stayed in Longxi Didao for a day or two, and for the past two days, General Xiao Li and Guan Ying have been accompanying Liu Bang.

In the morning, we will visit several counties near Didao, and check out the painted pottery workshops, silk reeling workshops, farmland ranges, and customs and folklore here. Walk into a few small farmhouses with extremely difficult life, the farmhouse does not have a decent door, the grass covers the roof, although it is also rammed earth, but it looks like a tendency to collapse, the house is surrounded by four walls, there is no decent furnishings, a tattered mat is the door, there is no beam and column support, there is an old faded hat with the characteristics of the Longxi region hanging on the wall, the corner of the wall displays the gray-yellow loom, what stove bed is connected into one, the bed is dirty by the ash of the stove, it is simply inhabitable, In the corner of the couch were shoe and mats that could not be sold, and the dishes on the stove were broken, and there was not much wheat left in a two-foot-high jar in the corner of the wall. Out of the house, there are a few flower stands in the southeast corner of the dilapidated courtyard, and a chicken coop is piled up in the southwest corner.

These are the characteristics that are common to several counties in the vicinity of Didao. Of course, the people there don't know the emperor, but they know General Xiao Li, who has to inspect the counties every day, and of course his face is the most familiar to everyone. Seeing General Xiao Li showing respect to the elders around him who looked quite kingly, and hearing General Xiao Li call him emperor, everyone quickly knelt down and saluted in fear. Liu Bang helped them up, and asked them about this year's harvest, and they answered one by one, saying that this year's rain was insufficient, and the grain was not a bumper harvest, and that the emperor had reduced the tax to 15 taxes, and some of them still couldn't pay the taxes, and the old and the young in the family, and the middle backer fell ill, so that life never improved, and it was a mess.

Liu Bang was speechless with guilt on his face, and was silent for a long time, seeing a few children with dark yellow complexions in the crowd covered with mud all over their bodies, their horned hair buns were loosely tied, and they were shy and hid behind adults to peep at Liu Bang and the babies around him. The children's eyes were full of innocence and innocence, and their black eyes stared at Liu Bang in a blink of an eye, and then smiled innocently at Liu Bang, revealing a row of yellowed teeth that had lost their front teeth. The more Liu Bang looked at them, the more he found the hope and purity bursting out of their eyes, so that he didn't dare to look at them anymore, as the emperor, he couldn't give them a good life, and he felt guilty.

Liu Bangfang took an old man's hand and asked about the situation at home, the old man's face was like rain and he couldn't speak, so Liu Bang patted the old man's hand comfortingly. "The villagers let let-" The vicissitudes of life and hoarse voice came from the crowd into Liu Bang's ears, looking up to find the source of the sound, an old woman about sixty years old came in from the middle of the crowd with a bowl of porridge in her hand, and everyone made way for her. The old woman staggered to Liu Bang's side, full of calluses and the vicissitudes of life with her hands, trembling to the emperor to eat, reverently kneeling down the old legs to salute, was stopped by Liu Bang at once, Liu Bang held her shoulders, looked at the old woman's hands to hold him the soup, the heart was rippling, the corners of his mouth were a little moved, his eyes jumped to the people behind the old woman, and everyone brightened their eyes to see his actions.

"Eat, my family looks at the emperor and doesn't want to be suspicious." The old woman looked at the emperor in front of her lovingly like a son, and her voice was weak and full of motherly kindness. Looking at the wrinkled face of the old woman in front of her, her eyes have become cloudy, it must be the world that has polished her.

Liu Bang picked up the rare soup and was about to drink it, but was stopped by the quick-eyed and quick-handed baby, and grabbed the rare soup from the emperor's hand in front of the emperor, and looked at the people around him with the blade out of the sheath. Liu Bang was startled at first, but soon smiled, knowing that General Guan Ying was afraid that someone had other scheming, and Guan Ying was thinking about the emperor's personal safety. Liu Bang patted Guan Ying's back with a smile, glanced at him, and then looked at the people who were also looking at him, those eyes were simple and kind, and there was no evil in them. Liu Bang took the soup from Guan Ying's hand again, and Guan Ying stared at the emperor with worried eyes, and he didn't dare to stop it again.

Drinking the crude soup was almost about to cut his throat, the people ate such a meal, and the old woman gave him a thin soup, maybe this soup should be their best meal, not even a little dry rice, and the salt of the soup is not too big, like no salt, how can this work. Liu Bang couldn't drink it anymore, embarrassed the old face and muttered the thin soup he ate at the corner of his mouth, and inadvertently looked at the old woman with a loving face, Liu Bang couldn't bear it, so he had to continue to drink it forcibly, and quickly gave the baby bowl, wiped his mouth, and asked for a bowl of water to moisten his throat.

After calling General Xiao Li, he asked, "General Xiao Li, has the life of the people here always been like this?" How do you cook without any salt at all? ”

General Xiao Li hurriedly explained, "This ...... In recent years, everyone has been like this, so there have been big thieves in Guanzhong in recent days, who could not bear the hardships and were oppressed by the bureaucrats and landlords, so they had no choice but to do this. The emperor also saw what everyone ate, they had no extra land, no grain storage, now it's okay, the Huns and the Han Dynasty married, the first two years there were many Huns iron hooves Kodi Dao plundered the people into Hu. As for the grains of salt, how could they, the peasants, have too much, just enough for one meal a day. ”

Listening to General Xiao Li's words, Liu Bang seemed to feel particularly harsh, and Guan Ying also said that he had achieved the virtue of returning the water to the people of the sea. Now it seems that he has not done enough, and now he finally understands that the exercise of virtue is what he has always done in his reign, and as long as he is in office, he should be benevolent to the world, so that more and more water will flow into the sea, and the people will become more and more attached to him and believe in him.

With a long sigh, he turned his back on them, and slowly walked towards an old locust tree in front of him with his hands on his waist, he thought that he had been working hard all these years, as long as he encountered such a problem, Liu Bang seemed to have no choice, only Guan Ying and Xiahou Ying were around, neither of them was a minister, and he didn't know what to do. Xiao He Wangling raised Lu Jia They have been helping him deal with the matter of the bureaucratic landlords annexing farmland these days, quite effective, the prime minister in order not to shake the interests of most of the bureaucrats in Guanzhong in order to claim back the people's farmland and kill the title of the marquis of the rank of the head of the car, seven people at once, some people in the house are willing to return to their nature Xiao He wrote to the emperor to demote them to the common people, which played an exemplary role, and suddenly made some Houjia above the level of Guanzhong Guannei Hou voluntarily hand over tens of thousands of acres of land seized from the people. Since then, there have been fewer thieves in Guanzhong, and the thieves caught are all people who have taken stealing as their business, and those who have committed serious theft crimes will be beheaded, and those who are light will build embankments or Changling, and some prisoners in Kanto have recently arrived in Changling. Xiao He's town and state to appease the people made Liu Bang out of reach, and it was best to not know how to deal with this matter for a while.

Rubbing his nose, one hand attached to the trunk of the big locust tree that had fallen leaves, and scratching the corners of his forehead with one hand, his heart lit up after thinking for a long time, and he immediately turned around and brushed his sleeves behind his back and said to everyone, "The salt tax of Longxi County will be exempted from now on, and it is recorded that the rich families and people above the marquis of Longxi County will wear the shoes made by the people to buy mats and pottery made by the people in the future. The painted pottery workshop here is rejuvenated as soon as possible, Majiayao, Shilingxia, and Machang rely on local technicians to prosper, and the official must not interfere too much, and the palace attendants will transport the pottery directly from the hands of the people into the court. He came over and specially instructed General Xiao Li, "General Xiao Li must tell the county guard this." Once it is found that the pottery is distributed to the border, the pottery is temporarily stored in the warehouse, and the central government of the Han court will make profits for everyone, and the benefits will belong to the Han court, and the rest will be distributed to everyone. ”

Everyone was grateful, and they all knelt down on the mountain and shouted, 'Long live His Majesty the Emperor-', Liu Bang has already seen such a scene, and he has not encountered it when he went to Changling. Liu Bang sent General Xiao Li and Guan Ying to help the people on the ground up one by one, and showed them the most worthy and successful smile of the king at the moment.

Then I looked around several farmhouses and made some important arrangements. It was already noon, and Liu Bang returned to Di Daozhi with General Xiao Li for dinner. After resting for two hours, he hurriedly rode a horse and led a group to the periphery of the Great Wall, the mountains and highlands were dangerous, and the cold wind was blowing, blowing the black robe behind Liu Bang and flying wildly, blowing his eyes difficult to open, everyone automatically shrank their heads, and rubbed their hands on horseback to keep warm, which was really cold.

Looking at the scenery on the periphery of the Great Wall, the blue sky and clear sky, the green mountains are empty, the fertile fields for thousands of miles, and at the end of the distance, I saw the smart birds flying back to the nest, and I vaguely heard the woman chopping wood on the mountain singing loudly, "Jane, Jane, Fang will dance." In the square of the sun, in the upper part of the front. Shuo people matamata, ten thousand dances in the public court. Powerful as a tiger, stubborn as a group. The left hand holds the gong, and the right hand holds the gong. He is like ochre, and he is known as a tin jue. There are hazelnuts in the mountains, and there are lings in the mountains. Who's thinking about the cloud? Western beauty. He is beautiful, and the people of the West are ......" The song is ethereal and emotional, soft and clean. Liu Bang smiled, and he also echoed the reins in his hand, "The beautiful Han family is coming to the court from all directions-" After saying that, he laughed, and instantly felt the beauty of the country, raised his head and closed his eyes and let the cold wind blow. Looking in the direction of the Xiongnu country in the distance, the Xiongnu used to enter Longxi from here to plunder the people and loot the wealth, looking at the soldiers standing on the Great Wall, standing in the cold wind with a halberd in their hands, very powerful, Liu Bang showed a smile of relief on his face, there were soldiers guarding the country for him, and he couldn't help blurting out, "The widow has to be a warrior to guard the Quartet." ”

Looking at the vast stretch of road to the Xiongnu, listening to the harsh blowing of the cold wind, feeling that the rivers and mountains are so delicate, at this moment can only be the emperor himself to feel a little warmth, the rivers and mountains are the emperor's, and he used his life to fight the rivers and mountains; He was a little melancholy, the north was restless, the country was in ruins, the princes were gradually showing their hearts, and they felt slightly difficult to control.

Looking at the road in the direction of the Huns, I remembered that Liu Jing had already returned to the court, Liu Bang was worried about the Huns, and if he hadn't walked dozens of miles, he would definitely go back to the court to see Liu Jing. Turning the horse's head and 'driving', he rode away again, and everyone followed the emperor with whips. When he returned to the office, it was already night, and Liu Bang ordered him to go back tomorrow.