The inner courtyard was filled with torches.
Under the night, the torches kept swaying, and the black shadows on the ground also twisted. A gust of wind blew, and the black shadows seemed to dance a weird and mysterious dance.
Liu Taozi leaned against the door with her waist knife in her arms.
At this moment, he was staring at the black shadow illuminated by the torch on the ground. The black shadow danced for him, restlessly.
The inner courtyard was extremely quiet. In that row of houses, countless people were curled up on their beds and shivering.
It was a sleepless night.
It's not just Zhang Li who is afraid, the casual officials here are also afraid.
Zhang Li was huddled in a corner with his quilt covered, his eyes half-closed. Even though he was sleepy, he couldn't fall asleep.
In the confusion, footsteps seemed to come from the front.
Zhang Li woke up with a start and opened his eyes suddenly.
He raised his head in horror.
Liu Taozi stood in front of him.
Zhang Li was trembling all over, his lips seemed to be stuck together and he couldn't open them at all.
He slowly closed his eyes, his whole face trembling.
"Jun Zhang."
"It's going to be daybreak."
Taozi spoke, and Zhang Li opened his eyes again. He got up and looked at the door.
"It's dawn?"
"Not yet, but soon."
Zhang Li breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Tao Zi, "I was scared by you just now."
"I let Liu Jun stay overnight, thank you very much, thank you very much!"
As Zhang Li said this, he turned around to change into new clothes, but then asked: "It was a peaceful night, right? Did Brother Liu see any evil spirits?"
Liu Taozi's eyes were serious, "I'm not afraid of ghosts."
Zhang Li changed his clothes and nodded, "I think so. Peach is the best at warding off evil spirits and killing ghosts. If there are evil ghosts, they should be afraid of Mr. Liu."
He walked to the door and said, "I have to go to Duke Cao to follow the order. Brother Liu was busy yesterday and can rest today."
Without waiting for Taozi's answer, he turned around and left the place in a hurry.
Before it was completely light, everyone in the inner courtyard had already tiptoed out. They looked at Zhang Li's mansion suspiciously and looked at each other.
"Do you think he is still here?"
"It's hard to say."
While they were having a heated conversation, footsteps were heard on the road leading to the middle courtyard, and everyone hurriedly silenced them.
Official Zhang appeared in front of everyone.
Everyone's expressions were quite wonderful, some were surprised and some were disappointed.
He brought today's work and asked everyone to come out and listen to the order.
Taozi also walked out of his room at this moment. Seeing Taozi holding a knife, everyone suddenly realized.
Tian Zili hurriedly walked to Taozi's side and stood together.
Zhang Li said: "As you all know, we are missing two people, so we asked the alternate officials Tian Zili and Liu Taozi to take over."
"We will all be colleagues from now on."
Tian Zili smiled and saluted everyone, and many casual officials smiled in return.
Everyone's attitude towards Tian Zili is quite good, which shows that this guy spends a lot of money on weekdays.
Zhang Li immediately began to announce today's errands.
Although there were a lot of errands, they were far from the point of killing everyone. The previous situation was entirely due to the misbehavior of the first two people.
They allocate work very unreasonably, and at the same time they allow casual officials to bully alternate officials.
What should have been done by the casual officials with the alternate officials, turned out to be the alternate officials doing it instead of the casual officials. As a result, everything was placed on the alternate officials.
After Zhang Li assigned the errands, he reminded him: "Everyone, Duke Cao has an order, and some official officials have informed him that the casual officials did not fulfill their duties and only sent new candidates, which led to unfavorable results."
"I hope you can exercise some restraint. If something big happens, I'm afraid Mr. Cao will be held accountable."
Everyone still said nothing.
At this moment, a person suddenly said: "Zhang Jun! This is easy to handle!"
The man stretched out his hand and said with a smile: "Yesterday I was doing inventory in the arsenal and injured my hand. Please allow me to take a day off and let an alternate take my place. With such a name and a real name, Mr. Cao will not blame me even if he wants to come."
Another person echoed: "Yes, I also occasionally feel cold."
After everyone saw that Zhang Li was intact, they quickly returned to their original appearance.
They simply didn't take the old man in front of them, who had always been a coward, in their eyes.
Zhang Li spoke again, "It's not about reputation, it's about the newcomers' lack of experience. You still have to lead them."
"It's because they lack experience that we have to make them do more. If we don't give them the opportunity to exercise, how can they grow?"
"Zhang Jun! Just do as I say!"
The man interrupted Zhang Li again.
For a while, everyone started chatting noisily. Zhang Li looked at everyone with a stiff expression.
"Is your hand hurt?"
Suddenly, a question interrupted the noise.
The official with a sharp voice raised his head and looked at Tao Zi standing in front of him with disdain in his eyes.
"What does this have to do with you?"
"That hand? Is it seriously injured?"
Taozi asked again.
The man was stunned, looked to the left and right, raised his right hand jokingly, and asked provocatively: "Do you want me to see it?"
Taozi grabbed his hand, and under his shocked gaze, Taozi broke off his right hand.
"Click."
With a crisp sound, his wrist showed an exaggerated arc.
"ah!!!"
the man shouted.
Taozi let go of her hand, and the man knelt on the ground in pain.
The eyes of several people around him flashed with fear, and they quickly took a few steps back.
Zhang Li looked at this scene in shock, and the corners of his eyes could not help but tremble.
Liu Taozi looked at Zhang Li calmly, "Zhang Jun, his hand is indeed injured. I'm afraid he won't be able to do anything. You can temporarily put him on standby."
Zhang Li pursed his lips and said, "Okay."
"Then who will take his place?"
"Yao Xiong."
"good."
Liu Taozi picked up the guy who was still screaming like a chicken.
He quickly walked to the door and pushed it open.
When the candidates heard the door open, they immediately stood up tremblingly.
He looked up and saw Liu Taozi standing at the door.
Everyone who came from the Law School was shocked.
What's going on??
Today’s official is Brother Taozi??
Liu Taozi threw the official in his hand violently, and the official fell to the ground, still roaring in pain.
"Officials have to do things."
"If you do well, you can enter the inner court; if you do poorly, you have to go to the outer court."
"This is not a place for happiness."
"Yao Xiong, come here."
Yao Xiong looked at this scene blankly, and walked to Taozi sluggishly. Taozi grabbed him and quickly took him into the inner courtyard.
For a moment, the entire inner and outer courtyards were silent.
Yao Xiong stood here, looking around blankly. He still hasn't figured out what happened.
The eyes of the officials were full of anger and hatred, but they did not dare to speak.
Zhang Li took a deep breath and said, "Don't delay things. Let's get busy."
The officials no longer protested and left the place obediently.
"Brother Liu, please stay and rest today."
Zhang Li explained, and then led Yao Xiong to get the official badge and clothes.
Tian Zili walked to Taozi's side and looked at Taozi with stars twinkling in his eyes.
"Brother Taozi, you."
He stopped talking, as if he had made some decision, "Brother Taozi, I will go and do some work first, and I will talk to you in the evening."
Yao Xiong came back soon, put on new clothes that didn't fit, and looked at Tao Zi blankly.
"Brother, I made it up??"
"Go do some work!"
"only!!!"
Today's casual officials are particularly silent, and they no longer let alternate officials go out to do things on their behalf.
He is also quite serious when doing things.
As soon as Yao Xiong woke up, he became a casual official. He is still not very awake, but he is very serious about his work.
I don’t know why, even though he was exhausted last night and his whole body collapsed, today, Yao Xiong felt that his whole body was full of energy.
He is not so tired anymore.
Obviously on this day, he still had to go out to do errands, but the same thing gave him a different feeling.
The county government has issued an order to thoroughly investigate the population inside and outside the city.
Almost all the casual officials were sent out to do this.
Yao Xiong is now leading two alternate officials and is asking the local officials about the situation here.
"Sixty-two households, right? No need to change anymore? This can't be wrong."
"That's right, you can count them one by one. I just verified it recently. The situation of each household is written down."
The clerk with a white beard explained to him.
Yao Xiong left here quickly.
The local officials sent him all the way to the outside of the village. After watching them disappear completely, he just wiped the sweat from his forehead.
As soon as the white-bearded official turned around, he saw a man carrying a big deer on his back, staring straight at him.
The clerk paused and said, "I was shocked. Sun Hu, are you back from hunting?"
The man nodded and looked into the distance again, "The county official is here?"
"It's just a casual official. They said they want to check the household registration thoroughly. I don't know if they will have to do corvee again. Alas, you might as well not come back. There are a lot of corvee here."
The Li Li said, holding his hands behind his back, shaking his head and leaving the place.
The man carried the prey on his back and walked towards the dense forest not far away.
Hunters are different from farmers in that they tend to live outside villages and often follow their prey on the move.
The man walked into the house in the dense forest and suddenly dropped the deer in his hand.
"Xiao Wu!! Let it bleed!!"
Chapter completed!