"I'm not talking nonsense, the second brother went out to sea with Uncle Mancang to fish last night, isn't the fish boiling in our pot brought back by the second brother!" Zhao Sihai was scolded by the middle-aged woman like this, and couldn't help but reach out and scratch his head, and said with an aggrieved face.

"You ......" The middle-aged woman suddenly became anxious, Li Yuntian and the others were outsiders after all, and if they sued the government, it would be a big trouble.

"We seem to have a mouthful." Without waiting for the middle-aged woman to speak, Li Yuntian interrupted him with a smile and said to Zheng Liang and the others, "Since the little brother of the Zhao family caught a lot of fish from the river, then he must have left some alive, but I haven't eaten sweet and sour fish for a long time." ”

Zheng Liang and the others laughed when they heard this, and they all nodded and opened their mouths to agree, it was obvious that Li Yuntian was relieving the middle-aged woman from the siege, and it was also to avoid the embarrassment of them, the civil and military members of the Ming Dynasty.

"Yes, it was caught from the river." The middle-aged woman couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when she heard this, and hurriedly said to Zhao Sihai, "Go quickly, bring the bucket with the fish." ”

"Mother, I'll go." Hearing this, Zhao Dahai smiled and reached out to touch Zhao Sihai's head, and went to the firewood room on the side to take out a wooden barrel, which contained a few fresh and tender big yellow croaker.

"Sister-in-law, we bought these fish." Li Yuntian glanced at the fish in the bucket, and said to the middle-aged woman with a smile, Lei Ting, who was standing behind him, immediately took out a few pieces of broken silver and handed them over.

"One is enough." The middle-aged woman did not accept all the broken silver, but picked up a small piece from it, held it in her hand, and bowed to Li Yuntian with a smile.

"Sister-in-law, can you lend us the stove to cook." Li Yuntian smiled when he heard this, and said, he knew that the middle-aged woman needed money to see a doctor, but the middle-aged woman did not charge more than the broken silver, and it seemed that she was also an honest person.

"Look at me, I forgot that you haven't eaten yet, Dalan, quickly clean up the stove." The middle-aged woman coughed a few times and hurriedly ordered Zhao Dalan on the side.

"No, we'll just do it ourselves." Li Yuntian smiled and waved his hand, and several cook-like entourages moved some pots and pans and their own ingredients from the car parked outside the door to a low kitchen made of thatch and mud in the courtyard, and then worked in an orderly manner, I am afraid this is the worst kitchen they have ever used.

"Sister-in-law, what's your lunch today?" While those cooks were busy in the kitchen, Li Yuntian seemed to be casually pulling household chores with the middle-aged woman.

"It's nothing, it's just some ordinary things, Mr. is a nobleman, I guess I haven't seen it." The middle-aged woman said with a smile as she coughed.

"Oh? I'm going to want to see this. Li Yuntian laughed and said to Zheng Liang and the others, "You must have never eaten a peasant meal, why don't you taste it?" ”

"That's great!" Zheng Liang and the others naturally couldn't refuse, and they all opened their mouths to echo.

"This ......" The middle-aged woman couldn't help but look embarrassed when she saw this, the food at home was really not on the table, how could she take it out to entertain Li Yuntian and others.

"Sister-in-law, we are tired of eating delicacies from the mountains and seas, and now we want to change our taste." Li Yuntian knew that the middle-aged woman had concerns, so he smiled and comforted.

"Dalan, go, bring the rice." The middle-aged woman saw that Li Yuntian insisted on tasting the family's food, so she hesitated for a moment and said to Zhao Dalan.

Zhao Dalan went to the kitchen under the gaze of everyone, and soon brought out lunch and placed it on a shabby square table in the shade of a tree in the courtyard.

Since Li Yuntian, Zheng Liang and the others wanted to taste the food, it was naturally impossible to use the shabby dishes of the Zhao family, and several cooks gave Zhao Dalan their smooth and shiny tableware.

In addition to the boiled fish in a porcelain basin, Li Yuntian could recognize it, and the black pasty cakes and batter in the dishes on the table, as well as the "dishes" that he didn't know whether they were wild vegetables or pickles, were all the first time he had seen them.

"Bosses, let's try it."

There were some small porcelain bowls on the table, which contained a small half bowl of black batter, which was specially prepared for Li Yuntian and others, Li Yuntian picked up a small porcelain bowl and drank the batter inside, tasted it and said to Zheng Liang and others.

Zheng Liang and the others then stepped forward and picked up the small porcelain bowl, and as soon as they put the small porcelain bowl to their mouths, many people's brows furrowed, and there was a smell similar to mold in the batter.

Although there was some reluctance in their hearts, since Li Yuntian had already set an example, Zheng Liang and the others had no choice but to drink the black batter in their respective bowls.

Those black batters not only tasted bad, but also unusually rough, and I didn't know what they were made of, which made Zheng Liang and the others' faces a little ugly.

Because the black batter is so unpalatable, the adults present are used to this kind of sin one by one, so after drinking it, several adults really couldn't help the nausea in their stomachs, covered their mouths and ran out, vomiting outside the courtyard gate.

Seeing this, the onlookers suddenly let out a burst of good-natured laughter, how could these nobles be accustomed to their food.

Li Yuntian glanced at the vomiting adults, quietly picked up a piece of black flour cake and ate it slowly, chatting and laughing with the middle-aged woman while eating, asking about the origin of the black flour cake and black batter.

Zheng Liang and the others glanced at each other, and successively picked up those rough black flour cakes and gnawed them, in their opinion, these hard black flour cakes like stones were not eaten by people at all, and they didn't know how Li Yuntian could eat them.

The middle-aged woman told Li Yuntian that the black bread and black batter were made by crushing wild vegetables and mixing some bran flour, which was the staple food of the people in the village, and if the year was bad, they would not even be able to eat these black flour cakes and black batter.

When I heard that it was bran, a few people who were munching on black flour cakes couldn't help but feel sick to their stomachs, the so-called chaff noodles are powdered from the husks of some cereal rice crops, which are usually used to feed pigs in large households.

"Boss Luo, how does it taste?" After learning the origin of the black flour cake and the black batter, Li Yuntian stuffed the remaining small piece of black flour cake in his hand into his mouth, and asked Luo Yong, who was frowning and nibbling on the black flour cake one by one.

"It's okay, it's okay." Luo Yong couldn't help but smile embarrassedly when he heard this, and at the same time took a big bite of the black flour cake, he was the commander of the Zhejiang Metropolitan Division, and the guards in Zhejiang were all governed by him, and now the economic conditions of these military households were so poor, he could not escape the blame as the commander of the capital.

Li Yi'an and the other people in the political envoy department and the inspection envoy department secretly breathed a sigh of relief, the military household was not under the jurisdiction of the local yamen, so Li Yuntian would not trouble them.

"Forget it, if you really can't eat it, don't force it." Li Yuntian didn't want to make a big move here so that Luo Yong couldn't get off the stage, he didn't sympathize with Luo Yong, but he didn't want to lose the face of Zhejiang Dusi, seeing that Luo Yong and the others were really difficult to swallow, so he said lightly.

After listening to Li Yuntian's words, except for Fang Youdao, the rest of the adults rushed out of the courtyard one after another, and spit out the black flour cake in their mouths outside the door, this kind of thing really tossed them enough.

Fang Youdao was chewing black bread there with an expressionless face, he was also from a bitter background when he was a child, and he was able to be crowned a marquis after the Battle of Jingjing and various wars in the Ming Dynasty later, so his ability to bear it was far stronger than that of Zheng Liang and Luo Yong.

Li Yuntian knew that those black flour cakes and black batter had made Zheng Liang and the others almost collapse, so he didn't move the chopsticks of the wild vegetables and pickles-like "dishes" on the table plate, after all, his purpose had been achieved, and there was no need to be aggressive, and then chatted with the middle-aged woman and other villagers in the courtyard.

Seeing this, Lei Ting waved her hand, and several entourages put away the dishes, chopsticks, and chopsticks on the table in an orderly manner, which made Zheng Liang, Li Yi'an and the others couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, they were really afraid that Li Yuntian would toss again.

The villagers seemed a little cramped at first, but because of Li Yuntian's kind attitude, the somewhat tense and depressing atmosphere at the scene quickly became relaxed.

Zheng Liang and the others looked at the scene in front of them with some surprise, no one could have imagined that Li Yuntian, who was high in the sky, would have such a harmonious relationship with these ordinary people, and they were used to being condescending on weekdays, and their words and deeds contained official authority, so they could not control the situation on the scene with such ease as Li Yuntian.

Because Li Yuntian and his party were relatively large, Zhao Dahai borrowed two more decent tables from the neighbor's house and placed them in the courtyard, and when the cook successively brought those dishes with all the colors and flavors to the table, Li Yuntian had already learned some about the situation in Zhaojiatun through the villagers in the courtyard.

Zhaojiatun is close to the sea by the mountains, so there are not many fields that can be used for farming, and the villagers can go out to sea to fish and live a nourishing life, but after the ban on the Ming Sea, the situation will plummet, and the days will be more difficult.

Although Li Yuntian didn't ask, he knew that many of the originally small fields in Zhaojiatun must have been encroached upon by Dinghaiwei's officers or local big households, which undoubtedly made the villagers' already miserable life even worse.

"Who?" After the cook set the meal, before Li Yuntian beckoned everyone to take their seats, a deep cry came from outside the courtyard gate.

"I live here." Then, a man replied breathlessly.

"Boss Li, it's my second brother outside!" Hearing this, Zhao Dahai hurriedly bowed to Li Yuntian and said.

Li Yuntian bowed slightly to Keiko Yamaguchi, who was standing at the door, and Keiko Yamaguchi went out and brought two young men in, one of whom was a young man holding an older man, who was injured in the leg and wrapped it in strips of cloth, and the blood had stained his trouser legs.

"Big cousin, what's wrong with you?" Seeing the injured man, Zhao Dahai was taken aback and hurriedly stepped forward to help.

"Don't mention it, those dog officials in the county government came to the village again to forcibly collect the tax on the widows, and after a few words I contradicted, they said that I was a fellow party of the widows and wanted to arrest me and put me in prison, but when I escaped, they shot an arrow." The injured man shook his head and sat down on a stone in the courtyard with Zhao Dahai's support.

Hearing this, Li Yuntian's brows couldn't help frowning, and the faces of Li Yi'an and Yang Ming became ugly, the two were the two chief officials of the Zhejiang Political Envoy Department, and the servants of the Yamen below collected miscellaneous taxes and falsely framed others as fellow Japanese criminals, which really made them feel shameless.

The so-called miscellaneous taxes refer to the taxes collected by the local yamen according to their own needs, which has a close relationship with the tax system of the Ming Dynasty.

For example, the suppression of the Japanese tax is obviously used to fight against the Japanese invaders, but in fact it is the name of the local county government to make money, and not much money will be spent on anti-Japanese affairs. R1148