Liujiazhuang where Liu Tantou is located is in Xinlecheng, Gaoyang County, and is one day away from Xianyu City, where the county seat is located.

Early the next morning, Liu Tantou changed into a clean robe, with a few wild vegetable dumplings in his arms, a bag on his shoulder, and a dozen wild animal skins inside. He did not bring the jewelry that the third aunt gave him. Those jewelry were dowry from these aunts and would have to be passed on to his daughter-in-law in the future. How could he have to do it? He naturally had to rely on himself to marry, and he could not sell the jewelry, so he planned to sell the skins to the city for money. These wild animal skins were all good skins that were not damaged. A manager of the Lu family in Liujiazhuang, who was more than 20 years old, wanted to take them away several times. Unfortunately, they were only willing to give such a dozen skins.

Although a silver coin can be exchanged for about 300 cents now, this amount of money is not enough to buy the things he wants for a marriage. And one of his skins is a leopard skin, which he accidentally encountered while hunting on the mountain. That time there was no one around him, and it almost became the leopard's belly. Fortunately, he was very strong and rolled around on the ground with his arms around the leopard, and finally beat the leopard to death with an iron fist as big as a sand bowl.

The leopard meat was sent to Shangguan, who distributed food uniformly, but he left the skin. The leopard skin without a single hole in the sword, gun, and arrow was worth a lot of money. Although the prices are now chaotic, such leopard skin was worth at least a dozen cents of money before it was chaotic a few years ago, which was equivalent to burning charcoal for two years.

But the Lu family was in charge of the Lu family, but because they were the largest aristocratic clan in Xinle City, they wanted to take over a dozen pieces of skins, including leopard skins, with a silver coin. How could he agree to such an excessive thing? This was something he wanted to buy the newlyweds.

If it were a few years ago, he might have felt heartbroken, but he would still agree in the end. The Lu family's status in Xinle City was even higher than that of the county magistrate of Xinle County. Although Lujiazhuang was called a village, it was actually connected to houses and a continuous land of several miles. More than a thousand families lived together, all of whom were surnamed Lu, and they were all Lu family clans. In recent years, Hebei was turmoil, and many landlords and wealthy families were robbed and beheaded by the rioters, but the Lu family built a dock that was more solid than Xinle County outside Lujiazhuang. One by one, the dock that was like a fortress surrounded the entire Lujiazhuang house with high walls and deep ditches, and then connected them around, and finally formed a Lujia Town that was even larger and stronger than the county town.

There are many shops in Lujia Town, and the houses are not as good as the farmers in nearby villages, but they would rather go to Xinle County more than go to Lujiabao to buy and sell things. Because Lujia Town has always liked to bully people with power and forcefully buy and sell.

Lujia Town is the strongest fortress, and even bandits can only sigh if they are not good.

When Liu Tantou and his friends were desperate, they also went to the gate of Lujiabao with their fellow villagers, hoping to let them in to avoid bandits. But the Lu family was involved in the insult and wanted to avoid bandits, but they had to be nearby people with fields and land. Before entering the town, they had to sell the land to the Lu family, and basically gave it to the Lu family for free. However, those who did not want to enter Lujia Town had to sign a contract to sell themselves and become slaves of the Lu family and help them cultivate the land they had seized.

Liu Tantou once heard that Lujiazhuang was just a small landlord before. Later, some of the family had served as a large official in the Northern Wei Dynasty. After retiring, they annexed a lot of land nearby. Later, the Lu family members became more and more, and each general took advantage of the war to merge the surrounding land. Now, they have become one of the top aristocratic tyrants in Gaoyang County.

The Lu family did not live in the city, and they all lived in Lujia Town. The forts they built were stronger than those of the county town. Moreover, over the years, there have always been officials of the Lu family and powerful. Even if they are powerful and prosperous in the village, no one dared to take care of them. Liu Tantou walked alone in the snow. The snow had been stopped for several days, but the thick snow had not completely melted. When he stepped on it, he was full of hard sounds of ice. After more than half an hour, he had arrived not far from Lujia Town.

Walking far away, there were desolate everywhere and a bleak place. But only when you get to the vicinity of Lujia Town, you can see the tall and strong town like a monster, with bursts of smoke rising from time to time in the air.

Liu Tantou couldn't help but sucked a few times, thinking that the Lu family was really comfortable, and they had food to eat early in the morning. Unlike the farmers like them, they only had two meals. And they were all sparse. In winter, they only had one meal a day. But the Lu family lived comfortably in Wu Town all day and never had to work in the fields, but they ate three meals a day, and they even heard that the Lu family had eight dishes for each meal, and they were eaten in different ways every day, without any other words.

Tighten the straw rope around his waist, Liu Tan walked forward with his head on the back of the snow and continued to walk forward. But after walking for less than a while, the intersection in front suddenly stopped.

I saw that in the snow, a simple fence was erected and a wooden door was opened on it. On the side, there were several burly men, holding their heads and squatting under the thatched pavilion on one side, roasting the fire. Liu Tantou hesitated for a moment, but walked over.

"Stop!" Just as he was about to pass the wooden door, he shouted loudly but thought from behind.

The squeaking footsteps came over the thatched hut. Liu Tantou stood there and looked back at the big man. He knew this man, a servant under the manager Lu's town in Lu's town, and heard someone called him Wangtou.

Wang Tou walked over and looked at Liu Tantou for a few times, "Oh, isn't this Liu Tantou who used to provide charcoal for our mansion? Why haven't you seen you help me in the past few years? Everyone thought you had been cooked by those chaotic people. Last time, Manager Liu said that you are still alive, but I still don't believe it. Why, are you going to provide charcoal for the mansion today?"

Liu Tantou frowned. In the past, he used to burn charcoal, and all the charcoals were sent to the Lu family. After burning charcoal for more than ten years, he was still a bachelor's house and had not saved up any money at all. If he hadn't been able to catch some prey, he would have been afraid that he would not be able to maintain food and clothing. In the past, he had never dared to resist the Lu family, but today, he felt some changes in his heart.

Maybe it was because I heard that the court did not treat those aristocratic tyrants very much, but instead treated them very well, which made him feel a little backer in his heart.

"Duocheng Wangtou's concern, I have not burned charcoal anymore. The court has distributed dozens of acres of land for me and will farm in the future. Today I am going to go to the county town to do business. I just walked and didn't see you Wangtou." Liu Tantou said calmly.

Wang Tou didn't make things difficult for him, "Then go, but the head of the family has issued a new rule. In the future, no matter when passing by, you have to pay five cents of tolls at a time. If you still carry goods, you have to charge tithes tax. I think your bag seems to be covered in shame, so I will give you a face. Just take two pieces of skin from it and pay it. I won't charge you the five cents of toll tax."

Liu Tantou was a little confused. The road has a history of hundreds of years. Everyone has passed by this for so many years. Why do you have to charge five cents once today? What's the point? And collecting your own skin is even more incompatible with the king's law. I only heard that when you enter the city, you will be in charge of Chengrui in front of the city gate, but you only charge a little money according to the goods. How can you collect tithes like this? Is there any king's law?

Liu Tantou suppressed his anger and smiled and said, "Wang Tou, I'm really hiding you. The young man has already made a marriage with the girl from Uncle Wu of the Zhang family and is about to get married. Then he wants to go to the county town to calculate money and buy some wedding items. He also asked Wang Tou to raise his hands. When he comes back, I will bring two jars of good wine to Wang Tou and his brothers. You see, it's feasible."

Although Wang Tou is a member of the Lu family, he is a pretty good person. He doesn't bully people on his own. Sometimes he can help the villagers. Hearing Liu Tan Tou's words, Wang Tou stretched out his fist and hit his shoulder, and smiled and said, "I have seen the girl from Zhang family, you have left luck. When the days are settled, I will go and ask for a few cups of wedding wine. Go over, go early and come back early, remind you that you may be a little uneasy during this period."

Liu Tantou nodded and was about to start, but there was another footstep behind him, "You *** Boss Wang, everyone is waiting for you to drink. Who are you messing around with, you can't be trying to cheat."

When he heard the familiar voice, Liu Tantou immediately felt bad. Sure enough, the person who came was the manager Lu of the Lu family. When he saw Liu Tantou carrying animal skins, his eyes suddenly shone. Recently, the birthday of the head of the Lu family was approaching. He had been looking for a gift he had taken, but he never found it. Last time he saw the leopard skin in Liujiazhuang, he fell in love with it. As a result, Liu Tantou killed a leopard and even became bolder. He didn't sell it at all. At that time, he was worried that there were too many people in Liujiazhuang, so he didn't dare to take it.

These days he was planning to go to Liujiazhuang again and take the leopard skin over. However, he never thought that the head of the family was angry because of the imperial court's equal land and grain borrowing order. The head of the family, who forcibly repurchased a lot of land and grain by the imperial court, was in great pain. In the past few days, he set up posts on the roads around Lujiazhuang to collect tolls and cargo taxes. He was also sent to this post and was not allowed to be free for a while.

But unexpectedly, Liu Tantou came to his door today, and even the leopard skin was in his pocket, which saved him a lot of trouble.

Manager Lu turned his eyes and smiled and said, "Liu Tantou, the toll is five copper coins at a time. I think these skins are all good skins. I will count them as one hundred coins. If you collect tithes, you can leave. Pay another 10,000 yuan. Pay the money quickly. Brother, I am still waiting to go back to drink. This snowy day, I will freeze to death outside...
Chapter completed!