Water Margin official

Chapter 168 Daming Mansion

On a mound not far from the south gate of Daming Mansion, Zhang Zhengdao sat on his horse and stared at the huge city in front of him. He was afraid that it wouldn't be long before Liang Shijie took office and took control of this city for his father-in-law Cai Jing.

An extremely important companion.

After looking at it for a long time, Zhang Zhengdao grabbed the horse's belly and rushed down the mound, running straight towards the city gate, with everyone following closely.

When we got closer, we saw that the city gate was crowded with pedestrians, carriages and horses preparing to enter the city.

Thirty to fifty military men guarded the city gates and were checking the citations in the hands of the people entering the city one by one.

If there are carriages and horses transporting goods entering the city, they must be inspected one by one, and they can only enter the city after paying taxes.

Therefore, the speed of entering the city is very slow.

It was early August, the scorching summer season, and the scorching sun was shining brightly. The people waiting to enter the city were all sweating profusely, but no one dared to complain. They just kept wiping the sweat from their foreheads and waited patiently.

Zhang Zhengdao and his team were very conspicuous among this group of people.

The gatekeeper, who was sitting under the thatched pavilion to avoid the scorching sun, raised his eyelids, glanced at Zhang Zhengdao's fine Northern BMW, waved his hand to summon a soldier guarding the city, and whispered a few words.

The soldier quickly walked out of the pavilion, raised his arm, pointed his finger at Zhang Zhengdao and shouted at Zhang Zhengdao and his party: "That man, come here and say something back."

Zhang Zhengdao was a little surprised when he saw his hand pointing at him, so he let go of the horse's reins, handed it to Luan Tingfang, and stepped into the thatched pavilion.

The official guarding the door was sitting on a recliner with a lazy posture, as if he had no bones in his body. He just raised his eyebrows and lightly raised his eyelids without getting up. He said in a slow voice: "That rogue horse of yours will cost you ten thousand coins."

, stay here."

Upon hearing this, the military man hurried to the city gate, pulled out ten heavy copper coins from the wooden box containing the city entrance tax, carried it back, and threw it on the ground.

The weight of twelve or three kilograms made a pit on the ground.

Zhang Zhengdao frowned, this was a forced sale!

"Not for sale!" Zhang Zhengdao didn't even look at the string of copper coins, he just wanted to leave.

The soldier stretched out his arm and stood in front of Zhang Zhengdao.

At this time, Luan Tingfang, who had been staring at this place, saw that Zhang Zhengdao was blocked by someone. It seemed that something had happened, so he threw the two horses to the soldiers behind him, walked quickly to the front, and shouted loudly: "Zhizhai, something happened."

What's the matter?"

The soldier who stretched out his hand to stop him sneered and said: "It's not up to you whether to sell this horse or not. If you know the horse, get away with ten coins. If you don't know the horse, huh..."

Luan Tingfang understood this time, and stepped forward and said, "We are from the Inspection Department of Qinghe County, and we are both in the army. Why did you forcefully buy my Zhizhai mount?"

Seeing that the official lying on the rocking chair still hadn't spoken, the military man felt confident and shouted sternly: "Whatever Niao Zhi Village, my husband-in-law said, I will buy your horse for ten guan. Take the money and get out of here."

."

Zhang Zhengdao was angry. A vulgar soldier guarding the city was so rude. He was also an inspector of the village and an official of the imperial court. He could be treated like this. It can be seen that ordinary people have been humiliated so much.

.

"What if I firmly refuse to sell?" Zhang Zhengdao said coldly.

The soldier waved his hand and saw twenty or thirty sergeants guarding the gate. They rushed over and surrounded the grass pavilion.

Luan Tingfang was shocked when she saw this. She took a few steps forward and protected Zhang Zhengdao behind her.

"These two men are suspected of being bandits who fled here a few days ago. Take them down with me quickly." The soldier shouted, and more than twenty sergeants, holding long guns, stepped forward to kill Zhang Zhengdao and Zhang Zhengdao.

Luan Tingfang captured him.

"Zhizhai, what should we do?" Seeing the critical situation, Luan Tingfang felt anxious.

Zhang Zhengdao really did not expect that the moral collapse of the officials in Daming Mansion would be so bad that they could engage in such forced buying and selling in public, and even falsely accuse good people of being thieves.

It’s really lawless!

"Destroy them, don't kill them!" Zhang Zhengdao's anger surged, and after speaking, he kicked out first, hitting the defenseless soldier in the crotch.

"Ouch!"

The soldier didn't take precautions and was kicked in the crotch. He only felt the heartbreaking pain, which shot straight to his forehead for an instant. Then he felt like stars were shining in his eyes, clamped his legs tightly, and fell to the ground, wailing all the time.

"Kill him quickly...ah..."

Zhang Zhengdao kicked one person down, then stared at the gatekeeper who had rolled up from the recliner, rushed forward, and punched him on the bridge of the nose, causing blood to pour out of his nose instantly.

The gatekeeper also took a few steps back, sat down on the ground, covered his mouth and nose, and shouted loudly: "Catch these two bandits for me, don't let them go."

The twenty or so sergeants all shouted loudly, raised their spears, and stabbed Zhang Zhengdao and Luan Tingfang.

Fortunately, Luan Tingfang had a Ningshuang Feixue Sun-Moon Knife hanging on her waist. After taking it off, she could not resist the sergeant's spear.

With his bare hands, Zhang Zhengdao could only dodge left and right, and get close to seize a spear.

Over there, the ten soldiers who were brought to inspect the village saw that their village commander and his team were actually fighting with the soldiers guarding the city. They looked at each other, then they all got on their horses, raised their weapons, and rushed into the place that was already filled with smoke and dust.

A place of chaos.

Many people who were waiting to enter the city at the city gate were frightened and fled in all directions when they saw the fighting. They hid far away and looked back at this place.

A village soldier pulled the white horse to Zhang Zhengdao and shouted: "You know the village, mount the horse."

Zhang Zhengdao kicked a sergeant away, got on his horse, took off the long gun hanging on the horse, waved a gunshot with his backhand, forced back the two approaching sergeants, and shouted: "Get out."

Immediately, he swept the spear in his hand and rushed out of the crowd first.

Luan Tingfang also jumped on his horse, holding two swords in his hands, slashing upwards and downwards, and then rushed out.

The ten village soldiers followed closely behind and rushed out on horseback.

When he was one thousand meters away from the city gate, Zhang Zhengdao turned his horse's head, raised his gun and stood up, looking at Damingfu City in the distance.

Luan Tingfang stood on horseback and shouted: "Zhizhai, what should we do?"

The ten village soldiers also reined in their horses and stood side by side, on guard.

Zhang Zhengdao didn't say anything, he just suppressed the anger in his heart and quietly waited for Daming Mansion's reaction.

If he hadn't taken the overall situation into consideration and planned for the future, he would have moved his family to Liangshan long ago. Why would he bother to compromise with this dim-witted court?

Outside the south gate of Daming Mansion, there was a panic at the moment.

It was a chaotic battle. Although no one died, several sergeants were injured by the sun and moon knife in Luan Tingfang's hand and fell to the ground wailing.

The gatekeeper had already wiped away the nosebleed, looked around, and shouted angrily: "Go to the city quickly and report to the king that there are thieves attacking the city. Please mobilize the Imperial Army to go out of the city to encircle and suppress them."

Then the sergeant mounted a fast horse, galloped into the city, and went to the left-behind government office to report the urgent military situation.

At this time, the prefect of Daming Prefecture, whose surname was Deng and whose twin names were Xunwu, was the son of Deng Wan, the imperial censor, and a member of Cai Jing's party. He was sitting in the hall. Hearing that there were thieves who dared to attack the city without knowing the heights of the sky, he immediately sent a deputy.

The Pai army led a group of troops and horses to fight out of the city.