Three Kingdoms.

  Chapter 2118 Salt Man

Five miles north of Zhuyang City, there is a low hill on the Danshui side. On the hill, there is a flat land. In the middle of the flat land are a few broken eaves and broken walls. The wooden piles were scorched black, and the khaki-yellow wall embryos were almost integrated with the ground, and some thatch roots were exposed on it, which seemed to be describing what happened back then.

  Cao Ren looked around, but couldn't understand why Hussar General Fei Qian summoned him in such a place.

   Dismount?

   Obviously not.

Cao Ren walked all the way, although it was said that there were sturdy hussars guarding left and right, guarding the curtain on the top of the mountain, but they did not make any threats or intimidation like Cao Ren. It was intentional, and he didn't do anything out of the ordinary, or make Cao Ren feel uncomfortable.

  So, what exactly is the hussar trying to do?

  Cao Ren raised his head, as if he would not give up easily.

  『I have seen General Hussars. 』

Although it is said that after Cao Ren saw Hussar General Fei Qian, he really wanted to practice the bravery of a five-step martial artist at that moment, but after seeing Xu Chu standing behind Fei Qian, Cao Ren just blinked. He blinked, completely submerging this dangerous thought in the lowest part of his eyes.

"sit. ’ Fei Qian said unhurriedly, motioning for a seat beside him.

  Cao Ren nodded, cupped his hands in thanks, and then walked to the side and sat down.

   The peace talks did not go very smoothly at the beginning.

This is also a reasonable thing, but Fei Qian does not want to spend too much time on this aspect now. The main reason is that Fei Qian has discovered the clues of the plague, which has appeared in the camp. A few soldiers are lax...

  Although it may be due to the sudden rain some time ago, the common cold caused by the rapid change of cold and heat, or the common diarrhea caused by drinking and eating unclean food, but Feiqian does not want to continue to take risks. In the Han Dynasty, if you can stay in the epidemic area as little as possible, you can stay as little as possible. Even if Fei Qian knows and arranges relevant defense measures, it is still difficult to guarantee that this kind of invisible "enemy" can be exempted.

  It’s like Mei Zhoulang. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms said that he was **** to death by Zhuge Liang, but in fact, the American wolf killed himself. After the Chibi War, he went deep into Jingzhou Nanjun and died of serious illness...

  Of course, half of the death of the American wolf in history was attributed to Cao Ren in front of him. In history, it was Cao Ren who commanded the defensive battle of Chibi Cao's army after its defeat and resisted the American wolf.

  Fei Qian knew Cao Cao's temperament well, so he also knew that the peace talks were not easy, so after Zhuge Liang initially got in touch with Cao Ren, he planned to send Cao Ren back directly.

   But if you want to "invite" Cao Cao, you must give something...

   After exchanging a few words of pleasantries, Fei Qian pointed to the front not far away, "Does Zixiao know where this is?" 』

  Cao Ren turned his head to look at the piece of ruins beyond the curtain, but couldn't find anything that showed its characteristics, so he could only shake his head in the end, "I don't know." 』

  『This is a rural school. ’ Fei Qian said with a faint smile, ‘Zhuyang Township School. It was built by Zhang Hejian at that time. 』

  Cao Ren: "o_O?" Obviously Cao Ren is not familiar with Zhang Hejian mentioned by Fei Qian.

  『Zhang Pingzi, Zhang Hejian, Shang Shuling. Fei Qian chuckled, pointed to a corner of the ruins again, and said, "There is a ruined stele under it, and there are clouds. Nanyang country gentry, build this country school together...』

  Cao Ren looked back again.

  『According to the inscription...the construction of Yongjian started in four years, and it took five years to complete it...』 Fei Qian's tone was unhurried, as if he was serving as a tour guide for Cao Ren, "the grand occasion of the past is now unknown. It's just that Zixiao knows when his desire will be destroyed? 』

  Cao Ren made a guess, "The time of the Yellow Turban? 』

  After all, the Yellow Turban Rebellion swept through the Han people at that time, like in the countryside, such as the rural school outside Zhuyang, where soldiers could not guard it, so it was natural that there were many damages.

Fei Qian shook his head with a smile, and said: "No, it was before the Yellow Turban... At that time, Empress Dowager Dong's sister, Mrs. Zhang, was the prefect of Nanyang. One piece took five years to build, and the last one was completely destroyed overnight...hehe...』

  Cao Ren could not answer silently.

Arguing strongly was not Cao Ren's strong point in the first place, but now that he encounters Fei Qian's words, it is impossible for him to be like Zhuge Liang or someone who is good at Confucian classics, who can figure out the deep meaning contained in Fei Qian's words , I can only write down as much as possible, and then go back and report to Cao Cao...

Fei Qian looked at Cao Ren and knew that it was generally difficult for him to know the meaning of Zhuyang Township School immediately, so he also smiled and continued: "I also heard that Zixiao has read poetry and books, but I have a question, in this world, Which is light and which is heavy? 』

  Cao Ren raised his eyebrows. Although he knew what the answer should be, he felt that if he said it, Fei Qian would definitely catch him, so he simply remained silent.

  『Jie and Zhou lost the world, lost their people, and those who lost their people lost their hearts. If you have the Dao in the world, if you have the people, you will have the world; if you have the people with the Dao, if you have their hearts, you will have the people; Fei Qian spoke slowly, then pointed to the dilapidated rural school nearby, then pointed to the barren fields around, and continued, "In the old days, there were thirty-seven counties in Nanyang, with more than five hundred and twenty-eight thousand households. , with a population of nearly 2.44 million. Even if you strictly abide by the laws of the Han Dynasty, you can earn three million shi every year in just one place in Nanyang! 』

Even though Cao Ren was not interested in other numbers, as a general in charge of the army, he was naturally quite sensitive to the amount of food and grass. When Fei Qian said three million stones, Cao Ren subconsciously calculated in his heart that if his soldiers had How long can you eat for three million stones...

  However, this is only land rent, and there are other tax items.

  『Oral taxation, calculation of money, and change of service, only these three items, in Nanyang, a combined yearly income of 30 million yuan! Fei Qian looked at Cao Ren, "Zixiao might as well think about it, how many armors and how many soldiers can you get with 30 million yuan?" 』

  Cao Ren's eyeballs couldn't help but move from side to side, obviously calculating how many soldiers and soldiers there would be if the 30 million yuan was spent on military expansion...

Of course, these land rents and taxes are all items clearly stipulated by the Han court, and when local taxes are collected, some temporary "guiding opinions" and "temporary regulations" with local legal effects are often added. "Management measures" and so on, to increase additional income.

  For example, Han Zhao, the prefect of Nanyang during the period of Emperor Zhi, collected more than 150 million yuan during his tenure, and when Zhang Zhong, a relative of Empress Dowager Dong of Hanling Emperor, was the prefect, he even corrupted hundreds of millions...

   "It's just..." Fei Qian sighed and said, "Excuse me, Zixiao, what is the population and tax in Nanyang today?" 』

  Cao Ren obviously couldn't answer, "This..."

  『The people of such an imperial village, year after year, plow endlessly. At the end of the year, they cannot eat their own millet! Simplified clothing and food, disheveled head and rickety, all they want is food for a day, what they need for a winter, to live a stable life, to have grandchildren, and to enjoy the rest of their lives, but it is still not available! 』

  『The people of Jingzhou, the people of Nanyang, have never lost a big man for a day! May I ask Zi Xiao, but the big man has ever been able to live with the people here? ! 』

  Cao Ren was stunned, and seemed to feel that something was wrong, but he didn't know what to say.

Fei Qian's momentum is still rising, his voice is loud and loud, resounding all around, "If someone does not send troops to Wuguan, and leads the people of Jingzhou and Nanyang to avoid the flames of war, hide from the disaster of soldiers, escape to death in vain, and avoid being harmed, how can the people of this place go?" have to live? How to save? ! In Fancheng, howling under the rubble and bricks, I don't know how many people there are! What is it like to die in the wilderness beside the Danshui? 』

  Cao Ren opened his mouth, obviously wanting to say something, but before Cao Ren could organize his words, Fei Qian's next wave came again...

  『When the people of Jingzhou went to the central part of the Guanzhong, a certain farmer borrowed yaks to help them cultivate and help them stabilize. However, the people of the imperial township fell into your hands, but what happened? Flog labor, fill ravines, plunder wealth, and slaughter lives! 』

"Before you arrived here, the people of Jingzhou walked slowly, busy and not chaotic. Although the road was long, they didn't say it was hard. The old and the young were at ease. People then ran in panic, fled in sorrow, screamed in sorrow, separated from flesh and blood, broke their hearts and livers, and separated life and death! Why? ! 』

  『A certain person has received the favor of the emperor and served as a hussar. He is going to protect the country and defend the people! The grievances and grievances between you and Liu Jingzhou, I didn't want to pay attention to them, but why did the people of Jingzhou suffer! How innocent are the people of Jingzhou! A certain person couldn't sit still, so he ordered the opening and closing of the gate to recruit the refugees. Who would have thought that Cao Zilian would be a suspected neighbor who stole the ax and attacked brazenly! After that, all kinds of changes have changed until now...」

  『I don’t want Jingzhou to have a city and land, but to protect every household and people in Jingzhou! 』

  『Heaven has the virtue of good life, so I first seek peace talks to eliminate misunderstandings. If I think that I am weak and can be deceived, I will make things difficult... Hehe, I am willing to discuss the right and wrong with brother Mengde in front of the emperor! 』

Although most of the countries have no friendship and only interests, but like a beautiful country speaking beautiful words, sometimes this kind of righteousness is quite useful. At least Cao Ren was speechless at the moment, and could only be submissive He retreated, turned his head and brought Fei Qian's message to Cao Cao...

   And faster, after all, General Hussars has put down his words, if the decision cannot be made within ten days, the battle will start again!

  …(╯°°)╯︵┻━┻…

   Regardless of Fei Qian's attitude of throwing the table if they can't reach an agreement, on Jiangdong's side, someone has already turned the table.

  Jiangdong East, Juzhang County, Tianmen Waterside.

  The name of this place sounds good, but in fact, in the Han Dynasty, the environment was average, and the living conditions were not so good.

  Just like the Han Dynasty often liked to exile some "political prisoners" to the frontier, the place where Sun Quan exiled and imprisoned political prisoners was also the "frontier" of Jiangdong, which is the area near the East China Sea, where there are more tidal flats and saline land than cultivated land.

In the Han Dynasty, the demon capitals of later generations were still soaking in the water and hadn’t accumulated enough sand yet. Juzhang was almost at the seaside. The sea breeze howled every day. There is a fishy smell in it.

  The night gradually fell in all directions. On the low-lying saline-alkali land sheltered from the wind, the fire light shook, and the figures swayed in the fire light, like wild beasts baring their teeth and claws in the night.

   These people are salt workers.

   Boiling salt and drying salt is not a pleasant and comfortable job even in later generations, let alone in the Han Dynasty. These salt workers basically belong to the out-and-out "proletarian" class. They are so poor that they don't even have one or two feet of clothes. They go to the salt field naked every day, and because of the erosion of salt bittern, many people are infected with various diseases. , skin diseases are considered mild, and there are people whose meridians and internal organs have been corroded. They are only in their early twenties, but they look as old as people in their fifties or sixties.

  The salt field in the distance is now in ruins, and some embers of fire are still floating, reflecting the surrounding scene. Around the salt field, there are all traces of fighting and killing. The original stockade has almost been leveled, and the watchtowers have all collapsed. The dead bodies were hung on the remaining fences, or lay down in the salt ground. The blood water soaked the original white-gray salt pool into reddish brown, and the dirty blood water and salt water flowed out from the damaged gap, infecting a large area. Area.

  In the light of the fire, the screams and cries of a woman could be heard from time to time, and then slowly died down amidst the hahaha lewd laughter...

  These female relatives of the officials in the saltworks may also be innocent, but how can there be eggs under the overturned nest?

In the darkness, there were still some sporadic figures rummaging among the corpses. These corpses had been turned over countless times, but some people still searched among the corpses with the hope of finding something missing. Most of the clothes were stripped off, revealing whiter and fatter belly and buttocks, reflecting fire and starlight.

  『Tomorrow attack sentence! 』At a bonfire, someone said in a deep voice, the voice was hoarse, like sand and stone rubbing against each other, with a **** smell.

This person has a fierce expression, a sturdy figure, hair stained with salt and flowers, messy and branched, and there are scars on the left and right on his body, some places are already scarred and new wounds are added, but even though there are many scars, It was dripping with blood, and the man still didn't even look at it, and he didn't even bandage him.

The salt farm camp is not a mighty military camp. Although there are some soldiers, they are instantly killed by the sudden attack, but the sentences are obviously different. Speaking of it, even if it is not a very sophisticated city wall, it is still like a moat.

  The people by the bonfire looked at each other, and naturally there was some hesitation in their eyes.

The person who spoke before shook the wine gourd in his hand, then raised the wine gourd and gulped down the last residual wine, breathed out a sigh of alcohol and handed it to a person beside him, "Go, get some more wine go! 』

  The people around him took the wine gourd subconsciously, and then realized, "Wine? There’s still wine there, it’s already finished…”

  『Gan! The first person to speak was even more irritable. He grabbed the wine gourd with his backhand and smashed it to the ground, then stared at his bloodshot eyes, "What are you afraid of?" Isn't it a death anyway? Without further ado, what shall we eat and drink? Eat the **** salt? If we don’t fight tomorrow, if we don’t fight the day after tomorrow, we won’t have food the day after tomorrow. Even if ten or twenty soldiers come from Juzhang, they can easily clean us up! Gan Niang, open your eyes and have a look! What are we left with? ah? A life worthless than a dog! When the dog died, these high-ranking fat pigs wrote an article and sang a few tears loudly. When we died, we threw them into the wild, into the sea! 』

  『We have laid down the saltworks, will they find out with conscience, give us food and clothing, and let us live a good life? Damn! These fat pigs will only send more soldiers to kill us! To tell others that resistance is death! 』

  『I tell you why I came here...I found someone wronged! It's not me, it's my original general! I was looking for someone. At first, I thought that these fat pigs could understand human speech, and would report to their superiors and investigate the grievances of the general... Hahaha, then you know, you see, I am here! These fat pigs don't fix grievances, they only fix the wronged! 』

  『So, you still expect these fat pigs to have a conscience? Now that you have started, you must do it to the end! If you don't make a big fuss, if the world knows about it, you and I will be dead! 』

  『Gan Niang! Tomorrow will be a sentence! Otherwise everyone will die! to die! Coward, just die now! Go to hell! 』

  The speaker became more irritable as he spoke, and even started kicking and beating the people around him. In the midst of the confusion, a shout suddenly came from a distance, "You idiot! What's wrong with you? ! Haven't you had enough of the military whip? 』

  The person who was called the fool suddenly trembled, and then slowly looked back, only to see some torches shining in the night, and a group of people was coming slowly.

  『Will...will be the master? Lord! 』

The second stupefied shouted, knocked away the people around him regardless, and rushed to the feet of the visitor, hugging the waist and legs of the visitor, and burst into tears, "The general... ah, the general is wronged." ...I was wronged too...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...』

  The idiot who was irritable like a beast before, now weeps like a wronged child.

  Sun Fu raised his head high, so as not to let his tears fall.

   After a while, Sun Fu patted the head of the second idiot Zhi Leng Laza, and then suddenly slapped him on the back of the head, "Cry ass!" I'm not dead yet, you cry! stand up! Stand up! 』

  Sun Fu stepped forward and looked around.

  『A certain is the governor of Jiaozhou, Pingnan General Sun Fu Sun Guoyi! 』

  Although Sun Fu's body was simple and he didn't wear any armor, but when he stood in front of people and looked around, he still carried the look of disdain he had when he crusaded Yuan Shu in the **** battle against Lingyang.

  『You are all honest people, maybe you have never seen blood before, killed someone...』

  『So honest people, it should end well? 』

  『I used to think that one should be tolerant, take a step back if you can, and endure as much as you can... 』Sun Fu's voice echoed in the night sky, "But XX was wrong! Some people, when they see you step back a foot, they will press down a foot! Knowing that you endure one point, he will push ten points! The more you swallow your anger, the more you will be bullied until your wife and children are separated, and your family is ruined! 』

  『Here today, a certain bluntly told you to attack Juzhang, some of you may die, or most of you will die, but you don’t have to suffer any more grievances and swallow your anger! Those who have grievances can report their grievances, and those who have grievances can report their grievances! The sages have a saying, to repay grievances with straightness, and to repay virtue with kindness! Since there is no virtue to repay, just report your hatred directly! 』

  『Touch your own chests and ask yourself if you would like to die like a human being, or if you would like to kneel down and live like a dog! 』

  『Take your swords and guns! If you don't have a knife or a gun, go find a stick or a stone, and if you don't have any, go squeeze a handful of blood-stained salt soil! Follow me and fight like one! to die! Go live! 』

  『Go to hell! 』

  『Go and live! 』

  『Only in death can one survive! 』

  Hundreds of salt workers gathered in the salt field, followed by Sun Fu's loud shout, shaking the blood-stained salt pond into ripples!

  Jiangdong local chronicles: "In the fourth year of Taixing, under the eighth month, the fireflies attacked the moon, and Juzhang rebelled. 』

  (end of this chapter)