Chapter 35 This is no longer an ordinary treachery, and it has to be hit hard
"This is the free air!"
Yang Feng was dressed in the clothes originally designed by Zhang Xianzong, and he sighed happily as if the air was also sweet, and then walked towards an old farmer driving an ox cart in front of him in the autumn rice fields.
"My father-in-law, where can I find the ferry?"
He raised his hands and said.
The old farmer looked at him doubtfully.
Yang Feng put on a sincere smile to make himself look more like a good citizen, and even took out a real candy bar and handed it to the children in the oxcart.
"Sugar, it's delicious."
he said.
The old farmer said something in a dialect he couldn't understand at all, and then flicked his whip.
The cow mooed excitedly, spreading its hooves and running forward.
"Don't go. I'm just asking for directions. Do you need to run?"
Yang Feng held the candy and shouted in shock.
Then they walked away without looking back...
"It should be in Suzhou dialect, but I can't understand what it's saying. Just wait a moment and I'll find a translator for you. But how come Xuyi has Suzhou dialect?"
The monitor said.
"There's no need to guess. Zhu Yuanzhang captured the Suzhou rich people to fill Fengyang. He stuffed hundreds of thousands of Wuyue family rich people into Fengyang in one breath, tied them up to open up wasteland, and then turned their hometown land into official land.
, and then set a special land tax of almost ten percent for the original tenants. He collected more taxes, and the tenants did not have to pay rent. The emperor and the mud-legged man added five pieces of land to the family and just accepted it. It is said that at this time, Suzhou
More than half of the fertile land in the mansion has been acquired by him in this way.
The grain that Suzhou Prefecture pays in a year alone is almost one-tenth of his annual income.
He made a lot of money, and he was also supported by the mud-legged people.
Of course, after his death, all these aristocratic families came back in various ways, and then generations of generations wrote articles and scolded him for hundreds of years, which is another story."
Yang Feng said.
At this time, except for the military households in the guard station, there were basically not many other indigenous people in Fengyang area.
The aborigines who did not die in the war are all in Nanjing and various health centers. They are happily serving as their Huaixi Xungui Group. This area at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was the cruelest tug-of-war battlefield...
It’s not just the end of the Yuan Dynasty either.
This area has been in constant flux since the Southern Song Dynasty.
In fact, in all the eras of war between the North and the South, this area was a tug-of-war. The worst was the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Except for a few fortresses, the entire Huaihe River Basin was basically uninhabited and a place for scouts. Therefore, the only people who survived in this area were military personnel.
Full of virtue, after all, any weakness would have turned into bones. Yang Feng carried the big bag like this and continued to move forward along the country road. Soon a small village appeared, and then an old man in a green robe, with more than a dozen people holding sticks, appeared.
A young man appears.
"Where do the homeless people come from? Is there a way to guide them?"
The old man shouted sharply.
The strong man behind him quickly rushed towards Yang Feng.
Yang Feng was speechless and took out his big gun, pointed it at their feet, and then killed an innocent sheep on the roadside.
"No!"
He said confidently.
The splash of soil caused by the bullet made the old man in green robe stunned for a moment...
Mainly the sheep that died tragically.
"Well, it turns out he is a noble man, and I am confused. People with such rosy faces like the noble man are not the vagrants. Please calm down, you two. Gou, please take this sheep back and roast it for the noble man. You two
Go back and bring the tables and chairs to prepare tea. My lord, please wait a moment. We are all rural and vulgar people, and the roads in the village are muddy and difficult to navigate after the rain. It is really hard to stain your boots."
He then said humbly.
Then, under his scolding, several young men quickly ran towards the village behind.
The old man hurriedly stepped forward, took off his green robe, and spread it on a stone on the roadside for Yang Feng. Like the hotel manager in Xihong City, he groveled and asked the noble man to rest. Yang Feng sat down without politeness. He knew
This old guy was dragging him because he was afraid that he would go into the village and start killing people, but this was a trivial matter and he was not prepared to continue sneaking around...
"You are quite sensible!"
Yang Feng said with satisfaction.
Then he put down his backpack and pulled out the edict from his side pocket.
"You don't need to be afraid. I am the envoy of the Great Xia Kingdom six hundred years later. I am traveling around the Ming Dynasty under the imperial edict of your emperor. You seem to be literate. See for yourself what is written in the edict?"
Then he handed it to the old man.
The old man was so frightened that he knelt down without hesitation, then took the imperial edict with both hands, opened it with trepidation and read the contents.
"It turns out to be Ambassador Yang. The young man is the chief here. Fortunately, I wasn't rude."
Then he tremblingly presented it to Yang Feng.
"Go and prepare a boat for me. I want to cross the Huaihe River. This is a reward for you!"
Yang Feng took out a handful of treasure notes, took out a few consistent notes and handed them to him. This was the largest amount. Even if it had depreciated, the consistent notes could buy almost half a stone of rice.
The old man quickly took it.
Then he turned around and scolded the young men in dialect, glanced at Yang Feng casually, then got up and walked towards the young men with a smile on his face...
"Is there anything you can't say in front of me?"
Yang Feng said.
"No, no!"
The old man said quickly.
Then he scolded the young men very quickly in dialect.
"This man even dares to forge an imperial edict. This is no longer an ordinary unruly citizen. You must hurry up and invite officers and soldiers. You two go back and get on your horses and go to the county seat to report. You two go to He Baihu and ask him to come over quickly. This is forging an imperial edict.
The thief can be regarded as a rebel. I will drag him first, and you two go back and gather all the young men, take out bows and arrows to guard the entrance of the village, don't let him run in, and the women and children will go into the cellar."
The translator hired by the monitor spoke into Yang Feng's earphones.
Yang Feng stretched his arms forward as much as possible, keeping a smile on his face that clearly didn't understand what they were talking about.
"There are very few outsiders in my house, and most of them don't understand Mandarin."
After finishing speaking, the old man quickly explained.
Yang Feng nodded.
In the village not far away, young men who ran back came over carrying tables, chairs, and water bottles, and set them up on the roadside for them.
Those who received the order quickly ran back and called for others.
"The ambassador drinks tea first. The sheep is already being roasted. The boat has arrived at the fisherman's house downstream, and the old man has been sent to look for it."
The old man poured tea for Yang Feng and said.
"What do you do here?"
Yang Feng asked.
"He is just an errand boy for the government. Under the system of the state and dynasty, one hundred and ten households are divided into one li. A maximum of ten households are responsible for paying grain. The ten heads of A take turns to be the head of the li. They collect money and grain in this li and deliver it to the county.
, brought with them for corvee service, these belong to the little old man. If the food is not enough, the old man and the head of Jia have to add more, which is a hard job. Your Majesty is afraid that the officials will go to the countryside to disturb the people, and the Yamen officials are strictly prohibited from going to the countryside.
Everything in the business is done by the little old man and the leaders. Even if there are vagrants, the old man will lead the arrests. Otherwise, he will be punished if he is found out.
Therefore, when I heard that the ambassador was here, the little old man didn’t know the ambassador’s identity, so he came over in a hurry. Please don’t blame the ambassador.”
The old man said.
"That doesn't matter, then you are also a landlord."
Yang Feng said while drinking tea.
Although the tea is crude, fortunately it is purely natural and pollution-free, so it is not bad.
"The little old man only has dozens of acres of land. How can he be regarded as a landlord? The little old man is originally from Suzhou. He was deprived of his family property because of his clan members' involvement ten years ago and was taken to this place to open up wasteland. Most of the people in the village were like this. If ten years ago,
, but there are hundreds of acres of paddy fields, and my ancestors also served as officials in the previous dynasty."
"Well, do you resent the current emperor?"
Yang Feng said.
The old man was so frightened that he sat down on the ground, then got up tremblingly...
"Ambassador, please don't talk nonsense. It's all the fault of that tribe. The fact that this little old man was implicated by him and saved his family's life is a great blessing from His Majesty. I go to the capital every day to pray for God's grace."
"Naughty, I don't believe you don't hate him. In fact, at that time, Suzhou was also the richest place in the world."
Yang Feng said with a smile.
"Suzhou is naturally better than here. One acre of land can yield four or five shi. At that time, the young people went to the fields together and could harvest 7 shi of grain a year. There were either droughts or floods here. There were disasters nine out of ten years. We could barely make ends meet.
That's all. Now the little old man is counting on his children and grandchildren. Your Majesty is so generous that he has opened the imperial examination. The little old man also has a family tradition of knowledge. Now that a man has won the exam, he can be counted on to return to his hometown in the future so that the little old man will not
Continue to suffer in this generation.”
The old man wiped his cold sweat and sighed.
Then generations from generation to generation can write articles to criticize Zhu Yuanzhang.
"Actually, if you think about it, Xiao Lao'er is really blessed by God. After all, Fengyang is a paddy field in Huainan and can still grow rice. Many of Xiao Lao'er's hometowns have been moved to the north or even the northwest. It's really a hard life."
The old man sighed rather sadly.
The two of them were drinking tea and chatting, while on the roof of the village not far away, the silhouette of the archer could be vaguely seen.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not ban cold weapons among the people. In fact, he even encouraged cold weapons among the people. Bows and arrows and even crossbows were not allowed. That is to say, firearms were controlled. However, since various military offices had the right to manufacture firearms, they became widespread in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
Yang Feng did not expose it and continued to drink tea. In order to hold him back, the old man brought wine and food. However, roasting the sheep took time. Yang Feng drank the wine calmly. This kind of place should not prepare anything messy.
The medicine poisoned him.
More than an hour passed like this, and dozens of cavalry figures appeared in the distance. The old man quickly found an excuse to leave, and then the cavalry rushed straight towards him...
"Take it!"
The leading officer shook the spear in his hand and shouted majestically.
Yang Feng drank tea and looked at this guy calmly...
"Do you dare to come here and challenge me?"
he said.
The latter couldn't help but laugh...
"I beheaded dozens of people on the battlefield. You are really looking for death!"
he said.
Then he urged his horse forward and stabbed Yang Feng with the spear in his hand.
Yang Feng stood up suddenly and lifted the table at the same time. The spear with the power of charge instantly penetrated the table and was pushed aside by him. The officer let go without hesitation, and then pulled out the mace, but when he leaned forward to smash it
The moment it fell, Yang Feng had something shiny in his hand, blocking him like a shield...
The officer screamed in fright.
The next moment, he tried his best to turn the mace to one side, and then the thing in Yang Feng's hand slapped him hard on the back.