Ma Meng took a villager, walked as a car, and went to the outside of the inspection village. Looking at the towering gate in front of him, he hesitated.

Every time he went to the county office, Ma Meng was as comfortable as returning to his home. In the yamen, from the priest to the errand officer, from the head of the capital to the archer, there is no one who is not familiar to him, all of them are his own people. But when you come to the inspection village, you will feel uncomfortable. Of course, there are also characters in the village who he calls brothers and brothers, but they are only a few soldiers, and those who really hold real power are not familiar with him. The patrol village is in charge of public security within a radius of 100 miles, but the affairs around the village are rarely managed, and they rarely deal with Ma Meng and others.

Cheered up, let a soldier guarding the gate of the village go in, and Ma Meng followed him into the village.

When he arrived at Du Zhongxiao's door, Ma Meng sang a promise with his hand. Chai Xin, who was guarding the door, was instructed to lead him in.

Du Zhongxiao looked at Ma Meng standing in front of him, with a white face and black hair, not vicious, but like a merchant. He said: "The land around here is flat, and there are no homes, so it's a pity that it's deserted." The state agreed to divert water in this area and open up fields. The list has been posted, so that Li Zheng came to listen to the order, why have you delayed so many days? ”

Ma Meng arched his hand: "Back to the officials, the little one has never returned to the village because of some business in the city, so it is delayed." ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded and said, "Even so, I won't cure you of the sin of neglect." However, you have to do your best to reclaim the wasteland in the future. ”

Ma Meng hesitated for a moment before he said: "Don't hide it from the officials, there used to be people around here, but there were floods every year, and there was no harvest in the fields, so they all moved away one after another." Between the two rivers, the river is vertical and horizontal, and it is not easy to open up the wasteland. In addition to the wharf in this area, there are only dozens of households in my village, where is there manpower to open up wasteland? I also ask the officials to have mercy, this matter is really difficult to handle. ”

Du Zhongxiao looked at Ma Meng, his face was expressionless, and he said lightly: "Naturally, it doesn't depend on you to open up the wasteland, the government will recruit people." However, for this kind of local event, you have the money to contribute and the power to contribute. You are the only big family in the local area, and you have to take care of it a little more. The people in your village, except for a few fishermen, do not produce, how many Ding Zhuang are there, and they have been remade in the past few days. ”

Ma Meng hurriedly gave up his hand: "Officials don't have to listen to the nonsense arranged by idlers, the people in my village don't produce, where does the food and clothing come from?" Xiaomin is a few tooth people in this area, and there are a lot of businesses on weekdays, and most of the people in the village help me do things. Our business families are not as good as ordinary farmers, and if we don't do it for a day, we will have less food and clothing for one day, and we are afraid that it will be difficult to spare manpower. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "You are a household of the imperial court, and you are a tax servant, how can you shirk it?" Don't say it, I'll send someone here to go back to the village with you to order Qi Dingzhuang. When it comes time to open the field and hire people, I have my own arrangements. ”

Hearing this, Ma Meng couldn't help but feel anxious. Recruiting his bankers to open up the wasteland is not only impossible to do business, but many things have to be exposed. Hurriedly said: "The officials have mercy, if I let the people in the village enlist, Xiaomin's business will definitely not be able to be done." Not only did it spoil the food and clothing of the small people, but the people in the village were also unable to wrap their stomachs. It is really difficult for them to work for a day and eat a day. ”

Du Zhongxiao looked at Ma Meng, closed his eyes and thought for a while before he said, "Since this is the case, this matter can be discussed again." However, the people in your village should not be served, but they need to pay to hire someone to do it. In the past two days, we have counted the households, and then set the amount to be paid. - Jin Kongmu, you arrange for your right-hand man to return to the village with Lizheng, and count the households in his village again, and there must be no mistakes. ”

Ma Meng had to say again, Du Zhongxiao just waved his hand there, telling them to go back quickly.

Ma Meng couldn't help but complain in his heart, there were a lot of people in the village who were messy, and there were even more people like Song Sigong who had committed crimes, where did he dare to let people enter the village casually to check? Countless thoughts swirled in my mind, thinking about how to make a fool of myself.

Jin Shu summoned two skilled followers, and asked the owner of the village, He Kun, for a few soldiers, and followed Ma Meng back to the village

Seeing that Jin Shuzhao was busy coming and going, Ma Meng stiffened his head and stepped forward and said, "Kongmu, this matter is not urgent. Many of the people in my village are doing all kinds of business outside, and there is no one at home. Why don't you let me go back and make arrangements, and wait a day or two to count them? ”

Jin Shuzhao straightened his face and said: "This matter is urgent, and the officials are urging urgently, how can it be delayed?" Don't say it, I'll order someone here, and I'll go back to the village with you. It depends on how many Ding Zhuang you have, so you can set how much money you have for exemption. ”

Historically, the exemption law in Wang Anshi's reform law mainly refers to the service of errand in the yamen, such as the front of the yamen, and this kind of temporary requisition of people to repair the embankment and prepare the land has always been used in combination with requisition. Ma Meng didn't want the banker to enlist, so he had to pay for it, and the government would hire someone to do it.

Ma Meng laughed with him, walked to the side and said to the Zhuang Ke who followed: "You go back quickly, let the people in the village get ready, and the government will investigate." Speaking of this, he lowered his voice: "Song Sigong and a few people in the village will be sent to the reeds in the north first." Remember, it's fast! ”

Zhuang Ke agreed, and hurriedly went out to inspect the village.

Du Zhongxiao saw it in the house and sighed secretly. He probably guessed that there must be some people in Mameng Zhuangzi who could not see the light, and if he sent someone to follow him now, he should be able to seize some tricks. But he has limited manpower in his hands, and he has no power, so he can only watch here.

More than 100 households of Zhuangzi can easily pull out one or two hundred Ding Zhuang, and they dare not provoke easily. Ma Meng is not a criminal, and Du Zhongxiao can't send out all the soldiers in the inspection village. He dared to give an order, but He Kun, the owner of the village, did not dare to take the order, and he couldn't explain what happened. What's more, there are only more than 100 soldiers in the inspection village, and more than half of them patrol outside every day, where can there be soldiers.

Du Zhongxiao proposed to cultivate the land, and the first thing to solve was the problem of his own lack of manpower. The people who are recruited to reclaim the land are all manpower that they can directly control, not just for work. A few Zhuangzi spread around, and Ma Meng can be firmly seen to death, and then he can be calmly investigated. Du Zhongxiao is different from ordinary officials in this era, and he will feel at ease when he has enough strength in his hands.

These days, he always thinks of Tao Seventeen stabbing enemies on the street, calmly and unhurriedly. He didn't believe that such a person would recognize the wrong person and kill the wrong person. Killing pays for life, there is nothing to say, what you can do is to figure things out and not let him die in vain.

In addition to the judge who is in charge of everything, the shogunate is actually relatively relaxed, and his main job is to prosecute in prison. Du Zhongxiao came to the county to supervise Caoyun, and it was even more of a single task, in fact, there was not much to do. Without Tao Seventeen's case, Du Zhongxiao would not propose to cultivate the land, he would be like most people, and he would easily stay up here for a long time, and wait until the time limit was changed to change land.

After slowly pacing back to the case, he sat down, and Du Zhongxiao casually flipped through the official documents on the case. This is the approximate situation of the Bianhe boatmen and slender men according to the recent statistics, and there are quite a few of them. These manpower are the first things Du Zhongxiao has to use. After Yongcheng, the northern section of the Bianhe River cannot sail in winter, and tens of thousands of official and private shipwrights have nothing to do for three months, commonly known as winter. These three months were very difficult for them, even if Caoyun's army had food and rice, it was only enough to make ends meet. The problem of eating these people is a major matter for the imperial court, and Du Zhongxiao's cultivation of fields can be regarded as sharing worries for the imperial court.

Thinking of Tao Seventeen's arrogant appearance after the murder that day, Du Zhongxiao sighed. The kid thought that he would get revenge that day, but he didn't expect it to end up like this. If a person is killed by him, there is no evidence whether he is an enemy or not.