The biggest problem here is that all places have to pay taxes to Tanzhou. The journey is long and the road is difficult. If you want to ensure that the annual taxes are in full, the taxes must be higher than those in other places.

Naturally, the people were unwilling to pay more taxes, so local officials would ask the village head to collect them.

Being a village head may sound like a high position, but the actual service is not easy. If the taxes are insufficient or not collected in full on time, the government will order those serving to pay the compensation themselves. If they encounter harsh local officials, the service will be even more miserable.

This situation resulted in "the people being burdened with heavy labor, starting from the village head who became a yamen officer after the end of the year, who was in charge of the government treasury or transporting government goods, and often went bankrupt." "Many people were rude and could not control the boatmen, so the boatmen stole government goods, and the people went bankrupt and could not pay back."

Therefore, the problem of corvee labor harming the people is very serious.

Zhao Jun took it very seriously after hearing this, but he did not give a solution immediately. Instead, he frankly said that he needed to go to the countryside in person to see the actual situation.

The banquet ended soon.

The next day, Zhao Jun set out again, but he did not head north to Tanzhou, but southwest to Shaozhou.

Because he actually changed the itinerary without authorization because of his selfish motives.

Otherwise, according to the normal plan, he should have gone south from Jiangnan West Road to Guangnan and Guangxi Second Road first. After inspecting the south, he would go north to Jinghu Road, inspect Hunan and Hubei, and then take a boat along the Yangtze River to enter Sichuan.

Then he went from Sichuan to Guanzhong, then east to Shanxi, Hebei, and Shandong, and finally returned to Bianliang from Shandong. In other words, he traveled around the entire territory of the Song Dynasty and inspected all places.

According to later maps, the entire route starts from Kaifeng, Henan, goes southeast to Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, then from Zhejiang to Fujian and Jiangxi, then goes south to Guangdong and Guangxi, then north to Hunan and Hubei, goes west along the Yangtze River to Sichuan and Guizhou, and finally goes north to Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, and Shandong, completing the circle.

But Zhao Jun changed his route. Instead of going south from Jiangxi to Guangzhou, he came to Hunan first. This meant that if he first inspected Hunan and then went south to Guangzhou, he would have to pass through Hunan when going north, which would obviously waste more time.

But he felt it was worth it.

If he could return to his hometown before the New Year, he would be willing to do so even if it means wasting a little more time.

At the end of December, as the year was drawing to a close, Zhao Jun refused the company of the Transport Commissioner, the Criminal Justice Commissioner and others, and entered Shaozhou alone, only allowing the Shaozhou prefect and the local county magistrate to follow him.

On the 28th, he arrived at the bank of Zijiang River, between Shaoyang County and Xinhua County. Looking to the northwest, he saw Changlong Mountain rising high and shrouded in clouds and mist.

There are villages and fields on both sides of the Zishui River.

Zhao Jun, accompanied by the prefect of Shaozhou, the magistrate of Shaoyang County and the magistrate of Xinhua County, inspected the Shaozhou area.

What puzzled them was that Zhao Jun did not stay in the place for long, but ordered the fleet to continue sailing along the Zijiang River. On the 29th, they arrived at Baisha Town, north of Xinhua County.

The magistrate of Shaoyang County got off the boat and left when he arrived in Xinhua. He had the responsibility to defend the territory and had to go back.

So, accompanied by the prefect of Shaozhou and the magistrate of Xinhua County, Zhao Jun stopped the boat in Baisha Town. He first looked at the development of the town. In the afternoon, he walked all the way to the north hillside and looked at Meishan in the distance.

This is a hillside north of Baisha Town. There is no wide county road in the north as in later generations, but winding mountains that seem to have no end in sight.

"What is that place?"

Zhao Jun pointed to the north and asked knowingly.

In fact, he knew Baisha Town better than the people there. Later, it was renamed Baixi Town, and Baixi tofu is very famous.

The mayor of Baisha Town said, "Reporting to the Magistrate, that is Meishan."

"Are there people living in the mountains?"

"Stop."

"Oh, who are they?"

"They are local barbarians, wild men who live in the mountains."

"Aren't there any towns or villages there?"

"There are no towns, but there are some barbarian villages, all in the mountains."

"Let's go and have a look."

Zhao Jun said.

The mayor said in embarrassment: "The mountain road is rugged and the journey is long."

In fact, it is not far away. Baisha Town is only more than ten kilometers away from the town where Zhao Jun is located in the future.

But at that time this area was occupied by indigenous mountain people, so the people here were later called Meishan barbarians.

"It's okay, we are all citizens of the Song Dynasty."

Zhao Jun smiled.

At this moment he was feeling a little excited.

Although he knew that his ancestors migrated here during the Southern Song Dynasty, he still wanted to know what his hometown looked like now.

Seeing that they couldn't persuade him, everyone had no choice but to follow the mayor and head north into the mountains.

After crossing countless ridges for more than an hour, before it got dark, they finally arrived at the place Zhao Jun wanted to go.

After climbing over another ridge, Zhao Jun lowered his head and looked down at the mountains.

It's getting dark.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve.

There was nothing underneath the ridge.

There was only a dense forest and a stream running through the wilderness, which seemed so lonely.

After all, there are no old friends in my hometown.

(End of this chapter)