"There's a village in front of us, so let's ask the village chief if there's any empty house for us to borrow for the night."

Nearly 3,500 miles of exile, they have already traveled a third of it. At present, entering the Yanzhou area, this area is sparsely populated. They had been sleeping in the wilderness for three days. Finally found a village, and they really didn't want to miss it.

Unfortunately, things did not go as smoothly as they expected, and they found that after they entered the village, the people in the village began to close their doors.

They knocked on several doors, but no one answered.

The whole village feels very xenophobic, as if they are regarded as plague gods.

"Let's go north, I saw someone clearing the snow just now, go and ask."

Xu Zheng picked a family that seemed to be more bold and knocked on the door, why do you say that, when they appeared from the corner just now, a figure from this family flashed into the house.

"Is anyone home, please?" Xu Zheng stepped forward and knocked on the door, "The old man in the door, I saw you." But don't worry, we're not bad guys. I am one of the guards of the imperial court, these are my subordinates, and we are responsible for escorting prisoners. The one next to me is the head of Yang Wei's dart bureau, and the other strong men are all dart masters, responsible for escorting rich merchants and their goods. None of them are bad guys! ”

"We don't have any other meaning when we enter the village, so I want to ask if there is any empty house in your village and lend it to us for a rest?"

The courtyard gate was not opened, but it could be seen from the low mud that the other party opened a crack in the door, and the voice came out, trembling, "You have to ask the village chief about this, the village chief's house is in front, you can walk forward for a while and you will arrive." ”

Xu Zheng didn't dwell on it, "Okay, thank you." ”

Not long after they walked forward, a short old man came to them with seven or eight strong men, and the two sides met directly.

Xu Zheng stepped forward to explain his intention, and by the way, handed the nameplate on his waist to the other party.

The other party looked at it carefully, and only after confirming the identity of Xu Zheng and the others did he breathe a sigh of relief, "Everyone, don't blame, the reason why our village is so guarded against strangers is really afraid." ”

Xu Zheng first asked the other party's surname, and then hurriedly asked him what was going on.

Then the other party claimed to be surnamed Chen, and they could call him Village Chief Chen.

"Wow, it's also evil! Two hundred miles away from our Qingxi Village, there is a cottage called Qinglong Village, which often plunders the surrounding villages. Our Qingxi Village was just robbed by them half a month ago, and you were so loud just now, we thought it was the bandits from Qinglong Village who came again. ”

"Is this Qinglong Village so rampant?"

"Is that not it?"

"Didn't the government take care of it?"

"You mean the bandits?" Village Chief Chen shook his head with a wry smile and said, "It's useless." ”

"Qinglong Village is located on the halfway waist of Cangshan Mountain, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. The government has sent troops, but it has never been clean. ”

Village Chief Chen told them that after the government sent people, Qinglongzhai would instead intensify its plundering of the surrounding villages, and over time, they simply gave up resistance.

Lu Songli and they listened quietly to their conversation in the carriage, this is an endless disaster.

"Anyway, as soon as the people from Qinglongzhai come, as long as we obediently hand over enough food according to their requirements, they will not kill people, nor will they spoil women and rob people's children." As for not having enough food to eat? Then tighten your belt, drink more water, and starve people to death.

Lu Songli listened quietly, daring to feel that this Qinglong Village regards this 100-mile radius as its own fish pond, and it knows how to take the road of sustainable development.

It's just that in this way, isn't this Qingyunzhai equal to the second imperial court? After the people paid taxes to the imperial court every year, they had to be exploited by this Qinglong Village.

Moreover, as ordinary people, not to be burned, killed and looted, isn't that how it should be?

Lu Songli found that the people's requirements are really low, which may also be the helplessness of the people.

"Oh, how can I talk about all these annoying things. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to ask if there is an empty house in our village, and I want to spend the night, right? ”

"That's right, Village Chief Chen, you see, we have a lot of people, can you arrange it?"

"There are still empty houses in our village, but we may not be able to accommodate so many people at once."

"It's okay, we can make a bunk and squeeze it. Village Chief Chen, please lead the way. ”

Later, Village Chief Chen took them to an empty farmhouse yard, there were nearly ten large houses in the yard, the key is that this house looks quite new, and no one lives in it?

But they're also too lazy to meddle around.

Yang Weisai gave him a bag of copper, about five or six hundred wen, "Village Chief Chen, you take this, and it will be regarded as the cost of our borrowing house." ”

Along the way, it can be seen that Qingxi Village is not rich, and the villagers are all very thin, thin, black and thin, and they are not fat anyway.

"No, no, no, I can't take it."

"You just take it."

Yang Wei insisted on letting him accept it, they didn't lack this money, but Qingxi Village, which was too poor, and there should be no place to make money at ordinary times. Since they have borrowed other people's houses, they will give what they should give.

Seeing that he insisted on this, Village Chief Chen had no choice but to say, "Brother Yang, I don't want money, if you can, can you give me some food?" ”

Immediately afterward, he explained, "To be honest, this house belongs to my cousin, who just built the house the year before last, and died of an emergency last year. It didn't take long for my niece and daughter-in-law to remarry and go to another country. My poor nephew is left in the family, and from last year to now, he has been raised by the owner and the west. In fact, this child has always been raised in his family, but his family has a large population and is not wealthy. Several daughters-in-law have quite a lot of opinions about him raising the child.

"The money was given to me, and I was going to the town to buy food and make rations for him. If it's convenient for you, you might as well just swap it for food. ”

"Okay." According to the price of grain, Yang Wei helped him exchange it for grain. This year's grain is indeed expensive, and by the end of the year, the fine grain has risen to 200 wen a bucket, and the coarse grain will also be 100 wen a bucket. Yang Wei finally gave him five buckets of coarse grain and half a bucket of fine grain.

Village Chief Chen took people and carried food away.

The villagers he had just brought out said enviously, "Village chief, these outsiders are really rich. ”

The others nodded in agreement, "They have so many carriages, and if you look at the depth of the ruts, you can tell that the carriages are full." ”

They have no bad intentions, they simply envy. The other party's group, nearly thirty men, all of them are powerful, as if one person can stand up to the three of them, and they don't dare to have bad intentions.