Song Jiang said: "This matter has its own reasons, and it's a long story.

"Emperor Daojun is proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and is really the number one talent today, but he is addicted to this, pampered since childhood, obsessed with dogs and horses, ignorant of the people's suffering, and has no heart for government affairs, so he is not suitable to be an emperor. He only listened to flattery, not knowing that he had no ability to govern the country, but also thinking that the imperial court was very rich, so he recklessly reused Cai Jing to continue to promote the new law, and at the same time built Yanfu Palace and Genyue, which made the treasury empty and the world chaotic.

"Du Gongcai, a subordinate of the traitor Yang Jian, suggested that Ruzhou has enough soil and water, and there is a lot of idle land, so it can be reclaimed in Ruzhou to set up rice fields to increase income. However, after Yang Jian sent the eunuchs Li Yan and Du Gongcai to Ruzhou to investigate, there was no wasteland to cultivate, and these traitors made a mistake and decided to 'legislate to claim the people's land deeds', which was to publish a special decree to consult the land deeds of the common people. However, due to the fact that many lands were transferred or reclaimed, they could not get land deeds at all. Li Yan measured the number of acres of land without land deeds as public land, and the harvest was divided equally between the rice field and the cultivators.

Later, Yang Jian wrote to change the rice field affairs to the public field, because in the west of Ruzhou City, it is also called the Chengxi Gongtian Office or the Xicheng Gongtian Office, which is in charge of Yang Jian. This yamen is the most poisonous, and it is a family that wants the lives of the people in the world. The law of public land was implemented from Yeju to Gyeonggi, Jingdong, Hebei and other roads, including the natural wilderness, escape from the fields, waste embankments, abandoned weirs, river beaches, silt land, lake edge land, etc. ”

When Song Jiang said this, he smiled bitterly at Ruan Xiaoer, Xiao Wu, Xiao Qi and others: "Our Liangshan Shuibo is just right to sit down. ”

Xiao Er said angrily: "The lakes are all collected as public land, and even the taxes on good fields are not so ruthless. Besides, the lakes are flooded with our good fields, and the acres of land are submerged in them, although there are good deeds in the past, but who has the heart to preserve them? ”

Song Jiang sighed and continued: "This public land law has intensified in operation, those who do not have a land deed are collected as public land, and those who have a land deed are taken from the root grind, if Chao Gai's brother's field is bought from me, he will take the land deed that I transferred to him, and then trace the origin of my land deed, if I am transferred from the second child, I will trace the origin of the land deed of the second child, and keep grinding and looking for it, until there is no land deed and it is referred to as public land." After a circle, Chao Gai's brother's field almost became public land, and he was inevitably forced to become a tenant in the end.

"In addition, according to the number of acres of deed land, the new size is re-checked, the large acres are changed to small acres, and the excess is harvested as public land. This method is combined with making ten coins, the official family has more money and more public land in a blink of an eye, and the people have less money in their hands, and they can't buy it if they don't have land. ”

When the brothers heard this, their backs were cold, and their hearts were on fire, and Xiao Er, Li Kui, and Wu Song jumped up. Xiao Er shouted: "I don't listen to the lake as public land, and see which dog official can stop me from fishing and boating, and collect taxes!" ”

Song Jiang hurriedly said: "The second brother must not act recklessly, the master said back then, like our martial arts, beating anyone is a bully for their three-year-old children, and they must not easily do it for trivial matters." As for how to make a living, I'll see if there are still good servants. ”

Ruan Xiaoer said: "Everyone can't all put down the fishing net and go on an errand, it is not a long-term solution." I don't want to be an errand at all, and I'm not comfortable looking for that. After that, he turned his face and smiled at Song Jiang: "Brother Song Jiang, I didn't mean you." ”

Song Jiang also smiled and said, "It's hard for you to laugh." Nowadays, the world is in chaos and the world is very different, it is an eventful autumn, and it is the reason of the imperial court, and we can't control it. Maybe the current situation is only for a while, and it would be good if this wind passed. In other words, it is to advise the brothers to be careful about whatever happens in the future, so that they can discuss it and not make trouble. Song Jiang became more and more disappointed after talking for a long time, and felt that no one including him was convinced, it seemed that something must happen, sooner or later.

Wu Song pursed his lips: "I heard that Yang Jian is a traitor, and Li Yan is still rising, and sooner or later he will become a greater disaster." Cai Jing, Wang Hao, Tong Guan, Liang Shicheng, Zhu Mian, and Gao Yu each had their own harms, but they were all treated by the emperor. The world has reversed Fang La and many other heroes, if the government is in a hurry, what are you afraid of him? ”

Brother Chao Gai and Song Jiang talked about how to deal with themselves from the court to the countryside, worried about the world and the present, but had no clue. This meal was eaten from the middle of the day to the sunset, and it didn't make a big ugly person. Later, there was finally a red-haired ghost Liu Tang and others who were drunk, and they couldn't resist it before they dispersed.

Song Jiang later instructed Wu Song, Ruan Xiaoer and others to keep an eye on the movements of the government every day, prohibit the surrounding villagers from being robbed of their property and hurt people's lives, and take all possible measures to report something as soon as possible, so as not to get out of control. If you encounter it, try to stop it, and you must be ruthless, so that the government officials are more fearful, but you can't cripple to death. After more than half a year like this, the officials and messengers saw that they couldn't do it, and they became more and more cautious, and some fishermen in Yuncheng gradually became bolder. After that, the treacherous officials picked on the old and weak fishermen to rob, like bandits, and they could not be prevented.

The imperial court was tight on taxes, Yunju over there forcibly occupied the lake, and Jeju here couldn't stop it from forcibly raising rents. Increasingly, the villagers were either chased for rent, or the other was robbed of fish, or someone was banned from tea. Song Jiang contacted the government from time to time and took care of everything in many ways. However, what the officials did was like a net full of holes, and where could it be protected.

One day, Song Jiang was on duty at the county government, and suddenly Zhang Shun ran to shout: "Brother Song Jiang, the big thing is not good, today the Yunzhou government has come to a lot of tolerances, enclosing the lake, driving away the fishermen, and it is necessary to return Liangshanbo to the Yunzhou government. The second brother didn't follow, and fought with them, and dozens of errand soldiers were beaten to the point that their noses were blue and their faces were swollen, and they all folded back, but they were afraid that it would be difficult to give up. The Yuncheng County errand also went to Dongxi Village to force taxes, and if he didn't pay it, he would rob it, and Chao Gai's brother injured one of the errand officers' legs, and threw it into the lake, and it took half a day to catch it up, and he almost drowned. Brother Chao Gai sent a message for the brothers to discuss together. ”

Song Jiang secretly complained. Many officials in Yunzhou Mansion came to provoke, but they were afraid that the comers would not be good, and Xiao Er would injure many people, and it would be difficult to calm down. Chao Gai injured the county's errand officer, and he had to deal with it immediately, and he didn't feel that it was very tricky.

Chao Gai had already called the brothers together, and when he saw Song Jiang arrive, he nodded and said, "Brother Song Jiang, you were right in the past, I am also aware of the difficulties of the imperial treasury in order to protect integrity. However, both the Yunju government and the Jeju government are oppressed too much, making it difficult for people to make ends meet, and it is even more difficult for the people. Today, Xiao Er and I fought the official errands of Yunzhou and Jeju respectively, and they will never finish the calculation easily, hmph, let the old folks be pinched casually, and I still don't recognize it. Today, he simply rebelled against the government and no longer listened to them. ”

Song Jiang thought that it would be extremely dangerous to oppose the government, but he was pressing step by step, and there was really no way out, and it was not in line with the temperament of the brothers of the family to seek perfection. Brother Chao Gai is righteous by nature, and he is the eldest brother, and he has always been a big brother for his brothers. So he said, "I listen to my eldest brother's orders." ”

Chao Gai smiled: "I know that your uncle is very strict in discipline on weekdays, and he knows that he wants to kill the official and rebel and scold you to death." When we got into trouble, we don't count you alone for the time being, and we are still in the official office as your boss, asking for news up and down, and taking care of everything left and right. ”

Song Jiang's face turned red, thinking that his brothers were in danger, where would he be alone, and said, "Song Jiang's family is fine. It seems that such a thing as killing officials and rebelling is not something that can be helped by staying in the county office, and he must follow his brother to start an incident. ”

Chao Gai laughed and said: "My brother started an incident in the name of trying to make a living, setting up the banner of eliminating bullies, not disturbing the villagers, only opposing corrupt officials and corrupt officials, not against the court." When the local officers and soldiers come to forcibly collect and forcibly recruit us, we will fight them, and if they don't come, they won't be provoked. ”

Song Jiang said: "When the Great Song Dynasty opened the country, Taizu ordered 'the list of merchant tax rules in the business gate', the rules are extremely clear, and they must be displayed and posted on the walls of the tax and government offices; Moreover, 'the defendant is allowed to go straight to Shangshu Province to overstep the lawsuit', the tax system is extremely strict, and if the tax is not collected in accordance with the rules, he can go to Shangshu Province to file a lawsuit. Now that we have set up names and forcibly seized them, it is really a mess of the government, and there is no law, so we only oppose the government, seek justice from heaven, and try our best to protect our reputation, not to show our publicity, and try not to invite the court to come and conquer immediately. In order to be safe and secluded, it is best to enter the lake and occupy the various hills of Liangshan in the east to set up camps, and when the officials and soldiers come, they can take shelter for a while. ”

All the brothers agreed in unison, and Song Jiang couldn't help but smile bitterly: "That place is not very big, and it is not a long-term solution to use soldiers, but it is finally a stone's throw away from the officers and soldiers." ”

Liangshan, when it belongs to the jurisdiction of Shouzhang County, the real name is Liangshan, named after the hunting of King Liang Xiao of the Western Han Dynasty, its topography is high in the southwest and low in the northeast, and is formed by the group of seven veins and eight peaks. Although this mountain is not very tall, but the mountain is steep, the road is rugged, the ravines are vertical and horizontal, and the strange rocks are craggy, and it is the place where the soldiers of Qi and Wei must fight. More importantly, in the Tang and Song dynasties, the Yellow River burst many times, the rolling river water poured into the foot of Liangshan, and the ancient giant Yeze was connected to form it, and there were 800 miles of harbor around the outside, and Liangshan Mountain was lonely in it, and it was the mountains and rivers intertwined. Everyday strangers do not know the waterway without a guide can not get close to the mountain, even if there is a guide to go up the mountain, there is only one road to the main peak Hutou Peak. That road from the north foot of the back village, must pass through the Qinglong Mountain, the dog head mountain, the army ridge, zigzag and round, over the black wind outlet, of which the black wind mouth is a man when the pass, ten thousand people do not open, the terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack. This Liangshan has both infinite cut-off ports and many unique forests, which is indeed a good place for rebellion.

So Chao Gai and Song Jiang led the brothers to rise up and no longer obeyed the orders of the government. Circumvent the lake to drive the boat, occupy Liangshan Bo, set up the Juyi Hall at the top of the Hutou Peak, set up the command platform not far from the peak, the radius is close to the mile, the height is more than ten zhang, it is composed of four parts, the main platform is three layers, it is connected with the three watchtowers around it with the trestle bridge, the east platform is the giant gong pavilion, the west platform is the big drum pavilion, the south platform is the lookout, set up the signal light, the sign flag, the sound of the arrow, always be vigilant; Set up the left military village on the west dog head mountain beam of the black wind mouth, set up the right military village on the top of the east flat mountain, and set up two passes in the middle of the entrance mountain road, the barrier military.

After Song Jiang and others entered the various hills of Liangshan and set up camp, they would trade their products fairly to the outside world every day, and from time to time they would come out for small farmers and merchants in the surrounding counties. The surrounding villagers became more and more attached day by day, and gradually gathered three or five hundred people, who became more and more powerful day by day, more and more arrogant day by day, and happier day by day, but the government was becoming more and more fearful.