With the news that has been coming back from the north continuously, plus the conscription and other actions of the imperial court in the hinterland of the country these days, in fact, the people of Daliang, no matter how deaf they are at the moment, should know something.

A very serious event.

That is another battle between the Yaozu and Daliang, and the countdown has begun.

Moreover, the rumors about that war are more accurate. It is said that this time the Monster Clan is more serious than ever before and wants to use the strength of the whole clan to conquer the south in one fell swoop. For this reason, the imperial court has been making intensive preparations, recruiting troops and food, and has been in an orderly manner.

in progress.

It's easy to say that there are more than a million young men in Daliang and Jiuzhou. In addition, since the early years of Tianjian, the court has repeatedly mentioned the pension for the war dead. The common people have no resistance to the matter of being a soldier, let alone

In the past ten years, life has been getting better and better, and the common people have seen it and felt it, so as soon as the recruitment notice was posted, many young men and women signed up directly.

This kind of soldiers who have just been incorporated into the army will definitely be no different from being sent to death if they are dragged into the battlefield like this. Therefore, these days, the imperial court has set up special places in various states to train these new soldiers.

As for the grain collection, it was actually not that smooth. Although most of the taxes in Daliang in recent years were spent on the northern border, they did not exploit other people in the country. The taxes have not been high. This time the increase in taxes was not enough, the court also

There was no intention of squeezing anything out of the people, but they only levied half a percent more tax, and more of it was actually focused on the gentry and wealthy businessmen.

Their family property is strong, and it would not be a big deal to levy more at this moment. It's just that these wealthy businessmen always regard their wealth as more important than their own sons, so this matter is not easy to handle.

However, since the superiors issued a death order, officials at all levels had to go ahead and do it, even if it meant making a fool of themselves.

Fortunately, there are some wealthy businessmen who are reasonable, and some even donated most of their property, so that the Ministry of Household Affairs would not be left without rice.

However, in this current situation, the Ministry of Revenue is making plans, and what is required is that the prefectures and counties should quickly collect the taxes to be levied. .??.

…

…

On the official road in Huanglong Prefecture, the carriages transporting grain and grass from the imperial court were non-stop. The grain and grass were transported from various places in Daliang to Shendu. After being counted in Shendu, they were sent to the north.

There will be almost no delays.

A horse team, which is about seven or eight carriages of goods, no more, no less, bought some tea in the south, and will now transport it to the capital of God for sale. The leader of the horse team is a dashing woman, not very old,

He is in his early thirties, and he is not good-looking, but he is extremely capable, making people feel heroic just by looking at him.

The woman was born in the Lu family in Shendu, and her name was Lu Qingling. Although she was not the eldest son, but just a side brother, she was proud of her reputation as the Lu family in Shendu. After all, there was an old saying in this Liang Dynasty that power was overwhelming.

, it is difficult to distinguish between the Wei and Xie families, but when it comes to doing business, the Wei family and the Xie family combined are not as good as the Lu family.

Of course, now that the Wei family has long been a thing of the past, the Lu family's achievements in business can be said to be equivalent to the Xie family's current status in Daliang.

When she met the imperial convoy on the road, Lu Qingling took the initiative to stop on one side of the official road and let her cavalry make way for the imperial convoy to pass first.

A general who was responsible for escorting the grain and fodder glanced at the woman and just nodded slightly as she passed by without saying much.

Lu Qingling did not start a conversation and wasted the other party's time. She just rode her horse down the official road, stopped in front of a tea shed not far away, and said, "Take a break for half an hour."

As soon as Lu Qingling spoke, the people responsible for escorting the goods nodded, rode to the tea shed, and then got off their horses.

Their cultivation level is not high, and their number is not too large. If they were to escort some valuable goods, it would be a bit difficult. However, the value of the tea in these seven or eight carriages is not too high. Even with the few of them, it is actually just right.

The leader was a sturdy man, not too old, probably in his early forties, with a full beard, but he didn't look fierce, he just felt honest, because he was at the highest level, plus

Because of his old-fashioned appearance, he was affectionately called Lao Zhao by others.

After Lao Zhao sat down, he hesitated for a moment, carried a large pot of tea, and headed to where the last carriage was. There was a young man there who looked pale and sick, as if he might die at any time.

He met this convoy a few days ago. He was walking alone on the official road. Lu Qingling had no intention of paying attention to it. She had traveled all over the country and followed the principle of doing less than doing more, but she just rode past the young man.

, took a look, and felt that if this guy didn't care, he would probably die on the roadside soon, so he asked if he wanted to go with him. Although the carriage was for pulling goods, if you squeezed in, he could still find someone.

Lying there, the young man thought for a while and did not refuse. He quickly took out a shriveled money bag and poured out two pieces of gold. He said that was all his belongings and should be used as travel expenses.

Lu Qingling thought about it at that time and did not refuse, but just

I asked the young man for one piece of gold and left one for him. The young man was not pretentious, but he said with a smile that he would give him two pieces of gold and think about eating better, but it would be okay to save one.

At that time, Lu Qingling just laughed it off and thought that such a young man was quite interesting. After taking this guy in, he slept almost all day. At first, other people in the team were more worried about whether this young man would secretly

He died silently on the road. Old Zhao was extremely worried about this. He would take a look almost every few hours. Every day when he opened his eyes, he would check to see if this guy was still alive.

This also led to the fact that among the people in the team, only this old Zhao and the young man had the best relationship and were the most familiar with each other.

Carrying the teapot over, Old Zhao touched the young man who was lying among the goods with his eyes closed and dozing with his arm. The latter opened his eyes, smiled and shouted, "Brother Zhao."

Lao Zhao threw the tea bowl in his hand to the young man, then sat down next to him and joked, "It's not bad. I survived another day. It's good. I made a good day."

The young man stretched out his hand to hold the tea bowl. Old Zhao poured him a bowl of tea. The young man raised his head and drank it all. After handing it back to Old Zhao, the young man said helplessly, "Why does Brother Zhao seem to want me so much?"

Death, if I die, brother, where will you go to listen to the contents of the boxing manual?"

Old Zhao laughed loudly, "If you can survive, it's okay if you don't listen to the boxing manual. If you die, I won't feel happy after listening to the boxing manual."

Speaking of the boxing manual, Lao Zhao came to see him every day in the past few days. After the relationship became better, the young man took the initiative to mention that he had studied a boxing manual. He was not very good, but he was definitely not bad. He estimated that he would be fast.

If you die, the boxing manual will be lost. Seeing as you are a good person, brother, I might as well pass it on to you.

Old Zhao didn't take it seriously at first, but after the young man dictated the first form of the boxing formula, Old Zhao seemed to have seen something extraordinary. After that, he came to listen to the young man's teaching of the boxing formula every day, but

The young man said that his energy is limited and he can only say one thing every day. How much your brother Zhao can learn in the end depends on how many days he can live.

At that time, Lao Zhao was very curious and asked how many styles this boxing manual had, but the young man always kept it secret and refused to tell him.

But after all, Lao Zhao is not the kind of person who is inquisitive. He is learning day by day, and he is not too impatient. He is open-minded.

After the young man finished drinking the tea, he fell down again, put his hands on the back of his head, and said with a smile, "I want to hear more about it. Didn't you say that I have a daughter? Introduce it to me, and I will fight to the death.

Say it all at once."

Lao Zhao scolded, "You still want to take advantage of my daughter? You can't do it just because you look at your body. If my daughter marries you, won't she become a widow soon?"

The young man glanced at Old Zhao helplessly and said, "Brother Zhao, what should I say? Although what you said makes sense, it is really ugly. You don't want to betroth your daughter to me, and I don't want to marry you yet. Brother, you

With this appearance, I don’t know what my daughter will look like!”

When mentioning this kind of thing, Lao Zhao not only didn't get angry, but also said with a proud look on his face, "Then you are wrong. My daughter looks like her mother, she is as pretty as water!"

The young man asked in surprise, "Brother, are you sure you are not the old brother Wang next door?"

As soon as he said this sentence, Lao Zhao couldn't stand it anymore and stared at the young man fiercely, "You kid, say it again?!"

The young man shook his head and smiled, "Don't say good things twice. If I feel angry, just give me a beating. Anyway, it's normal for me to be beaten to death by you."

Old Zhao was holding back his anger and had nowhere to vent it. If this guy was really alive and kicking, there would be nothing wrong with him beating him up. But it was obvious that this guy was going to die soon. If he really hit him, it would be troublesome.

The young man was also a man who accepted what was good for him. He glanced at the official road and quickly changed the subject and asked, "Brother, I heard that it is not easy for the court to collect taxes?"

Old Zhao just poured a bowl of tea into the tea bowl. Hearing what the young man said, he took a sip of tea and nodded: "This time, it is a good thing for the court not to take money from the people. But those wealthy gentry and businessmen are not happy.

, the accumulated family property is the flesh on their bodies, who is willing to cut off a piece of it?"

"But the court is in this situation. The common people have sent people, so what's wrong with you giving some money? You can't bear to do it. These bullies really don't make any sense. From my point of view, the government should send people to deal with these people.

The only one who has had his house ransacked!"

The young man smiled and shook his head and said, "It can't be so extreme. People are people, and these wealthy businessmen are also people. They earn their own money, so it's normal to be reluctant to part with it. However, the court doesn't seem to be taxing heavily this time. They are still like this. It's true."

Some of them are unjustifiable.”

Lao Zhao nodded, "That's not what it is. Let's not talk about anything else. Let's just talk about the delivery of goods this time. The boss made it clear that there is no profit from this trip.

Everything must be donated to the court. My brothers also heard this statement, so this trip, the money is only half of the usual amount. You kid, don't stand and talk without hurting your back, saying that we guys have no conscience, we are a small family.

Yes, if you really don’t need any money, then the whole family will be in trouble.”

The young man shook his head and said with a smile, "Why do you think of me like this? Life is not easy, let alone a family. If I can give out half of the money, it is very benevolent. Others will remember it if they know it."

It’s good, bro.”

Old Zhao scratched his head and said with a silly smile, "There is no need to remember me well. As long as people don't scold me for this kind of thing, it's fine. I've seen this person a lot, and I know that there are many good and bad people. It's not good to stand and talk."

There are still a lot of people who have back pain."

The young man smiled and said nothing this time.

Old Zhao finished his tea, wiped his beard, and said with some regret, "If I hadn't been so worried about my daughter and wife at home, I would have gone north long ago. I am older, but fortunately I have some skills.

Why aren't you better than those young people?"

"I just think that if I really die in the north, my daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law may be looked down upon by others in the future. If they are bullied, there will be no one to help. When I think about this, I can't bear to leave."

Lao Zhao sighed with emotion, "It's not that I don't believe in the imperial court. I heard that in New Liuzhou, children don't even have to pay for school. The imperial court will take the money. This is a good thing, but it's better to believe in heaven and earth than to believe in yourself. But the more you

The more I don’t dare to go, the more I admire those guys who risked their lives in the north. They don’t have a mother, a wife, children or children at home? They must have them, but they just went, damn, it’s amazing!”

Lao Zhao kept sighing as he spoke, as if he felt a little guilty.

The young man glanced at him, thought for a while and said, "Actually, we all understand. I don't need to blame myself. If you want to do something, you don't have to risk your life. Just like what I am doing now, I don't have to blame myself.

Some money can be considered as doing something. If you don't go, you can't do anything. For example, if one day you meet the kind of orphans and widows who died in the north because of a man, I will stand up and say something fair, and I will help if I can.

A handful is also a very good thing."

Lao Zhao slapped his thigh and said angrily, "If you really encounter that kind of beast, you should really kill it!"

The young man was a little helpless. He looked at Old Zhao in front of him and sighed, "Brother, get angry when you are angry. Remember to pat your thigh next time. My body cannot bear this."

Lao Zhao lowered his head and took his hand back angrily, muttering, "I just said it doesn't hurt."

The young man just rolled his eyes at this.
To be continued...