He had come here to investigate how an official, that is, the prefect, had seized the Qi family's land when he was the county magistrate many years ago, and then forced the whole family to flee.

Looking at it now, this prefect is really not good, but it still needs a little "real hammer".

This is Qi Xiaotian's first time on a mission alone, and he doesn't want to mess up.

According to the teachings of the elders of the imperial capital, he went to inquire about the news everywhere with half-truths and half-truths, looking for relatives and families that did not actually exist, but in fact, it took a lot of effort, and he began to wander around the county office.

Even if it is a corrupt official or a clean official who lives in the county office, the common people still have to live, and even it is very hard, every year from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, just a few days to recuperate, Qi Xiaotian did not get what he wanted in the county office, but gradually walked to the nearby prefect's prison.

Of course, the prison is very strong, of course, the appearance is average, and the imperial capital is only superficial, in fact, there are two or three kittens, but the gorgeous Yancheng Prison is not compared, but there are also many people gathered at the door.

Qi Xiaotian was mixed in the crowd, pretending to be a person watching the excitement, but suddenly, he saw an old lady with a basket in her hand, talking to the guard at the door.

The official was dressed in loose black clothes, but he had no energy at all, but sat in a teahouse at the door and drank tea, the tea was naturally good, and he had no intention of giving money, he looked triumphant, and said: "I said old lady, your son is unlucky now, and he is suffering in prison, how can you still have the leisure to cook for him, and don't hurry up to find a way to raise money to ransom people, the eldest lord will sell people to dig coal when the spring begins, really, don't give birth to a son, otherwise he will be born to work as a coolie for the eldest master." ”

But the old lady was very pleading, and said, "Sir, I have sold the house, and my clothes have been pawned, and I have nothing left, and I have worked for a few days to exchange these few mouthfuls of food, and since my son is about to be sold as a piglet, let me meet him." ”

"See, you don't need money to open the door, you don't need money to open the lock, you don't need money, and the prison guard's tired expenses, don't you want money, if you don't have money, you'll die."

"Rich, rich."

Qi Xiaotian suddenly ran over, lowered his eyebrows, and said, "Auntie, auntie, why don't you wait for me." ”

Turning his face, he said to the officer: "Yo, this official, his face is full of red light at a glance, I'm afraid it's not going to be promoted, I'm here to congratulate the adults first, the adults will definitely be high-ranking officials in the future, horses have to ride, and a lot of young ladies want to be who." ”

The official's nose is not a nose, and his eyes are not eyes, and he said, "Who are you, aren't you a local?" ”

Qi Xiaotian turned his head slightly towards the old lady, looked at the errand officer respectfully, and bowed his head and said: "I'm my aunt's nephew, don't I go back to get the money and honor your old man." ”

As he spoke, Qi Xiaotian stuffed a piece of Republican Tongbao into the man's hand, and then stammered: "This is the tea money for you." ”

Another piece: "This is the fat powder money for the lady." ”

Another piece: "This is the New Year's money for the little boy." ”

The errand officer gradually became satisfied, and looked up and down at this offspring with a foreign accent, as a "civil servant", he could still understand the official dialect to some extent, so he was also satisfied: "Okay, then I'll treat you as a person, it's not that kind of thing, it's good, you want to meet people, then you have to have extra tea money." ”

Qi Xiaotian said: "No problem, official, isn't the world your official's, you can take it if you want." ”

He said with a heart: "By the way, you see, my aunt, I really want to see people, can I ......?"

"Okay, you go and meet, but this ......"

Qi Xiaotian said happily: "How much money is needed, you speak!" ”

Qi Xiaotian's funds are still a lot.

For the presbyterian church, the gold bars mined by the machine in vain, and the silver that is directly exchanged after being sold, may not be in good condition, and there are some impurities and dirty mud, but in the end the amount is enough, after processing and casting into silver dollars, it can be directly exchanged for silver, in fact, it is still earned, and the turnover rate and profit margin are frighteningly high, and naturally there are many silver dollars.

For the cadres who go south, there is naturally a lot of preferential treatment, which is also a test, if it is really the kind of person who takes the money to hide in a remote place to be a small landlord, no one will feel pity, besides, can he run out of the earth.

It is naturally very convenient to spend money to buy roads, but the errand asked a few words about what Qi Xiaotian is doing and where he is doing things, and the look in his eyes is obvious, and he plans to go back to his old profession as a robber and make a big deal.

Of course, Qi Xiaotian was naturally not afraid of this, he simply pushed back with a few words, and at the same time already had an idea about this.

He slowly helped the old lady and said, "Auntie, let's go." ”

"Who are you, I'm not your aunt, you recognize the wrong person, young man."

Qi Xiaotian said: "How can it be, auntie, it's your own person, don't you want to see my eldest brother." ”

"Yes, yes."

The old lady misses her son, although she thinks it's inappropriate, but she doesn't care about anything, she has nothing at this time, such an old woman has really been hollowed out.

With an old lady who longed for her son by her side, Qi Xiaotian pretended to be a junior and followed behind, so he opened the way with money and came in.

He has done internship work such as shop junior two, that is, the elders have specially found a few shops in the imperial capital to serve people, and they must be perfect in appearance to be qualified, so to speak, even if they are unemployed, it is no problem to welcome and send them.

"Thank you to a few officials, you are wise and martial, after seeing it, you want to be glorious and rich, take it to drink tea, drink tea."

"Okay, it's easy to say, if you do this earlier, your cousin won't have to suffer so much, originally, he can't pay taxes, and he refuses to do coolies, which makes our eldest master very embarrassed."

Compared with the cement floor of the presbytery, the dry environment of the cell is naturally much more miserable, the dirt road is full of garbage, due to the construction technology, in order to ensure the solidity, so compared to other houses, it is also low, the air is filled with an indescribable smell, this cell naturally cannot open the ventilation window, and naturally there is no air conditioning, so the performance is cold and unpleasant.

Qi Xiaotian saw that the old lady was wearing a single coat, but he put his coat on her, the clothes of their expatriates were all such deliberately worn-out and low-key coats, which was not eye-catching, but he noticed that in the other small courtyard, it was clearly the female prisoner.

In the women's prison, a voice was coming out: "You little bitch, let me kill my son......"

That said, the location is still good.

Naturally, they were going to the men's prison, the place was bigger, more dilapidated, and there were more people, and there were even more than a dozen people crammed into such a wooden cage, and there were also people wailing and hurting there from time to time, Qi Xiaotian felt angry, but his face did not change at all, and he still walked forward with the old lady.

Getting closer and closer to her son, the old lady had basically forgotten that the young man did not know her, but walked over quickly, pulling her son through the cage.

In the prison, a young man was covered in dirt, and he could see that the clothes on his body had been torn in many places, revealing the wounds behind him, and there was also a lot of blood, which had already coagulated and turned black, but his whole body was bound in a standing cage, his neck was covered, and he couldn't move, so he could only stand like this.

Generally standing in the cage, for a day or two, the person will be standing to death, and this young man is indeed tossed very miserably, his hair is scattered, sweet and bitter, his head is on the upper part of the cage, his lips are chapped, and the person is also dazed and ignorant, and there is no reaction when he is shaken a few times.

"Son, son."

The old man seemed to be a little anxious, the cage was very large, although it was rough, but it was not something that an old lady could untie, but he was injured by the wooden fork and bled blood, but even so, he was still constantly rescuing him.

A jailer next to him, holding a bloody whip at this time, was about to swing it and beat the old lady, but his eyes lit up, and a bright thing came out, followed by a smiling face, "Official, official, you take care of it, my aunt has no knowledge, you take it to drink tea to dissipate your anger." ”

When the man saw it, he was amused, and took the silver dollar, although it was not big, but most of it was money.

He nodded, as if he was no longer ready to swing the whip, but the man still didn't move.

"There is still a little bit here, let's look at it for a long time, look at it for a long time, and then I'll think of a way to raise money, as for people, let's find a way to let go for a while, and it's okay to slow down."

When Qi Xiaotian was listening to lectures in the imperial capital, he knew that it was best to take enough money to seize people's money at one time, so that it was the best in feeling, so as not to hold grudges, but to give people benefits, but it should be a long stream, and it should be new every day.

With the money to open the way, the old lady naturally had the opportunity to untie her son, and then looked at her son distressedly, in addition to so many pastries in the basket she brought over, it was some wine, and Qi Xiaotian knew afterwards that this was the last bit of property of the old man.

At this time, he took advantage of the moment when the old lady woke up her son, who had already fainted, and kept looking to the side, this prison was crowded, and they all looked poor, and naturally there were injuries on their bodies, and there were also many people in the cage, and some were crowded in prison.

They are all adobe houses, which are not high in themselves, and those "pillars of talent" are all built houses for the eldest master, so the light is not good, Qi Xiaotian silently counted in his heart, I am afraid that there are not as many as 100 people, this is only the number of a prison cell, but in his heart he calculated the crime rate in this place in Foshan.

The old lady was busy with work, but her son was gradually waking up, and when she saw her mother at this time, she naturally hugged her head and cried, but Qi Xiaotian was not easy to talk to on the side, because he simply could say a few words in the vernacular, probably a little slower, and he could still understand, but now he really doesn't understand, but he thinks about it is to comfort each other.

After twisting for a long time, the jailer seemed to use Qi Xiaotian's money to buy wine and come back, and also confirmed that his money was silver, although the origin of the printed republican Tongbao is unknown, but this era itself is an era when private coins are rampant, and it is nothing, silver is real.

This is also what the Presbyterian Council wants, the republican Tongbao as a high-class currency, and various industrial products can guarantee the purchasing power of this emerging currency, which is similar to the later generations of American imperialism, basically linking their own money to oil and other things, even if other countries know that there is fraud in this, but they have to grit their teeth and buy a bunch of waste paper that can't be eaten and spent and stored in their own treasury, because it is necessary to ensure the international payment capacity at the moment to continue to live.

However, when the time came, it was time to drive people away, Qi Xiaotian knew that he couldn't, so he had to coax the old lady: "Let's come to see my brother tomorrow" The lie can be regarded as leaving here.

Before leaving, Qi Xiaotian helped the old lady, but as if he had made a mistake, he also entered the women's prison, although he only glanced at it in a hurry, he could also see that there were not a few people detained inside.

After being kicked away, he had to quickly apologize, saying that he had made a mistake.

However, Qi Xiaotian thought in his heart that he didn't seem to be wrong.

When he went out, Qi Xiaotian helped the old lady to walk out, but the old lady was very grateful to him, he said to himself, just looking at the uneven road, coming to help, and being able to help them meet mother and son, he was already at ease.

"Since the prefect Zhou peeled to us, it is simply a change, first all kinds of official transactions, all belong to his relatives, the original businessmen have been driven away, after that, the medicinal materials business in Foshan, the grain business, was also eaten one by one, are the first to collect some dry shares, not to dry shares will be locked up, given to dry shares, then endless, send people to check the accounts, a little cheap buy forced to buy, one-third of the city's land, half of the shops, are all owned by the prefect."

"Don't the officials above care?"

"Who cares, the big officials on the horizon don't care, anyway, the people who went to sue didn't come back alive, and the local county magistrates and county officials are also colluding to make money together."

Qi Xiaotian had already arrived at the place where the old lady lived temporarily, she had already sold her house to buy her son's life, but at this time, she was in a haystack on the corner of the street, and she barely found a broken mat, which was considered a bed, but fortunately, in the winter of Liangguang, as long as you pay attention to it, you still can't freeze to death.

There was no one at this time, so he naturally gritted his teeth and said: "These stolen officials, you should find a chance to clean them up!" By the way, auntie, aren't you going to run? ”

The lady sighed, "A few years ago, the big and small merchants who should have run ran away, and the rest of the big lords, there were many families, and the prefect didn't dare to bully, and those big and small officials were tired of eating their mouths, so they stretched out their hands to our small people," she pointed Qi Xiaotian to sit down, and said slowly: "First what is the Ding tax, and then it was said that the environmental protection tax should be collected, and then the air tax, and later, some foreigners in the south came, and they had to collect the foreign tax, and they had to entertain the foreign adults well, otherwise they would fight against the Celestial Empire and lose the face of the Celestial Empire, As long as the foreign adults came, they would eat and live for nothing, and in the end, when they received my home, my family was really nothing. ”

(End of chapter)