Chapter 174: Good luck in the Year of the Ox

In February, a news broke out in the imperial court's residence, saying: "Quan Zhiqian of Kaifeng Prefecture, Quan Fa sent Kaifeng Prefecture's Promoter Bi Zhongyou to determine that a patient died and wait for the fine."

The meaning of this news is that a prisoner in a prison in Kaifeng Prefecture was sick. As the chief official, Qian Xie did not want to cure the prisoner's illness, so he stepped up the interrogation, so the prisoner died because he delayed the diagnosis and treatment. As a result, the court imposed a fine on Qian Xie, and there was a record in the personnel file.

From this news, Zhao Xing learned that the treatment of prisoners in the Song Dynasty was not only not forcing labor, but once someone pretended to be sick, local officials also asked their grandfather to sue their grandmother and begged the prisoners to cooperate with the treatment...

"What kind of world is this? The prisoner actually became the official's uncle." When he walked into the prison camp, Zhao Xing was still muttering.

Zhang Yong was standing on the wall of the prison cell, frowned and watched the group of prisoners roaring in the yard. The group trainees in the prison camp surrounded Zhang Yong with a sneer on their faces, and they were quite joking. Seeing Zhao Xing climbing the wall, they saluted together, with a three-point arrogant expression and seven-point pleasantness.

Zhao Xing was a honest man. He glanced at the expression of the prison city camp and immediately woke up.

It turned out that every commander in the Mizhou regiment training sent out work, and it can be said that there were no idle people. The income of these regiment training increased, and in comparison, the prison camp, which had originally had a rich income, seemed shabby. Although they still enjoyed the filial piety of prisoners, other regiment trainings earned much more extra money than here. They have always been unable to speak in front of Zhao Xing and have no chance to complain... Therefore, this time, the prison camp cooperated but did not cooperate, and maybe they were the ones who incited the trouble.

what to do?

Suppress? The prisoner died of illness and Qian Xie was punished. If a massacre was launched here, the censor would not be able to protect his black hat once he was impeached.

Zhao Xing thought for a while and said to himself with a sinister face: "I have never been a person who is forced to do things. I will refuse... Who is in charge of the prison camp? I will only be allowed to return to prison for half an hour. When they calm down, I will sit down and talk. If the problem is not solved, then I will break up."

The group training in the prison camp wanted to demonstrate. Seeing Zhao Xing's tough attitude, he immediately softened his posture. In a few minutes, the group training with the whip waving rushed into the prison. After a whip, the prisoners returned to the prison and the whole world became quiet.

Zhang Yong also understood the truth at this time. He looked at Zhao Xing with a dark face: "What is this? Li Ren, how do you indulge them? Today they are like this, so let us give in. How can we know that they will not be able to make a breakthrough?"

Zhao Xing looked at the prison soldiers who were dodging their eyes and answered without hesitation: "Yes, there was something to say, but when things were so big, there must be a scapegoat. The prison camp must give us an explanation and one person must be punished."

The prison guards on the wall shrank their heads and Zhao Xing had already seen a few backs secretly descending. He deliberately raised his voice to comfort Zhang Yong: "Grand-Lianling, don't worry, I have a thousand ways to deal with them - I am never afraid of threats, dare to threaten me, hum."

Zhang Yong knew Zhao Xing's reputation in the capital. He nodded with satisfaction and echoed: "Yes! There are so many people in Bianliang City, and those hundreds of people Bu Qing helped him, and he had kidnapped a royal woman. The government had no choice but to do anything. He was still in the hands of the Li people. What are the few prisoners?"

Kidnapping a royal woman? Zhao Xing frowned, leaned close to Zhang Yong, and asked in a low voice: "You are not talking about the county lord Lezhi!"

Zhang Yong's face changed and he replied: "I didn't say anything."

Zhao Xing understood.

No wonder when he took action to kill Bu Qing in the capital, Qian Xie was so indulging him. It turned out that he was just using Zhao Xing as a knife envoy.

However, in this way, the child in the tummy is a problem? This contemporary "Hong Qigong" is not that bold, right?

No wonder the court was eager to marry Lezhi out, which was easy to explain. And that guy Zhan Miao didn’t have x-ray eyes, and could detect who was pregnant. The truth is: this guy came to the capital early and had heard some rumors, so he refused.

It turned out that the fool here was Zhao Xing himself.

Zhao Xing felt stupid. Zhang Yong was shocked by the other party's ability to reason. He just missed the tongue, and Zhao Xing guessed the truth in a few seconds, which made Zhang Yong feel a little scared.

The companion brought by Zhang Yong was whispering under the wall. It was probably because the prison guard who had just run down the prison wall had just heard Zhang Yong's words and was asking around for Zhao Xing's glorious deeds...

That night, a timid person in the prison camp first reported to Zhao Xing. Zhao Xing, who was muttering to Zhang Yong, heard it, nodded at Zhang Yong with a dark face and said, "You wait a moment, I'll go and have a good talk with them."

At the gate of the prison camp, Zhao Xing used military orders to transfer the gatekeeper to open the gatekeeper and asked in a low voice: "Are you discussing the people you are talking about inside?"

The whistleblower nodded like a chicken holding a rice, not daring to say a wrong sentence.

"Hehehehehehe", Zhao Xing let out a creepy laugh: "You are waiting here, I'll talk to them."

After saying that, he opened the camp gate alone and walked in gently. Two Gurkha soldiers stepped forward to block the camp gate. They stared at the informer and whistled leisurely.

The whistleblower wiped his cold sweat and looked around.

Suddenly, continuous shrill screams pierced the night sky of the entire city. The informant moved his feet and the Gurkha guards shook his body. The informant quickly stood up, only wiping the cold sweat, and he would never dare to move under his feet.

A prison guard in the prison city camp ran out dyingly, stumbled, with a bruised face, and ran out in a terrible way. Seeing the door closed and the people guarding the camp, he was overjoyed and rushed to the door, shouting loudly: "Save... life, brother, help! Open the door quickly, please... Just now, a beast who looks like a magistrate... no, a beast that looks like a magistrate broke into the house and shook it around with us as a bun... Brother, open the door quickly, it can't be covered inside..."

The informant continued to wipe his sweat and saw that he had not seen it; the Gurkha guard continued to whistle, but he didn't hear it. The survivor wanted to call for help, but suddenly, the screams stopped abruptly, and the night sky was so quiet that it made people feel sad. A creeping footstep came from behind the survivor, and the man was furious. Suddenly, he came over, and his eyes were wisely turned, and he spitted blood, and he became "dilted".

The camp gate opened, Zhao Xing walked out gently and said lightly: "They are asleep."

He patted the dust on his hands, wiped the blood on his hands with the fainted body, and left.

The next day, similar incidents repeated. However, the victims were the prisoners who caused trouble, and they were not as lucky as the prison guards in the prison camp. The prison guards were just knocked unconscious and had several broken ribs. However, the prisoners involved in the trouble had their noses broken, leaving obvious signs on their faces.

It is said that after a strong man who broke into the camp defeated them, he toleratedly allowed them to choose whether to break their legs or break their hands. As a result, the last days of prisoners were spent in plasters on their hands and feet...

Since then, the Mizhou jailers and criminals have suffered from a disease together. When they see their tall back, they immediately fainted in a conditioned reflex manner.

Originally, they had suffered such a great grievance and should have confided to the military supervisor - that is, Zhao Xing, but now who do you make them cry? Instead of complaining to Zhang Yong, what is the difference between telling the military supervisor?

He cried and had nowhere to go, and he couldn't beat him, so he wanted the prisoner to cause trouble again. Now the prisoner is sick, and when he heard the name of Zhao Xing, he fainted immediately. What should I do?

It turns out that people in the capital call it "can't be provoked", and it's not exaggerating at all!

This title is too subtle! The prisoners burst into tears when they mentioned it - misleading, this is a serious misleading. We only know that the verdict always smiles at people. When we heard that the title "can't be provoked", we thought he could speak. For this reason, we prepared rumor and waited for him to ask, but we didn't expect it...

After this incident, who dares to propose conditions with Zhao Xing?

Originally, the prisoners wanted to interfere in the sea trade, but now they only ask Zhao Xing not to come and ask for trouble... Well, Zhao Xing does not ask for trouble. He strongly praised the person who led the troublemakers to be extremely brave and made people embarrassed.

Of course, such a brave man wasted his talents when he stayed in the rear. Xixia was fighting every day. The imperial guards in the capital always wanted to draw backbones of Mizhou. Don’t choose, just him! Then, the Privy Council immediately received a recommendation from Zhao Xing and transferred them all to Xixia with a document... After that, no one cared about these people, and no one cared about whether they existed. The rest were afraid that they would be regarded as Bu Qing’s second place and were affected by Zhao Xing’s anger. So...

The rest is Zhang Yong's work.

In February, before Su Shi entered the tribute courtyard, he wrote an article titled "Liu Xiang is better than Yang Xiong" and secretly gave it to Li Xiao. Because Li Xiao lived in Ma Mengde, Su Shi asked him to take the article to the Li family. Unfortunately, Li Xiao happened to go out that day and his servant put Su Shi's article on the table. Soon, Zhang Dun's two sons, Zhang Chi and Zhang Yuan, came to visit the Li family. When he saw the article on the table, he was overjoyed, so he took it for himself and went back to ponder it carefully.

After Li Xiao returned home, he did not see Su Shi's articles and felt very sad. During the exam, the test questions were indeed very similar to those written by Su Shi. Zhang Chi and Zhang Yuan imitated Li Xiao's tone and read it. Li Xiao performed poorly because of his bored mood and lost his usual level.

When marking the papers, Su Shi believed that the first place must be Li Xiao. When he finished reviewing the test paper, he found that the first place was Zhang Yuan, and Zhang Ji, who had the same writing style as Zhang Yuan, ranked tenth... Li Xiao finally failed. Su Shi regretted this matter.

However, there was a rule in the Song Dynasty: All the children of prime ministers in the court should not be listed as the top candidates in the imperial examination. Therefore, during the palace examination, Zhang Yuan moved from the first to the fifth, so Zhang Yuan passed by the top candidate. The Zhang clan was very angry about this and entered Zhang Yuan as the "top candidate" into the genealogy to commemorate...

At the end of March, the court issued another order, ordering all the Strategic Offices to protect the farm - this job is a group training job.

Under the farming culture, every year's farming is a highlight. The existence of troupe training is to protect farmers from invasion by bandits at the beginning of farming, and to avoid robbers during harvesting. This farming protection activity is the top priority of troupe training every year, and it kicks off in a Nuo dance.

In fact, the snow has not yet melted, but the court can't wait, for fear that it will be too late to farm this year, leading to famine. Local officials were also worried and sighed at the snowy fields.

Nuo dance, also known as "Da Nuo", "Dan Nuo", commonly known as "ghost play" or "dance face". It originated from the totem belief in ancient clan society. In the Zhou Dynasty, Nuo dance was called "National Nuo" and included in the national ritual system. Nuo rituals hoped to regulate the yin and yang of the four seasons, so as to achieve a suitable temperature and heat, good weather, good harvests of grains, safe people and livelihoods, and rich people. The palace grand Nuo rituals during the Han and Tang dynasties were grand and introduced to Vietnam, the Korean Peninsula and Japan. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the court Nuo rituals adopted a new system, and Nuo developed in the direction of entertainment.

On the field, several Tuanlian were dancing the ancient Nuo dance with a ghost mask. The Nuo dancer called it "Tuan General". He wore a hideous mask and dressed up as the legendary "Fang Xiangshi". He held a spear in one hand and a shield in the other. While dancing, he shouted "Nuo, Nuo..." and rushed to all corners, jumping and dancing, searching for ominous things to drive away the epidemic ghosts and praying for peace for the year.

After the exorcist ceremony, the local supreme officials came forward to burn incense and pray, and gave a glass of wine to heaven and earth, sprinkled on a hoe and plow... Then, everyone was stunned.

There is snow everywhere, where can I hoe?

Zhao Xing's identity was the ruling troupe training judge at this time. He was patrolling the field with Zhang Yong on a tall horse. A team of horse archers followed them and patrolled left and right. Zhang Yong pointed at the field, and was also worried: "This year is probably a wasteland..."

Zhao Xing looked back at the team training team and replied casually: "Yes, I heard that the Liao Kingdom has provided relief for seven times, and we have provided relief for more than ten times. If this continues, the farmers should be worried."

Zhao Xing's speech was filled with a lazy tone, which surprised Zhang Yong. He looked up at Zhao Xing and woke up: "Yes, we don't have to worry too much. There are not many people left in the Mizhou group training, and the income from the sea trade is enough to support themselves. But as for the farmer, I am still worried that if the farmer is hungry and Mizhou bandits are everywhere, I am afraid that my group training will be uncomfortable."

Zhao Xing shook his horse whip, pointed at the team behind him, and said, "Look behind you, are you still worried?"

The Mizhou group training is now released.

Since the banquet, the Mizhou regiments beat the drums and played the "Yellow Emperor Yan" and the drum sound spread to the capital in the blink of an eye. Then, the group of regiments performed were recruited into the imperial guards and organized into the front office of the capital, and played specifically for the emperor. Zhang Yong was commended by the court for training this group of people. After the New Year, the court's Jingdong Road defense center gradually tilted towards the navy. Zhang Yong was recently weaved by seven commands, which made the troops under his command reach fifteen commands.

Since February and March, the court has successively mobilized military forces to Mizhou, allocated a lot of troops from the Xiang army, and gradually returned to Zhang Yong. The wealthy Mizhou Genglian selected five hundred people from it, forming a cavalry commander and six commanders of the invading archers. Each of them is an elite soldier.

As for the others, Zhao Xing has been diverted according to their leaders. Now, this group of soldiers with good treatment, holding the family salary that Xiang Jun dared not imagine, is looking for opportunities to vent with confidence.

According to the court, Zhang Yong's task was to train ten commanders at the end of the year. If he could complete this work, the ten commanders he had trained would be transferred to the imperial guards. The court would increase the general commander to twenty commands next year, and the navy would always be under his command and conduct naval combat training.

Since this group of new soldiers will be returned to the court sooner or later, neither Zhao Xing nor Zhang Yong intends to let them understand the private work done by the old group trainers. However, on the other hand, the families of those group trainers were assigned to workshops to serve as laborers. This increased their family income a lot.

The cavalry blew across the fields like the wind. After the local officials finished the show, Zhao Xing and the others also stopped their work and returned to the camp. There was a team of cavalry showing off their power, and no eye-opener dared to come and die.

The farming activities of the Mizhou group training were several days later than those of the county. When Zhao Xing finished his work in the county, he began to summon the farming staff under the group training and began to farm himself. On that day, he stood on a strange plow and was explaining the control of the new plow with the leader of the group training farm.

"People say: Ten acres of land are a cow, and the wife and children are warm on the kang. This means that ten acres of land are enough to raise a cow, and can make life very comfortable. Today I will tell you about this horse and this horse-drawn plow.

Don't laugh, this strange thing is a horse-drawn plow. If you see it, its plowshare is three discs placed obliquely. This is called a disc plow. It is a distant Western country, a country called Germany. The farmer likes to use the horse-drawn plow. Look, it is like a tricycle. When a person stands on the back bracket, the weight of his body will press the three discs into the soil, and then hold the plow with one hand and wave the other hand, and plow the ground like this.

Last year, I asked you to raise horses, but you all said you couldn't afford it because horses had to eat grass and couldn't lose weight. They had to eat grass for six or seven hours a day. How could there be so many grass in Mizhou? I tell you, this horse is not a grass animal. It is born to grow on the grassland and needs to eat grass. If you want it to work, you need to eat millet - the best barley millet.

People say that this is even more difficult to raise a horse. I will calculate the calculation for you today: the speed of a horse is twenty times that of a ox. This plow has three plowshares, which can plow three ditches at a time. With this horse and this plow, it can be sixty times more effective than the ox's plow... Moreover, it is more than sixty times. The old-fashioned plow relies on the plowshare to break the frozen soil. This is a disc. Walking on the frozen soil by rolling is both light and fast.

How many acres of land can be planted in a day when using ox plowing?... Someone just said, good ox, good plowing, people are more diligent, can do three or five acres a day, and take care of ten acres of land by one person, sow seeds in time in the season, and ensure harvesting. So how much can be planted with this horse and this plow? The same time and strength are the same, sixty times. In the past, you could plow ten acres of land by one person, but now you can plow one hundred acres.

Ten acres of land can raise a cow, three families, and if you use horses, you will now cultivate ninety acres more. Ninety acres of land, is it enough to raise one horse?"

Enough!" A farmer below shouted loudly: "There is too much for raising a horse in ninety acres of land. Ten acres of land can make a horse fat, and the remaining 80 acres are all net profits."

Zhao Xing nodded and continued, "I just used a word, I don't know if you understand: effectiveness. A person can spend the same time ploughing 100 acres, so what do he do in other time? The man just said that if he can cultivate twenty acres, he will not lose or win. But twenty acres of land, a horse, or a person will save a lot of time, what are the rest of the work?"

Let me continue to settle the accounts for you: "Having a horse at home means that your range of activities has expanded. In the past, you worked at sunrise and rested at sunset, and could only circulate twenty miles in front of your home. Now you can circulate one hundred miles in front of your home. With a horse, you can complete the farming in a shorter time. Wife and children at home will have more time to weave and raise livestock. You have horses, but your neighbors don't have horses. The things they weave must be carried to the surrounding counties for sale with your horse. You are not carrying these things away for nothing. For each bag of goods, you can earn two cents and feed... Don't be embarrassed, you spend feed on horses. This is what you deserve.

As I said just now, with a horse, your range of activities is about 100 miles around, and it is impossible for neighbors to have goods every day. So, you can ride a horse and find work within a range of 100 miles around. How many cents will be earned for each pack of goods, which is equivalent to everyone helping you raise horses together.

Let us think back and think about what I just said. With horses, you can plough your fields in a shorter time, the elderly and children at home can have more time to foster textile farming, and when you are idle, you can go to a farther place to take on work. If you do this, you will plough twenty acres of land by yourself. Will you lose money?"

There was a whisper below, and every farmer's face was filled with excitement. After discussing for a long time, they finally came to a conclusion: "It's not a loss. It's not a loss to raise two horses for twenty acres of land, because the two horses farm faster, and go out to take on work, and at least they can earn the feed money for one horse."

After Zhao Xing and everyone finished talking, they said slowly: "The people here are all good farming players picked out from the group training. I have already told those who have fields that they will subcontract the land to you. You can take our horses and take a plow. If you don't pay, you will have to pay a money... Come and sign these documents. You should go farming quickly, and the elderly and children will come to me to get the spinning machine, and plant pressure, and you don't need a money."

Perhaps Zhao Xing had too high prestige during the group training, and few of them could understand the thick stack of documents, but they still signed the documents according to Zhao Xing's instructions, took away the horses and plowshares, and the women in their family also took the textile machine. Even the old man had a few spindles and prepared to spin wool at home.

Deng Yufu is a serious person. He carefully read Zhao Xing’s contracts for several hours, but still didn’t understand them. Zhang Yongze was simply confused. He heard Zhao Xing explain it over and over again, and asked: “Li Ren, can you repeat what you said just now?”

"Oh, the matter is very simple. We possessed 30% of the farmers' shares by providing horses and farming tools to the farmers, and occupied 30% of the shares by the navy's utility, which was responsible for shipping. We did not pay for war horses. But the land used by the navy's utility allows the farmers to farm, so the farmers occupied 30% of the shares of the utility fleet. These were all completed through share replacement, but they were all controlled by a Nagato Investment Development Commercial Bank, which was also in the form of share exchange;

However, 20% of the shares of Nagamon Investment Development Bank are controlled by the "utility fleet" because of the freight costs of their freight to Japan. Nagamon Investment Development Bank does not pay, but pays with shares. "Nagmon Investment Development Bank" is also controlled by a trading firm called "Dolphin". This firm is an empty box in finance - this is mainly to deal with government tax inspections, and the Maritime Department - its main financial reliance is Nagamon Investment Development Bank, but its tax payment is reflected in the "Take-up Ticket Bank" opened by Yicai Leye people.

Tengfei Tickets invested in farming tools and horse farming without paying money and were controlled by the Utility Fleet. At the same time, the Utility Fleet rented a ship called "Tengfei Tickets" and was controlled by the "Tengfei Tickets" and the plow was also provided by the "Tengfei Tickets", so it occupies 30% of the farmers' shares - isn't it? It's very simple? You will understand as soon as I said it?"

"I understand." Zhang Yong was dizzy when he heard it, but he finally understood one thing: "I can't understand it for ten thousand years."

Zhao Xing patted his chest and said with relief: "Don't you understand? I really don't understand! That's great, you just need to trust me. Come on, sign these piles of documents and wait for the year-end dividends."

"What? I want to sign too?" After signing the documents dizzyly, Zhao Xing stuffed the documents into his arms like lightning, for fear that Zhang Yong would ask him to read them again.

Deng Yufu was busy asking the group trainees to sign documents, while saying thoughtfully: "I understand, you didn't pay for this plow, you didn't pay for this horse, and you didn't pay for those boats. Well, it seems that the plow, horse, and loom were on the group training, and they didn't pay for this money, but who did it? And the profit, who did the final profit?"

Zhang replied with a bitter face: "I can't figure it out for ten thousand years."

Deng Yufu raised his face and could no longer find Zhao Xing's existence in the crowd. The noise of the group trainers covered the sound of his horse's hooves when he left. Deng Yufu had to sit down with a bitter face and sighed at Zhang Yi and said, "I have signed a bunch of documents, but I can't understand it. Fortunately, the people in the world never treat people badly. Although I can't understand it, I trust him. That's enough!"

Zhang Yong shivered and hypnotized himself like chanting scriptures: "Yes, yes, fortunately Li Ren did not treat us badly... Why am I always frightened? Did I get caught in evil? By the way, a few monks came to Li Ren Mansion. I went to ask him to recite scriptures and drive away the evil spirits."
Chapter completed!