"My lord, in the past two days, there have been more and more victims." Li Yuanfang rode on his horse and frowned as he looked at the endless victims on the official road.

"Yes! With natural disasters, how many people have been displaced and their wives have been separated. Di Renjie nodded with a heavy expression and said, then looked up at the gloomy sky.

"Yuan Fang, how far is it from Xiangyang?"

"My lord, we have now passed Caiyang, and we are less than a hundred miles away from Xiangyang." Li Yuanfang replied.

"Zengtai, where are they?" Di Renjie asked again.

"Sir! Lord Zeng had already sent someone to deliver a message, saying that they had arrived in Deng County and would be able to go to Xiangyang tomorrow. Di Chun behind him replied.

"Look at the sky, it's bound to rain for a while. Yuan Fang, let's find a place to take refuge for a while. Di Renjie nodded and said.

When Li Yuanfang heard this, he looked around. Pointing ahead, he said to Di Renjie: "My lord, there is a village there!" ”

"Let's go! Let's go over and see. Di Renjie glanced at the place pointed by Li Yuanfang, and said that he would gallop away first.

After a while, the group came to the entrance of the small village. Di Renjie raised his eyes and looked at it, this village was much better than the mountain village where he stayed overnight last night, and he could faintly see the smoke rising from the cooking in the village, but it was only slightly better. As far as the eye can see, there are dilapidated and old adobe houses, and the streets and alleys of the village are deserted and full of depression.

Di Renjie couldn't help but sigh when he saw the dilapidated scene in front of him, almost all the villages he passed through in the past two days were like this, which showed the difficulty of people's livelihood. Compared with the prosperity of the gods, it is hard to believe that these two places are under the same sky.

Di Renjie sighed secretly, and was about to tell Li Yuanfang to go into the village to have a look, but suddenly saw a few people rushing out of the forest at the entrance of the village, blocking in front of everyone, and asked, "Who are you?" ”

Di Renjie fixed his eyes and saw that the person at the head was about twenty years old, with a dark complexion, although his face was a little thin and puffy, his figure was very burly, and his eyes were bright and heroic. Di Renjie couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "What a good man!" Seeing his question, he smiled and said: "In Xia Huaiying, Lang Zhong, who is a party, dare to ask this little brother's surname, where is this place?"

The burly man looked like a person without a city, forgetting that he asked first, and replied following Di Renjie's words: "This place is Zhaojiazhuang, my name is Zhao Dazhuang"

"Haha, dare to ask Brother Zhao to stop me from waiting, I don't know what to do?" Di Renjie listened to the name of the strong man, and then looked at Zhao Dazhuang's burly figure. I couldn't help but ask with a smile.

"Don't do anything, just tell you to wait, even if you arrest me, our land will not be sold! That's our lifeline! ”

Di Renjie was puzzled, so he said: "Brother Zhao is afraid that he has recognized the wrong person, I am Langzhong from You Fang, not here to buy land." ”

Zhao Dazhuang grinned and said: "You still want to deceive me, how can you have so many people in Youfanglang, look at you all brightly dressed and tall people, at first glance, it is the reinforcements invited by the old thief Zhao." But you go back and tell the old immortal surnamed Zhao that the land in my village is kept to save our lives, and we will not sell it even if we starve to death! ”

What kind of character is Di Renjie, Zhao Dazhuang's words will come out of the ins and outs, without turning over and getting off the horse, stroking his beard and smiling: "Don't hide it from the little brother, I am a passing official, going to Xiangyang on business, but it is not the rescuer who moved in from the person you said......" After speaking, he said: "Listen to the meaning of the little brother, but there are evil gentry who oppress the good and forcibly annex the land during the flood and famine?" We are also from poor families, and if the little brother has difficulties, we can also deal with one or two? ”

Zhao Dazhuang heard that they were officials and wanted to help them, but his face was surprised, but then his face was disappointed. said: "You are all officials from afar, how can you take care of our affairs!" That old thief Zhao has a big background, is that what a few of you can afford to provoke? Let me be happy for nothing! ”

Li Yuanfang and the others couldn't help laughing when they saw what Zhao Dazhuang said interestingly. Di Renjie stroked his beard and shook his head with a smile and said, "Brother Zhao is reasonable, as long as the axiom is here, what do I dare not care?" I don't know if there are old people in your village, let me wait? ”

Zhao Dazhuang heard this, and hurriedly said: "Yes, yes, please send the masters to come with me." With that, he led the way ahead to lead Di Renjie to a small courtyard in the middle of the village.

Di Renjie led Li Yuanfang and Ruyan into the house. At this time, it was almost dusk, and the room was dim, Di Renjie glanced into the house, and could only vaguely see a thin figure wandering in the inner room.

At this time, Zhao Dazhuang shouted at the top of his voice: "Master, you are here!" ”

"You little bunny! Why are you yelling so loudly? I can hear you, my grandfather! An old voice came from the back room. As the flame of a little bean was lit, I saw that the old man in the house was thin and dry, and as the old man walked in, a shriveled old face like old bark came into the eyes of Di Renjie and others. The old man trembled and took the oil lamp to Di Renjie and said: "Little Lao'er has seen a few distinguished guests, but I don't know that the distinguished guests are coming far away and cannot greet them, and I hope you will forgive me." ”

Di Renjie and the three of them hurriedly returned the salute, but Di Renjie had not yet spoken. Then Zhao Dazhuang rushed to the front and told the previous things 1510.

Unexpectedly, the old man sighed and said tremblingly: "Xiao Lao'er has thanked a few errand officials for their kindness, and Xiao Lao'er understands it, but Xiao Lao'er still has to persuade you not to wade into this muddy water, so as not to ruin the lives of your errand officials in vain." ”

"What do you mean, old man?" According to Li Yuanfang's thoughts, if someone helped out, the old man should be too late to be happy, how could he refuse their kindness, and asked without annoyance.

"Alas......" The old man sighed, it looked extremely desolate, making people tremble, "You don't know, that Zhao Yibao is one of the giants in Caiyang County, and his brother is Jingzhou Zhensi, a member of the state, Zhao Yibao is tyrannical and domineering, bullying the good, forcibly buying and selling, and the land in our village is about to be forcibly bought by him at a low price, hey!" What's the use of saying that? ”

"Not to mention our Zhaojiazhuang, this land within a radius of ten miles and eight townships is about to be forcibly occupied by Zhao Lao. If someone in the village dared to resist, the Zhao family's slaves would arrest people and beat them to death, and many people were killed. Zhao Dazhuang, who was sitting on the side, grabbed a sentence and said.

After listening to the narration of the two, Di Renjie's face turned blue with anger, and he couldn't help but snort heavily in his throat.

"Then why don't you report to the official?" Li Yuanfang's face was also angry, and the illustrator asked.

"Reporter? Hum! Zhao Dazhuang heard Li Yuanfang say to report to the official, glanced at Li Yuanfang and said heavily.

The old man said at this time: "I don't know that Zhao Yibao wanted to sell our land at that time, so I naturally won't do it." I elected a few people from the village, wrote a complaint, and went to the state to file a complaint. Unexpectedly, the lord in the state was even more ruthless, not only tearing up our pleadings, but also saying that we were a troublemaker and gathering people to make trouble. For this reason, a few people were beaten with a board. Saying this, the old man stood up suddenly, his chest rose and fell, and he said angrily: "Zhao Yibao and the yamen colluded with each other to forcibly occupy our land. We don't have anything to eat, they want us to starve to death! ”

"It's really a bunch of beasts that are inferior to pigs and dogs, and they deserve death!" Li Yuanfang was furious when he heard this, "Bang! He slapped the table and said hatefully.

"Haoqiang is in charge, and the government is helping to abuse the people, it is really the government forcing the people to rebel!" Di Renjie shook his head and sighed, and said after speaking: "Old man, I am in charge of this matter, and I will definitely make the decision for you!" ”

When the old man heard this, he couldn't help but be very excited, his body shook for a while, Li Yuanfang saw the old man's strange appearance and hurriedly stepped forward to support him, Zhao Dazhuang also hurriedly stepped forward when he saw this, and said urgently:

"Master, are you okay?"

The old man stood still, took a deep breath, and waved his hand to Zhao Dazhuang. The old man had also seen the world when he was young, and seeing that he had said so much, Di Renjie and the three of them had no intention of retreating at all. knew that the identities of these nobles in front of him must be extraordinary, and hurriedly said:

"Little old man, thank you for a few bad masters!"

Di Renjie nodded, and suddenly a lightning bolt swept through the sky, followed by a thunderous explosion. Di Renjie looked up at the window and muttered, "The storm is coming!" ”

……

At the same time, in the study room in the back hall of the Jingzhou Governor's Yamen, Zhu Guozhi was writing at the desk, and Master Shi Qing walked in quickly: "The adult cars are ready." ”

When Zhu Guozhi heard this, he put down the brush in his hand, folded the letter and put it in the envelope, and handed it to Shi Qingdao: "You quickly take my letter to Deng County and hand it over to Lord Qincha."

Ay! Now there are hundreds of thousands of hungry people in Xiangyang, and they are still increasing, but the grain and grass in the government treasury have been exhausted. Please be sure to transport the volume to Xiangyang as soon as possible, so as not to provoke a civil uprising. ”

……