The rich people just sighed and felt distressed, because their families have a thick foundation, and they can afford to grit their teeth, but it is too difficult to put this forced money on ordinary people!

It is conceivable that the "city-wide donation" presided over by Xu Wei, the new city guard, will certainly not only target the rich, but will focus more on the people of Tanzhou. For a time, there were wails all over the city of Tanzhou.

Originally, Lin Feng and a rich man donated 20 guan at least to warm their sad hearts of mourning relatives, but they didn't expect that in less than a day, the soldiers and horses of the king of Xinchu came to the door, asking the whole city to dedicate, and ordinary people at least 30 guan per household, and other families according to the house, the degree of wealth and poverty, some soldiers decided for themselves, the number ranged from 30 to 100,000.

You must know that in this era, a few pennies can eat a meal, and how many poor people can't save less than two or three times a year of hard work!

"When the fierce officials come to my hometown, they shout from east to west, and from north to south, and they are in an uproar, although the chickens and dogs are not at peace." As described in Liu Zongyuan's "The Snake Catcher Says", the whole city of Tanzhou completely reproduced the scene of arrogant and arrogant taxation on the one hand, and grief and indignation on the other.

Zhang Longxing heard a loud slamming sound near noon, and hurriedly ran over to open the door.

Several heavily armed soldiers swarmed in, first surrounded Zhang Longxing, and an adjutant walked in leisurely, looked at the quaint buildings in the courtyard, nodded with satisfaction, and said loudly: "You belong to a rich family here, and you should at least hand over 30,000 yuan for city defense construction!" ”

30,000?! Zhang Longxing's eyes were about to burst out, and he immediately shouted: "I'm almost so poor that I want to sell my ancestral house, where can I find 30,000 yuan!" ”

"Don't pretend to be poor for me! I've seen a lot of faces like you along the way! No matter how rich people are, they will only cry poor! You must get it together before dusk tomorrow, otherwise, you will be arrested in the official prison and your house will be confiscated! The lieutenant was immediately annoyed and roared.

Zhang Longxing knew that resisting hard at this time would only make things worse, took a breath, pointed to a stone slab in front of him that was still stained with blood, and said sadly: "My father, Zhang Shaodi, used to be the commander of Tanzhou City, because he supported the establishment of Ma Xicao, the king of Xinchu, he was deliberately cold received by Ma Xiguang and degraded for three years. Just the night before, the elderly father was cut down by a Langzhou soldier and drove west. This general, our family has been getting worse day by day for the past three years, and now, there is only me and an old servant in the house! It's really hard to live on the day. ”

The lieutenant was stunned, he was originally from the Tanzhou army, so he had naturally heard of Zhang Shaodi's name. However, he immediately opened his mouth and said, "Young Master Zhang, this is an order pressed down from above, and I can't help it." In the next place, I will give Zhang Du a face, and make the decision in private, so reduce the number to 20,000! ”

20,000? Now the family plus the twenty yuan given by Lord Lin last night, the total amount is less than thirty yuan, and it is not enough to bury my father in a little more scenery, and the money to comfort the families who died in the war and injured has not been found, where can I make up such a large amount of money! Zhang Longxing was very sad in his heart and did not say anything.

The lieutenant waved his hand and motioned for his subordinates to leave together, and before leaving the door, the lieutenant turned around and reminded loudly: "Young Master Zhang, don't forget, get together before dusk tomorrow!" ”

Zhang Longxing was stunned and stood there all the time, but the fist in his hand was clenched tightly.

"Brother Zhang, Brother Zhang!" I don't know how long it took, Zhang Longxing was shaken awake, and in front of him was an anxious young face.

"For the tiger, why are you here?" Zhang Longxing shook his head and asked with some surprise. The person who came was Yuan Weihu, the youngest son of Yuan Yougong, the former Tanzhou Duzhiya. After Ma Xifan's violent death, Yuan Yougong and Zhang Shaodi were both factions that supported Ma Xicao's upper position, and they were naturally disliked by Ma Xiguang, who was overstepping the upper rank, and directly demoted him to a nine-rank petty official. The two families are in the same situation, and they have had more contacts in the past.

"I came to discuss with Brother Zhang, a group of soldiers came to our house and asked us to hand over 20,000 yuan, we are all about to die, if there is this money, our family will not be so miserable now!" Yuan Weihu cried with a sad face, and pulled Zhang Longxing's sleeve and said.

Zhang Longxing showed a smile that was more difficult than crying, and said bitterly: "The person who asked for money just left, and our family is also 20,000 yuan!" ”

Yuan Weihu immediately jumped up and said in surprise: "The money for burying my uncle hasn't been settled yet, where can Brother Zhang find this money?!" Unless the world drops a noble person to help! ”

Elegant? Zhang Longxing suddenly woke up, grabbed Yuan Weihu, and said hurriedly: "Go, I'll take you to see a real nobleman!" ”

When Zhang Longxing and Yuan Weihu ran all the way to Huangfu to see Lin Feng, they also saw a dozen or so people who chased the tribal soldiers with knives to help Lin Feng that day, and everyone was forced here by the soldiers who came to the door to ask for money.

After listening to everyone's complaints, Lin Feng felt a sense of guilt in his heart, if he hadn't forced Ma Xicao so hard, maybe the suffering of the people of Tanzhou City would not have come so quickly and so heavily, right?

Lin Feng, who was ashamed in his heart, said in a deep voice: "This can really be described as 'harsh government is fiercer than a tiger'. In this way, you leave your name to me, and I will speak to the king of Chu privately; In addition, if I write a note to each of you, put it with my seal, and show it to the soldiers who collect taxes, it should be no problem. ”

Holding the strips in both hands, Zhang Longxing and the others thanked them and left. However, before leaving, Lin Feng specially told them not to spread the word about this matter, otherwise, the person who came to the door to beg for a strip could eat him!

Just when Lin Feng was holding the paper with the list written on it and was thinking about how to inform Ma Xixuan, Ma Xichong took the initiative to come to the door.

Lin Feng introduced him to a small remote pavilion in the Huang Mansion, and after some politeness, Ma Xichong hesitated and said: "Special Envoy Lin, it has been rumored in the city recently that many soldiers from Yuantanzhou have been swaggering outside in the name of joining the Tang Army, I wonder if Lord Lin has heard of this?" ”

Lin Feng didn't pay attention to his question at all, but instead asked with great interest: "Prime Minister Ma, I don't know what you think of the soldiers under my command?" ”

When it came to this topic, Ma Xichong's eyes immediately lit up, and he said loudly: "Invincible, invincible, what a sharp blade of the country!" ”

Lin Feng's face was even more red, and he said loudly: "Lin watched this battle, the combat effectiveness of the tribal soldiers was far stronger than that of the soldiers of Langzhou and Tanzhou. Lin suddenly had an idea: If some elites are selected from the Langzhou and Tanzhou armies and trained exactly like my subordinates, over time, I believe that the prime minister will not have to rely so much on those unreliable brute soldiers in the future! ”

"Good! Good! Good! Great idea, Envoy Lin! Ma Xichong got up and excitedly walked around the pavilion twice. Ma Xichong originally thought that the training of these magical warriors must be a top secret of the Tang Dynasty and would not be revealed to outsiders, so he never thought about it.

"However, will these elite soldiers belong to the Tang Dynasty or the Chu State in the future?" Ma Xichong suddenly thought of a key question, and quickly stopped and looked at Lin Feng.

"This still needs to be asked, the elite of the Chu State naturally wants to be used to protect the Chu State!" Lin Feng waved his hand and said loudly.

"Xie Lu Xie Lin! Ma represents the envoy of the king of Chu, Xie Luxie! Ma Xi couldn't help but be overjoyed and gave Lin Feng a deep salute.

"Then let's decide, the day after tomorrow early in the morning in the big camp on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River to carry out the selection of the whole army, Prime Minister Ma thinks it is feasible!" Lin Feng immediately asked.

"Of course, the sooner the better!" Ma Xichong thought that his subordinates would soon be able to have an elusive elite team, and he couldn't help but feel itchy.

After saying this, Lin Feng invited Ma Xichong to sit down, then approached him and explained in a low voice: "After the siege incident two days ago, Lin Mou is most worried about the safety of His Royal Highness the Nine!" To put it mildly, this is an important responsibility that you and I can't afford to bear even if you lose your head!

So, Lin thought of temporarily cobbling together some troops, which were specially used to protect His Royal Highness the Ninth before the arrival of my Tang elite soldiers, and at the same time, it could also prevent these deserters from causing trouble to the people. When my Tang elite soldiers can ensure the safety of His Royal Highness the Nine, these soldiers from Yuantan Prefecture will inevitably return to the Chu State! After all, we are all under the jurisdiction of Datang, and please let the envoy relax! ”

Ma Xichong was stunned, although this explanation didn't sound quite right, he still nodded unfreely.

"Okay, Xie Lu Xie Ma understands it! Lin Mou, on behalf of His Royal Highness the Nine, Xie Lu Xie Ma is the prime minister! By the way, when Lin was besieged, he was helped by some righteous people, and he also asked the horse envoy to give Lin a few thin noodles, which exempted them from the cost of city defense! Lin Feng handed over the names written by Zhang Longxing and them just now to Ma Xichong, stood up, and made a gesture of sending off guests.

Ma Xichong took the list like a puppet, couldn't find the conversation for a while, his heart was mixed, he nodded blankly, turned around and said goodbye.