Wen Zhen is not surprised by this task, in a place like Huzhou, if something doesn't go wrong, it won't be her turn to take charge.

Huzhou has three counties and eleven counties, Wen Zhen walked from the periphery, and when he passed through Longting County, he met the guards who turned back, and the guards brought the second eunuch who passed the decree and brought a new will.

The will said that she was also given a long history. has already arrived from Tianjing, it seems that she is afraid that she does not understand practice, so she will send someone to help her do practice, and she can concentrate on breaking the tumor.

In addition, there is an imperial historian, who came down to watch the wind according to the practice of previous years, and also went to the vicinity.

Wen Zhen also received a letter from a single order, and half of her teacher vaguely told her in the letter that she had been fighting for half a year in the court and the history of the assassination, and now that the dust has settled, the candidate is too beneficial to her, so there may be some restraints in order to balance it later, so let her be prepared and act carefully.

Wen Zhen burned the letter after reading it. In order to wait for this imperial history, he planned to choose a village called Xiaoye Village outside Ye County to stay.

At this time, it was late, the moonlight was still gentle, and the road outside the village was in the beginning of spring, and the air was slightly rich and moist.

Cai Sang looked at the vegetable patch on the side of the road while driving the car, and said with a smile to Wen Zhen: "Miss, this place in Huzhou is really good in climate, the land is fertile, you see that even the wild vegetables in the field on the side of the road grow early and grow enough." ”

Wen Zhen said with a smile: "When we go back to the place, we have fresh capsule-choed wontons, purslane buns, maran head mixed with dried fragrant vegetables, gray cabbage tempura, garlic mille-feuille, and toon fried eggs." ”

Caisang swallowed.

The girl of Tianyantong has never eaten the dishes made by Wen Zhen, and she has no reaction, this is a woman with few words, and she has a slightly cold name, called Jackdaw.

She suddenly said, "There's a team ahead." ”

Wen Zhen also heard the voice, there were still a lot of people, she ordered Caisang to drive the car aside and avoid it in advance.

The group approached, with a small green cloth sedan chair in the middle, surrounded by civilians in ordinary clothes, all of whom were ugly and walked silently.

The small sedan trembled violently, as if the people inside were struggling.

Cai Sang subconsciously looked at Wen Zhen, and Wen Zhen's smiling eyes slid over the sedan chair.

Indifferent.

Cai Sang hooked his head and didn't dare to say more.

She is a maid who has been to the Golden Palace, and she can't be surprised.

The jackdaw didn't speak, and as the group walked by, they glanced at the carriage and horses, and walked over.

When someone walked over, Jackdaw said, "There is a man and a woman in the sedan chair." All young. ”

"Oh?"

"It's more elaborate than these people outside, but it's tied."

"Oh. Let's go. ”

"Yes."

The carriage was moving, and the sedan chair was going in the opposite direction, and suddenly the sedan chair shook violently, and then two figures rushed out.

The crowd exclaimed, and immediately someone stepped forward to pull it, and the two men stumbled, dodging the crowd, and rushed into the field next to it, which was a downhill slope, and soon a woman's scream, which seemed to roll down, and then the man's scream, seemed to follow in the footsteps.

Immediately, someone exclaimed, "Oh no! The person who gave it to Lord Thorn ran away! ”

Wen Zhen: "??? ”

When there was an accident over there, her carriage didn't stop, Wen Zhen is a person with little curiosity, she knows better than anyone else the truth that curiosity kills cats, but at this moment she finally has to stop, whether it is a coincidence or a show, it is in front of her, there is really no reason not to look at it.

It was dark and dreary at night down the slope, and these people did not bring torches, and the people shouted for a while, and each went down to look for it, but after looking for a while, they had to climb up and leave, saying that they would go back to the village and bring people to search again with torches.

The road gradually returned to quiet, and Wen Zhen sat quietly and whistled.

A figure suddenly appeared in her carriage without a sound.

It was a girl with a small round face, the one who would be invisible, called Leng Ying, and said to her in a low voice: "The woman fell into the next pond, and the man's leg seemed to have broken off, and he was trying to save her, but he was about to drown." ”

"What did the two of them say?"

"The woman told the man that he didn't have to save her, and he would be sent away anyway, and the man said that he had suffered a great humiliation anyway, and if he couldn't save people, it would be okay to die together."

Wen Zhen groaned and waved his hand.

The cold warbler will know and disappear invisibly. The jackdaw and Caisang went down the slope by the side of the road, and in a short time carried the two men up.

Wen Zhen looked curiously, wanting to see who the "person who assassinated Lord Shi" was. ”

The predecessor of the assassin has been out of office for a month, and this glamorous and blessed assassin is eighty percent referring to himself.

The woman is still a girl, although the clothes are new, but she is dressed as a village girl, and her face is good-looking. Huddled on Caisang's back and shivered.

Wen Zhen sighed.

The man was already fainting in pain, lying in the car covered in water, and the jackdaw turned him over, and Wen Zhen was stunned.

Caisang let out an exclamation and covered his mouth.

Leng Ying was shocked to appear.

Even the jackdaw frowned.

Wen Zhen stared at that face, and didn't say anything about the beauty of the snow Lang Yan, nor did he say anything about the moon shooting the cold river in Chengtang, this face is naturally extremely beautiful at first glance, but to everyone's surprise, this face, at a glance, is very similar to Yan Sui!

But if you look closely, it doesn't look like it, this person is a few years younger than Yan Sui, his facial features are softer as a whole, his complexion is paler than Yan Sui, his hair color is lighter than Yan Sui, and his lips are also light, which seems to be congenitally insufficient. There is only a red mole between the eyebrows, bright red. This made him fade from Yan Sui's beautiful and ethereal temperament, and he was a little more weak.

There was a strange atmosphere flowing in the carriage, and the maids all looked at Wen Zhen.

It was in this strange atmosphere that the young man slowly opened his eyes, and when he saw Wen Zhen smiling at him, his eyes fluttered, and a shallow smile appeared.

Strange as he laughed, all the maids breathed a sigh of relief.

Because of this smile, it doesn't look like Yan Sui at all.

His Royal Highness would not smile so purely, nor would he be so pure and slightly wooden.

Wen Zhen also pulled a smile at him, and then raised his legs.

With a bang, she kicked the boy out of the car door!

After a muffled sound, there was a miserable scream, and the women in the carriage were stunned.

Wen Zhen swept his sideburns, still smiling.

Whatever the reason, she didn't want to see a copy of Yan Sui.

This is an insult to Yan Sui and an insult to her.

When she stepped into the land of Huzhou, she was ready to face all the stormy intrigues and tricks, but this did not mean that she would play with any disgusting tricks.

"Let's go."

No one dared to speak, the carriage continued on its way, and no one even dared to look back at the young man who was tossing and screaming on the ground.

The rescued girl in the carriage had been so frightened that she shrank into a corner, and Wen Zhen and Yan Yuese asked a few words, and then they knew the ins and outs of the matter.

This girl is a person from the village where she wants to stay in the past, because this season's spring tax is about to begin, and the village can't pay the grain, so she was selected, and wanted to send her to Yexian County, who is in charge of tax collection, in exchange for exemption and deferred levy.

As for the boy, half of the people in the village came to the village three years ago, saying that he had traveled so far and opened a private school, and usually taught the children to read the enlightenment school.

Somehow, a few days ago, the township who was responsible for collecting taxes came to the village and saw this teaching gentleman, and then the village contacted the township to express his desire to give it away, and the township named this teaching gentleman to send it over, and everyone was shocked that the county was eating both men and women, but the township said that this beautiful boy was given to the female assassin who was about to take office.

Tonight, I will send the people to the county mansion first, and then send Mr. Jiaoshu to Huzhou.

Wen Zhen listened while knocking melon seeds, as if listening to a story.

What is Chunfu?

Collecting taxes after the autumn harvest is the rule for thousands of years, that is, two harvests a year is also summer and autumn, which has just passed through a winter when everything is not born, and the spring has not yet sown the season to collect taxes.

The government of Huzhou collects taxes so diligently, why is the tax paid so mediocre?

Also, before she arrived, she was so intimate to run a harem for her and create a lewd image, was she afraid that the people of Huzhou would like her too much?

Seeing the entrance of the village, Wen Zhen asked the rescued girl to get out of the car first and quietly go home by herself. As for whether she went into hiding or ran away with her family after that, she didn't want to care about it now.

And she herself is like an ordinary passerby, going into the village to ask for accommodation.

However, after walking a few houses, all ate closed-door soup, the folk customs of Huzhou do not seem to be very warm and simple, when Cai Sang went to knock on the door, most of the people refused the request to stay overnight, there was a young sloppy man after opening the door, but he chatted with Cai Sang more, but after a while, Cai Sang ran away with a red face, and the man also leaned against the wall and said angrily: "Sister come, my brother promises to greet you with a good life——"

Cai Sang turned around and snorted fiercely.

After knocking on a few houses in a row, Wen Zhen stopped Cai Sang, whispered a few words to Leng Ying, Leng Ying took the order, came back after a while, and pointed out to Wen Zhen that the courtyard of the first family in the west of the village was a little out of the way, and Wen Zhen took someone to knock on the door.

After knocking for a while, there was a vigorous sound inside: "Who! ”

It was a rough middle-aged woman's voice, Wen Zhen didn't speak, only knocked on the door, and the sound of kicking and tapping sounded, accompanied by the woman's muttering full of country slang: "Which one kills a thousand knives and can't control his crotch in the middle of the night and comes to raise ......the corpse" opened the door with a bang, and saw Wen Zhen at a glance, stunned for a moment, and then slammed the door shut.

But she didn't do it, Wen Zhen's boots had already reached in, and she didn't open the door lightly, and held her palm in front of her: "Auntie, borrow a place to sleep for one night, and this string of money will be yours." ”

The woman's fingers grasped nimbly, and she had already grabbed the money into her sleeve, and when she turned around, she walked in very happily, without forgetting to give a rough command: "Bolt the door!" Tie two! Big girl, go and plant a flag on the wall. ”

A black-faced girl with a patch bigger than her clothes scurried up and took a broken flag made of paper and stuck it on the low wall.

Cai Sang, the gold medal maid who thought that she had gone to the Golden Palace and pulled the prince off the horse, suddenly stared at it very vigilantly, and had the intention of pulling out the flag, but was held down by Wen Zhen.

Her gaze swept over the cart in the yard, which was stacked with bags of grain.

The sound of their footsteps alarmed, and a small black shadow jumped out from behind the cart and ran quickly into the house, stuffing something into her mouth as she ran, and the woman took a few steps forward and grabbed the little figure and snapped it a few times: "Little rabbit, steal food again!" Ming'er Xiangsa is coming to the scales! One or two less to see if I don't beat you to death! ”

The boy was no more than three or four years old, and he didn't say a word on his buttocks, and he was in a hurry to stuff something into his mouth, and the dirty little face bulged like a squirrel on the side.

The woman cursed and shoved him into the house. Wen Zhen followed into the door, a room full of children of all sizes were eating, and Wen Zhen saw that there were only pickles and black bean porridge on the broken table. The porridge is so thin that you can see the human figure. A group of cubs were still grabbing, and the biggest one on the head slapped the head of the one who grabbed the most on the table.

Wen Zhen glanced at the bags of bulging grain, and then at the row of radish heads that could be lined up in a long trapezoidal shape in the room.

The oldest is fifteen or sixteen years old, and the youngest is no more than two or three years old. And the woman looked not young, her rough skin was mottled with spots, and the hair on her temples was already slightly white, but Wen Zhen guessed that she should be in her thirties.

She didn't look at Wen Zhen and the others much, it seemed that the heavy pressure and labor of life had made her lose interest in exploring everything in this world, standing in the middle of the room with her waist crossed, commanding the eldest girl to clean the firewood room, commanding the third girl to clean up the dishes and chopsticks, and the fourth girl to take her younger brothers and sisters to sleep...... After arranging the battlefield where his chickens and dogs jumped, he pointed to the firewood room and said, "There is nothing for you to eat, and there is no room, get together in the firewood room for one night, and leave early tomorrow!" ”

The dark-skinned girl stood up, kicked over the stool, and carried a broom to the firewood room.

"Thank you, Auntie, don't bother Auntie." Wen Zhen smiled and sat down on a three-legged broken bench, and Cai Sang took off his baggage with great insight and took out snacks and dry food.

Shaking the paper bags in his hand, Wen Zhen smiled: "Within a quarter of an hour, I want to know everything in this village." ”

When the paper bag was slowly opened, there was a huge sound of sucking saliva from the eldest mother to all the little cubs.

The charm of Wenzhen's food is irresistible even to princes and princesses, let alone these poor villagers?

Half an hour later, Wen Zhen's surroundings were full of cubs.

A quarter of an hour later, with crumbs of mille-feuille falling from the corners of her mouth, the eldest lady waved a large broom and drove all the children who tried to grab snacks and dry food into the room. turned around and put the broom on the ground, crossed his waist and scolded Wen Zhen: "Die long!" Dare to take out such a delicious thing, what if you give this group of little rabbits a slippery mouth, and refuse to eat millet and black beans in the future! ”

scolded again: "You little lady's eyes are rolling, it's not a good thing at a glance, you want to harm me to live, and the firewood room is not worthy of sleep!" Roll on! Get out of here! ”

Wen Zhen: "......"

Chef delicacies, under his own jurisdiction, for the first time......

In the end, Wen Zhen left the meat, found a few bean cakes to feed the horses, and suggested that the eldest mother could cook the meat again to reduce the deliciousness, and the eldest mother was angry, and while ordering her daughters to continue working, she sat down to sew clothes and chatted with Wen Zhen.

Wen Zhen talked about the children eating food raw, blaming why he was treating the children so harshly, obviously there were piles of food in the yard.

"Heaps? Pile up into a mountain, that's someone else's! ”

"Do you want to pay rent?"

"I can't eat it in my stomach anyway!"

"It's just early spring now, what kind of field is this handover?"

"Three endowments a year, spring, summer and autumn. Ding Nu is twenty acres, eight liters per acre. It's up a liter this year, and it's all here. ”

Wen Zhen silently calculated and gasped.

The three counties and eleven counties of Huzhou, if they are all collected three times a year according to this amount, then the taxes paid should at least be doubled!

Is it only Ye County who exploits so much, and then happens to meet him?

If it weren't for the coincidence, this year's spring tax was heavier than in previous years, so when she came to collect the summer tax, would the people still be able to pay it? After so many years of heavy taxes, will the limit of the people be in the next autumn?

"Three taxes a year is unheard of, but it would be good if other taxes and the money for forced servants could be reduced......

"Phew! You haven't woken up yet, have you? ”

All kinds of numbers rolled through the woman's mouth, and the more Wen Zhen listened, the cooler her heart became, the degree of tax and the variety of patterns were similar to the Changchuan Yi family at the beginning, the problem was that Huzhou was not under the jurisdiction of the family, and it was exploited here, for what?

Where did all this money and food go?

How did it flow out? And how many people are actually involved?

The imperial court will also send an envoy to inspect the world every three years, why has no one ever reported the situation in Huzhou?

It's actually quite simple, but if you want to poke it open, the consequences can be explosive.

In the past 20 years, Huzhou's assassination history has changed five terms, three of which have been very long, and two of which have been extremely short, all of which died suddenly shortly after taking office.

She looked down in contemplation, not noticing that the woman suddenly looked up at her mysteriously, and when she looked up again, the woman regained her irritation.

"In addition to the field rent, can you also pay silk and linen?" Wen Zhen saw that the woman was struggling to sew burlap with a thimble, so he asked.

"Naturally, I have to pay it. But there are few silkworms like us, so we have to buy them with money. that price! It's not enough to pay directly! ”

Wen Zhen didn't hear it right, and when she wanted to ask the woman again, she ignored her, waved her hand and said, "Don't quarrel with me to do my work and waste my lamp oil!" ”

Wen Zhen had no choice but to go to the firewood room to sleep. The finger-sized lamp in the hall was not long in coming, but the woman did not sleep, and moved to the courtyard to continue her work in the moonlight, regardless of the cold of the early spring night.

When the woman was working, there was always movement on the wall, and there was a click, and a wall tile was smashed in, the woman stopped her needlework, and with a wave of her hand, her dark-skinned girl put the broom on her broom, and smashed the wall tiles back with one arm, and there was a faint sigh of annoyance, and the woman scolded: "I don't know how to stop when I plant the flag!" ”

In the dark firewood room, Cai Sang spread his clothes layer after layer on the firewood and grass, for fear that Wen Zhen would sleep uncomfortably, so he couldn't help but whisper: "Miss, I heard you tell Leng Ying to find the widow's family with children, why?" ”

"A woman is in charge, which is suitable for us; Second, in this world, in this poor village, a widow can live well with many children, and there must be something beyond the reach of ordinary people, so it is better than ordinary villagers. ”

"What does the flag mean? It can't be a code to betray us, right? ”

"Have you ever seen a code call in front of someone? This brings us to the question of why a widow can live well with so many children. ”

"Why?"

Wen Zhen didn't answer, sighed in his heart, and touched her head, "Sleep." ”

Caisang obediently prostrated himself at her feet and did not speak again.

The moonlight faintly turned over the window lattice.

The sound of a woman's loud spitting sounded in the courtyard.

What can a widow rely on to provide for a large number of children in this world?

Naturally, you can only rely on your own body.

Planting a flag, just like the original meaning of the ring, is just to warn those villagers to be good, and if there is something tonight, don't bother.

There were several bags of grain in the yard, and the bags were of different colors, so they must have been made up for her by their friends.

This earthly struggle is not easy, and there is no distinction between noble and vile.

The woman went back to the house to sleep, Wen Zhen was about to sleep, suddenly sat up, heard a slight sound of the door opening, she looked outside, it was the woman's eldest daughter, a dark-skinned girl, and went out lightly.

After a while, she returned, carrying a man on her back, looking anxious.

Under the moonlight, the man tilted his head, his forehead was covered with cold sweat, and Wen Zhen couldn't help but jump in his heart when he saw that face - it really looked like Yan Sui.

She was awkward at the sight of this face.

The eldest girl carried the young man under the eaves, took a board for him to clamp the broken leg, and saw that the two were very familiar.

The two of them whispered while wrapping up their wounds, the eldest girl pointed to the firewood room, probably told the young man what kind of guests came, the young man asked a few words, and was suddenly stunned, and then the eldest girl also asked a few words, and gradually understood something, suddenly turned around, took a firewood knife from under the windowsill, and was about to go to the firewood room.

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