How could this be a government job?

With just one glance at the father and son, Zhang Guangdao had already determined the situation.

Unless your brain is broken, why would you send out such a conspicuous operation? Are you afraid that others will not notice the abnormality?

More like a wild monk escaping from the temple!

The Buddhist precepts in the Song Dynasty were not so strict. They did not prohibit monks from eating meat, and they did not require monks to shave their heads. It can be seen from the paintings of the Tang and Song Dynasties that monks at that time mainly had short hair, and layers of precepts were arranged for monks.

We have to wait for Zhu Yuanzhang.

However, Zhu Ming was carrying weapons, and they were swords controlled by the imperial court, which made Zhang Guangdao a little curious.

"Are you leaving?" Zhu Ming asked.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Let's go."

Staying in the village was not an option. After a brief exchange, the father and son agreed to go to Nabai Market together.

Zhang Guangdao called two men from the village and brought some chickens, ducks, fish and linen cloth, and took them to the market town to sell them, intending to return in exchange for some necessities such as salt.

Counting Ju Ming and his son, a total of five people set out.

Zhang Guangdao glanced at the horse's butt and deliberately reminded: "The brand must be wiped off, be careful of lawsuits."

"This is a picked-up horse. I hand it over to the government when I encounter it." Zhu Ming explained.

Zhang Guangdao chuckled and said: "The government is worried about not being able to catch the horse thief. You said you were going to sacrifice the horse, but the official came and took the stolen goods."

Zhu Ming nodded when he heard this: "It makes sense, then erase it."

The two men from the village who were traveling together were named Lu Wang and Ding Dafang.

Zhang Guangdao said to Ding Dafang: "Go and get some firewood."

Ding Dafang immediately went home and brought some firewood, took out a fire sickle to light it, and burned the poker to use as a soldering iron.

Zhang Guangdao crossed his arms in front of his chest and stared at the flames without saying a word.

Zhu Guoxiang asked in a low voice: "Where did this person come from? Why did he help us erase his official seal?"

"Submit your name." Zhu Ming said.

"A certificate of submission?" Zhu Guoxiang didn't understand.

Ju Ming explained: "Privately erasing the official seals of military horses is a first-class felony. Even if we are officials of the government, erasing the official seals is still a crime. Once we become sinners, we are just as good as thieves and bandits, and no one needs to be afraid of the other."

"

Zhu Guoxiang suddenly realized: "Is this Orion a bandit in the mountains?"

Zhu Ming looked back at the village and smiled coldly: "I'm afraid the whole village is a den of thieves, an outpost of a bandit village on the riverside. Of course, they are also real farmers. They farm when the farming is busy and rob when the farming is slack. This is

It was normal in remote areas in ancient times.”

Not long after, the tongs were already burning red. Zhang Guangdao bent down to pick it up, handed it to Ju Ming and said, "Let's do it."

Ju Ming took the poker and walked to the side of the thin horse.

The thin horse flinched in fear. Ju Ming stroked his mane and comforted him: "It hurts, please bear with it."

The horse probably still remembered the taste of the soldering iron, but this time it was disobedient and kept pacing to avoid the red-hot poker.

Zhang Guangdao suddenly hugged the horse's neck with his arms and urged: "Do it!"

Ju Ming stood on the left side of the horse's buttocks and pressed the poker on the official seal.

There was a sizzling sound, and the thin horse kicked its hooves wildly in pain, unable to break free from Zhang Guangdao's arms.

"Bah!"

Zhang Guangdao let out a low roar and pushed the thin horse to the ground. Lu Wang and Ding Dafang also rushed forward and pressed the horse's body.

Although the horse was skinny and skinny and had not taken in salt for several months, so it probably didn't have much strength left, Zhang Guangdao's strength was still staggering.

The place where the official seal was was quickly burnt to black.

This beast must not be brought into the city. Even without the official seal, the origin cannot be explained. Anyone with a discerning eye will know that there is something wrong at a glance.

After struggling for a long time, the thin horse regained its freedom and ran a long way out of breath.

Zhu Ming was too lazy to chase and went on his own. After walking for a while, he turned around to check and found that the thin horse was following him again, and even lost his temper and deliberately nibbled on the rapeseed flowers.

Zhang Guangdao said with a smile: "This beast is interesting and understands human nature. Why don't you sell it to me and take away half of the money. Don't think it's too little money. He's too hungry and thin. You'll have to take good care of him when you take him home."

Zhu Guoxiang asked his son in a low voice: "How many RMB is half the money equivalent to?"

"Not sure." Zhu Ming didn't do much research on prices in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Since he didn't know the price, he didn't rush to buy or sell. He went to the market to inquire about it first. Zhu Ming politely refused to sell the horse.

The price of horses fluctuated greatly during the Song Dynasty. Anyway, the prices became more expensive as the horses went further back.

One is due to the increasingly serious horse shortage, and the other is due to rising prices and inflation.

It's about ten miles from here to Baishitou. Perhaps the villagers come and go frequently and have already carved a path along the river, so there is no need to go through thorns along the way.

Zhang Guangdao looked at the scenery from left to right, and glanced at Ju Ming's back from time to time. After walking for a while, he suddenly asked: "Brother Zhu is carrying a gun and a stick?"

"It's just a stick." Ju Ming said.

Zhang Guangdao continued to test: "It looks more like a knife."

Zhu Ming smiled and said: "It's a sword, can you believe it, Brother Zhang?"

"I believe it." Zhang Guangdao chuckled.

Zhu Guoxiang stopped moving forward, put down his backpack, and took out a Hu brush: "Actually, we are businessmen, and we were robbed by bandits on the way. We finally escaped. Look at this brush, it is the remaining goods after being robbed."

Since it is a New Year gift for relatives and children, the packaging must be exquisite.

The Hu pen is placed in a small brown box with golden text on the box. It looks like it is worth a lot of money at first glance.

Zhang Guangdao had never read a book and did not know how to read. He was looking straight at the brush box.

Zhu Ming took off his sword and held it in his hand. He pressed the handle of the sword wrapped in a sweater and said, "Brother Zhang, do you want to buy a pen? This is a high-quality Hu pen. A pen is worth at least a hundred dollars."

Zhang Guangdao looked at Ju Ming's hand pressing the sword, then looked at the brush box, shook his head and said, "It's too expensive. There are also pens for sale at Bai Market, and a brush only costs ten cents."

"Forget it if you don't buy it. There is no justice in buying and selling." Zhu Ming smiled.

Zhang Guangdao heard this and praised: "Business cannot be done without benevolence and righteousness. This is so well said. Brother Zhu is indeed a scholar!"

This phrase comes from "Three Heroes and Five Righteousnesses" and would not come out for hundreds of years. It is quite suitable for Zhang Guangdao, a bandit.

Zhu Ming and his son carried precious brushes with them, had short hair, and wore tattered and weird clothes. In Zhang Orion's eyes, they looked more and more mysterious. They might be strange people with great abilities in traveling around the world.

After walking for a while, Zhang Guangdao couldn't help but ask: "You two really want to find a place to stay?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "We have this plan."

Zhang Guangdao tried to send an invitation: "How about coming to the mountains with me? There are many good men in the mountains."

When Zhu Ming saw the other party opening the skylight and speaking openly, he also revealed a little bit of information: "To be honest with brother Zhang, my father and son want to settle down, buy a few acres of land, marry a wife, have children and spread the family."

These words made Zhang Guangdao even more convinced that the father and son were monks who had returned to secular life, and that the high-end brushes were probably stolen from the temple.

Zhang Guangdao sneered at this and said with a sneer: "What benefits can you get from farming? My great-grandfather used to be a third-class household. When he was on official errands, he had no choice but to break up his family and flee to the mountains."

Ju Ming deliberately followed him and said, "Corrupt officials should die."

"You deserve to die!" Zhang Guangdao gritted his teeth.

The common people who paid taxes to the Song Dynasty government were strictly divided into five classes.

According to different levels of prosperity, the standards for classifying households are also different in different places.

Generally speaking, those with an area of ​​more than 400 acres belong to the first-class households, also called upper households. Those with less than 400 acres belong to the second, third, and fourth-class households, also called middle households. The remaining fifth class belong to the lower households. (

Note: Some families may have hundreds of acres of land, but they have only 10 or 20 people in the family, and sharing it can only provide food and clothing.)

As for yamen errands, people work as errands for the government.

At first, Li Zheng was selected from among the households and was responsible for collecting taxes and so on. In the early Song Dynasty, this was a good job, and he could make money. Gradually, it turned into a nightmare, because he could not collect enough taxes, and Li Zheng had to make up for the shortfall with his own money.

Many wealthy families, who were designated as righteous, went bankrupt and sold their sons and daughters.

At the suggestion of Prime Minister Han Qi, Li Zheng's unlucky job was cancelled, and related matters were handled by the upper and middle households in turn. There were strict regulations on how many people were needed for an errand, how many places were allocated to the first-class households, and how many people were allocated to the first-class households.

How many places are there for second-class households? Even if we share it equally, we won’t go bankrupt.

But the actual operation quickly goes wrong!

Officials organized a number of households into groups so that the really big households could escape, and they specifically targeted those who had no backers.

For example, Zhang Guangdao's great-grandfather used to be a third-class household, and his family owned more than 300 acres of land. When the official came, he not only calculated the land, but also pointed to the objects in the house and said, this broom is worth 50 guan, and that table is worth 100 guan.

.Finally, Zhang Guangdao's great-grandfather had a huge fortune and properly concealed his status as a first-class household, so he should be responsible for this dispatch.

Therefore, a small landowner with more than 300 acres of land was assigned to be a luncha yamen. Since he could not complete the task, he had no choice but to abandon his fixed property, take only some floating wealth, and escape to a foreign land with his family overnight. And he

The abandoned fields were also divided among the really big families in the village.

In feudal society, people eat people without spitting out their bones.
To be continued...