Wei and Jin cooks

At this time, he no longer cared about whether Zhao Hanzhang and the others had other purposes. He reached out and grabbed the cake from her hand and stuffed it into his mouth.

Seeing that he was eating ferociously, Zhao Hanzhang was afraid that he would choke, so he hurriedly took off the water bag from his horse and handed it to him.

The young man didn't even look at it, he just ate the sesame seed cakes.

He took several bites and then slowed down a bit.

Zhao Hanzhang moved the water bag a little further, and then he took it and drank several sips of water for himself.

After drinking the water, he looked down at the cake in his hand and thought for a moment, then he tore off a circle along the place where he had bitten, leaving most of the cake in his arms, and then took the torn off circle of cake. Stuff in mouth.

He raised his eyes and stared at Zhao Hanzhang, and asked vaguely: "What else do you want to ask, gentlemen? Just ask."

Zhao Hanzhang raised his eyebrows, pointed at his chest and asked, "Do you want to save this cake for dinner?"

The young man said: "I still have my parents, wife and children at home. This is left to them."

He looked a little sad and sighed: "My parents are old and the children are still young. They may not have eaten for a long time."

Zhao Hanzhang thought for a while, then took two more cakes from the bag and handed them to him, "Take them back and give them to them."

The young man immediately took it and put it in his arms. With tears in his eyes, he wanted to kowtow to Zhao Hanzhang, "Thank you, noble man. Thank you, noble man."

"May I have your name?"

The young man said: "My name is Wu Sheng, the second eldest in the family. Just call me Wu Erlang."

"Why did you run away when you saw us just now?"

Wu Erlang said embarrassedly: "You guys are riding straight towards me on your big horses. I thought you were the rebels coming from nowhere."

Not to mention that Zhao Hanzhang didn't believe this, but County Magistrate Gao didn't believe it either. Where did the rebel army come from, instead of people with cheers behind them, they came from more than 20 neat horsemen?

They look like a noble person has appeared, okay? Still a regular nobleman!

Zhao Hanzhang stared at Wu Erlang suspiciously, "Really?"

Wu Erlang nodded seriously, "Really!"

Zhao Hanzhang smiled and asked without going into detail: "It's only the middle of July, and there's still some time before the autumn harvest. Now we're starting to run out of food. What will happen next?"

The young man said: "What else can we do? We can only eat weeds first."

Zhao Hanzhang then asked, "How many acres of land have been planted at home? Can we guarantee food during the autumn harvest?"

This kind of question is not a secret, and the young man is happy to answer it, so Zhao Hanzhang quickly knows how many acres of beans, how many acres of rice, and how many acres of wheat were planted in the young man's home, and how much the harvest was.

In fact, Suiping's situation is not very good.

The Huns who fled last year invaded, and everyone in the village was in panic. Either they were robbed, or they were on the way to avoid being robbed, so the farming season was delayed, not much wheat was planted, and they were not that concerned.

In terms of wind and rain, the yield per mu this year is pretty good, but they can't help but not planting much, and the governor has imposed such a heavy tax.

So after everyone harvested, they found that once the taxes were paid, there was basically no food left at home.

In other words, they worked hard for a year, but after paying taxes, the food tank was still empty.

The young man was also a little resentful. He vaguely noticed that Zhao Hanzhang and the others were high-status people, so he couldn't help but bring out some in his words, "To the nobles, it is just a word, but to us, it requires us to spend all our wealth." of."

Zhao Hanzhang nodded in agreement and sighed slightly.

Seeing that she looked in agreement, and the husband next to her did not express any objection, Wu Erlang couldn't help but be surprised, and finally couldn't help but ask: "Who are the girl and the husband?"

Zhao Hanzhang smiled and said: "We are just ordinary people, but we just came from Xiping. There were many people working in the fields over there, but when we got here, we couldn't see anyone. I was curious for a while, and couldn't help but see Xiongtai. I want to ask something."

Who knew she would scare people to death before she even opened her mouth.

Wu Erlang also thought that he had overreacted just now and smiled sheepishly.

Seeing that it was getting late, he stood up directly and said, "I have to go home. My parents, wife and children are still waiting for me to bring food back."

Zhao Hanzhang let him go.

After he left, she sighed quietly, turned around and said to Magistrate Gao and others: "Let's go to Suiping County."

But their speed still slowed down, and Zhao Hanzhang began to pay attention not only to the people on the road, but also to the crops in the fields on both sides.

Nearly half of the fields as far as the eye can see are overgrown with weeds, and many of them are directly wasteland without sowing.

Seeing this situation, Zhao Hanzhang let out a long sigh, "This situation will not be much better even for the autumn harvest."

Magistrate Gao nodded repeatedly, "Because of the summer tax this year, many people have run away from home, so the fields have been left uncultivated. Alas, they are also afraid. If the autumn tax is the same as the summer tax, then they will have no way to survive. , I’m afraid there won’t be many people left in the county by then.”

As he spoke, he looked at Zhao Hanzhang with his small eyes.

Zhao Hanzhang glanced at him and did not make a promise immediately. Instead, he said: "It's getting late. Let's find a nearby village to settle down."

Magistrate Gao was not discouraged, and Zhao Hanzhang did not refuse immediately, which shows that there is hope.

God knows how much he envied Xiping County. The tax amount given by the superiors was reduced whenever she asked.

What do the Sheriff and the Sheriff do?

Not only do they manage the counties under their jurisdiction and make them pay taxes, they also have the obligation to protect the people of each county.

Therefore, Magistrate Gao hoped that the Xianjun Cheng would refuse the tax amount assigned by He Jishishi. He wrote about this more than once, but to no avail.

Not only did the county magistrate not reduce the amount, but he also increased taxes on Xiping and Shangcai when they did not pay enough taxes.

Now that the county magistrate has been replaced by Zhao Hanzhang, County Magistrate Gao feels that he can look forward to the autumn tax.

Zhao Hanzhang naturally knew what Magistrate Gao meant. If she only raised one county, she might consider it, but she now has ten counties. If Suiping is exempted, will the autumn taxes of other counties be exempted?

She originally thought that the situation in other counties other than Aoyang and Xiping was much better, but now it seems that she is still too optimistic.

Devastated!

Zhao Hanzhang reined in his horse and looked at the low, dilapidated house in front of him. She turned her head and looked at Qiu Wu.

Qiu Wu led people into the village, and after a while he brought someone out, "Girl, the village chief's house is over there. He is a wealthy family in his village. His house is better, so he should be able to stay overnight."

"Yes, yes, our village chief's house is the best." The man enthusiastically led them to the village chief's house, still holding five cents tightly in his hand.

For these five cents, he not only took them outside the village chief's house, but also enthusiastically knocked on the door for them.

But there was no need for him to knock on the door. Zhao Hanzhang could still see the yard through the low wall even if he was leading the horse.

There were a lot of people inside, and it was very lively, no, very noisy. One of them was being held lying on the ground, and he looked very familiar.