Detective Di Renjie's legend of Wu Dynasty

Chapter 541
The middle-aged man raised his head from the plate and said, "Old man, I'm sorry to make you spend money. That's enough, we're full, so don't fry up."

Di Renjie waved his hand: "Hey, if you celebrate Chinese New Year, how can you not have a full meal? Eat as much as you can today."

Wang Mang said: "Don't worry, you can eat whatever you want, it doesn't matter how much you eat."

As he spoke, he walked quickly to the side of the buddy and whispered instructions.

After a while, two plates of freshly fried spring rolls were brought to the table again, and Di Renjie said, "Eat quickly."

Tears rolled down the cheeks of the middle-aged man, he stopped talking, picked up the spring rolls and ate them.

After a short time, several people ate up all the spring rolls on the plate.

At this time, Wang Mang and others also returned to the table.

Seeing that everyone was almost done eating, Wang Mang, Di Renjie and others looked at each other.

Di Renjie asked the middle-aged man, "What's your name?"

The middle-aged man said: "My surname is Fang, and I am ninth in the family. You can just call me Fang Jiu."

Pointing to the girl beside him, he said, "That's my daughter, Xiaolan. These are all from the same village."

Wang Mang asked, "Where are you from?"

Fang Jiu said, "We are from Yangzhou."

Di Renjie asked with concern: "The Chinese New Year is about to come, but you have left your hometown and come to the capital of God to sue. It must be a deep injustice!"

Fang Jiu let out a long sigh: "Old man, you are so right. If you can survive, who wants to go to this unfamiliar place to complain!"

Wang Mang asked, "Who are you going to sue?"

Fang Jiu said: "Sue the Water Transport Yamen in Yangzhou!"

Di Renjie, Wang Mang and the others looked at each other, and they were surprised: "Water Transport Yamen?"

Fang Jiu had tears in his eyes: "Yes, old man, we are all water households on both sides of the canal. There is only a section of water canal in the canal from the Yangtze River to the Huai River, called Hangou Canal."

Di Renjie nodded: "Yes, I know. The Hangou Canal starts from Yangzhou in the south, ends at Shanyang in the north, and enters Guhonggou from Shanyang, which is Surabaya."

Fang Jiu looked at Di Renjie in surprise: "Old man's day, you, you know Hangou?"

Di Renjie smiled and said, "I've been there before."

Fang Jiu nodded: "Ah, no wonder."

Di Renjie smiled kindly and said: "Your ancestors lived on both sides of the canal, and worked for the court's water transport office, and were responsible for repairing the damaged parts of the Ji Canal and dredging the river.

When sailing against the current, ropes are attached to the banks on both sides to drag the boat across the shallows.

Therefore, you are also called fiber households.Am I right? "

Fang Jiu opened his mouth in surprise: "You know this too! Old man, you are really amazing."

Wang Mang, Li Yuanfang and Zeng Tai next to each other exchanged glances, smiled, and did not speak.

Di Renjie said to Fang Jiu: "Go ahead!"

Fang Jiu nodded: "Then you may also know that we rely on the guard's salary forwarded by the imperial court to the fiber households for a living."

Di Renjie, Wang Mang and others nodded.

Fang Jiu said: "Originally, the imperial court allocates this salary to the Yangzhou Water Transport Office every year, and the Water Transport Office then distributes it to us.

You may not know that Yangzhou’s water transport yamen is a place where people can’t spit out their bones. The government allocates a small amount of money to protect the canals every year, and those officials eat and take what they really use. The money on the canal is not even a few big sons.

Therefore, the Han Ditch has been in disrepair for a long time, and there are mud and hidden reefs everywhere in the river, so it is not too dangerous to sail. "

Di Renjie frowned and said, "Oh, doesn't the court know?"

Fang Jiu said: "Who knows, every time the river patrol officers are sent to eat and drink with those dog officers, I have never seen them patrol the river.

I just know that these people can hold a meal for three days and three nights without withdrawing.

For a bowl of stewed meat, forty or fifty live pigs will be killed..."

Zeng Tai's eyes widened, and he asked in surprise, "What, forty or fifty pigs will be killed for a bowl of stewed meat?"

Fang Jiu said: "This is what I heard from the folks."

Zeng Tai couldn't believe it: "This, how is this possible?!"

Wang Mang and Li Yuanfang looked at each other, and they frowned tightly.

Di Renjie stopped Zeng Tai with his eyes, and Fang Jiu said: "Go ahead!"

Fang Jiu nodded, and said: "It's all right for these dog officials to withhold the canal guard's salary, but they even withhold the canal guard's salary from us small households."

Wang Mang and Di Renjie raised their eyebrows: "Oh, how do you deduct the law?"

Fang Jiu said: "They stipulate that each fiber household will draw three out of ten coins, which means that for ten copper coins, they will take away three."

Wang Mang and Di Renjie looked at each other, he frowned and asked, "But why?"

Fang Jiu said: "They call this a labor tax. If you don't pay it, he will remove your name from the list of tenants. Not only will you lose your money, you will never even think about your life."

Di Renjie slammed his fist on the table: "It's time to kill!"

Fang Jiu was startled: "Old man, what's wrong with you?"

Anger flashed in the eyes of Wang Mang, Li Yuanfang and Zeng Tai.

Di Renjie shook his head, suppressed his anger and said, "Ah, it's nothing, you go."

Fang Jiu continued: "Originally, the imperial court's salary for guarding the water was pitifully small, plus the dog officials in the Yangzhou Water Transport Yamen gave us a [-]% discount, and the money in the hands of our small households is not even enough to eat.

This year, they, they didn't even send out any money at all! "

Di Renjie asked, "Why?"

Fang Jiu let out a long sigh: "The old man doesn't know something. In the past two years, there have been strange incidents in Hangou. As long as the Jianghuai salt and iron transshipment ships pass through Hangou, the boat capsizes and people die. This has happened more than a dozen times."

Di Renjie and Wang Mang looked at each other, and the four of them were startled: "Oh, is there such a thing?"

Fang Jiu nodded: "Yes. The imperial court sent people to investigate several times.

When those officials came to Yangzhou, they ate and drank a lot, didn't check the canals, didn't ask questions, and insisted that our small households were ganging up on thieves and conspiring to rob the food transported by the court.

Therefore, many slender households on both sides of the strait were arrested and tortured severely, but they couldn't find out how ugly they were.

Look, I was caught by them! "

As he spoke, he lifted up his knotted quail clothes, revealing the scars on his body.

Di Renjie said angrily: "How unreasonable!"

Wang Mang snorted lightly, but did not speak.

Fang Jiu went on to say: "They arrested thousands of slender households, but strange things still happen, as long as the salt boats transported to Shendu through Hangou are bound to capsize.

These people had no choice but to put the fiber households back.

There are ghosts under the water in Hangou again, and old monks are invited to catch the ghosts, but it is still useless.

At the beginning of this year, the imperial court sent another doctor named Li Han to investigate. "

"Master Li Han went to Qianhu's house to inspect and inquire, of course we are telling the truth.

But who would have thought that within two days, Wang Zhou, the guard of the Water Transport Yamen, rushed to the village in a panic, saying that we did not know the heights of the sky and the earth, and did not know how to thank the Water Transport Yamen for the grace of life, so it was really a crime to sue Mr. Li in front of Mr. Li. Damn it!
He also said that our slender households are troublemakers from poor mountains and rivers.

Finally, Wang Zhou told us that the yamen will no longer pay the guards from now on, and we are asked to fend for ourselves. "

(End of this chapter)