The Demon Soul is Coming

() Xiaomei said: "Then what is his name now?"

Xiang Tiange smiled and said, "Bear donkey."

Liu Sang, Mo Mei, Xiao Huang: "..."

Xiaohuang whispered: "Xiong Lu? Isn't that just reading Lu Xiong upside down?"

"It's not Xionglu, it's Xionglu, a bear of a bear, a donkey of a donkey," Xiang Tiange said, "He said that he is now a member of the Mo sect. The strength of a chicken, dare not be a hero, it is better to call him a bear and a donkey. He also said that from now on everyone will call him a donkey. Anyway, many brothers in the family only have nicknames, no surnames and no surnames. He is more like Mo Disciple." ..

Mo Mei said: "But he is Mo Bian, not Mo Xia..."

Xiang Tiange said: "That's right, Mo Bian is a learned person, and most Mo Xias are just street dogs."

Mo Mei quickly shook her hand: "Brother Xiang, that's not what I meant."

Xiang Tiange joked, "That's what you mean."

Mo brows are red and ears are red.

Xiang Tiange smiled and said: "Actually, I also think that the name Xionglu is not good, so I also entrusted the brother who delivered the letter to ask him to change his surname after he goes back, just like those who were taken in by my Momen, who have no father and no mother. Orphans who joined the Mo Sect since they were young, it’s better to change their surname to Mo.”

Liu Sang, Mo Mei, Xiaohuang: "..." ..

Black donkey?

It's not as good as a bear donkey.

Xiang Tiange said: "Anyway, what little brother Lu means is that from now on, there will be no Lu Xiong in the world, only Ah Lu, and everyone will only use the name Lu Xiong."

Sure enough, I still read and read my brain.

But this is fine, Liu Sang originally thought it was weird to pretend to be someone else, but now that he has issued his obituary, "Lu Xiong is dead", there is no burden.

Next, he recited the materials and memorized the various relationships of the Lu family.But this is not too difficult for him.

When everything was almost ready, Liu Sang was about to leave the ship and pretend to be a descendant of a down-and-out family.Go to Winged City.This is in case Chu Tiannan investigates and finds that "Lu Xiong" suddenly appears near Youyi City without passing through other places, and becomes suspicious.

Xiaohuang wanted to go with him.She said that anyway, the princes and brothers of the aristocratic family will always have maids by their side.Liu Sang naturally refused, the fleeing son and brother.What is it to bring a maid?Besides, this trip to the wolf's lair is not guaranteed to be safe.

Although Xiaohuang would always listen to him as long as he made up his mind, he still explained a little bit, but before he finished talking, Mo Mei also said there.Why don't she go with her too, with one servant girl, and with two servant girls, if they follow, maybe they can help him with something.

Even Xiaomei said so.Liu Sang felt quite speechless.

But at the end of the day, they just didn't want to leave him?

Just thinking about their safety, he naturally would not agree. Fortunately, the two of them were already obedient and well-behaved, and it was originally a simple matter to persuade them.

He was alone and left the ship according to the plan...

***

Compared with other places, the cities and towns in Nanyuan are relatively more peaceful. This is because Nanyuan itself is relatively safe, while the Chu Clan is looking forward and backward. They are both ambitious and dare not directly join the civil war to dominate Hezhou. He still obeys the orders of the imperial court, but secretly colludes with Mr. Zhiyu. In addition, he is also a powerful man who has been in Nanyuan for a long time.

In the evening of this day, Liu Sang rented a boat and was resting on the boat, when there were repeated pleadings and beatings from the other side.

He went out of the cabin to look, and saw an old fisherman kneeling on the ground, begging bitterly, several big men laughed and cursed, and kicked him a few times from time to time, although there were some people watching, they dared not speak out.

Next to Liu Sang, the boatman sighed.

Liu Sang asked him what happened?The boatman said helplessly, "It's better not to ask me about this kind of thing."

Liu Sang knew this situation well, and these people said "don't ask, don't ask", as if I wouldn't tell you if you asked, but in fact, I was panicked, so I asked a few more questions .

The boatman said: "I also recognize that old man. His surname is Gu. He has been fishing here for generations. This time, he must not be able to afford the money."

Liu Sang said, "Participant money?"

The boatman said angrily: "This river has now been taken by the Cao An Gang. You said that our ancestors have lived here for generations. Why do those people write a few pieces of paper and the whole river becomes theirs? Now, not just Fishing, as long as it is a passing ship, all have to pay money to the Cao An Gang. Now there is chaos everywhere, and no one is in charge. The more small this kind of place is, the more deductions are made, and the money is getting heavier and heavier. You are so cold God, how many fish can you catch? It’s not enough to support the family, so where is the money to turn in?”

Liu Sang smiled wryly: "Actually, it's not just here, it's like this everywhere. Those who are shameless can't survive, and those who are shameless are arrogant."

The boatman said: "Oh, the world, the world..."

A member of the Cao An gang kicked the old man hard, and the old man fell to the ground. A boat next to him screamed, and a good-looking girl jumped out and helped the old man up.

The disciples laughed and said, "Old man Gu, is this your granddaughter? She looks good, or use her to pay off the debt."

Old man Gu pushed his granddaughter hard: "Go back, go back."

Those gangsters have already surrounded her, molesting her repeatedly.

Liu Sang was angry and wanted to go forward, but the boatman hurriedly pulled him back: "Guest officer, don't mind, don't mind."

A gangster held a big knife and stared at him: "What are you looking at?"

Liu Sang thought to himself, even if he rushed up to beat them up, at most he would just let out his breath and pat his ass and leave, what would he do to his grandparents and grandchildren?It's better to pay them for it.

Just as he was about to step forward to speak, a low voice came from the other side: "Stop."

Everyone looked, but saw a young man about 20 years old in hemp clothes and hemp shoes came out, helped the old man up, looked at the disciples of Cao An's gang, and said, "It's just an old man and a weak woman, why bother?" Bullying them like this?"

One of the gangsters said viciously: "It's only natural to pay back the debt..."

The young man in linen said: "How much he owes, I will pay him back."

Those gangsters looked him up and down, and said with a sneer, "Half a penny!"

The old man trembled: "How can there be so many, how can there be so many?"

Liu Sang secretly calculated: "It's always been a thousand dollars. Now one tael of silver can be exchanged for [-] taels of silver. Half a tael is equivalent to half a tael of silver. I'm afraid he can earn this by fishing for a year. These people know It was deliberately making things difficult." Now, as the horse attached to Ningyun City, he has no worries about food and clothing.But after all, he came from the countryside back then, and he knew that a prince's meal and a poor man's life were not just talk.

Another group of disciples said yinyin: "You have procrastinated for so many days, and the interest is rolling. The interest is rolling, and it is already cheap for you."

The young man in linen said: "I'll pay for him." He squatted down and took out a bag from his pocket.He poured out the copper coins and counted them one by one, and actually counted six hundred copper coins.

But the gang snorted: "In my Nanyuan, when paying fees and taxes, you have to pay the Chu family's knives and coins. Don't you know this rule?"

The young man in linen said: "This is an official copper coin, not a private one..."

The gang said: "Rules are rules."

The young man in linen thought for a while.He took back the copper plate, but took out one or two taels of silver: "These two silvers are equal, please help me to go to the bank to exchange them, and if there is any excess, please invite some of you to drink."

The gang took the money.He snorted again, didn't say much, and went to show off with the others.

Old man Gu and his granddaughter thanked him again and again, but the young man in linen didn't say much, just cupped his hands and left like that.

Liu Sang thought: "This man gave out one or two taels of silver to help others. It seems that he is not without money, but he is wearing hemp clothes and hemp shoes. He just took out a hundred or two hundred coins and changed his clothes. If he is as simple as he is, he is probably a Mohist.” Only Mohists who pay attention to “frugality” and “non-pleasure” can achieve this.

Looking further, I saw the young girl looked at the young man who was gone, her eyes were bright, her expression was dazed, she couldn't help being amused, as expected, a hero saving a beauty is still the most romantic thing in this world, and it is also the easiest thing to please a woman.

The grandfather and grandson went with their arms. Liu Sang turned around, looked at the boatman, and said, "What's the matter with the knife coins that those people said just now? Although Qin Shi issued knife coins, isn't Kong Fang used everywhere now?" Is it?"

The boatman said: "The guest officials don't know. Those officials and grand masters say that now there is a flood of private minting everywhere, so all the taxes and fees paid are uniformly made with the knives and coins of Nanyuan Bank."

Liu Sang said, "Nanyuan Bank?"

The boatman whispered: "The old masters of the Chu family opened it."

Liu Sang said: "Do you have this kind of knife coin on you, let me see?"

The boatman said, "Yes, yes." He took out a knife coin.

Liu Sang took it over and saw that the weight of the knife coin was about the same as the copper coin minted by the government, but the style was a bit like that minted by Qin Shihuang back then, and the color was transparent and the quality was good.He was secretly surprised, thinking that the Chu family still had a conscience.He said with a smile, "Although the styles are different, the money content is very rich. If you really want to change them, you will actually earn a little bit."

The boatman said: "Guest officer, please look at the word 'ten' on it."

Liu Sang said: "What's the matter?"

The boatman said: "This knife coin is worth ten copper coins."

Liu Sang blurted out: "Fuck!!!"

The boatman said: "This is the way of the world, the way of the world..."

Liu Sang shook his head and sighed, just now he felt that the Chu family had a bit of conscience, but now it seems that they are clearly black and white.

The Chu Clan is powerful and Ningyun City is small, but the Chu Clan is Shiqing and has no right to levy taxes. It just "collects taxes on behalf of the imperial court". The imperial court has the final say, it cannot increase taxes by itself, unlike the Xia family in Ningyun City, although they are less powerful, they are princes. If the Chu family wants to increase taxes, they must find a name and excuse, or use oblique methods .

Nowadays, the imperial court's control over the localities has declined rapidly, and the phenomenon of private casting of copper coins in various places is indeed serious, but the Chu clan used this as an excuse to make the so-called "knife coins", so why is it not private casting?However, Nanyuan Copper Mine is limited, even if the money is limited, so they came up with this method to force the common people to pay taxes with knives and coins. In fact, they exchanged a small amount of copper coins for a large amount of copper coins.

When the common people handed over their tax money, they didn’t have knives and coins in hand, so they had to go to the bank designated by the Chu Clan or the underground bank to exchange them. It was inevitable that they would go through a period of exploitation and restraint on the way. In this way, the valve collects a large amount of copper coins, which is actually tantamount to adding a tax, and can also melt the collected copper coins into more knife coins in exchange for more copper coins.

On the surface, the common people exchanged the copper coins in their hands for this kind of knife coin, which is "ten coins", and then handed it over as tax silver. The loss is only some handling fees, but the right to mint this kind of knife coin is in the hands of the Chu clan.The Chu clan used the large amount of copper coins recovered to mint new knife coins, and the value on the surface was multiplied several times.Then use it to buy fields and land among the common people, and distribute grain. Because the Chu Clan is powerful, the common people live under the Chu Clan.I have to accept it, but once this kind of knife coin leaves Nanyuan, it will be useless.It’s just ordinary people who are unwilling to accept it except when they are forced to exchange when paying taxes, so some ordinary people are forced to use fields and land or even use their sons and daughters in exchange for a few so-called coins that can’t be used at all. .

This is like the golden round coupons in the period of the Republic of China. In essence, it is just changing tricks to exploit the people.The Chu Clan does not have the right to levy taxes in name, but the current situation is unstable. It wants to recruit troops and develop, but it does not want to be as shameless as some other local princes.He directly raised taxes, so he changed the way to come up with this kind of trick. In fact, he directly raised taxes, and the common people could understand. It is a typical way to set up a memorial archway to be a whore, and it is just ordinary people under its rule who suffer.

Of course, from a certain point of view, the actions of the Chu Clan are also understandable.The current situation is chaotic, even if it is this kind of aristocratic family, they don't know what the final outcome will be. The Chu clan has no choice but to recruit troops, and even if they can't dominate in the end, they must try their best to protect themselves.

Just like Ningyun City, if it wasn't for the windfall made by glass and sea trade, and secretly backed by the treasures in Shihuang's underground palace under the Three Corpses Mountain, it would only build warships to deal with the chaos of Lianyunzhai and Xu Dong, and follow various The skyrocketing expenditure also had to increase tax revenue substantially, relying on exploiting the common people to support itself.

With the current situation like this, he naturally has nothing to do about this kind of thing. Being able to manage his Ningyun City well is already good.

That night, he wrapped himself in an old quilt and slept on the boat all night.

The next morning, the sky was already bright, and the boatman was about to pole up the boat, when a loud cry came from the shore, Liu Sang heard the sound familiar, turned his head, and saw the old man Gu from yesterday, Old man Gu wailed loudly, ran wildly, and jumped into the river. Although he wanted to jump into the river to kill himself, he was a person who knew how to drown, and he couldn't drown in a short while, but the water temperature was too low. If things continued like this, he would eventually lose his body temperature. , Frozen to death in the river, but fortunately, everyone on the shore jumped into the water to rescue him.

Although he was rescued ashore, he was naked, sitting on the ground and just crying.

Liu Sang said: "Boater, can you ask me what happened?"

The boatman was also curious, tied the boat back to the shore, went to inquire, came back after a while, and said helplessly: "At midnight last night, a group of masked thieves broke into Old Man Gu's house, robbed his granddaughter and left. I don't know who did it."

Liu Sang was silent for a while, and said, "Has this kind of thing happened before?"

The boatman whispered: "Guest officer is a little ignorant. Although I have heard of such things before, most of them happened in other places, and everyone just listened to them. But recently, there have been several cases of missing people in the local area. All of them are poor girls with good looks." Then he sighed again: "Miss Gu really shouldn't have come out to help her grandfather yesterday, the world is like this, the world is like this."

Liu Sang recalled what he said to Tiange that what Cao An helped to do in the public domain was water transportation, but what he did secretly was abduction and trafficking of women. In the past, it was probably because Hezhou was generally peaceful, and they did not dare to be too arrogant. Now that the world is in chaos, they Without any scruples, he became arrogant.

I was still thinking about whether Miss Gu’s disappearance was related to the Cao An gang, when someone suddenly shouted on the other side of the river: "Dead man, look, dead man..."

Everyone looked and saw a dead body floating down the current. Several fishermen fished the body ashore, and someone whispered: "Isn't this the little brother from yesterday?"

Liu Sang secretly poured his energy into his eyes, and when he looked carefully, the one who died was actually the Mohist disciple wearing sackcloth last night. Although he was dead, his eyes were still glaring, his body was covered with scars, and there were various wounds. It was clearly besieged by people. After a fierce battle, he was finally outnumbered, killed and thrown into the river.

On this side, I am still guessing whether he encountered robbers or robbers. On the other side, a group of Cao An gang members with knives and sticks shouted over. The few people from yesterday were also among them, and the fishermen around were forced to drag Old Man Gu. Step aside.When those gangsters came to the dead young man, they were all arrogant and arrogant. Two of them kicked a few times, and the other shouted: "What are you doing here? Whose family is this? Whose family is it?" take it back, whose family is it?"

The young man was originally an outsider, so no one would recognize him, even if he did, how would he dare to go forward to claim it if those people surrounded him with knives and sticks?

The gang laughed and said: "I don't know where the wild dog came from. It's really unlucky to bump into a dead dog early in the morning. Throw him into the river to feed the fish."

The dead body just picked up was thrown into the water again, splashed, carried by the icy river water, and rolled away.

Those people laughed and rushed away.

Old man Gu cried out suddenly: "I'll fight with you." He was about to pounce on him, but was held down by the villagers, unable to struggle.

Those Cao An gangsters just laughed and left.

Liu Sang stood at the bow of the boat, silent, and after a while, said: "Let's go."

The boatman untied the rope and rowed. Seeing the boy standing there, looking into the distance, he did not speak, so he sighed, "It's the first time for the young guest officer to go out? It's all right, don't worry, don't worry about this kind of thing." If you have more, you will get used to it, the world is like this, the world is like this."

Looking at the swaying water surface under the thin winter sun, Liu Sang didn't answer.Of course he could turn around and kill those people, but so what?

Can he help one or two people, or thousands of people?

Even if it can help thousands of people, in such a troubled world, is it really enough?

Just like what the boatman said, the world is like this, it's really just the world is like this... This shit is the world!

... (To be continued.)