Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 258 The Determination to Encourage Farmers

Ambitious people are as numerous as carp crossing a river.

In some people's eyes, the rebel army may just be a steel knife aimed at the imperial court.

Even though those who play with fire are bound to get burned, one must still be wary of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

Zhu Wen naturally wanted to find out who the conspirators were who hoarded goods and caused such a huge man-made disaster on the eve of Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao's uprising.

Zhu Wen did not consider himself a good person, nor did he shy away from using intrigue.

This method still abhorred him from the bottom of his heart.

Even more terrifying than cannibalism is the vegetable market.

When Zhu Wen was a teenager, he witnessed a man carrying his swollen wife and thin daughter like chickens or ducks to sell to a fierce butcher for only three strings of cash.

The daughter watched the man's retreating figure and called out "Father!" but the man turned away and ignored her.

The woman and her child were hung up alive. The woman begged the butcher to kill her daughter before taking the meat, but the butcher said, "What are you saying, woman? If you kill her and then cut the meat, it won't be fresh, and you won't get a good price for it."

Zhu Wen initially saw a straw gourd-shaped structure surrounded by a group of people from afar, but he didn't know what the shed was.

When he came to his senses and rushed over, both mother and daughter were missing limbs and bleeding profusely.

Enraged, Zhu Wen stabbed the butcher to death with a single blow, then swung his knife wildly at the customers buying meat, blood splattering everywhere, and the customers screamed and fled.

The mother looked at Zhu Wen with sorrowful eyes, and with difficulty spoke, begging Zhu Wen to kill them and give them a quick death.

Zhu Wen, his arm trembling, plunged the needle into the hearts of the mother and daughter.

He then followed the desolate, yellowish-brown road.

The man who betrayed his wife and daughters walked slowly and did not go far. Zhu Wen quickly caught up with him.

Grabbing the man by the collar, Zhu Wen shoved him to the ground, stomped on him, and chopped off his arm with a single stroke.

"You beast, how could you do such a heinous thing?"

The man's stiff, wooden face was distorted by pain, but his eyes remained numb.

"Kill me..."

He murmured to himself, but there was no trace of regret in his voice.

"Someone as heartless as you, do you even know how to seek death?"

"Young hero, have you considered this? If money can't buy even a single grain of food, what's the point of selling your wife and daughter? Why not wait until they starve to death and then eat their flesh?"

Zhu Wen froze.

Yes, what's the use of money if it can't buy food?
A tear rolled down the man's dry eyes as he pointed with his remaining hand to the tall, majestic manor in the northwest.

"Over there is the estate of the Cui family of Qinghe, a branch of their clan. They have everything there: wheat, beans, rice, millet, and they can even feed their chickens and ducks with chaff! But we, the dying people, can only exchange a few hundred coins for a liter of grain to prolong our lives for a few more days!"

Zhu Wen felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave: "The people have all died, and the Cui family doesn't care at all?"

The man's voice was bitter: "In this world, where are there no refugees fleeing from conscription? After a natural disaster, all the land within dozens of miles belongs to the Cui family. Next year, they will recruit these refugees and earn a large group of strong tenants!"

He added, "After killing the villain, you can cut off some flesh to carry with you. Although a man's flesh is very thin and not as tender as a woman's, it will still allow you to survive for a few days."

Zhu Wen still killed the man.

But there was little hatred left in his heart.

In the dead of night, Zhu Wen, carrying a knife, stormed into the manor.

After a struggle, he was shot by a crossbow bolt and fled wounded.

Because it was dark, the Cui family's servants did not pursue him; otherwise, Zhu Wen would have been dead long ago. Wounded and walking, he grew hungry very quickly.

Along the way, however, there were only vegetable stalls selling human flesh.

Having gone without a bite to eat for several days, and feeling the cravings gnawing at his bones, Zhu Wen finally understood the despair of the starving people.

At this time of year, grain is far more precious than human flesh!

When the thought of rushing into the vegetable shed came to mind, Zhu Wen felt fear and shame.

In the end, he managed to exchange a silver pendant given to him by Xingxiang for a little food, and only then was he able to escape this living hell.

After returning home, Zhu Wen, still shaken, recounted what he had seen and heard to his second brother, Zhu Cun.

Zhu Cun told him that the year before his mother moved to Xiao County after his grandfather's death, a major famine of cannibalism had also broken out in Xiao County.

Fortunately, Mother arrived a little late; otherwise, a woman with several young children might have become someone else's food.

Zhu Wen shivered again.

Liu Chong, the wealthy man who took in A Niang back then, was a well-known philanthropist in Xuzhou and treated Zhu Wen's family well.

Women and children have little ability to work, yet Liu Chong still hired them as farmhands instead of forcing them to sell themselves into slavery.

Even though Zhu Wen was whipped several times by Liu Chong when he was young because of his naughtiness and laziness, he was still grateful to the Liu family.

Moreover, the old lady of the Liu family has always taken good care of him.

Recalling the words the man who sold his wife and daughters had said to him before he died, Zhu Wen opened his mouth with difficulty: "Then...did Master Liu do anything like hoarding and speculation?"

Zhu Cunli shrugged nonchalantly: "I don't know."

This answer relieved Zhu Wen, and he did not investigate further.

After Zhu Wen joined the rebel army, he led his troops south in the fifth year of the Qianfu era to rescue the remnants of Wang Xianzhi's forces.

On his return journey south from Jingchu, he passed through famine-stricken areas once again and saw human flesh being sold openly at stalls. His anger was uncontrollable.

Zhu Wen led his troops to conquer the manors of several aristocratic families, including the Zhao family of Tianshui, and distributed grain and freed slaves.

These aristocratic leaders were all executed, and the young women were sent to become camp prostitutes.

Many of them had no idea what heinous things their parents had done.

But when he thought about how they were enjoying the benefits brought by their elders' injustice, Zhu Wen couldn't control his desire to punish their relatives.

Zhu Wen was lazy from a young age and didn't like doing farm work, but those bloody experiences still made him realize that agriculture was the foundation of the country.

Nothing is more important than ensuring that the people have enough to eat.

When there is no food, honest people can be turned into cannibalistic beasts.

Li Tiao was essentially a businessman who believed that the ocean was the future of China. However, he overlooked the fact that for this densely populated land prone to natural disasters, a stable food supply was far more important than commerce.

This included countering the northern barbarians; the initial goal was to allow the people on the border to farm in peace.

However, later emperors became ambitious and devoted more and more manpower and resources to border campaigns, which deviated from the original intention of stabilizing the northern frontier. Their aggressive military campaigns brought a heavy burden to the people, and as Li Tiao said, they raised a tiger that would cause trouble, which resulted in the emergence of a vicious monster like An Lushan, which completely ended the prosperous era.

Thinking of this, Zhu Wen thought that now that the rebel army had conquered Lingnan, they finally had their own base of operations and could consider the issue of stable development.

The weather in Lingnan is warm, and wheat can be planted in winter.

He decided that this winter, he would go to the countryside to encourage farmers and do some farm work with the people.

This was not only to win the hearts and minds of the people for the righteous army, but also what he truly wanted to do.

(End of this chapter)