The Great Zhou Dynasty policy is to emphasize agriculture, but it is not to suppress business, over the years, the country and the people are safe, the trade routes are smooth, and the north-south trade is very developed.

In order not to be too shocking, and also to avoid the eyes and ears of the Supervision Department between the major checkpoints and towns, Zhong Li has never entered the big city since he missed Liangcheng, and only hurried on country roads, or in the wilderness where no one has set foot at all, when the dry food is exhausted, he replenishes it on the spot in the nearby small villages, or buys some with the occasional tourists.

Along the way, the four "soil buns" who had never been out of the town were in the interval between pulling the cart, which was an eye-opener, and they saw the magnificent rivers and the majestic mountains and rivers, and then they knew that the words depicting the world in the original book were not exaggerated at all.

On the thirteenth day after leaving the town, the group came to a small village.

According to Zhong Li's calculations, this place still belongs to the jurisdiction of the four northwest provinces, and two hundred miles before crossing the Mengshan Mountain behind the village, is the Huailuo Plain, where the stars are wide and the fields are wide, and it is another scenery.

The small village in front of Zhao Xifeng and the others is not big, there are only about thirty or forty households, but at this time it is very lively, a large group of people gathered at the entrance of the village, the inner and outer three layers formed a large circle, stretched their necks to look into the circle, and discussed something loudly from time to time.

Zhao Xifeng pulled over an old man passing by and asked curiously: "This old man, our group is a group of students who have traveled here, and we wanted to buy some dry food and water in the town, seeing that the village is so lively, I want to ask what is going on." ”

The old man saw that Zhao Xifeng spoke politely, his appearance was very pleasing, and he was a child who was a negative student tour, so he was also happy to chat a few words, and replied: "It's better to hurry up than to catch up, the little gentlemen just caught up with our village to discuss politics and punish corrupt officials." ”

Gu Qingyuan next to him was surprised and asked: "Uncle, I remember that the imperial court has set up a council department in the whole territory, but at most it will only be managed at the town and county level, we should not have this yamen in the village, right?"

"What's the matter? Just allow the people in your city to participate in politics?" The old man glared at Gu Qingyuan and said loudly, "We villagers have been farming here for generations, and the emperor's family can't manage the affairs of his own village, so what's wrong with taking care of the affairs of his own village?"

Zhao Xifeng glared at Gu Qingyuan, turned around and smiled at the old man and said, "Don't pay attention to her, my husband is stupid to read, you should tell me." ”

The old man squinted and smiled: "Or you are listening to this baby, the thing is this, our village is planned in Shanshou County, two years ago, the county came to a special agricultural official, who was responsible for the distribution of field opening fees in six nearby villages, and it has been good for the first two years, three dollars of silver per household, but this year, suddenly there are only two dollars!"

"That's worth it," Zhao Xifeng deliberately said in a very exaggerated tone, "A penny of silver is not a trivial matter!"

"But it's not!" the old man raised his voice and said, "What's even more infuriating is that the village chief's brother-in-law came back from pulling seeds from Xiama Village, which is more than ten miles away, and he actually learned that the field opening fee over there is still three yuan!

Zhong Li nodded and said: "The land in the northwest is barren, and the imperial court has a subsidy for opening the land, but even if there is a defect, you should also report it to the local yamen, and it is against the law to intercept the court officials like today." ”

When the old man heard that it was a girl who spoke, he showed a contemptuous look on his face, and he didn't want to answer, but when he looked back, he found that the person who spoke was dressed indescribably, and although the whole person was young, he always revealed a kind of momentum and coercion of a superior person, so he shrunk his neck and continued: " I also wanted to take this greedy man to the town to see the official, but the only doll in the village who studied in Liangcheng, Li Dazhuang, happened to go home to help the farmers in the past two days, and after knowing this, he told the village chief what kind of affairs the secretary of the government, saying that now the court encourages the people to participate in politics, saying that we are the masters of the country, and there is no need to be polite to treat this kind of evil officials. ”

As he spoke, the old man stretched out his hand and pointed to the crowd, and everyone looked in which direction, only to see a young man with a dark face and a scholar's robe, waving his hands, shouting something in a righteous and awe-inspiring voice, although the faces of the onlookers were ignorant, obviously not too understood, but with a little inexplicable excitement, that was the excitement of challenging the superiors, and it was also the desire for violence hidden in the heart.

After Zhao Xifeng thanked the old man, the group approached the crowd, Dong Erfat arched out a road three times and two times, and then flattered Zhong Li in.

In the center of the crowd, a young man in his twenties sat on the yellow earth with his legs crossed, and he didn't care if a gray official uniform would be soiled---- in fact, there was no need, when any clothes, chest and back were printed with shoe prints, the dust on the ground, really didn't have to pay attention to it.

The young official lowered his head, with a self-deprecating look on his face, and a little sadness, let the scholar named Li Dazhuang drench the blood of the dog he scolded, and neither refuted nor tried to leave.

Li Dazhuang saw Zhong Li and a few people who were obviously not from his own village walking into the crowd, and his original impassioned speech was slightly paused, but seeing that several of them were children, he had no worries and continued to say loudly: "Blind dates, the imperial court gives us the people the right to discuss politics, just to look at this kind of dog official who is morally corrupt and has no conscience for Your Majesty! Do you know that this dog official's surname is Li, and his family is a big family with a head and a face in Liangcheng!" I can't study, I can't take the imperial examination, I became our local parents and officials by relying on my relationship, and my family is already a mountain of gold and silver, but I even have to be greedy for more than a dozen taels of land opening fees in this village, and he is also worthy of being an official!"

After that, Li Dazhuang's mouthful of thick phlegm spit at the feet of the official surnamed Sun, and the onlookers shouted that they were not worthy, and the bold ones also followed Li Dazhuang to spit on the man on the ground, among them was an old lady, the man had just passed away, the son was still underage, and the family had a serious shortage of labor.

Seeing this scene, everyone in the Panlong Academy couldn't help frowning.

After Zhao Xifeng picked up the dragon tooth bi in the real sense for the first time, he trusted the blessing of Jiaolong's thousand-year-old friendship with the tiger, and the eye contact with Zhong Li would no longer cause the tiger's eyes to rage.

Zhong Li gave Zhao Xifeng a look, Zhao Xifeng stepped forward and said politely to the oldest and tallest old man next to Li Dazhuang: "This old man, we are students who have traveled so far, and we want to ask you for convenience, buy some surplus rice and noodles from the village to make dry food, do you think it's okay?"

The old man glanced at Zhao Xifeng indifferently and said: "Originally, it was possible, but you also saw the doll, there was a big incident in the town today, and it is really inconvenient to receive you. ”

"I'm still going to eat here," Zhong Li's voice came from behind, "Old man, you should be the village chief here, tell me how much you are missing for opening the field, and I'll make up for it for you." ”

The old man's eyes flickered, and he didn't dare to be sure whether the little girl in front of him was true or false, and he didn't know how to answer, but Li Dazhuang beside him couldn't help but panic when he saw the old man hesitating, and scolded Zhong Li loudly: "Where did the little doll come from, pretending to be a student of You, I have never seen a few of you in Liangcheng!"

Dong Erpang laughed contemptuously: "Panlong Academy, have you heard of it?"

Li Dazhuang stopped talking, after the first battle of the sea of clouds, now the name of Panlong Academy is like the sky, not to mention the northwest, even in the entire Central Continent, it is also famous.

Seeing Li Dazhuang's expression, the village chief knew that this matter should be true, so he smiled and said: "Several nobles, this year's opening fee is a total of twelve taels or six yuan, if you can help the village through this difficulty, the old man will pay out of his own pocket to prepare dry food for you to hurry." ”

"No need," Zhong Li asked Dong Erpang to hand the old man a silver ingot, and said, "There are twenty taels here, counting the cost of our dry food, and the rest of the money will also belong to you, but this matter is over here, and it will not be good for you to pass it on to the people in the official mansion." ”

"That's nature. The village chief nodded and accepted the silver ingot, and beckoned the juniors to prepare dry food and meat for a few people.

The rest of the people were satisfied when they saw that the opening fee was made up, and there was even a lot of surplus, and they all dispersed one after another, only Li Dazhuang was reluctant, hated to glance at Zhao Xifeng and others, and left silently.

Sun Wenzhen stepped forward to help the official surnamed Li on the ground, and said with a smile: "This little brother, if I remember correctly, the imperial court's land opening fee in the four northwestern provinces is two yuan, why do these villagers say that it is three yuan?"

The official patted the shoe prints on his body, shook his head and said with a wry smile: "Thank you for today's events, I, Li Minghao, admire it in my heart, and the money owed to you will also be remitted to Panlong Academy as soon as possible." ”

After sighing, Li Minghao continued: " You don't know, I was originally a Liangcheng Li family, the clan has been in business for generations, a little savings, but to my generation, feeling the grace of a side of water and soil nurturing, want to do something practical for the local people, this is the relationship, to do such a farm official, under the pressure of the family, a do is three years, at the beginning, found that two dollars of silver for the lack of labor in the people's family, is really a little less, so they will take out their own silver to make up, together with three dollars per household, anyway, the family is quite solid, give me a bite to eat, but this year, my father is seriously ill, I hope I can go back to inherit the clan industry, in order to force me to comply, cut off my monthly money for this houseI wanted to finish this last session well, and I borrowed some money from friends, but it was still not enough, so when I arrived at this last village, I really had no money, and even the return fare was not enough. ”

Li Minghao said as he looked at the phlegm stains on his official robe, his eyes were sour, and he finally shed tears.

Zhong Li nodded expressionlessly and said, "Then Li Dazhuang has an enmity with you?"

"No," Li Minghao shook his head, "He was my classmate back then, he didn't learn anything on weekdays, he just wanted to ride the wind by relying on the Political Division, but I don't complain about him, maybe I'm not suitable to be an official, I only have an outdated ideal, it's better to go back." ”

After that, Li Minghao said goodbye to everyone, took a thin horse from the head of the village, and left gloomily.