When Li Yanpeng entered the city today, the guards at the gate felt that he was walking sneakily, and his eyes kept glancing around, so they stopped Li Yanpeng and interrogated him for a long time. Li Yanpeng truthfully reported his name, as well as where he lived, and his experience of clearing wasteland around Chengdu this year. Although the guards didn't find any flaws, they always felt that this guy was a little strange, and his head was sweating vigorously when he answered the question.

But after tossing for a long time, the guards did not find anything, and searched Li Yanpeng's whole body, but did not find any suspicious items, and finally let the peasant go.

After exchanging the timber and grain that he had brought in for a little high-priced salt sold by the Chengdu Prefecture, Li Yanpeng swept the streets around him and was sure that no one was paying attention to him, so he lowered his head and walked in the direction of the yamen in the center of the city. After wandering around the yamen for a while, Li Yanpeng finally targeted the two Ming soldiers, who were obviously dressed differently from the local military households, their clothes and armor looked much better, and Li Yanpeng felt that they also had a special arrogance.

When Li Yanpeng kept looking at Ren Tang and Mu Tan, they had already noticed this person who was probing his brain in front of the yamen. Not only Ren Tang and Mu Tan, but also the other guards in front of the yamen were also uplifted, and someone had already walked towards Li Yanpeng, wanting to ask him why he was staying here.

"Is Mr. Deng here?" After seeing someone coming, the sweat on Li Yanpeng's forehead suddenly became more, and he asked first without waiting for someone to speak.

The two local military households who came over looked Li Yanpeng up and down, and asked coldly, "Who are you?" What is this for? ”

"Wronged!" Li Yanpeng suddenly shouted, and rushed towards the two people who were dressed differently at the entrance of the yamen.

But before Li Yanpeng could pounce at the feet of that Ren Tang, he was hugged by the two soldiers beside him, and then fell to the ground, and an angry shout sounded in his ears: "What are you going to do here?" ”

Although he was pressed to the ground, Li Yanpeng still shouted injustice vigorously, Ren Tang reacted first, ran over quickly to let the soldiers let go of the people on the ground, and asked Yan Yue scerely: "What is your name, what is the matter with looking for the admiral?" ”

"Admiral?" Li Yanpeng was stunned all of a sudden.

"The Admiral is what you call Mr. Deng."

"Oh, oh." Li Yanpeng immediately shouted: "Didn't Mr. Deng say that ten acres will receive one stone of grain?" This year, the villain has worked hard to cultivate sixteen acres of land and made twenty stones of grain, and they have taken eleven stones! ”

"Nonsense!" The few soldiers who were talking to Ren Tang in front of the yamen were the soldiers of the yamen next door, and after hearing Li Yanpeng's shout, these soldiers all changed their faces and scolded: "Hugh wants to talk nonsense, when did we take so much?" ”

Now Deng Ming is not in the yamen, but went to the barracks to check the training and equipment of the soldiers, and Ren Tang's face sank immediately after hearing this. Yesterday, after learning that Chengdu had collected some more food from the people, Ren Tang struggled psychologically for a long time, and finally felt that it was not too much. In addition, he also felt that the peasants had a lot of surplus grain in their hands, so they would not be unable to survive, so they couldn't help but not report to Deng Ming. But seeing that this peasant actually came to shout grievances, Ren Tang suddenly felt that the problem was strict, and he pushed away the soldiers of the yamen and brought Li Yanpeng into the yamen to ask.

"Although I have promised to keep it secret, if the farmer's rìzi can't survive, then I can't continue to hide it because of a promise." Ren Tang thought in his heart, let Li Yanpeng tell everything.

According to Li Yanpeng, after the grain was struck, the yamen soon came to collect a protection fee of 10 mu and 1 stone, and in addition to these, there were also rents for borrowing farm tools and profits from seeds, all of which were usurious loans. Li Yanpeng also didn't know how to do arithmetic, and the yamen said that he had to pay more than four stones of grain.

"What else?" This Ren Tang has already heard of it.

"And the money for fighting wolves......"

As soon as Li Yanpeng's words came out, the soldiers of the Yamen who raised the punishment began to shout: "This is not what we collected, it was Liu Shuai and they collected." ”

"And there are really wolves outside the capital, in order to prevent the people from being attacked by wolves, Yang Shuai led his soldiers to fight wolves outside the city for several months, killing hundreds of them before and after, and after beating wolves for a month, I haven't heard of anyone being taken by wolves." Another soldier said aggrievedly.

"It's a wolf." Li Yanpeng also admitted: "Yang Shuai led the soldiers to fight the wolf, and the villain is also grateful, the villain got up early and greedy for darkness when he opened up the wasteland, and he encountered at least two wolves, and Yang Shuai fought well." ”

"And what are you complaining about?" After hearing that the other party also admitted that this was the truth, a soldier asked angrily.

"But it's too much, after the grain is laid, the soldiers of the capital will come to the door, saying that the wolf money will be calculated, and it is also profitable, and the villain has to pay a stone of grain."

"Is one stone of grain too much? If you are bitten by a wolf, you don't know if you are still there, even if you are killed, how can you open up the wasteland if you are injured? The soldiers of the Yamen became louder and louder, and their momentum became more and more vigorous.

"Yes, the villain knows." Affected by the other party's prestige, Li Yanpeng's voice gradually became smaller, but he was still muttering: "But in addition to the money for fighting wolves, I later came to collect money for catching snakes, leopards, and tigers, and the villain has never heard of fighting tigers." ”

Most of the soldiers of the Yamen were speechless, but one of them shouted: "You Diao Min, even if you don't kill the tiger, you have driven the tiger away!" If you still know that you are afraid of wolves, aren't you afraid of tigers? Not afraid of leopards? ”

Ren Tang inquired, and the garrison of Chengdu Prefecture used these excuses to take away two stones of grain from Li Yanpeng, and Li Yanpeng was angry at that time, so he went to file a complaint with the criminal officer Yamen -- Deng Ming had carried out propaganda saying that if the people felt oppressed, they could appeal to the criminal officer -- but Liu Jinge refused to accept it.

While talking, Liu Jinge, who got the news, came in a hurry, and after seeing the criminal officer, Li Yanpeng's voice became quieter, but he still said stubbornly: "After coming out of Lord Liu's yamen, the villain was also captured by the soldiers of the capital and beaten. ”

Ren Tang told Liu Jinge what Li Yanpeng had just narrated, Liu Jinge counted his fingers and called Qu Dao: "This is just eight stones, not to mention farm tools, seed money, and wolf fighting, this is all true." ”

"And the loss." Li Yanpeng let it go, he said that the above eight stones are the numbers on the surface, but when the grain is harvested, whether it is the punishment of the yamen or the general military office, the peasants must pay the loss. The reason is that the road is bumpy, the grain may be spilled, and the car may also overturn and fall into the ditch, so an extra part should be levied as a loss, which adds up to more than one stone; Moreover, when taxes were levied later, the soldiers would sometimes take out a rice bag and shovel a shovel of grain from the peasants' homes and carry it away, which was called the hard cost of taxation.

After all, Liu Jinge is a young man who has not yet reached the age of twenty, and he has not been an official for a long time, and his face has not yet been exercised, so he is speechless.

"And salt, which is getting more and more expensive, and you can't get much for a bag full of grain." Li Yanpeng finally said: "Counting the grain in exchange for salt, the yamen took eleven stone of grain from the villain. ”

"This one too?" Liu Jinge, who had been silent for a long time, shouted again: "This is the stone salt that Liu Shuai sent someone to cook outside the city, and shipped it back to sell, no matter how expensive this is, it can't be regarded as a tax I collect." ”

"That is to say, you have nine stones of grain left," Ren Tang thought about it, for a bachelor, this grain is still enough to eat, far from the point where he can't survive, and it is even much better than the farmers in Huguang and other places. Thinking of this, Ren Tang turned to Liu Jinge: "Do you want to continue to receive something?" ”

"No, absolutely none!" Liu Jinge swore: "It has been confiscated in the last two months. ”

Li Yanpeng confirmed that Liu Jinge did not lie, and there was indeed no new tax item recently, but he still felt a little too much: "You must keep next year's seed grain, otherwise you will have to borrow usury from the criminal yamen, and continue to change salt, and there are not too many left, and you can't even afford the farm tools sold in the capital; The villain wants to open more land next year, but the villain can't work by himself, and he wants to raise livestock......" Li Yanpeng babbled, without livestock and farm tools, he couldn't cope with it even if he wanted to open up more wasteland, and he planned to raise at least one dog to guard the door, so as not to encounter wolves again, but these didn't seem to be able to raise any more.

"We're going to fight the Tartars now, you don't know yet, the Tartars are already coming to fight Chengdu. We will have to collect a little more grain so that we can get rid of the Tartars, and when we get rid of them, you will be able to farm in peace. Liu Jinge patiently explained: "Bear with it a little this year, next year's harvest will be better, and then you will have grain for livestock, don't be afraid of wolves, Yang Shuai will fight for you." ”

"But you still have to collect money for wolf fighting." Ren Tang next to him said coldly.

"Brother Ren, Brother Mu, take a step to speak." Liu Jinge pulled Ren Tang and Mu Tan to the side, and pleaded with the two: "There are some things I really don't know, they were done by the people below, I will definitely discipline them well in the future, but now that the Tartars are coming, don't find trouble for the admiral at this juncture." I, the criminal officer, am dispensable, but if the commander punishes Liu Shuai and Yang Shuai, it will be detrimental to the overall situation. ”

Ren Tang was silent, feeling that now was indeed not the time to be held accountable, if Deng Ming was really angry and wanted to settle accounts with Liu Yao, Yang Youcai, and Liu Jinge, wouldn't it be infighting?

"I'll take this person away first, and when I defeat the Tartars, I will definitely go to Mr. Jing to plead guilty." Liu Jinge said.

"What are you going to do with him, and beat him up again?" Mu Tan asked.

"How so? I treated him to a good meal to calm his breath. Liu Jinge assured.

"Well, I won't tell the Admiral about this yet, but I'll go with you." Ren Tang said.

Liu Jinge did invite Li Yanpeng to a meal, and Ren Tang always accompanied him on the side, and finally personally sent the peasant out of the city.

Shut down

When Ren Tang returned to the Yamen, Deng Ming had already returned from the barracks and was discussing the training plan with the guards: "There should be news from the Sword Pavilion in the next few days, and we will be able to know whether the Qing army has come and where it has gone." The soldiers here in the capital are well fed and in good health, but the weapons are still a little worse, and the armor is almost non-existent, so we need to hurry up and make some ......."

Deng Ming arranged training for the guards, and asked them to go to the barracks tomorrow to help Liu Yao and them train their soldiers. After the meeting was over, Ren Tang also left with everyone.

It wasn't until it was dark, Ren Tang estimated that his companions had fallen asleep, and then he sneaked to Deng Ming's residence, and when he saw that there seemed to be a fire inside, he stepped forward and knocked lightly on the door.

"Come in." Deng Ming's voice came from inside the door.

Ren Tang pushed the door and went in, and saw Deng Ming lighting a candle and counting something on the paper.

"Admiral, I'm not one who likes to make small reports behind my back." Ren Tang first declared.

"Well, it's not." Deng Ming asked, "What do you want to sue me?" ”

"Before I speak, I hope the Admiral will promise me one thing, and that is that he will not hear about it from me before he repel Gao Mingzhan." Now when he is alone with Deng Ming, his henchmen have already used "I" as a self-title, and Deng Ming's repeated requests and reminders for a long time have finally achieved results.

"No problem, you say."

Ren Tang reported the events of the day, during which Deng Ming did not speak, and Ren Tang could not see the joy and anger on his face.

After the report, Ren Tang said: "I know that the Admiral appointed the Punishment Officer to let General Xiao Liu and General Xiao Yuan protect the people, but it is common for officials to protect each other, and General Xiao Liu is young, and it is inevitable to make mistakes, I hope the Admiral will not criticize him." ”

"It's my fault." Deng Ming sighed lightly: "I shouldn't let the person who tried the case collect taxes." ”

Ren Tang paused for a moment, not understanding what Deng Ming said, because in his impression, tax collection and justice have always been the responsibility of the same official.

However, without waiting for Ren Tang to question, Deng Ming suddenly raised his head suddenly, listened attentively, and at the same time reached out in front of his lips and made a silent motion.

"Looks like someone is coming." Deng Ming said in an extremely subtle voice.

Indeed, Ren Tang also heard a burst of small footsteps, and finally stopped outside Deng Ming's door, and then there was a gentle knock on the door.

Ren Tang's face changed suddenly, he didn't want to be found out that he had come to Deng Ming in the middle of the night to make a small report, he looked around, and was about to hide behind the bed. But Ren Tang jumped in the direction behind the bed, and was grabbed by Deng Ming, who was quick-eyed, and quickly shook his head at Ren Tang, and then pointed to the table.

Although he didn't understand why Deng Ming didn't agree to hide behind a safer bed, Ren Tang didn't have time to think about it, and hurriedly dodged and hid behind the table.

"Come in."

With Deng Ming's command, Ren Tang heard the door push open, he hid behind the desk and held his breath, not daring to move, and then heard Li Xinghan's voice: "Sir, I don't know whether to talk about something or not." ”

"Let's talk about it."

"It was last night, but sir, you promise me first, don't be angry."

"Okay."

"Don't tell anyone else that I said it."

"No problem, but if you don't keep your voice down, everyone will be arguing."

"Hmm." Li Xinghan's voice was a little lower: "Supposedly, I shouldn't have told Mr. because I promised to keep it secret, but if I think about it carefully, I should still let Mr. know......"

…… When Li Xinghan was halfway through, Ren Tang suddenly heard a noise in the distance, which sounded like someone had kicked over something, Deng Ming booed again, and hurriedly said: "It seems to be coming towards me, someone is coming again." ”

"That ......"

Ren Tang heard Li Xinghan whisper in a panic, "I'll hide behind the bed." ”

"No way!" Deng Ming hurriedly stopped.

"Then I'll go behind the desk." It seemed that at the same time as Li Xinghan spoke, he had already walked over, and Ren Tang's heart suddenly rose to his throat.

"No, you hide behind the box." Deng Ming's command came into his ears again.

Soon after Li Xinghan's footsteps disappeared, Ren Tang heard a slight knock on the door.

"Come in."

"I don't know who's coming again." Ren Tang guessed in his heart that when he heard Deng Ming blast Li Xinghan behind the box just now, Ren Tang first felt relieved and relieved, but then he noticed something. Desperately recalled the expression of the other party when he reported to Deng Ming just now, Ren Tang was sure that there was not the slightest surprise on it, and Ren Tang, who had realized something in his heart, turned his neck lightly and glanced at the back of the bed, where it was dark and he couldn't see anything.

…… After Li Yanpeng left the city and returned to his residence, he did not stay at home for long, but raised a torch and went to his neighbors.

There was already a group of farmer men waiting for him in the house, and when they saw Li Yanpeng come in, everyone turned their eyes over.

"I wasn't beaten, and Lord Liu invited me to a meal." Li Yanpeng closed the door and sat down in the crowd: "But I didn't see Mr. Deng either." ”

After listening to Li Yanpeng's narration, an expression of disappointment appeared on everyone's faces, and after a while, one of them put away his disappointment and commented in a prescient tone: "I said it a long time ago, it's useless, officials protect each other." ”

"This is Mr. Deng's subordinates who don't give a report, if they see Mr. Deng, Mr. Deng will definitely let them collect less food in the future." Another person argued: "Mr. Deng said that ten acres and one stone are ten acres, and Mr. Deng always keeps his word." ”

"Mr. Deng also said that if there is a grievance, you can go to Lord Liu to complain, but if you don't pay the grain, Lord Liu will also give you a good beating." A man in the corner of the room said in a low tone, gently stroking his calf as he spoke, this man had tried to resist, on the grounds of Deng Ming's original promise, to oppose the expropriation of the Yamen and the General Soldier Yamen, but was beaten by the soldiers of Chengdu - that is, under Deng Ming's rule, if he had been left in the previous official mansion, there would never have been only a few sticks.

But Mr. Deng said...... "There are still people who are not convinced and still try to argue."

"It's useless to say anything." Another person lamented: "Lord Liu is Mr. Deng's confidant, as if someone said that Lord Liu once fought in front of Mr. Deng's horse and was seriously injured for Mr. Deng." Mr. Liu and Mr. Yang seem to have embraced Mr. Deng or something. ”

These peasants, who were transferred from the auxiliary army, did not particularly know what was going on with Liu Yao and Yang Youcai's meritorious service, but the military officers in Chengdu once showed off like this, in short, it was a great achievement.

On the one hand, there are generals who have made great contributions, and henchmen and guards who have sacrificed their lives to fight, and on the other hand, there are farmers who have never met. These peasants, who had served as auxiliaries in the western camp, did not dare to expect Deng Ming to do much for them.

"It's okay that we are all bachelors, my neighbor Lao Zhang, you know, he was originally from Yunnan," After a sigh, another person said loudly: "Because I don't want to be a soldier or a coolie in Jianchang, the brothers pooled money and ransomed him first, asking him to come to the capital to farm, and then ransom his brothers, sisters, and fathers and mothers." When he first arrived, he was quite happy, thinking that he could redeem an elder brother in two years, and then the brothers would be able to redeem the family from the military household after a few more years, and now he has also broken this hope. ”

"How much grain is there in Jianchang to redeem a military household?"

"Fifty stones! If you want to transport it to Jianchang by yourself, fifty stones will be transported to the warehouse, and you can take the people away, half of the women. ”

"That's a lot." Someone sighed: "A man is in the military camp, working for a year, planing to eat and wear, King Feng can earn three stone grain?" ”

"Two or three stones, so giving King Feng fifty stones to them is quite twenty years of work. If the capital here really does what Mr. Deng said, Lao Zhang will not be able to do it next year, and he will always be able to redeem his brother the year after next. But looking at it now, don't think about it for ten or eight years. ”

After discussing for a while, Li Yanpeng mentioned another matter: "It seems that the Tartars are going to be killed." ”

"There is such a rumor, but I don't know if it's true or not."

"It's probably true, otherwise what is Mr. Deng doing here?"

"I don't know how many people will come to the Tartars, and whether the capital can hold it."

After discussing it for a while, Li Yanpeng opened his mouth to tell the latest information he had heard, confirming the true attack of the Qing army.

"Mr. Deng is brave, and the Tartars may not be able to please him," said one of them with some excitement, "Shall we go into battle to help, and if we win, we can receive some reward." ”

On this topic, almost all the people looked at the person sitting in the corner of the room, or Li Yanpeng, these two people are the backbone of this group of people in the house, whether it is the last time to resist food and make trouble, or this time to go to Deng Ming to shout grievances, the two of them are always willing to stand up for everyone.

"I'm not going!" The man in the corner of the room said that he was still haunted by the last beating: "Where did the reward come from, and we didn't pay it?" I haven't married a daughter-in-law, I don't have a son. Don't die for a reward. ”

Some nodded in agreement, while others still looked at Li Yanpeng.

"When I first came to the capital, I was also worried that the Tartars would come back and take away our land, but if you think about it, even if the Tartars come, they will have to farm the land, right? Even if you take half of the rent and leave, it's not more than the current capital, right? Li Yanpeng said: "When the time comes, we will be smart, hide with food, and no matter who wins, we will come back to farm." ”