The situation around Ying Tianfu has already been inspected, and it is impossible for Zhao Jun to go to all the rural areas of the country, and if he goes, he is afraid that he will not be able to finish it in his life, so he can only go to the more typical county governments in various states to see.

Judging from his research, the situation of land annexation is indeed very serious, almost to a rather dangerous level.

Yingtianfu is the Henan region, which is part of the North China Plain.

There is a large amount of vast land here, but most of the owners of the fields are landlords, the good fields and good fields are controlled by the landlords, and most of the fields owned by the yeoman farmers are only ordinary fields and inferior fields, and the people survive quite hard, and they can only barely get enough food and clothing for a year.

And a considerable number of people became tenants and servants of the landlords, working for the landlords. Many of them wore coarse cloth shirts, their faces and bodies were muddy, their skin was dark, their faces were yellow and thin, and they were surrounded by poverty.

At least for so many days, Zhao Jun didn't see many well-fed people, didn't see a decent house, and didn't see a few rich families.

Their houses are all dilapidated wooden houses or rammed earth houses, and the slightly better ones can build a rammed earth wall and knock it down. Ordinary people can only barely have a fence, and the poor are just a dilapidated wooden house, with almost no place to stand.

Zhao Jun did not see the so-called prosperous era of Renzong, but only saw the hunger, poverty, suffering, and numbness hidden under this prosperous era. It is spring ploughing, and the countryside seems to be vibrant, but everything is silent.

The only place that seems to be a little beneficial is probably that the clan power in the north is not serious, and the official decrees of the villages in various places are still greater than the clan decrees.

Because when Zhao Jun came, it was in the stage of urging spring ploughing, and the government sent people from the yamen to various villages to supervise the people to cultivate with the local household heads and Jiatou.

Because of the widow's remarriage and the separation of relatives, it will lead to a certain amount of abandoned fields, but if the fields are uncultivated, they still have to pay taxes under the name of that household, and some people abandon the fields to others to avoid taxes.

These village servants and officials would then register and help the heads of households sell their land through the system of "one field, two masters", and find landlords or other laborers to buy and cultivate the land, so as to avoid wasteland.

After all, if the system was completely bad, the country would have collapsed long ago.

Therefore, although the land annexation in the Song Dynasty was indeed serious, and the upper class sucked blood from the bottom, it also gave rise to the possibility of private land sales and easier access to land by labor, thereby reducing the occurrence of abandoned land and reduced grain production.

In the case that the clan power in the north is not particularly strong, if the first industrial revolution can be developed in the Pingdingshan area through the local coal mines and iron mines, then there will be no shortage of labor, and a large number of young and strong laborers can be recruited in Henan, Hebei and other places.

Zhao Jun recorded these things one by one, the first industrial revolution seems to be quite beneficial, after the young and strong were absorbed, the landlords in Hebei and Henan will lack labor, and the corresponding treatment will definitely be improved to leave these young and strong, for the life of ordinary people, probably can also help a lot.

After leaving Yingtianfu, he passed through Huiting Town under Gushu County and paid another tax, and then entered the Huainan territory.

Approaching February, Huainan East Road Bozhou Yuyang Town, the town is not big, but the trade is quite developed, many ships are moored on the wharf, workers come and go to carry goods, before approaching the wharf, there is a strong medicinal fragrance to the nose.

Since the Tang and Song dynasties, Bozhou has developed a wholesale industry of medicinal materials, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was one of the four major pharmaceutical capitals.

Medicinal herb merchants from the south to the north gathered, sold medicinal herbs to all parts of the country through the canal, and even blonde and blue-eyed foreigners came to Quanzhou and Guangzhou to buy medicinal materials, which shows how big the market size is.

The town of Yuyang is connected to a canal, and there is a small river from the town to the west that flows through the county to join the water, and then enters the vortex basin through the tributaries to the capital of Bozhou.

According to the original route, Zhao Jun's ship should have traveled from Bozhou to Suzhou, and then traveled south by land into Haozhou, Shouzhou, Luzhou, Chuzhou and other places, because of the great drought in Huainan the year before last, these places were the most severely affected.

But at this moment, he planned to follow the branch road into Qian County.

However, his boat had just left Yuyang Town less than an hour ago, and it was still more than 30 miles away from Yuxian County, when it was blocked.

Because the river channel in front of it was too narrow, a boat overturned and blocked the river.

Originally, this kind of tributary is actually not narrower than the canal, but the canal is fixed at a width of more than 20 meters, and such a natural river is some wide and can be 100 meters, and the narrow place is only more than 10 meters or even a few meters.

Therefore the ships must not advance.

If you want to make a detour, you can only retreat to the canal, go from Yongcheng to Linjian County, and then go upriver to Qian County.

This is obviously a long way to spare, and it is not worth it.

Therefore, in the end, I could only choose to believe in the efficiency of the government's actions, and organize manpower to tow out the overturned ship as soon as possible and dredge the channel.

"It seems that I can't go today, so let's take a stroll around the nearby village first."

Zhao Jun raised his head and looked at the sky, the sky was gray, it had rained in recent days, and the spring rain was like oil, moistening the earth and making the whole world gloomy.

But it's actually still early, about two or three o'clock in the afternoon, but there is a distance from Yuxian County, and it is estimated that it will take a day to report the letter and organize the manpower, so it will definitely not be able to go.

But waiting on the boat didn't seem like a thing, so I just went down and walked.

After Zhao Jun gave the order, the big boat put down the small boat, Jiang Dalang, Huang Sanlang and other guards, and more than a dozen people protected him ashore.

There happened to be a river beach nearby, because it was still raining lightly, everyone came to the river beach with umbrellas, the ground was slippery and muddy, and through the green trees and grass on the small slope, a house could be faintly seen.

The river beach is often people coming, a small road to the slope, waiting for the slope, the front is unobstructed, you can see a village not far away, there are hills, there are fertile farmland, the village is densely packed with houses, comparable to the scale of a small town.

It is the time of spring ploughing, and many farmers are working in the dry field nurseries, cultivating seedlings, tending to rice seedlings, and waiting for the wheat harvest in May before inserting them into the paddy fields.

Since the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the Huainan area has been dominated by rice cultivation, even not only Huainan, even Henan is the case, the historical data contains "the county of mountains and rivers, the most western Beijing fish and rice township." ”

Most of the rice cultivation in the northwestern part of Beijing was popularized during the Northern Song Dynasty. In the Jingdong region, rice is grown more in various states.

Zhao Jun walked on the country road in the field and watched around.

An old farmer came out of the ridge on the side, and when he saw more than a dozen people, he was a little frightened and wanted to go around.

Zhao Jun greeted him and asked with a smile, "Uncle, where are you going?" ”

The old farmer saw that Zhao Jun was dressed neatly, and there were more than a dozen guards with knives around him, thinking that he was a bad person, so he hurriedly said: "Official, the little old man has just worked in the field and is ready to go back to rest and rest." ”

"Oh."

Zhao Jun said with a smile: "We are passing merchants, because the ship in front of us overturned, we can't pass, so we get down and walk." If it is convenient for the father-in-law, can he allow us to sit at home, and we are willing to give some copper coins. ”

As he spoke, he glanced at Jiang Dalang.

Jiang Dalang understood, took out twenty or thirty Wen from his arms and handed it over, and the old farmer hurriedly said: "It turns out that there are a few outsiders, and they don't need so much, they don't need so much, just drink a few bowls of water, and a few outsiders come over with the little old man." ”

In fact, the old farmer can still detect the abnormality, although the old farmer stays in the countryside all the year round, but when he was young, he also had some knowledge.

Looking at the clothes the other party was wearing and the knives he was carrying, it was obvious that they were not owned by the merchants.

Although the Song Dynasty legislated against the private possession of weapons, as in other dynasties, the "weapons" here have a limitation, which refers to "armor, crossbows, spears, guns, equipment, etc., which are not suitable for private use."

As for "bows, arrows, swords, swords, and short spears, there are five things to be heard by private individuals." In other words, private people can legally possess bows, arrows, knives, poles, and short spears.

In Zhang Zeduan's "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival", there is a weapon shop next to "Sun Yangzheng's shop", and there is a person who is probably a customer who is trying to pull a big bow.

Obviously, weapons such as bows and arrows were sold openly. In "Water Margin", many heroes go to the rivers and lakes with a simple knife, because the simple knife is also a weapon that can be held by the people.

The problem is that normal businessmen don't dare to bring so many knives when they go out, which is generally a whistle stick. And the other party's clothes are bulging, and they look like they have inner armor, which is not something that ordinary people can have, and if they are caught, they will be beheaded.

But there are so many people on the other side, if it is really some outlaw, it is obviously not a good thing to offend the other party. Anyway, there are so many villages around here, and there are so many merchant ships on the river, and his house is not far from the river, if he really does a crime, shout a voice, and the whole village will come, and the old farmer is not afraid.

At that moment, he took Zhao Jun to his house.

His house is by the small river outside the village, which is a tributary of the river where Zhao Jun travels, next to the village, Siye farmland, many farmers walk in the countryside, although it is drizzling, but it is also a taste of "green all over the mountains and plains and white rivers, and the rain is like smoke in the sound of Zigui".

Zhao Jun followed the old farmer to his house, and there was only one old woman in the yard, saying that the eldest son was married and lived in the east of the village, and the second son worked in the county seat, and there was only one old couple in the family.

After drinking the water, what the old farmer was worried about did not happen, and Zhao Jun just sat there and talked to them, asking how last year's harvest was, what difficulties there were at home, and whether the local officials had done anything to break the law and oppress the people.

Because he couldn't figure out the details of Zhao Jun, the old farmer didn't dare to say more, but said that last year's wind and rain were smooth and the harvest was okay. The county magistrate handles the case impartially, and the errand is also very good. Except for the second son, who is not married, there is no difficulty in the family.

Zhao Jun has heard a lot of such words these days, some of which are true and some of which are false. There are more fake things that are handled by county officials, and when they were in Yingtianfu before, most people said good things about the county officials.

They are generally not oppressed much, after all, there are so many people in a county, and it is impossible for all the officials, landlords, and officials in the county to be bullied.

Even if they knew that the officials were greedy, the landlords were bad, and the officials were black, they did not dare to speak freely in front of outsiders who did not know the details.

Only those who have been truly oppressed complain about it.

It's like in Yingtianfu, I met a small landlord who fell into the middle of the road.

This person's surname is Yu, and there was a conflict with another landlord surnamed Li, it happened that the landlord's wife was holding his son, and the landlord Li was holding a whistle stick to beat them, and the landlord's wife wanted to scare him, raising the child and shouting, you have a kind of hit?

As a result, the landlord Li really went down with a stick and beat the child to death.

Where is the landlord going to stop now?

Report to the police immediately.

But this landlord Li had a good relationship with the master of Xiao in Songcheng County, and he made a private touch, but the master bookkeeper actually forged the contract of private reconciliation between the two families, and reported to his superiors that the two families had reconciled and passed the test in confusion.

At that time, the county magistrates in the county were all liuguan, and they were often transferred away after a short period of service, and the main affairs were handled by the county officials, and then except for the particularly large counties with county officials, the general county was assisted by the chief secretary and the county lieutenant to handle the case.

Therefore, to a certain extent, the main book is basically the number two person in the county, and ordinary people can't even see the county order, and the case is judged to be settled.

The landlord scattered all his wealth and begged everywhere. However, due to the transfer of the county order at that time not long after, and the chaos of the original county-level judicial system, bribery, dereliction of duty, and bribery were endless, and even the officials and documents responsible for adjudicating the case were gone, which directly caused this matter to be over.

If Zhao Jun hadn't known about it from the mouth of the landlord, who had already fallen into the middle of the family because of this matter, and then wrote a slash, asking the Constitutional Yuan to immediately issue a decree and let the Jingxi Road Criminal Division immediately investigate thoroughly, I am afraid that this case would never be revealed.

So as a stranger, it's not easy to ask for something from the mouths of local people.

The two chatted casually, and Zhao Jun saw that he couldn't ask anything, so he was ready to leave after a while.

At this time, a heart-rending cry suddenly came from outside: "Zhou family, you must not die well!" You will not die well! ”

It was a female scream, full of panic and anger, as if she was in a cage.

Accompanied by this scream, other voices came from outside, "Why did she spit out the strips of cloth", "Stuff it back, stuff it back", "Don't let her shout nonsense." ”

Zhao Jun hurriedly said, "Go out and have a look." ”

Immediately the people went out of the courtyard, and they saw a group of people coming from the village.

They were carrying a pig cage in which a woman was being put on the ground, and they were scrambling to shove back the strips of cloth that the woman had spit out.

Soon the woman was gagged again, and the men carried her on, heading towards the small river in Zhao Jun's courtyard.

"Iniquity!"

The old farmer came out after them.

Zhao Jun hurriedly asked, "Uncle, do you know what's going on?" ”

"What a foolish thing the Zhou family did"

The old farmer sighed, and was a little secretive, but said: "Ah Xia is a poor woman, and marrying the Zhou family is really a sin. ”

"Then it seems that there is a grievance in it."

Zhao Jun frowned and said, "Da Lang, go and stop people." ”

The old farmer hurriedly said: "Outside, don't be reckless, this involves the Wang family." ”

"The Wang family?"

Zhao Jun said with a smile: "It doesn't matter what the royal family is or the royal family, I have always liked to meddle in things, and I will take care of this matter." ”

He waved his hand.

Jiang Dalang and the others rushed out in response, stopped in the road, and did not allow the other party to pass.

(End of chapter)