Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 179: There is always a loophole in a hundred precautions

Liu Huai and the other four riders ran for more than a mile before stopping.

The four of them looked at each other, all panting.

After a moment, Zhang Baiyu spoke out angrily, "Zhu Tianshou is so cruel that he forces his tenants to eat horse manure.

You have to remember, it's only the autumn harvest! Even large animals can get a few bites of meat at this time of year. And yet his tenants can only eat manure!

"Commander-in-Chief, this fellow must not be accepted into our Loyal Army. Even if he does, he must be killed on the spot to appease the people and uphold justice! Otherwise, wouldn't our words of saving the people be empty talk?"

Chen Wenben's face darkened. "I thought the stench on his body was from not washing for a long time... I never thought... I never thought the people's livelihood in Yishui County had reached this point."

Liu Huai has regained his composure.

When he heard that the five surrounding villages were all Zhujia Village and that the owners were all Zhu Tianshou, he already felt that something was not right.

The powerful people in Linyi would also annex land, but apart from those Jurchen manors, more powerful people would use annexation of land as a means of controlling tenants rather than really wanting to force all the tenants to death.

Is Zhao Ba an isolated case, or has almost all the land around Yishui County been annexed by the Zhu family?
"Don't panic or get angry, calm down, inquire carefully, and look carefully." Liu Huai frowned and asked several subordinates to calm down and continue to investigate the situation.

Then an hour later, they encountered the second pile of horse manure.

At this time, they had almost circled Yishui County. Although what they saw along the way was shocking, the most they encountered were clerks and local soldiers who went to the countryside to collect grain, but there was no trace of regular troops.

As Liu Huai expected, these manors that have now become Zhujiazhuang were not all the manors built by the Zhu family at the beginning. Instead, they were either destroyed by the Jin people or fled with their families during corvee labor. Over the past ten years, they were successively annexed by the Zhu family.

Of course, although it seems that Zhu Tianshou wants to expand his business, most of Yishui County is located in mountainous areas and hills, and there are few fertile plains, so the combined size of several Zhujiazhuang villages may not be larger than Hejiazhuang village.

However, I still have to say that turning the people of half a county into tenants and then forcing them to death is really outrageous.

It's really pushing me to death.

Because it wasn't just the clerks who were forcing the tenants to pay, even the various high-ranking officials who were using the Zhujiazhuang banner were forcing the tenants to pay rent. Not only the grain that had been dried, but also the grain that was still on the straw was pulled into the city.

It gives people a feeling of eradicating the roots and draining the pond to catch all the fish.

Is this really just a preparation for the upcoming arrival of Wuxing Army?
Liu Huai even had a feeling that if the Zhu family and the county magistrate continued to act recklessly, there would be no need for the Loyal Army to attack, and civil unrest might break out in Yishui County itself.

If we come to this, we can only say that Zhu Tianshou is a character like Zhou Baopi. Although he is guilty of heinous crimes and cannot avoid being stabbed, it will not be a big obstacle for the Loyal Army to advance into Yishui County.

It was not until the sun was setting that Liu Huai and others approached the city. When they passed by several carts driving out of the city, he suddenly reacted.

Without waiting for Zhang Baiyu and others to ask, Liu Huai turned his horse back and stopped the carts that were emitting a foul odor.

The young man driving the cart immediately changed color and wanted to touch the weapon at his waist, but when he saw that the person blocking the road was a knight with both archery and horsemanship, he stopped all actions instantly.

Besides, digging out manure is also a good business these days, because the city needs to discharge these filth outside the city, and the farmland outside the city needs to use compost to fertilize the fields. It is a business that makes money on both ends.

The best part is, as long as there are people, this business can continue. Of course, while bigwigs won't steal this dirty but profitable business, some dirty people don't care about that and have formed underworld guilds to monopolize the city.

But after all, these people are just ruffians after all. At most, they are a little better informed and a little more ruthless. How could they dare to act bully against serious soldiers?

Soon, a mature and friendly middle-aged man came forward and said, "Excuse me, may I know what you, the officials, may want to do for me? How may I be of any service?"

Liu Huai still looked arrogant and said, "Selling manure?"

The middle-aged man was stunned and opened his mouth, not knowing how to answer.

Then half a string of money fell into his arms, and Liu Huai said impatiently: "Selling his mother's manure?"

"Sell, sell, sell." The middle-aged man said hurriedly, "I just don't know how much the official wants? And... and why would someone like the official come to buy it?"

Liu Huai waved his whip in front of him as if to shoo away flies: "Don't mention it, my father-in-law's family found a lot of exotic flowers from somewhere, and a few days ago it rained and some of them were damaged, which made my father-in-law very sad.

The condition of other exotic flowers is not very good either. An experienced gardener said that they need to be stimulated by using horse manure to stimulate their growth.

This is none of my business, but I happened to see your dirty business today, so I just wanted to ask."

The middle-aged man was relieved halfway through hearing this. He knew that this young man was not just bored and was teasing him. When he thought about the money he could make, he nodded repeatedly: "Yes, we have strong horse manure as well. I wonder where your father-in-law's family is and how much he needs. We will deliver it to him tomorrow."

Liu Huai looked the man up and down and sneered, "Didn't you hear what I said? Are you trying to tease me? I want the manure of a healthy horse. Don't tell me that you street cleaners don't separate the manure properly. If you mix all kinds of filth together and ruin the exotic flowers, you won't be able to afford the compensation even if you sell them!"

The middle-aged man was already waving his hands halfway through the conversation, as if shaking. Seeing the fierce expressions on the knights' faces, he knelt down on the ground. "I dare not deceive you, gentlemen. If you had come looking for us a few days ago, we would not have been able to produce it. But recently, a lot of horse manure has been transported out of the county government and Mr. Zhu San's house. There is so much horse manure that it often fills up the carts, so there is no way it could be mixed."

To be honest, three of our ten carts are filled with horse manure."

"Oh?" Liu Huai dismounted and asked curiously, "Open the cart and let me see."

The middle-aged man saw that Liu Huai wanted to taste the saltiness and was startled again: "Sir, why would you bother..."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Liu Huai tapped the middle-aged man's shoulder with his whip, then flicked it in disdain. "Naigong has been riding horses since he was eight years old. It's not uncommon for him to sleep next to the stable to take care of the horses. Are you afraid of horse manure?"

The middle-aged man couldn't help but glance at Liu Huai's hair covered by the bamboo hat, and his mind moved: Could this official be a Jurchen who has learned Chinese and adopted Chinese customs?
In fact, when Liu Huai said that he slept next to the stable, not only the middle-aged man in front of him thought so, but even the young man who had been holding the reins and driving the carriage had his eyes lit up and looked Liu Huai up and down.

Of course, after saying this, the middle-aged man naturally didn't dare to say anything else. He quickly endured the stench, lifted the rag on the dung cart, and casually took out a few wet horse dung balls from it and showed them to Liu Huai.

Liu Huai raised his chin: "Open it."

The middle-aged man didn't dare to say much and broke open a few horse dung balls.

There were indeed some undigested beans among them.

(End of this chapter)