Yang Hua crossed the embankment more than a dozen times, looking back at the Huaishui Road has been lost. The rise and fall of the old country has become a thing of the past, and I listen to the partridge cry on the willow bank.

Because Sizhou County is located in the southeast of the Dayu Dynasty, it has abundant rain every year, and the climate is humid and warm.

At the same time, the land of Sizhou County is also extremely flat, and the area is active and wide, and the geography of Sizhou County is summarized as one mountain, two rivers and seven points.

Therefore, Sizhou County is also known as the land of Biwo by outsiders. It is also because of this that Sizhou County is rich in products, especially the grain crops here are extremely rich.

Among them, rice is the most well-known in the world. However, in addition to the abundant products, Sizhou County was stuck in the north-south boundary of the Dayu Dynasty, so it also became an important place of commerce and trade of the Dayu Dynasty.

Every year, all the merchants who come from the south and the north come from all over the country to buy and sell goods in Sizhou County.

However, it is precisely because of the unique advantages of Sizhou County that it has also brought huge tax pressure to Sizhou County.

The Dayu Dynasty collected more taxes from Sizhou County each year than several northern states. In fact, the reason why the Dayu Dynasty imposed such a heavy tax on Sizhou County was that there was actually another reason in addition to its developed economy and abundant products.

And when it comes to this reason, we have to talk about the founding of the Dayu Dynasty. In fact, before the Dayu Dynasty, the world still belonged to the Daxing Dynasty.

Now no one mentions the Daxing Dynasty anymore, but the former Daxing Dynasty is a super powerful dynasty whose territory is wider than the Dayu Dynasty.

At the beginning, during the reign of the Daxing Dynasty, half of the territory of the grassland tribes belonged to the Daxing Dynasty. Moreover, at the beginning, more than half of the tribes on the grassland were subject to the Daxing Dynasty.

And the word Tian Khan, which is now used by the grassland to refer to the common leader of all the tribes, was also used by them to refer to Emperor Daxing at the beginning.

It is no exaggeration to say that the original Daxing Dynasty could easily crush the current Dayu Dynasty in any field of territory, population, economy, culture, and force.

However, since ancient times, the prosperity must decline, and such a powerful Daxing Dynasty has only existed for more than 30 years.

In the end, the Daxing Dynasty only experienced two emperors, and successfully became the second dynasty in Chinese history to die twice.

However, although the Daxing Dynasty lasted for a very short time, in this short period of more than 30 years, the Daxing Dynasty built a large number of infrastructure for the whole world.

It is precisely because of this that in the early days of the establishment of the Dayu Dynasty, some people said that Daxing fell and Dayu was full. It can be said that the Dayu Dynasty, which is prosperous today, has inherited the legacy of the Daxing Dynasty to a large extent.

At that time, the south of the Daxing Dynasty was still a place full of smoke and miasma, and poisonous insects and beasts were rampant. Before the Daxing Dynasty, Sizhou County was just a wild land in the eyes of the imperial court.

At that time, Sizhou County was a popular area for the imperial court to exile Qin prisoners. According to historical records, the survival rate of Qin prisoners who were exiled to Sizhou County at that time did not exceed 40%.

At that time, Sizhou County could be said to be a place of restraint. However, when the Daxing Dynasty was established, the founder of Daxing, Xing Gaozu, immediately set the south as a key place for development.

With the joint efforts of his son Emperor Xingshun, all the southern lands, including Sizhou County, were vigorously developed.

In order to visit the south that he vigorously developed, Emperor Xingshun even did not hesitate to build a canal connecting the north and south.

When the canal was built, Emperor Xingshun took a boat to the south. It is precisely because he and his father Xinggaozu's great construction projects have caused the whole world to complain.

Therefore, the people rose up, and in the end, the powerful Daxing Dynasty finally fell under the condemnation of the people.

At that time, when the Daxing Dynasty fell, Emperor Xingshun hid in the palace of Sizhou County. At that time, Emperor Gaozu of the Dayu Dynasty led troops to surround Sizhou County and asked Emperor Xingshun to go out of the city and surrender.

Unexpectedly, the county guard of Sizhou at that time would obey the orders of Emperor Xingshun and lead the people of Sizhou County to resist death.

In the end, Emperor Gaozu of Dayu led his troops to fight for more than a month before successfully conquering the county town of Sizhou. However, although he succeeded in conquering Sizhou County, in the end, Emperor Xingshun actually set himself on fire and died in his palace.

And the Sizhou county guard at that time also took the whole family to follow Emperor Xingshun to self-immolation and died. What made Emperor Gaozu even more angry was that when the army entered the county town of Sizhou, there were ordinary people in the city who chose to kill themselves.

And the remaining surviving people in Sizhou County eventually had less than 100 households. It can be said that the entire Sizhou county is basically empty.

Faced with this situation, Emperor Gaozu of Dayu, who was furious, directly ordered that all the remaining people in Sizhou County be demoted to lowly status, and in the future, the taxes of Sizhou County were three times higher than that of other regions.

Although the people of Sizhou County in the later years were not all descendants of the remaining 100 households, because this decree was promulgated by Emperor Gaozu of Dayu, this can be regarded as an ancestral law, so no one in later emperors dared to make this decree.

As a result, the tax revenue of the entire Sizhou county is three times that of other places. However, later emperors were also worried that this decree issued by Emperor Gaozu in anger would affect the prestige of the imperial family, so the later emperors added a decree: all ordinary farmers and merchants in Sizhou County must pay taxes once every two years.

As a result, although the tax revenue in Sizhou County was still three times that of the rest of the Dayu Dynasty, they paid it every two years.

Therefore, even if their tax revenue is still more than that of other regions, it is not so much that the people cannot afford it.

In this way, although the emperors of later generations did not change the decree of Emperor Gaozu, they also reduced the burden on the people, and at the same time, they could deter the world and let the people know the fate of opposing the Dayu Dynasty.

At this time, Li Yi and Mu Junhe had already rushed to thirty miles outside Sizhou County. The bumps along the way made Li Yi and Mu Junhe, two sturdy men, a little unbearable.

"Senior brother, we should be much faster than the army of the grassland tribe this way." Li Yi, whose face was covered with wind and dust, said tiredly and half-lying on the horse's back.

Originally, he thought that he was already very tired riding a war horse on the grassland before, but today he realized that it was at least much easier to ride a war horse on the grassland than in the hinterland of the Dayu Dynasty.

After all, in addition to the plains, there are also some hilly areas that they passed along the way. Horseback riding in these places is much more bumpy than riding in the vast grasslands.

"In terms of time, we will be at least a day faster than the steppe army, and with so many soldiers, horses, and supplies to unload from the ship, we will not be able to buy more than two days at most." Mu Junhe said after a rough calculation.

"Well, now we have to find a way to get the people in Sizhou County to move out within two days." Along the way, Li Yi had already begun to think about how the county town of Sizhou should deal with the attack of the grassland tribe this time.

At first, Li Yi wanted to organize the people in the city to defend immediately after entering the county town of Sizhou, and at the same time send people to the surrounding prefectures and feudal states to ask for reinforcements.

However, his idea was directly rejected by Mu Junhe.

"You don't understand, if you really choose to defend the county seat of Sizhou, then other states and towns will never send a single soldier to rescue the county seat of Sizhou." Mu Junhe's words were like a basin of cold water, which poured Li Yi's heart cold.

"Why? Don't they know the truth of the cold of the lips and the teeth? Li Yi was very puzzled that the grassland tribes had already been killed, why could people from other states and towns still turn a blind eye?

"It's not that they don't understand, but sometimes human nature is so complicated." Mu Junhe sighed and said.

"We have also analyzed it before, this time, the reason why the grassland tribe will go all the way south from the northern border plug to the Huaishui so easily is because Emperor Shengheng intends to use these guys as a knife, and now the knife has not yet hit the target, do you think the imperial court will let people break this knife first?" Mu Jun's words revealed the reason for this.

"But aren't the people of this Sizhou county city innocent?" Hearing Mu Junhe's explanation, the anger in Li Yi's chest was like a volcanic eruption.

He really couldn't accept that Emperor Shengheng sacrificed the people of a city in order to fight against Zongzheng Temple and other vassal kings.

"What can the people of a city be counted, the sages say that the Son of Heaven is the herdsman of heaven, so in the eyes of the Son of Heaven, the people of the world are just cattle and sheep raised by themselves, and what can the people of a city be counted by sacrificing in order to consolidate their rights." Mu Junhe has traveled the world over the years, and has seen a lot of powerful people, who regard the people as livestock for their own interests, and they ruthlessly oppress the people, and even more so, they can fight and kill if they want to.

In the eyes of these powerful people, the people are really ants that can be trampled to death at any time. Therefore, Mu Junhe is extremely disgusted with the powerful, the court and the royal family, and even he is ashamed of his surname Mu.

"Since we can guess that this time the grassland tribe went south because the royal family was targeting Zongzheng Temple and the southern feudal clans, then we went to ask them for help, would they stand idly by?" Since Mu Junhe just said that the prefectures and counties around Sizhou County would not send troops to rescue Sizhou County before the imperial court ordered it, then the Zongzheng Temple and the feudal lords, who were the targets of Emperor Shengheng's attack this time, should send troops to assist Sizhou County for their own interests.

After all, if the grassland tribe really took the county seat of Sizhou and got supplies, their strength would recover a lot.

At that time, if Zongshoji Temple and the feudal clans want to defend them, they will have to pay a greater price.

"You may think that in the eyes of Zongzheng Temple and those vassal kings, it is the wisest choice to send troops to support Sizhou County, but that is the perspective of Sizhou County from the perspective of you standing, if you change to the perspective of Zongzheng Temple and those vassal kings, you will find that the wisest choice is to stand by and watch." Mu Junhe had a bitter smile on his face.

"Why?" Li Yi really couldn't figure it out, he tried to put himself in the perspective of Zongzheng Temple and the various vassal kings, but no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't figure it out.

Mu Junhe saw Li Yi's puzzled look, so he opened his mouth to explain his doubts.

"In fact, Zongzheng Temple and the vassal kings are the same on the issue of treating the people of Sizhou County, and in their opinion, the people of this city in Sizhou County can be sacrificed at any time."

"But all the people of Sizhou County were killed, what good is it to Zongzheng Temple and the vassal kings?" Li Yi couldn't understand this question the most.

In his opinion, Zongzheng Temple can gain more by saving the people of this city than sacrificing the people of this city.

For example, the hearts of the people of the world, and the prestige of defeating the steppe tribes, etc.

"Who told you that sacrificing the people of this city will not benefit Zongzheng Temple and the vassal king." Mu Junhe snorted coldly.

"What's in it for you?"

"First of all, as long as the people of Sizhou County are defending, whether they win or lose, they will weaken the strength of the grassland tribe, and once the grassland tribe attacks the Sizhou county town, they will definitely slaughter the city in Sizhou County in order to prevent themselves from being attacked from front and back, and then this side will arouse the common hatred of the people of the world." Mu Junhe took a deep breath and said.

"Are they really planning to use the lives of the people of this city to stir up the determination of the people of the world?" Li Yi was shocked by Mu Junhe's words, he didn't expect that Zongzheng Temple would sacrifice the lives of a city in order to arouse the determination of the people, what a desperate person would do such a thing.

"Not only to arouse the determination of the people, when the grassland tribe slaughters the entire Sizhou county, Zongzheng Temple will definitely throw out evidence that the grassland tribe went south because the emperor secretly instructed it."

"Are you saying that Zongzheng Temple also wants to use the lives of the people of this city to weaken the prestige of the Dayu Imperial Court and Emperor Shengheng?" Li Yi can be regarded as understanding what kind of wishful thinking Zongzheng Temple is playing.

Their move can be regarded as ruthless and poisonous, but at the same time, this move has a miraculous effect against Emperor Shengheng.

"So in this way, as long as the county town of Sizhou is defended this time, it will be difficult to escape?" After listening to Mu Junhe's explanation, Li Yi finally found out helplessly that as long as the county town of Sizhou was defended, it would inevitably end up being slaughtered.

So in the end, they still felt that only by letting the people in the city hurry up and escape from Sizhou County could they save their lives.

As for the materials in the city, they were not within Li Yi's consideration. In his mind, it was thankful that all the people in the city could be evacuated from the city in two days, but as for transporting all the supplies out of the city, I am afraid that it would not be possible to complete it in ten days and half a month.

At the same time, Li Yi also had a trace of selfishness after knowing the sinister intentions of Zongzheng Temple and the vassal kings, and he hoped that the soldiers of the grassland tribe would be able to deal a severe blow to Zongzheng Temple and the vassal kings after receiving supplies.

Not to mention that he will break his muscles and bones, at least let them take off a layer of skin.

"Senior brother, can you now think of a way to get all the people in the city to escape from the city within two days?" Mu Junhe saw that Sizhou County was getting closer and closer, so he asked.

In this regard, Li Yi smiled faintly. He may not be sure if he organizes the people of the city to defend them, but he is still very confident that they will find a way to make all the people in the city escape from the city in two days.

"Senior brother, even if you tell the grassland tribe about the southward movement now, they may not believe it." Mu Junhe saw that Li Yi looked confident, so he opened his mouth to remind.

In his opinion, even if Li Yi told everything about the southward movement of the grassland tribe, regardless of the county guards and officials, the people in the city might not believe it.