In the early morning of late October, just after the first frost, the wheat fields on the bank are continuous, and a small boat rows through the river and drags out a long water mark.

There is no wind in the early morning, there is a thin mist on the river in the distance, the waves are as flat as a mirror, Lin Jian stood at the bow of the boat, looking at the large branches of the plum forest on the west bank, he subconsciously clenched his fists, and then went forward, through the merlin, it is Shanglin Village.

Although he can only live as Lin Jian in this world, and he also has the memory of Lin Jian in this world, the sense of alienation that has been separated by a veil can never be removed, and when he sees Shanglin Village in front of him, he can't help but feel angry.

"Brother Lin, this is homesickness," Zhou Pu walked out in an open shirt, and saw Lin Lian standing at the bow of the boat overlooking Mei Lin and subconsciously clenched his fists, jokingly said, Seeing Lin Lian turn around by mistake, he hurriedly explained, "This bird-like words, I heard Cao Ziang say, looking at Lin Ye like this, I think these four words are good." Lin Ye don't look at Cao Ziang like he is now, he and Mr. Qin were both sour and unscrupulous readers, and they fell into the grass and became a horse thief and dropped their bookbags every day. In those years, if you could listen to him scolding her mother, you would be happy for a long time - isn't he a bird like us now? Can you see how he's different from us? ”

"I can't see it!" Lin Jian said with a smile, there were still obvious traces of scholars from Cao Ziang, "I just want to say that Zhou Ye is talking about Cao Ye behind his back, and Cao Ye and they may also be talking about Zhou Ye behind his back." "The hired boatman is rocking the oars at the stern, and he is not afraid that he will hear what is being said from this side.

"Let them chew the root of their tongues, and they will not chew the dead." Zhou Pu said angrily.

Zhou Pu couldn't go to sea with Qin Chengzu and Fu Qinghe because of seasickness, before they separated, Cao Ziang and Wu Qi didn't laugh about him, Zhou Pu was angry and helpless, who called him usually a stinky mouth.

The young Chen Enze had just taught him a set of boxing exercises taught by Zhou Pu at the bow of the boat, wiped his sweat with a sweat towel, walked over to Zhou Pu and Lin Lian, and asked Zhou Pu: "Master, how are I doing with my boxing?" ”

"You have to sweat profusely and heartily to get started, it's still early! You're in the place, pack your things, and we're ready to go ashore. Zhou Pu patted Chen Enze's head with a smile and said, "Also, when you get to the ground, you have to call my uncle!" Be careful not to say a leak. ”

"Calling uncle and master, it's not much of a contradiction. Can't an uncle be a master? Chen Enze replied, and went into the cabin to pack up his salute.

Lin Lian looked at the back of the young Chen Enze into the cabin, and smiled, the other teenagers followed Fu Qinghe and Qin Chengzu out to sea, and Lin Lian only took Chen Enze with him. Although Lin Jian was also proficient in hand-to-hand combat and fighting, he still asked Chen Enze to learn basic boxing and kicking skills from Zhou Pu as his teacher, but thinking that Zhou Pu and Chen Enze would be naturalized in Shiliang County, so they let them pretend to be uncles and nephews who fled from the northern Hebei region.

In the past ten years, the Donghu people have pushed the front from the Bohai Sea to the north of Hebei, and the north of Hebei has fallen into the hands of the enemy many times, the prefecture and county do not exist, and the people have also been displaced and taken refuge in all directions, and the dialect of the north of Hebei is very close to the official dialect, Zhou Pu and Chen Enze pretended to have fled from the north of Hebei, and the government cannot be checked, and can only be treated as a homeless person. Lin Jian then used the identity of a person as a guarantee, and let them become naturalized in Shiliang County.

Zhou Pu has a straightforward temperament, and his courage is beyond the reach of Qin Chengzu, Cao Ziang and others, listening to Qin Chengzu's evaluation, only Fu Qinghe, who is in his prime, can be braver than Zhou Pu.

Zhou Pu, who is brave in battle, is not as murderous as Cao Ziang and others, what is even more rare is that he joined the army when he was a teenager, left the army and became a horse thief, and fought more than 100 times for more than 20 years, but there were no scars left on his body.

Meilin used to be Shanglin Village, and Shanglin Creek was sent into the Shiliang River a mile ahead.

The water surface of the mouth of the river is vast, and the boats are staggered. The wharf is located on the west bank of the Shiliang River and the north bank of Shanglin Creek. The wharf yard used to be a row of blue brick and black tile shops, the shop street is three or four hundred meters long, behind the shops is a row of roofs, I don't know how many hidden into the courtyard, the end of the stone street extends out of a rammed earth avenue, there is the direction of Shiliang County.

All shops are open, breakfast shops, restaurants, medical halls, pharmacies, gold and silver shops, pawn shops, tea shops, warehouses, inns, and more than 100 in the past. In addition to the shopping street in front of you, you can also see alleys stretching deep in, and the streets are full of various stalls. In front of the shop street and the wharf, there are people who get up early from all over the country and come to the market, there are also porters who travel by boat or work as coolies on the wharf, and there are also women wearing red and green, and the shouts and the calls of pack horses and mules and donkeys come and go, so it is not lively.

The boatman jumped ashore to tie the cable, and Lin Lian went over to help, and by the way, he settled the fare for the ship. Zhou Pu jumped ashore and looked at the prosperity in front of him, smacking his lips and shouting, "Where is this still a village?" The county governance of those prefectures and counties in Huaishang is not so lively! Jumping on the dock, he felt that he had said the wrong thing, patted his mouth, and said, "I can't mention Huai anymore, and I have to change my name to Brother Lin!" ”

Lin Jian came over after settling the fare, and said with a smile: "You shouted awkwardly, I sound even more awkward - I will make up a message to tell the clansmen that you have a life-saving grace for me, I think you still call me Brother Lin, I will change my name to call you Brother Zhou, there is nothing wrong with this!" ”

"I'll see it." Zhou Pu agreed without hesitation, although he was very convinced by Lin Lian, but he was really not used to opening his mouth and closing his mouth, and he also felt that there was no need to strictly follow the details of the plan formulated by Qin Chengzu in everything.

Chen Enze also came ashore with a package, and was also surprised by the prosperity of Shanglin Village, his mind was much more detailed than Zhou Pu, and he exclaimed in Lin Lian's ears in a suppressed voice: "The streets in Chongzhou County are so lively!" ”

Chongzhou has a short history of becoming a land, and the seat of Chongzhou County is still a tidal flat for more than 200 years, and the land reclamation is not sufficient, compared with the big cities of Hailing, Weiyang, Jiangning and Pingjiang, it is really not prosperous; Lin Jian smiled and introduced the history of Shanglin Village to Zhou Pu and Chen Enze: "There is some reason why Shanglin Village can be so lively......

The Lin family is a big clan in Dongyang Mansion, and the Lin family's temple was built in Shanglin Village, but the prosperity of Shanglin Village is due to Lin Dengfu, the head of the Lin family.

When Lin Dengfu was appointed as the head of the Jiangning Ministry of Industry, the Jiangdong Xuanfu Envoy decided to make great efforts to dredge the Shiliang River, so that the Shiliang River, which was connected to Hongzepu, would become the main waterway connecting the Huaishui and the river in Dongyang Province. The original Shiliang River bypassed outside Shiliang County, and Lin Dengfu took advantage of his position in the Jiangning Ministry of Industry to make the straightened Shiliang River waterway pass through Shangcun Forest when dredging the Shiliang River.

Shiliang County is the place where the north and the south meet, in the old days because of the river and prosperous, the prosperity of the official city, although far from being comparable with Jiangning City, but it is beyond the reach of Dongyang City. After the river was straightened, the official market in Shiliang County gradually declined, but the grass market in Shangmuralin (referring to the market formed by the spontaneous gathering of the people) took advantage of the situation. The Lin family also joined forces with several other big clans in Shiliang County to prevent Shiliang County from setting up an inspection department in Shangcun Lin to collect municipal taxes, and the municipal tax of the grass market fell into the pockets of the local wealthy families headed by the Lin family.

Zhou Pu's eyes widened, his tongue licked his lips and said: "It is said that horse thieves are very good at robbing money, I think these local tyrants are much more fierce than horse thieves, but they don't see blood when they rob money!" ”

"It's not that there is no blood," Lin Jian said, "the grass market flourishes in convenient places, without the protection of the city, officers and soldiers, and is often invaded by bandits. In the early years, the grass market in Shanglin Village also often encountered banditry, and later the Lin family and several other families jointly funded and recruited the township to protect the township, and the bandits in the grass market in Shanglin Village were basically eliminated. The township camp in Shanglin Village suppressed bandits several times, and its reputation shook Dongyang Mansion, but the bandits in several other grass markets along the Shiliang River were even more serious...... This is also the reason why we did not see a grass market in other places after we entered the territory of Dongyang Province. ”

Zhou Pu smacked his lips for a long time, he really didn't know how to evaluate it, and after a while, he smiled and said: "Brother Lin is also a member of the Lin family, and these words are really ruthless." ”

Even Lin Tie didn't have much affection for the Lin family before, Lin Tie smiled: "Seek truth from facts, what else is there to say in front of Brother Zhou?" ”

Zhou Pu looked at the group of villagers patrolling at the end of Stone Street, seeing that their equipment was much better than that of ordinary swords and archers in the county, and followed the direction of Lin Tie's finger to see two fast pulp warships parked by the dock, and habitually wanted to smack his lips again.

In these years, the whole country was not very peaceful, the town army collapsed, and the number of sword archers directly under the jurisdiction of the prefectures and counties was limited, and it was difficult to take care of the vast countryside. The funds for the preparation of the township are all self-raised, nominally under the command of the soldiers and horses of each prefecture, but in fact they are controlled by the local township tyrants.

Zhou Pu has traveled a lot of places in his life, and he has seen many township soldiers and township bravery, and the township soldiers in most places are busy farming, practicing in their spare time, and gathering to resist or pursue when encountering bandits. Although Zhou Pu is not good at economics, he still knows how much silver it costs to raise more than 500 well-equipped and well-trained townsmen every year, and it can be seen how great the benefits of the grass market are.

In this dynasty, the city tax of merchants was set at 1 out of 30, and the official market collected the city tax at the ratio of 30 out of 1, and in addition to the exploitation of tax officials and the government's additional sales of merchants, the actual tax borne by merchants in the official market was far higher than the ratio of 30 out of 1.

The grass market is not officially recognized by the government, the reason why the grass market can rise is that it is located in a convenient place of transportation, which is convenient for the collection and circulation of products from all over the world, and on the other hand, the proportion of the gentry who control the grass market to extract the city tax is mostly less than 30 to 1. Under such circumstances, even if they did not receive much strong protection from the government and were often plundered by officials and bandits, the folk grass market still flourished.

Shanglin Village is located at the mouth of the Shiliang River and Shanglin Creek, the north and south of the canal, the Lin family led by the township and deliberately operated, recruiting the township to protect the city. In other places, the grass market or the city of ten days, or the city of five days; Prosperous, or three days a city, or a city every other day, Shanglin Village ferry north and south boats come and go, the county outside the county cars and horses are staggered, day and night for the city, has formed a non-ordinary county can be compared with the lively and prosperous market town.

Even if the city tax drawn from the merchants is lower than the official ratio of 30 to 1, to raise the villagers, and in addition, to pay a symbolic part of the municipal tax revenue to the government in the form of "package tax" - even so, the Lin family's annual dividends from the grass market in Shanglin Village will exceed the Lin family's land rent several times. Although the Lin family is also regarded as one of the top ten big landowners in Dongyang Mansion, the land rent of 400 hectares of fertile land is only more than 4,000 taels of silver in the harvest year, in addition, the Lin family has other warehouses and workshops in Shiliang County to make a profit.

“…… Forest...... Lin Binding! ”

Lin Jian and Zhou Pu stood side by side in front of the pier and sighed for the prosperity and liveliness of the Shanglin Village ferry, a big hand full of calluses put on his shoulder, and shouted in surprise.