stubborn thief

Chapter 3

Liu Chengzong's barracks was an eye cave dwelling.

The courtyard outside the cave is like a courtyard, but it is bigger and sinking.

Yuhebao is a rare place with flat terrain and lack of food, so it chose to build a sunken cave.

First, a square pit was dug, and then arched caves were dug in several walls. The number of caves on each wall was different, depending on the size of the pit.

For example, their family courtyard has two cave dwellings, with ten households on each side and 40 people living together.

On the other two sides, there are sloping walls to go up to the ground and a cellar to be dug out for storage; the other wall is used to build stables. In the yard, there are wells dug, millstones, two trees for shade, as well as stone locks and weapon racks all over the courtyard.

The regulations for the cave dwellings for ordinary frontier troops are similar, except that the infantry kilns replaced the stables with corrals. In the past, they could raise some livestock when there was a lot of food.

This kind of sunken cave roof can still grow food, and there are even streets with underground courtyards in some places.

Up to now, no matter whether it is the corral in the kiln or the field on the roof, it is useless. The corral is cleaner than the cave, and the roof is useless except for the loess road.

For Liu Chengzong, at most, he is half full when he eats the golden millet.

After swaying all the way to the barracks, he first threw the red flag into the stable and locked it. He picked up a short branch from outside the door and lit it on the Changming Stove in the yard. He took it into the house and led it to the table, and the bottom of the oil lamp came on.

Following Xiao Zhanfeng who entered the room, he sniffed first, looked at the oil lamp dissatisfied, raised his front legs and tried to put out the stinky thing on the table. Lay down.

Flaxseed oil is burned in the lamp, because the flaxseed looks very like a louse, and is also called tick tick. It's okay to burn.

In his memory, the things that this person disliked for Goubuli became a good thing for cooking a few hundred years later.

There are so many things he can't understand in another memory, and Liu Chengzong didn't bother to delve into it. It can change the appearance of the world in 30 years, not to mention the 400-year history, and it is not surprising that any changes will occur.

Instead of worrying about why linseed oil can be eaten 400 years later, he would rather think about how to live a life of eating three meals a day and three meals a day.

Liu Chengzong's martial arts, which was about to starve, was not easy to come by.

He only ate three dishes in the autumn when he was studying martial arts in a prison in Mizhi County.

Autumn is a good time to be in prison, to be able to eat a meal.

The good days began in the second year of Tianqi. The two brothers, their father Liu Xiangyu, who made a lot of money, stepped down from the Confucian school in Yan'an and transferred to Mizhi County.

Although Dianshi has no rank, it is also a court-appointed official who can only be appointed by the Ministry of Personnel and approved by the emperor.

In charge of arresting prisoners, the office is located in the west of the county government office, commonly known as the fourth master of the west government office.

In the first year of Apocalypse, Du Wenhuan, the general soldier of Yansui, tried to avoid the emperor's edict to aid Liao, and carried out a nest-smashing operation against Mongolia, which attracted captives to retaliate and loot south. They besieged Yan'an and threatened to tie Du Wenhuan. Go away for ten days.

Du Zongbing could not avoid the battle, but instead called Liu Chengzong's uncle to call the robbers killed.

Because of this, Liu Juren decided to find some martial artists for his two sons who aspired to be jinshi.

The goal of the sons was directly raised from ordinary literary scholars to the height of Xiong Tingbi who has both civil and military skills.

It's like the parents in his memory 400 years later, hoping that their children will become a success. Although their children are still in preschool, they have already begun to worry about the high consumption level in Beijing after they are admitted to Tsinghua University.

During the six years when Liu Juren was a pianist, the Liu brothers learned a lot of kung fu and worshipped countless martial artists. None of them were famous, but all of them were professionals.

The bow horse of the Yinchuan postman, the decapitation knife of the Mizhi executioner, the shooting star hammer of the county yamen, the survival skills and practical experience of the death row inmates in the county prison, and even learned the Shaolin flower spear from the broken monk who lived in the cell for a short time. .

The eyebrow cudgel and the spear head have mixed cudgel and spear skills. Contrary to the horse guns and Yangjia guns with gun bones and stick skins, they have less thorns and more sweeps. of marksmanship.

But in battle, this technique is useless. To stab with spears, to stab with spears, horses still have to use a big spear of [-] feet, and a small spear of [-] feet at the end. Poke over.

Back then, the prisoners in Mizhi County had to be asked by the brothers Liu Chengzong what skills they had. However, when it came to eating meals, the elder brother was more careful than him, and he was younger than him. If you don't understand, you will go to rub if you catch a broken head.

He couldn't control it, and he cried as soon as he started, saying he was too hungry; and he also felt that the meal was a waste, and most of those executed prisoners who wanted to be beheaded couldn't eat anything, and the next day they had to drink a pot of rice wine.

He was not afraid at all, and Liu Juren followed him later.

The results came very quickly.

In the seventh year of the apocalypse, Liu Juren's term of office in Dianshi expired, he was promoted back to Yan'an House, and served as the ambassador of the tax department from Jiupin, the good life of the old Liu family was over.

In those two years, northern Shaanxi suffered from drought every other season. In the spring, the seedlings died of drought. In the autumn, the drought came again. The people were forced to burn their own houses and go into the mountains to avoid taxes.

On the contrary, there are rich landowners who reap the fields, but they pay attention to the production of grains and buy your land at a higher price, but you still have to pay the tax on this land. If the land is gone, can the farmer still pay an egg?

It's really impossible to collect taxes. Liu Juren, who has been cautious all his life, became timid and stubborn once. He saw how the people had been forced by natural disasters, and he didn't dare to collect taxes any more.

He could only enter the prefect's yamen, and suggested that he should write to the imperial court for tax-free disaster relief, but his words were a bit fierce.

He said that if there is no tax relief for disaster relief, if I can't finish the work in six years, everyone will die together.

The prefect didn't die, but he really didn't let him work for six years.

A cursed Shangguan, coupled with poor work performance, directly sent Liu Juren to prison to make room for others.

To be an official is to do things. If this person can't do things, then change to someone who can.

The brothers were the ones who were going to take the martial arts exam. Because they were the sons of criminal officials, they failed to pass the test. Halfway through the exam, they were beaten with sticks, and they were recruited by He Renlong, the deputy examiner.

Liu Juren was still right. His successor had been in office for three months. In a village in the mountains, the taxes of 110 households could not be collected no matter what, so he personally brought the government servants to force taxes.

Who knew that there was only one family left in that place.

Daming’s tax is fixed according to the locality. At the grassroots level, that is how much tax the ten households have to pay. After three households run away, the remaining seven households still have to pay this much.

One hundred and nine households ran away from the 110 households, and the last household was the head of the village, the grain chief, and had to pay the tax of the 110 households.

If it wasn't for a lame and blind old lady, the last household also ran away, and it was impossible to run. If I walked by myself, I would force the old lady to hang herself. If I was taken away by the officials, I would force the old lady to starve to death. There is no other way to pay taxes. .

Finally, the tax officer and the two yamen were tricked into the firewood room, and a fire was locked outside.

Before the official who caught him had arrived, the old lady starved to death and hanged herself.

Later, Liu Juren was imprisoned for half a year, and he was released only after Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne and granted amnesty to the world.

There is no gold and silver at home, and I have to bear the burden of some false names.

The world is going to be in chaos.

Liu Chengzong is very clear that his knowledge of Confucian classics and history since he was a child and his memory 400 years later will determine how far he can go, but martial arts are the foundation of his life.

This decides whether he can go on alive or not.

(End of this chapter)