"The Change of Heaven"
Volume 2: The Edge of Heaven
Chapter 145: In the Pond
I have never considered myself a good leader. Although my brothers generally think I am very capable and have great confidence in me, if they knew that when I proposed this route, in addition to my own and theirs, I also referred to my wife's discussion on the issue of fighting against me, I am afraid that most of them would vomit all their dinner. And one of my strange judgments is that since Yinling with 500 people is likely to be defeated by my 500 people, even if there are hundreds of rebels in this thousand-man city on the edge of Yulin, they will definitely not be my opponent. However, according to the current situation, it seems that there is not even a hint of rebels in this city.
Compared with Luoyang (at that time, it should be Luoyang, the same below, no longer noted, author's note), Tanzhong City is too small, and there are too few people. It is far from comparable to the jurisdiction of this county. The entire northeast of Yulin is the jurisdiction of Tanzhong, but the Tanzhong City in front of me, I even doubt whether it is bigger than Luoyang Palace City; more than 3,000 people, several villages in Nanyang can exceed this number. Luoyang's outer wall is eight feet long, even so, walking in the city, you can't see the wall on either side, half because Luoyang is big, and the other half is that there are many buildings in the city. Here is just the opposite. In the snowy night, there are clear outlines of the city wall and the snow-covered huts below. Only the southeast and northeast corners have some wooden pavilions, which are probably the rich people in this city. Not Luoyang, any town in Jingzhou is larger than it. There are not even arrow towers and blockhouses here. If we really want to do it, no one can do anything to us.
However, more than 3,000 people are only those who are registered in the household registration. They are the Nanman people, Xiou people, Li people, and Luoyue people. Frankly, I can't tell the difference between them. I only know that most of them are not registered. I don't know how many of them there are. But looking at the situation of the city tower here, there should be no hostile people nearby.
I only brought Nan with me, and Nan also brought only a dozen people, and they also had a dozen people with them. With dozens of people walking on the road, I don't know why, I always felt that we would fight on the road. So I looked at the surrounding courtyards along the way and calculated the reality of this city. However, this time I walked along, my confidence became stronger and stronger, thinking that everything was in my hands.
"How are you getting along with the southerners?" I asked with a smile.
This time I had to wait for a long time, and Nan had to stamp his feet and hammer his fork to help me urge him: "Hey, Yue Hou asked you a question, are you deaf?"
"Ah..." Some people seemed to have just come over, "Not deaf, not deaf, fortunately, fortunately."
One person came out hesitantly, but several people quickly closed the door.
"They won't attack Tanzhong, will they?" I began to understand.
“No… No.”
"Not necessarily." I whispered to myself. The group of people seemed very nervous. I couldn't see their faces clearly, but I felt that they were hiding something just by their words. Moreover, no one looked up in the hall at first, for fear of being too conspicuous. When talking about the situation in the southern barbarians, they would put the root of everything on the southerners, as if they were trying to shirk something. So, I think there must be something shameful here, but, just like what the lake looks like under the snow, the various reasons are definitely not something I can know now.
I hope it will be daybreak by now, at least the faint light of snow cannot satisfy me.
There was no moon, no stars, no torches in the team, and only a few lights in the city, mostly in the southeast and northeast corners. Only the fires near the grain storage area, with the help of the snow, made the city look brighter. With the gradually warming firelight, I could see more of the city, but it didn't look new. It was still a quiet and somewhat shabby city.
I might as well imagine the problem in this city. Tanzhong is located in a strategic location, connected to Jingzhou in the north, and the water of the Tan River connects Yizhou and Jingzhou in the north, and to Linshui in the south. There is a lot of trade and commerce, and southerners often harass. In order to ensure their own safety, the officials here have a special relationship with the southerners. Regardless of how they achieve this, at least they don't need to be afraid of each other's invasion, and they don't need so many garrisons. However, since there is no harassment from the south and it is a key point for traffic between the south and the north, why does this place look so shabby
The prison looked relatively formal, with high earthen walls, black painted doors, and even two stone statues of "me" - Xiezhi - in front of the door. Nan recognized this and secretly smiled at me from beside me. I couldn't say anything, so I could only glance at him expressionlessly. There was no light at the tightly closed door. I asked one of the officials to knock on the door and call for someone, saying casually, "It seems that the local security is good. How many prisoners are there?"
This time, several leaders said calmly, "Reporting to the Lord Yue, there are seven."
"Are they all women?" I asked as if jokingly. No one said anything for a while, and finally I got a soft "yes."
"Who is this in the middle of the night?" A hurried, trembling voice sounded from inside. Before he could continue, the person outside shouted, "I am Lieutenant Leng, and the Marquis Yue has come to the pond!"
I thought this was strange, so I pushed the door with a little force and felt that the wood of the door latch was a bit rotten and creaked. I immediately wanted to take the initiative, so I looked at the people outside, but used all my strength to slam the door shut with both hands.
The bolt broke at the first push, but was not completely severed, and the people outside seemed to be startled; with the second push, the door was broken, and I saw a man inside, wearing thin clothes and a jailer's robe, sitting on the snow with mottled light and shadow from outside the door, shielding his face with his hands and looking at me through his fingers - I guess I was just a huge black shadow at this moment.
"Get up." I walked right past him with my hands behind my back, "You're catching a cold."
"Where are the jailers?" I asked as we walked. The houses around us were very run-down, and it was obvious that no one had lived there for a long time.
I didn't see anyone along the way until a few people dressed similarly to the one sitting on the ground in front of me rushed out angrily, shouting, "Who are you? What are you doing?" Then they stopped in front of me without knowing why, looked at the people behind them, and didn't dare to say anything, so they quickly moved out of the way.
Finally, under the light of a few oil lamps, I smiled and said to everyone, "This is really strange. So many Han soldiers and officials are all in prison. What are you doing? Who's coming?"
In the deathly silence of that moment, from the darkness of a nearby cell came a helpless moan of a woman, accompanied by a man's violent breathing.
"Husa Lie Nanguo!" I waved my hand, and before he could jump over, I shouted loudly: "You... wait... I'll go!"
After a moment, I picked up a dishevelled man and threw him heavily to the ground.
In this way, behind a fence, dozens of men stared at me with wide eyes. There was fear, tension, surprise, helplessness, bewilderment, and confusion in their eyes. The few people around me also knelt on the ground, with their heads lowered even more than when they were in the government hall.
It wasn't a good idea to just stare at each other. Everything had to start somewhere, so I poked the wet, hard black mud on the ground with the butt of my gun and started talking: "Who's here? What's going on?"
"Yue Hou!" A fifty-year-old man with a goatee, sitting in bed with his hands in his sleeves, lowering his head, perhaps looking at the scattered thatch on the ground, began to talk to me slowly in the accent of his hometown in Jingzhou: "I am an old man, and I will die anyway, so I will follow you."
Nan wanted to teach him a lesson, but I stopped him. I am not that arrogant, and I would not let an old man out of his warm bed in such a cold day. I can recall this feeling with a sense of happiness.
"Please go ahead." I added an inviting gesture.
"I'm from Jingzhou too. I came here to escape the drought in the sixth year of Guanghe." He glanced at the thatch on the ground, wondering what he was thinking. "Jiaozhou is poor and sparsely populated, but it's not too cold in winter. Of course, it's a little... except for being a little wet these days, everything else is pretty good. I only know a few words, but I was able to get a job here. I can be considered alive. Man, how, it's a good thing that he's alive."
Oh my god, these are all plain words.
"There are still some southern barbarians around us. To the east are the Western Ou people, and to the west are the Luoyue people. It's fine if they fight each other, but they also bully us weak people and torment us all day long. But the higher-ups have to appease these people, fearing that they will make trouble, so they ask us to be tolerant. This tolerance is not their job, but ours! Most of the food in the fields is gone in autumn, and we don't have the strength to fight them. Farmers who can escape have escaped, and those who can't escape can only wait to die. Only those who don't rely on the land for food and have some connections can stay. If there is nothing in autumn, we will starve in winter. This is the only way to get here from Cangwu by land, and it is also an important road to Jingzhou in the north. Although there are few people, it is considered urgent, so the higher-ups can allocate some things every year. To be honest, those of us who eat official meals rely on these things to survive."]
"Then why don't you leave?"
"Abandoning one's post without permission is a serious crime. No one from above will come to replace us, so we have to stay here. If we don't get some rewards when we get old, we can only die in a coffin." The old man stared at the ground, picking at the straw on the ground with his hands, "Why do you and we live here? We..."
This grown man started crying. Not only him, but many people started crying too, even the bastard I threw to the ground.
I suddenly felt that I was wrong, but I didn’t know where.
"Are you going to kill me?" A man dressed in rags suddenly jumped up, even naked, and cursed in a northern accent: "I'm an official, but I'm worse than a prisoner. The official residence is worse than a pigsty. When it collapses, I can't find anyone to repair it. So I have to live in a cell. The cell is solid, but is it what we should live in? I'm in my forties and have been here for more than 20 years. I don't even have a wife. I couldn't survive any longer. Not to mention Yu San, even I am planning to find a female prisoner to relieve my anger." Nan was stopped by me. If it weren't for me, I guess he would have been beheaded a few times.
"Are there no more craftsmen in the county?" I motioned him to sit down and asked this question. I also looked at the person on the ground. He should be the so-called Yu San.
"They have been taken away by the higher-ups. There is no use for them to stay here with us." The old man still had his hands in his sleeves, like an old man quietly waiting for death.
Watching and listening to it, I felt really bad.
“From Bushan?”
“Who else could it be?” The naked man shrank back and muttered.
"How many people are there in the city? What do they do?" I asked with a serious frown.
Yu San was eager to speak, but as soon as I knew it, I stopped him: "You are not someone who can speak!"
Everyone's eyes shifted from Yu San to the old man. It seemed that it was this old man who finally said, "As for me, there are actually only two families in the city. One is surnamed Liu, and the other is surnamed Xu. The others, including us, are their servants. They do everything."
I suddenly understood something: "Who are these two companies and what are they doing?"
"The Liu family is a big family in Bushan. They seem to be descendants of some king and are also relatives of the prefect in Bushan. The Xu family is the family of the prefect of Cangwu and are also related to the prefect of Yulin. They... do business with the southern barbarians such as Luoyue and Xiou, so the southern barbarians will give them a break on their land. Based on this, the farmers in Tanzhong have gradually become dependent on them. Those who refuse to submit have no choice but to leave. But even so, the southern barbarians will just rob the land of these common people, and there is nothing we can do about it. It is better than blocking them from both inside and outside. Whenever they encounter any problems, these farmers have to work for them in exchange for some food and clothes to survive. Our government is just a decoration. The southerners may cause trouble, but they never attack the city, so naturally we have nothing to do with it. Collect taxes? Collect them? They have someone above them, and they have already exempted them in writing. Those farmers... As long as they pay them enough food, his family will not be registered as Tanzhong citizens, and they don’t have to pay the emperor’s tax. The common people consider this a benefit of following them. There is no money, no people, and they just rely on the allocation from above to make ends meet. That’s not all. If they have something to do, they will order us around. If we don’t do it, they will still ask us to pay them. Do you want a salary? In addition, all the men and women in this prison were sent by them, and the case files were also given to us by them for us to deal with at will. In their eyes, we are just a group of dogs. It sounds good, but it’s just a bunch of zombies to be ordered around. When they are useless, they will throw them away.”
There were no garrison towers in the city, let alone soldiers guarding the city. The gatekeepers and runners, including these people, were less than fifty. If there were barbarians nearby, this city was probably like what he described.
"Didn't Governor Yulin run away?"
"He ran away to save his life! He sent all the troops to their own territories everywhere, except our place. As a result, Bushan was the worst offender. He was afraid that he would not be able to win the battle if he led the troops, which would damage his own strength. So of course he ran away, and that's why he came to you, my lord. If he sees you, he will act like a big shot. Will you forgive him?" This was a person who had just walked with me. He suddenly spoke behind me, with no respect for their superiors. I could even hear him coughing behind me, as if he wanted him to stop.
“How many days has it been like this?” I rubbed the leather armor on my legs with my hands, making a rustling sound. The whispers around me stopped.
"I'm not from here. I heard that there was a good official more than 20 years ago who did a good job in rectifying this. Later, he became a member of the Communist Party, and that was it. Then slowly it became like this. I don't know the details." The old man seemed to be getting along with me, and he became more and more relaxed, like a friend. He was a little unhappy that an official had interrupted him just now.
I whispered a few words to Nan, and he immediately sent a few people away.
"Where is the guilty man in the pond?" I got to the point. This is what I have been concerned about. I have already got a complete answer. I just want more evidence.
"The Jiaozhi merchant bought it." He replied quickly.
"Very good. They come to buy, how much per person?" Exactly the same, all the results are the same. It is really a strange and not strange thing that prisoners can buy in my Han land.
"Eight hundred coins."
"Your price here is cheaper than in Cangwu. It sells for one thousand there." This is my final conclusion on the matter.
"It seems that Jiaozhi County is very rich." I patted my tummy, "Now tell me about the situation in Tanzhong, one by one, this old man will speak first."
Naturally, I pointed at the old man and listened to them describe the situation in the pond and even in the dense forest.
Half an hour later, the night deepened and the cold was overwhelming. I asked them to light a fire to keep warm and then went to sleep. I also prepared to leave with my people. Before that, I needed to tell them one thing: "Throw Yu San into jail and don't sell him. Tomorrow, wait for my order. Come to the government office if you have nothing to do. Come."
I retrieved all the files compiled by "them", held them in my hands, and put them on my back. Looking at the place where the grain was stored, it seemed that the families who depended on the big families had a very hard life. Few of them could wear better clothes. Some men even wore women's clothes, or women wore men's clothes. This matter did not stop until the second half of the night. I suspected that in some families, men, women, old and young joined the battle together, because a yellow and worn-out linen suit with a black patch on the left shoulder and a white patch on the right shoulder flashed in front of me several times. Later, I heard from Hua Rong that he had seen it a total of six times.
Everyone met up, no one was sleepy, and Nan, who was jumping and jumping to find the two unlucky families in the east, was the most excited. It can be assumed that the words of these officials should not be deceiving, and now we know that the surname of the southeast is Liu and the surname of the northeast is Xu. Deng Mao proposed to go back and deal with Xu Zheng, the old man, and Nan proposed to kill the prefect Liu. I put aside his idea that was useless for the time being and asked everyone how we should deal with the affairs of this city.
They asked me how I could trust these jailers and runners. How could they let me into the city based on all the problems I could see
They casually offended their superiors in their words, lived in the prison in tattered clothes, and talked to me honestly for an hour, and there was no flaw between them. If these people cannot be trusted, then they are all outstanding people.
"If you agree with us leaving tomorrow, go back to bed now. If not... there's a lot to do."
People were very busy that night, and snow was falling with the west wind, so everyone was busy.
According to the officials and the files, the common people were like slaves to these two families. Most of the people who committed crimes were sent to jail because they offended the two families. There were also a few who could not pay back the grain to their families and were probably unwilling to sell themselves to them. There were more than 20 files on hand, and the men were actually "dead". Some of them committed suicide, some could not bear the torture, some had ulcers, and some even drowned in the cesspool. However, the seven women were relatively well in jail, and nothing happened to them.
I went to the bonfire and called a local citizen. When I called him, he was scared to death. Hua Rongsheng said that he had come twice before. To reassure him, I gave him another bucket of rice and asked him to tell me the situation.
The food stores and inns in the city are all under the east city wall, and they are all owned by these two. In summer, the southeast wind is strong and the rain is heavy, but in winter, it is relatively mild, so these two inns are hiding under the east city wall, which is considered to be good at finding a place. Many merchants come and go here, and they all go in and out from the north gate and the east gate, that is, they go there. Some of the familiar customers of these two inns can even be exempted from paying taxes, so the officials naturally have no way to deal with it.
After seeing off the commoner, I walked up to the city wall with a heavy heart. There was not even a single soldier on the city wall. It seemed that this place was really very peaceful, as if I had come to the wrong place. However, this problem seemed to be more troublesome than the problem of movement. The city was surrounded by water on three sides. The water came from the west and went around the south to the east. Only the north, where we came from, was a dry road. There was a floating bridge on the southeast of the water, which was vaguely visible in the snow light. The water was vast and had not yet frozen. It was quiet and peaceful and passed slowly. Outside the water, there were pieces of gray shadows of different heights scattered. In comparison, the east was even denser. I followed the river flow, and went around the city wall from west to south and then east. I paid more attention to the pavilions and towers under my feet and in front of me. Late at night, it was not very quiet here. Occasionally, a lady holding a lamp hurriedly passed by, or a few children carrying something hurriedly walked into a hall with lights. I didn't know if anyone saw me, but I thought they should have known that I was coming.
It seems that the south gets white earlier in winter. Unlike me who was waiting for the dawn in bed, there was already some light in the east of the pond at the time of Mao. I don't know when the snow stopped, but fog was falling on the flat ground. I was still by the south wall, watching the gray shadow in front of me slowly become clear and gradually covered with a layer of white gauze, and the hills of different heights wrapped in white silk, and the green silk in front of me, tightly wrapped around this pond. And the Xiou Luoyue that can't be seen behind the hills, such a place makes me feel so depressed, which is something I couldn't imagine when I came here. What would Yinling do if she came? I was still full of confidence a day ago, but now I began to hesitate.
Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves could be heard from below the parapet. A man reined in his horse and shouted, "Marquis Yue, people from the Liu and Xu families are here to see you."
"I know. I'll come right away!" I shouted loudly, thinking that I would have to spend the New Year in Tanzhong this year. I immediately had an idea and stopped the person and asked him to come to the city.
I did not go back to the yamen directly. Instead, I dragged Nan, who was yawning in a cloak on the side of the road, and took dozens of people directly to Dongcheng. I asked the messenger to take a letter to Huarong, Gaosheng and others, asking them to take turns dragging the people who came, so that all the brothers could sleep peacefully.
The inn was completely empty that day, so I thought it was just right, so I booked all of them. There weren't too many rooms, just over 30, and I thought I had enough people, so I gave each of them a room, filling them all up. The selection criteria were based on the degree of red eyes. Immediately, someone behind me said that it was not good, saying that someone's red eyes had not healed. I naturally ignored it, and Nan also left me here to catch up on my sleep, and told the guys to just close the door. Before I finished making arrangements, I felt that the entire inn was shaking with snoring.
I went to the rice shop. That day I was wearing armor, and I asked a soldier to look at me. He described my eyes as bloodshot, my hair was a little messy, my face was a little dark, and my brows were furrowed. It was scary, and the description was very real. I saw that most people were like me. I had my hair done, which was good. I even pulled out a few strands of hair and spread them on my head. I was also ordered not to reveal my identity, otherwise I would not be allowed to sleep for three days. Obviously, this was the best warning and deterrent method at this time.
"Someone come, someone come!" I sat on the cabinet at the door, leaning on my gun, and shouted inside.
"This... military master." I hope that most of the sensible ones are waiting for me in the government office. Most of those who stay here are fools. It seems that I am lucky this time: "What do you want?"
"Of course I'm here to buy grain. I'm staying at your inn? You want me to sleep on the grain stack? Don't waste your words. I'll buy whatever you have. Why are you wasting your words?" I deliberately didn't look at him and asked rudely in a northern accent, "How much is it?"
"You don't know, sir, we have no rice today."
"No rice?" I jumped up, scaring the guys in front of me so much that they retreated straight back. "Damn it, guys, search for me."
Naturally, these people could not stop us who were as ferocious as wolves and tigers. They immediately used their local accents, and for a moment, the shouting and cursing of the Qing, Xu, Yan and Ji areas filled the entire rice shop.
"You have such a big rice shop, but you don't even have a rice warehouse?" I asked him with a smile, "You don't even have a vacant space. How do you sell grain on weekdays? Where do you store your rice?"
"General, you don't know that we only collect paddy here, but we don't sell rice. After we collect it, we send it to the warehouse of your house, so naturally there is no need for space here." The man said with a smile, bending over.
"Why did you open the door in the middle of winter, especially during this heavy snow?" I pointed the tip of my gun outside. "Besides, you're the only granary in the city. How can the people buy rice?"
"You don't know, sir. Every day, merchants and grain teams come here to transport grain. They come to my place or the inn for the Xu family to collect. They collect not only grain, but also salt, vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, cloth and silk. Those mud husks belong to either my master or the Xu family's master. My master needs them to do his work. If they do their job honestly, they will be rewarded with rice and salt. If they do their job well, they will be rewarded with some old clothes. They live on these."
"What did your master assign you to do?" I asked with great interest. But he suddenly felt that he had let something slip and hurriedly said he didn't know.
"Damn it, he's a monkey, so cunning, take him back and beat him to death." I pretended to be furious. Frightened, they knelt down and told the truth.
I was very satisfied and shouted to my brothers, "Brothers, follow me back."
Those people must have waited for a long time, but so what, who dared not wait for me? I asked everyone to go to bed, and I took a bath, combed my hair, shaved my beard, put on loose clothes and a wide belt, and walked in leisurely.
And I haven't felt sleepy at all until now.
Usually there are two situations when the local bumpkins meet the princes: one is consistent in appearance and the other is not. Considering that the previous Yue Hou died in the north of here, it is also in Tanzhong, so I have to be wary of these guys who are full of flattery, especially after knowing the situation of the inn and the rice shop.
I looked at them without saying a word. I had intended to drag them down and chop them to pieces, and ransack their house, but I finally held back. But my silence made them hold back at first, but in the end, it actually caused them to whisper.
"I'm in a dilemma." I finally watched them start to lie. I guess I'm very talented in this area. Later, I worked with Lie Ya to deceive people, so I was even more familiar with it. "When I left, I specifically summoned Xu Situ and Liu Taishou..."
They looked at me expectantly, but I paused for a long moment and said, "My people just checked. You are in charge of the trading here. You collect salt and grain from merchants from the north and south, and then sell them to the Xiou and Luoyue people."
They dared not say anything, not to say yes or no. So, I was happy to be quiet for a while before saying, "The previous Yue Hou was a descendant of the emperor, but he died just after arriving in the north of Tanzhong. This account should be attributed to the southerners. The emperor just sent Lord Jia to investigate this matter..."
"Don't worry, sir. We are selling official salt..." I almost laughed. There are people who are courting death. "You don't know that this Lord Jia Cong is the official in charge of salt and iron. I don't know if your customers can bear the charge of colluding with southerners. I don't know if you can handle it."
The group of people seemed to have fallen into the trap, and they kowtowed loudly, begging me to protect them. I had the idea of ordering everyone to drag them away and beat them up with the Tianlang, but then I remembered that I didn't bring that brother with me; or, based on their size, I could stew them with some onions, ginger, and garlic and feed them to the dogs, but I thought there were not many dogs in the city, so I could only wait for them to become smelly and throw them away. I hesitated for a while.
"I don't want to disturb that gentleman, nor do I want to let down Situ Xu and Governor Liu. I have sent people to fill up your inn and shut down your grain and rice shops. You should keep an eye on the situation for the next half month. Don't do these businesses and stay out of the spotlight. Give some relief to the people, and you may even get some rewards. We'll talk about the rest later."
After sending the gang away, I woke up Gao Sheng and asked him to go back to sleep in place of Liu Nan. I wrote a document on a wooden board and tied it up with a wooden board. A moment later, Nan came forward yawning and stretching his waist. I tied his belt tightly for him, straightened his armor and told him to do three things: first, select a dozen capable guards to accompany him to Guangxin with the letter; second, deliver my letter to his brother-in-law and my wife for discussion; third, take care of Lord Jia, help him check the situation of salt and iron, and protect him from being disturbed.
In fact, there is a fourth thing, but it is not considered official business, and it would not be recorded in the spring and autumn in Confucius' time because it was not in accordance with etiquette: Go away, I need to sleep for a while.
After sleeping for a while, he suddenly woke up and called the officials to bring the seven women in the prison.
The first woman's husband had died, she owed the Liu family money, and after burying her husband, she was too weak to help move the goods. I looked her up and down, asked who the socks belonged to, and decided to marry her to the person who answered the question.
The second one married the original owner of her clothes.
The third one was sent back home and rewarded with a set of clothes, shoes and socks.
This continued until the seventh one, who was also a widow. I was silent for a long time and asked others to bring Yu San over. When Yu San knelt on the ground, I took out a wooden stick from the side and asked the widow to beat him. The widow refused, so I started. After two or three hits, Yu San was already lying on the ground. The widow rushed forward to beg for mercy, and everyone else also begged for mercy on his behalf. I dismissed Yu San from his position and let him marry the widow and work as a handyman in the county government.
That night I also went to "visit" the Liu and Xu families, comforted them, gave them instructions, and more importantly, looted them. I came back and divided the spoils among everyone, and the newcomers got the most.
In the next few days, I had people guard at each gate, and all the merchants were "invited" to come to the county government office, because they had no place to go anyway. I confiscated their things, locked them up first, interrogated them, and put them on the list. I bluffed them for two days, but in the end I let them go. I also taught them in a serious manner that the goods that were not allowed outside were related to the Liu and Xu families. If they were willing to sign a pledge that these goods were sold to local people, I could compensate them with some coins. I also issued an order that everyone should eat and sleep every day. Hua Rong smiled and said that this was the treatment of pigs. If I didn't allow them to do it for a few days, they would be treated like dogs. Deng Mao frowned and asked Gao Sheng what this meant. Gao Sheng felt that we would live a life worse than pigs and dogs. After that, everyone laughed. However, I still let the "pigs" have something to do, and asked everyone to take some time off from eating and sleeping to register the people and understand the situation of each family again. Occasionally, the team went out hunting, but they could not go far and explore the surrounding situation. As for me, I would often harass those two families unexpectedly as a "pig head" to make sure they couldn't do anything.
Two days later, the Liu and Xu families finally got wind of the merchants who had let go, and brought generous gifts to express their gratitude. I accepted them without hesitation, and asked them carefully whether they had any recent business appointments with the southerners. They really did, and I was worried that if they didn't agree, the southerners might take action, and how would they deal with it. They seemed unsure about this, and they talked to each other for a while, and I waited expectantly. In the end, they didn't know, and thought that it would be okay if they didn't go once. After a while, they suddenly proposed to sell them the things I had detained, so that they could go to do business, and everything would be fine.
No, I said firmly and righteously, gently and politely, I can't bear the responsibility. I also promised them sincerely that I would let it go this time and come back later.
In the past two days, the sky cleared up, and in the next few days, it suddenly became hot, just like the early summer in April in Jingzhou. Wearing only underwear and a single shirt, you can sweat a lot if you do a little bit of strength. The white silk ribbon turned into drizzle under the eaves overnight, and faded away from the whole earth when you looked up with the southeast wind. In addition to causing everyone to curse the weather, they were also surprised. Only Huarong was unmoved. I know his father must have described it. In addition, on the way to Tanzhong, he told me that he had heard his father mention that it seemed that the hills in the south of Tanzhong were a barrier. Further south, Wu'an and Zhongliu had four seasons of spring and summer. Looking further south, there was only early summer and midsummer in Bushan. Even so, the winter here is a bit cold, and it is still wet and cold, and it does not last more than a month. The snow a few days ago was not considered a disaster in the north, even in Jingzhou, but it was a big disaster here. Many fruits and vegetables planted in all seasons would rot at this time. This is why it is called a disaster.
One day, I suddenly woke up from a dream and called everyone together. They all looked tired, so I criticized them harshly. I told them that they had been living like pigs for a few days, and they really thought they were pigs. They were lazy at noon. After listening to their reports on the local people's situation, I explained the reason for my awakening: "These people are not fools. They were fine in the past few days, but I am afraid that they will start to suspect us in the next few days. If they send a letter and conspire to harm us, and recreate the previous incident, things will not be very fun." After hearing what I said, everyone looked at each other. Deng Mao muttered that he was afraid he would be treated like a dog.
The four of us gathered in front of the map, and I explained the situation to everyone, "At present, we still have more than 10,000 kilograms of food left, which is enough for us to wait for more than ten days. The reinforcements from Cangwu may take a few days. There is still enough time for us. If it really doesn't work, we can find a reason to capture the Liu guy. Food is not a problem. The key is that it has been sunny in recent days. The weather is fine. They will definitely ask to do business with the southerners. I pretended to be a fool before, but now it's hard to pretend to be righteous. Let them go, they will inevitably be wary of us. If they are fools and we are weak, this will be troublesome."
I drew a circle on the map with my hand. "After several days of inspections, all the merchants came from Wu'an in the south, and there were none from the north. In the past, they would go around Wu'an and enter the west of Tanzhong. They would go to the westernmost settlement in Tanzhong, which is also the westernmost ferry in Tanzhong. They would take a boat down the tributary of Tanshui and enter Tanshui, and land at Tanzhong Waijin."
There is a question here, why not go through the middle. Everyone asked this question after hearing what I said. It was very obvious from the map that Wu'an was close to the south of Tanzhong, and at most a hill was drawn in the middle. In Deng Mao's words, it was three thick bird hairs coming and going. Especially Huarong was very sure that there was a mountain road in the middle. His father had walked through it, and light vehicles, mules and horses could pass through. The group was even more puzzled.
I drew a line in the middle with my hand and followed Deng Mao's words with a slight modification: "There must be someone behind these three máo. It could be the Liu and Xu families blocking the road, or they may have ordered the southerners to do it."
"Marquis Yue, why can't the southerners do this alone to rob the trade routes? In this way, the price of rice has doubled and the price of salt has quadrupled. They make less money selling it. They want to prevent others from doing business, but why do they want to block their own financial path?"
"Lao Gao must have a lot of reasons. Why?"
"Wu'an... Hey, Deng Mao, what are those words? Forget about mao just now, but why is this related to buttocks?"
"I learned it from Huarong."
"When did I say that?" Hua Rong quickly explained.
"You have been with me for a long time, right? Isn't 腚 just the buttocks?"
Everyone looked at each other for a moment, and I felt a cold sweat on my head. In order to avoid getting entangled in such a sticky and smelly issue, I quickly got back to the topic.
"This ass... uh, no, it's Wu'an." For this, I almost decided to slap Deng Mao first: "There are many hills between Wu'an and Tanzhong, but there are also flat roads. You can get there in half a day by mule and horse. The floating bridge is solid, so there is no problem going back and forth in a day."
At this point, he stopped for a moment, feeling angry. Looking at everyone's faces gradually becoming distorted, he finally patted Deng Mao's head, and everyone's facial expressions immediately became calmer.
"I have asked the county lieutenant and others in this city. As long as letters and official documents are exchanged, they can reach Zhongliu in one day, and Bushan can get a reply in three days. Just go straight to Nanshun Avenue." I spread my hands: "Why can't rice and salt pass through?"
Frankly speaking, I don't fully understand it. It takes five or six days to go from Wu'an to Tanzhong without encountering any storms. If there were no major passes in between Wu'an and Tanzhong, they would not have mobilized so many troops and traveled so far. I wonder if it was because if they could go back and forth in one day, the sellers would have thought the price was not right and turned back. But now, if the sellers don't sell the rice and salt after seven or eight days of traveling, it would be a big loss. But if that's the case, who would be willing to sell to them? It's better to sell nearby. Of course, the reward given by the Liu Xu family can allow them to bring in batches, so what are these unknown obstacles in the middle
Suddenly I seemed to have some clues. Salt and iron were scarce in Jiaozhou (the real situation at that time). At the northern pass, salt and iron were allowed to enter but not to leave. Because of the Wuling barbarians in the south of Jingzhou, grain, salt and iron were strictly prohibited from being circulated and sold to these southerners, especially salt and iron, to avoid trouble. There must be something wrong with Wu'an.
I seemed to feel that something was wrong here, but I didn't know what it was. The sun was shining outside, so I asked them to accompany me for a walk.
The biggest difference from the north at this time of year is that Jiaozhou is always green. The trees here are also very different from those in the north. The government office is full of things I can't recognize. Huarong can't name a few. Those two can be ignored directly. At most, Deng Mao will give them some rather strange names. There is a tree with an ordinary trunk, but there is a gap at the tip of the leaf surface, which looks like a sheep's hoof. Deng Mao's shape is similar to the mark of a child sitting on a wooden board. When I asked someone, the locals really called it a sheep's hoof leaf tree (sheep's hoof pod), but it is also called a child's butt tree in private. Families who are looking forward to having children often plant one. I saw another tree with a body like bamboo, but the leaves are like cracked tortoise shells, which is called Monstera; there is also a tree with a tall trunk and thorns (kapok), and there are also high-hanging pearls that look like phoenix tails (Phoenix tail sunflower), which really made us forget ourselves and didn't know where we were.
"Everywhere has its own things. I've never seen these things in Guangxin even though they're only a few hundred miles away." I was suddenly moved by my own words. It happened that County Lieutenant Leng came to greet me, and I asked him right away, "Do you know the name of the county magistrate and county lieutenant of Wu'an?"
"The city is ruled by Lord Shifeng alone."
"What is your relationship with the scholar-official from Jiaozhi?"
"Brother."
I suddenly understood and walked away.
It was the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth lunar month of the first year of the Chuping reign of the Han Dynasty. I stood at the gate of the government office, looking at the movement in the courtyard to the east, and said, "It's the New Year."