Shouyang is located in the south bank of Huaishui, north of Bagong Mountain, southwest of Shaobei, east and south of Hefei and Hefei, since ancient times is the Huainan region of the water and land to Jin, military and political town, now is the south of the south of the Yuzhou administration.

There are excellent farming conditions around Shouyang, so agriculture is thriving. At the same time, it also has convenient and developed water and land transportation, so business is also very prosperous.

Located in the east of Luocheng, the large city has a waterway connecting the waterway to the outer part of the city, and it is the most prosperous place in the city, whether it is exotic treasures or daily necessities, it can be found in the market, which can be said to be all-inclusive.

In the early morning, the morning dawns, and there is still a cool breeze blowing in the night, and the Dongcheng Wharf gradually becomes lively.

Ships of all sizes anchored at the water's edge will be ready to set sail, and many well-dressed women and good makeup will step out of the boats. These are all the servants and maids who were summoned to the ship by the merchants and passers-by on the ship yesterday, and they said goodbye after a good night.

In the past dynasties, there were many actions that emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce, but the Southern Dynasties were an exception. First, the development of the south is not as developed as that of later generations, and the land that can be cultivated is still limited, the second is that the contradictions between the southern Turks and tourists have been acute, and the problems of land annexation and population shelter have also been very serious, and the third is that many people in the late crossing lack of productivity and resources such as land and population, so they can only find another way to make a living.

The accumulation of various reasons made the trade of the Southern Dynasties prosperous, and the merchants also became a very dynamic social class. In particular, the participation of many dignitaries and nobles made the businessmen give people a free and easy image of being surrounded by thousands of dollars, wandering the rivers and lakes, indulging in pleasures, and ignoring constraints, which is more in line with the atmosphere of the upper echelons of the Southern Dynasties, and is not ashamed of this industry, but proud.

A thoroughfare such as Shouyang is also a very important business center in its own right, so the service industry for those who have the strength and enthusiasm to consume is also developing rapidly.

Therefore, there are many restaurants and restaurants in Shouyang East City, and most of them are doing very well, which can be said to be very suitable for people's food and color nature.

The practitioners in the hall are called advocates, which mainly refer to the musicians, and the tricks refer to the people who have a skill, so the people who are often referred to are craftsmen.

People's interests and hobbies are different, so when an industry becomes developed, different types will be subdivided within the industry.

Advocates are also divided into different categories according to the services they provide, such as Xiqu Niang, Mai Mei Niang, etc., which reflect the specific division of labor in song and dance from the name. In some places, it is also known as the rooster woman, which means that the dew marriage will end after the rooster crows.

The official houses are mainly run by the families of convicts, female criminals, and women from slave households, and the income of these official halls often accounts for a considerable proportion of local fiscal revenue. As for the private sector, it is even more wide-ranging, and as long as there is a condition and a will, you can participate in it.

A night of dew, the relationship stops at money, even if they are separated, it is not enough to make people sad and sad. But there is also no shortage of emotional women singing along the river, sadly bidding farewell to the bold and considerate benefactor: "More than 100 feet from Dongtai, Ling Fengyun, don't forget your ...... after that"

"Shouyang Music" is the tune of the Qing merchants in the western song, the rhyme of sadness and separation, praying for reunion, sounded on the prosperous wharf where passengers and goods continue to come and go, which is to sing the love between the merchant girl and the businessman.

The pawns on the dock may not be able to feel this poignant rhyme, but seeing those ladies in vulgar and gorgeous clothes singing and melodious tunes is also a relatively rare audio-visual enjoyment, and there is no shortage of people who stop their busy footsteps and listen attentively.

At this moment, in front of a steamed cake restaurant on the side of the pier road, a bearded man with a bare face and thin hair and short legs knocked on the eucalyptus and laughed: "That trick, can you make a northerner song?"

As he spoke, the Hu man himself danced and sang first, although his feet were a little lame, but it did not affect his performance: "Looking at the Mengjin River from afar, the willows are swaying. I'm a captive child, and I don't understand Han nursery rhymes!"

Shouyang is located in the north and south of the country, and there are many Hu people running around to make a living, hearing this old Hu people singing and dancing happily, there is no shortage of Hu people singing and singing: "Drive sheep into the valley, white sheep are here."

Former. The old woman does not marry, but steps on the ground and calls the sky......

Seeing that the singing of the maids was interrupted, the dock became a paradise for Hu'er singing and laughing for a while, and even if some people were unhappy, they pointed at the old Hu man who took the lead in coaxing and angrily reprimanded: "The thief and the lame slave are still silent! Huainan, where are you waiting for madness......

When the old man heard this, the cheerful expression on his face suddenly disappeared, and he walked towards the person who scolded him, and as he walked, dozens of strong soldiers around the restaurant suddenly followed him, and surrounded the old man in the middle.

Seeing this scene, the man's face suddenly changed, his hand clasped the basket full of seasonal goods in front of him, and his mouth trembled: "The state knows that the marquis has entered Shouyang, except for the city assessment, land rent, and prosperity of business and people, you thieves and slaves dare to commit murder in the city, and you are not afraid of being punished by the government?"

After hearing this, Lao Huren's pace slowed down a little, and the anger on his face also subsided slightly. When the villager's companions saw that he was afraid, they all came forward one after another, shouting about the recent proclamation of the Virtuous Government by the prince of Henan, in order to scare off these evil people who roamed the market.

"Haha, even the contemptible husband in the township knows the righteousness of King Hou!"

Hearing these scoldings, the old Hu man laughed instead of being angry, but after a little groaning, he still lowered his face and shouted, "Capture the thief who opened his mouth to insult me!"

With his order, several strong soldiers in the rear went straight forward. Although there were a few companions gathered around the villager, how could they be these fierce opponents, and soon the townsman was twisted into the front.

This old Hu man was naturally Hou Jing, who had entered Shouyang, and he looked down at this mournful and begging villager, and sighed in his mouth: "Although I know the righteousness of the Hou Wang, it is a pity that I have committed a sin. I can spare you from death, but if you don't punish you, you will always be angry."

As he spoke, Hou Jing raised his hand and pinched the man's teeth and broke them open, and immediately pulled out the knife and probed into his mouth to cut out his tongue. The people around them shuddered when they saw this man's mouth full of blood and listened to his terrible howl that he couldn't sob, and they all avoided it.

Hou Jing threw out the goods in the villager's basket, loaded the staff with a full amount of iron money, and then asked several of his companions to be lured, and ordered, "You wait to send this villager and his reward back to his house, if a person dies in the Tao, or if you are greedy for a penny, I will kill you!"

Although several people still didn't know Hou Jing's identity, they were all frightened by his obedient and cruel methods, and nodded their heads again and again after hearing the words, and then lifted the basket containing the money and the fainting fellow villagers hurriedly left here.

When this happened, Hou Jing was in no mood to continue wandering around the dock, so he swaggered towards the city surrounded by his subordinates.

After a short period of chaos, the pier quickly became crowded again, and although some people were talking about the bloody scene just now, some of the new pedestrians who arrived at the pier no longer felt the vivid fear of that time. As for the blood that remained on the ground, it was soon buried by the footsteps and smoke of the past.

The Southern Dynasties attached great importance to commerce and trade, and not only high-ranking officials and nobles, powerful and wealthy families relied on it to make profits, but even ordinary small households also participated in it. It is not because their income from farming and weaving is so rich that they need to sell it in the market, but because a considerable part of the various household taxes and miscellaneous adjustments need to be paid with money, so they can only sell their agricultural products in the market, and then pay taxes after exchanging money.

Therefore, the profits and taxes obtained from commerce and trade have always been an important part of the finance of the Southern Dynasties, and the so-called market valuation is to levy a certain tax on the value of the goods traded in the market.

Since this kind of market tax is based on the value of the goods traded, the higher the value of the goods, the more taxes need to be paid, so even the wealthy businessmen feel that this is a heavy burden. For ordinary people, it is even more ruthless and ruthless exploitation.

Although the imperial court exempted officials and scholars from taxes in order to consolidate its rule, this only increased the power of collusion between officials and businessmen, and did not promote normal business behavior at all.

Due to Huainan's distance from Jiankanggi, many powerful people in many places were not valued and awarded official titles by the imperial court, and they also had to bear heavy taxes and exploitation, and suffered from multiple discrimination and unfair treatment such as politics and economy.

Hou Jing's announcement of the abolition of Shouyang City's land rent assessment decree can be described as earth-shattering, because the land rent is limited by the season, and it has not been beneficial in the short term, but the cessation of the market rent is

It worked right then.

Therefore, when Hou Jing's decree was issued, as time gradually spread, the people entered the city one after another to trade, and some local tycoons were also full of praise for this decree, and even directly led the subordinates to join Hou Jing's command, and used practical actions to support Hou Jing's rule in Shouyang.

Hou Jing wandered around the city for a week, and saw the gathering of Jia customers and the piles of commercial goods, and his heart was also extremely satisfied, and he couldn't help but sigh and laugh: "The southerners are greedy and credulous, so they are not afraid of tax assessment, so they rush to give me goods!" As long as the city is full of people and goods, I don't have to worry about running out of things! In the past, when I was in Beizhou, I had to fight hard to gather a short amount of material resources, how could I have imagined that it would be easy to get it now?"

When Hou Jing returned to the state capital with satisfaction, there was another piece of good news waiting for him.

"Congratulations to the king, great things are coming!"

In front of the state capital, Hou Shixia, who was appointed by Hou Jing, greeted him widely, bowed to Hou Jing and said with a smile.

"What? Could it be that Xu Sima has returned, and the matter has already been answered?"

Seeing Xiahou Chen's expression like this, Hou Jing's heart suddenly moved, and when he thought of something more important recently, he asked quickly.

Of course, it was not a good time to tell confidential things in front of the mansion, Xiahou Yun and other subordinates first welcomed Hou Jing into the mansion, and after retiring the idle and miscellaneous people, Sima Xu Siyu, who had returned from Jiankang and was in the dust, entered the front and said: "The servant was ordered by the king to go south to Jiankang to contact the king of Linhe, and the king of Linhe was also very happy when he heard the words of the king's recommendation, and wrote a book by himself, and returned to the king with his own handwriting!"

Xiao Zhengde, the king of Linhe, was the nephew of Emperor Xiao Yan of Liang, who adopted him as an heir when he had no children in his early years, and sent him home after having a son.

Xiao Zhengde was often resentful because of this, thinking that he should have been in the heir position, and his own personality was extreme and violent, and even once surrendered to the Northern Wei Dynasty, claiming that he was the abolished prince of the Southern Liang Dynasty, and then fled back because he was not treated well by the Northern Wei Dynasty. Xiao Yan was not responsible, and reinstated the official title and added the title of county king to comfort his people.

Hou Jing himself didn't know much about Xiao Zhengde, but his subordinates in Shouyang, Xiahou Zhen and Xu Siyu, knew a lot about his disobedience, so the two suggested that Hou Jing contact Xiao Zhengde as an internal response, and there was the current scene.

"The old man of the Xiao family looks like a charity, but as a result, even the children who have been cared for for many years by his disciples can't hold it, and he is really weak and lucky, which makes people laugh!"

When Hou Jing read Xiao Zhengde's enthusiastic reply, he couldn't help but sneer.

In the past time, Hou Jing has been trembling. After the defeat of Wuyang, he fled south with only a few hundred soldiers, and he didn't even know where to go, but fortunately Liu Shenmao, the master of Huainan Matou, suggested that he enter Shouyang.

Originally, Xiao Yuanming, Marquis of Zhenyang, guarded Shouyang with the history of Yuzhou Thorn, before the defeat of Hanshanyan and was captured by the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and the Southern Liang court reverted to Poyang King Xiao Fan into this town, but Xiao Fan had not yet arrived, so Wei Rui's son Wei Wei was temporarily in charge of state affairs.

Wei Dark's personality is cowardly, dull and unassertive, which can be described as a typical tiger father and dog. Although there were some twists and turns, Wei Dian still obediently opened the city to include Hou Jing, and Shouyang City was also taken by Hou Jing.

Having this important town in Huainan as a temporary shelter is also a blessing in misfortune for Hou Jing.

However, after the Eastern Wei Dynasty defeated the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Southern Liang, he wanted to negotiate peace with the Southern Liang regardless of his previous suspicions, and the Southern Liang agreed without restraint, which suddenly made Hou Jing feel a sense of crisis in his heart.

He really didn't expect that the kind and kind Xiao Lao Bodhisattva would be capricious and not much better than him, and he was worried that he would be betrayed by Nanliang to the Eastern Wei Dynasty. For this reason, he continued to send letters to advise Emperor Liang not to negotiate peace with the Eastern Wei Dynasty, but the result was very fruitful.

What made him feel most desperate was that when he forged a letter from the Eastern Wei Dynasty and offered to exchange Xiao Yuanming for himself, Xiao Yan actually agreed. In his eyes, he, a person who has lost power, is not as good as Xiao Yuanming, a stupid and dull pig-like waste!

Since then, Hou Jing has completely given up his plan to spend the rest of his life in the Liang realm, and began to actively develop his own power.

Fortunately, the territory of the Southern Liang Kingdom, which seems to be peaceful and peaceful, is also full of undercurrents and contradictions, and although Hou Jing has not been in the country for a long time, he has already been quite perceptive.

Don't talk about Xiao Zhengde

A scum of the clan who has been repeatedly tolerated and connived at by Xiao Yan but still persists in evil, even in Huainan, there are many people who deviate from Nanliang and deviate from morality, so that he can use them to regather his forces.