In this Leize County, the Sun family belongs to the upstart Haoqiang, and the Qian family is the old family (the descendants of the founding general Qian Shoujun).

The two families once had in-laws, and even the Sun family's initial development relied on the support of the Qian family.

At that time, the Sun family had a son who was admitted to various subjects, and the Qian family married a daughter to cultivate it.

Subsequently, both of them had bleak careers and rarely became big officials. Especially during the reign of Song Zhenzong, the thieves in Puzhou rebelled, the Zhizhou and the prison army were tied up, and the Qian and Sun families were also burned and looted, and the Qian family has not yet recovered.

After Wang Ji left the city, he did not dare to go to the territory of these two families.

To be on the safe side, he made a detour of several miles from the southern suburbs and then westward, carefully avoiding the villages controlled by the Qian family.

In a village, Wang Jian shouted: "Where is Wei Dian? I'm the county commander, let him come and see him quickly! ”

Hearing the county order, the villagers were terrified and hurriedly went to find the village elder and the chief of the village.

After a while, an old man was surrounded and cautiously came over to greet him: "Old decay ......"

Wang Jin was very anxious at the moment, and directly interrupted: "Quickly find Wei Dian, I will appoint him as the head of the archer!" ”

The old man said happily: "Wei Dian is in Erweng's house......"

"Drive!"

Without waiting for the old man to finish speaking, Wang Ji hit the horse and galloped out.

He came to the village once last year and accompanied the eunuch to conquer the Taoist priest Wei Erweng.

This is also a true Taoist priest who cultivates Neidan, only knows the surname Wei, the second in line, and is still healthy when he is over seventy years old. Song Huizong admired the expedition, Wei Erweng avoided it, and used a little "spell" to scare the eunuch away.

Riding a horse to Wei Erweng's house, Wang Jin shouted: "Wei Dian, come out quickly!" ”

There were only a few thatched huts in front of him, and Wang Jian shouted for a long time, but no one answered.

Suddenly, I heard a voice behind me: "What is the county order looking for?" ”

Li Bao looked back, but saw an old man and a strong one, both carrying hoes on their shoulders.

The sturdy young man was lame and had tattoos on his face.

Wang Jinxi said: "Wei Dian, this county will recruit you as the capital, quickly pick up the weapon and follow me into the city!" ”

"No, no." The young man named Wei Dian didn't give face to the county magistrate at all.

The villagers gradually followed, and they all persuaded Wei Dian to agree. The people of this village are public servants, and they usually take care of everyone, and they are not so ruthless when they are exploited by the government.

Wei Dian sneered: "I killed the robber, but I was imprisoned by Sun Jiagou and exiled to Hebei to be the thief with the army." I have made meritorious efforts to suppress thieves in Hebei, but not only did I not receive a reward, but I also did not treat my leg injury. Whether you are a public servant or a soldier, how can you get the slightest benefit? ”

Wang Jin asked, "Do you want revenge?" ”

Wei Dian said: "I have a lot of enemies, which one is the county order talking about?" ”

Wang Jin said: "Zhizhou came to the county in person and arrested the Sun brothers, and now he is blocked in the county government by the Xianyi Society. If you apply, you will take revenge. In the future, if the Sun brothers are transferred to the state capital, they must also be escorted to prevent horse thieves from robbing the prisoner car! ”

"Do you really want to bring the Sun family to justice?" Wei Dian was skeptical.

Bai Sheng took out a piece of paper from his arms: "Zhu Zhizhou has an order." Puzhou is tired, the people are poor, and they have long been overwhelmed, and next year's land money should be reduced to 70 wen per bucket! ”

As soon as this remark came out, it was an instant sensation.

Village Elder and Baozheng rushed over excitedly and hurriedly asked, "But really?" ”

Bai Sheng said: "Can Zhizhou's words be false? Speaking out to tease you? ”

Everyone thought about it, it was true, and there was no need for Zhizhou to joke about this.

This thing was originally called "branch transfer", that is, because of special circumstances, the people did not pay taxes locally, but had to be sent to a designated place. Generally, it is based on the township capital insurance unit, and everyone approves the transportation fee and selects some young and strong people to pay the grain.

For example, when the people of Shaanxi pay taxes, they sometimes need to walk four or five hundred miles to deliver grain to the front line by themselves.

Ten years ago, Cai Jing reformed this, and did not let the people "move", and changed it to "money in the ground". The people only had to send the grain to the county government, and the government would take care of the rest, but everyone had to pay extra.

The money in the ground is 56 wen per bucket, which is already equivalent to a positive tax.

It was first implemented on Jingxi Road, and then spread to the whole country. To put it more bluntly, it is to collect double the land tax from the peasants!

Local officials take the opportunity to prey on the common people, and when they are implemented at the grassroots level, they are often expropriated several times. Double to the imperial court, and the rest to be intercepted by themselves. In the fourth and fifth class households in the countryside, it is not enough to grow grain to pay taxes, and there are not many people who sell cattle and fields.

Due to the civil unrest, six years ago, an edict was issued to exempt the fraction, and then the fifth-class households that did not pay taxes were exempted.

The collection on Jingdong Road is particularly high, because the land annexation is serious, and there are too many hidden fields to collect taxes. There are too many apportionments for large households and buying money, and there are often arrears, so they have to make up for it from the small people.

The imperial court stipulated that each bucket was 56 wen, and Zhu Ming ordered it to be reduced to 70 wen, which obviously overcharged 14 wen and miscellaneous taxes, but it made these villagers very excited.

Double the expropriation of the field tax, and illegally increased 14 Wen, so the expropriation was tyrannical, Zhu Ming was actually the master of the blue sky!

Wang Jin was also stunned when he heard this, it turned out that Zhizhou had reservations about him.

Reducing the money in the land is Zhu Ming's trick, coercing and luring the landlord to cooperate with Fang Tian.

Wang Jin had already guessed Zhu Ming's approach, and if he honestly cooperated with Fang Tian, he would reduce the money in the field. If you don't cooperate honestly, you will be charged twice, and the actual tax will be more.

If it can be strictly enforced, the landlords will certainly be willing to cooperate.

But the landlords will also worry that after Zhu Ming leaves office, people will leave and the government will rest, and the land will have to pay more, and the land money will have to be paid more. By that time, the days were even more difficult.

No matter what happens in the future, Wang Jin seized the opportunity to say: "Zhizhou is so benevolent to the people, and today he is blocked by gangsters in the county office, and his life may be in danger. Do you sit idly by and let the good officials who are dedicated to the people lose their lives? Do you want to pay less for the feet! ”

Wei Dian threw away the hoe: "I'll go with you to save Zhizhou!" ”

Bao Zheng said, "I'll go too." ”

Wang Jin said: "Bring all the horses that can be ridden in the village, and they will definitely be returned afterwards!" ”

Except for the pregnant, sick, and old horses, there were four horses to ride in the village. This is all thanks to the Jingdong Road Ma Zheng, landlords with a little family capital, must raise horses for the government.

Although it is a combat horse, it is absolutely no problem to ride and hurry.

Wang Jin recruited four "cavalrymen" in the village and immediately rushed to the next village.

Don't talk nonsense, just take out the tax reduction order.

Hearing that it can reduce the money in the land, those small and medium-sized landlords, and even big landlords, are afraid that such a good Zhizhou will be in danger, so they have sent young people in the village to rescue.

In only half a day, there were more than 60 riders under Wang Jin's command.

Although the horses are weak and the weapons are varied, more than sixty horsemen can still run out of momentum when they are put together.

……

The county is surrounded by four suburbs.

The thieves, who also rode bad horses, were sent out to find out the news.

These guys wanted to ambush the county order, but as soon as Wang Jin left the city, he took a detour, far away from the eyes of the Qian and Sun families, so that the horse bandits did not know where the county order came from.

In the middle of the afternoon, a horse bandit guarding the northern suburbs of the county suddenly heard the rumbling sound of horses' hooves.

He looked at the small dirt slope, and could basically confirm that the county order had returned, so he hurriedly took out the whistle and blew it while running.

"Phew! Sigh! ”

The horse bandits in the northern suburbs gradually gathered, whistling to call for more companions.

Their number is too small at present, only eight people, but there are dozens of horsemen on the county order.

"Second brother, in the north, the county order is in the north!"

"Call people, all go to the north of the city!"

The bandit leader Xu Er immediately rode his horse and galloped, gathering his men along the way.

Before he could arrive at the scene, Wang Jin had already collided with several horse bandits.

"Bai Er, you bring a few people to protect the county order," Li Bao took out his bow and arrows and commanded, "For the rest, follow me to kill the robbers!" ”

"What?" Bai Sheng didn't hear clearly.

There was no way to command at all, a group of improvised young men who were not skilled in riding and rode inferior horses. The order was all shouted and completely inaudible when running, in this case, only someone rushed to the front, and the rest of the young people rushed forward in a swarm.

Li Bao drove his horse closer, and changed his mind: "You protect the county order to enter the city, and I will deal with the robbers!" ”

"Good!" Bai Sheng shouted.

Li Bao pulled the reins and left the army, Wei Dian saw it clearly, and immediately shouted: "I'll go with you!" ”

Two people and two horses, rushed straight towards the eight horse bandits.

The landlord was forced by the government to raise horses, basically as livestock, and it was okay to pull and grind the goods, but it was too nonsense to use it for horse warfare.

But Li Bao's crotch is a mare, although it is not a good horse, but the forage bean cake is very sufficient, and he has also consulted the horse raising master. He has to walk his horse every day, and give the horse enough activity, which is enough to reach the level of an ordinary war horse.

At this moment, he accelerated and ran, and instantly threw Wei Dian away, and Li Bao began to charge single-handedly.

The horse bandits also surrounded and killed because of the large number of people, trying to get rid of Li Bao first.

Of the eight horse thieves, three had bows and one had a crossbow.

Li Bao took the lead in pulling his bow and arrows, and when the horse thief saw this, he immediately raised his bow and crossbow to fight back.

Both sides were charging, and the distance was about twenty or thirty paces.

Li Bao's arrow did not hit the horse bandit, but it hit the inferior horse under his crotch. The bad horse went berserk and threw off the bandit on the spot.

The opponent's four arrows also came one after another, and the accuracy was so far away that Li Bao's hair was not injured.

Li Bao hung up his bow and raised his gun, and when the two sides were staggered, he raised a shot and stabbed out, poked down a horse bandit in front of him, and rushed out of the enemy's encirclement.

Wei Dian hit the horse and followed, holding a Pu knife and roaring: "Wei Zhuang Wei Da is here!" ”

Although this guy was lame, he was quite famous in Leize County, and he was so frightened that the horse bandits hurriedly dodged.

Wei Dian's mount was too bad, and the horse bandits turned around and fled, and he couldn't catch up with the crazy horse, and it was difficult to give full play to his ability.

Li Bao was so strong that after he overthrew a horse bandit, he had already rushed away. He turned back and tried to hunt down the remaining ones.

The eight horse bandits disappeared as soon as they saw each other, and they were inevitably frightened.

"If you have an idea, let's go find the second brother first." The remaining six bandits scattered and fled.

At this time, Li Bao was not a general of the 3,000 naval army who had annihilated 70,000. He completely forgot what his mission was, his brain was hot, and he only knew how to chase the enemy, but he really caught up with a person, and he easily overturned it when he dropped the gun.

"Come back!"

Wei Dian shouted and shouted that he should not catch up, and he couldn't catch up, so he had to get off his horse and pick up the loot.

He picked up a bow and crossbow, and replaced the Pak knife with a hand knife. He also picked up two inferior horses in vain, and the other ran away with an arrow.

Mend the knife and send the horse bandit who is not yet dead to return to the west.

Li Bao, who was chasing after him on horseback, suddenly saw more than a dozen enemies in front of him. His feverish head instantly sobered up, and Le Ma laughed: "If you don't fight today, you will wash your neck, and wait for me to cut off your head another day!" ”

"Kill the birdman!" The bandit leader Xu Er shouted.

Li Bao turned around and fled, relying on his horse to quickly shake off the enemy.

However, it was said that Wang Ji and Bai Sheng returned to the city with dozens of young horses, but found that the city gate was closed in broad daylight.

Wang Jin angrily reprimanded: "I am the county order Wang Jin, quickly open the city gate, do you want to murder the county?" ”

"Don't dare," said the soldier guarding the city, "there are robbers outside, and we have just closed the city, so the county will wait a while." ”

After a while, the gates opened.

Wang Jin led people straight to the county office.

(End of chapter)