I started with Dragon Elephant Prajna, and I pushed forward with my skill points.

Chapter 39 Human Tragedy
Su Qing's expression became increasingly ugly.

Along the way, he saw too many houses washed away.

Everywhere I looked, I saw victims who were pale, skinny and emaciated.

They were dressed in rags, their hands and feet were cracked, and they were disfigured by hunger. They walked with unsteady steps, their waists slouched and their hips hunched, as if they would be blown down by the wind.

This is the shooting technique of any TV drama, which cannot be faked, making the skin and bones truly concrete.

As we get closer to Xiaofeng, the number of disaster victims tends to increase.

That’s right, the victims also knew that even if the court’s disaster relief could be extended to the town, it would take an unknown amount of time.

It is possible that you will die without receiving disaster relief.

Only after a long journey and reaching the outskirts of the county town did the victims have a glimmer of hope.

It was evening when the group arrived in Xiaofeng, exhausted.

However, it’s not dark yet!

At this time, the gates in and out of Xiaofeng County have been locked, and no one else is allowed to enter or exit at will.

From a distance, Su Qing saw five large pots placed on a large stove made of stones near the city gate, with streams of steam rising into the sky from the pots.

There is a wooden rack in front of each pot.

A yamen runner stood shirtless on a wooden frame with his legs crossed, stirring the pot vigorously with a long wooden stick.

The victims waiting to receive porridge were mostly the elderly, the weak, women and children. They were all tired and thin, and they lined up in a long queue in front of the pot.

He looked at the iron spoon waving in front of the pot.

The ones waving the iron spoon to stir the porridge were also yamen runners, and they moved very quickly.

I saw the spoon flash into the pot and it was full in one spoonful.

With a splash, the porridge in the spoon was already served in the raised bowl.

The porridge in the bowl was so thin that you could reflect your face in it. The old man holding the bowl lowered his head and drank. His throat made a sound, and then the bowl was empty.

The old man licked his bowl and shook his head, saying, "Alas, everyone has a stomach full of three liters of rice, where does this spoonful of porridge fill it?"

Another skinny boy stood on tiptoe, holding up a large bowl. With the sound of a spoon, half a bowl of porridge swayed in the bowl.

When Su Qing came near the team, his face looked unhappy.

This porridge is too watery!
The imperial court has requirements for disaster relief.

There is a folk proverb: big mouth, small mouth, six dou and three dou, which has a very simple meaning.

The large population refers to the adult population aged sixteen.

The small population refers to minors aged five to sixteen.

The standard is that the monthly quota for the wealthy is six dou of rice, and for the small ones it is three dou of rice.

Depending on the severity of the disaster, the relief period ranges from three to six months.

The thin porridge in Su Qing's sight was obviously lower than the court's disaster relief requirements.

When reporting, the county magistrate will definitely apply according to the quota for disaster victims.

Without saying too much, Su Qing could be sure that they had embezzled at least 70% of the money.

Just as Su Qing was thinking, there was a creaking sound!

The tightly closed city gate was suddenly pushed open.

Several wooden carts were then pushed into the city, loaded with several large wooden barrels!
"Could it be that there is something else besides porridge today?"

Seeing this scene, the victims who had already received the thin porridge, took their bowls and crowded over!

Su Qing had already recognized the county magistrate's true face and knew that he would not provide disaster relief again for no reason.

"What's in that barrel?"

Thinking in his heart, he also approached the city gate like the victims.

But before he got close, Su Qing's brows furrowed slightly.

stench!

When the wooden barrel shook, bursts of foul smell emanated from it.

"Ugh!" Waves of retching sounds were heard.

"wrong!
The content in this big wooden barrel is not the second disaster relief porridge at all.

stool!

Those are buckets of shit!"

As soon as these words were spoken, there was a burst of noise all around.

Some even shouted, "Are we supposed to eat feces? I don't want that!"

As everyone retreated in embarrassment, Su Qing discovered.

Following the wooden barrels that were pushed out, some ragged civilians, weak and exhausted, were escorted out.

Walking last was a nobleman dressed in bright and beautiful clothes.

"Greetings, Master Zhubu!"

The yamen runners who were distributing porridge all bowed.

After just a glance, Wang Zhubu paid no more attention to it.

Then, he passed his gaze over the victims and said, "The imperial grain and national taxes are the lifeblood of the country, the capital for military equipment, and the foundation for river engineering. You, the people of Guizhou, should accept them with a heart of loyalty and filial piety.

This year's land tax follows the old Hongwu system: the best land is one dou and two liters per mu, the middle land is nine liters, the worst land is six liters, and the dry land is equivalent to three cents of silver; the adult tax is three feet of silk per year, or eight he of brown rice; the commercial tax is one in thirty for all market goods, and the labor of peddlers is calculated separately.

I informed the village a few days ago.

Today, each village head brought the fish scale book to the granary for delivery, but found that many people had not yet handed it in on time.

The Ming Dynasty law clearly states that if a person fails to pay the due date, an additional one cent of silver will be levied on him per day. If the due date is exceeded, the householder will be arrested and his land will be confiscated.

However, when the tax collectors registered the land, these people chose to resist the law violently.

Without severe punishment, it is not enough to prove the majesty of the Ming Dynasty law.

Come here, stuff these violent tax resisters into these wooden barrels and suffocate them to death.

Of course, if you feel suffocated by feces, it would be an undignified death.

I could have given him another, slightly more honorable death.

Come on! Open the other big barrels for me."

It turned out that the wooden barrel pushed out by the yamen runner was only half filled with feces.

The other half started smoking when it was opened.

"Do you know what this is?

Boiling lime water.

This is good stuff.

Once a person is placed in this barrel, within a short period of time, their body will be cooked by the lime powder that eats away at the flesh and bones."

Wang Zhubu's words frightened a large number of disaster victims.

People involuntarily took steps back, and one of them stumbled and fell to the ground.

"mercy?
How is this compassion?

This is a more brutal way to die.

It simply vividly displays the evil in people’s hearts.”

In his previous life, Su Qing had also read some records about floods and droughts in ancient times.

For example, the memorial from Nanjing Minister of War Lü Weiqi,

"Droughts occurred in Gengwu, Xinwei, and Renshen. There was no green grass in the fields, and nine out of ten houses were empty. ... In the villages, there were no barking dogs, yet they still knocked on the doors to demand payment; in the trees, there were cuckoos crying, and the blood of the whipping was shed. ... It was impossible to prevent the poor from turning to banditry."

In short, nine out of ten houses are empty, yet taxes are still being collected! If you can't pay, you'll be whipped and bleed!

Ming Dynasty poet Qin Shuyang's "Ballad of the Tax Collector": "In April the floods kill the wheat, in May the floods kill the rice, the vast fields become rivers. Killing the rice and wheat is one thing, but the tax collectors come to kill me."

Translated, it means that in April, there were floods, resulting in a complete wheat harvest. In May, there were further floods, which killed the seedlings. Vast tracts of farmland were submerged by the river, leaving the area outside Suzhou as a vast expanse of water. Planting and harvesting crops was hard work, but it was bearable because it provided for the family. However, when faced with famine, with no one to help and oppressive tax collectors, the people could no longer survive.

(End of this chapter)