BXBX NOVEL Chapter 1523: A Tyrant!
Xue Yan only used momentum force to turn the man around, making the other party eat the grass on the ground, unable to get up, also unable to break free.
Jiang Yue spoke again. She did not speak to the big farmer. She continued to speak to the small farmer. “I have a few questions. If you answer truthfully, we’ll let your son go.”
“Alright, alright, alright. Go ahead and ask. I won’t lie to you.” The small farmer started to sweat; worried for his son.
“Where is this place?” Jiang Yue asked.
“What do you mean where is this place?” The small farmer looked confused. “Are you lost? We’re near Stone Village. That’s Stone Village over there. We’re all villagers from that village. We are fighting to find wild vegetables to satisfy our hunger. Moreover, most of the wild vegetables that just appeared this year have been dug up. If there’s nothing to eat, we end up having to eat grass, leaves, and tree bark. We don’t know if we can last until the crops mature this year. We don’t want to rob you either. It’s just too hard to wild vegetables every day. We just want to see if we can rob some silver from someone to buy some food. If we can rob you of food, such as steamed buns, it’ll be best. Those are all fine grains. We haven’t eaten them for many years. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Please be merciful and let my son go. We promise we won’t do it again. I beg you. Please let us go!” At this point, he clasped his hands together and begged for forgiveness.
Jiang Yue and Xue Yan looked at each other.
Just now, when he saw the way these two people dressed, he could immediately tell that they were poor. However, he did not expect them to be struggling that much. What difference was it from famine?
However, he was not in a hurry to release the big farmer. Jiang Yue asked again, “Since that’s Stone Village, what’s the name of the country it belongs to? Are there any other countries here?”
“You speak as if you’re not from this world,” the short farmer muttered.
Jiang Yue and Xue Yan heard it but didn’t reply.
The small farmer did not know that they had heard him. After muttering, he quickly replied, “This is Da Chen! How can there be other countries here? As early as two years ago, Da Chen destroyed other countries and unified the world! It’s just that the Emperor turned tyrannical. He’s a tyrant.
“After unifying the world, we thought that good days would come. Who knew that our days would become more and more miserable? With heavy taxes, the farmers with fields started suffering from poor harvests every year!
“The crops they grow every year are not enough to pay taxes. It’s fine if they don’t think of a way to increase the income of the farmers’ fields, but why is this happening to us? Are they trying to kill off all the farmers? Last year, our family barely managed to pay our taxes. This year, we won’t be able to pay for it. Those who couldn’t pay up would probably be captured by the government to work as coolies to build palaces and temples.
“It’s fine if they pay us, but the thing is, I heard that they were not given enough to eat when they worked as coolies. The food they ate was especially low in nutrition and they were required to do hard labor! Many people were either exhausted or starved to death. The problem when you stopped was that the soldiers would whip you and tell you to work faster.
“If you couldn’t work, they would whip you until you could. It was said that many people lost their lives there. The tyrant also killed many good officials, such as the Prime Minister who was dedicated to the people. He also killed the Imperial Censors who were outspoken and remonstrated with him. He also killed many nobles. Now, no officials dare to speak out to persuade him to stop.
“The people have also given up and feel that they can’t see the light of day. We’re all just trying to barely survive in this world.”