Chapter 5: Borrowing the topic

Although the emperor has issued several edicts in recent years to advise the gentry and landlords to reduce land rent, those who regard human lives as grass can hear that even the estates of important officials in the court often have 10 to 20% higher than the average. Not only that, as long as they are attached to these people, even if they are just a mere slave, they will no longer have to pay the captive tax. Therefore, men, women, and young people who voluntarily sell themselves are always in a constant stream.

The same is true for Xiao Yunchao. His heart was darker than other powerful people. Ninety percent of the production in the village had been put into his pockets, and the remaining least valuable things were only the turn of the tenants. In addition, due to the sale of the contract, these tenants could only endure hunger and freeze, and could not even see a little meat minced throughout the year. They also tried every means to go to the government office to ask for advice, but the protection of the officials was the law of the world. Who would deal with these rich and powerful country bumpkins? Therefore, they often beat them up without looking at the paper. If they met an official with a bad temperament, they would even be beaten to death. Xiao Yunchao even ordered people to seal a lot of the contracts sold by their subordinates, and they had a portion of the official in Zhili to prevent them from suing them. In the long run, these poor people had no way to heaven and no way to enter the ground, and could only make their lives in the village.

No one expected that the Weijiang Lian, the governor of Zhili, who had only been in office for a year, was a tough guy. I don’t know where to find the old file from that year. I was quite dissatisfied with Xiao Yunchao’s behavior of exploiting tenants in this way. However, the contracts for selling people clearly pressed the handprints of everyone, so I could only let go. If he had not seen the bloody scene with his own eyes that day, he might have to watch these poor people suffer helplessly.

That day, Weijianglian was just idle, so he only took two servants to stroll around the market. Although he was a first-class official, he did not show up often and was well maintained. At first glance, he looked like a thirty-year-old young man, so no one recognized him while walking around. When he was tired, he happened to see a porridge shop. Seeing the crowds inside, he was curious and ordered the two servants to find a place to watch from afar, and walked straight in.

Only after sitting down did I realize the noise. Wei Jianglian followed the crowd and called a bowl of thin porridge. He frowned after taking a sip. The brown rice here was grinding his teeth. Although it smelled so fragrant, it was not something that a person like him who was a pampered person could drink?

As soon as he put down the bowl, a head as messy as straw appeared next to him, and a black face that was hard to see was looking forward to the bowl of porridge that had almost never moved. After a while, Wei Jianglian identified it for a long time, he realized that the ragged clothes and clothes were actually a little girl in her early teens. I don’t know where the interest came from, but he suddenly asked, “How old are you? Why are you still wearing these clothes in such a cold day?”

He saw that most of the porridge shops were civilians, but their clothes were often warm, so he was very curious about this little girl who was almost beggar-like. The little girl didn't answer, and took advantage of Wei Jianglian's distractedness to suddenly reach out to pick up the bowl of porridge, tilted her neck and poured it down. A bowl of hot porridge that had just been served from the pot was instantly drunk. The little girl seemed to have not eaten enough, and actually stuck out her tongue and licked it back and forth in the bowl, looking unsatisfied.

"Little beast, why are you snatching the customer's porridge again?" The tall and thin boss rushed forward a few steps and slapped the little girl hard. "It would be fine if I kindly take you in and don't let you get frozen, but you dare to snatch the customer's job again and again? The ungrateful little bitch, do you know how many customers have been scared away by your embarrassment in the past month?"

The little girl was already thin and looked weak. She slapped her face and fell far away, and her face was swollen. But she still struggled to stand up, tears just rolling in her eyes, but never fell off. Wei Jianglian couldn't bear it, and stopped the boss's hand that was still about to wave, and scolded with a stern face: "Isn't it just a bowl of porridge? Is it necessary to beat and scold like this? It's just a child, I'll just take some care of it. But she was dressed so ragged, what was going on?"

The boss saw that Wei Jianglian was so bookish and dressed neatly, so he did not dare to take it off. "This guest is not that I was too harsh. Originally, this porridge shop was run by a small bank, and the guests just watched the things here cheaply and cleanly, so they often visited him. This child is not my relative, so he took her in to prevent her from freezing to death, so he gave her a place to sleep at night. As for food, you didn't see that there were many beggars on the street, so how could I help solve it? I have a large group of children to support me! It's really a sin. The emperor and close minister actually squeezed their own tenant farmers like this. Now I don't know how many families want to sell their children to pay the rent. Alas!" The boss sighed and stopped talking to Wei Jianglian, and went to work on his own.

Wei Jianglian was shocked. He had heard that many manors in Zhili had such phenomena. No wonder there were so many beggars on the streets of Baoding this year. Just starving people would have to send a few cars to the Huaman farm every day. The servants in the yamen said that this year was still a bumper harvest, so the tenant farmers were not very terrified. If it were a year of disaster, the entire Governor's Office of Zhili would go to help the manors of princes and ministers to suppress the manors of various princes and ministers, and the troublemakers would hang a lot. He thought these words were just exaggerations. Now it seems that the actions of these powerful people were too much.

Wei Jianglian has always been a disciple of Hai Guanyu, and he learned the Confucian principles and was born in a well-off society, so it was impossible for him to pretend that he didn't see it. He didn't dislike the little girl's dirty body, so he bent down to help her up, and forced her to press her on the stool. Then he ordered his wife: "Another three bowls of porridge, it's thicker!"

The boss has been running this porridge shop for more than ten years, but he has never seen an extraordinary official who can care about the life and death of others. He was stunned for a while before he hurriedly served the porridge. The little girl was not polite. After drinking three big bowls of steaming porridge, her face suddenly looked much better. After looking at Wei Jianglian deeply, she pushed the stool away and knelt on the ground, kowtowing three times in a row.

"Master, please save my parents! They were arrested by the manager of the village and sent to the yamen. You should show kindness to save them!" The little girl begged and cried loudly. The bitterness made Wei Jianglian unable to come to his senses for a moment.

The boss was immediately angry and rushed forward two steps, scolding fiercely: "You dare to criticize your parents, and want to kill this kind guest official?" He turned his head and explained to Wei Jianglian with a serious expression, "I heard that her parents were the leader of Lord Xiao's village and caused trouble. Several men in charge of the affairs were so angry that they reported to the prefect of the prefecture of the magistrate, and they wanted to kill a warning to all the people. Guests must not listen to this little bitch, otherwise they would have to lose their troubles!"

Wei Jianglian's face was already extremely ugly. The things he heard just now were really unheard of tragic situations. He slapped the table and stood up suddenly. "Did the magistrate of Baoding agree?" He asked word by word, "There are many laws and regulations in our dynasty, and I have never heard of tenants who fight against tenants and be executed. Is there any other kingly law?"

His voice was not low, and he immediately attracted the eyes of other guests. The originally noisy and noisy porridge shop suddenly became silent. The boss immediately panicked and complained in his heart. If he had known what he had been talking about so much, he would have just let this nerd fight the government. Now, it would have been better, and it would have been his own talkative words when he spread it out. Thinking of this, he slapped himself a few times, and did not dare to say a word, and was still busy with his business, but his eyes glanced at him from time to time.

Wei Jianglian saw the people's silent appearance, and his heart was as bright as a mirror. It seemed that no one dared to stand up for this little girl when these rich slaves showed off their power. If he was just merciful and did not want to meddle in other people's business, he could not stand still now. The indignation was almost non-existent for a top-notch official like him. At this moment, Wei Jianglian was thinking about the increasingly fierce rumors. For the hot face of teacher Hai Guanyu, whether it was He Furong or Xiao Yunchao, he might be the mastermind to frame the teacher. Now things are the best excuse for attacking.

While he was thinking about countermeasures, several servants suddenly appeared outside the door. The fox pretended to be powerful and suddenly made the people who were drinking porridge shrink into a group. The leader shouted loudly: "I heard that you have taken in a little girl of unknown origin?"

The boss was shocked and suddenly saw a few officers hiding behind the back of a guest who had just been shy. He immediately understood what happened and couldn't help but sigh. "Several officials, I just think she is pitiful. If she really has any sins, it would be fine if you take it." Although he was weak, he had already cursed in his heart. How could he afford to provoke such a wolf-like and tiger-like servant?

The headed officer suddenly became arrogant. He knew that these common people did not dare to fight him. He turned his head and said to the officer behind him, signaling them to go in and catch people. Before he could move, a powerful voice came from inside: "Broad day, who dares to take people without authorization for no reason and use the official certificates!"

"Tao Li, the people inside don't seem to be ordinary characters!" A sharp-eyed officer muttered softly to the leader.

The Li Touer curled his lips indifferently, "No matter who he is, no one dares to go against the Xiao family in this Baoding Mansion. Didn't you see the prefect fawning towards that mere manager?" His eyes focused on the shop again and shouted loudly: "I am the prefect's prefect's order! Those who know the knowledge should not protect the little girl, otherwise they will have to sue!"

Wei Jianglian was furious when he heard this, but he didn't want to lose his manners in front of such people. He immediately ordered the little girl to follow him, and the two of them left the porridge shop one by one. He smiled contemptuously, "I'm here. If you have the ability, you might as well take your official position to sue!"

Li Touer didn't know anyone very well, but there was a servant behind him who had seen Weijianglian. When he heard the word "I" and carefully recognized the person, he was so scared that he was so scared that he knelt down on the ground with a plop. "I'll give a look, please see Lord Wei!"
Chapter completed!