Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 219 Loyal Minister
In mid-June, not long after the floods had caused a major disaster and the government had requested disaster relief, a tragic scene unfolded in the courtyard of the Jiujiang Prefectural Governor's Mansion on the shore of Poyang Lake.

The sun was scorching, and even Hua Mingzhe's knife was dripping blood.

"Master!!"

"father!"

A group of old women and concubines cried and shouted, while a group of men in military uniforms forced them to kneel on the ground.

Hua Mingzhe's surname is Hua. He is not handsome. Although he is not even thirty years old, he looks like a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties.

With his black hair simply tied on top of his head, Hua Mingzhe had two small mustaches. His skin was also somewhat dark from long hours of traveling outside, clearly showing him to be a rough and rugged man.

"You lackeys!" Former Prefect Meng Xueyi, looking at his son who had died tragically before his eyes, trembled with rage as he struggled to his feet and shouted, "You beasts! You served that tyrannical barbarian emperor! You have no right to call yourselves Han people!"

Hua Mingzhe did not directly kill anyone, but calmly persuaded, "Lord Meng, please don't blame me. I was just following orders. His Majesty's order was to kill you, but your son is not included. As long as he does not obstruct my official duties, I have no reason to kill him."

"Your son attacked me to protect Lord Meng. Considering his filial piety, I will have him buried later."

Upon hearing this, Meng Xueyi became even more enraged, glaring and shouting, "The imperial court is barbaric, incompetent, and tyrannical! You people are aiding and abetting the wicked and harming the loyal and virtuous! You will all die a horrible death!"

Hua Mingzhe shook his head and said helplessly, "My father and grandfather both died in the political infighting of the court. I have been living with my mother since I was a child. I can't distinguish right from wrong, loyalty from treachery. I don't know whether my father and grandfather were good people or bad people. They both died in the court's prison. It was the court that convicted them."

"I can't even be sure whether my own father and grandfather were good or bad people, let alone judge which officials in the court are good and which are bad."

"But since the Shan Nong Kingdom took over Qingzhou, my whole family has received the Emperor's grace, which is why we were able to preserve our family during those difficult years."

“From then until now, the imperial court has exempted us from taxes and levies, provided disaster relief, helped us build houses and roads, sent us food, and also helped establish schools so that our children can study.”

"Now that the world is at peace, His Majesty has always taken good care of the Han people and has never mistreated or mistreated them. He also gives the Han people and the mountain farmers the same fair opportunity to become officials. I became a commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard after I beat the mountain farmers in the exam."

"I don't know whether you are good or bad officials, but His Majesty is recognized as a good emperor by my mother, grandmother, fellow villagers, colleagues, and ordinary people."

“I eat the rice and grain given by the Emperor, and receive the money given by the Emperor. The Emperor ordered me to kill you. Before I came here, I felt that there must be a reason for this.”

Hua Mingzhe looked intently at the scholar who resembled the Confucian official he remembered.

"When I heard you just now accuse me of aiding and abetting evil, and say that His Majesty is a tyrant, I am even more certain that what His Majesty did was not wrong, and you deserve to die!"

Hua Mingzhe raised the knife with both hands, and before the old man could say anything more, he swept the knife across Meng Xueyi's neck in an instant.

Blood gushed out suddenly, staining Hua Mingzhe's clothes.

"master!"

"father!"

The women nearby were so frightened that they started crying.

Hua Mingzhe looked coldly at them, then at the blood on his own body.

"Those who weep for this corrupt official shall all be killed!"

The weeping of the family members stopped abruptly. Everyone covered their mouths and noses, no longer daring to cry.

Hua Mingzhe waited indifferently for a few seconds, then sheathed the steel knife.

"His Majesty's decree is to kill this person, have the coroner come and examine the body, and once we confirm he is dead, we will go back and report."

Even though it's a one-hit kill, the procedure still has to be followed. The task can only be considered complete after the local coroner confirms that the person to be killed is truly dead.

The main purpose is to prevent accidental killing or feigning death.

Hua Mingzhe didn't cut off the old man's head mainly because there were still children in the yard.

The guard beside him asked, "Sir, what should we do with these people?"

Hua Mingzhe said directly, "The old rules apply: the property will be inventoried and confiscated, and the remaining family members and servants will be sold into slavery."

The local official accompanying us reminded us: "His Majesty recently issued an order prohibiting the buying and selling of slaves. Originally, he had pardoned the slaves of Linyi in Lingnan, which means that apart from the emperor, no one else is allowed to keep or raise slaves, nor is anyone allowed to buy or sell slaves."

Hua Mingzhe was unaware of this matter and stared at the minor official in astonishment.

"really?"

The junior official quickly replied, "It's absolutely true, it happened at the beginning of the month."

Hua Mingzhe was in a difficult situation. After glancing at the female relatives kneeling on the ground nearby, he quickly came up with a way to make an excuse.

Ignoring it might cause trouble; it would be difficult to answer if asked.

Previously, one could follow the rules, but now that the rules have been abolished, the urgent task is to find a set of rules that will not implicate oneself or affect one's evaluation.

"Looked up!"

Hua Mingzhe berated a group of women.

The nervous and frightened women all nervously raised their heads.

Hua Mingzhe glanced at the young ladies' faces and quickly frowned.

“You pretty girls, go back to your rooms and pack your best clothes. I’ll take you to Luoyang to report back. If the Emperor takes you as female slaves, you can stay in Luoyang, and your families will be able to survive.”

“If His Majesty does not need you, someone will take you to remote and desolate places to serve as slaves to the barbarians in the borderlands.”

Hua Mingzhe didn't want to send these people to the frontier; he just wanted to get back as soon as possible to report back.

Once we return to Luoyang, someone will take care of these troublesome women, and they will no longer be under my jurisdiction.

The killing mission was over. It had taken about a month to travel from Luoyang to Jiujiang. Hua Mingzhe wanted to go home before autumn and didn't want to waste time here or cause any further trouble.

"My lord! The search has been completed. We found five boxes of gold, silver, copper coins, and silver notes, totaling about 130,000 taels, as well as land deeds for 10,000 mu of land and many royal artifacts."

The commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard quickly came over to report the situation.

Hua Mingzhe frowned. "How could there be royal artifacts?" It's normal to encounter corrupt officials. A quick check will reveal that they are all extremely wealthy. The poorest prefects executed in recent years had more than 100,000 taels of silver.

However, this is the first time that royal artifacts have been privately possessed.

The supervising official replied, "This place is at the junction of four provinces. Originally, many vassal kings were enfeoffed here. Before the Wen Dynasty, when the country was in chaos, many items from the palace circulated among the people. The prefect has had many dealings with merchants in recent years, so he must have collected quite a few treasures."

Hua Mingzhe immediately said, "Investigate the mistress this man is keeping outside! This time, the Emperor ordered his execution, so he must deserve to die!"

Hua Mingzhe disregarded the trouble and began to thoroughly investigate this unfortunate official who had exaggerated the disaster situation in his memorial to the throne, thus harassing King Wu and incurring the king's wrath by ordering his execution.

He doesn't care whether he talks about money or enjoys high-end entertainment; he just insists on using the disaster situation to deceive Arctic Martial Arts.

Every year, Beijiwu provides disaster relief, and he's been reading disaster reports from various places for ages, which has made him extremely annoyed. Anyone who dares to exaggerate a minor disaster into a major one to fraudulently obtain subsidies is certainly guilty of a capital offense.

Not only did people die in the southeastern provinces, but many also died in the Lingnan region of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces.

Meng Hetong spent more than ten days going door to door asking people for advice.

When Meng Hetong and the village chief arrived at a house, a three- or four-year-old child was playing with ants at the door.

The child looked up at Meng Hetong with great fear.

Meng Hetong asked, "Are there any adults in your family? I need to talk to one of your parents."

"Mom! Grandma! Someone's here!"

The child quickly ran into the house to call the adults.

Meng Hetong stood at the door waiting, and after more than twenty seconds, an old woman came out with a woman dressed as a peasant.

The old woman saw Meng Hetong standing properly at the door, and she nodded slightly in greeting with a polite expression on her face.

"How is the old man?"

"Okay..." The old woman bent over, carefully standing on the doorstep and looking at the tall man. "Sir, what can I do for you?"

Meng Hetong was indeed wearing a military uniform and carrying a knife.

"Old man, don't be afraid. I have come on the orders of His Majesty to inquire about some things. His Majesty went to Lingnan some time ago and remembered that he had recruited many righteous soldiers from Lingnan to fight in the war."

"The imperial court issued pensions years ago. His Majesty sent me to ask how much silver you all received. Is your husband named Sun Kun?"

The old woman's tears quickly flowed down her cheeks.

"Yes! My son's name was Sun Kun. He died two years ago. The imperial court gave us five taels of silver. This is my daughter-in-law and grandson."

The young woman also lowered her head and wiped away her tears, recalling her sad memories.

Meng Hetong took out silver from his pocket. "The compensation given by the mountain farmers is one hundred taels for each person who died in battle. Here is one hundred taels of silver. Take it and live on it for now."

The old woman had never seen so much silver in her life. She quickly knelt down and said, "Sir! We cannot accept this money. Five taels of silver is enough! Our family does not need to pay taxes now, and we have a few acres of poor land. We have already received the favor of King Wu, and we dare not accept any more."

The woman chimed in, "It is only right for my husband to serve the country; he has always wanted to serve King Wu."

Meng Hetong sighed and said, "From now on, your family will be the common household of King Wu. In ten days or half a month, I will send someone to pick you up and take you to live in the Anzhou production team. Now that the world is at peace and there is no need for war, you can take care of the children and study in Anzhou."

“King Wu’s public households receive free rice, oil, salt, and coal every month, and cloth and beef and mutton are distributed every year before the New Year. This child’s father served King Wu to the death, and his future education expenses and employment will be taken care of.”

"As for the Han officials who embezzled the farmers' money, King Wu will deal with them himself."

"I still need to go to the other soldiers' homes to inquire about the situation. You can accept this money; it's given to you by His Majesty. I can only give it to you; I can't keep it for myself. Don't worry, anyone who dares to steal the money given to you by King Wu will definitely die! And it won't be just him who dies!"

Arctic Martial has never been afraid of killing too many people. Even if he wiped out the entire bureaucratic system, he would not be shaken in the slightest.

The lower-ranking soldiers wouldn't rebel just because of an investigation into corruption; they all wished that all those corrupt officials above them would die!

Whoever takes the pension dies; those who don't take it won't empathize with those who do.

Meng Hetong was in charge of the investigation, while Lang Wubing and others were in charge of the killings.

Those with conclusive evidence were killed outright; men were killed, and women were killed as well.

The sin of causing the death of the entire family applies to both men and women.

Hua Mingzhe was able to capture women and send them as slaves because Beijiwu only wanted to kill one person and wouldn't pursue the others, which gave those people a chance to become slaves.

The deaths of just one bureaucrat who embezzled soldiers' pensions at every level are certainly not enough.

Within a month, many military families in Lingnan were wiped out, and the swords were only put to rest after killing tens of thousands of people.

The reason for sheathing the sword is that all the killings have been completed, not because one feels they have killed enough.

The officials, gentry, and powerful families in various regions were like meat on a chopping board, ready to be slaughtered at any time. Apart from small-scale resistance from manors, they posed no threat whatsoever.

After the first village to resist was killed, the rest immediately dared not cooperate with the local tyrants. Instead, they helped the mountain farmers report those corrupt officials and powerful figures.

The mountain farmers rose to power through rebellion and murder. They were not afraid to kill officials when they rebelled, so they are naturally even less afraid of officials and gentry rebelling now.

Before he knew it, Beiji Wu had amassed a considerable number of troops that he could command at will.

These teams, whether engaged in construction or cleanup tasks, always obey orders completely.

They wouldn't embezzle a single penny when confiscating property, and they wouldn't show mercy to corrupt officials, letting a single person who deserved to die go unpunished.

In the ninth year of AD, Beiji Wu gradually gained many loyal servants.

Or rather, they are one of our own.

From the Great Xianbei Mountains in the north to the South Pacific Islands in the south, from Japan in the east to Western Europe in the west.

The people of the Mountain Farmer Kingdom were active across Eurasia, and the deeds of the Mountain Farmer Emperor, Beijiwu, were widely circulated throughout the Eurasian continent.

(End of this chapter)