His face is full of vicissitudes of life, the clothes on his body are somewhat ripped, the toes of the straw sandals on his feet have been exposed, and there is only a very ordinary knife hanging on his waist, but no one will underestimate him because of this.
, because he exudes a strong sense of confidence.
That is the self-confidence of a swordsman, the self-confidence that comes naturally after surviving duels with many people.
When he reached the edge of the field, he turned around and saw that large tracts of farmland were deserted and even thick weeds had grown. There was only an old man working in the field for more than ten miles nearby.
The middle-aged swordsman raised his eyes to look at the scorching sun, then walked up to the old man and asked, "Old man, could you lend me a bowl of water?"
The old man squinted at the middle-aged man, thought for a while and felt bad about offending him, so he threw a water bag over: "Please."
The middle-aged swordsman was not afraid of being poisoned. He opened the water bag and took a big sip. Then he wiped his mouth and asked, "Old man, may I ask why there are so many abandoned fields here?"
The old man replied impatiently: "There is a severe drought in the world, so spring plowing is impossible, and the summer grain harvest is about to fail. Last year was already difficult, and many people have worked hard to survive this year. Seeing this scene, they can only flee."
"
The middle-aged swordsman asked again: "Then why don't they sell the land to big households at a cheap price?"
The old man grinned: "It was sold at first, but then there were fewer people paying taxes and grain, and the government was angry, so they divided all the taxes paid by the deserters on the remaining farmers, so the rest also fled. The middle peasants
Even the rich peasants and small landowners couldn't stand it, and they all ran away without a breath!"
The middle-aged swordsman threw the water bag back to the old man: "Then why don't you run?"
The old man smiled and showed his toothless gums: "Everyone in my family is starving to death, but I am the only one. At this age, I don't want to run away. People say it's hard to leave the land! It's best if they catch me then.
, I can still take care of a few meals, it’s not a bad idea to behead me, at least someone will guard my body!”
The middle-aged swordsman nodded, turned around and continued walking forward. Such a bright sun seemed to have no harm to him. The place he was going to was called Yuanju County in Caozhou. There was a Caomi Temple there, and the abbot of the temple was Bian Lu.
His old friend.
Yuanju is Wang County, with a population of about 70,000 to 80,000 people. This county has a wide territory, reaching Pu River in the north, not far from Puzhou, Jishui in the south, and Yuen River in the east. This is how the place got its name. There are also famous people in the area.
The Qingqiu Mountain in Qingqiu Mountain is haunted by ghosts and foxes and is deserted.
Forty miles northwest of Yuanju City, there is a small Zhuzao town, not far from Caomi Temple. After arriving at Zhuzao City, the middle-aged swordsman could feel the surging undercurrent in the city, but he didn't care.
As the saying goes, a skilled man is bold. Although some people wanted to take action against him, the middle-aged swordsman casually placed the simple sword weighing dozens of kilograms on the table. When those people saw that the idea was hurting their hands, they gave up their thoughts.
It had been too long, and the grievances were now in chaos again. The middle-aged swordsman was too lazy to pay attention to them. After replenishing water, he headed towards Caomi Temple outside the city.
Looking at the direction in which the swordsman left, a young man asked the bearded man next to him: "Uncle, why did you let the swordsman leave? What if he is a spy sent by the government?"
The big man with the beard had a calm expression on his face, patted his nephew on the shoulder and said, "Yan'er, have you ever thought about what if we, the whole bunch, can't defeat him together?"
The young man continued to say: "But if the government finds out..."
The big man with the beard shook his head: "So what if the government knows about it? Since the time of the old emperor, the world has been constantly deploying troops and collecting taxes has become more and more urgent. In addition, floods and droughts occur frequently. The wheat harvest is only half-harvested, and the people are about to run out of food.
Puzhou and Caozhou are full of homeless people, and there is nowhere to accuse them."
"This world is like a forest after a mountain fire in summer. Although it looks calm on the surface, underneath there are still lingering fires that have not yet been extinguished. It only takes a little bit of limelight to explode!"
"Wang Xianzhi rose up in Changyuan County, Puzhou at the end of last year. I knew that the time was not yet ripe, so I suppressed the turmoil within the Salt Gang, actively prepared weapons and food, gathered refugees, and connected the people."
"On the contrary, now, with the right time, right place, and the right people, even if the government really noticed something, it was already too late! What can a mere martial arts swordsman do?"
The young man thought about it and felt that his uncle was right. He had been reading poetry and books since he was a child, and he was good at both literature and martial arts. He could always convince his little nephew, so he stopped talking and just looked at the back of the middle-aged swordsman as he walked away.
Outside Zhuzao City, close to the official road, a Buddhist temple was built called Caomi Temple. The Buddha statues enshrined in this temple are quite efficacious, so many people who have complained about their grievances are willing to come from all villages and cities to make and fulfill their wishes.
Caomi Temple is also considered to have some Buddhist traditions of being charitable and charitable. Every time there is a drought or flood, the temple will set up porridge sheds to prevent refugees and poor people from starving to death, so it is quite famous in the local area.
But what surprised the middle-aged swordsman was that as soon as he opened the temple door, he found that the entire temple was empty, there were no religious men and women, and most importantly, not even the young novice monks and Zhike monks were gone.
When he walked deeper into Caomi Temple, he saw the abbot of Caomi Temple, Master Bianlu, who was still cleaning fallen leaves.
Master Bian Lu was obviously very surprised when he saw the middle-aged swordsman. He chanted the Buddha's name: "Amitabha, how come the world-famous 'Lingnan Sword Hero' Huo Don has come to my little Caomi Temple? It really makes this temple prosperous."
It’s so radiant!”
The middle-aged swordsman laughed and chatted about the past with the abbot, Master Bian Lu.
It turns out that this middle-aged swordsman's name is Huo Daoxiong, and he is the elder brother of the current head of the Huo family in Lingnan. He has loved martial arts since he was a child, so much so that the family business was handed over to Huo Daoxiong's younger brother, Huo Luxiong's younger brother.
Huo Daoxiong devoted himself to practicing martial arts and was very talented. He actually passed the martial arts examination. After coming to Chang'an, he learned a lot of martial arts in the martial arts hall. However, he had no intention of leading troops or serving as an official. He returned to Lingnan very early to work for
The Huo family also gained a lot of fame by fighting and killing, and people in the world called him the "Lingnan Sword Hero".
Master Bian Lu looked at Huo Daoxiong with a smile, and then asked curiously: "I remember that you have been stuck at the bottleneck for more than ten years. How come I feel that your momentum is three points stronger when I see you today."
Huo Daoxiong told Master Bian Lu that he had indeed been stuck at the bottleneck for a long time, but a few months ago a secret technique was passed down from the Chang'an Martial Arts Hall, which allowed people to fight fiercely in their dreams.
After he learned the secret technique of entering dreams, he fought with masters from all walks of life in his dreams every day. The bottleneck in martial arts that had been stuck for more than ten years gradually loosened. He actually broke through the realm a few days ago. Now he can be regarded as a great master of the generation.
Grandmaster.
In the entire Tang Dynasty, there are many masters who can be called great masters. They can be counted on both hands. They are all peerless masters who are powerful in the martial arts and can suppress one party.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Chapter 231: Liquidation and Land Distribution, blocked, I’ll read it again