NOVEL NEXT Chapter 147 Staying in the Village
"There is a village ahead. Let's go ask the village chief if there are any empty houses for us to stay for the night."
They have already walked one-third of the nearly 3,500-mile exile road. They have now entered the Yanzhou area. For some reason, this area is vast and sparsely populated. They have been camping in the wilderness for three days. They finally found a village, and they really don't want to miss it.
Unfortunately, things did not go as smoothly as they expected. They found that since they entered the village, the villagers began to close their doors.
They knocked on several doors in a row, but no one answered.
The whole village gave people a very xenophobic feeling, as if they were regarded as the gods of plague.
"Let's go north. I saw someone sweeping the snow just now. Let's go and ask."
Xu Zheng picked a family that looked brave and knocked on the door. Why did he say that? When they appeared from the corner just now, a figure flashed into the house.
"Excuse me, is anyone home?" Xu Zheng stepped forward and knocked on the door. "Old man inside, I see you. But don't worry, we are not bad people. I am a bailiff of the court, and these people are my subordinates. We are responsible for escorting prisoners. The one next to me is the chief escort of Yang Wei Escort Agency, and the other strong men are escorts, responsible for escorting wealthy businessmen and their goods. They are not bad people!"
"We have no other intentions in entering the village, we just want to ask if there are any empty houses in your village that we can borrow to rest?"
The courtyard gate was not built, but from the low mud, it can be seen that the other party opened a crack in the door, and the voice came out, trembling, "You should ask the village chief about this. The village chief's house is just in front, you will arrive after walking forward for a while."
Xu Zheng did not entangle, "Okay, thank you."
Not long after they walked forward, a short old man brought seven or eight strong men to their side, and the two sides bumped into each other directly.
Xu Zheng stepped forward to explain his purpose and handed the nameplate on his waist to the other party.
The other party looked carefully, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming the identities of Xu Zheng and others, "Don't blame me, officers. The reason why our village is so wary of strangers is that we are really afraid."
Xu Zheng first asked the other party's surname, and then hurriedly asked him what he meant by that.
Then the other party said his surname was Chen, and they could call him Village Chief Chen.
"Well, it's also a sin! There is a mountain stronghold called Qinglongzhai two hundred miles away from our Qingxi Village. They often plunder the surrounding villages. Our Qingxi Village was just robbed by them half a month ago. You just made such a big noise, we thought it was the bandits from Qinglongzhai who came again."
"Is Qinglongzhai so rampant?"
"Of course not?"
"The government doesn't care?"
"You mean to suppress the bandits?" Village Chief Chen smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying, "Even if they do, it's useless."
"Qinglongzhai is located halfway up the steep Cangshan Mountain. It's easy to defend and difficult to attack. The government did send troops here, but they couldn't wipe it out completely."
Village Chief Chen told them that often after the government sent people here, Qinglongzhai would plunder the surrounding villages even more fiercely. Over time, they simply gave up resistance.
Lv Songli and the others listened to their conversation quietly in the carriage. This is an endless disaster.
"Anyway, once the people from Qinglong Village come, as long as we obediently hand over enough food according to their requirements, they will not kill people, nor will they abuse women or rob people's children." As for not having enough food? Then tighten your belt and drink more water, as long as you don't starve to death.
Lu Songli listened quietly. It turned out that Qinglong Village regarded the area of 100 miles as its own fish pond. It knows how to take the path of sustainable development.
But in this way, isn't Qingyun Village equivalent to the second imperial court? After paying taxes to the imperial court every year, the people have to be exploited by Qinglong Village.
Moreover, as ordinary people, isn't it right not to be burned, killed, and looted?
Lu Songli found that the people's demands were really low. This may also be the helplessness of the people.
"Oh, why do I keep saying these annoying things. My lords, you want to ask if there are any empty houses in our village, and you want to stay overnight, right?"
"Yes, Village Chief Chen, you see, we have a lot of people, can you arrange it?"
"There are empty houses in our village, but we may not be able to accommodate so many people at once."
"It doesn't matter, we can sleep on the floor and squeeze together. Village Chief Chen, please lead the way."
Later, Village Chief Chen took them to an empty farmyard, which had nearly ten large houses in the yard. The key point is that this house looks quite new, but no one lives there?
But they were too lazy to meddle in other people's business.
Yang Wei stuffed him a bag of copper coins, about five or six hundred coins, "Village Chief Chen, take this, and treat it as the cost of borrowing the house."
Along the way, it can be seen that Qingxi Village is not rich. The villagers are all very thin, skinny and dark, anyway, there is no fat.
"No, no, no, I can't accept it."
"Just take it."
Yang Wei insisted that he take it. They didn't need this little money. On the contrary, Qingxi Village was too poor. They probably didn't have much money to earn. Since they had borrowed someone's house, they should give them what they deserved.
Seeing that he insisted on doing so, Village Chief Chen had no choice but to say, "Brother Yang, I don't want money. If possible, can you give me some food?"
Then he explained, "To be honest, this house belongs to my cousin. He just built the house two years ago, and died of an acute illness last year. My niece-in-law remarried and moved to another place not long after. My poor nephew is left at home. From last year to now, he has been supported by the mouths of the east and west families." In fact, the child has always been raised in his family, but his family is large and not rich. Several daughters-in-law have opinions about him raising the child.
"If you give me this money, I will also go to the town to buy grain for him as food. If it is convenient for you, you might as well exchange it for grain directly for him."
"Okay." Yang Wei helped him exchange it for grain according to the grain price. This year's grain is indeed expensive. By the end of the year, the price of fine grain has risen to 200 wen per dou, and the price of coarse grain is also 100 wen per dou. Yang Wei finally gave him five dou of coarse grain and half a dou of fine grain.
Village Chief Chen led his people and carried the grain away.
The villagers he had just led out said enviously, "Village chief, these outsiders are so rich."
The others also nodded in agreement, "They have so many carriages. Look at the depth of the ruts, you can tell that the carriages are full."
They had no ill intentions, they were just envious. The other party had nearly 30 men, all of them were strong and powerful, and they looked like one person could do three of them. They didn't dare to have any bad intentions.