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As Wu Yi said, in the evening, the east and west armies under Li Li arrived at the city of Chengdu one after another.

At this time, it was only four days after the defeat of Zhao Wei's rebels.

In other words, after a lapse of four days, the city of Chengdu, which had just been lifted, was besieged again.

It's just that this time it was no longer the rebels led by Zhao Wei who besieged the state city, but the Xiliang Iron Cavalry under Li Li.

On this day, the state city, which had just calmed down after a large-scale search of the whole city, was in turmoil again, and the people in the city were panicked.

Since the first batch of Xiliang Iron Cavalry came to the city at noon, the street market has become deserted and empty, but the scene in the civilian alley, which was very deserted in the past, is a different scene.

But seeing that many big families poured into the civilian alleys, one after another horse-drawn carriages full of gold and silver entered the low and dilapidated civilian houses, and one by one the ladies dressed in gold and silver and the beautiful wives and concubines moved into the slums. As a result, the Xicheng Civilian Alley, which has always been dirty and messy, has suddenly become fragrant and sweet, the grass chicken has become a golden phoenix, and the grass house is hard to find.

Until nightfall, the alley was still full of noisy people.

After dinner, Wu Amaranth inadvertently mentioned the matter when he came to serve tea, and Li Li was surprised when he heard about it, and he couldn't understand it.

Why is that? Before the city was breached, these people couldn't wait to transfer their wealth, and they couldn't help but be overly nervous. Can you be in such a hurry, right? ”

Seeing that Li Li didn't know what was going on, Wu Yi, who was sitting next to him, explained with a smile: "The general doesn't know anything. Since the end of the Battle of Hanzhong, some rumors about the Great General have been circulating in the counties of Yizhou. Preaching that the general is the king of benevolence and righteousness, the Xiliang Army is not as murderous and bloodthirsty as the rumors say; Liu Zhang, the state pastor, was very frightened when he learned about it, so he ordered people to make up many rumors. He deliberately slandered the reputation of the general and described the Xiliang army as a demon who wantonly burned, looted, and committed all kinds of evil, so as to confuse the public and consolidate his dominance as the lord of Yizhou.

Since then, rumors have emerged one after another about the general and the Xiliang army, among which the general is extremely hostile to the nobles of the family. Rumors claim that the great general occupied the state and county. It is inevitable that large-scale raids and killings will be carried out on the major families and nobles; This is the case in Jingzhao Sanfu, Sili, Yuzhou, Xuzhou and other prefectures and counties, and more than seventy percent of the families were slaughtered without exception. It's ?????? Under the deliberate propaganda of Liu Zhang and some big families in Yizhou, the prestige of the general and the Xiliang Army under his command is incomparable. It's already terrifying. ”

Speaking of this, Wu Yi deliberately paused, and carefully observed Li Li's expression under the pretext of drinking tea, lest his loyalty be contrary to his words. Much to the displeasure of Li Li. Furthermore. He still has the concern that if he talks too much, he will lose, after all, the time he has spent with Li Li is too short, from noon to now less than four hours, and it is a taboo in officialdom to talk deeply, and a wise man does not do it. Therefore, it is necessary for him to observe Li Li's demeanor and expression, so as to judge whether Li Li is really as broad-minded and elegant as the rumors say. Good at admonishment.

Li Li heard the implicit exhortation in Wu Yi's words, and also knew that Wu Yi's statement deliberately concealed some pickled rumors. Avoid the important and take care of his face. This made him clearly know that Wu Yi was by no means a brave and unscrupulous martial artist, and that there was an extremely delicate and meticulous heart hidden in his tall and burly body.

At the same time, Li Li was very disdainful of the many false rumors and rumors that Liu Zhang and his subordinates wantonly slandered his reputation, demonized him and his army, and deliberately misled the people of Yizhou.

The more Liu Zhang and his subordinates wantonly slandered him Li Li and the Xiliang army under his command, the more it showed that the Yizhou monarchs and ministers were timid and weak-hearted, and their confidence was insufficient. They don't have the courage to compete with him Li Li at all, and they don't have the courage to face the world-leading Xiliang Iron Cavalry, so they can only resort to rumors and slander, in an attempt to confuse the public and arouse the resistance of the people of Yizhou, so as to block the Xiliang army from Yizhou, so that they can forever control Yizhou and enjoy the glory and wealth.

However, Liu Zhang and his subordinates obviously did not achieve the desired effect by taking precautions, and they over-publicized that Li Li and his Xiliang army hated the nobles and gentry of the official eunuchs and nobles, but ignored that it was the common people who accounted for about ninety percent of the total population of Yizhou.

Although Yizhou has been in a relatively peaceful life compared with other states and counties, the living conditions of the people in Yizhou are not as good as outsiders imagine. They have been enslaved and oppressed by the big families and powerful gentry for a long time, and most of the fruits of their labor in exchange for hard work and sweat have fallen into the hands of the nobles, and their income is extremely limited, barely making ends meet. It is no exaggeration to say that it is these ordinary people, who occupy ninety percent of the total population of Yizhou, who feed the nobles and nobles who only account for about one-tenth of the Yizhou territory, so that the nobles can sit and enjoy their success, wear gold and silver, brocade clothes and jade food, and enjoy wealth and glory with peace of mind.

It's a pity that Liu Zhang, who didn't know the suffering of the people, and his subordinates blindly slandered Li Li and the Xiliang Army, deliberately wooing the heroes of the major families and scholars, but they ignored the existence of the common people, and did not take the millions of Yizhou people to heart and eyes at all.

Perhaps until now, Liu Zhang and his subordinate Wu still can't understand why the Xiliang army attacked Yizhou so quickly, and why they were able to come to the city unnoticed. For this reason, they blamed this qiē on the fact that there were traitors inside Yizhou, eating inside and outside, colluding with the Xiliang army inside and outside, and the inside and outside should be combined, which caused today's situation. However, they would never have dreamed that it was they who hyped up how Li Li and the Xiliang Army hated the nobles and how they were murderous and bloodthirsty, which not only did not arouse the enthusiasm of the common people and grassroots soldiers to resist, but made these ordinary people who had been oppressed and enslaved for a long time more and more keen to inquire about the current situation of the prefectures and counties under Li Li's rule.

The toiling masses do not care about the life and death of the nobles and the powerful, just as the nobles never care about their life or death, and do not treat them as human beings. They only care about how the people under the rule of General Li, who occupy most of the world, live well, whether they live well, and whether they can only fill their stomachs after years of hard work like them. As a result, the earth-shaking changes in Xiliang over the years were introduced to Yizhou through various ways, so that they knew that if Li Li was a devil who ate people and did not spit out bones in the eyes of the nobles, then for the common people, he was a god that had never been seen in ancient times.

Not to mention how the life of the people under Li Li was superior, just the difference in taxation. In all the prefectures and counties under Li Li's rule, except for Yangzhou and Nanyang counties in Jingzhou, where there are still disputes, the remaining prefectures and counties uniformly implement the 37 tax system, which is exempted or exempted as appropriate in the event of drought and flood disasters. However, in Yizhou, the world said that Liu Yan was lenient and benevolent, and his son Liu Zhang inherited the ancestral system, but he only changed the five-five tax system to the four-six tax system, which is benevolent government. Compared with the tax under Li Li's rule, Yizhou is only one percent worse, which seems to be a small gap, but the implementation is very different, and it is not the same.

Yizhou is rich, and it has been in peace for a long time, because the government and the nobles are extremely harsh when collecting taxes, picking fat and thin, and the forty percent of the taxes collected are all the best grain and cloth items, which means that the people take out all the income from their labor and let them choose, and the rest can be owned by the people.

And after this fiddling, the forty percent of the taxes collected are naturally a lot of money, but there are no sixty percent left for the people, at most fifty and a half, or even only fifty percent, and the rest are all wasted. In this way, it is said that the four or six tax system is actually not fundamentally different from the five or five tax system. It is evident from this that the suffering of the people of Yizhou can be seen.

In contrast, the Sanqi tax system is different. After all, Sancheng is a small part, even if the people pick out all the best food and goods and hand them over, they still have most of the income, at least they can leave some good things, so that they will not eat bran all year round and can't eat a good meal.

It is not that Li Li is lenient and benevolent in his administration and how superior the system is, but that it is relatively superior compared to the policies under the rule of other princes. After all, he needed to provide food for an army of nearly a million, and tens of thousands of officials and princes with titles and food to support. Therefore, the benevolent government he can provide is extremely limited, and he cannot relax the decrees as he pleases, and he cannot give the most advantageous policies to the people under his rule.

It is precisely this point of benevolence, which is different from that of other princes, that makes the superiority of the life of the people under Li Li's rule manifest itself, and makes the people of other states and counties envious.

This has been the case since ancient times. When a relatively superior and fair social system emerges, it means that the original social order will be broken, forcing the rulers to either change or perish, and there is no other way to go. And the driving force behind social development and change is we, the ordinary toiling masses.

Therefore, this time the Xiliang Army was able to attack Yizhou so quickly, and the sword pointed directly at Chengdu, which was by no means a fluke, but the will of the people and the trend of the times. And this is a credit for Liu Zhang and Yizhou's subordinates who deliberately created rumors, they abandoned their roots and ignored the suffering of the people, but spent all their eyes and energy on winning over aristocratic families and powerful gentry. As a result, the Xiliang army drove straight in, and the nobles and heroes who were relied on by them did not put their minds on how to resist the Xiliang army at all, but transferred their family assets as soon as possible, dragging their families and hiding in the slums.

It's a pity that these nobles and heroes who tried to escape the war couldn't escape the fetters of fate after all, and as soon as they left, they let Li Li, who was in the city, know. In Li Li's words, you always have to pay it back when you come out to mix; You can take what belongs to you, and you can spit it out if it doesn't belong to you.

?????? The first day of the siege of the Xiliang army passed quietly.

The next day, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses from the Xiliang army outside the city arrived. And the banner of this road of soldiers and horses is very familiar to the defenders of the city, and it is the rebel army of Zhao Wei who was repulsed by them five days ago. In other words, after the failure of Zhao Wei's rebellion, he took refuge in the Xiliang army under the city, and now the two groups of people and horses joined forces to besiege Chengdu again.

—————— To be Continued ————————————— (To be Continued......