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Chapter 69
Huo Lingzhi and the magistrate brought a lot of people to those villages, which were very close to each other. As soon as they entered the village, they saw a large area of sorghum field, as well as some wheat and other miscellaneous grains.
The farmers who worked were all skinny, like skeletons wrapped in a layer of skin. Their eyes were numb, and they were mechanically doing the work in the field.
Huo Lingzhi looked at the scene outside the carriage and couldn't help frowning.
Uncle Chen on the side gritted his teeth when he saw it. Although he also came from a poor background, his poverty was compared with members of the royal family like Huo Lingzhi. If compared with the villagers here, he would be a rich man.
"The old slave also came out of the village. At that time, we could only wear coarse cloth and new clothes for a year or two. We were willing to kill chickens and pigs to eat meat during the New Year. What we usually ate were miscellaneous grains and some vegetables, but those vegetables were also meat oil.At that time, the old slaves still felt that life was hard, but compared with them, they were not as good as livestock." Chen Bo's fingers were trembling, and he seldom sympathized with others, because he also had a hard life before.But now I can't stand it anymore.
Huo Lingzhi asked people to stop and called the magistrate to come over, and now send people to tie up everyone here, not only the landlords, but also the rest of the villagers, no matter adults or children, no one will be left behind.They all have to come and watch.
Seeing Huo Lingzhi's cold eyes, the magistrate was so frightened that he wiped his sweat. He hurriedly called the servants beside him, "Hurry up and do as the prince wants."
The yamen servants and the guards brought by Huo Lingzhi gathered everyone in front of Huo Lingzhi.
Although the villagers looked numb, they were still afraid of being an official, so they all knelt down trembling, and then they saw the landlords being tied up and kneeling in a row.
They don't understand, don't these landlords always curry favor with those officials?Why was he tied up by an official this time?
They couldn't figure it out, and they didn't dare to think about it. Those landlords were tied up, and their experience couldn't be worse.
Everyone didn't dare to raise their heads, and knelt with their heads down. After Huo Ling got off the carriage, he asked everyone to raise their heads.
These skinny villagers raised their heads tremblingly, and saw a man in a wheelchair. This man had a majestic aura, and he just didn't do anything. Just sitting there had a terrifying deterrent force, which made people overwhelmed.out of breath.
"This king is the master of the fief. Every inch of the land here belongs to this king, and everyone here belongs to this king. Anyone who dares to occupy this king's land and people privately in the future will end up with them."Same." Huo Lingzhi finished speaking coldly, and glanced at the prefect.
The magistrate knew that this was a signal from Huo Lingzhi, so he could do it.
The executioner, who had been prepared for a long time, walked behind those people with a knife and raised the knife.
The landlords didn't know the news in advance, and they were pulled out of their homes and tied up early in the morning. They didn't know what happened, but now they saw the executioner's knife, and their legs were so frightened that they kept begging the magistrate for mercy, "Our land was bought with our own money, they sold it to us voluntarily, and theirs were also our slaves voluntarily, it’s true, even if you are a prince, you can’t be so unreasonable, my lord, save usWe, my lord, can't let this prince mess around."
"Do you dare to say that the prince is fooling around? If you don't say anything else, even if you commit crimes like these below, it is enough to kill you!" The magistrate hurriedly asked someone to gag their mouths, so that the prince would not hear what they said next., who knows if they will tell what they have done before when they are in a hurry.
For example, the locust plague five years ago, followed by two years of drought, and three years of natural disasters starved many people to death. At that time, the imperial court allocated hundreds of thousands of taels of money for disaster relief, but he did not take a single penny for disaster relief.people, and stopped the victims from escaping from the city.
The villagers were already poor. When the natural disaster hit, they were fine in the first year and could eat some stored grain. In the second year, they ate bark and all the weeds were eaten up. In the third year, they couldn’t bear it anymore..
But the landlord’s family had food and money. At this time, the landlord took out food to those hungry people with green eyes, and forced these villagers to sell themselves as slaves. The disaster was over in the fourth year, butThe villagers here can only be used by the landlord like livestock.
Of course, the landlord would not give them enough food, and only gave them porridge that was as dilute as clear water every day. Seeing how hungry they were, the children of the landlord's family smiled and said, "I heard from Daddy that you used to eat grass.Eat both bark and bark, and continue to eat bark when you are hungry."
They don't think that these villagers are human beings like them. In their eyes, these villagers are like cattle and sheep. The cattle and sheep eat grass when they are hungry, and these villagers eat bark when they are hungry. This is a matter of course.
The children of the landlord's family usually saw that their father likes to beat those villagers, and they also followed suit. They usually like to beat these people with a whip.They got great satisfaction in their hearts, and often made those people kneel at their feet, threatening them not to kneel and kowtow to themselves, barking at him like dogs, and whipping them.
The children of several landlord families also like to hunt, but they are too young, and their families do not allow them to go up the mountain, so they often gather several villagers together and let those villagers pretend to be prey. They carry bows and arrows and hatchetsGoing after and killing these villagers, seeing those villagers running around, they are even more excited, and they have to kill one or two people every time to be happy.
Today they were tied up together with their father, and someone behind them held a big knife against them, while the villagers who were usually treated as livestock just knelt, without ropes on their bodies, and no knives behind them, and they were trembling with anger.
They have never been out of the village, they don't know there is a sky beyond the sky, they think they are the masters of this world, they stared at Huo Lingzhi with red eyes: "These lands and people belong to my father, why are you so shameless as a cripple and rob us?"You want to kill us! If you have the ability, let us go and let us fight you one-on-one!"
"Quickly shut up, hurry up!" The magistrate was almost frightened to death, and kicked his ass hard, "It's so slow to do something, do you still want to do it?!"
Those people hurried to stop their mouths. Huo Lingzhi twirled the wrench on his thumb, "Want to fight one-on-one? It just so happens that my hands are itchy, you guys should play with me."
"My lord, you are joking, how can I bother you." The magistrate quickly gave the executioners a look, and they immediately started.
Suddenly, many heads fell on the ground. The villagers felt happy when they saw this, but they were also very scared. The landlords died. Will they be the next step?
The magistrate approached Huo Lingzhi obsequiously: "My lord, these people have been dealt with, what should we do next?"
"Hang up the corpses of these people for three days. You stand under these corpses for an hour every day and watch them reflect." Huo Lingzhi told the magistrate.
The magistrate's legs immediately softened, "You, please spare me, I am cowardly."
"Not letting you hang on to the top is already the greatest forgiveness for you. Why, do you want to be like them?" Huo Lingzhi asked him.
"Don't dare! I will definitely do what the prince said." Although the magistrate didn't want to look at these dead people, he was even more afraid that he would die too.
He also breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, the prince said he would spare him, that he would not kill him, and after a few years, maybe the prince can see him as a confidant after seeing how well he has done things these years, and he will also be able toTake advantage.
The magistrate told his people to move the corpse quickly and hang him.
When the magistrate and the others went over there with the dead body, Huo Lingzhi called Uncle Chen and his guards, "Take them to collect all the property of these landlords, and write a detailed report.Shanzi, when the concubine comes over, give the list to him."
"Hey." Uncle Chen took the order and hurriedly led those people there.
Huo Lingzhi glanced at the villagers kneeling there again, "As for you, I will make arrangements for you when the concubine comes over. You have to listen to him carefully and don't disrespect him, otherwise what will happen to you?You know it in your heart."
These villagers kept trembling with fear, they were going to be scared out of their wits today, this prince is too scary, he is an evil ghost.
I have heard before that the emperor lays down millions of corpses in a fit of anger. This prince is the younger brother of the emperor, so he would have to lay down thousands of corpses in a fit of anger. They dare not even think about what their fate will be next..
These landlords had a lot of property, and they might not be able to collect them all in one day. Huo Lingzhi stayed with two waiters. They held Huo Lingzhi to shade him with umbrellas, and one of them made him tea for him to drink.
After a while, the magistrate came back, "I've already hung up, what orders does the lord have?"
"Before the princess comes, take those people off and don't let the princess see them. Also, find some accommodation for them, look first, count the number of people, and don't let anyone escape." Huo Lingzhi said.
Before the magistrate came, he knew that the prince was coming this time to deprive the villagers of their slave status and to distribute their land. Naturally, he didn't dare to neglect these villagers. He first found a few big houses and housed them temporarily.He also asked people to distribute dry food to them, counted the number of people, locked the door and left.
The villagers held the dry food in their hands. They hadn't eaten dry food for several years, and they had long forgotten the taste of the dry food. Now that everyone had a dry food, they couldn't believe it.
Someone asked tremblingly, "I heard that prisoners on death row will be given a good meal before they die. Are we going to die too?"
"This kind of life is worse than death. I have had enough." A villager picked up the dry food and took a bite. After tasting the taste of the dry food, his eyes turned red again, and he cried while eating.
They have planted the land for half their lives, but even eating dry food is an extravagant hope. Is there any justice in this world?
"Forget it, we're pretty good. Those who died before didn't even know what dry food tasted like. We can at least eat dry food."
For three or four days in a row, they were locked in the house. Although they were locked up, the conditions were better than before. They didn't have to work, they had three meals a day, and no one beat them. If they lived like this all the timeEnough.
When Luo Zining arrived, he saw patches of sorghum fields, and felt that the scenery in front of him was so beautiful that he even wanted to take out his phone to take some pictures.
This time it was Zhao Xiaoyu who came with him, and it was inconvenient for him to take out his phone to take pictures, so he could only lie on the window of the carriage and look out.
Looking all the way down, he felt that he would be healed by the beautiful scenery here.
When they got to the place, the magistrate and the others had already collected the corpses, cleaned them up and left.
After getting off the car, Luo Zining saw Huo Lingzhi sitting under a tree drinking tea.
When he saw Huo Lingzhi, he was very excited and ran over impatiently, wanting to take Huo Lingzhi's hand and take a closer look at him.
Luo Zining didn't dare to grab his hand, but sat across from him, took a teacup and took a big sip of tea, "It's autumn, why is it still so hot, I'm thirsty, the magistrate hasn't done anything in the past two daysBullying you? Are you still used to living here?"
"No." Huo Lingzhi raised his hand and took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat off his face, and then handed him two slips, "One is all the property of the landlords here, and the other is the property of the landowners here.The number, age, and gender of the existing villagers, and which people are family members and which people are relatives are also recorded on it.”
Luo Zining put down his teacup, took the list and read it.
Huo Lingzhi poured a new cup of tea from the teacup, handed it to him and fed it to him.
Luo Zining first looked at how many people there were. There were five villages here, none of which were very big, and each village had only three to five hundred people.sick and disabled.
Huo Lingzhi told him about the situation of the villagers here. All of them were skinny, like mummies. They lived in a barn and had neither their own property nor their own fields.
While listening, Luo Zining looked at the property of those landlords, his fingers trembling. These landlords had so many lands in their hands, and each landlord had several granaries of grain, as well as countless gold and silver.
"Since there is so much food, the villagers are still hungry. It doesn't cost much food to feed them every day." Luo Zining slapped the two pieces of paper on the table.
Huo Lingzhi asked him, "What are you going to do?"
"Rebuild the village first, and use the money from the landlords." Luo Zining first asked someone to take him to the village and the surrounding area to look around. Many places used to be residential areas, but later the landlords pushed the houses away.It is used for farming, so there are no other houses here except the big house of the landlord's family.
While watching, he drew something with a pen and paper. He drew a new village.
He planned to merge the five villages into one village first, and then decided on a place to live and a place to farm.
After finishing these paintings, he asked someone to measure the field.
Then he met the villagers. When the villagers were assembled again, they thought they were going to be beheaded too, and they were terrified.
As a result, they saw a man dressed like a gentle scholar, and the people next to him called him the princess. Why is this princess a man?
But they thought they were going to die, and they didn't care whether the princess was a man or not.
Seeing their pitiful appearance, Luo Zining was so sad that he wanted to cry. Seeing these people want to kneel down, he quickly stopped them: "Sit down and listen, I'll hold a meeting for everyone."
Luo Zining sat on the ground with them, the ground here was not dirty, and the autumn sun made the ground warm.
Luo Zining said in a gentle tone: "Let me tell you about my future plans. The first step is to get rid of your slave status. After that, you will resume your status as farmers and you will no longer be slaves. The second step is to get rid of your slave status.All these sorghums have been harvested, and I will distribute them equally to each of you according to the total amount. I have already contacted the winery for you, and the winery will take away the grain in your hands at ten times the price of last year's grainThe third step is to rebuild the village. I see that there used to be brick kilns in the village, and some of you know how to burn bricks. When the bricks are fired, you will build your own houses.”
The villagers all seemed to be dreaming. They couldn't believe what the princess was talking about. They suspected that they had hallucinations. The prince is so scary, how can the princess be so gentle, and even give them food and fields to build a house?impossible?
Seeing that they were silent, Luo Zining thought that they understood and had no objections, and then said: "The matter of getting rid of slavery has been handed over to the magistrate, and it will be done soon. You don't have to worry, it's time to collect food.It’s the season, so hurry up and collect the grain first. As for where you live now, you will live in the original house of the landlord’s house.After harvesting all the food, let’s talk about building a house. If it’s too late this year, I’ll spend the winter in the landlord’s house first, and then build my own house next year.”
The people below are still silent, they don’t believe it, they can’t believe it, some people want to ask something, but they don’t know what to say, their minds are in a mess, they have been enslaved for too long, and they don’t know how to express themselvesopinion.
Luo Zining went on to say: "I plan to merge the five villages into one village, and I will plan how to build the village. At that time, the fields will be distributed equally to each of your households, and everyone will have a share, regardless of gender.The children will share it. After you plant the grain in the future, special people will come to buy it according to the average grain price of the year. You will not be treated badly, and you don’t have to rush to sell the grain yourself. Of course, you still have to pay grain taxThe price is still the same as before.”
"That day, the prince said that these lands belong to him, and we can't take them privately..." A bold man asked cautiously, "You divided it for us, his side..."
"Ah, and this matter belongs to him as well as yours. What he means is that you can only plant the land allocated to you, and you can't sell it like before." Luo Zining explained.
"Then what should we do if there is another disaster year?" An old man asked in a low voice.
"There is a disaster year, the palace will fund the disaster relief, you don't have to worry." Luo Zining has already obtained the property of these landlords, and there will be a lot of property left after the big guy rebuilds the village. The money can be temporarily stored in his hands, When the disaster year came, he would go to sell the grain and bring it back for disaster relief, or use it for the infrastructure construction of the village in the future.
"We have divided the land, and we don't have any seeds to plant. We..." someone asked in a low voice. Halfway through the question, he didn't dare to say anything.Give them?
"You don't have to worry about this. I will distribute to you what you plant next year. Not only will there be grain seeds, but you can also raise some livestock, and I will distribute them to you." Luo Zining now has several grain warehouses, and the averageDistributed to each of them, everyone can get a lot.
But he plans to save a part of it first. After all, there will be a snow disaster next year. don’t know if there will be other disasters in the future. There is no harm in saving it.
When everyone heard Wang Hao's words, they still didn't think it was true. Wang Hao couldn't be fooling them.
The landlord had fooled them before, saying that they would be able to eat and clothe themselves after signing the deed of sale, but they ended up living worse than livestock.
But whether they believe it or not, they have no choice but to accept their fate.
"You go to settle the place to live first, and if you know how to cook, make some big pot rice at noon, and everyone will get together to eat together. Later, if you have the conditions, you can eat at your own home. The meeting will end here, and the meeting will be adjourned.Let's go collect the grain tomorrow." Luo Zining got up and patted the dirt on his body, then turned and left.
At night, he turned on the lamp and lay down on the table to write and calculate. Huo Lingzhi watched from the side, "Didn't it mean an autumn outing? This is just a different place to work, right?"
"After I finish counting how many lands I have and how to divide them up, let's go for an autumn outing." Luo Zining concentrated on counting without even raising his head.
Huo Lingzhi raised his hand to cover his eyes, blew it, and leaned into his ear and asked him, "Didn't you say that little Bie is better than a newlywed? On the wedding night, you should put all your thoughts on your husband."
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