Qiao Lian'er didn't say much. Seeing that his bleeding had stopped, she took out bandages and a bottle of hemostatic and healing powder from her purse.
Da Yong shaved all the hair off the injured area of Qu Jiantou before sprinkling the medicine powder on his head and then wrapping his entire head tightly with bandages.
This made Supervisor Qu feel much more at ease.
"Thank you, thank you all." He choked up a little.
"Hmph, how ridiculous! You think you can just brush this off with a simple 'you were wrong too'? What about the grain and silver that were stolen from us? Are you just going to stop collecting them? You're still going to take at least 70% of it, aren't you?" Wang Hu shouted.
Another villager said, "Even if you have a little conscience, your soldiers will still want to get something out of it. Otherwise, they won't want to work at all. Everyone knows that. This is a dead end."
This is how the government has always operated when it comes to collecting taxes—openly and secretly trying to gain benefits, which is why they've been running around like this. This time it's just even more serious.
Supervisor Qu hung his head, remaining silent, because he didn't know how to solve the problem.
The north urgently needs grain and silver, and to ensure efficiency, it is necessary to increase the enthusiasm of the collection teams.
If they don't give them benefits, the collection team won't have the energy to work properly and will neglect the north. Those in charge won't have an easy time either.
With so many people dispatched by the Imperial Lectures Office to various places, plus the local government offices and the personnel stationed in the military camps, besides the 50% that had to be handed over, 70% was mandatory. He had already calculated this carefully.
After thinking it over and over, hatred arose in his heart. Why did those northern tribes have to move south? Why did they have to fight?
His fists clenched, and his brows furrowed into a deep frown.
"Speak up! Why aren't you saying anything? You've got no other way, have you?" Wang Hu lay on the ground, his head tilted to the side, a mocking expression on his face.
“I am not the only one who wants to rebel against you. If you continue like this, more and more people will rise up in rebellion. You may be able to control me, but you cannot control the will of the people.”
"That's right, how are we supposed to live? If you strictly collect 50%, we can just eat less at each meal. But damn it, you're taking at least 70%, and some are even taking 80 or 90%."
"You forced us to this. What you're doing is no different from annihilation."
The villagers became more and more emotional as they spoke, some even with tears in their eyes.
Who would want to oppose the imperial court unless they go to that point? Who wouldn't want to live a good life with their family?
"When you saw that we were driven to the edge and picked up weapons, all you thought about was finding people to suppress us. Have you ever listened to our suffering or tried to understand us?"
"Even if Wang Hu is subdued, there are still millions of us."
Moved by this sentence, the villagers took another step forward together.
No matter what, we must force this prison warden to submit.
Return the silver and grain to them.
Supervisor Qu had just breathed a sigh of relief, but now his heart was in his throat again.
This is bad. The most crucial problem hasn't been solved, and these villagers won't leave.
However, he couldn't give any guarantees.
“Let’s arrest this leader and use him to threaten the grain requisition team.”
"And these meddlesome fellows, they themselves have had their grain requisitioned, and not only do they not join us in the rebellion, but they also betray us and become the government's dogs. We should treat them like rats crossing the street, and let everyone shout and beat them."
The villagers raised their weapons again and approached step by step.
Qiao Lian'er knew that it would be useless for her to say those things now; she needed to calm the villagers down first and put them in a state of apprehension.
Otherwise, if anyone instigates her, her voice will be drowned out and she will face even more criticism.
Therefore, she never voiced her opinion.
Looking towards the end of the road, Da Cheng and Da Meng's team should be arriving soon, right?
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