Late at night, dry and cold.

In the silent Yangjiazhuang, except for the occasional few strong men who kept vigil and patrolled the manor with lanterns, there was no movement.

Yang Zheng sat in his bedroom, a dim oil lamp burning on the table next to the bed.

The lights swayed slightly, reflecting Yang Zheng's angular and handsome face.

At this moment, on the table in front of him, there was a fist-sized metal iron box, which exuded a silvery-white halo throughout, and it looked very strange.

"It's so strange, this mysterious iron box, since it suddenly brought me to this strange world a year ago, and then there is no movement at all, what the hell!"

Looking at the silver and white iron box on the table, Yang Zheng held his chin and fell into deep thought.

A year ago, Yang Zheng had not yet come to this strange world, and was still an ordinary office worker on the earth, because of an accident, he picked up this mysterious metal iron box on the road.

Because the iron box exudes a silver-white halo, it looks a little magical, so Yang Zheng was driven by curiosity to open this mysterious iron box.

But Yang Zheng never expected that the moment he opened the mysterious iron box, he only saw a dazzling light suddenly burst out of the iron box, and then his eyes went black and he fainted on the spot.

When Yang Zheng woke up again, a tragic scene appeared, and like the protagonists of countless online novels, he traveled to ancient times in blood.

For Yang Zheng, who often reads online novels, he quickly accepted this reality, and even after that, he was a little complacent and happy.

Because, he found out that his identity after crossing over was actually a very prestigious and famous rural tyrant - the owner of Yangjiazhuang.

Yang Zheng is still very satisfied with his identity as a local tyrant.

In his previous life, he was busy on the earth all his life, and in the end he didn't even have anything, but he didn't expect that after this rebirth, he would have a house and a house, and basically nothing would be lacking, which was a good wish that he had fantasized about countless times before.

However, there is also something that makes Yang Zheng depressed, that is, the place where he is now reborn, called the Great Liao Empire, is a very strange ancient world.

When he was on Earth in his previous life, Yang Zheng also knew the history of China, and knew that during the Song Dynasty, there was also a foreign regime in the north called "Da Liao", which was a dynasty established by the Khitans.

However, there is a big difference between the "Great Liao" in history and the "Great Liao Empire" after his current rebirth, of course, there are still some similarities between the two.

For example, these two Great Liao dynasties were both established by the Khitans, and the royal family of the Great Liao was surnamed Yelu, but several famous Great Liao emperors who were familiar with the history of the previous life, such as Yelu Abaoji, Yelu Deguang, Yelu Hongji and so on...... In this world, none of them appeared.

In the Great Liao Empire of this world, the founding emperor Taizu was actually called Yelu Changming.

Decades ago, Yelu Changming led the Khitan army to invade the Central Plains, and the Han court was defeated and retreated, sweeping all the way, and even forced the once powerful Han court to the south bank of the Hengjiang River, and since then the Khitans have occupied dozens of state cities north of the Hengjiang River and established the famous "Great Liao Empire".

However, because of mediocrity and corruption, and continuous civil strife, the Han court was finally unable to go on a northern expedition, so it had to retreat to the south of the Yangtze River, forming a watchful trend across the river with the Khitans in the north of the river.

Since then, the "Northern Liao" and the "Southern Han" have divided the world equally.

Now the era name of the Great Liao Empire is called "Sheng Qian", and the emperor is called Yelu Expedition.

When he first learned about this, Yang Zheng was actually very depressed in his heart, as a hot-blooded "angry youth", he was very repulsive to those foreign rulers.

Because it has been a year since they were reborn in this ancient world, in this year's time, they, the Han people in the north, have been bullied and oppressed by those nobles and rulers with Khitan blood.

Although the Khitans occupied the entire north and ruled over tens of millions of Han people, the Khitans were born with a sense of racial superiority, and they never thought that in this world, except for the Khitans, there was any race worthy of being equal to their Khitans, especially the cowardly and incompetent Han people.

They divided the people into four classes, the Khitans were the superior people, the other northern nomads were the second, the Hu people in the Western Regions were the third, and the Han people, who were the most numerous in the Great Liao Empire, were the least valued.

It has to be said that the Khitans are a very contradictory people.

On the one hand, they hope to conquer the Han people, but they have to rely on the Han people, and they are always wary of the Han people in their hearts, and they always do not trust the Han people.

All kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, all kinds of bullying and humiliation.

It is precisely because of the distrust of the Han people by the majority of the Khitan rulers that the vast majority of the Han people in the Northern Liao region lived in misery.

Of course, there are also some Han people who are willing to be Khitan lackeys, and their lives are relatively nourishing.

For example, after being reborn, Yang Zheng, compared to other ordinary Han people, their Yang family is doing well.

Yangjiazhuang, located in a small town on the southwest border of the Great Liao Empire, was originally a large-scale village under the rule of Wu'an County.

Because after the Khitans occupied the north, the ancestors of the Yang family had to make compromises and work for the Khitans in order to protect the family.

The current Yang Zheng is the sixth-generation owner of Yangjiazhuang and the patriarch of the Yang family in Wu'an County.

Yangjiazhuang includes family relatives, family servants, a total of 273 people, and Yang Zheng, as their family master, belongs to the supreme existence in the entire Yangjiazhuang, he has the right to decide the life and death, prestige and status of all people in the manor, which is very high.

Since the moment the Khitans occupied Wu'an County, the Yang family, the most famous local family, has become the main source of food money collected by the Khitans.

Now, Yang Zheng has become the grain collector of Qingping Town.

The so-called grain collector, in Yang Zheng's words, is actually a traitor lackey, whose main duty is to collect grain and grass taxes for the Khitans locally, and then send them to those arrogant and domineering Khitan officials on a regular basis.

To be honest, Yang Zheng was not willing to do things for those Khitans at all in his heart, but under the persecution of this general environment, he had no choice at all.

Because he wants to survive, more than 200 people up and down in Yangjiazhuang have to survive.

If they have to stick to their arrogance and refuse to work for the Khitans, then the only fate of their Yang family is to be wiped out by the Khitans, or they will be sent to do hard labor.

The fierce and arrogant Khitans, they will never reason with the Han people.

Those who follow me live, and those who oppose me die, this is the truest portrayal of the Han people under the cruel rule of the Khitans.

Thinking of this, Yang Zheng sighed helplessly, "People are under the eaves, they have to bow their heads, everything is for survival......"

With a gentle flick of the wick, the dim oil lamp instantly became much brighter.

The mysterious iron box placed on the table still exudes a faint halo of silver and white, looking so mysterious and gorgeous.

For a long time, Yang Zheng has always believed that this mysterious iron box must be extraordinary, definitely not an ordinary iron box, otherwise, how could he take himself to this strange ancient time?

However, what made Yang Zheng very depressed was that it had been a year, and even if it was a whole year, this mysterious iron box that could take him through time and space had never been opened again.

This is obviously very unreasonable, is it the wrong way to open it yourself?

Yang Zheng picked up the mysterious iron box, carefully studied and groped again, but there was still no breakthrough discovery, and in the end, in desperation, he had to hide the mysterious iron box closely.

Regardless of whether this mysterious iron box is useful or not, what it is, for Yang Zheng, it is his most precious secret, and it must not be seen by outsiders.

Yang Zheng pushed open the window, looked at the sky outside, and estimated that it should be two or three o'clock in the morning at this moment, and it seemed that tonight, he was going to lose sleep again.

Recently, everyone up and down Yangjiazhuang has been busy with the autumn harvest, which makes Yang Zheng, as the owner of the village, have a lot of things to worry about.

In particular, the Wu'an County Ya sent an official document, saying that this year, because the Great Liao was going to war with the Western Xia Kingdom outside the Saiwai, it was necessary to raise a large amount of grain and grass to carry the burden.

In previous years, the grain tax was only 40 percent per mu of land, but this year it will be 60 percent. In previous years, the "ding tax" per population was only five buckets, but this year it was levied seven buckets.

As for some other miscellaneous taxes, needless to say, all of them have risen by more than 30%.

In general, the entire Yangjiazhuang will prepare 200 truckloads of grain this time, and then transport it to Wu'an County within the specified time limit.

You must know that in ancient times when science and technology were not developed, grain production was very low, and an average of one mu of land could produce two or three hundred catties of grain, which was already very good, and as for those desolate and barren places, each mu of land could not even produce 150 catties of grain.

At that time, in order to have enough to eat, everyone frantically cultivated the wasteland, because one more piece of land was equivalent to an extra point of food, and everyone had one more bite to eat.

Although the people are busy in the crops all year round, after the autumn harvest and the grain tax are paid, the remaining grain is barely enough for their own food and clothing, and there will be no surplus at all.

If there are natural and man-made disasters, and the harvest is not good, digging grass roots, eating tree bark, and people are displaced everywhere, and starvation is everywhere. That's normal.

Life was already very difficult, but in order to start a war with the Western Xia Kingdom, Da Liao increased taxes again this year, so that the lives of ordinary people were even more difficult to maintain.

Two hundred carts of grain, one cart of 1,500 catties.

In order to prepare for these grain taxes, almost the entire Yangjiazhuang harvest this year has been hollowed out by more than half, fortunately, Yangjiazhuang has been accumulating for many years, otherwise these hundreds of people in the Yangjia Manor, even this year's winter rations have become a problem.

The 200 truckloads of grain tax that have been prepared have been successively transported to Wu'an County within half a month.

Just yesterday morning, Yang Zheng ordered people to transport the remaining 50 carts of grain taxes to Wu'an County again, as long as the last 50 carts of grain taxes were safely sent to the county seat, then their Yangjiazhuang task this year, even if it was successfully completed, Yang Zheng would not have to worry about this matter.

Yangjiazhuang is only a hundred miles away from Wu'an County, and the grain and grass convoy has only been four or five days since it came and went.

But for some reason, since it got dark last night, Yang Zheng's left eyelid has been beating, which has made him restless.

The people who were responsible for escorting the grain tax convoy yesterday were all strong men of the clan in Yangjiazhuang, and the number was as many as 60 people, and the person in charge of leading the team was Yang Zheng's third brother Yang Meng.

After being reborn Yang Zheng, although he is only twenty-five years old, he still has two younger brothers and a younger sister under him.

The second brother Yang Qian, the third brother Yang Meng, and the fourth sister Yang Yunhui.

Yang Zheng and his four brothers and sisters, all of them are of extraordinary appearance and full of aura. Especially Yang Meng, although he is only twenty years old this year, he has practiced martial arts since he was a child, and he is born with divine power, and he is not his opponent at all.

As far as Yang Zheng knows, Yang Meng has been in charge of the grain tax escort in the past few years, and Yang Meng has led the team, and their Yangjiazhuang team has never leaked. But this time, Yang Zheng was always a little uneasy.

Some time ago, a group of green forest mountain bandits ran out of the Lianyun Mountain Range, and ransacked several passing caravans in a row, although they Yangjiazhuang was transporting the official grain of Daliao, but who dared to guarantee that those mountain bandits would not mess around?

Thinking of this, Yang Zheng fidgeted and didn't feel sleepy.

The most cheating thing about traveling to ancient times is that there is no mobile phone, otherwise, Yang Zhen can call Yang Meng at any time and ask him if the road is going well, there is no need to worry so much at all.

Just when Yang Zheng was uneasy, suddenly, there was a rush of footsteps outside the courtyard, and then someone knocked on the door outside. "Big brother, did you sleep?"

The sound of knocking on the door was very familiar, it was his second brother Yang Qian.

Yang Zheng's heart moved, and he secretly had some doubts, and said in his heart, "My second brother, usually sleeps early, and has been reborn in Yangjiazhuang for a year, and he has never looked for himself in the middle of the night. ”

Thinking of this, Yang Zheng hurriedly got up and said, "I haven't slept yet, come in." ”

"Squeak" sounded softly, and Yang Qian pushed the door and strode in.

Yang Zheng glanced up at him and found that his second brother was disheveled, his hair was fluffy, and he had completely lost the elegant appearance of the handsome scholar on weekdays.

"Second brother, why are you so anxious tonight?"

Yang Qian said anxiously: "Big brother, it's not good, something big happened to the third brother!" ”

"Something happened to the third brother?"

Yang Zheng's face changed, his heart sank instantly, and sure enough, the ominous premonition really worked.