"Sir, there have been more and more disaster victims in the past two days." Li Yuanfang rode on the horse and frowned at the endless disaster victims on the official road.

"Yes! As a result of natural disasters, how many people are displaced and their wives and children are separated." Di Renjie nodded with a heavy expression and said, then looked up at the gloomy sky.

"Yuanfang, how far is this place from Xiangyang?"

"Sir, we have passed Caiyang now. If nothing unexpected happens, we will be in Xiangyang tomorrow." Li Yuanfang replied.

"Where have Zeng Tai and the others been?" Di Renjie asked again.

"Master! Lord Zeng has sent someone to send a message saying that they have arrived in Deng County and are waiting for Lord there." Di Chun behind him replied.

"Look at the sky, it will inevitably rain later. Yuan Fang, let's find a place to avoid it for a while." Di Renjie nodded and said.

When Li Yuanfang heard this, he looked around and pointed to Di Renjie and said, "Sir, there is a village there!"

"Let's go! Let's go and take a look." Di Renjie looked along the place where Li Yuanfang pointed, and said, "Bendo will gallop away first.

After a while, the group arrived at the entrance of the village. Di Renjie looked up and found that this village was much better than the mountain village I stayed at last night. I could vaguely see smoke rising in the village, but it was just a little better. Looking around, there were dilapidated and old adobe houses, the streets and alleys in the village were deserted and full of depression.

When Di Renjie saw the dilapidated scene in front of him, he couldn't help but sigh. Almost all the villages passed by in the past two days were like this, which shows the difficulty of people's livelihood. Compared with the prosperity of Shendu, it is hard to believe that these two places are actually under the same sky.

Di Renjie sighed secretly, and was about to instruct Li Yuanfang to go into the village to take a look, but suddenly saw several people rushing out of the forest at the entrance of the village, blocking in front of everyone, and asking, "Who are you?"

Di Renjie looked at the head and saw that there were about twenty scenes in the head, with dark skin and a little thin and swollen face, but his figure was very burly and bright and vigorous. Di Renjie couldn't help but sigh in his heart, "What a hero!". Seeing him asking, he smiled and said, "I'm the one who is in the middle of the day. I dare to ask this guy's surname, where is this place?

The burly man looked like a scheming person. He forgot that he asked first, and followed Di Renjie's words and replied: "This place is Zhaojiazhuang, my name is Zhao Dazhuang."

"Haha, I dare to ask Brother Zhao who blocked me from waiting for him. I wonder what it is worth?" Di Renjie heard the strong man's name and looked at Zhao Dazhuang's burly and strong figure. He couldn't help but ask with a smile.

"I don't do anything, I just tell you to wait. Even if you arrest me, our land will not be sold! That is our lifeblood!"

Di Renjie was puzzled and said, "Brother Zhao is afraid he has recognized the wrong person. We are You Fang's doctor, not here to buy land."

Zhao Dazhuang grinned and said, "You still want to lie to me, how could the Youfang Doctor bring so many people? Look at you all dressed and tall, and you can see that you are the reinforcements invited by the old thief Zhao. But when you go back, you tell the old man named Zhao that the land in my village is for life. Even if we starve to death, we will not sell it!"

What a person Di Renjie is? Zhao Dazhuang's three words will come out of the future. He didn't turn over and get off the horse. He stroked his beard and smiled: "I'm going to hide it from my beard. I'm a passing official. I went to Xiangyang for business, but it was not the rescuers you mentioned...." After saying that, he said: "I'm listening to my brother, but there are evil gentry bullying good people and forcibly annexed land during floods and famines? We are also from poor families. If you have any difficulties, we can deal with it."

Zhao Dazhuang heard that they were officials and wanted to help them. His face was surprised, but then he looked disappointed again. He said, "You are all officials from afar, how can you care about us? That's what you guys in charge of work can afford to mess with? I'll be happy for nothing!"

Li Yuanfang and others saw Zhao Dazhuang's interesting words, and couldn't help laughing. Di Renjie stroked his beard and shook his head and said, "Brother Zhao is right. As long as the axiom is with you, what's there to worry about? I don't know if there is a Su Lao in your village, so let me wait and talk?"

After hearing this, Zhao Dazhuang hurriedly said, "Some, some, please send me the man to follow me." After that, he led Di Renjie to a small courtyard in the middle of the village.

Di Renjie led Li Yuanfang and Ruyan into the house. It was almost dusk and the room was dark. Di Renjie looked inside the house and could only vaguely see a thin figure wandering inside the house.

At this time, Zhao Dazhuang shouted at the top of his voice: "Grandmaster, you are here for a distinguished guest!"

"You little bastard! Why are you shouting so loudly? I can hear your great master!" An old voice came from the inner room. As the flames as big as beans lit, the old man in the room was thin and dry. As the old man walked in, a shriveled old face as old tree bark appeared into the eyes of Di Renjie and others. The old man trembled with the oil lamp and connected to Di Renjie and said, "I have seen several distinguished guests. I don't know that the distinguished guests are coming from afar and have not been able to greet them. I hope you all forgive me."

Di Renjie and the other two quickly bowed and returned the greeting. Before Di Renjie could speak, Zhao Dazhuang rushed ahead and told the previous story in detail.

Unexpectedly, the old man sighed and said tremblingly: "I thanked the kindness of several officials here. I appreciate it, but I still want to advise you not to trek into this muddy water, so as not to ruin your lives in vain."

"What do you mean by old man?" According to what Li Yuanfang thought, if someone helped to stand up, the old man should have been happy, so how could he refuse their kindness and ask without annoyance.

"Oh..." The old man sighed without a sigh, looking extremely desolate, which made people feel trembling when they heard it. "Do you guys don't know that Zhao Yibao is a powerful gentry and powerful person in Caiyang County, and his brother is also a member of Jingzhou Nieshi, and the state is counted. Zhao Yibao is domineering, bullying, and bullying good people. He is forced to buy and sell the land in our village at a low price. Alas! What's the use of saying this?"

"It's not just our Zhaojiazhuang. This area of ​​ten miles of land is almost occupied by the old thief of Zhao. If someone in the village dares to resist, the Zhao family's slaves will arrest people and beat them to death, and many people will be killed." Zhao Dazhuang, who was sitting next to him, snatched them and said.

After listening to the two of them's narratives, Di Renjie's face turned pale and he couldn't help but snorted heavily in his throat.

"Then why don't you report to the official?" Li Yuanfang also looked angry and asked in anger.

"Report to the official? Humph!" Zhao Dazhuang heard Li Yuanfang say that he would report to the official, and looked at Li Yuanfang with a heavy look.

The old man said at this time, "I don't know anything. At that time, Zhao Yibao wanted to force our land, so we naturally quit. So he recommended a few people from the village, wrote a complaint, and went to the county to complain. Unexpectedly, the eldest master in the county was even more ruthless. Not only did he tore our complaint, but he also said that we were troublemakers and gathered people to cause trouble. For this reason, several people were beaten up." When he said this, the old man suddenly stood up, his chest was undulating, and he said angrily: "Zhao Yibao and the county government colluded with each other and occupied our land. If we had no land, we would eat. They wanted us to starve to death!"

"What a bunch of beasts that are worse than pigs and dogs. I deserve to die!" Li Yuanfang was furious when she heard this, and slapped the table with a slap in hatred.

"The powerful are in power, and the government helps the evildoers to abuse them. It's really the officials who force the people to rebel!" Di Renjie shook his head and sighed, and said seriously: "Old man, I have to take care of this matter and will definitely make the decision for you!"

When the old man heard this, he was very excited and his body shook. When Li Yuanfang saw the old man's abnormality, he hurried forward and supported him. Seeing this, Zhao Dazhuang hurried forward and said anxiously:

"Grandmad, are you okay?"

The old man stood firm, took a deep breath, and waved his hand to Zhao Dazhuang. The old man had seen the world when he was young. Seeing that he had said so much, Di Renjie and the other two had no intention of retreating. He knew that the identities of the nobles in front of him must be extraordinary, so he hurriedly bowed:

"Young man, thank you a few servants here!"

Di Renjie nodded, and suddenly a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by a thunderclap. Di Renjie looked out the window and murmured: "The storm is coming!"

...

At the same time, in the study of the back hall of the Jingzhou Governor's Yamen, Zhu Guozhi was writing at his desk, and his master Shi Qing walked in quickly: "The car is ready."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Guozhi put down his brush, folded the letter and put it in the envelope, and handed it to Shi Qing: "You can quickly take my letter to Deng County and hand it to the imperial envoy.

Alas! There are hundreds of thousands of hungry people in Xiangyang now, and it is still increasing, but the treasury has exhausted all the food and grass. Please be sure to transport the volume to Xiangyang as soon as possible to avoid arousing civil unrest.”
Chapter completed!