stubborn thief

Chapter 327
Huang Cheng stood in front of the gate of the Marshal's Mansion, the cold wind that pierced through the valley crossed the city wall and hit his neckline. Even though he was wrapped in a short jacket whose original color could not be seen clearly, the autumn shirt with a stand collar was not enough to keep out the cold.

He looked at the two stone lions in front of the Marshal's Mansion, then at the clean granite steps, and finally looked down at the thick cloth shoes with their big toes pierced.

The rag shoes with mushy laminated soles were already covered in mud.

The chain armor warrior standing at the door urged, Huang Cheng put his heart on hold, took off his cloth shoes and placed them under the lion pedestal at the door, and stepped up the stone steps barefoot.

Tianbao looked at the farmer from the east, but didn't tell him that according to the law, no one can leave anything in front of the commander's mansion.

He knew that the Generalissimo would give the farmer a pair of shoes, perhaps cowhide boots, or possibly more than just boots.

Sure enough, not long after the farmer entered the front hall, guards came out from the front hall to fetch a cotton coat and leather boots and go back.

Tianbao smiled, and tightened the wide belt around the waist of the earth-colored arrow-sleeved long jacket with both hands, pressed the handle of the knife with his left hand, and put his right hand into the arms of the long-collared long jacket to keep warm.

Liu Chengzong and Liu Chengzu who returned to Juerwan with him were sitting in the hall, looking at the farmer named Huang Cheng, he raised his hand and said: "Come on, sit down and talk."

This time when he returned from Xining, he brought back three people, the most important of which was Huang Cheng, because according to his father, those people who came from Nianbo to ask for food all followed Huang Cheng's lead.

Huang Cheng is a poor man, but also a very courageous person, neither humble nor overbearing, but he dares to move.

It is very courageous to dare to move. In the place of the Marshal's Mansion, even a master chieftain from Xining may not dare to move.

Huang Cheng just put on the clothes and boots given him. In the blink of an eye, he stripped himself naked in the living room, put on a brand new khaki cross-collared right lapel jacket and trousers, put on black cotton trousers with straps, tied them up Putting on cowhide boots and a long jacket with arrow sleeves, he sat down after saluting.

Seeing his tangling movements, Liu Chengzong nodded secretly in his heart, the movements are very skilled, and he has indeed been a soldier.

Liu Chengzong was willing to meet Huang Cheng, neither because of his poverty, nor because of his ability to convince the public, but mainly because this person's resume aroused Liu Shizi's curiosity.

He discovers that he has a constitution that attracts the unlucky.

He asked: "You are a Mahu, and you have land at home, and it was lost by the horse?"

Huang Cheng shook his head and told the truth: "It's not all caused by the horse, the main thing is to help me with the funeral and sell the family land."

Liu Chengzong nodded slowly, he had suffered eight lifetimes of blood misfortune when he was a mahu in Daming, but this was nothing to Huang Cheng, he didn't rebel.

Liu Shizi asked again: "After selling the land, did you become a postman?"

"Yes, at that time the stage horse at Datong Horse Station died and there was a shortage of horses." Huang Cheng nodded and said, "I brought the last horse at home to the post station and went in."

Liu Chengzong glanced at his father's letter on the table blankly, and then asked: "After four years as a postman, after being abolished by the court, you went to serve as a soldier?"

"No, I was idle at home for half a year, and then I worked as a short-term laborer for three months at the neighbor Li Shan's family. His family is my old owner. There are more than 200 acres of alfalfa planted at home. When it comes time to adjust hay, I need someone to help. I used to be in Dada. Always go to help."

After Huang Cheng finished speaking, Liu Chengzong asked, "How much is the salary for a helper for three months?"

"I get hungry easily, and Li Shanren takes care of my three meals a day." Huang Cheng smiled happily: "What more money do you need... Later, Gaodianzi recruited soldiers, so I borrowed two taels of silver from Da Shanren, and I became a soldier."

"Ok?"

Liu Chengzong frowned, re-confirmed in the letter, and asked: "But you are a deserter from the Zhenhai camp, and Gaodianzi is crushing uncle."

"Yes."

Huang Cheng nodded, looked at Liu Chengzong with a strange expression, and said, "In the beginning it was good in Gaodianzi, but then I was transferred to Zhenhai Camp, and I ran away because it was too far away from home."

In fact, he was transferred from Gaodianzi to Zhenhai Camp at that time because Liu Chengzong led the army into the Hehuang Valley, and Huang Cheng was able to escape and go home as if nothing had happened. It was also because Xining City was controlled by Liu Chengzong and cut off the east-west connection. Zhenhai Camp did not pursue the deserters. thing.

"Then what happened later, why didn't the grass fall when I went back?"

Huang Cheng sat not far from Liu Chengzong, his tone and expression were always upright and confident, but when it came to this question, he showed hesitation, and his tone was a bit more bitter: "No horse."

He shook his head: "Others can live, but I can't, I'm stupid."

In fact, Huang Cheng was only one step away from falling into the grass, and he had already thought of a plan.

Those bunker enclosures can’t be robbed, he has to start small, first grab two horses, and then call deserters from the same area to rob the road, rob a merchant who went to the marshal’s mansion Juerwan to buy goods, if there is money, there will be food, If there is food, there will be people, and people will be able to become bigger and stronger.

So he squatted for three days in the haystack of Mahu's house in the neighboring village with a guillotine in his pocket, just to steal a horse.

This work can only be done at night, and there are people in the village during the day. It is difficult to run away if someone finds out, even if you are shot with an arrow or cut with a knife, it is very troublesome.

But for three whole days, the old man went barefoot on the ground during the day, and stayed awake on the bed in the house at night, sleeping in the stable all day long.

When the horse was hungry, he would wake up the old man with his big head, and the old man would kick the rag shoes with exposed toes, hunched over and muttered to himself to cut the horse hay.

Huang Cheng listened to himself talking to himself for three days. Unless the horse could understand human speech, he probably knew more about the old man than anyone else in the world.

The old man is not old, but his mother-in-law died of dystocia when she gave birth to her second child. Du Miaomiao died of smallpox when she was six years old, and she never took care of herself. , in fact, just in his early forties.

Since the year when my mother-in-law passed away, no one has made clothes or shoes for him, so he never wears shoes when he goes to the ground. The shoes are only used to keep his feet warm when he sleeps at home.

The old man treated horses better than his own son, exactly the same as when his father was alive, but the horses his father raised day and night were given to the post station for postmen.

Until the early morning of the fourth day, that day was Qingming, the old man went out, and Huang Cheng did not steal the horse.

He cleaned up the house, filled two large tanks of water from the well, covered the holes in the window paper with mud, and piled up the old man's hay with a guillotine. He kept busy until evening, and found the old man at the door Lock the door tightly.

Huang Cheng was busy, tired and hungry, and was blocked by the door, thinking that there was nothing in this broken house, and the old mouse had to wipe his tears when he came in, so why the hell could he lock the door?
Then his eyes saw the big head of the horse in the stable, and there were two big mouths on the top, which blinded the horse: Grandpa has been served by others for several years, and has never been wronged like this!

The horse barked and bared its teeth, Huang Cheng knew it was scolding him just by looking at his expression.

But when he heard the horse swearing, Huang Cheng felt relieved. He sighed, threw the cavalry boots issued to him by the Gaodianzi camp, and the mandarin duck battle jacket in the same color inside and outside, all on the old man's bed, and kicked his naked eyes. The rag shoes on the toes ran over the wall while the horse was cursing.

He didn't even have time to rest when he got home. Li Dashan, who heard that he had gone home, came to collect the debt after hearing the news, but when he saw his attire, he was so poor that he was almost like pants, and he had a guillotine in his hand, so he said yes Now, come to my house to work to pay off the debt, and let you eat and eat, it is not worthwhile to seek money and kill for two meals.

Huang Cheng thought about it all night. If he was unlucky, he met good people; but if he was lucky, he was really not very good at reincarnation.

Good, not good enough; bad, not bad enough.

Huang Cheng felt that the problem still lay with himself. He didn't seize the opportunity to serve as a soldier in the Zhenhai Battalion.

And he was so poor that he didn't even deserve to be robbed.

If the luck is even worse, a wealthy businessman, high-ranking official and noble person who bullies him vigorously may get angry at the crown and embark on the road of breaking the law.

No matter how bad it is, even if he can't bully others, he can knock the sleeping old man unconscious in the stable with one punch, and he will already be a thief on a tall horse.

Unfortunately, life is frozen.

Huang Cheng was not finished, and worked at Li Shanren's house for several months, until Marshal Liu fought in Huangnan, the imperial court stationed troops in Hekou, and the price of grain in Hehuang Valley rose faster than he fled from the old man's house.

Li Shanren couldn't afford to support him anymore.

Huang Cheng also knows that when food prices are low, relying on others to support him, it is difficult for him to repay this kindness, but now that food prices have risen to such a high level, if he eats three months of food from other people, it will be enough to buy a bar He's dead, he can't afford it.

Li Shanren tried to persuade him several times, but he didn't. Knowing that he was going out to make a living, he gave him two taels of silver and several catties of dry food as a package, and then let him leave home.

Huang Cheng said with a smile: "Before leaving, Li Shanren also said that this will be difficult. It's okay to go out and make a run for it. If you can't make it, go back. There is food at home, so the commander-in-chief doesn't have to give me rations. I'm just giving rations for others. I can think of another way."

Liu Chengzong nodded slowly, and said with a smile: "This Li Shan is really kind to you."

"That's right." Huang Cheng nodded and said, "Everyone in the world knows his good name. He is a boy with a lot of knowledge. He always said that he was afraid that I would be left alone. When I went down, I would complain about him."

Liu Chengzong smiled, and the tension that Huang Cheng had hidden in his heart dissipated, and he learned to say: "My boss, I will work hard for you for half my life, why don't you care about my Cheng baby's life?"

However, his words did not make Liu Chengzong laugh. On the contrary, the smile on Liu Chengzong's face gradually faded: "Among you, the landlords and bosses of the big families help the common people in this way. Is there anyone who is rich and unkind?"

"Then why not? There are good people everywhere, and there are evil people everywhere, but I haven't seen them." Huang Cheng shook his head and said, "They are all in the fortress, and they don't even want to bully me."

Liu Chengzong didn't have a special reaction to this sentence, he was just evaluating the difficulty of using troops to the east, and when he got all the news he wanted to know from Huang Cheng, he asked Huang Cheng to take Huang Cheng to the congee restaurant in Fuzhong for dinner.

Liu Chengzu shook his head and said: "If the local situation is like this, it will be difficult."

Liu Chengzong smiled and said, "What is the difficulty that brother said?"

"It's not easy anywhere." Liu Chengzu was puzzled by his younger brother's ease: "I heard from him that there are not many landlords in the east, and robbing the rich and giving to the poor will hurt good people by mistake..."

Before Liu Chengzu finished speaking, he was interrupted by Liu Chengzong waving his hand: "Brother, we are not rogues who fought in northern Shaanxi. This is not robbing the rich and helping the poor."

Liu Chengzu didn't speak, and motioned him to continue.

"First of all, can we solve our food ration problem by robbing all the landlords in Hehuang?"

Ancestor Liu Chengzu was puzzled, then thought carefully, and finally said: "It will always allow us to last until next year's autumn harvest."

Regarding this answer, Liu Chengzong was noncommittal, but continued to ask: "Then if we still want to distribute food to the people? How can we ensure that the autumn harvest will last until the next autumn? The problem with Hehuang is not that we have no food. .”

He spread his hands and said, "This year, the weather is good. The imperial court is closed to prevent food from outside. The grain production in Hehuang has not changed. The problem lies with us."

Chen Shiwen said that there are 50 Han, Fan, and Mongolian people in Hehuang. This year, the grain production here has not changed much, but it has increased by a full 8 people. The food from the outside world cannot come in. The Marshal’s Mansion bought up the grain on the market in order not to starve. so that people in the east are starving.

Based on this reason, Liu Chengzong said: "Even if we rob all the landlords, there will still be a ration crisis in the coming year. Who will be robbed then? Is it possible that the landowners who have more than [-] mu of land this year will be counted as landlords, and the landowners who have more than [-] mu of land next year will be counted as landlords?"

Speaking of this, Liu Chengzong himself laughed, and said a word that seemed to have nothing to do with this matter: "Power."

To be honest, Liu Chengzu felt that he could not keep up with his train of thought: "Huh?"

"I mean, the purpose of this battle is power. Inciting Huang Cheng and other people to riot and loot big families is just a means. My goal is power."

Liu Chengzong shook his hand and said, "It's not because this person has [-] acres of land and I want to rob him; it's not because this big clan doesn't own much land, so I don't care about him; The dibao who is evil and in power in the countryside has no land and no food, so I will let him go."

"I see what you mean."

Liu Chengzu nodded slowly, and said along this line of thought: "Then this battle must start in Xining, and take back all local powers, just like the founding of the past dynasties, in the name of robbing the rich and helping the poor, and exempting the land from taxes To lure the gentry, the clan, and the chieftain to death?"

Liu Chengzong's eyes were eager, and he nodded firmly: "Yes!"

But Liu Chengzu was even more puzzled: "But as you said just now, the total number of fields in Hehuang, except for the tens of thousands of acres we cultivated, will still be short of food in the future."

"Besides, I have never thought that equalizing land and exempting taxes is a good way. We said it a long time ago..." Liu Chengzu looked troubled, shook his head and said, "Everyone who fails will do this."

"Yes, those who fail do the same, and those who succeed do the same. I don't think the problem lies in equalizing the land and exempting taxes, and adapting measures to local conditions. There has never been a law that will never change forever in this world, let alone a country that lasts forever. It can Use it for a period, but not forever."

Liu Chengzong said while cutting in the void with his hand: "It is easy to equalize the land, but the land will be uneven again in the second year of equalizing the land. What we have always said is to suppress mergers, that is, to suppress the emergence of landlords. But once Is one hundred mu counted as a landlord, or two hundred mu counted as a landlord? If two hundred mu is counted as a landlord, what is 190 nine mu counted as?”

"Exempting the tax is easy, but after the tax is free, what will the Marshal's Mansion use to raise soldiers, build roads and bridges, and build water conservancy?"

Liu Chengzong asked himself and answered: "So my idea is to equalize grain and buy taxes... Taking Hehuang as the base, taking back all local powers is the first step; organizing households and dividing the township and the people is the second step."

"Each township formation sends four officials, one local is recommended by the common people, one is selected by the government from outside, one official is appointed by the commander-in-chief, and one military officer is selected by me. In addition, there are twenty doctors of agriculture and animal husbandry and centurion captains. Lead the local people to plant and raise livestock in a unified way, and earn credit according to their work."

"In the whole of Hehuang, the marshal's mansion plans to plant livestock in a unified manner, and the agricultural and animal husbandry products are priced uniformly. [-]% of the harvest is distributed locally according to work, and [-]% is purchased by the marshal's mansion; markets are set up along the valley for unified management."

Liu Chengzong spoke impassionedly, as if a new era was kicking off, but when he finished speaking, his momentum was half a point lower: "This matter is of great importance, I have to get Chengyun back as soon as possible."

　Good evening!I accompanied my wife to take a maternity photo today, and when I came back, I deleted half of the chapter I wrote yesterday, so I posted it late, sorry.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)