"What kind of Hu people and horses, I think it's officers and soldiers pretending to be bandits. Mother, what are you telling them all about? The guy who went out to run errands happened to come back, and when he heard his mother talking to Lin Taohua about these angry things, he said coldly.

The old woman said unhappily: "Brother Xiao, how can you be so discordant when talking to people, don't you pay compensation to the guests quickly." ”

"Hehe, no, no." Lin Taohua waved her hand with a smile, and then said to Brother Xiao: "I see that the little brother went out without eating, I brought some snacks when I came, you can hurry up and eat some with the meal." ”

Brother Xiao saw that people were not angry at him for his rudeness, and invited him to eat the expensive snacks on the table with a kind face, and his face was a little feverish.

Lin Taohua smiled secretly, this is obviously a big boy with a bad mouth.

"The little brother is the pillar of the family, but you can't be hungry, come and eat." She blinked narrowly, and seemed to smile kindly, but in fact, it was very funny.

was repeatedly accommodated by a little boy younger than him, Xiao Ge'er felt even more unhappy on his face, so he blushed and hugged his fists and said: "The kid has offended a lot without a form, and I ask a few people to forgive me." ”

Lin Taohua pursed her lips and chuckled, and Brother Xiao'er's face turned even redder. He always felt that this little boy was too much like a girl, and that Cai's words and deeds were too unmanly and manly.

Zhou Ming gently relieved the siege and said: "Brother Xiao is still young and a little naughty, Brother Xiao doesn't have to worry about him, sit down and eat." ”

Xiao Ge'er coughed lightly twice, and then sat down to eat.

"Don't just drink porridge, my dumplings are delicious, and I don't charge money, try it." Lin Taohua picked up a dumpling and put it in his bowl, her beautiful eyes flashing with kind teasing.

"Oh, thank you." Brother Xiao'er's face was very hot, and he hurriedly thanked him.

"Don't be naughty." Zhou Ming reprimanded her helplessly and said, "Didn't you call you tired just now, just go into the house to rest after eating." ”

Lin Taohua stuck out her tongue at him, no longer delayed him to talk about business, said goodnight to the old woman, and took Bai Yuan back to the room.

Tsing Yi and Miao Sheng sat at the table and accompanied Zhou Ming.

The old woman smiled and said: "Today is the deadline for changing grain, Brother Xiao looked at the harvest of a year of hard work and sent it to others, and felt a little unhappy, so he lost his sense of proportion, and asked the guests not to meet him in general." ”

Zhou Ming smiled: "Don't worry, I don't mind." But why don't you leave new rice? Li Zheng's words are just speculation, horse thieves and Hu people will not necessarily come to grab food. ”

Brother Xiao said with an ugly face: "We used to think so, but later the horse thieves really attacked the village several times, robbed a lot of food, and injured people. Except for the old rice that was thrown down by them in disgust, the new rice was robbed. Those families who did not exchange rice were robbed of their food, and they did not starve to death by relying on the help of the whole village all winter. A few times, where do we dare to bet on whether the horse thieves and Hu people will come. ”

"Is there a change of food for the main family?" Tsing Yi asked suddenly.

Xiao Ge'er said: "He took the lead in changing it, but I saw that his family secretly took out new rice, so I suspected that this horse thief was a fake at all, or that this horse thief and Li Zheng were in the same group at all." ”

"Brother Xiao, don't talk nonsense." The old woman reprimanded in a deep voice.

Brother Xiao glanced at his mother and hung her head silently.

"Auntie, don't worry, we are not talkative people, we will never tell others about today's events, you don't have to blame Brother Xiao. Hehe, it's time to talk about it, the eldest lady is not in good health, so let's rest early. At this point, he couldn't ask anything, so Zhou Ming stopped talking.

"Good. The guests are in a hurry, so let's rest early. The old woman answered, and was helped back by Brother Xiao to rest.

After returning to the room, Zhou Ming asked Miao Sheng: "What's the matter with this new rice for old rice?" ”

Miao Sheng glanced at him, the corners of his mouth moved but he didn't speak.

Zhou Ming looked at him for a while, then got up and said, "Tsing Yi, make the bed and sleep, tomorrow we will go to meet Yangjiaping's Lizheng." ”

"Yes." Tsing Yi glanced at Miao Sheng and went to make the bed leisurely.

Miao Sheng saw that Zhou Ming didn't seem to be going to ask him, so he panicked for no reason, and shouted, "My lord." ”

Zhou Ming turned to look at him.

Miao Sheng seemed to be struggling, and he didn't speak for a long time.

Zhou Ming said faintly: "Why did the official go to the countryside this time to order you, Miao County, you should know in your heart, how to choose is up to you, the official will never force it." ”

Miao Sheng gritted his teeth and asked, "Do you really want to do something practical in Wulunke?" ”

Zhou Ming said: "As a parent official, he naturally wants to be the master of the people, no matter where he goes, the official only does practical things and does not play false." Skynet is magnificent but not leaky, with the presence of this official, Wu Lunke's day will be clear sooner or later, whether to retreat or advance, just think about it yourself. ”

Miao Sheng said with a sigh of relief: "Xia Guan once wanted to be the master of justice for the people, but unfortunately his ability was limited, and in the end he could only open his eyes and see that he couldn't do anything. Now that the adult said that he wanted to return Wu Lunke to a clear state, the lower officials were willing to give it a go and help the adults succeed. ”

Zhou Ming patted him on the shoulder and said, "Okay, a good man should be like this." ”

So Miao Sheng told Zhou Ming about the many problems that Wu Lunke had over the years.

First of all, Wu Lunke's main bookkeeper Jiang Yuanzhi was greedy for ink. Wu Lunke's taxes and expenses are all handled by him, and he never lets people interfere. The tax money and grain collected each time basically went around from the treasury, and then he sent it to other places in a different way, and then erased them one by one in the account books in the name of paying for the grain and grass of the border army or natural disasters and mildew, so that the treasury of Wulunko was empty.

Jiang Yuanzhi is a person with a background. His brother-in-law is the current Baizhou prefect Qian Jinglun. Qian Jinglun can be said to be the emperor of the soil in the Baizhou territory, and it is no wonder that Jiang Yuanzhi dares to exploit the people so fearlessly.

In recent years, Jiang Yuanzhi and Qian Jinglun have colluded, and in the name of hoarding grain to prepare for war, they have added 20% of miscellaneous taxes to the taxes paid by the imperial court every year.

Second, Jiang Yuanzhi colluded with bandits and fish in the country. It is reported that this matter of exchanging old rice for new rice for the people is also related to him. The grain merchants who come to Baizhou every year to collect grain are inextricably linked with Qian Jinglun. To put it bluntly, the policy of replacing old rice with new rice is simply from the hands of Qian Jinglun and Jiang Yuanzhi, otherwise how would an ordinary grain merchant dare to do such a thing. Between the three, Qian Jinglun is the protective umbrella, Jiang Yuanzhi is responsible for finding horse thieves and Hu people to intimidate and plunder, and grain merchants profit from it, and then send a draw to Qian and Jiang.

Third, Jiang Yuanzhi murdered the imperial court officials. Miao Sheng said that after the previous county magistrate took office, he found that Wu Lunke had many shortcomings and wanted to carry out drastic rectification, which seriously hindered Jiang Yuanzhi and Qian Jinglun from seeking benefits, so he was killed in the lobby by the assassin Jiang Yuanzhi found.

Fourth, Jiang Yuanzhi liked to torture and kill the Hu people, and often set up private hunting grounds, using the Hu people as prey, and killing them on a large scale, which caused tension between the Hu people and the government in Wulunke, and often caused Hu riots. Miao Sheng said that at the most serious time, Wu Lunke could not suppress these Hu villages at all, so Jiang Yuanzhi borrowed troops from Qian Jinglun, and did more than one or two times just slaughtering the village, and was the culprit of Wu Lunke's frequent turmoil.

Fifth, he also had dealings with the Igil Saihan tribe. Once, the Wulunke bowl ditch was plundered by the Saihan tribe, and the people of the village were slaughtered. Miao Sheng suspected that Jiang Yuanzhi had an ulterior deal with the Saihan Ministry, and that the robbery and murder incident was directed by Jiang Yuanzhi to the Saihan Ministry.