and then threw the rest of the silver back into the wall.

Xu Renjie was so angry that he almost fainted, so he still has to collect taxes once? It's just a bandit! But he had no choice but to hand over the grain obediently.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very satisfied with his actions, and said with a smile: "Xu Renjie, you are actually not bad, if you encounter any difficulties in the future, send a family member to the mountains to find me, and collect your taxes, I will fulfill the responsibilities of the imperial court." ”

Xu Renjie waved his hand weakly: "I don't want you to protect me!" I have soldiers myself! ”

"It's a pity that your soldiers are useless!" Zhu Yuanzhang turned his head and left, the soldiers also followed behind him, the new ninth team and the new tenth team, as well as some new villagers, now automatically turned into porters, each of them picked up a large load of food, and happily followed behind. After the unruly poodle saw Zhu Yuanzhang's methods of cleaning up Xu Renjie, he respected him more and more, and now he obediently escorted the porter team behind.

"After robbing so much grain, we have made a lot of money, now are we going to rob all the squires?" Ma Xiaotian laughed.

"Of course, and there are the most important things to do after the robbery!" Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "Let's go and say hello to the county lord to eliminate the worries of grabbing grain this time, in addition, we also made an appointment with the vendor who sells daily necessities yesterday, and now that we have money in our pockets, we should go to meet them and buy some needlework or something." ”

"Say hello to the county magistrate?" Ma Xiaotian was surprised: "How do you say hello?" ”

"Well, it's easy!" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "I'll tell him, Zhu Ba will come here for a swim, and he will leave when he is done, don't act rashly, otherwise he will break his legs, hahaha!" ”