Qiu Yizi's words finally left Wang Laowu speechless. He stood there scratching his head, at a loss.
Qiu Yizi found his expression interesting, and after a while he said, "Don't worry, Wang Laowu, we were indeed sent here by King Youyan to do business."
Wang Laowu was relieved after hearing this and nodded, "I thought so. You look so gentle, how could you be a bandit? Only the Prince of Youyan can have a subordinate as handsome as you." Halfway through his words, Wang Laowu suddenly lowered his voice and said, "I heard that the prince is rebelling in the north and going against the court. Is that true?"
Qiu Yizi answered loudly: "It was the court that wronged the prince first, so the prince had to fight back. It's not called rebellion, it's called 'fighting rebellion', which means to fight against the tyrant and restore the legacy of the previous emperor. Don't you think that's right?"
Wang Laowu glanced at Qiu Yi and said, "After all, the Zheng family is still the emperor. What does it have to do with us common people? Alas! But if it is really the Prince of Youyan who sits on the throne, our lives may be better."
"That's right!" Qiu Yizhi was very happy to hear Wang Laowu's simple explanation, "Your Majesty is here to save the people from the dire straits! Then let's talk about something related to you first. Let me ask you, is the county magistrate here a good official or a corrupt official?"
"Hey! So you are here to inquire about Sun Baopi! A corrupt official! Of course he is a corrupt official!" Wang Laowu said hatefully.
"Since he is a corrupt official, let me ask you, how corrupt are he?" Qiu Yizi asked.
Wang Laowu spoke frankly, "I won't talk about the distant past. Let's just say that the new emperor ascended the throne, and according to the rules, the land tax should be reduced or exempted. We in Henan suffered a disaster last year, and there was also a cult rebellion. Logically, the land tax this year should not be exempted, but it should be exempted. But this Sun Ba Pi is so good that he didn't reduce the land tax at all, but instead increased the levy, saying that he wanted to send some auspicious signs to the new emperor. We ordinary people are actually easy to talk to, so we just gave it to him, but we didn't expect that this auspicious sign would not be cheap, and the people in the whole county were asked to pay one penny per head!"
Qiu Yizhi interrupted, "This Sun Ba Pi... County Master Sun is making up all sorts of excuses and collecting taxes arbitrarily, and no one is doing anything about it?"
Wang Laowu said a lot, and his lips were a little dry, so he licked them with his tongue and continued, "Master is really a scholar, and his speech is much more elegant than mine. Of course, someone is in charge! Several gentry masters in the county couldn't stand it, and first went to negotiate with Sun Bapi, but it didn't work; then they went to the state government to complain, but it didn't work either. The money that should be paid still can't be reduced by a single copper coin. Alas! Isn't it said that officials protect each other?"
Qiu Yizhi was very happy after hearing this and said, "Okay, the prince sent me here to help you with this matter. Let me ask you, where is the county government office in your county?"
Wang Laowu pointed and said, "Go along this road, turn left at the end, and you will see it when you enter the county town. If you gentlemen can help us get this done, it will be a boon to the people of the entire county!" Unknowingly, Wang Laowu had changed his name.
Qiu Yizi didn't notice and said, "Okay. We will go meet Sun Baopi right now. If you are brave, you can come with us to see the fun. Also, I think you have no other skills except 'quick talk'. If I get this done for you, you have to tell the folks in the surrounding area about the good things about the prince." After that, he jumped on his horse and led everyone away at a gallop along the road.
After riding their horses for a while, they turned a corner and saw a small county town with low and dilapidated walls, lying lifelessly on the sand. Two old soldiers were guarding the gate, sitting on the ground and chatting with each other listlessly.
Seeing this lifeless scene, Qiu Yizi couldn't help but shook his head. He squeezed his legs hard on the horse's belly, and led his men to gallop into the city.
The two old soldiers guarding the gate were so frightened when they saw a group of people suddenly coming out of nowhere that they quickly stood up from the ground. However, they did not dare to stop them and asked loudly, "Where are you from? What are you doing in our Huaiyang County?" There was a slight tremor in their voices.
After hearing this, Qiu Yizi did not slow down at all and shouted, "Prince Youyan sent someone to deliver a message. Who dares to stop him?" He entered the county town without caring whether the two old soldiers heard it clearly or not.
The county government office was not far from the city wall. As the 49-day mourning period for the late emperor had passed, the county government office was repainted in bright red, which looked very inconsistent among the gray, crooked and dilapidated buildings.
Qiu Yizi rode his horse to the gate of the county government office. Seeing that the gate was closed, he did not dismount. He took out the drumstick from the rack under the grievance drum and beat it hard on the drum surface. Unexpectedly, the county government office looked splendid, but the grievance drum was in disrepair. After Qiu Yizi had hit it a few times, he heard a very dull "puff" sound - the drum skin of the grievance drum was actually broken by his knock.
Qiu Yizi shook his head and threw the drumstick on the ground.
After a while, the gate of the county government office finally opened a gap that was only wide enough for one person to pass through. A yamen runner came out and asked with a thick mouth, "Which unruly person dared to beat the drum here?" He looked up at the drum of grievances and cursed again, "You dared to make the drum leak? You must be rebelling!"
Qiu Yizhi thought: Isn't it me who came here to rebel? But he said: "I am the one who beat the drum. Let me ask you, is your county magistrate in the government office now?"
The bailiff looked up and saw that Qiu Yizi had a handsome face. The clothes he wore were not luxurious but neat and clean, and he was riding a fine horse. He thought that he was a dandy young man from a wealthy family who had come here to cause trouble.
Therefore, although the yamen runner was angry, he did not dare to be too presumptuous and said, "Whose child are you? Did you see? This is the county government office, not a place for fooling around. Don't make trouble here. Also, go back and tell your father, bring the silver and come back to compensate for the drum."
Qiu Yizi ignored him and cursed, "How dare you! Look what this is?" Then he took out the business card of Zheng Rong, King of Youyan, from his arms and waved it in front of the runner.
Unexpectedly, the bailiff could not read and did not know the value of the thing. He did not know the power of the thing in Qiu Yizi's hand. Instead, he shouted sternly: "Where are you from? How dare you scold me? You dare to talk while riding on a horse at the gate of the county government office?" As he said that, he stretched out his hand to drag Qiu Yizi off the horse.
Seeing this, Zhao Chengxiao, who was standing by, quickly dismounted and ran over.
The head of the yamen runners was known as a "local tyrant", and even the county magistrate did not dare to embarrass him. Therefore, he was used to being alone in the county yamen, and did not notice that Qiu Yizhi had more than 20 guards around him. Zhao Chengxiao came quickly and pushed the head of the yamen to the ground with one hand.
In Zaoqiang County, only this team leader beat people, and no one dared to beat him. Therefore, this yamen runner team leader had never suffered such a loss before. He sat on the ground for a while to relax, then jumped up from the blue brick floor, rubbed his sore buttocks, and shouted loudly: "All the corpses in there, come out! Someone is rebelling and breaking into the yamen! Beat them all out!"
His heart-wrenching cry actually attracted more than 40 bailiffs from the county government office, all of whom were armed with water- and fire-resistant sticks and were ready to fight.
Most of the other dozen or so Yunmeng bandits who were guarding Qiu Yizi had been oppressed by the government and had been forced to go up the mountain to become bandits. They already hated these bullying yamen runners, and when they saw them taking advantage of their power to beat up their benefactors, they became even more indignant. They rolled off their saddles and ran to protect Qiu Yizi.
Qiu Yizi had never taken these yamen runners seriously, and now that he had his own entourage, he felt more confident. He sat on his horse and said leisurely, "I asked Princess Bohai for your swords. You used them on these hawks and dogs for no reason, and they lost their sharpness. You can just use your hands to fight them. Also, Brother Yuchi and Brother Zhao, you two can just watch from the sidelines. I can also see their skills."
The guards thought: How could this young man on the horse give such an inexplicable order? Isn't he too arrogant? They also thought that they were outnumbered and could beat one with two, and they were fighting against an unarmed man with sticks, so they would win anyway.
Thinking of this, the forty or so yamen runners no longer hesitated, raised their sticks and started beating the group of people brought by Qiu Yizi.
But how could they know that the group of people in front of them were all engaged in robbery and looting in Yunmeng Mountain. Who didn't have some skills? In the past few days, they learned a few moves from Yuchi Lianghong. Although they were superficial, they were all top-notch skills. In addition, they had learned a lot of worldly knowledge by following Qiu Yizhi's trip to the capital, so they were no longer afraid of the government officials.
So the eighteen men, all of them braced themselves, stretched their fists and feet, and started to fight with the yamen runners. This fight was not really exciting, and it only lasted less than half a cup of tea before it was hastily ended.
There were more than forty yamen runners, and not one of them did not have a bruised face or nose. Some were seriously injured, with their limbs broken. They were howling in pain and rolling on the ground.
Qiu Yizi was still sitting on the horse, and said with a smile: "I didn't realize that you guys have some skills in fighting and kicking. When this is done, I will naturally reward you." He pointed with his whip at the squad leader who just came to answer the door and said, "That man is the leader, call him..."
Qiu Yizhi had just finished speaking when the head of the yamen runners suddenly knelt on the ground, kowtowed several times and said, "Master, please spare my life! I just offended you, but it was because I was blinded by shit. I hope you will be magnanimous and just treat me as a fart and let me go!" After that, he kowtowed several more times.
Qiu Yizi was amused by the man's filthy plea for mercy and said, "Humph! I want you dead, do I need to ask for it myself? I think you are quite smart, but your eyes are useless, are they for venting anger? Hurry up, get up, open the middle door, and take us to see your county magistrate!"
The squad leader had already been beaten into submission and was frightened. Hearing Qiu Yizi's order, he hurriedly stood up, kept agreeing, then turned around, pushed open the door of the county government office, and led Qiu Yizi and his party into the county government compound.
Wang Laowu, who came with Qiu Yizi to watch the fun, was hiding at a corner on the street. He saw this scene from afar and was already stunned with shock.
Qiu Yizhi had been in and out of the Youyan Palace at will since he was a child, and he had also been to the imperial palace, the center of the world. How could this small county government office in Zaoqiang County be under his nose? Therefore, he did not dismount, but followed the wounded squad leader through the hall and the room to the back hall of the county government office.
The foreman slowly stopped and pointed to a small independent house in front and said, "My master is meeting guests in the study. If you want to meet him, go ahead!"
Qiu Yizi nodded: "I understand. I'm telling you, from now on, you should keep your eyes open and stop bullying others all day long, or you'll be in trouble! Get down now!"
The squad leader seemed to have been pardoned, and in the blink of an eye he disappeared without a trace. (To be continued)