Chapter 282: Common people only want food and clothing
"Li'er, we can actually recruit officials from the former Qinzhou government office. As long as they truly submit to our Great Zhou, we can hire them as an exception."
Nangong Min couldn't bear to see Bai Li working so hard, so he suggested.
"Oh, your suggestion is good. This way I won't have to work so hard!"
In Qinzhou City, under the appeasement of Bai Li and others, the land deed tax was reduced by 30% on the original basis, and the granary was opened, giving the people an advance of half a year's food. Under this policy, the people quickly settled down.
In fact, the people's minds are very simple. As long as they can have enough food to eat and are treated as human beings, it doesn't matter who is their emperor.
Now that the people of the Great Zhou have arrived, they do not kill the common people, nor do they treat them like cattle and horses, tying them up and forcing them to work like slaves. This has made the common people let down their guard.
If a person who can keep the people from going hungry were to rule, they would feel that it no longer mattered whether they belonged to Simon or the Great Zhou. Whoever could feed them would be their mother.
Only a good dynasty and a good emperor are worthy of the support of the people. Emperors like Simon treated the people as cattle and horses, feeding them with only a handful of grass, and not caring about the lives of the people. They have no support from the people at all.
The reason why ordinary people are still willing to stay is that they have nowhere else to go except here.
After dinner, everyone dispersed and went about their own business.
We had just taken over the new city, and there were so many trivial matters to deal with that everyone wished they had eight pairs of hands and four legs.
In the city, in a dilapidated thatched house that was about to collapse, an old man was lying on the bed, coughing so hard that he almost died.
"Grandpa, Grandpa, please don't die. If you die, Gouzi will be left alone!"
“Cough cough cough…!”
The old man took a few deep breaths before he recovered.
"Dog, dog?"
"Grandpa, the dog is here."
In the dim light, a boy of about ten years old hurriedly bent down and came to the bed made of two old wooden boards.
On the bed, on a rotten mat with dents and a worn-out quilt full of patches and with black patches of cotton wool leaking out, was wrapped a body as thin as a piece of cardboard.
The body was covered with messy white hair, and beneath the white hair was a face with features as thin as a skeleton.
"Dog, just now I... cough cough...!
I heard someone shouting something outside, saying that if you help carry the bodies, you can get a pound of food or fifty coins?"
"Yes, Grandpa, the dog wants to go too, you see..."
"Dog, you're still young... cough cough..."
“Grandpa, Grandpa!”
The boy patted the old man's back and chest for a long time before the old man recovered his breath.
The boy wiped his tears with his tattered sleeve and said with determination, "Grandpa, I'm fifteen. They only say that I need to be able to move corpses. I can do it. I've carried sacks at the docks and fought for food with stray dogs in the garbage dump. I'm very strong!"
The boy raised his thin arms to prove it to his grandfather, but unfortunately it didn't work.
"Even...even if they dislike me, I won't lose anything. If I'm selected, five kilograms of grain mixed with some wild vegetables and wheat bran will be enough for us to eat for many days!"
There were tears in the corners of the old man's eyes, and he didn't insist anymore.
The boy went out with great anticipation. When he reached the door, he said, "Grandpa, lie down and wait for the dog to come back with food. We'll have wild vegetable porridge tonight!"
The old man seemed to have heard it, but also seemed not to have heard it. After coughing for a while, he fell into a semi-coma again.
He hadn't had a proper meal for three days, and the bitter and hard-to-swallow wild vegetable soup he ate was dug up by his grandson in the wild five miles away.
Due to years of not having enough to eat and intense labor, his body gradually became ill.
Almost the same story was played out in the homes of ordinary people in the city. They all had doubts, hopes, and a gambling attitude towards the five kilograms of food, and they were not interested.
The reason is simple. This year was extremely dry. There was no rain in the first half of the year, and the land was dry and the harvest was poor. The Da Zhou, which was not far away, also suffered from the severe drought.
They have no food, and the Great Zhou has no food either. Where do they get the food from?
Could it be that they were tricked into working for them for free?
Wu Lanzhi stood in the largest market place in the city, looking at the paper-thin people coming out of their homes one after another, her eyes full of disbelief.
Logically speaking, it is impossible for a family that can produce hundreds of kilograms of food every month to be so thin.
Even if there are one or two families who are particularly difficult, it is understandable, but why is it like this for everyone?
She seriously suspected that the data she collected was wrong. Well, she had worked in vain for the whole morning.
She now realized that the data she had heard from the chancellor must have been beautified several times and fabricated for people to see.
In fact, the common people of Simon generally have less than 50 kilograms of food per month.
Looking through history books, according to data from previous years, there was.
But what she didn't know was that the Simon court had increased grain taxes three times in the first half of this year alone.
The officials came and said that they were buying grain at high prices, so that the people could sell the grain they couldn't eat at high prices, so that the people would have extra money to exchange what they had and what they needed, and promote the development of Simon trade.
But in reality, the officials only collected grain and did not give money. They only wrote an IOU to the people and told them that they could take the IOU to the government office to exchange it for money when the court allocated silver.
The first time, the people believed it without any doubt and squeezed out the few rations they had to hand over.
The people were a little unwilling the second time. They were already hungry, and if more grain was collected, they couldn't even get enough to eat.
However, under the coercion and inducement of the officials, they had to hand over one third of the remaining rations.
By the third time of collecting grain, the people refused to give in no matter what. Seeing that they were unmoved by any persuasion, the officials went straight to their homes to rob them.
Because of this, a bold and fearless man clashed with the police, and then small groups of people rioted in various parts of Simon. Later, they were quickly suppressed by the Simon military camp with iron-blooded means, and ended with many casualties among the people.
The spies of the Great Zhou collected information about what happened to Simon and reported it back, but Bai Li did not ask about it.
Looking at the dozens of ordinary people who stood up hesitantly, and the even more ordinary people who just wanted to watch the fun but did nothing, Wu Lanzhi was confused.
Five catties of grain, or fifty coins a day, was already a high price.
Gao Dani suddenly had an idea. "They don't believe us giving them food and money?"
“That should be it!”
Just at this time, Luo Yang came with a team of horse-drawn and ox-drawn carts full of grain.
"Luo Yang, you arrived just in time!"
Wu Lanzhi felt as if she had seen a savior and instantly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Marshal Bai had anticipated this and ordered me to go outside the city and bring in food after lunch."
As for the source of this batch of grain, Bai Li didn't say anything and no one asked about it.
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