Chapter 199: Reasons

"My Lord, it has been several months since the Lord took the children away at the start of spring. Not only have we heard no news of any war breaking out from the passing merchants, but Duan Ya Cheng has also increased taxes twice. Yet, everyone has run out of food rations; we have to farm during the day, net fish by the river at night, and set snares for wild rabbits in the mountains just to fill our bellies. We simply cannot produce any physical goods to pay the taxes anymore."

Seven or eight men kneeling on the ground hung their heads and continued, looking helpless: "But the Tax Officer and his Tax Soldiers do not care at all. They say they are also being forced by their superiors to collect enough tax money, so they just forcibly move the furniture out of everyone's homes and sell it at low prices to some merchants who collect such things—but they are all in cahoots! A solid oak long table my son made for me just the year before last was only worth twenty copper coins? Bah! A bunch of greedy, starving ghosts!"

Another person also complained: "That wooden cabinet in my house was custom-made by my father-in-law when my wife married into the family; it even had edges wrapped in patterned copper plates, yet they only valued it at thirty-five copper coins! It is too much! The news clearly says the front lines haven't even started fighting yet, but the taxes are collected every month, every single month! After some people couldn't take it and ran away, the taxes of those who fled were actually spread onto the heads of those who stayed!"

For a moment, these people cursed and complained about how their once decent family assets had been squeezed dry in just a short half-year by the greedy Tax Officer in league with black-hearted merchants.

"So, you all ran away too because you couldn't take it anymore, right?"

Jier was between laughter and tears, but he understood; even if he encountered such a thing, he would run, and he would certainly have run away earlier than these farmers who had endured for several more months.

Perhaps, from the first time they conscripted civilians last winter, Jier would have run away in advance.

Because he knew that in a typical war, the large number of conscripted civilians who do not fight but are responsible for almost all auxiliary work often end up with the most miserable fate. They get none of the benefits, yet any bad thing could fall upon their heads.

This is still before the war has officially begun; the adult laborers from the families of those conscripted farmers probably only need to provide labor in the rear, doing work that only oxen or horses would do, and once the fighting truly starts, those days will be miserable.

After all, compared to dangerous enemy soldiers and armies, enemy auxiliary laborers are easier to deal with, right?

—

"Then, tell us how this bridge-guarding job came about? What about the original people? It couldn't be that they just happened to get tired of this job and decided to change careers? Or perhaps one day they all got drunk together and fell off the bridge?"

Jier continued to ask. As soon as he asked this, the others around them, who had been somewhat sympathetic to these tax-evading and refugee farmers, suddenly woke up and looked at these people with sharp eyes.

Hearing Jier ask about this, these farmers lowered their heads one after another, not saying a word.

It was as if they thought that if they didn't speak, the matter didn't exist and could be glossed over.

Jier looked at the watching merchants and specifically said to them in a loud voice: "It seems we still have to inform the 【Merchant Guild】 that manages this Shanglu and have them send someone to investigate the disappearance of these original bridge guards. How about we just take these suspicious, tight-lipped, tax-evading farmers away and hand them over to the administrator of the next village?"

Upon hearing that Jier intended to do this, these farmers, who had been playing dumb, immediately began to beg for mercy: "My Lord, this young Knight, this Lord, please don't do this."

"Kind Lord, I am personally willing to give you all the bridge tolls I have saved up over these days. Please don't take us away, and don't hand me over to the administrator of the nearby town, I beg you! Without me, my wife and children won't be able to survive!"

"Yes, yes, yes, we have saved up some money. Although it is not much, when ten or so families put it together, it is not a small amount—there is a whole jar of shiny coins! We will give it to you, we will give it all to you, please spare us!"

When the Warriors heard that these people had money to offer, they immediately looked at Jier with excitement. Although this money had nothing to do with them, everyone knew that when Knight Jier was flush with cash, he would not be stingy about scattering money to his subordinates!

The merchants were noncommittal about this, just calmly watching from the sidelines to see how Jier would handle this troublesome matter, hoping to judge what kind of person Knight Jier was through this unexpected situation.

If he was greedy for money, then they would use wealth to influence and control him; if he was bloodthirsty and cruel, then they would separate early to avoid being dragged into the endless violence.

But Jier was neither; he didn't care at all about the measly copper coins in the hands of these 'new' bridge guards. He instead noticed something else in their words.

"You said you have a total of ten or so families? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven—you only have seven people here right now. Does that mean there are a few others not here? Where are they?"

Seeing that they had let it slip, the farmers looked at each other, hung their heads, and dejectedly confessed: "My Lord, in order to save some money to buy food, a few others went to hunt in the nearby Forest."

Jier looked at the surrounding situation. The surroundings were rolling hills with terrain that was not steep, covered by large areas of Forest. However, because there had been almost no precipitation this year, the trees in the mountains were not lush; in many places, the trees had even died in patches, and the bushes and wild grasslands were like a person with alopecia, missing a patch here and a patch there. In short, the mountain forest here didn't look that dangerous?

Jier waved his hand vigorously at the Tusi Brothers, who were watching the fun, and issued an order. The Tusi Brothers immediately took two good archers and went to scout the surroundings.

"So, even now, you still won't say where the previous bridge guards went, right? Since you won't say, can I assume they are indeed dead?"

Hearing Jier's words, the few farmers trembled all over.

"It seems they are indeed dead."

Jier smiled. He didn't care about the fate of the previous bridge guards, especially after hearing from the merchants that those bridge guards were retired, disabled old Bandits who had quit the life. Jier even wanted to say "well done."

However, he was not familiar with the specific local situation and did not know how such matters of killing to replace someone were generally handled locally. What kind of status did those old Bandit bridge guards have in the eyes of the local power brokers?

Thus, Jier had his men keep a close watch on the farmers and turned to discuss some of the things behind this matter with the merchants. For example, how did some disabled old Bandits manage to secure such a job of guarding a bridge and collecting tolls? Did the locals just tacitly accept this?

—

"Of course not, Lord Jier."

A merchant explained.

"They just barely pinched their noses and accepted it. In some remote places, it is simply impossible to manage everything. In places like this bridge, the Bandits here have more say than the Lord. If you arrange for your own men to collect bridge tolls here, the people sent usually won't live for two months before being killed by the Bandit Group familiar with the area."

Another merchant spread his hands: "Since that is the case, it is better to just leave the bridge tolls in such places to the local veteran Bandit Group to arrange themselves."

"That is why a few old Bandits who couldn't do anything else were able to hold onto such a good spot."

A merchant nearby pointed at these farmers and said: "Hmph, don't look at how they solved those old Bandits and took over as bridge guards. But once the nearby Bandit Group finds that their own people are missing... hmph hmph, the fate of these people will not be very good."

The other merchants discussed it and also felt that these people would probably be unlucky in just a few days. By then, these farmers would probably find it hard to even die! It is just a pity for the women and children of these farmers' families; they will likely be played to death by the Bandits.

The merchants did not specifically lower their voices when speaking, allowing the farmers to hear them. Only then did they realize that their seemingly good 'new job' was actually their death warrant!

The Bandits who would deal with them might come tomorrow, or perhaps next month, or perhaps, they might come tonight!

When that time comes, how could they, who don't even have a Long Sword, deal with those brutal Bandits?

Anticipating their possible miserable future, the farmers no longer kept their mouths shut but struggled, trying to break free from the Warriors' suppression. But after trying a few times to no avail, they shouted that they wanted to take their families and flee this place.

The Warriors pointed at Jier, meaning that unless Jier nodded, they were not going anywhere!

Thus, the farmers called out to Jier, loudly begging Jier to spare them.

Jier was noncommittal and gave no response.

It wasn't until a little girl, who had run out of the wooden house earlier and hadn't gone back in, ran over, tugged at Jier's Gauntlet, and mustered all her Yongqi to say to Jier: "My Lord, Knight Lord. I, I will answer your question, My Lord!"

Jier looked down at the little thing who wasn't even as tall as his belt, and curiously squatted down to say: "You are somewhat clever. Speak, where did those old Bandit bridge guards die?"

The little girl had used all her Yongqi just to say that sentence; facing Jier's direct questioning, she was scared and at a loss.

Jier gave a wry smile, beckoned for the chubby Mr. Angsinuo to bring a piece of dried meat, and stuffed it into the little girl's hand, telling her to take a bite and not be so nervous.

The delicious dried meat made the little girl less nervous, and facing Jier's question again, she gave the answer.

"One day before, Father took Mother and me, and we walked for a long, long time. We came here with our neighbors. When crossing the bridge, there were some bad people here who were fierce to everyone, wanting Father and the uncles to give them things. But we had nothing left to give them, and those bad people wanted me and my sisters to go with them."

Hearing this, Jier's face darkened.

"Father told Mother and the other aunts to go with them to replace me and my sisters, but Mother didn't want to and wanted to jump off the bridge!"

Jier glared at the few farmers, who shrank their heads and whispered in defense.

"Later, later those bad people somehow fell off the bridge themselves! Father and the others talked for a long time, and then we lived in those bad people's house! There was so much food inside! Every day we could see many big horses here, and the carts pulled by those big horses! It was much more interesting than the original farm!"

The little girl rambled on. Although it was very messy, he roughly understood what had happened at the time.

Jier let her take the dried meat back into the wooden house, then walked up to the few farmers: "You people are quite capable, aren't you!"

"My lord, my lord! We had no choice! We had heard before that the roads in our Ke'er Shan Jun were difficult to travel, but we farmers had no real sense of it; we just thought the Merchants were bragging after drinking too much, making excuses for why their goods were so expensive. It wasn't until we brought our families and fled here from the county seat to avoid taxes that we realized they weren't lying at all."

"The money we prepared when we left was spent by the third day. After that, we sold everything we could from our home, except for the people themselves. Only then did we make it here! But, but..."

Another Farmer sighed and said: "Those old drunks actually wanted the young daughters in our group who haven't grown up yet. How could we allow that? We said we wouldn't go this way and would take a detour through a shallow river crossing in the Northern Border that we had heard about from years ago. But those drunks actually pulled out knives and insisted that since we had stepped onto the bridge they controlled, we had to give them something to pass, even if we didn't use it!"

"We... we saw at the time that there were few of them, and they were on the bridge, and they seemed to have been drinking. So..."

Jier added: "So you pushed them off the surface of the Wooden Bridge, which had no railings, right?"

Jier turned his head to look at the river to the side. Although it hadn't rained recently, the river and stream had a significant volume of water, and with a drop of more than ten meters from the bridge deck to the river surface, if one wasn't prepared when falling in, there was almost no possibility of survival.

"It's good that they're dead." Jier snorted, waved his hand at his subordinates, and let the Warriors release them.

"I'm not trying to make things difficult for you on purpose. If you had answered my questions honestly earlier, I wouldn't have done anything to you farmers. You know, I am actually a warrior of the Agricultural God Church myself."

Jier said it like that, but he couldn't produce any token to prove his identity at the moment. But fortunately, it seemed that no one in this world really dared to impersonate someone from the Church.

At least Jier himself had never seen it. After all, there are true gods in this world, and the Church is not without power; on the contrary, the various divine churches have the largest and most extensive existence and structural system of transcendental power at the social level.

—

The released Farmers were not that excited; they gathered together with worried faces, whispering to each other about what to do next.

The Bandit Group behind those old Bandits they killed was nothing to Jier's team, but to these powerless Farmers, it was completely beyond their ability to resist.

At this moment, several shouts came from the Shulin to the south, and the Tusi Brothers walked out of the Shulin with their men, escorting seven other young and middle-aged Farmers.

"My lord, this seems to be the other half of the people guarding the bridge. It was quite a bit of effort to catch them. But once we cornered them at the cliff edge of the river, they had nowhere to run! Haha."

Xiao Tusi was very excited, pointed to the pant legs of the few Farmers whose wrists were tied, and explained: "After I shot through their pant legs with several arrows in a row, these cowards were so scared they wet their pants and knelt on the ground begging for mercy."

Indeed, having a one-meter-long Large Arrow graze one's pant leg and strike the ground would make anyone cry in fear and surrender.

Jier waved his hand indifferently, letting the Tusi Brothers release the people. He looked at these Farmers who didn't know what to do, deliberated for a moment, and recommended: "If you don't know where to go, how about going to Sasi County? There is a new town in the middle of Sasi County that is in need of population to help out."

"And that town is under the control and management of the Agricultural God Church, so you don't have to worry about being taxed heavily like you were before. If you think that place isn't good enough, then head south in Sasi County; there are over a dozen villages there that are all autonomous villages managed by the Agricultural God Church."

Hearing Jier's unexpected introduction, the Farmers were a bit lost. Many of them had never even heard of Sasi County; walking from the east to the west of Ke'er Shan Jun was already a very long journey for them.

Not to mention leaving Ke'er Shan Jun, crossing Cuikuang, and going southwest to the remote little place of Sasi County.

There was no other way, so Jier searched around and took out a map he had used when he came, giving them this map that recorded the detailed situation of several counties in the Southern Province.

They didn't seem to understand these things very well, but the map had detailed markings; if they couldn't understand it, they could ponder it slowly.

"You had better leave here as soon as possible. Who knows when those Bandits will discover the good deed you did? It will be terrible if you leave too late."

After saying this, Jier stopped paying attention to these people; he had given the reminders he should give and the help he should provide. They had saved up a sum of money from collecting tolls these past few days, and it would certainly be enough if they were frugal on the road.

After all, in other places outside of Ke'er Shan Jun, if one is frugal with food and lodging, it actually doesn't cost much money.

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