Chapter 147 Staying in the Village
"There's a village ahead. Let's go ask the village chief if there's any vacant house we can stay in for the night."
They had already covered a third of the nearly 3,500-li exile route. They had entered the Yanzhou region, a vast, sparsely populated area. They had been camping in the wilderness for three days. Finally, they found a village, and they didn't want to miss it.
Unfortunately, things did not go as smoothly as they expected. They found that since they entered the village, every household in the village began to close their doors.
They knocked on several doors, but no one answered.
The whole village gave people a very xenophobic feeling, as if they were treated as plague gods.
"Let's go north. I just saw someone shoveling snow. Let's go ask them."
Xu Zheng picked a house that looked brave and knocked on its 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 knocked on the door. "Old man inside, I see you. But don't worry, we're not bad people. I'm a bailiff of the imperial court, and these are my subordinates. We're responsible for escorting prisoners. The one next to me is the head escort of Yang Wei's escort agency, and the other strong men are escorts, responsible for escorting wealthy merchants and their goods. We're not bad people!"
"We didn't come into the village for any other reason. We just wanted to ask if there's any vacant house in your village that we could rent to rest for a while."
The courtyard door wasn't built, but from the low mud, one could see that the other party had opened it a crack, and a trembling voice came out, "You should ask the village chief about this. The village chief's house is just ahead. You'll be there in a while."
Xu Zheng didn't insist, "Okay, thank you."
Not long after they walked forward, a short old man came towards them with seven or eight strong men, and the two sides collided directly.
Xu Zheng stepped forward and explained his purpose, and handed the nameplate around his waist to the other party to see.
The other party looked carefully, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming the identities of Xu Zheng and others. "Don't be surprised, 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 name, and then quickly asked him what he meant by that sentence.
Then the other party said his surname was Chen, and they could call him Village Chief Chen.
"Well, what a sin! Two hundred miles from our Qingxi Village there's a mountain stronghold called Qinglong Village, which often plunders the surrounding villages. Our Qingxi Village was just robbed by them half a month ago. You guys were so loud just now that we thought it was the bandits from Qinglong Village coming again."
"Is Qinglong Village so rampant?"
"Isn't that right?"
"The government didn't care?"
"You mean suppressing the bandits?" Village Chief Chen smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying, "It's useless even if I intervene."
"Qinglong Village is located halfway up the steep Cangshan Mountain. It's easy to defend but difficult to attack. The government has sent troops there, but they've never been able to completely wipe it out."
Village chief Chen told them that after the government sent people, Qinglong Village would often intensify its looting of surrounding villages. Over time, they simply gave up resistance.
Lu Songli and the others listened quietly to their conversation in the carriage, which would cause endless trouble.
"Anyway, once the people from Qinglong Village arrive, as long as we obediently hand over enough food as they demand, they won't kill people, rape women, or steal children." As for not having enough food? Just tighten your belt, drink more water, and don't starve to death.
Lu Songli listened quietly. It turned out that Qinglong Village regarded the area within a radius of 100 miles as its own fish pond and knew how to take the path of sustainable development.
But in this way, wouldn't Qingyun Village be equivalent to a second imperial court? After the people paid taxes to the imperial court every year, they would still be exploited by Qinglong Village.
Moreover, as ordinary people, isn’t it our right not to be burned, killed, or looted?
Lu Songli discovered that the people's demands are really low, which may also be the helplessness of the people.
"Oh, why do I keep talking about these annoying things? My lords, I want to ask if there is any vacant house in our village. I want to stay overnight, right?"
"Yes, Village Chief Chen, you see, we have a lot of people. Can you make some arrangements?"
"We do have some empty houses in our village, but we may not be able to accommodate so many people at once."
"It's okay, we can sleep on the floor and squeeze in. Village Chief Chen, please lead the way."
Later, Village Chief Chen brought them to an empty farmyard. There were nearly ten large houses in the yard. The key point was that the house looked quite new, but no one lived there?
But they are too lazy to meddle in other people's business.
Yang Wei stuffed a bag of copper coins into his hand, about five or six hundred coins, and said, "Village Chief Chen, take this as payment for the rent of the house."
As we walked along, we could see that Qingxi Village was not wealthy. The villagers were all very thin, skinny and dark, and there was no fat anyone.
"No, no, no, I can't accept it."
"Just take it."
Yang Wei insisted that he accept it. They didn't need the money. On the contrary, Qingxi Village was too poor and probably didn't have much money to earn. Since they had borrowed someone else's house, they should give it what they deserved.
Seeing that he was determined to do so, Village Chief Chen had no choice but to say, "Brother Yang, I don't want money. If possible, could you please give me some food?"
He then explained, "To be honest, this house belongs to my cousin. He just finished building it two years ago, and he died of an acute illness last year. My niece-in-law remarried and moved away not long after. My poor nephew is left at home. From last year until now, he has been supported by relatives from all over the country." In fact, the child had always been raised in his family, but his family was large and not well-off. Several of his daughters-in-law were quite dissatisfied with him raising the child.
"Give me this money, and I'll go to town to buy food for him. If it's convenient for you, why not just exchange it for food and give it to him."
"Okay." Yang Wei helped him exchange the money for grain according to the price. This year's grain was indeed expensive. By the end of the year, the price of fine grain had risen to 200 wen per dou, and coarse grain was 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 took his men and left carrying the food.
The villagers he had just brought out said enviously, "Village Chief, these outsiders are so rich."
The others nodded in agreement. "They have so many carriages. Judging by the depth of the ruts, you can tell they're packed to the brim."
They had no ill intentions, they were simply envious. The other party consisted of nearly thirty men, all strong and powerful, looking like they could outmaneuver three of them. They didn't dare harbor any ill intentions.
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