After explaining everything that should be explained, Zou Run looked at the sun, it was about the end of the morning, and he felt that it was not early, so he said goodbye, and walked down the wooden platform with Zou Yuan, intending to beckon the minions to return to the cottage.

But three white-haired old men suddenly came out of the crowd, stopped under the stage, and shouted to Zou Run, "O king, stay ...... king."

Zou Run saw that the three old men had sparse and messy hair, and they were wrapped in a torn turban, and they were all wearing homespun vests with exposed holes and patches, and they were still trembling with crutches in their hands. The heart said that these three people must be the elders of the village, this kind of people have always been highly respected in the village, and they have the right to speak, so they must not be neglected.

So he hurriedly stepped forward to greet him and asked, "Xiao is not a king, the old man can call me Zou Run, I don't know what you have to say?" ”

Seeing that Zou Run's words were cordial and approachable, the fear in their hearts suddenly disappeared, and a person in charge began to talk about it.

"I don't dare to call the king by his name and surname, the old men have the courage to call the king, they have something to trust, and I hope the king will agree."

Seeing these white-haired old men, with bitter faces and thin bodies, as if a gust of wind could blow them down, Zou Run's heart was inexplicably sour, and he hurriedly replied, "The old man must not bother Xiao Ke, there is nothing wrong with it, Xiao Ke should do his best." ”

"The old man has something to do, although he said it, my uncles and nephews will support you and strengthen your courage!" Zou Yuan on the side was also a filial and respectful person, and he thought that these old people had unwashed grievances, so he hurriedly patted his chest and expressed his position.

The old people waved their hands again and again, first thanked Zou Yuan for his kindness, and then asked cautiously: "No, no, no, the king has misunderstood, we don't want to complain about grievances, but want to ask the king for the descendants of the village, is there still a shortage of manpower in the cottage?" ”

Zou Run Zou Yuan was stunned when he heard this, and looked at each other, as if he realized something, Zou Yuan was so excited that he was about to open his mouth to speak, but Zou Run made a look, signaled Zou Yuan to be restless, and thought for a moment before speaking.

"Old man, the descendants of the village are naturally rare, but I have to open the skylight with you to say bright words, we are in this business, to put it mildly, we are good men who rob the rich and help the poor, and if it is ugly, we are thieves who fall into the grass, although there is no shortage of food and clothing, but what we do is a living with blood on the tip of the knife......"

Before Zou Run finished speaking, Zou Yuan was anxious on the side, the cottage is currently short of major generals, this time someone finally took the initiative to plan to go up the mountain, how could his eldest nephew push people out, he couldn't help but open his mouth to refute, but he was unexpectedly grabbed by the three old men.

"Great King, the three of us have also lived to this age, I don't know how to say it, but this year is not as good as that of Emperor Renzong."

"It's miles and miles, even the days of the Divine Sect Dynasty can't catch up...... Alas......"

Three old men, you confess your heart with every word.

"We are close to the sea, the land is poor, tired and tired to serve those few acres of thin fields, and we can't produce a few catties of grain a year, and it is a joke to live on crops. I have no choice but to rely on the sea to eat the sea, and the villagers in the village are fishing in addition to boiling salt. However, to boil salt, you have to pay all kinds of harsh taxes such as firewood money and stove money to the government, if that's all, but the hard-boiled salt can only be sold to the government, and the government gives a low price, not to mention, and always press and drag, not to conceal it, even the salt households in last winter have not seen half of the money until now! ”

"That's it! The government did not give us money, but also forcibly collected our salt, and we were not allowed to sell the boiled salt privately, and the grain we grew could not be satisfied...... Alas, our small people are miserable, woo woo ......"

Speaking of emotion, the three old men were all in tears, covering their faces with their sleeves and crying bitterly, the scene here and the threshing floor were full of people coming and going, carrying the grain and smiling The atmosphere formed a strong contrast, Zou Run Zou Yuan had to sigh while patiently persuading, the old men stopped crying a little, and then continued to mourn.

"Boiling salt has become a loss-making business, and the people in the village can only scrape together money to buy a boat to go to the sea to fish, hoping to get some fresh fish to sell for money to make a living, but to fish, you have to go to the government to register as a fisherman, and when you become a fisherman, you not only have to pay taxes, but also have to serve hard labor! I want us to come and go in the wind and rain, and the fish that comes from the net with human lives in the big waves and waves, and half of the tax money alone is gone. If this is the case, although it is bitter, it can also make a living, but the government's labor for fishermen is too long, and they have to serve a small half a year of labor in a year, and even a person takes the boat away for half a year...... The government doesn't even have a penny of bereavement benefits! ”

"This sea fishing and transporting goods is not comparable to planting crops, it is in the mouth of the dragon lord to grab food, last year, we sank two boats, many strong laborers left their lives in the sea, even a whole corpse ......"

"Woo, my lord, I really can't live anymore......"

The cause and effect can be understood, Zou Run only then knew that the ancient people survived so hard, Zou Run couldn't imagine, this was still the days of the Taiping years, and the common people lived so hard, so if the difficulty of Jingkang came, what would happen to the toiling people in this land?

It may probably be that later generations of Confucian scholars made up for it in the history books, "There is no rooster crow for thousands of miles, and the white bones are exposed in the wild......

Thinking of this, Zou Run sighed, pulled up an old man's palm like a withered branch and chicken claw, felt the roughness of the calluses in his palm, and he choked and nodded his head.

When the old men saw this, they first smiled with relief, but they laughed and laughed but suddenly hugged their heads and cried. Zou Run knew that they were laughing at the fact that some of the descendants in the village could finally eat a full meal, while crying, but they didn't know how long they could eat this full meal......

In the middle of the day, the team was all packed, and thirty or forty carts, large and small, were full of grain, cloth, and goods seized from the Huang family. In addition to the cows, horses, donkeys and mules that are put on the halters to pull the carts, other chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, sheep and other large and small livestock, which can be locked up are closed with cages, and those that cannot be closed are driven by groups of minions, the whole team is large and bloated, but everyone has a happy smile on their faces.

Thanks to the blessing of the Huang family's father and son, when returning to the mountain, Zou Run Zou Yuan finally rode a tall horse, looking back at the more than 30 young men in the team, Zou Yuan had already smiled with a wrinkled face, and his huge mouth had never been closed from beginning to end.

Facing the crowded people on the side of the road and waving to other villagers, Zou Run solemnly promised them, "Fellow villagers, thanks to your trust, you will entrust some young and strong people to me, and others dare not guarantee that after they go up the mountain, I will treat them as siblings. Violating this oath, I Zou Run is willing to be thundered and die! ”

After that, he bowed his hand as a salute, and then waved the horsewhip in his hand, more than a dozen minions shot rockets into the Huang family compound, and under the reflection of the skyrocketing fire, the huge team and the people on the roadside said goodbye reluctantly, and began to set off for Dengyun Mountain, which was dozens of miles away.