Chapter 120 – The Great Qian in Civil Conflict

[The arrival of the tax collector took you by surprise.]

[Have you ever thought that at the border where demons are raging, and at the present time when Daqian is in turmoil, there are still tax collectors coming to collect taxes from people who have nothing?]

“You stopped the martial arts.

[You stopped practicing]

[Near the end of winter, the cold wind blows through the branches, and the moment it touches you, it is bounced off by the invisible astral energy.]

[The young girl, full of rage and acting much more impulsively than you, claimed to use her lance to poke a hundred holes in the tax collector.]

[You told the girl to stay behind and hurry to the town gate alone]

[You saw the tax collector riding on a green-scaled horse, strutting his stuff and scolding the people of Qingniu Town]

[You notice familiar faces shaking with fear]

[You knocked the tax collector off his horse, but you know well that this alone is not enough]

In the eyes of the people of Qingniu Town, in the eyes of these poor people, the “tax collector” still flaunts his power and presses on everyone’s heart.

[Simple people don’t know what’s high or low.]

[And you’re not going to, like, talk about something that’s too far away.]

[You just speak the harsh reality in a calm tone, telling the people that the tax collectors are coming to take away the few food items and everyone will starve to death]

It’s normal for people to be afraid.

Fear, cowering, trembling.

When faced with something more “powerful” than themselves, people will always be subconsciously timid, but when hunger strikes, when the parched belly twitches and aches over and over again.

In the face of that approaching death.

The fear in people’s hearts will instead dissipate.

Death is the nothingness of it all, and those who are meant to die are not afraid of anything else.

Live.

People just want to live.

But now, the tax collector was taking away their last food, the last ration that every family left for their children, for those who were dear to them.

No one ever moved to eat it, even if their throats welled up.

But it is this last humility.

This last piece of stubbornness.

The tax collector also tried to snatch it away.

Inexplicably, upon cognizance of this, Niu’s throat became hoarse and burning, as if an invisible flame was burning hot, burning Niu constantly.

That simple and honest face showed an aggravation that Xu had not seen before.

And indescribable anger.

Not only that, but a few more people stepped forward and together they walked towards the tax collector who had fallen to the ground.

“I forbid it, I forbid you to do it! Those rice puddings are for me to leave to Mother, not for you!”

“It was you, I remember you, who spoiled my sister!”

“You’re the one who robbed us of our grain!”

The men who came forward were once farmers with feet of clay or blacksmiths who spent their days forging iron.

Among them there were even merchants of good families who had been copied and exiled to the border because they had offended the county officials.

And now.

They have a common identity.

Starving people, [people] who are dying of hunger and are about to die of starvation and are not going to survive.

“You, you guys, what do you want to do!” , the tax collector seemed to be startled, he scrambled to the ground in a panic, only to fall once again due to his hasty movements.

Comical in its wretchedness, ridiculous in its irony.

Tax collectors are not ordinary people.

He was also a martial artist, and even though he was only in the Second Realm of Body Forging, he was still a genuine martial artist.

In theory, when a martial artist takes on a mortal, it is inevitable that the martial artist will have an overwhelming victory, but when the tax collector meets the eyes of the people, and meets that dung fork, hoe, and sickle.

Inexplicably, he was afraid.

It was only at this moment that the tax collector, who used to be so high and mighty, snapped back to a fact.

He is human, he bleeds when he is cut by a sword, he dies when he is stabbed through the heart by a sword, he is not an eternal monster, but a human being just like this group of pariahs.

“Wait, wait!”

The tax collector tried to say something else.

But it’s too late.

The despair set off by hunger, the anger at being deprived of the hope of survival, raged against the tax collector.

Someone squeezed his hands, someone tied his feet, someone slammed a fist into his head, someone kicked that third leg hard.

……

“Sir, is this really okay?”

A familiar voice came from behind Department Xu.

The young girl finally couldn’t hold back her curiosity and snuck out of the Xu system’s house.

But it’s come to this.

With the situation in Green Ox Town, there was no need to continue hiding.

Wu Ying Xue lightly frowned her eyebrows and looked towards the figure of the tax collector who was surrounded by the crowd and no matter how many times he struggled, he would be violently beaten up again:

“Once known by the imperial court side, Qingniu Town is afraid ……”

The girl wanted to speak, and now she, who had earlier clamored to stab the tax collector, was worried about the consequences of the tax collector’s death.

The cold wind of autumn is sluggish and cold, blowing on the wound is even more stinging, the wail of the tax collector is more and more painful, gradually, he began to beg for mercy.

Bow the head that was never noble to the pariahs he had identified.

“Yingxue, that doesn’t matter.”

Department Xu understood what Wu Ying Xue meant.

He withdrew his watchful gaze and looked at the girl, “The people of Qingniu Town, themselves, can’t survive, and the Great Qian’s border troops have never set foot outside the pass.”

People who are already dying.

is not going to consider, what retaliation will be suffered in the future.

Wu Ying Xue’s eyes were slightly bleak, “There has been no progress in the Nurturing Yuan Gong for a long time, and if things continue like this, it’s likely that everyone in Qingniu Town won’t be able to make it through the winter.”

The Xu system returned, “I think I know what to do.”

……

[You’re lifting the veil on the people of Qingniu Town, who have never had enough to eat.]

[They swung their fists, weak and feeble, but punching]

[One punch, another punch, another punch]

[The tax collector was beaten and bruised all over his body, suffering the anger that had been accumulated for countless years until he was on the verge of starvation]

“You stopped the fight.

[Not that you sympathize with tax collectors, who have committed so many crimes that even a child would be afraid of them.]

[You just want to know from the tax collector the recent situation in Qianlong and the latest information about the rebels.]

[The tax collector begs you for forgiveness while telling you the information you want]

“Daqian is in chaos.

[You’re surprised, year by year the ferocious tide of demons, not only the town of Qingniu was affected, around the entire borderline of Daqian, are more or less impacted]

[This led to many people who couldn’t survive, who were hunted by demons, frantically storming the garrisons at the various passes]

At the same time, within the thirteen states of Daqian, some counties that couldn’t stand the high taxes also saw one rebellion after another]

[Despite the suppression of the Qianlong army]

“Though the people of Qianlong can move mountains with their immortal strength.

[But the shaking of the storm makes you suddenly realize that the people who want to live are not the only ones in Qingniu Town]

[You look at Niu, and the people behind him, with their thin, bony bodies, and the dirty hoes and sickles in their hands.]

[You vaguely understand how the Nourishing Yuan Gong is to be deduced]