Different from the wealth of Yuzhou City, there are many beggars on the main city road in Yuezhou City, they are either paralyzed on the ground, or two people pretend to beg for treatment for their families, or simply lie on the ground to sleep, with a tattered pottery bowl in front of them.

In any case, these are just the norm of begging, and passers-by don't even bother to glance at their poor acting skills. And for beggars, it is also indifferent, it is enough to eat one meal a day, and if you pay too much attention to it, it will backfire.

It's just that something strange seems to have happened in the city these days, and the ordinary people in the city don't notice it much, but they are making a lot of noise in the beggar circle.

Many beggars have disappeared inexplicably.

Someone has tried to report to the official, but what if they do? Their lives are no longer fate, the government doesn't care, and more officials are better than less.

Don't the beggars know? They knew that few of the missing beggars were their own relatives, and that they were only reporting to the police to protect themselves.

Yuezhou City Governor County Yanei.

The prefect wearing a blue background embroidered mandarin duck, a big belly, and two extremely ridiculous mustaches is enjoying the most wonderful meal of the summer night in the backyard at the moment.

One person, one table, on the table is a plate of peanuts, a plate of crispy radish, a plate of sour cabbage, and five taels of small knives. Beside him was a copper pot, in which boiling water was boiling, and pickles, which had been marinated for a long time and were just in time, were steaming hot.

The prefect picked up a peanut and threw it into his mouth, took a sip of the small knife in the wine cup, and closed his eyes with satisfaction.

"My lord, the proprietors outside the mansion have come to hand over the next quarter's tribute."

The chief butler who walked straight in from outside the gate came to the prefect and whispered in his ear.

The prefect opened one eye and glanced at the butler, feigning doubt.

"Huh? Didn't you just hand it in last month? The tribute grain and the official have all been sent to the capital by the Caoyun History Division, and now they are here to hand it over to the official, don't they want the official to lose his head? Let them come! ”

The big housekeeper bowed his head and hurriedly walked out of the backyard, and after a while, five middle-aged people followed behind them, all holding a small wooden box in their hands, and after being arranged by the prefect to sit down, several people relaxed slightly.

The prefect took out a piece of tender tofu, cut it piece by piece with the knife beside him and threw it into the boiling water, and said slowly:

"A few owners, why do you want to harm your own officials? You just sent the tribute grain to the capital last month, you know, what you are holding in your hands is not the tribute grain, this is the head of the prefect of this official. ”

The action of cutting the tofu in the hands does not stop, very elegant and cautious, the size of the cut tofu is almost the same, and the force of the knife is just right, and no piece of tofu is cut apart.

"Yes, yes, the prefect taught me a very good lesson, so the grass people waited for the adults to come to ask for sin, and by the way, they paid the tribute for the next month."

Dali tribute grain is paid every six months, just like the people pay grain, the implementation of the thirty to one system, the landlord and the farmer are the same, the merchant is to collect silver, half a year less than one hundred taels of income does not need to pay tribute grain, higher than one hundred taels of the part according to twenty to take one.

After the new Kandi Li Dai succeeded to the throne, he vigorously reformed, and the tax on tribute and grain was nearly half less than that of the previous Wang Yan Kangdi Li Dan during his reign.

The landlord's shopkeeper at the table opened the small wooden box he brought, which contained white flowers of silver, as if it had been discussed, and each box contained a hundred taels.

The prefect waved his hand, and the thin and stiff bookkeeper hurriedly walked over with the account book, recording the amount of silver sent by each person. The prefect said as he cut the tofu.

"You must remember it for your master, this is tribute food, and one or two less is a matter of losing your head."

Then he called to the servant and said:

"Pour wine for a few shopkeepers and proprietors."

Several people sat down one after another, and the back kitchen brought a variety of wine and dishes, which were dazzling.

The prefect closed his eyes slightly, shook his head and hummed:

"After eating pickled vegetables and rolling tofu, the emperor is not as good as me."

The wine was almost drunk, and the food was almost finished, when a middle-aged man stood up, smiling obscenely, his eyes dripping and rolling.

"Hey, hey, Lord Wu, have you had any fresh lambs lately? I'm waiting for a few people to get one. ”

Governor Wu Nan took a bite of steaming hot tofu, glanced at it and said:

"Yes, yes, what kind of quality do you want?"

"Preferably a lamb, in good condition? As long as we can amuse everyone, we don't pick. ”

The rest of them nodded and said yes with a smile.

Prefect Wu Nan says:

"Okay, but this little lamb is a little risky, you also know that the children's gang has noticed Yuezhou, and there are people from their children's gang here, you pay attention, after eating, I will ask the big housekeeper to write a letter, and you let the trustworthy person go to the social fire team to lead the sheep."

Several people looked happy, happily finished this unusually sumptuous meal, and left the prefect's yamen with a letter under the leadership of the chief housekeeper Wu Youping.

After a while, the chief housekeeper Wu Youping said softly:

"My lord, isn't the Shehuo team too blatant recently, and there are nearly thirty percent fewer beggars in the city."

The prefect Wu Nan Gujing did not wave, and he didn't care.

"Are beggars human? Just prevaricated and passed, and the social fire team went south and north, such a strange thing is not common. ”

Humming a little song, he waved his hand to signal the big housekeeper to leave, and he ate the delicious pickled vegetables and rolled tofu alone, with a lot of thoughts in his heart.

"Heiyun Mountain, An Xingjun, recently came from the capital, His Majesty the Emperor personally ordered the suppression of bandits, and even did not hesitate to use the Pingsha Army in Rongzhou Military Town, Zhao Yunxin's general is only inferior to that person, and this official can't protect you."

Wei Zigeng gave the cheats to Xu Yue, but he was illiterate, although there was a younger brother who had read a little bit of books to help understand, but for Wei Zigeng, who had really practiced this gun book, in line with the idea of sending Buddha to the West, he decided to take this period of time first, and it was convenient for Xu Yue to ask him if he didn't understand anything.

Today, the scorching sun is shining, and the weather is gradually getting hotter.

Next to the river, Xu Yin practiced calligraphy under the tree, and Wei Zigeng bought Xu Yin the four treasures of the study, as well as some classical books, although they were not high-quality goods, and only cost less than fifty yuan, which was far less precious than Xu Yue's gun book "Overlord Unloading Armor", but after all, beggars like them who had not had a meal could afford it.

After repeated shirks, Xu Yin gave Wei Zigeng an IOU and vowed to repay the money in the future, but Wei Zigeng had no choice but to accept it.

"Alas, by the way, there is a social fire team performance in the city today, should we go and see it?"

Xu Yue, who was practicing marksmanship with a bamboo pole, stopped and said to Xu Yin, who was practicing calligraphy, and Wei Zigeng, who was meditating and breathing.

The Shehuo team is extremely rare in them, according to legend, they came from outside the Western Regions, the class owner took a group of people and animals and some strange things to travel the world, passing by a convenient booth performance, some people have never seen such a thing in their lives.

Several people immediately became interested, even Xu Yin, who only knew how to read and write on weekdays, couldn't hold back the restlessness in his heart.

Seeing that the two agreed, Xu Yue threw away the bamboo pole in his hand and said:

"Let's go, if I don't go now, I won't have a good position right away."

The three of them said they would leave and rush to the city.

"Don't you need to call Old Man Xu?" Wei Zigeng asked.

"No, he never wants to join in the fun."

Seeing that Xu Yin also nodded, Wei Zigeng didn't think too much about it.

They had already arrived early enough, and there were still nearly two hours before the performance of the fire team, but at this time, there were already several circles of people sitting in the open space of the square, and there were still people who came here with benches and food one after another.

Waiting left and right, plus the weather was a little stuffy, Wei Zigeng simply untied the wine gourd, raised his head and dried a few sips, and handed it to Xu Yue, Xu Yin and the brothers, after a period of getting along, the three of them became very good friends.

Two days ago, he went to another wine shop, and with the same method, the wine shop shopkeeper was stunned and filled his wine gourd with nearly ten jars of wine. If it weren't for Wei Zigeng himself, who really couldn't stand it, the boss might really fill the wine gourd, and finally a little reluctantly, and made up a few coins of silver for the shopkeeper.

Finally, the tent outside the fire team was opened, and I saw men and women in the fence of the fire team, they were wearing all kinds of makeup, or stepping on stilts, or rolling on them, which caused everyone to exclaim.

There were also several cages covered with cloth in the enclosure, and the scene inside could not be seen, only the roar coming from the cages.

"Fellow villagers, the elders, the little old man walked through the south, crossed the north, ate hundreds of meals, drank the world's water, thank the elders for allowing me, the country looks at people's eyes, don't talk nonsense, let's start the show, everyone has money to hold a money field, and no money to hold a personal field!"

As soon as the words fell, a burst of applause rang out, followed by the sound of suona and huqin, and the cloth on the cage was pulled away.

Seeing this, everyone gasped, the cage contained many animals they had never seen before, to be exact, they had never seen such a strange thing.

A leopard with two heads, a tiger without a tail, and a deformed animal with a cat and dog sharing the same body.

At the sound of the whistle of the animal tamer of the fire team, the deformed animals began to jump from the brazier fire ring in an orderly manner, and sat with some laughable suspicious movements.

The two animals, whether they were cats or dogs, began to bite at a piece of meat, and the tailless tiger would fall comically after taking two steps, clapping and cheering.

This made Wei Zigeng and the others feel uncomfortable in their hearts, and Xu Yin's stomach was even more upside down at this time.

"This ...... I could feel that this was no ordinary animal. ”

Xu Yin held on to the discomfort and said with all his might.

In the midst of the exclamations, everyone threw copper coins into the fence, and some of the rich sons even gave some broken silver or silver ingots, and they thought it was interesting and would not hesitate to use the silver coins in their hands.

At this moment, the head of the team pushed out three more cages covered with black cloths, and everyone's eyes were attracted, and they secretly said in their hearts, "Is there anything else to play?" ”

Under the gaze of everyone, the short squad leader smiled and dropped the black cloth covering the cage.

The audience was silent, a dead silence, and a pin drop could be heard.

"This ...... This...... It's people! ”