Frost for a Thousand Years

Chapter 313 I'm going to sue Song Shi'an!

After traveling by river for a full night and most of the day, they finally arrived at Cishan County at noon on the second day, having traveled a total of about fifty li by boat.

Although this county is located near a major river, it is not a major area for military farming, as it is mostly mountainous. Therefore, the county magistrate was not replaced by a former member of the Wu King's faction, or rather, a member of Song Jing's faction.

Of course, land reclamation is a long-term project that can be implemented in a few counties.

Five counties directly implemented the land reclamation and settlement program, with Jianxingjing County and Huai County as the center. However, the other four counties were close to the center and also provided a considerable number of people who had left the tenant farmers.

"The registered population of Cishan County is 56,000. If we assume that about a quarter of them are under surveillance, then the population should be around 70,000."

After disembarking, a weary Song Shi'an and Xin Yue headed towards the shore, towards areas closer to human habitation.

“Logically speaking, these sheltered people should all be willing to participate in the land reclamation,” Xin Yue said as she walked, supporting his arm. “After all, this is the poorest county in Huai County.”

“The higher-ups’ ideas are definitely good.” Song Shi’an smiled, looked at Xin Yue, and said jokingly, “It all depends on how the people below carry them out.”

"Did you receive any prior information that there were some problems in the officialdom here?" Xin Yue asked curiously.

Otherwise, why would they go on a clandestine visit to this place?

"To find out the problems in a place, you have to go to the poorest place."

Song Shi'an said directly.

You cannot conclude that the people of Huai County are wealthy and prosperous simply because you have investigated the living standards of a few families who have passed the imperial examinations in Huai County.

Then you might as well go to the capital and calculate the per capita GDP of Dayu.

"That's true."

Xin Yue used to be a pampered princess, but after the fall of her kingdom, she realized that the hardships her family had endured were nothing compared to the suffering of the common people.

However, her desire for revenge stemmed purely from hatred.

“Ah Yue.”

Suddenly, Song Shi'an called out to Xin Yue.

Xin Yue was stunned for a moment, then looked at him with confusion.

Before she could even speak, a pair of dusty, dirty hands smeared her face, rubbing and kneading it for a while, but she was still not satisfied: "This is too beautiful, she doesn't look like a peasant woman at all."

Xin Yue bit her lip in annoyance, then scratched her head with both hands, making her smooth long hair messy, and stared straight at Song Shi'an.

"That's good, it has a bit of a broken feel to it."

Xin Yue wasn't actually a delicate young girl. The incongruity of her playing a commoner was okay, but it was purely because she was too beautiful. In a remote mountain village, being too beautiful could easily lead to trouble.

After she stirred things up, Song Shi'an didn't want to bother anymore.

It's no use, that's just how her face is.

"The city is about ten miles from here. The distance from here is considered quite good in Cishan."

After leaving the ferry, the mud on their boots gradually dried. On both sides of the road were small fields at the foot of the mountains, stretching along the slopes. The autumn harvest was over, and the sickle marks left among the rice stubble looked like whip marks on the earth. Scattered thatched huts formed small villages, and even the walls of the so-called wealthy households were just made of rammed earth.

“Aside from officials who have passed the imperial examinations or above, the average registered land area per person here seems to be only about three and a half mu,” Xin Yue said.

If we calculate based on four people per household, the total area is fourteen mu.

The yield per mu is 150 jin after shelling.

That's only 2,100 jin a year.

After deducting taxes, less than 650 jin remained.

On average, each household consumes only about 1.8 jin (0.9 catties) per day.

“This is barely enough to make ends meet…” Xin Yue frowned. “And we also have to perform corvée labor.”

These statistics all directly illustrate one point—it should be easy to relocate people from here.

After all, even if one is not a tenant farmer and owns their own land, their living conditions here are still not as good as those described by Song Shi'an as the tuntian (military agricultural colonies).

"It's unrealistic to expect to survive solely on food rations, but fortunately, the conditions here are quite good, and hunting and fishing are relatively convenient..."

Based on this, Song Shi'an and Xin Yue hold opposing opinions.

There is insufficient motivation for land reclamation.

After all, the two places where settlement and cultivation have been successfully carried out so far, Yizhou and Beiliang, are respectively a refugee area after an uprising and a garrison area after the elimination of aristocratic families.

There seem to be quite a few people ahead.

Suddenly, Xinyue said.

After walking for so long, the two finally saw a large, well-to-do house.

Moreover, there were nearly a hundred people gathered at the entrance of the house, all with their backs bent and heads bowed, and they all looked like hardworking people.

The two squeezed through and saw a man of medium height with a small mustache, dressed in a neat blue robe, quite thin, and looking very shrewd standing in front of the wealthy man's house. He looked quite angry.

"Brother, what's wrong?" Song Shi'an asked someone.

One of the men saw him but didn't acknowledge him.

“We’ve worked for the master for so many years, no matter what, he can’t just abandon us to our fate.”

An elderly man at the front of the crowd, who looked like an opinion leader, began to plead.

"What do you mean by 'I don't care whether you live or die'?" the official retorted. "When have you ever gone without food?"

“Then we’re also farming for the master…” a peasant woman said.

"What, you should thank me?" The steward's face darkened. "You didn't own any land to begin with. If it weren't for the master taking you in and giving you food, you would have starved to death somewhere long ago!"

"Then you have to give us the surplus grain, right?" someone shouted. "I still have at least eighty catties of grain that haven't been paid to us. There are ledgers for this, Your Excellency Xiao."

"What surplus grain?" the steward immediately retorted righteously. "Now that the imperial court is planning to establish military farms and is investigating you tenant farmers, you're asking the master for surplus grain. Why don't you tell me to settle the taxes the master has paid for you over the years?"

At this moment, a woman with a pretty face but a broad, full figure, who looked quite capable, said, "Our tenants' grain is not taxed at all!"

"Who said that? Who dares to slander the master for tax evasion!"

The official raised his finger, and the two servants beside him glared angrily.

Soon, the woman was dragged back by the villagers.

But she was still furious.

"You were the ones who said before that participating in the land reclamation would yield a 30/70 split," the steward said sarcastically with a smile. "But you complained that the master wasn't giving you enough grain, so you weren't too keen on doing it. Isn't that all your own choice?"

Upon hearing this, the people all lowered their heads, appearing deeply remorseful.

Previously, when it was said that Huai County was going to establish military farms, and that the patriotic hero Song Shi'an was coming, everyone felt that good days were coming.

Even without land, the profits are split 30/70, isn't that better than being a tenant farmer?
But people do have a deep connection to their hometown.

So they went to discuss it with the housekeeper, wanting to continue being tenants, but the profit sharing had to be changed...

Who would have thought that the master would dismiss all the tenants in a fit of anger?

"Steward Xiao, we were wrong before, we didn't know what was good for us..." the old man said humbly, "Could we continue to farm for the master?"

"Now you know you were wrong?" The butler revealed an extremely pleased smile.

The old man felt ashamed under the stare, but remembering that they had run out of food, he steeled himself and knelt down in front of him: "Steward Xiao, please have mercy!"

Xin Yue's blood pressure spiked instantly, and she clenched her fists.

"Butler Xiao, please have mercy."

The other common people also knelt down.

Apart from a few truly stubborn individuals who felt the master still owed them surplus grain, there were none.

This included the widow, Ma.

"Telling you is useless; land reclamation is Lord Song's grand plan." The steward raised his fists, facing east, and said with great sincerity, "Our master firmly supports Lord Song!"

“We also support Lord Song, but the government doesn’t care whether we live or die…” The old man hugged Steward Xiao’s leg and said with tears in his eyes, “Steward Xiao, at least give us an advance on this winter’s grain? Even if it’s just a loan.”

"What does this have to do with me? Get lost!"

The butler kicked the old man over.

Xin Yue was so angry that she was about to pull out the knife from her sleeve, but fortunately Song Shi'an grabbed her.

The other people were also enraged. They helped the old man up and pressed him forward, with some even raising hoes.

Seeing that a conflict was about to break out and the mansion would be stormed, Steward Xiao remained calm and immediately shouted, "Report to the authorities now, and the soldiers will be here in an hour."

"..."

With just one sentence, he made everyone back down.

"Our young master is a scholar who passed the imperial examination, and our master is a retired official from the court," the steward said casually and calmly. "When the officials come, they will naturally know who is loyal and who is a troublemaker. Then, they will know who should be thrown into jail and beaten to death for fighting!"

“If you stay here any longer, we’ll report you to the authorities and say there’s a riot.”

Three people, or more accurately, only one person in charge, were enough to subdue the entire population.

They all retreated.

The foreman looked at the villager who was standing there dumbfounded, holding a hoe, and immediately became furious: "You piece of trash! Do you dare to lay a hand on me?" "..." The man was so frightened that he trembled and threw the hoe away.

But two servants still surrounded him. One kicked him to the ground, and the other kicked him repeatedly in the head, with muffled thuds and cries of pain escaping at the same time.

"Someone's being hit! Someone's being hit!" Mrs. Ma shouted. "Help!"

But no one dared to step forward.

"Stop hitting me, stop hitting me, let's go." It was the same old man who crawled over to beg for mercy.

Only then did people slowly gather around and beg for the release of the person.

One of the strong servants was still not satisfied. Looking at the man with a bruised and swollen face, he then looked at the hoe on the ground.

He picked up the hoe, raised it high, blade above his head, and amidst screams from the crowd, slammed it down with all his might towards the man's forehead...

However, he suddenly froze as he landed.

He slowly lowered his head and saw that his cloth trousers were stained black at the back.

The next moment, he collapsed to the ground.

In less than five seconds, his blood surged and his face turned pale.

Soon, the ground was covered in blood.

"!" The other servant was so frightened that he immediately ran away.

The others were completely dumbfounded when they saw that someone was about to die.

"Murder! Run!"

Song Shi'an grabbed Xin Yue's hand and was the first to escape.

The crowd scattered instantly.

The man who had been beaten was also carried away.

"Murder! A scoundrel has committed murder! Go report it to the authorities!"

The steward watched as the strong servant lost consciousness from blood loss, and while shouting to report to the authorities, he fled into the mansion.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself."

Xin Yue said this as Song Shi'an led her away.

"You didn't kill him, so why are you apologizing?"

Song Shi'an felt he had run enough, so he stopped.

"That's true." Xin Yue's major artery was severed in the chaos, and no one knew it was her.

Because they were the first to run, dozens of villagers followed them.

Among them was that rather strong and magnanimous woman, Widow Ma.

"You two don't seem to have met before?" Ma asked curiously, sizing them up. "Aren't you from around here?"

The others were watching them too.

One of them was quite handsome, and the other was quite beautiful.

"You don't seem like poor people, do you?"

When asked about this, Song Shi'an said with a mournful tone, "We were originally from Qinzhou. My father was a minor official, and we had a few dozen acres of poor land. But we offended a local official, and someone planted ginseng in our fields. I reported it to the authorities, but when the county magistrate came, he insisted that it was ginseng and accused me of slandering a local worthy. He wanted to arrest me... So my wife and I fled here."

After saying that, he hugged Xinyue's head and started to cry.

"Woooooooo..."

Xin Yue couldn't hold back her tears and started crying too.

"Is Qinzhou even more corrupt than here?" Widow Ma exclaimed indignantly. "To plant a person in the ground and call it ginseng? Is there no justice in this world?!"

"Then why did you flee to Cishan?" someone asked, puzzled.

“That’s right, there’s no place poorer than here in Huai County!” someone said.

Faced with their doubts, Song Shi'an wiped away his tears, then patted Xin Yue, who was pretending to cry, and said after a little comforting, "Didn't you hear that Huai County is going to implement land reclamation? The imperial court will manage it, and each person will be given ten mu, and they can also get 30% of the profits at the end of the year."

"Bullshit! It's all bullshit!" Everyone was annoyed by this. One of the older men sat down on the ground and began to chatter on and on, "As soon as they heard that the land reclamation was going to be carried out, those lords dismissed the tenants and didn't even settle their winter grain debts. The county government doesn't care either, saying that they haven't heard of any disasters and won't distribute any grain."

"Doesn't he need people for his land reclamation?" Song Shi'an asked, puzzled. "Why doesn't the county government need them?"

“You’re too young to understand,” he said viciously. “The people in the county government are in cahoots with those magistrates, just to force us to admit our mistakes to them.”

"And then what happens after you admit your mistake?" Xinyue asked.

"That would allow us to raise our rent by several percentage points!"

Xin Yue was stunned and speechless for a moment: "..."

It's too cloudy.

“But if you stop providing them with farmland, won’t they also suffer a loss?” Song Shi’an asked.

"It's obvious he's never been a tenant farmer, to say something like that." This annoyed one of them, who said sarcastically, "Without us, they'd only collect less grain. Without our men, we'd all die this winter."

"Alright, he's just a poor soul." Ma walked over to the two of them, patted Song Shi'an on the shoulder, and said, "His father was even planted in the ground as ginseng, what did he do wrong?"

"Big sister, you're so kind," Song Shi'an said gratefully.

"Just call me Sister Ma," Ma said warmly.

"It's Widow Ma!"

A man suddenly shouted.

"Get out of here, you have a mouth." Ma glared at him, then explained to Xinyue, "My husband died in the war, and now I'm raising my two sons alone."

"I see." Xinyue nodded.

"Where are your children?" Mrs. Ma asked curiously.

"Well..." Xin Yue said awkwardly, "Not yet."

"Young man, you look quite strong." Ma said, sizing up Song Shi'an.

"I can manage, I can manage," Song Shi'an replied casually, then returned to the topic and asked, "Then why can't we just make do with these gentlemen for now and go there when the military farms call for people?"

"Hahaha." This made people laugh. A middle-aged man said, "Hundreds of thousands of people will be brought to the military farms, and the grain from these farms will be used to supply the court for war. They say we'll get 30%. But what if the counties start collecting land taxes? Or poll taxes? Or salt and iron taxes? That 70% is just the 70% that the court takes. The land isn't even ours, so why would they care about our lives?"

"This is just speculation, right?" Xin Yue muttered softly. "I have a feeling that Song Shi'an..."

"Song Shi'an is a bastard!"

Before she could finish speaking, Widow Ma roared in fury.

This statement left everyone speechless.

"Shut up! Shut up!" an old man shouted. "Are you out of your mind?!"

“I can’t go on living like this,” Ma muttered.

"You have two sons," the old man reminded him.

"..." Madam Ma quickly backed down and said to Song Shi'an and Xin Yue, "Little sister, little brother, don't talk nonsense. I didn't curse Lord Song just now."

"Mmm." Xinyue nodded honestly.

"Let's put it this way," one person said. "Song Shi'an chose Huai County for military farming because it's his hometown. Would he dare to investigate the land of his family members? No way. The imperial court will collect the grain, and the Song family's grain cannot be damaged. As for the other minor officials, they don't have much money anyway."

In the end, it's still us ordinary folks who suffer.

At this point, the atmosphere became completely oppressive.

It's a consensus that Song Shi'an's arrival will only make their situation worse.

Even if they are exploited even more ruthlessly, they will eventually return to their aristocratic families.

"There's a young master here!"

Just then, everyone suddenly saw a patrol officer riding a horse toward them.

"Even if they reported it to the authorities, how could it have happened so quickly?" Xin Yue asked.

“It shouldn’t be reporting to the authorities…” someone explained. “The county magistrate didn’t want the people to come into the city and cause trouble, so he patrolled along the way to prevent us from entering the city.”

He had barely finished speaking when the patrol officer rode over on horseback. Looking at the people with their heads bowed, he shouted, "What are you doing gathering here!"

"I want to report to the official!"

Song Shi'an responded firmly.

Everyone was stunned.

Looked at him in surprise.

"Report to the authorities?" the patrol officer asked with a smile. "Whom do you want to report?"

Staring at him, Song Shi'an said without backing down, "I'm going to sue, Song Shi'an!"

(End of this chapter)