Chapter 84

Early the next morning, Zhang Xiaofan and Zhang Chu'an packed their belongings and prepared to leave. Upon hearing this news, farmers from surrounding villages came to see them off.

"Mr., are you really leaving? You never robbed or raided, nor did you bully men or oppress women. You never did anything wrong. The authorities have no reason to arrest you."

An honest farmer spoke with a crying voice.

"When one wishes to impose a crime, what excuse is lacking? In past years, was Yue Fei, the famous Song general who resisted the Jurchens, guilty? Yet he was still killed by Qin Hui on a fabricated charge. When we hinder their interests, we become guilty, and guilty of ten unforgivable capital crimes."

"Considering that we taught you to read and write these past days, do not urge us to stay." Saying this, Zhang Chu'an and Zhang Xiaofan shouldered their luggage and strode away.

Watching their departing backs, everyone, though reluctant, returned. After returning, they ate when it was time to eat and worked when it was time to work. After all, most of them could now read, could calculate accounts, and could understand the imperial laws; they would not be swindled by others as before.

Their lives would surely grow better and better, until the government officers and landlords arrived with Jurchen nobles.

On ordinary days, the domineering landlord lord cleared the way for him, marching through the countryside; petty clerks who often wielded big sticks to serve him surrounded him, acting as servants; the head constable from the county yamen held his horse.

Facing such might, these local small folk could only prostrate themselves on the ground, daring not to raise their heads to look.

The Jurchen noble merely waved his hand lightly, and those ferocious officers, like wolves and tigers, drove the villagers from several villages within a radius before the Jurchens like sheep.

Seeing that enough people had arrived, the Jurchen noble yawned and ordered the officers to bring out two portraits and hang them before the crowd.

The two people in the portraits were none other than Zhang Xiaofan and Zhang Chu'an. The villagers below immediately began to whisper.

"Silence!"

The Jurchen noble seated on the platform shouted loudly. The officers responsible for maintaining order swung their big sticks and beat several villagers who were whispering nearby half to death. The entire assembly fell silent in an instant.

Watching the silent crowd below, the Jurchen noble, the chief clerk, and the landlord lord nodded in satisfaction. This was correct; these mud-legs must be made afraid before they could be managed.

At the Jurchen noble's signal, the chief clerk immediately stepped forward and spoke loudly: "Fellow villagers, these two people in the portraits have been roaming the countryside recently, spreading false rumors to confuse the people and inciting the masses to cause trouble. Now, all areas under this county's jurisdiction have paid taxes and surrendered land rents as required, except for your place. Having been tried by the great county magistrate, these two are traitors guilty of high treason. Once captured, they will be hanged."

"Very well, this is our first matter here. The second matter is that you mud-legs delayed paying taxes some days ago. These funds were advanced by Master Li and Master Wang. Now, with interest compounding, a great deal of silver is owed. Repaying debts is an ancient rule, so today you must return the money to these lords."

"If you have no money, that is no problem. The Jurchen lord said that if you sell yourselves to him, the lord will clear all your debts. Very well, those whose names I call must hand over the owed taxes."

After the chief clerk finished speaking, someone immediately objected below: "Master Chief Clerk, we did not delay paying taxes. We paid according to the imperial laws and regulations. We did not miss a single coin of what the court demanded of us."

"Dare you! Do I, this chief clerk, understand the imperial laws better than you mud-legs? Oh, I understand now. You must be an accomplice of those two rebels. Guards, seize him and chop him off. Hang his head at the village entrance so these mud-legs can see the consequence of daring to oppose the government." After the chief clerk finished speaking, ferocious officers like wolves and tigers rushed into the crowd and dragged the person who had just spoken out to the side.

With a swish, a huge head rolled down. A wave of sorrow spread through everyone's hearts. Had an acquaintance who had grown up with them since childhood, climbed trees with them, and farmed with them, been killed so casually?

Resentment circled in their hearts, but when they saw the ferocious officers like wolves and tigers around them and the Jurchen sitting majestically on the platform, the resistance in their hearts was helplessly suppressed.

Though there were many sheep in the pen, how could they be opponents of a butcher holding a slaughter knife? The chief clerk simply read names from the high platform. Villagers who could pay the taxes handed the money up; those who could not pay had to sell their household items, and if that was not enough, they had to sell their land.

Those who could not sell their land could only be sold to the Jurchen nobles as slaves. Naturally, the villagers in the village could not pay the money. As the chief clerk finished collecting the overdue taxes from these several villages, three hundred able-bodied men had already become slaves of the Jurchens.

Seeing so many slaves, the Jurchen noble could hardly close his mouth from laughing. This trip was truly not in vain. After all, slaves could not only work for him but also give him a legitimate reason to enclose land. With so many slaves, he could enclose quite a lot of land.

After this trip, the landlord, the officers, the Jurchen noble, and the chief clerk had all not come in vain. The officers and the chief clerk received much tribute from the landlord; the landlord annexed much land from self-cultivating farmers; the Jurchens obtained slaves and could enclose land. This was a win-win-win situation.

As for what would happen to families that lost their able-bodied men, that was not within their consideration.

On the road escorting the slaves to the Jurchen noble's manor, many covered their faces and wept. They did not know if they would survive this journey, nor whether their families would collapse completely due to the loss of a prime laborer.

"I regret it! I should not have failed to take Mr. Zhang's words to heart. Li the Skin-Flayer and those dog officials never gave us a chance to reason. If I had known earlier, I would have taken my whole family and followed Mr. Zhang away."

"Sigh, Yang Hao, stop talking. Mr. Zhang was put on the wanted list precisely because he tried to help us. A fine scholar was forced to become a fugitive."

"This dog-day world! Why can bastards like Li the Skin-Flayer eat delicacies and drink fine wine, have three wives and four concubines, and their sons and grandsons can continue just like them, while good men like Mr. Zhang become bandits?"

"Who would say otherwise? It truly fulfills that old saying: 'Killing and setting fires brings golden belts; building bridges and paving roads leaves no corpses.'"

Night had already fallen. The officers responsible for the escort and the Jurchen noble decided to rest at the relay station for one night and continue the next day. Upon arriving at the relay station, the Jurchen noble summoned the station master, ordered him to keep a close watch on the slaves, and then went to rest.

The station master, very skillfully, settled the slaves in the horse pen. The heavy smell of horse manure in the pen nearly made them faint. Thinking of sleeping here for one night—no, thinking of sleeping in such a place forever—despair arose in everyone's heart.

What meaning is there in living a life like livestock?