The Monk

Chapter 538 Soldiers and People

The man finally surrendered and did not think about the name of the place: "It's quite far anyway, what are you going to do in the city?" Zhang Ai said, "Just take a look around."

"It's quite leisurely. Why am I empty-handed? How was last year's harvest?"

"Harvest? I don't farm." Zhang Ai was very patient and polite. It was extremely rare for him, a master of intermediate Nascent Soul cultivation, to be willing to talk to ordinary people like this.

"Not farming? Then what kind of work do you mean? Hunting?" The man's questions were multi-layered. Zhang Ping really wanted to say, let me go, but he couldn't bear to spoil others' interest and continued to cooperate: "No hunting."

Not farming or hunting? The man became more and more curious, and before he could ask any more questions, a whistle suddenly sounded from the other side of the river, and a man ran quickly on the loess road, shouting as he ran: "Enter the lake, enter the lake, the officers and soldiers are recruiting boats."

A loud voice alarmed the boats on the river. There were five boats on both sides of the river. People appeared one after another and asked: "Is it true or not?"

The man who reported the news scolded: "If you don't believe me, just wait." As he spoke, he jumped into a small boat, untied the cable and rowed downstream.

The man's face also changed: "Brother, come back. There is no boat today, so you are unlucky." After saying this, he jumped onto the boat on the shore. The sailors in the boat were already rowing and ready to go. As soon as the man got on the boat, Lima sailed away. downstream.

Zhang was afraid that he couldn't laugh or cry, what's going on? I just walked around trying to get back on the ship, but the officers and soldiers came to recruit the ship? How lucky is this? He looked at the sky and the ground, and pondered: "Which sect is the best at arithmetic? I don't know my birthday, I can't calculate my horoscopes, I can only read my face." After pondering for a while, I had no clue, so I decided to go to the nearest city to find a fortune teller to do the calculations. .

He was thinking wildly here, and the sound of horse hooves came from the dirt road on the other side of the river. A dozen war horses carried the sergeant and galloped to the river. After the leader arrived at the ferry, he looked upstream and downstream and cursed: "Let these bastards run away again. Go back." A group of people ran back with the sound of hooves.

Zhang Ai was confused, what was this for? The soldiers of a country are supposed to protect the people of a country. Why do the people fear the soldiers and the soldiers scold the people?

He was also bored, and he was supposed to go to Yong'an Lake as soon as possible, but what happened just now aroused his curiosity and decided to stay at the ferry for a while. An hour later, two people, an old man and a young woman, came from the direction of the money-making village, each carrying a basket full of fresh vegetables, apparently going to sell in the city. When he reached the ferry and saw no boat, the old man said dejectedly: "It was a waste of time, there is no boat." The girl was a little anxious: "How could there be no boat?" She put down her burden, ran to the ferry, looked left and right, and then came back disappointed. .

When the old man saw Zhang Ping, he came over and asked, "Young man, when did you come? Did you have a boat when you came?"

Zhang Ping said: "I had a boat when I came, but then the officers and soldiers came and the boat ran away."

The old man sighed and said to the girl, "Let's go back after a while."

The two of them were each carrying a burden. The girl pouted, rubbed her shoulders and threw her arms, with an unhappy look on her face: "The officers and soldiers are so annoying." The old man shouted: "Don't talk nonsense." She looked scared, but when she saw that he didn't respond, she secretly sighed with relief. .

The girl didn't speak any more, she lowered her head and fiddled with the basket with her feet. Zhang Ain glanced at the basket, which was nearly half a meter high and stuffed with vegetables. It weighed at least fifty kilograms, a load weighed a hundred kilograms, and secretly exclaimed: "Young girl is really energetic."

Seeing the disappointed look on the old man's face, the girl looked unhappy. She thought about it and said, "How can I sell the vegetables? They look quite fresh."

When the old man heard this, he might be a customer, so he hurriedly answered: "It must be fresh. You grow your own food. If you can't eat it and are afraid of spoilage, who would go all the way to eat it? Look at these leaves, they are still covered with dew. ”

Zhang Wen smiled and said that he was just taking advantage of the kindness of a good person and wanted to help others. He took out two taels of silver and said, "How much can I buy with this silver?" The old man took a look and said hurriedly: "It's too much. If you buy it all, you still need change." I don’t have any change for your money.” As he spoke, he took out a small bag from his waist, which contained only dozens of copper coins.

Zhang Ping said: "Then just buy them all, and there's no need to change. Just leave the vegetables here."

The old man disagreed: "I can't let you lose." Zhang Ping said: "I won't lose. No one in the world likes to suffer losses, and I'm not stupid." The old man thought about it and whispered to the girl to make up her mind. Very neatly: "If he is willing to buy it, just sell it to him. It's not like stealing from him or robbing him. What should I be afraid of?"

The old man was a little embarrassed and chattered for a while. Finally, he put away the money with a lot of thanks, carefully piled the dishes into piles, and stood up to ask: "I don't know when the ferry will come. It's not a problem to wait. I'll accompany you." Would you like to talk?”

Zhang Ping was trying to find out what happened and made the officials and people unhappy, so he asked directly: "Why did the officers and soldiers recruit ships?" The old man became cautious: "Why are you asking this?" Zhang Ping knew that the old man had misunderstood, and smiled and said: "I'm just curious. , If you are in trouble, don't say anything." The old man touched the money on his waist, thought for a while and asked, "Are you not a local?" Zhang Ping'en said.

The old man was still hesitating, and the girl next to him said: "What are you afraid of? There is nothing you can't say. Who doesn't know the common people? The officers and soldiers conscripted ships to suppress bandits in Yanghu Lake. They conscripted ships every year, and those officials and masters were clean They are a bunch of bastards who don’t care about people.”

Zhang Wen laughed, he was laughing at his great luck. Zhang Tianfang was right, he might really be the reincarnation of a degenerate god, with good things never happening and bad things happening every day.

The old man smiled when he saw Zhang Wei, and his daughter also spoke. For Yinzi's sake, she simply said in more detail: "The lower reaches of the river is Yanghu Lake, which is very big. Most of the lake is covered with islands and reeds. The islands are There are a lot of tall and dense reeds, there are many aquatic plants, and there is a large swamp, which is not conducive to the movement of large ships. There are many water bandits on the island. The officers and soldiers suppress the bandits. Big ships cannot enter, and small boats cannot hit others. Every time. They were all seriously damaged, so the army began to confiscate the fishermen's boats on the rivers and lakes, and then they didn't pay them. Isn't this a scam? "

So that's what happened. Zhang Ain nodded and said he understood. For a cultivator like him, he has long been separated from the mortal world and will not easily interfere with worldly affairs. For example, in the matter of officers and soldiers suppressing bandits, it is really unclear who is right and who is wrong. No one is willing to live with their heads up, even if Even though he is a murderer, he is forced to a certain level before he dares to kill.

The old man saw Zhang Wei nodding, thinking he agreed with his statement, and continued: "Let's just say, if you don't force people too much, who would want to be a thief?"

When Zhang Wen heard it, he found out that there was indeed a story, but he didn't want to ask anymore. Things are always like this in the world. The more he learns about it, the more disappointed he becomes. But he didn't want to ask, but the old man continued to tell: "A few years ago, the government said that there was a mine in the north, and they wanted people to dig. If they dug out the kind of stones they were talking about, they would pay five taels of silver a piece. When everyone heard this, they refused to go. I'm a fool. If I hadn't been older, I would have wanted to go there and give it a try. At that time, more than 200,000 young men went to dig rocks in the mountains. At the beginning, someone actually dug out rocks. One day, I was lucky. For one piece, you can dig out thirty yuan a month. No matter how unlucky you are, you can dig out three or two yuan a month. This is money. You need to dig out these stones every day and pay them every day. The name and quantity are registered, and the account is settled once a month. After working for a month, everyone was waiting for the money, but when the money came out, a stone turned into fifty cents. Of course everyone didn't agree..."