Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 198 0193 [Village Cavalry]

In Lei Ze County, the Sun family belongs to the new rich and powerful, while the Qian family is the old and famous family (the descendants of the founding general Qian Shoujun).

The two families used to be related by marriage, and even the Sun family first made a fortune with the support of the Qian family.

At that time, the Sun family had a son who passed the exams, and the Qian family married a daughter to cultivate him.

Afterwards, the official careers of the two families were bleak, and they seldom became high-ranking officials.Especially during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty, bandits in Puzhou rebelled, Zhizhou and the supervising army were tied up, and the Qian and Sun families were also burned, killed and looted. The Qian family has not yet recovered.

After Wang Tian left the city, he didn't dare to go to the territory of these two big families.

To be on the safe side, he detoured for several miles from the southern suburbs and then headed west, carefully avoiding the villages controlled by the Qian family.

In a village, Wang Tian shouted: "Where is Wei Dian? I am the county magistrate, let him see you quickly!"

Hearing that the county magistrate had come to this point, the villagers were terrified and hurried to find the village elder and the head of the village.

Not long after, an old man was surrounded and cautiously came to greet him: "Old man..."

Wang Tian was very anxious at this moment, and interrupted directly: "Get Wei Dian quickly, I want to appoint him as the head of the archer!"

The old man happily said: "Wei Dian is at Er Weng's house..."

"drive!"

Before the old man finished speaking, Wang Tian galloped out.

He came to the village last year and accompanied the eunuch to recruit Taoist priest Wei Erweng.

This is also a true Taoist cultivating inner alchemy. He only knows his surname Wei, the second child, and he is still healthy and healthy in his seventies.Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty admired his reputation for conquest, but Wei Erweng avoided seeing him, and even cast a little "magic" to scare the eunuch away.

Riding to Wei Erweng's house, Wang Tian shouted, "Wei Dian, come out!"

There were only a few thatched huts in front of him. Wang Tian shouted for a long time, but no one answered.

Suddenly I heard a voice behind me: "Why is the county magistrate looking for me?"

Li Bao looked back, but saw an old man and a strong man, both carrying hoes on their shoulders.

The robust young man was lame and had tattoos on his face.

Wang Tian said happily: "Wei Dian, this county enlists you as the capital, quickly pick up your weapons and follow me into the city!"

"No." The young man named Wei Dian didn't give the county magistrate any face.

The villagers gradually followed and persuaded Wei Dian to agree.The people of this village have become public servants, so they can take care of everyone at ordinary times, and it is not so cruel to be exploited by the government.

Wei Dian sneered: "I killed the bandit, but was imprisoned by Sun's family and exiled to Hebei to serve as the bandit's army. I made great achievements in suppressing bandits in Hebei, but not only did I not receive rewards, I didn't even get my leg wound healed. Still serving as a soldier, how can I get the slightest benefit?"

Wang Tian asked, "Do you want revenge?"

Wei Dian said: "I have many enemies, which one is the county magistrate talking about?"

Wang Tian said: "The magistrate came to this county in person and arrested the Sun family brothers. Now they are blocked by the Xianyi society in the county government. If you enlist, you will be able to take revenge. In the future, if the Sun family brothers are transferred to the state city, you will also have to come and escort them. The horse thief robs the prison car!"

"Do you really want to punish the Sun family?" Wei Dian was dubious.

Bai Sheng took out a piece of paper from his pocket: "Zhu Zhizhou has an order. Puzhou is exhausted, the people are poor, and the burden has long been overwhelmed. Next year's land money should be reduced to seventy yuan per bucket!"

As soon as this remark came out, there was an instant sensation.

The village elder and Baozheng rushed over excitedly, and hurriedly asked, "But really?"

Bai Sheng said: "Can there be any lies in Zhizhou's words? Say it to make you play tricks?"

After everyone thought about it, it was indeed the case, Zhizhou didn't need to joke about it.

This thing was originally called "Zhiyi", that is, due to special circumstances, people did not pay taxes locally, but had to be sent to a designated place.Generally, it is based on the village insurance as the unit, and everyone apportions the transportation fee, and selects some young and strong to pay the food.

For example, to pay taxes, the people in Shaanxi sometimes have to travel four or five hundred miles to deliver food to the front line.

Ten years ago, Cai Jing carried out reforms on this, and did not allow the people to "transfer", and changed everything to "money from the ground".The people only need to send the grain to the county government, and the government will handle the rest, but everyone has to pay extra.

The land foot money, 56 Wen per bucket, is already equivalent to the regular tax.

It was first implemented on Jingxi Road, and then extended to the whole country.To put it more directly, it is to double the land tax from farmers!
However, local officials took advantage of the opportunity to exploit the common people and implemented them at the grassroots level, often taxing them several times.Give double to the court, and keep the rest.The fourth and fifth-class households in the countryside can't produce enough food to pay taxes, and there are not many people who sell cattle and fields.

Due to the civil unrest, an edict was issued six years ago to exempt the odds, and then exempted the fifth-class households whose taxes were not as good as fighting.

The income on Jingdong Road is particularly high, because land acquisition is serious, and there are too many hidden fields to collect taxes.There are too many apportionments of money and purchases from large households, and there are often arrears, so they have to find compensation from ordinary people.

The imperial court stipulated 56 coins per bucket, and Zhu Ming ordered the reduction to 70 coins. It was clear that 14 coins were charged in miscellaneous taxes, but these villagers were very excited.

With double collection of land tax and illegal increase of 14 renminbi, Ju Ming can be regarded as the master of the blue sky!

Wang Tian was also taken aback when he heard the words, it turned out that Zhizhou had reservations about him.

It is Zhu Ming's trick to lower the cost of the land. He coerces and lures the landlords to cooperate with Fang Tian.

Wang Tian had already guessed what Zhu Ming was doing, and honestly cooperated with Fang Tian, ​​and lowered the price of land.Those who do not cooperate honestly will be charged double, but actually pay more taxes.

If it can be strictly enforced, the landlords will definitely be willing to cooperate.

But the landlords are also worried, that is, after Ju Ming leaves office, he will leave and the government will leave, and he will have to pay more land taxes and more money for the land.By that time, life was even more difficult.

No matter what happens in the future, Wang Tian seized the opportunity and said: "Zhizhou is so caring and caring for the people. Today, he was blocked in the county government office by bad people. His life may be in danger sooner or later. Why don't you just sit back and let the good officials who are dedicated to the people die? Do you want to pay less money!"

Wei Dian threw away the hoe: "I will go with you to save Zhizhou!"

Baozheng said, "I'm going too."

Wang Tian said: "Bring all the horses in the village that are worthy of riding, and they will return them afterwards!"

Except for pregnant, sick, old and weak horses, there are four horses in the whole village that can be ridden.This is all due to the Jingdong Road Horse Administration. Landlords with a little wealth must raise horses for the government.

Although it is too often used as a war horse, it is absolutely no problem to ride on the road.

Wang Tian recruited four "cavalrymen" in the village, and immediately rushed to the next village.

Don't talk nonsense, just take out the tax reduction order.

Hearing that it can reduce the cost of the land, those small and medium landlords, even big landlords, fearing that such a good Zhizhou would be in danger, they sent young and strong people from the village to rescue.

In just half a day, Wang Tian had more than 60 riders under his command.

Although the horses are weak and the weapons are various, more than 60 riders can still run with momentum.

……

The county town is surrounded by suburbs.

The thieves who were also riding bad horses were sent out to inquire about the news.

These guys wanted to ambush the county magistrate, but Wang Tian took a detour as soon as he left the city, avoiding the eyes of Qian and Sun's family, so that the horse bandits didn't know where the county magistrate came back from.

In the middle of the afternoon, a horse bandit guarding the northern outskirts of the county suddenly heard the sound of rumbling horseshoes.

Looking from the small slope, he could basically confirm that the county magistrate had returned, so he quickly took out his whistle and blew it while running.

"Shut! Shout!"

The horse bandits in the northern suburbs gradually gathered, whistling to call for more companions.

Their number is too small at present, there are only eight people, but there are dozens of horses on the county magistrate's side.

"Second brother, to the north, the county magistrate is to the north!"

"Call people, all go to the north of the city!"

The bandit leader Xu Er immediately rode his horse and galloped, gathering his men along the way.

Before he arrived at the scene, Wang Tian had already collided with several horse bandits.

"Bai Er, how many people do you take to protect the county magistrate," Li Bao took out his bow and arrows, and ordered, "The rest, follow me to kill the robbers!"

"What?" Bai Sheng didn't hear clearly.

There is no way to command at all, a group of young men recruited temporarily, not good at riding, and riding bad horses.The orders were all yelled, and they were completely inaudible when running. In this case, only one person rushed to the front, and the rest of the young and strong rushed forward in a swarm.

Li Bao drove his horse closer, changed his mind and said, "You protect the county magistrate and enter the city, and I will deal with the robbers!"

"Good!" Bai Sheng shouted.

Li Bao took the reins and left the army, Wei Dian could see clearly, and immediately shouted: "I'll go with you!"

Two people and two horses rushed straight to the eight horse bandits.

Landlords are forced by the government to raise horses, basically as livestock, which can be used for pulling and grinding loads, but it is too nonsense to use them for horse warfare.

But the mare under Li Bao's crotch, although not a good horse, was given plenty of forage bean cakes, and he even consulted a horse breeder for advice.He walks and rides the horse every day, giving the horse enough exercise, which is already at the level of an ordinary war horse.

At this moment, he sped up and ran, throwing Wei Dian away in an instant, and Li Bao started to charge single-handedly.

Relying on the large number of people, the horse bandits also surrounded and killed Li Bao first.

Of the eight horse thieves, three had bows and one had a crossbow.

Li Bao took the lead in drawing the bow and setting the arrow. Seeing this, the horse thief immediately raised the bow and crossbow to fight back.

Both sides are charging, the distance is about twenty or thirty steps.

Li Bao's arrow did not hit the bandit horse, but hit the poor horse in his crotch.The bad horse went mad from the pain and threw the horse bandit off on the spot.

The opponent's four arrows also shot one after another, and the aim was too far away, not even hurting Li Bao's hair.

Li Bao hung his bow and raised his spear, when the two sides were staggered, he straightened out a spear and stabbed out, knocking down a horse bandit in front of him, taking advantage of the momentum and rushing out of the enemy's encirclement.

Wei Dian rode his horse and followed, holding a simple knife and roaring: "Wei Zhuang Wei Da is here!"

Although this guy had a lame leg, he was quite famous in Lei Ze County, so the horse bandits ran away in a hurry.

Wei Dian's mount was too bad, and the horse bandits turned around and ran away again. He couldn't catch up with his horse racing wildly, and it was difficult to show his abilities.

Li Bao was on the rise, after he overthrew a horse bandit, he had already charged far away.He reined in his horse and turned back, trying to hunt down the remaining few.

The eight horse bandits disappeared as soon as they met, and they were inevitably frightened.

"The idea is tough, go find the second brother first." The remaining six horse bandits scattered and fled.

At this time, Li Bao was not yet a navy general who wiped out [-] people with [-] people.He completely forgot what his mission was. He was so hot-headed that he only knew about chasing the enemy, but when he actually caught up with one person, he easily overthrew him with a gun in his hand.

"return!"

Wei Dian yelled and yelled no, and couldn't catch up, so he had to get off his horse to pick up the spoils.

He picked up a bow and crossbow, and replaced the simple knife with a hand knife.I also picked up two bad horses in vain, and the other one was hit by an arrow and ran away.

Make up the knife smoothly, and send the horse bandit who is not dead to the west.

Li Bao, who was chasing after him on horseback, suddenly saw more than ten enemies approaching in front of him.His feverish head woke up in an instant, and he reined in his horse and laughed loudly: "I won't beat you today, just wash your neck and wait for me to behead another day!"

"Kill that bird man!" the bandit leader Xu Er shouted.

Li Bao turned around and fled, relying on the speed of his horse, he quickly threw the enemy away.

But Wang Tian and Bai Sheng returned to the city with dozens of young and strong riders, only to find that the city gate was closed in broad daylight.

Wang Tian scolded angrily: "I am Wang Tian, ​​the magistrate of the county, open the city gate quickly, and you will not be able to murder the county?"

"Don't dare," said the soldier guarding the city, "there are bandits outside, we just closed the city, the county lord will wait for a while."

Slowly, the city gate opened.

Wang Tian led people straight to the county government.

(End of this chapter)