"Baby Tower?"
When Xue Cheng and Huang Ling learned from the leader of the Grain Ship Gang that what he used to feed the monsters came from the Baby Tower, they looked at each other in surprise.
"What is this?"
Seeing the confused expressions on their faces, the leader of the Grain Ship Gang sneered. Knowing that these nobles had never heard of the Baby Tower, he explained it to them in detail.
"Babies in the countryside are different from those in wealthy families. While still in the womb, their mothers lack food and clothing. Many die before they are even born. Even some are born alive, but they die due to lack of milk and nutrition. Quite a few of them die..."
"...Infants who die too young cannot be included in the family tree or buried. The custom in the countryside is to place them in a baby tower..."
"...Of course, many times, even if babies are healthy, due to disasters and lack of farmland, many living babies will be placed in baby towers. In the early years, such incidents were rare, but in recent years, it has become the norm..."
When saying these words, the leader of the grain ship gang spoke with great irony.
As the leader of the grain ship gang, he certainly knew the reason why all this happened, and that there was less and less land in the countryside.
Only the most inferior fields that were difficult to grow crops on were not occupied by anyone. The rest were mostly in the hands of wealthy families. Most people in the countryside could barely survive.
Therefore, many living babies were thrown into the baby tower, and he picked them up to feed the demons and ensure that his waterways were unobstructed.
The clerk in charge of recording was writing furiously. Huang Ling heard it and first signaled the clerk in charge of recording to stop writing, then silently pulled Xue Cheng to the back.
“I can’t write this.”
"What?"
"The baby tower thing can't be written about."
Huang Ling has been handling cases at the Liushenmen for many years and often interacts with the county government. He is more familiar with many rules in the officialdom, so Xue Cheng is willing to listen to his opinion.
"how?"
"This will affect the master's face."
"What?"
Xue Cheng was surprised, frowning, and a little confused.
"The incident has already happened, and we can't report it?"
"In the demon world, the higher-ups place the utmost importance on investigations. If we conceal this and don't report it, it's likely to cause serious problems. Besides, this matter can only be corrected if it's reported, right?"
Xue Cheng was quite serious and stern, but Huang Ling sighed after hearing this. He often handled cases in the Six Gates and was most familiar with official documents. Incidents like the Baby Tower were the most heartbreaking for the masters.
After all, the masters cannot bear to see the suffering of the people. If this is reported, it won’t have much impact on them, but it will look bad on the government.
"You can privately submit another memorial to the county government for discussion. The public report should focus more on the grain ship gang's smuggling of disaster victims and raising demons. As for the Baby Tower, you can mention it briefly, but it shouldn't be the main point..."
"...Why is this so? Such a disloyal act of abandoning one's wife and children under the ruler's rule is shameful for everyone..."
Huang Ling explained it in detail. Although Xue Cheng was puzzled, he nodded in agreement and said in a deep voice, "This kind of violation of human ethics still needs to be rectified. I will donate 20 taels of silver later, hoping that there will be some improvement..."
After hearing this, Huang Ling just sighed, praised Xue Cheng for his righteousness, and took out more than ten taels of silver.
But he knew that no matter how much money he gave to these country residents, it would be useless.
They have no ability to make a living, their land has been occupied, and the money can only allow them to stay awake for a few years before they will fall into the same cycle again.
As for taking action against the local landlord families, Huang Ling did not dare to do so, as his own family was the same.
I feel unwilling in my heart, but how can I change it?
The world has been like this for thousands of years. What's the point in changing it?
…
"I didn't expect this young master to still have a compassionate heart..."
Wang Mazi sighed in his heart, took a hundred taels of silver notes to the brokerage firm and bought hundreds of acres of land.
Originally, there were very few land transactions, but a group of high-level figures in the grain ship gang were all thrown into prison, and a large amount of land was left vacant.
The best and most essential ones were taken away by gentry like Wang and Li, and the inferior ones were divided up by new gang members and even the Green Gang.
Only the most inferior corners of land, which are not very fertile and of low quality, are left, and are therefore very cheap.
Now that he is the leader of the new gang, Wang Mazi no longer needs to do these things himself. He ordered two of his trusted men to investigate the baby towers around Jianyi.
The living babies were collected and their parents were found, who were then asked to work the land they had recently purchased.
Hundreds of acres of land are not enough to feed too many people, but Wang Mazi exempted them from relevant taxes. As long as they do not encounter major natural disasters or man-made disasters, this group of people can still survive.
As the leader of the new gang, Wang Mazi is not short of money. He himself rose from these low-class people, so he is more methodical in doing things and knows that money cannot solve problems.
Only by giving them land can this group of people truly become good citizens and survive here.
Without land, this group of people cannot survive.
"I just hope this young master's compassion can last a few more years."
Wang Mazi had also seen the babies in the baby tower. Although he had lived a miserable life before, the corpses of babies that had not yet grown up scattered all over the baby tower still shocked him greatly.
Thinking of the more than ten wives and concubines who were taken away when the grain ship gang leader's house was raided, as well as the tens of thousands of acres of houses and land under his name, he became depressed again.
"What can I do in this world? I'll help as many people as I can."
…
Zhang Mingtu sat cross-legged in the courtyard, and a blood-stained dragon-tiger external pill appeared in front of him.
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