He easily defeated the village heroes, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not look smug on his face, but he just ordered lightly: "Pick up the spears that fell from the village heroes to the ground, especially the iron spear tips, which are very useful to us!"

"Yes!" The soldiers agreed, and went forward to clean the battlefield one after another, picking up the spears on the ground.

At this time, the lion dog following behind was already shocked! What awesome Zhu Ba! He used 400 people to deal with Xu Renjie, who also brought 400 people, just a blink of an eye. They just had time to blink. Before they could react, Xu Renjie's hometown brave army was beaten so hard that they didn't even recognize his grandmother.

The two brothers Lion Dog were famous for being rascals in the past. They fought for the first time. They also led the villagers to fight with other villages. The reason for the fight was nothing more than that the Zhang family stole a chicken from the Li family and the west village occupied a piece of land in the east village.

They knew one thing very clearly. If it was a large-scale gang fight, such as hundreds of people against hundreds of people, it usually took a long time to fight, and the winning side would inevitably have to be bruised and swollen. However, Zhu Yuanzhang taught them a lesson with practical actions. Even a large gang fight between four hundred people against four hundred people can complete the battle in a very short time, and only beat the enemy to a bruised and swollen face, and he only scratched a little bit of his skin.

The lions were so impressed that they did have the intention of fire and Wang Lun when they first went up the mountain, but now, this little thought has also flown out of the Jiuxiaoyun. The only thing that left their hearts was the five big words "Zhu Ba is so powerful".

The new team 9 and new team 10 were also surprised to find that they couldn't talk. In the past, the veterans laughed at them, but they were a little dissatisfied. After seeing the veterans' majesty in the war, they realized that it was not without reason for being ridiculed, but it was really too bad. In the future... they should be more respectful to the veterans in the village.

After cleaning the battlefield as fast as possible, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered to continue moving forward. Defeating the township brawl team was not the focus. His purpose of this trip was to harvest grain.

After passing through the battlefield, he soon arrived at the front of a gentry compound. The owner of this compound was named Lu, known as Lu Yuanwai. Three generations ago, a county magistrate was born in his family, so he accumulated hundreds of acres of fertile land. When Zhu Yuanzhang was in trouble last year, his family obediently paid the "tax" obediently, so Zhu Yuanzhang did not deal with him.

However, this year he seemed to be a little tougher. The Lu family compound had obviously been reinforced. The courtyard wall had become thicker and was raised to more than ten feet. There were still many secret walls on the wall. It seemed that it was convenient for spears to stab. Nearly a hundred servants holding weapons were guarding the courtyard guarding the courtyard, and dozens of archers were lying on the wall. Judging from this posture, he had the courage to fight Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang surrounded the courtyard first, and was not in a hurry to attack. He just called out: "Please ask Mr. Lu to speak on the wall..."

After a while, the fat man Lu, who was fat and big-eared, climbed up onto the courtyard wall, only half of his head was exposed, and shouted loudly: "King Zhu, you have led your troops to surround my yard, what's the point of doing?"

As soon as Mr. Lu spoke, he was half afraid and actually called Zhu Yuanzhang the King of Zhu. He also used the honorific title "you". Just by hearing this tone, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that he was afraid of himself.

"Mr. Lu, I'm here from afar. You don't welcome me, but you invite me to have a tea. Instead, you close the door and lie on the wall with archers. What's the point?" Zhu Yuanzhang snorted.

Mr. Lu was startled and quickly explained: "This... I've been uneasy recently. There are small thieves everywhere. We are guarding against small thieves, not for you."

"Since it's not for me, why not remove the archer and open the door..." Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile.

"This...this...ah...ah...ah..." Mr. Lu Khan, it was impossible for him to remove the archer and open the door.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled, and he said seriously: "Last year, I revolted in Baishui, and I think you know what I did. At that time, I gave you two choices, one was to go against me, and I was destroyed by my family. The second was to cooperate with me and pay taxes obediently... You chose to cooperate with me, so you lived safely to the present. So now I will give you another chance, and you can choose a path yourself."

Mr. Lu's sweat was thundering, and he wiped his face and shouted: "King Zhu... Didn't I pay this tax last year? Why are you here again this year? If you come to collect taxes like this every year, I... might as well choose the first way to die."

Zhu Yuanzhang showed a curious expression on his face: "Huh? That's amazing! Ordinary people pay taxes twice a year, autumn fu and spring fu, and turn to one after another. How come you have to pay taxes once in your life?"

"I... my family is tax-free!" Mr. Lu defended.

"Your family follows the rules of the court!" Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "But don't forget that I am against the court. The court collects taxes for the villagers twice a year and exempts you from taxes, but I insist on doing the opposite. I collect taxes for you twice a year and exempts the taxes for the villagers, so that I can complement the tax policies of the court. Are you right?"

"You...you..." Mr. Lu was so angry, but he didn't dare to speak ill.

Zhu Yuanzhang said patiently: "The villagers paid taxes twice a year, and they paid hundreds of years. They never said anything until the drought was unable to survive, and they had a little emotional. You never paid taxes, but I just came to you to ask for taxes twice. You want to die with me. You said... Are you a spoiled problem?"

"This...this..." Mr. Lu was speechless.

Zhu Yuanzhang stretched out three fingers and said, "I'll count three times, think clearly for me, decide whether to pay taxes or go against me!"

"one!"

Mr. Lu was sweating profusely. For a gentry tax-free class like him, paying taxes really didn't cost much money. However, for hundreds of years, or thousands of years, the feudal system of China has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the gentry class has always been tax-free. As Zhu Yuanzhang said, this is a habitual problem.

There are many kinds of problems in the world, and the most difficult thing to change is the problems that come out of habit. It is really difficult to change them! It is not a problem of money at all. It has become a habit to stand tall and show off your power on the heads of the people. Now he has to pay taxes like the people, and it is difficult for him to turn around.

"two!"

Mr. Lu looked like earth outside.

Any problem that humans cannot be corrected is because the price they pay is not high enough. For example, some people are willful because they have not paid a heavy price because of willfulness. This is especially true for young people, and some young people are generous and waste money, which is because they don’t know how difficult it is to get money!

Zhu Yuanzhang knew deeply that if he wanted to change this person's bad habits, the best way was to let him know that if he didn't dare to do this, you would have to pay a heavy price. Now, Mr. Lu is facing such a problem. He either changed his spoiled thinking and paid taxes obediently, or fought with Zhu Yuanzhang. Once he was defeated, he would definitely be destroyed. The price was really too great.

"three!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's third finger had just bent down, and Mr. Lu quickly shouted: "I pay tax! I pay tax...I...I pay tax."

Zhu Yuanzhang gently put down his hand. For a moment, he really wanted to order the Lu Yuanwai family to the ground, but he forced himself to hold it back. You must know that the tax-free class is not just this family, but is spread throughout the land of China. Almost without exception, these families are intellectuals and part of social wealth.

If all these people are killed, the country will not be a country!

Zhu Yuanzhang was not here to destroy the country. He wanted to rebuild the Ming Dynasty, so he could not kill all the intellectuals. The result of doing so would only make the country worse and better. For these gentry classes, he could only suppress, educate, and transform, and never kill them.

Soon, the "Spring Fu" handed over by Mr. Lu was put in a basket and hung down from the courtyard wall. According to the amount of his family's fields, he should have handed over 154 taels and eight coins of silver, but the frightened Mr. Lu dared not pay according to this number. He obediently paid out 200 taels of silver.

Zhu Yuanzhang picked up a fifty tael of ingot from the pile of silver, threw it back into the yard with his hand, and shouted: "I'm here to collect taxes, not rob, I don't want the excess! In addition, if you give me this hundred and fifty taels of silver, I want to convert it into food. You take the silver back and exchange it for me."

Mr. Lu dared not to accept it, so he quickly changed the food.

However, this food exchange immediately caused a problem. One hundred and fifty taels of silver were thrown back from the wall, but Mr. Lu only sent fifty stones of rice.

Zhu Yuanzhang raised his eyebrows: "Mr. Lu, what do you mean? I only give 150 taels of silver to only give me fifty stones of rice?"

Mr. Lu on the wall quickly cried out, "King, I don't mean to offend you...but now... the rice price is like this. We have three taels of silver and one stone of rice here, and one hundred and fifty taels of silver is fifty stones. I didn't dare to take advantage of you."

"Three taels of silver and one stone?" Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly shocked. During those days when he was a wandering soul, he mainly observed major events in the world and had never noticed small matters such as grain prices, so he did not know the issue of grain prices in the late Ming Dynasty. Now he suddenly heard the rice prices, which scared him.

You should know that when he was the emperor in the last life, that is, during the Hongwu period, the price of grain was as high as one tael of silver to buy two stones of rice. In order to evaluate Zhu Di's political achievements, he also learned about it once. The price of grain was as high as one tael of silver to buy seven stones or eight stones of rice. Unexpectedly, during the Chongzhen period, he actually needed three taels of silver to buy one stone of rice. The price of this grain soared soaring.

"Why are the food prices so outrageous?" Zhu Yuanzhang's face turned dark.

Mr. Lu smiled bitterly and shook his hand quickly and said, "This is not my business. My family does not do business. It is some merchants who run rice shops who hoard all the grain and raise prices together... This has caused such a scene, which is really nothing to do with me."

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Chapter completed!