When Bellemere brought the two girls, Nokiko and Nami, back to the town at the foot of the mountain, Colonel Mouse and his subordinates had already started a banquet under the hospitality of Ajian.
There is a gap between the navy and these ordinary people. Even at Ajin's invitation, Colonel Laoshu and his men still did not choose to go to the island, but held a banquet on their own ship.
The politeness shown by Colonel Mouse, Ajian and others before was just talk.
In their view, even just setting foot in a poor place like Kokosia Village made them feel uncomfortable. Even if they ate and drank their food, they still did not take the lower-class people of Kokosia Village seriously.
After Ajian and others prepared some food for the navy soldiers, they gathered all the people in the town to hold a "villagers' meeting" in the square.
It is simply impossible to meet the navy's requirements by relying solely on the wealth of a single household. If you want to send these people away, every household on this island needs to contribute their own efforts.
"I think everyone has seen what happened today."
"This time, let's still follow the usual practices of previous years."
"Those who have extra money can contribute money, and those who have less money can contribute grain."
"In short, I hope everyone can work together to overcome this difficult time."
"For this little money, we can have a safe living environment. No matter what, it won't get any worse."
Kokosia is a typical rural area with underdeveloped maritime trade. Each household relies on farming, fishing and hunting to make a living.
Fortunately, the climate conditions in Kokosia Village are relatively favorable and the land resources are abundant. As long as people are diligent enough, filling their stomachs is not a problem at all.
Even some farmers who grow cash crops can satisfy their deep-seated needs when the market is good, and at the same time, they can have some extra money left to buy furniture and resist unknown risks.
The villagers here are actually a reflection of the vast majority of ordinary people in the world, and a large portion of the people cannot even live up to their standard of living. In the maritime environment of the pirate world, it is not easy to live an ordinary life smoothly.
"Ajian, you see, I have some difficulties here."
"My husband injured his leg while working at the beginning of the year. It's been over half a year and he has only just recovered."
"Doctor Nagao also knows about this."
"I have to support my children by myself and I can't take care of all the fields at home."
"Plus, this season's wheat isn't ready to be harvested yet."
"My home. Look."
After Ajian finished speaking, a woman in simple clothes squeezed out of the crowd holding a half-grown boy about four years old in her arms.
The woman's name was Xiang Miao. She was in her early 30s but her face was already weathered. Her hands, as she held the child, were black and rough, obviously the result of years of hard work.
After hearing that the navy would be "rewarded" again this year, Kanae's face showed embarrassment, and her face was full of misery when she said this.
Kanae's words made the atmosphere in the square even more depressing. The people of Kokosia Village already had to bear the heavy burden of gold from heaven, and now they had to pay benefits to the navy every year. The heavy pressure had already made the people breathless.
For a family of three like Kanae's, life will break their backs when there are even the slightest problems among the family members.
"this"
The fact that Kanae's husband was injured was nothing new. We all lived in the same village and saw each other every day. If something happened to a certain household, the whole village would know about it soon.
Ajian knew that Kanae was not lying, and that was why his face became extremely heavy.
Every family has its own problems, but a family like Miao Xiang's is unbearable.
The surrounding villagers also turned their eyes to Ajian in the field, waiting for him to make a decision.
But before Ajian could speak, the village doctor Nagao took over the conversation:
"Everyone knows the situation at Ken and Xiang Miao's home. It's indeed difficult."
"I was the one who treated her husband's leg. The cost of purchasing the medicinal herbs was indeed not a small sum. Moreover, it is not easy for a broken bone to recover before the autumn harvest after a hundred days of treatment."
"How about this: I'll help cover the shortfall for her family."
"Xiang Miao, don't blame Jian. He had no choice."
"When your family is well-off, you can pay me back."
In order to get rid of those navy soldiers, the village collective also issued a regulation that each household should "contribute" their own strength according to the number of people, and the number of elderly and children should be half. The whole village will gather its strength to deal with Colonel Mouse and his men.
Such rules are recognized by everyone. As a "highly educated" doctor, Na Gao naturally knows that such rules cannot be easily broken.
He is the only doctor in the village, and he is also a lonely old man. He has relatively little financial pressure, unlike families like Kanae's.
In order to maintain the order that was established with great difficulty in the village, Na Gao would rather take on more responsibilities at this moment.
Moreover, Nagao was very sharp-minded. He knew what consequences his actions would cause. After he finished speaking, he immediately said to the surrounding villagers:
"If anyone has difficulties, I will help if I can."
"I don't ask you to do the same as me, even if you are from a wealthy family."
"But we are all from the same village, so if you can help, please do so."
Even in a place like Kokosia Village, there is still the so-called gap between the rich and the poor. People's abilities are different, and the same acre of land will have different results when cultivated by different people.
Moreover, some families may have seriously ill elderly people who need to be supported, and some families may have young children who need to be raised. Different family conditions are also one of the important reasons for the gap between the rich and the poor.
Nagao only hopes that the villagers can unite as one and pay attention to the collective interests.
The poorer the place, the more united they need to be. Only in this way can they overcome one difficulty after another.
The people of Kokosia Village can be considered to be simple and honest. Under the high-rise probe, families with spare funds also responded one after another, and some other villagers living in relatively poor conditions were also very sensible. Unless their lives were really unsustainable, they would not complain in front of Ajian.
Seeing the villagers being appeased by Na Gao, Ajian, the sheriff, also breathed a sigh of relief.
That's good.
The thing he feared most did not happen, which made Ajian feel a lot better.
As a sheriff, Ajian is in his prime. Wang Guo gives people like him an annual allowance. Although it is not much, it is enough for him to make a living. Moreover, Ajian has nothing to do in his daily life. He has opened up a piece of farmland in the backyard of his home, planted vegetables, and raised chickens and ducks.
Ajian, who was alone, was not short of money. With Na Gao taking the lead, Ajian also echoed:
"I'm just like Dr. Nagao. If anyone needs help, I'll do my best and I'll pay double the head fee."
The two leaders stepped forward one after another, which also eased the atmosphere in the square a little.
Afterwards, Ajian took out the roster and began to ask the villagers to prepare supplies. At the same time, the large warehouse in the center of the town was opened, and the money, food and supplies sent by the people were transported into the warehouse and stored.
Bellmère, who was taking her children to go home first, had not yet stepped into the house when her neighbors informed her that the navy had landed on the island.
Although it was not explained in detail, Bellmère, who had lived on the island for so many years, naturally knew what it meant for the navy to go to the island.
Although she was from the navy, she returned home after retiring, which is completely different from those officers who fought in the navy for their entire lives and finally retired.
When she retired from the army, in addition to the salary she had received during her years in the army, she only received a severance pay of 200,000 baileys.
She had already used that money to buy property and land. She had put in all her effort to raise Nami and her sister and to buy books to support Nami's hobbies.
The arrival of the navy this time put Bellmère under great pressure.
She is a little different from other farmers in the village. She grows cash crops and has no other source of income before the harvest.
Besides, it is not easy for a woman to raise two children, and she does not have much savings.
Bellmère rummaged through all the drawers and cabinets at home and finally scraped together less than 100,000 berries. After taking the money, Bellmère hurriedly left home. Before leaving, he told his two children to stay at home and not go out casually.
When Bellmère rushed to the large warehouse in the center of the village, the huge warehouse had already been filled with a small amount of supplies. There was a long line in the yard in front of the warehouse. Some of the people even had pale faces, but they were still holding some rations, waiting for the food to be delivered to the warehouse.
Bellmère saw all of this and had no other choice but to grit his teeth and feel angry.
She is a person with a strong sense of justice. When she encounters such a situation, she naturally has no patience and a fierce conflict breaks out with the navy.
However, what happened in the village of Kokosia later made Bellmère realize the reality that he had no way to change the status quo by relying on his own strength.
In order not to drag down other villagers on the island, Bellmère finally had no choice but to go with the flow and compromise like everyone else.
Just as the villagers were lining up to "offer tribute", the sound of orderly footsteps was heard on the street not far away.
The villagers looked back and saw Colonel Mouse leading two teams of eight people walking towards the warehouse.
The leading mouse looked at this scene with a bright smile on his face. His eyes swept through the crowd in line and then fell on Bellmère in the queue.
Bellmère watched Colonel Mouse and his men approach, with obvious disgust on his face.
"Oh my~"
"Isn't this Belle Mare?"
"Long time no see, how are you?"
Bellmère and Colonel Mouse have dealt with each other before, and the two are actually not strangers to each other.
"Go away."
Bellmère glanced at Colonel Mouse with disgust and growled.
“Hohoho——”
Seeing Bellmère's angry expression, Colonel Mouse raised his hands and let out a strange laugh, as if he could clearly see the other party's anger at the moment.
"Don't be so angry!"
"Your temper is bad for everyone, isn't it?"
"After all, we used to be colleagues and we got along well. Isn't that good?"
Colonel Mouse's words did not receive a response from Bellmère. Feeling ignored, Colonel Mouse snorted, ignored the other party, and walked towards Ajian.
At this time, Ajian changed his expression, complimented, stood up and handed the list in his hand to the other party.
After a quick glance at the list, Colonel Mouse nodded in satisfaction, then rolled his eyes and waved towards Bellemere in the queue:
"Hey, Bellmère, come here!"
Hearing Colonel Mouse's call, Bellmère actually didn't want to pay attention, but under Ajian's crazy eyes, he finally walked out of the team reluctantly and came close to the few people.
"Well, Bell-mère, speaking of which, how are you going to support our navy this time?"
"We're all family, so I don't think you'll be stingy, right?"
Colonel Mouse chuckled and looked at Bellmère expectantly.
Under the gaze of several navy officers and Ajian, Bellmère put the more than 80,000 berries he had collected into Ajian's hands.
It was a lot of money. Bellmère was a woman, and her two children would have to be given half. The more than 80,000 Baileys were actually enough to cover the "head money".
Ajian nodded with a slightly heavy expression. He knew that this was the result of Bellmère's utmost effort.
"hehe."
"Hey! Bellmère! Do you think you underestimate our navy?"
"Is this what you call sincerity?!"
“Are you kidding me!?”
The originally amiable Colonel Mouse suddenly became aggressive, reached out and grabbed a handful of Bailey from Ajian's hand, and smashed it directly on Bellemere's head.
“Crash—”
As banknotes flew, the navy soldiers following Colonel Mouse raised their spears and pointed them at Bellmère.
Bellmère, who was straightforward and irritable, had not intended to endure the humiliation from the Mouse Colonel, but when a black gun was pointed at her, she forced herself to calm down and looked at the Mouse Colonel in front of her with a fierce face.
Seeing Bellmère's face full of anger but not daring to act rashly, Colonel Mouse also let out a "giegie" laugh.
He couldn't stand Bellmère's righteous look and the way he looked at him.
How could he tolerate such a thing? A commoner actually dared to look at him like garbage?
If he hadn't been afraid that the "business" of Kokosia Village would be affected, he would have killed this woman long ago!
"Don't go too far, Mouse!"
Bellmère spat out these words through gritted teeth, but her anger was insignificant in the eyes of Colonel Mouse.
"I heard you have an adopted daughter named Nami, right?"
"Very talented. Can you draw sea charts at such a young age?"
"Haha, you've educated me very well!"
"Now, let your daughter come to the Navy and work for me."
"Don't worry, I will definitely train her well."
Colonel Mouse didn't know where he got the information from, but he found out that Bellmère's daughter was able to draw nautical charts. He wanted to take this opportunity to recruit the child into the navy.
On the one hand, Mouse was impressed by the other party's talent, and he was also deeply impressed by Nami's iconic appearance. At the same time, if he could control Bell-mère's daughter, this annoying woman would probably know who is the "big and small king", right?
"What?!"
Bellemere's eyes widened when she heard this. The other party actually dared to threaten her with her own daughter. This was something she absolutely could not tolerate. She bent down and was about to take action, but the mouse colonel in front of her suddenly pulled out a gun and pointed it at Bellemere's forehead:
"Don't get excited, calm down—"
"When you get excited, I get nervous. If something goes wrong, don't blame me."
(End of this chapter)
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