It was already getting dark, there were a few bonfires lit in the village, and there were many men and women bending over to touch something by the river.

In the open space in the village, dogs and other teenagers were peeling their prey just like Tao Hu and others at the beginning.

When the prey comes back, the village has always retained a habit, that is, the whole village is there, and they also light a bonfire, they will divide the prey, and eat the meat returned by the whole village, and some of the water and the like will be handed over to the village elders and distributed to each family.

Liu Wei and Tao Huanniang sat by the bonfire, accompanied by Wang Zhen and several old people in the village.

When he entered the village, Liu Wei did not see many acquaintances, especially the old people, who had hindered him from building the waterwheel back then, and many of them were gone.

"What year did the third uncle die?" Looking at the elder sitting beside him, Liu Wei said with a bit of sadness in his tone: "I haven't been here for a few years, and there are many fewer acquaintances in the village. ”

"The third brother died at the end of the first year!" Liu Wei asked about the third uncle who opposed him the most strongly in building a waterwheel back then, and the old man sighed and said: "Before he died, he still muttered that there is no chance to bow to His Majesty again in this life!" ”

Hearing that the third uncle passed away at the end of the first year, Liu Wei didn't say anything, and asked his father-in-law: "How has the village been making a living in the past few years?" Ding Zhuang went to join the army, who cultivates the fields? ”

"Cultivating a field is a small thing!" Speaking of the fields, the old man's face was suddenly filled with a satisfied smile, and he said to Liu Wei: "Every family in the village has ploughing cattle, and the waterwheel replaces manpower for irrigation, even if the crops are in a big drought, they will not dry up, and only the woman and I can cultivate it." The teenagers went to the mountains to hunt some wild animals, and there were also a lot of fishing traps in the rivers. After the village, a lot of mulberry hemp is planted, mulberry fruit is edible, silkworm can be smoked, and hemp can be spinned. The folks' lives are now moisturizing! ”

The old man said that the villagers were living a good life, and Liu Wei smiled and nodded.

If the people of the world can live and work in peace and contentment like the villagers in Taojiazhuang, he, the emperor, will be worthy of the world!

"What about the surrounding villages?" After all, Taojiazhuang is Tao Huanniang's hometown, and it is reasonable that the local government has a lot of support for them.

Leaving the palace, he didn't have much time to linger outside.

He didn't have time to go to other villages, so he could only ask from the people of Taojiazhuang about how life was going in other villages.

Liu Wei asked about other villages, and the old man said to him: "There is not much difference between other villages and Taojiazhuang, if it is next to the small river, the livelihood of the villagers is almost the same." Only those villages that are farther away from the river have a lot more trouble getting water. ”

After listening to his father-in-law's words, Liu Wei did not say anything.

The waterwheel can indeed solve the problem of taking water from villages near the river, but due to the cost of the problem, it cannot solve the problem of taking water from villages far from the river.

There is no water, and once the dry season comes, the villagers have to draw water from distant rivers or ponds to cultivate their fields!

Thinking of this, Liu Wei frowned slightly, and said to Wang Zhen on the side: "Wang Zhen, you remember, when we return to Luoyang, people will immediately dig ponds in various villages. Set up a waterwheel next to the reservoir. The villagers are asked to fish from the river and put it in the pond, and the fish can be picked up once a year at the end of the year, which is also a supplement to the village! In addition, the villagers were told to raise more pigs and a variety of vegetables and fruits. As for the grain, I am thinking about it, and I will still open a warehouse to buy grain in the future, but all the villagers who grow grain will be subsidized by the imperial court! ”

As soon as Liu Wei said this, the group of old men sitting around him were all stunned.

They all got up and knelt down in front of Liu Wei, and the old man who had just spoken to him said: "Your Majesty, we are cultivating the land, all of which are cultivated by the Han Dynasty, and Your Majesty wants me to wait for the tribute, how can I make it?" ”

"Tribute is to be paid!" Raising his hand to the old men, Liu Wei said: "Fishing, hunting, planting mulberry hemp, fruit trees, vegetables and fruits, and raising livestock all have to pay tribute. What I want to be exempted from is nothing more than the taxes of the villagers to grow grain! The country has no grain, but the villagers get very little from planting grain. Therefore, the treasury should be subsidized! ”

Liu Wei's words made the old men all dazed, and they didn't know the deep meaning of his words.

Taojiazhuang is located in the mountains, it is not very easy to go out of the mountain once, and the villagers rarely go to Luoyang City to participate in the sale of goods, of course, they do not know that the value of grain and rice in the market is very different from vegetables, fruits, and meat.

The vast night shrouded the village, and the mountains in the distance were dark, like giants holding hands, with their tall and majestic bodies, sheltering the village surrounded by them.

Some women add dry wood to the bonfire, and the less the fire, the more prosperous.

Dogan and other teenagers also skinned the hunted wolves.

The wolf's skin was powdered with nitrate, and the meat was given to some women to be rinsed by the river.

Sitting around the campfire, Liu Wei talked to the village elders while waiting for the women to bring the washed wolf meat.

Not long after the women who had gone to wash the wolf's meat by the creek, suddenly there was an exclamation from outside the village.

Hearing the screams, Liu Wei and Wang Zhen, who was accompanying him to protect him, and all the guards stood up, and the young people in the village picked up the tools to hunt wild beasts, and without thinking about it, they ran towards the outside of the village.

Looking at the entrance of the village, Liu Wei's brows tightened.

The scream was uttered by a woman, and the scream was terrible, as if she had encountered something terrible.

Staring at the entrance of the village, Liu Wei had already subconsciously pressed his hand on the hilt of the sword.

Wang Zhen and the guards who gathered around him also had expressions of imminent enemies, waiting for the teenagers who rushed out of the village to bring back the exact news.

After a while, a figure appeared at the entrance of the village.

The figure, with a longbow on his back and a wood knife in his hand, ran into the village, said something to an old man who greeted him, turned around again, and folded out.

The old man, who got the exact news from the young man, did not dare to delay, and hurriedly ran to Liu Wei.

"Your Majesty, some floating corpses have been found in the river!" When Liu Wei approached, the old man bowed to him with his fists and said to him: "The village women went to the river to wash their meat, and one of them saw something floating in the river, and he couldn't hold back his doubts for a while, so he pulled one of the bodies closer, and at first glance, it was actually a man's floating corpse, so he screamed!" ”

"Floating corpses?" Bishan is close to Luoyang, Taojiazhuang is not very far from Luoyang, it can be said that this is the foot of the Son of Heaven, and the floating corpse will be found in the small river at the entrance of the village, which really makes Liu Wei feel strange, his brows are tightened more and more, and he instructed Wang Zhen on the side: "Arrange some manpower to follow the river to find the source of the floating corpse!" ”

"No!" Knowing that Liu Wei was bound to find out the root of this matter, Wang Zhen responded and said to the two palace guards: "You two go to investigate immediately, and be sure to find out the source of the floating corpse!" ”

The two palace guards responded, pressed the hilt of the long sword at their waist, and ran out of the village quickly.

"Let's go to the river!" Beckoning to everyone, Liu Wei gave an order, and then said to Tao Huanniang: "You stay in the village and wait for me to return!" ”

Tao Huanniang answered, and did not follow Liu Wei and the others to the entrance of the village, leaving more than 20 palace guards beside her.

Looking at the back of Liu Wei and the others leaving, Tao Huanniang couldn't help but show a trace of worry on her face.

Liu Wei took her to Taojiazhuang, one is to revisit the old place, and the other is that there are too many government affairs recently, and she wants to take a break from her busy life and rest for two days.

Unexpectedly, just after entering the village, such a thing happened before one night had passed.

Leading Wang Zhen and the others out of the village, Liu Wei went straight to the river.

On the riverside, a group of ladies huddled together, all of them seemed to be frightened, and did not dare to look more at the shore, many of them glanced at the shore, and then twisted their faces to the side.

Where the women had just washed their meat, the village boy was salvaging the floating corpses from the river.

Before he reached the shore and stood firm, Liu Wei's face suddenly became ugly.

In the small river, there were not one or two floating corpses, but dozens.

Judging from the speed at which the floating corpses came, Liu Wei could even see that there were quite a few in the upstream.

"Help!" Waving to the guards behind him, Liu Wei gave the order.

Dozens of guards jumped into the water and, together with the teenagers in the village, retrieved the floating corpses.

There were more and more floating corpses piled up on the shore, tall, short, fat and thin, the only thing they were the same, except that these corpses were all young and strong men, and there was not a single woman or child.

"Do you recognize these people?" Pointing to one of the floating corpses, Liu Wei asked an old man who came to watch.

The old man looked at two of the corpses, shook his head and said to Liu Wei: "Strange thing, these people are not from the neighborhood, how could they float from the river?" ”

Hearing that these people were not from the neighborhood, Liu Wei was relieved.

What he feared most was that there were strongmen or forces that were enemies of the royal family in the mountains and forests, and it was not impossible for those forces to enter the village and slaughter all the men in the village.

Since the old man didn't recognize these dead people, it can be seen that the nearby villages were not slaughtered, and at the feet of the Son of Heaven, there was still a piece of clarity!

Although he breathed a sigh of relief, Liu Wei didn't dare to be careless, squatted next to one of the floating corpses, and carefully examined it.

The corpse was pale and swollen, not as if it had just fallen into the water, but as if it had been soaked in the water for many days.

Grabbing a ball of grass from the ground, Liu Wei wrapped his palm in the grass, gently lifted the corpse's cheek, and pulled the corpse's face aside.

There were no scars on the neck, and there were no bruises, not like someone had broken his neck and died.

Squatting next to the corpse, staring at the already swollen corpse, the expression on Liu Bian's face became more and more solemn.