If the postmen were not given back the money they were owed for wages and food, they would certainly not receive severance pay, and they would still have to pay compensation for the horses that were killed.
"I can't live anymore, I can't live anymore..."
"Sir, please be merciful to me. The younger one would rather not have to pay for his salary and just have to eat."
"Are you stealing? Give me money!"
When everyone was making noise, dozens of government servants rushed in from outside the door and beat them with sticks, causing the postmen to run away with their heads in their hands.
A good man never suffers immediate losses.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Li Zicheng kicked the postman to pieces and ran away.
Liu Fangliang and Tian Jianxiu had already run out of ideas, but with quick eyesight and quick feet, they followed the horse's head and ran out the door.
"Ma Tou, what should we do?"
"If you don't leave me here, I will leave you somewhere. If you don't leave me everywhere, I will join the Eighth Route Army!"
Tian Jianxiu was shocked and whispered: "Going to join the bandits? It seems... I have never heard of a team called the Eighth Route Army?"
"Damn it!" Liu Fangliang punched the palm of his hand, "Matou, I'm going with you. Instead of starving to death, it's better to steal his mother's body and become a dead man!"
Li Zicheng glared at him, "Keep your voice down, are you afraid that you won't die quickly enough? Bring the wild boar back first."
Liu Fang nodded her head, "Yes, yes, let's eat before we rebel!"
A hen's ideal is a handful of rice bran. What about people?
People can't be too poor. If you are poor, you will have nothing.
…
There is a Mawang Temple next door to the inn.
There is a tall statue of Lord Ma on the stage in the hall, with three heads and six arms, holding a sword and posing with a fierce face.
There is a clay horse sculptured under the stage, which appears to be galloping and ready to run. In front of the horse is a leader holding the reins.
Li Zicheng and the others were about to leave when they saw several people on the other side carrying two corpses on wooden boards into the Mawang Temple.
The master of the temple took out four large bowls, placed them on the hands and feet of the deceased, and placed them between the legs with a bunch of horse tails.
Then he lit incense and burned paper, and the old Taoist knelt under the statue of Lord Ma and muttered something: "Today, the Liu family and the Zhang family have sent it to the God of Horse King, so that it can be transformed into a post horse in the next life. The big bowl will show its strong hooves and thick legs. Good.
Contribute to the royal delivery of official documents."
Yinchuan Yi has an agreement with Mawang Temple: if the family of a deceased person who is too poor and unable to bury them agrees to let them reincarnate in the next life, they can get a small amount of burial expenses.
Tian Jianxiu sighed, "The poor suffer when they live, they suffer when they die, and they will continue to suffer as donkeys and horses in the next life."
Now that the Yinchuan Station is closed, there will probably be no money left for the burial. The rest of the family Liu and Zhang can only be found in newly dug mass graves outside the city.
Li Zicheng waved, "Let's go!"
The three of them left the city and soon arrived at the hill.
"My mother's feet are covered with skin! Where is the wild boar?" Li Zicheng looked at the empty woods and was dumbfounded.
Liu Fangliang ran two steps quickly, looked around, pointed at the grass and said: "There are blood stains, has it been stolen?"
Tian Jianxiu stepped forward and took a look, then turned around and said, "Looking at the traces, I should have gone to Shipangou."
"High thief?" Li Zicheng remembered.
Shipangou Village is four miles away from here. A few years ago, there was a high-profile thief in the village, who often led three or five people to make a living by stealing and robbing people on the road.
The postman couldn't be nosy, so he just pretended not to see him when he encountered him.
"Fang Liang!"
Li Zicheng took out the ten taels of silver from his belt and said, "Take the money and go to the city to find Blacksmith Liu and bring over a batch of swords and guns."
"Ma Tou, where did the money come from?" Liu Fangliang swallowed.
He had never seen such a big silver ingot in his life, and his eyes were wide open. He took the silver and involuntarily stuck out his tongue to take a lick.
"Crawl away!"
Li Zicheng punched him and said, "Hurry up and buy something... Also, if Er Mazi and Gui Sha Tou's gang are still here, ask them if they want to come."
Li Zicheng thought of those poor children at the inn.
A bunch of salted fish didn't leave their names in history, so I didn't plan to recruit them at first. Because Lao Li had no money now and couldn't support many people.
"Got the order!"
Liu Fangliang took the money and ran back like flying.
Tian Jianxiu came over and said: "Matou, maybe a passerby took the wild boar away, it may not be high..."
Li Zicheng kicked a piece of dirt away with his kick and said angrily: "That bastard Gao Jie! If you dare to blow up your hair, I'll kill him first!"
Tian Jianxiu didn't know why Li Zicheng became so angry, and it wasn't necessarily the pig that Gao Jie stole.
"Brother, I have chatted with Gao Jie several times, and we are quite familiar with him. If it is really him who did it, let's make it clear. Then the young man is also a sensible person."
"We'll see!" Li Zicheng muttered and calmed down.
In fact, the current Gao Jie is just a little thief, and he is not the arsonist in the future of the original timeline.
It’s not easy to blame someone for cuckolding. Besides, the one wearing the cuckold is Li Zicheng, what does it have to do with him, Lao Wang?
"Xiaotian, now that the inn has been withdrawn, what are your plans?"
"I want to go home and have a look."
Tian Jianxiu is from Suide, and his hometown is thirty miles away from Mizhi.
"Is your monkey doll one year old?"
"Well, it's been three months since I turned one year old."
Speaking of the child, Tian Jianxiu laughed sillyly, "I will probably call him daddy this time when I go back."
"It's good to have children."
"Matou, it's time for you to get married, right? It's not a big deal if you keep putting it off."
"Hey, you know what's going on in my house. Don't mention it, I'm so worried!"
Li Zicheng's parents died young; his eldest brother died before his father; his wife remarried and left a nephew; and he also had a younger brother, whose life was hard to live by.
"Ma Touer, I have a fellow soldier in Yulin Town, how about we join the army too... Alas, they haven't paid me wages for four years. I entered the capital of Wei last month, and my superiors didn't even give me a settlement allowance.
"
Even if the superiors occasionally allocate pay money, "the three armies are given monthly pay, half of which is given as market rewards, and half of which is given back to serve important people." Ordinary soldiers still have no money.
As for the settlement fee, the established method during the Apocalypse was to give five taels to the camp and move the town, but that is no longer the case now.
Tian Jianxiu shook his head and had nothing to say.
There is no profit from farming, no work to do, and no business, so where is the way to survive?
Li Zicheng stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the Wuding River at the foot of the mountain, and said slowly: "The general trend of the world is that if we divide for a long time, we will unite and unite for a long time. The strength of the Ming Dynasty has been exhausted, and the old Zhu family can't go far. There is no future for joining the army."
Three more years of sewing and mending? It’s better to smash it and start over!
"This...isn't it?"
Tian Jianxiu carefully looked around, fearing that others would hear such rebellious words.
Although he was just an insignificant little postman and had no idea of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, he was still a good citizen after all and had never considered committing rebellion.
When he came out of the inn before, he heard Li Zicheng say that he wanted to join the Eighth Route Army. Tian Jianxiu only thought it was an angry comment. He never thought that his horse head would be able to say such amazing words now.
Li Zicheng sighed, "Our land has suffered from famine for many years. Has the imperial government provided disaster relief? No; has it been exempted from taxes? No. The dead pits just dug outside the city were filled with corpses in a few days. Human lives are like grass!
Tell me, who is willing to starve to death?
Zijinliang, Chuangwang and these people became thieves because they were full?"
Tian Jianxiu murmured: "Last year, the heavy snow in March froze the seedlings to death. Maybe this year the weather is good..."
"so what?"
Li Zicheng laughed angrily at this stupid thing. If Tian Jianxiu hadn't read books for several years and it still had some effect, he wouldn't have bothered to talk more.
"In summary, the taxes in the Ming Dynasty are not high. Even if we add in all the corvee services and assessments stipulated by the court, the burden on the landed people will not exceed two-tenths of their income. But why can't people live in this world?
Think about it carefully."
"..." Tian Jianxiu fell silent.
Of course he knows how difficult it is for the common people. The court stipulates that if you charge one qian, the following people will charge one tael. In addition, there are many bullshit tricks that exploit the common people until they have no way to survive.
The cold wind blows over the hills.
At the foot of the mountain, Liu Fangliang came running with a dozen people.
Li Zicheng pressed his finger joints so that they made a snapping sound.
"What is justice? Justice means living! If anyone reaches the point of eating tree bark and grass roots, but still wants to talk to others about fairness and justice, he is either stupid or bad!"
The Ming court was stupid and bad! This chapter has been completed!