stand back, let me come

Chapter 1160: Store Up Food (Part 1160) [Seeking a Monthly Ticket]

"Pfft—you shut up—gurgle gurgle gurgle—"

The man had not yet finished his harsh words when he was forced to choke on several mouthfuls of stream water.

Just when he thought he was doomed, a force pulled his hair and pulled him out of the water. He coughed awkwardly, greedily breathing in the precious air. The next moment, two fingers precisely pinched his neck: "Last chance!"

The man was forced to meet those dead eyes.

It was so calm, as if I was looking at a dead person.

The man's teeth knocked up and down uncontrollably. Feeling the force of the fingers constantly contracting and the breath of death approaching, he finally broke down and shouted: "I said - I said, I said it!"

Shen Tang patted his wet face: "That's right."

After saying this, he winked at his own people, and the nearest ranger understood and soon dug out the hidden token from the place the man told him to hide. It was called a token, but in fact it was an official certificate.

Certificate of official appointment.

She played with the token and smiled with satisfaction.

“Yes, this thing is real.”

"You've got the stuff, can I..." He could only pin his hope of survival on the conscience of these bandits.

But don’t you think that they are all bandits, how can they have any conscience?

"What are you standing there for? Drag him away and kill him."

The hope in the man's eyes was completely annihilated, followed by overwhelming anger, and he cursed: "You thief, you don't keep your word!"

"Can you believe a thief's words?"

He raised his hand and [Silence], and the world became quiet.

No matter how hard the man struggled, he was no match for the two young rangers on his left and right. He was dragged away like a pig to be slaughtered. After a while, bright red liquid flowed from upstream to downstream. General Shen Tang stuffed the mule into his arms and turned over to straddle the mule's back.

"Now that we have the stuff, let's go take up the post!"

The corpses were cleaned up, leaving only the bloodstains on the ground silently telling of the bloody incident that happened not long ago. Shen Tang raised his arm and called out, and a group of rangers responded. When Shen Tang asked about the whereabouts of Guan Pei, these people had already stripped off the clothes of the guards.

Xiahou Yu and Gu De looked at each other.

They all saw some complexity in each other's eyes.

A few days ago, they were still discussing how to take root.

Becoming a bandit and ruling the mountain is the lowest cost option, but the risk is relatively high. If the local government is tough, they can easily be defeated by the other side as a political achievement. As a second choice, they can observe for a while and take a look at the situation in Qi State, then find a force to rely on. Their freedom will be restricted to a certain extent, but the advantage is that the environment is stable and the cost of living is guaranteed, and they can parasitize this force to develop themselves. The third suggestion is to join the army. The unrest in Qi State is a good opportunity to fish in troubled waters!

If you are lucky, you can find a place.

Unexpectedly, the Lord rejected all three suggestions.

[You two have too high a moral bottom line...] It's not that Xiahou Yu and the others' suggestions are bad. In fact, all three paths are feasible. The problem is that Shen Tang doesn't have that much patience to take it slow. [Good people do good things, and bad people do bad things.]

Shen Tang doesn't think he is a good person.

That's the bad guy.

She sneered: [Since you are a bad person, if you want something, you can't follow the rules to earn it, just rob it directly. ]

Xiahou Yu had to remind Shen Tang.

[My Lord, we are short of manpower. ]

How can two or three hundred unorganized and undisciplined knights attack cities and seize land? The Qi Kingdom has not completely collapsed, so it is easy to deal with them. If you want to really take root, you must at least have a popular foundation. Even if you don't expect these common people to help you, at least they won't stab you in the back.

  Otherwise, how to gain a foothold?

[Do you think I want you to attack the county town? ]

Xiahou Yu was puzzled: [Isn’t it? ]

  If not this, what else can we grab?

Shen Tang smiled and shook his head, saying, "To attack a county town with such a small number of people is to send people to their deaths. I certainly won't let everyone die. What I mean is, we go and rob the person who is about to take office. After we take his official credentials, we will take his place!"

Kill officials who are about to take office.

This is easier to do than directly attacking counties and towns.

The phenomenon of selling official positions and titles is quite serious in Qi State. Shen Tang and his team only need to wait for the unlucky people who are in remote places. The Rangers are well-informed and have mixed with all kinds of people. It is not difficult to find a suitable target. Shen Tang picked a unlucky person from them: [Let's kill this person! ]

Xiahou Yu thought: [This person is not suitable. ]

There are no barriers or safety precautions in the place where I took office.

He pointed at another unlucky guy.

The place where the unlucky guy is about to take up his post is not bad. If we can secretly replace his identity, we can save ourselves a lot of trouble.

However, Gu De set his eyes on another piece of land.

The reasons are also convincing.

The transportation in this area is relatively convenient, and there are waterways within the territory. It is a great advantage for us to settle down and make a living here.

Shen Tang’s reasons were different from those of the other two.

She said: [This man committed crimes repeatedly in the capital of Qi State. He bought an official position to avoid the limelight. For the sake of caution, he will keep a low profile after taking office and will not contact his family much. Now that he is dead, no one will investigate for a short time.]

The others were recommended to the position, so they would have connections and ability, and they might have relatives, students and former officials to help them in the position, so it would be easy to be exposed if they were replaced. The unlucky person chosen by Shen Tang was different, because he was a family outcast, and buying an official position to send him to another place was also for risk avoidance. From this point of view, the possibility of replacing him in the position is much greater than that of others.

Three unlucky guys, each with his own advantages.

Xiahou Yu and Gu De finally chose Shen Tang.

Only after you accomplish something can you consider other things.

After making a plan, the group planned to kill the group. The man took office with only a hundred guards and a concubine, leaving his wife and children in the capital. They were quite alert and discovered the murderous intention first.

It’s a pity that we are not strong enough.

"My Lord - we found a living person!"

Before the mule had taken two steps, a subordinate dragged a figure over and threw the figure in front of Shen Tang like trash. The figure was in tattered clothes, unkempt, and looked like a wild man. But after a closer look, the figure was clearly a woman. Shen Tang remembered that when he was intercepting the man just now, he did not see the man's concubine.

The woman also saw the guards' clothes draped over unfamiliar faces, and the familiar carriages and horses had changed owners. Her pretty face turned pale. How could she not understand that the group of people had been murdered? She was terrified, leaned back, and tried to retreat with her hands.

Xiahou Yu: "Are you going to kill him?"

Gu De: "Let's just kill him."

If she survives and brings the news to the outside world, the two or three hundred of them will be finished. But the master hasn't spoken yet.

The woman said in horror: "Don't kill me, please don't kill me, I am innocent, please don't kill me!"

Shen Tang: "Innocence is useless."

It is useful only if it is valuable.

She was just about to draw her sword and give the woman a quick death.

The woman obviously knew that Shen Tang had the intention to kill her, and there was no way she could escape. She made up her mind, "Let me live! As long as you promise not to kill me, I can help you! Otherwise, your identities will be exposed even if you take office!"

Shen Tang tightened the reins and controlled the mule to stop.

He looked down at the woman: "Really?"

The woman was so nervous that her heart was about to jump out of her throat, but she still pretended to be calm: "Yes! I can help you cover."

Shen Tang would not easily believe a woman's words. If she wanted her to believe, she had to produce evidence.

Seeing that Shen Tang's sword did not fall, the woman knew that she had made the right bet. She swallowed hard to relieve her dry and burning throat and tried to keep her voice from trembling. As she told the story one by one, Shen Tang realized that there was actually a hidden plot in this.

The man she just killed was not the original owner of the official certificate.

"Then who is he?"

Woman: "He is Langzhu's classmate."

Not only were they classmates, but they were also classmates who had a deep hatred for each other.

For the time being, let’s use A and B to replace the two people.

The real owner of the official certificate is the second-generation ancestor A, who is a womanizer and a drunkard. One day, classmate B fell in love with a woman who had fled. The woman sold herself to bury her father, and B was attracted by her appearance and offered money to buy her. However, he did not expect that when he asked someone to go back to get the money, the second-generation ancestor bought her first. Not only that, he also humiliated B.

Classmate B already held a grudge against me, and now his resentment is even deeper.

The second generation ancestor committed a crime, and his father and brothers were disappointed. They bought him a small official position and sent him out to avoid the limelight. Halfway through his journey, he was ambushed by classmate B and replaced by him quietly. Classmate B knew the second generation ancestor well and had already prepared a countermeasure.

Unexpectedly, another yellow bird appeared on the road.

The woman had no good feelings towards both men. The first one was a second-generation rich man who forced her to buy and sell. His wife had a strong personality and she beat and scolded him on the first day she got married. She also talked about her short-lived father, which caused her to have three miscarriages in a year and a half. The second one was just attracted to her looks, but somehow, he accused her of being fickle and selling her to two men.

She obviously didn't do anything.

Her arms were no match for her thighs, and she just wanted to survive.

She thought she could live by committing herself to him, but he was also short-lived and died tragically at the hands of bandits. She was at the mercy of others, and if she didn't want to die, she could only find a way to please these bandits.

Shen Tang cast his eyes towards Xiahou Yu and the other man.

"What do you think?"

Xiahou Yu shook his head: "She didn't lie."

"In that case, keep it."

Because Qi Yuanliang was not there, Shen Tang could not disguise herself as a man, so she asked Xiahou Yu, whose figure, temperament, and age were similar to those of the second-generation ancestor Jia, to do it. The woman had been a concubine of the second-generation ancestor Jia for more than a year, and she knew him quite well.

The crisis was temporarily resolved and the woman secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Xiahou Yu was puzzled: "Why didn't the Lord kill this man?"

The woman didn't lie, but she didn't tell the truth either.

As a concubine of commoner origin, the help she could provide was very limited. At most, she could tell them about the original owner's habits and interpersonal relationships. Xiahou Yu and others also sent people to inquire about this part. Although they could not hide the truth, they could fool them for a while.

It doesn’t matter whether you keep the woman or not.

Shen Tang said: "Maybe it's because of fate."

Xiahou Yu was puzzled: "Fate?"

Shen Tang smiled and said, "Her experience sounds like a fusion of Dream of Red Mansions and Journey to the West. Her life story is indeed quite pitiful. Killing her will not affect the overall situation, and not killing her will not affect the overall situation either... So what if I spare her life? As long as she doesn't seek death."

"You can kill or not, I usually choose not to kill."

Xia Houyu: "..."

If I remember correctly, the master has killed the most people along the way, right? Shen Tang was unhappy with his look and muttered, "Hey, don't I still need a wig? You and Yourong, who can make one? The wigs on the market are not good."

The woman's hair is nice.

The hair is shiny black, long, straight and thick.

Leave some for yourself, just right.

  The rangers she conquered had hair that was either dry and frizzy or in short supply, which Shen Tang didn't like. The only two she liked, Xiahou Yu and Gu De, said that one's hair was given by one's parents, and even refused to give them their hair!

Xia Houyu: "..."

This place is three days' journey by water from the next destination.

It takes three days for a woman to weave a beautiful wig.

Shen Tang withdrew his mind from Zixu's perspective.

Inside the tent, she stroked her thick black hair and said in a low voice, "Why didn't I think of this method back then? Oh, if I could do this, I don't know how many detours I could have avoided..."

Zixu's territory is much better than Wuyou's.

Although the territory is not large, the advantage is that you don't have to be exploited by others.

Yes, exploited.

The person who exploited Wu You was the patriarch of the Cui family, Cui Zhi.

When talking about this matter, Shen Tang became furious!

She has always been the one to exploit others, so when will it be someone else's turn to exploit her? Do you really think she is still the Shen Youli who was in Ha Yin and the neighbors around her were not easy to mess with? But unfortunately, many farmlands in the area under Wuyou's rule belong to the Cui family!

It takes people to reclaim wasteland.

Farming also requires people.

If Cui refused to cooperate, his rule would almost come to a standstill.

"Cui Jiro?"

Cui Mi smiled softly, as if she didn't know what was going on. "I haven't seen you for a few days, Sister Shen. Are you doing well?"

"Very good, I'm ready to give up."

Cui Mi was surprised: "Didn't Sister Shen just take office?"

"What are you talking about? Why don't you go back and ask your good father how much rent he wants to collect from the tenants!" If a noble family like the Cui family was in Kangguo, they would have been killed by me long ago, leaving only their ankles. "Wasn't it always 10% in the past?"

As soon as she took office, she raised the rent.

The common people under her rule knew at a glance that Cui was trying to punish her.

Cui Mi showed no surprise at all.

"Sister Shen is angry about this?"

Shen Wuyoutang asked back, "What else? What else could it be? Since your father is really trying to force me to leave, that's fine. I can just go ask Lady Cui if I have someone to accompany me on the journey!"

Cui Mi stepped forward to stop her: "Sister Shen must have misunderstood."

"Misunderstanding, what kind of misunderstanding could there be?"

"This is really not what my father intended."

"It wasn't his intention?"

Cui Mi: "The king's intention."

The royal court was short of food, and the ministers proposed increasing taxes.

The taxes in Qi State are different from those in other regions. The royal court will determine an average based on the annual harvest, and the counties in the territory will pay taxes based on this average, with the tax being equal in all regions. This move can guarantee the interests of the treasury, but there are drawbacks - the cultivated area and yield in each region are different. There are fertile lands and barren lands in Qi State. For example, Wuyou has many mountains, many rivers and few fields, and the per capita output is far below the average target line given by the royal court. In fact, it was not so serious at the beginning, but as young people ran away to other places due to the overwhelm, the population loss intensified, and the pressure became heavier and heavier.

This place has owed the royal court three years of taxes.

  |ω`)

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