Zhu Nao

In the early morning, Zhu Nao got dressed and came out of the house, only to see Cheng Jingzhe practicing in the yard.He had obviously practiced for a while, even though it was a cold day, he was only wearing a thin single shirt, but his body was covered with white steam, and he was already sweating a little.

Junao yawned lazily: "You came back so late last night, why did you wake up so early today? Don't you want to sleep more?"

Jing Zhe put down the weapon in his hand, wiped the sweat from his brow: "Enough sleep."

Seeing his face full of vigor, Zhu Nao couldn't help but sigh, "It's good to be young."

Jing Zhe: "..."

He touched his head: "Young master is not very old."

Junao chuckled.Unless someone puts a knife on his neck, he will never get up in the morning to practice in winter.

Jing Zhe put the weapon back on the weapon rack, put on his coat again, and said, "My lord, do you have time now?"

It's still early at the moment, and there is still some time before the morning meeting in the state capital.Zhu Nao turned around and returned to the house, Jing Zhe also followed in, the two sat down at the table, Zhu Nao said: "Let's talk."

It was already late last night when Jing Zhe came back, so he did not report his investigation results of the past few days to Zhu Nao.In the past few days, he led the young people to run around non-stop. Although he failed to capture Wei Yue and his party, it was not fruitless. He also collected some clues related to Wei Yue and others.Furthermore, this is the first time he has set out on a mission by himself, and he also encountered some difficulties in leading others.He gave a general account of the situation and harvest during these days, and if he had any doubts, he would ask Jun Nao for help.After a while, he had to take the boys out to investigate again.

Zhu Nao intends to train him. Whenever he has any questions, let him express his own analysis and thoughts first. If he can't explain clearly, remind him of one or two key points and continue to guide him to think on his own.Under Zhu Nao's guidance, Cheng Jingzhe came up with some solutions by himself.

Seeing that the sky was about to dawn and it was time for the morning meeting, Zhu Nao was about to get up and go out, Jing Zhe hurriedly said: "By the way, young master, have officials from the prefecture and county come to inspect your farm recently?"

Zhu Nao paused when he got up, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Jing Zhe said thoughtfully: "The day before yesterday I took people to the farm, and I heard from Wang Zhongqi that just before we went, an official sent to investigate. At that time, I didn't think there was anything wrong, but when I came back, I thought about it carefully. We visited all the Zhuangzi near Yilong in a few days, only Wang Zhongqi said that he had seen the official officer recently, and no one in the other Zhuangzi mentioned it. I felt that something was wrong, did the official officer only go to one of their Zhuangzi to check?"

After a pause, he continued, "It's also possible that I haven't asked people in other villages, and those people didn't mention it..."

Before he set off, Zhu Nao once told him that a thousand miles cannot be reached without taking a few steps.Since he had doubts about this matter, it was better to check clearly than not to check.If it was found out that he made a mistake, it would be nothing more than a waste of energy.

Zhu Nao said: "I don't know the assignment of officials, you can go to Master Dou and ask."

Jing Zhe said: "Yes!"

It was already dawn, so he went to find Dou Ziyi without further delay.

=====

a few days later.

Early in the morning, Wei Yue took Tao Bai and the Zhao family brothers out of the mountain, ready to go to the farm to check again.

They descended from the path on the mountain. The vegetation around the foot of the mountain was dense, and the exit of the path was a bush.The four of them got out of the bushes one by one, and finally came to the road outside the mountain.

After coming out of the bushes, Wei Yue didn't leave immediately, but turned around and straightened the branches and leaves of the bushes, so that the bushes looked natural, so that people passing by could not see that someone had entered and exited here.

After restoring the original appearance of the bushes, Wei Yue led the three of them towards the farm.

On the way, Wei Yue ordered: "This time we go, firstly, to inquire about the news and familiarize ourselves with the terrain; secondly, to lay the groundwork and tell them that the government will re-census the population at the beginning of next month. When the time comes, we will Call out all the people in the village in the name of the census. The rest of the people can take advantage of the opportunity when no one is in the village."

He has always had a lot of tricks, he can steal but never steal, he can outsmart and never steal.He can do what he wants to do with the smallest unit price every time.

Wei Yue assigned tasks to the three of them: "Boss Zhao, you are the best at talking. When you get to the village, talk to people more to deepen their trust in us. Second Zhao, you follow your brother, you don't need to say anything, stand That's fine. Tao Bai, take a chance to see how many doors their barn has and what kind of locks they use."

The three of them nodded and agreed: "Understood!"

Wei Yue had his own intentions in bringing these three people out.Tao Bai is the most skilled of the group of refugees, and Wei Yue assigns him to do all the sneaky things; as for the Zhao brothers, the boss Zhao is a good talker, good at flattering people, and can often coax people into ecstasy. The best; Zhao Lao Er is not as good at talking as his brother, on the contrary, he speaks very little.But he has a square face with Chinese characters, and when he doesn't speak, he looks naive and upright, which is also in line with their status as an "official servant", so he took him with him.

It took some time to pass this way, so the eloquent Zhao Boss walked on the road and flattered Wei Yue.

Zhao Laodao: "Thinking about it now, it's fortunate that our brother met Brother Wei at that time, otherwise we would have starved to death long ago. I don't know what merits our brother cultivated in the past life, so that we can have such a blessing in this life,"

Zhao Laoer nodded solemnly: "That's right, that's right!"

Boss Zhao said again: "Brother Wei, everyone is human, why are you so smart? Did you grow up with us? You two brothers can learn half of your smartness... no, [-]% of what we have learned. You will be soaring!"

"Come on." Wei Yue glanced at him sideways, "Fly to the top? I'm still hanging out with you guys here. You've learned [-]%, where are you going?"

Boss Zhao laughed and said, "That's Brother Wei, who is kind-hearted and can't let us go. If there is no Brother Wei, think about our group of people, the old and the young, the disabled, the sick and the stupid. ..." When he was talking about being stupid, he lovingly touched the head of his younger brother beside him, and the second brother Zhao smiled honestly.Zhao Lao said, "Only Brother Wei can bring us delicious and spicy food."

Zhao Lao Er continued to nod: "That's right, that's right!"

Wei Yue dug his ears, and didn't listen to their tricks at all: "I do all kinds of evil, and you call me a good person? Okay, with your mouth, you won't starve to death without me. Don't be here. Flatter me, and when you arrive at the farm in a while, use your tricks to get close to others."

"How do you say it's flattering? I'm telling the truth, the truth!" Boss Zhao stared and said, "If our brother hadn't met Brother Wei, even if he didn't starve to death, he would still be in prison in the government. Or sent to exile. Brother Wei is our reborn parents!"

Zhao Lao Er looked at Zhao Boss, then at Wei Yue, and shouted, "Father!"

Wei Yue: "..."

Wei Yue got two cheap sons, so angry and funny, he kicked Boss Zhao's ass: "Get out, I have a son like you, I have been pissed to death by you."

Boss Zhao was enjoying himself while clutching his kicked buttocks.

In fact, what Boss Zhao said just now has elements of flattery, but most of them are from his heart.

The two brothers were originally farmers in Jianzhou, and they had been farming the land for more than ten years.However, the government's exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes increased year by year, and the two brothers were so hungry that they had to ask the rich to borrow food to survive.The rich took a fancy to the fields of their families, and asked them to pledge the fields before they would lend them grain.As a last resort, they borrowed food, but the rich asked for extremely high interest. The two brothers worked hard from dawn to dusk, not to mention repaying the debt, and even the interest was not paid. When the time came, their fields were taken by the rich. merged.

Farmers who have lost their land have no way of life - these days, even farmers who have land are almost no way of life - despite the fact that the brothers are young and good at hands and feet, they can't find a way of life.Nowadays, miscellaneous taxes are too heavy, and most of the land has been annexed by rich households and gentry. Displaced refugees are everywhere. They are just two very inconspicuous people in the crowd, and they don't have special skills, so they can't find a way to make a living.

The desperate brothers originally planned to simply kill the rich man who annexed their fields, and then turned into bandits.However, just before they killed each other, by chance, they got to know Wei Yue.After Wei Yue heard about them, she stopped their murderous thoughts, used tricks to toss the rich man severely, and robbed the rich man of a sum of money.After that, the two brothers followed Wei Yue.

Boss Zhao said that without Wei Yue, the two brothers would have either starved to death or squatted in prison, which is true.

The Zhao family brothers and Wei Yue talked and laughed all the way, while Tao Bai followed beside him, but he was always a little absent-minded.

Wei Yue patted Tao Bai's shoulder: "What are you thinking?"

Tao Bai, who was in a trance, was startled, patted his chest and said, "I, I'm always a little worried."

Tao Bai was once caught by officials and imprisoned for several months because he stole a chicken. During those months, he was tortured and bullied by officials in various ways.Since then, he has always regarded officials as a scourge.He knew that the farm belonged to Zhu Nao, a shepherd in Langzhou, so he was restless all the time.

Seeing him like a frightened bird, Wei Yue sighed and said, "Why don't you go back first?"

Tao Bai looked at Wei Yue, then at the Zhao family brothers, gritted his teeth and said, "No, I'll go together."

The four of them turned over a small hill again, and the farm had already appeared in front of their eyes.

……

In the open space behind the farmland grain pile, two teenagers are competing.

Cheng Jingzhe and Pei Ziqi each hold a long stick in their hands, and you come and go. After a dozen or eight rounds, Cheng Jingzhe hit Pei Ziqi's chest with a stick, and Pei Ziqi also stabbed with the long stick in his hand, but it was a pity that he was a step too late .

The two retreated, Pei Ziqi wiped the sweat from his forehead and said unwillingly, "Come again."

Jing Zhe wiped off his sweat, put on a posture, and was about to continue to accompany him, when suddenly a young man hurried back: "Brother Jing Zhe, here we come, here we come!"

Cheng Jingzhe and Pei Ziqi were both startled, and quickly put away their posture.Cheng Jingzhe said: "How many people are here?"

Young man: "Four, dressed as officials, exactly as those people said."

Pei Ziqi's eyes lit up, he threw the long stick in his hand onto the grain pile, hid the dagger hanging at his waist into his boots, and was about to go over impatiently.Cheng Jingzhe quickly grabbed him: "Don't worry, remember what I said? Our purpose is to catch Wei Yue. If we can't be sure who Wei Yue is, we must not startle the snake."

Pei Ziqi was both excited and nervous, and his body trembled a little.He took a deep breath and said, "Remember."

Only then did Jing Zhe let go of him, turned to another boy and said, "Since they only came four, they must have come to inquire about news again. Let the people from the second team hide first, and the people from the first team are enough outside." .Tell everyone that no one is allowed to act rashly without my order."

The boy nodded and hurried away.

After Jingzhe went back that day, he asked Dou Ziyi about the officials' movements.I don't know if I don't check it, but after checking it, he really found out the problem.So Cheng Jingzhe immediately selected ten young men with better skills to go back to the farm and live in the farm, preparing to wait for the gang of "fake officials" to come again.

This time, the rabbit can be regarded as bumping into it.

Jing Zhe stabilized her mind, and strode towards Zhuangtou.

……

Before entering the village, the Zhao family brothers were still flattering Wei Yue.

Boss Zhao said with a chuckle, "This time, when the news spreads to the Langzhou mansion after our work is completed, those officials must be dumbfounded when they hear that we dare to pretend to be officers and soldiers. We always heard people say that the Langzhou shepherd How powerful is Zhu Nao. No matter how powerful he is, can he be as powerful as our brother Wei? This time, let him see what our brother Wei is capable of!" The Zhao family brothers have always hated bureaucrats. The government of Langzhou is good, because the officials in Langzhou still don't like it.

Zhao Laoer continued: "Brother Wei, you are amazing!"

Wei Yue ignored the two brothers and just stared ahead.On the ridge ahead, a boy of twelve or thirteen was staring at them.

Wei Yue said: "That young man over there, it seems that we haven't seen him last time?"

Several people followed his line of sight and saw the boy.

"It seems that I haven't seen it before..." Zhao Lao said, "Maybe we didn't pay attention last time, maybe the neighboring village came to play?"

Second Zhao nodded.

Tao Bai was indifferent: "This kid, can't he be the government's eyeliner?"

Zhao Laodao: "Come on, Ah Bai, how is it possible? It's just a child, you are too nervous."

Wei Yue thought for a while and said, "Let's go, we'd better go in. Just be careful after going in."

After finishing speaking, he took the three of them to the farm.

The author has something to say: I saw some people say that Wei Yue was stealing no matter what, and how innocent the people were stolen by him.I'm not trying to whitewash Wei Yue, I'm just explaining the setting.Productivity in ancient times was not so high. Unlike modern times, people with hands and feet could survive. In ancient times, farmers lost their fields and it was difficult to survive. Once any dynasty had more refugees, the dynasty would be over, and there would definitely be turmoil.Even in the Ming Dynasty, productivity was not very low. Zhu Yuanzhang's entire national policy was to try his best to tie farmers to the fields, just to prevent unrest (society was stable, of course, this also made it difficult for society to progress).

Wei Yue is not a kind and good person, nor is he a wicked person.Zhu Nao wants to recruit talents in troubled times, and he values ​​ability more than virtue~