Xiazhou.

On a quiet road at the foot of a mountain, Da Xiwu was riding a war horse, looking desperately at the thick smoke in the distance.

The billowing black smoke is heading into the sky, and it can be seen clearly from a long distance away.

The knights around Da Xiwu had already begun to curse.

They tried their best and paid a lot of money, and finally temporarily put aside Hu Luguang and covered up their traces. However, just half a day later, they were betrayed again.

The thick smoke in the distance was not lit by them.

It was the smoke used by ordinary villages to notify surrounding armies when they encountered bandits.

In order to prevent threats from the north, the Puppet Zhou Dynasty built many beacon towers in the villages along the road so that the village officials along the road could provide the latest enemy movements at any time.

But Da Xiwu never imagined that one day, the beacon tower they built would become a weapon against their own people.

These beacon fires exposed Da Xiwu's position and constantly provided the surrounding Han troops with the latest movements of Da Xiwu and others.

The deputy general next to Da Xiwu was so angry that he couldn't even speak.

"What a mob!"

"Tricky people!!"

"They are all Zhou people. This group of people just came here and they rebelled?"

"It's really unethical!"

"That's what untouchables are like. They don't know etiquette and have no virtue!"

The lieutenant general said angrily: "My lord, let's destroy that village first. As long as we kill several villages that betrayed us, no one will dare to betray us again."

Da Xiwu's face was calm and he ignored the little Xianbei next to him. After all, he was young and it was too simplistic to think about the problem. If the village was really massacred here, the impact would only get worse.

Now it's just about betraying the whereabouts, massacring the village might be something else.

Da Xiwu had no choice but to lead everyone away from here again.

He already knew in his heart that Hu Luguang must have noticed the movement here, and he would come and kill him before long.

Da Xiwu ran away again, and his headaches became more and more frequent.

Although winter has passed, spring planting is about to come, and the climate has begun to warm up, but warming does not mean that it is no longer cold.

In such a season, wearing heavy armor and galloping on horseback to reach Xiwu's age, he is still alive, which shows that his body is really strong.

They did not dare to run up the mountain, otherwise the road would be blocked. They could only run down the path and try to get out of the forest as soon as possible. Where to go next, Da Xiwu was not sure yet.

According to Yu Wenxian's original strategy, the purpose of Da Xiwu's attack was to attack the cities that were not very heavily defended, and to attack the enemy's grain roads and warehouses, so that the enemy would not dare to ignore him and put pressure on the other party.

However, Da Xiwu really has no way to implement the strategy now.

Because Hu Luguang is still behind him, he can't take Hu Luguang with him to attack the city, right?

What we have to do now is to find a way to get rid of Duluguang.

But Hu Luguang, the dog thief, is a mad dog. Once bitten by him, there is no way to make him let go, unless his teeth are knocked out.

It’s just that not many people have the ability to knock out Hu Luguang’s teeth.

Da Xiwu led everyone and quickly disappeared into the distance.

Shortly after he left, a troop of cavalry appeared here.

They were all lightly armored, numbering around two thousand in number. They surrounded them from both sides at extremely fast speeds. After arriving, they began to scout the surroundings for the enemy's whereabouts.

Hu Luguang rode a fast horse and came here joltingly. He lowered his head and looked at the traces left by the enemy, and then looked up at the thick smoke in the distance.

He asked everyone to continue exploring the surroundings while he approached the direction of the thick smoke.

After walking on the path for a long time, Hu Luguang suddenly stopped, raised the arrow in his hand, and pointed it at the bushes nearby.

"Who?!"

The next moment, several people dressed as hunters came out shouting. Their faces were frightened and they quickly identified themselves as hunters from nearby villages.

Hu Luguang looked them up and down, then asked for permission and looked at them.

"Is it your village that lit the wolf smoke?"

"Exactly."

"When we found out that there were thieves approaching, we immediately went back to inform the villagers, arranged for the old and the weak to hide, and also led some young people to make traps on the road."

Hu Luguang asked: "Where did the person go?"

The hunters hurriedly pointed out the way for him.

Hu Luguang's face looked much better. He looked to his left and right, and the warriors took out some money from their arms as a reward for these hunters.

Hu Luguang promised: "If I can kill the traitor general, I will write to your majesty to pardon your entire village's taxes for one year."

After saying that, he hurriedly left with the knights.

Da Xiwu led everyone on the run, and after running for a long time, they came to a stream. Just as they were about to settle down and rest, black smoke rose again in the distance.

Da Xiwu froze on the spot, just looking at the smoke in the distance without saying a word.

It seems that my time has come.

Within the county town, a large number of people gathered at the entrance of the government office, forming a long queue. The spring breeze was not rough, but the temperature was not low either. Many people were rubbing their hands and stamping their feet to keep themselves warm.

There should be more than 600 people among these people, and there are military officials watching them on the left and right.

In order to prevent unrest, Hu Luxian adopted a batch-by-batch approach, one street by street within the city, and one village by village outside the city.

Directly opposite the official office, there were many clerks sitting in front of the gate. They were all holding documents and verifying the situation carefully.

"Wang Daque, it's done."

The clerk handed the brand new household register to the farmer in front of him.

"Three people, except for the mulberry fields, all the other fields have been banned by you."

"Without this land grant, it is finally gone."

Tears filled the farmer's eyes, he grabbed the household register in his hand, and couldn't help asking again: "It's gone, right? The land grant in the future will have nothing to do with us? Taxes are collected based on mulberry fields, right?"

?”

"Yes, yes, next one!"

The clerk waved his hand rudely and asked the man to leave.

Over at the government office, several local officials stood beside Hu Luxian, staring at the situation in the distance and chatting in low voices.

These farmers gathered at the entrance of the government office, and the main business they handled was to return their fields.

That's right, Hu Luxian brought people to snatch their fields!

But they were so willing to be robbed that each of them was afraid that they would be late and that the new government would not have time to take away their own fields.

Hu Luxian and Gao Changgong, the two governors, do not look like governors, and the generals do not look like generals.

Gao Changgong, the governor, couldn't stay idle at all, so he rushed out with the knights, and now they all rushed to Yanzhou.

As for General Hu Luxian, he was worried about the government affairs of the counties most of the time. Gao Changgong was at the front, and he was behind to clean up the mess.

Every time Hu Luxian captured a city, he would find ways to restore the official system so that orders could be issued. Then, the first thing he did was to abolish the original land grants during the Zhou Dynasty and conduct an inventory of household registrations.

For these farmers who were forced to have more than a dozen sons and hundreds of acres of farmland, this was a benevolent policy.

Looking at the farmers who thanked them profusely and burst into tears, Hu Luxian couldn't hold back any longer.

He looked to the left and right, "There is no natural reason why the Zhou Kingdom should not be destroyed. It is simply ridiculous that the people are so happy after being taken away and given the land."

The people standing next to him were all old officials with good reputations in the local area who could not find any crimes, including some newly joined military officials.

The newcomers naturally have nothing to say about this, but the old officials know it all too well.

The person closest to Hu Luxian at the moment is the temporarily appointed county magistrate. He is an old man, thin and thin. He used to serve as an official in the city. He was arrested and thrown into prison because of his opposition to the officials in the city.

Just as he was preparing for the verdict, Gao Changgong and others called in.

He also changed from a prisoner to a temporary official of the New Han Dynasty.

The old man looked at the scene in the distance and said angrily: "This is how they make money and get rich!"

"Oh? Who are they?"

"Who else could it be?"

"It's those who are officials, those who are powerful in the local area, those who are Xianbei"

The young man on the side was frightened and hurriedly stretched out his hand to pull the old man.

The old man was not afraid, and pulled away the young man's hand, "What are you afraid of? I'm not scolding Xianbei like General Hu Lu!"

Hu Luxian was not angry either. He just said softly: "I am not Xianbei, but Chile Dingling."

"It's okay, just keep talking."

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To be continued...