Feng Yijun, Ding Mao Bingzhuang.

At ten o'clock in the evening, after the farmers finish their farm work, they gather together in twos and threes, drink a sip of herbal tea, cool off the heat, and chat casually, which is a picture that can often be seen, and it looks like a busy and peaceful pastoral life.

Fengyi County is located in the east of Yongzhou, southwest is Jingshi Chang'an, north is Beidi County, east is Hedong, a little past is Luoyang, south is Shangluo Yu Hongnong County.

The geographical location is relatively good, and there is a direct Luoshui connection.

There are many Zhuangzi like Ding Mao Bingzhuang in the county, which are used to settle the veterans who have made meritorious contributions to the imperial court and their wives and children, most of those veterans have made some merits, and they have been seriously injured, and some have even become disabled people, and they cannot continue to eat soldiers' meals, but the imperial court cannot ignore them, most of those people are dragging their families, and if there is no man in the family, they can't survive.

Most of these Zhuangzi are named after A, B, C, Ding, Chouyin, Mao, Zhuangzi have one thing in common, that is, poverty, especially in the past two years, drought and snow disasters have come together, which can be described as a disaster, so Zhuangzi's income is not very good, not to mention taxes on the imperial court, and even the people in Zhuangzi are very difficult to be self-sufficient.

These Zhuangzi were originally hung under the imperial court, unified management by the household department, in the past two years these Zhuangzi have gradually become a burden on the imperial court, due to the urgency of the war in Jizhou, the household is tight, the emperor is sympathetic, will transfer these Zhuangzi to the inner library, sent some eunuchs to manage, of course, there are also nobles will say hello, will send the children of the family to experience, this is also okay.

Li Wuchang had heard that the second young man of the He family and the third young man of the Ma family had been there, but they didn't hold on for half a month and ran back to Chang'an City in disgrace, either because they were annoyed by all kinds of trivial matters, or they were scared and trembling by the bandits who came down from Nanshan.

"I heard that our Zhuangzi will have a new owner recently, and he is no longer a eunuch in the inner library!"

"I also heard that Gonggong Liu said, saying that the new owner is a rich child in Chang'an City, I don't know who it is, and I don't know what his character is, whether he will be as greedy as those eunuchs and like to bully the weak. ”

"Where can the character of the rich children be good, in fact, whether we hang it in the household department, or hang it in the inner library, they are all the same, they can't eat enough, and they are often bullied, if I don't have a small family to raise, I can't bear that breath of bird gas for a long time. ”

"You fucking speak quietly, don't let those eunuchs hear it, otherwise you will feel better, Zhuangzi is barren, the land is already small, and there is more sand, and in recent years, there have been many disasters, alas!"

"Although the taxes are not very high, our output is low, and we are often extorted by greedy eunuchs, and there are often bandits...... In other words, isn't the imperial court cracking down on bandits? Why haven't they come to our side for so long? Those eunuchs, whenever the bandits came, they ran faster than rabbits one by one, and as soon as the bandits left, they came out again to show off their might, damn it. ”

I heard that some time ago, he also came to the front line of Shangluo to suppress bandits, tell me, the assassin history is on the line, where is there any extra manpower?"

"Alas, it's not the ambition of the Khitan wolf, the court has more than enough heart but not enough strength, but fortunately, General Zhou Tianzong has the genius who withstood the pressure of the Khitan, otherwise the situation in Dayan will be even more severe. ”

"General Zhou is still good, I know the suffering of the people, I have a distant cousin who is in his army on an errand, when he came to the letter, he said that the grain and grass in Anle County are insufficient, General Zhou would rather die than retreat, and resolutely want to cover the people of Anle and Yuyang. ”

"That kind of scene of tens of thousands of people, no matter how high a person's martial arts are, they can't turn the situation around...... But it's always good to be okay with General Zhou, I really want to serve under General Zhou, even if I die on the battlefield, I have no regrets. ”

"Hmph, what you say is better than what you sing, just because you are a dead cripple? You still died on the battlefield, your wife doesn't care? Your mother-in-law doesn't care? Your daughter doesn't care? A family of women, there are no regrets? Just with us now, even a gang of bandits can't cope with it, and you still want to fight the Khitans, I really don't know what to say. ”

"Well, I'm just talking. ”

"I said, you guys are a bunch of old people, you have that kung fu, you might as well think about how to deal with the new owner, it's useless here. ”

"Hehe, uncles and uncles, I have heard that the new owner of the village is a viscount, and he is very young, less than twenty years old, tell me, will he be a very capable young talent?"

"A viscount who is less than twenty years old, isn't he the son of a big family?"

"How can the son-in-law of a big family come to our ghost place, I think it's a nouveau riche who spent money to buy a knighthood for his son, didn't there be a donation policy some time ago?"

"This statement is more reasonable, but the nouveau riche is not easy to mess with, most of them are also greedy ghosts, otherwise they would not become nouveau riche, it seems that our Zhuangzi's hard life will continue, alas!"

......

Li Wuchang, the son of the "nouveau riche", was on his way to Ding Mao Bingzhuang.

A group of about a dozen of them, pulling four large carriages, loaded with all kinds of supplies, driven by the fat bear and his men, and the others were all on horseback, which was quite leisurely, but after getting off the official road, they found that the road was very difficult to walk, either muddy or extremely steep, and if they were not careful, they would have an accident.

"Grandma, it's a bear, this road is too bad!" Li Wuchang was bumped all the way, and his buttocks and inner thighs were numb.

After going down the official road, this road is quite rotten, potholes, it must not be flat, some places are even cliffs, and some places are dirt slopes on both sides, there are not a few trees on it, there may be mudslides or landslides when it rains, this way over, there are several times Li Wuchang was almost turned off the horse.

Zhai Changping said with a smile: "Except for the city and the major official roads in Dayan, the other roads are almost the same, and they are not very good, but such a steep road as here is indeed rare. ”

Li Wuchang nodded, changed his words, and asked, "Brother Xun, Changping, I asked you to study that a few days ago...... Well, Ding Mao Bingzhuang, let's talk about it, what is the specific situation?"

Zhao Xun said: "I am not very familiar with the eastern part of Yongzhou, but in the past few days, I have carefully studied the dossier that you brought over, and I have a general understanding of the situation. ”

After a pause, he concluded: "Ding Mao Bingzhuang, located in the north of Fengyi County, is a very large place, much larger than an ordinary Zhuangzi, but the cultivated land is very small, and most of it is not fertile land, and the output is limited. ”

"According to statistics half a year ago, there were about 1,500 people in the village, of which about thirty percent were veterans who had made meritorious contributions on the battlefield, and the rest were their wives and children, and these veterans were more or less injured, and they could only barely cope with the heavy farm work. ”

"Zhuangzi is surrounded by mountains on three sides, one of which is still Nanshan, so there are often bandits to make trouble, coupled with the natural disasters in the past two years, the Zhuang staff is miserable, and the people in Zhuangzi are very tough, the bandits come and don't want to run away, directly organize people to fight head-on, death and injury are often a thing. ”

"In addition to dealing with bandits, we also have to deal with all kinds of wild beasts that emerge from Nanshan, which is also a big problem, according to the news, many people have been injured by wild boars, and there has been no proper solution. ”

"When there was a drought, in order to compete for water, the people in the Zhuangzi often clashed with other Zhuangzi, and occasionally there would be large-scale firefights. ”

"There are many boulders on both sides of the mountain, the terrain is dangerous, there are few trees, and it is quite difficult to collect firewood, so the farmers have to venture into the South Mountain, which is very dangerous, but there is no effective way. ”

"There is also a huge mud land in the northernmost part, similar to a swamp, there are fertile aquatic plants in it, but it is quite dangerous inside, even if it is grazing, it can only be carried out on the side, it is extremely dangerous in the middle, it will fall into it if you are not careful, it will often flood in rainy days, causing flash floods, impacting the flat land with slightly lower terrain, not only washing away the crops, but even the houses will be submerged, so now the houses in the Zhuangzi are mostly built in the middle of the mountainside, scattered in the east and west, which gives the bandits the opportunity to break them one by one. ”

"In addition, it is gossip, since the Neiku took over, the people in the Zhuangzi are often bullied and blackmailed by the eunuchs of the Neiku, they have a very bad impression of the court, and even say that they are hostile, most people drag their families with their mouths, so they can endure it as much as possible, there are some lonely people, and they will pick up the guy directly when they are anxious, but the end is very miserable. ”

"That's probably the case, and all the other details will not be clear until we get there. ”

Zhao Xun finished speaking in one breath and said in more detail.

After Li Wuchang listened, he smiled and said: "Poverty, disease, natural disasters, **, oppression by the imperial court, emotional instability, how can it sound like a condition for rebellion." ”

Everyone laughed, originally they were very worried after listening to Zhao Xun, but now they were resolved by Li Wuchang's joke.

After Li Wuchang finished laughing, he muttered to himself: "It seems that this errand is not simple. ”

Then he exhaled and said solemnly, "I'll say a few points." ”

Seeing that Li Wuchang's expression became serious, everyone became serious.

Li Wuchang said: "First, since we have chosen to go down on an errand, we must have the determination to endure hardships. Second, I am the owner of the village, and all the bankers are my own people, so I must remember it. Thirdly, this errand is very meaningful, those people are meritorious people, no matter how unruly they are, they do not know how to be polite, you must not be impulsive, remember to convince people with virtue in case of trouble, and do not do anything to them unless it is absolutely necessary. Fourth, I will first make a secret visit, you pay attention to cooperation, you must figure out all kinds of problems, whether it is difficulties in life, whether it is dissatisfaction in your heart, in short, you must open their hearts, so that they can really grasp the problem, so as to find a solution. ”

Everyone said yes.