Chapter 314 Forced Sale of Land
After Lao Liu died, the city defense battalion sent a soldier surnamed Zhang to supervise them; his name was Zhang Kui.
Zhang Kui was tall and burly, with a thick, bushy beard that almost reached his ears. He had thick eyebrows, and a scar ran diagonally across his brow bone. When he looked at people, he had a ferocious, beast-like glint in his eyes, as if he were about to pounce and attack at any moment.
Zhang Kui made them pay to rent land, ten taels of silver per mu per year, half of the harvest was to be handed over to the city defense camp, and the remaining fifty percent was kindly left for them to be self-sufficient. From then on, the city defense camp would not provide them with meals.
The people were immediately unhappy. They were being exiled, and they were willing to work, but to be asked to pay money so easily was absurd. Where would they get the money? They had long since run out.
Even skinning someone alive wouldn't be this cruel.
"Ten taels of silver for a year's rent? I could buy five acres of land with ten taels of silver. Isn't this blatant robbery?"
"You could have just robbed us, why did you make me farm the land?"
Others chimed in, "That's right, that's right..."
If you love money so much, it's a waste of your talents to be an officer or soldier. How much money can you make by exploiting them?
Just give them money if they want it. Why make them work themselves to death? They don't know how to farm, how can they possibly grow any crops? Isn't that just wasting land and seeds?
Zhang Kui frowned, his eyes flashing with a fierce light. "You don't want to farm, do you? Men, take them to the quarry. They're short-handed there."
We're doomed.
They wished for Old Liu's death every single day, but when he actually died, an even more ruthless one appeared.
What other choice do we have but to pay up?
The soldiers stepped forward to grab people, and the crowd was so frightened that they backed away and waved their hands, immediately giving in and begging for mercy.
"Sir, sir, no, no, no! We're all skinny and weak. We almost lost half our lives just farming. Going to the quarry would be fatal."
"This land isn't even growing weeds. Could you lower the price? We can't even earn ten taels a year from planting here. We might as well do nothing and enjoy the peace and quiet."
“You’re exiled now, worse off than ordinary people. You’re thinking of shirking your duties and not working. I think you’re just asking for death!”
With a wave of his hand, a row of soldiers behind him stepped forward with whips and lashed out at the prisoners. "Men! Give them a good beating!"
Trying to reason with a group of prisoners is a complete waste of breath.
The whip cracked, "Crack! Crack! Crack!"
The convicts were terrified, covering their heads and screaming, "Ah! Ah! Stop, stop hitting us! We'll buy it, we'll buy it, okay?"
"Great, hurry up and come to line up to pay. I don't have time to waste with you."
Everyone rushed to squeeze in and queue up, buying the cheapest land at the lowest possible price. Each household only bought one mu (approximately 0.16 acres), and the more they bought, the more they lost, since they had to share half of the land with the farmers.
They wouldn't do something like buying ten or eight acres of land and working themselves to the bone only to end up benefiting someone else.
When the Xiao family sold the last ten acres, they gave them all to Xiao Xuance for a total of two hundred taels of silver. Five acres of the acres were overgrown with weeds, and the family had to cut the weeds and hoe the land themselves.
Yang was so frightened that she waved her hand, "Our family doesn't have that much money, we can't afford it, we only need one mu."
"Smack!" Zhang Kui slammed his hand on the table.
"You have to buy it even if you can't afford it. Who told your family to be last in line? I already said it's first come, first served!"
Xiao Xuance stepped forward, blocking his mother's path and bowing respectfully. "We don't have that much silver on us. Could we go back and raise some?"
"Okay! Hand it over within three days. Don't wait until I send someone to your house to collect it, otherwise the price will be different. For each day you are late, I will charge an additional 10% interest."
"Don't worry, sir, I'll gather the money as soon as possible."
Madam Yang was worried because there were few men in their family, with only Xiao Xuance as an adult male. Yun Zhaoxue was due to give birth in two months, and they still had to cultivate so much land. Could they manage?
"You all need to hurry up and plant the crops. We'll arrange other work for you in a few days." Zhang Kui left with the silver in his pocket.
"Ce'er, can we manage to cultivate ten acres of land?"
There are few men in their family, and they can't even keep up with the plowing alone. They should have rushed to line up.
"Mother, don't worry. Ten acres isn't much. If we work hard, we can finish it. If all else fails, we can hire someone."
He deliberately skipped the queue, knowing that the people in front of him wouldn't buy too much, so he could take care of the rest by himself—this was his wife's instruction.
Although he didn't explicitly say what to plant, he trusted his wife; she must have her reasons for doing so.
Although it's expensive, he can afford two hundred taels of silver. He can give them silver, but he will absolutely not give them any grain.
Everyone took a look at their own fields, then found a place to rest and slack off.
A group of people gathered together and mocked the Xiao family.
"Only a fool would spend ten taels of silver to rent an acre of land. If they can't come up with the silver and have to go home to scrape together the money, could they be trying to borrow silver from us? Don't lend them any money, or they'll be chased by debt collectors every day because they can't pay back the interest."
"They're very cunning. Saying they're going back to raise money is just an excuse, right? You can't flaunt your wealth. If you do, the city garrison will target you. That Wang Youcai was rich and got the worst treatment. Now he's trying to play the poor card like we are."
"So, the Xiao family has plenty of money and isn't as poor as they seem. Well, they really know how to pretend. They even fooled me. They spent two hundred taels to buy that worthless land without batting an eye. They must have at least tens of thousands of taels at home."
Their entire family only has a few dozen taels of silver combined, and they don't know if they can make it until next month, or even after next month.
He immediately harbored malicious intentions towards the Xiao family's money.
"General Duan, why don't you go? You're highly skilled in martial arts, so you definitely won't be discovered. Even if you are, you won't be caught. We're too clumsy."
“I can’t beat him. If I could, would I have waited until today? It would be better to let those two Xiaos go and befriend them. They won’t suspect anything.”
“That’s right, how could we forget about Master Xiao the Second and Master Xiao the Third? You all share the surname Xiao, and you were family a year ago. Why don’t you go and apologize to them?”
"Take the opportunity to steal all their valuables, turn them into paupers, and make them unable to repay their debts to the city garrison. With the interest compounding, they're doomed."
“We can’t, we can’t.” Uncle Xiao San glanced at Uncle Xiao Er, who was silent and hanging his head, and nudged him on the shoulder with his elbow. Silence was the only response.
Shen Yichun put her arm around his shoulder and whispered in his ear, "Xiao Yuanhe, don't forget, you still owe me two ounces of wine money. If you're too cowardly to go, pay me back now."
He was waiting for an opportunity to avenge his wife and children, but the Xiao family was on high alert, and he couldn't find a chance.
The Xiao family's daughter is about to give birth, and I heard it's twins. It'll be perfect time for her to pay for her son Yan'er and daughter Yu'er's lives!
Ideally, it would result in one unborn child and three deaths!
That's exactly what offset the three lives of the Shen family.
Uncle Xiao shook his head, "I... I don't have the money to pay back. I still owe the city defense camp ten taels of silver."
"If you don't have money, steal or rob. If you two can't pay back the money, be careful the city defense camp will skin you alive this time!"
"I'll go, I'll go, okay? But will I go alone? I'm scared."
Shen Yichun kicked Xiao Yuanchuan, who was sitting on the far side, and said, "Xiao Lao Er, stop pretending to be dead. Now is the time for you to be useful."
Xiao Yuanchuan was kicked to the ground, his head hanging low, his eyes vacant, looking dull and wooden.
Uncle Xiao shook his head and sighed.
Ever since his wife and children died, the second brother has been mentally impaired. Out of consideration for his brother, he tries to take care of him as much as he can.
Zhang felt that the family was already struggling to make ends meet, and that having another mouth to feed was unacceptable. She wanted to kick the person out, but he wouldn't allow it, leading to several arguments between the couple.
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