From the fusion of Tongbei Quan to the Longevity Martial Saint

As they spoke, the two arrived at the tidal channel reservoir.

Upon reaching the tidal channel reservoir, which draws in water from the tides...

When Uncle Yang saw that there were already people working hard to clean the mud and sand from the tidal ditch reservoir, they had already scooped up a large basket of seafood.

Yang Zhi was immediately enraged:

"Li Laolai, according to the rules, this time the mud from the tidal ditch should be cleaned up by ten households in our village."

"Three months ago, the people in your village had just caught several baskets of shellfish and crab meat."

"Why are you here again, trying to steal our snail meat?"

The Daqian Dynasty implemented the Baojia system of collective responsibility.

Ten households form a "jia" (甲), and a "jia leader" (甲长) is appointed for each "jia".

Ten households form a unit called a "bao," which is headed by a "bao chief."

Uncle Yang was the head of the household for Fang Qing and several other families in the neighborhood.

According to the rules, the snail meat, seafood, and crabs obtained from cleaning the mud and sand at the bottom of the tidal channel this time belong to the ten households in this village.

But to his surprise, when he and Fang Qing came over while chatting, someone else had already taken over the job of clearing the mud and sand.

This was intolerable even to Uncle Yang, who was usually good-tempered.

The salt workers at the bottom of these salt fields lived a hard life and couldn't afford meat at all.

Basically, they rely on these snails for meat to supplement their diet every year.

Now that someone else has beaten him to it, how can Uncle Yang tolerate this?

Li Laolai was considered one of the more powerful families in their salt field.

Because he had a patch of baldness on his face.

That's why people gave him that nickname.

There are mispronounced names, but no mispronounced nicknames.

Li Laolai's character is just like his nickname.

When Li Laolai saw Yang Zhi approaching, he showed no intention of telling the others to stop. Instead, he crossed his arms and said:

"Hey Yang, out of the ten households in your class, several are orphan families with only one or two mouths to feed. What makes you think you deserve a spot in the class?"

After saying that, Li Laolai deliberately looked in Fang Qing's direction.

It's clearly implying something!

Yang Zhi's armor was damaged because of the salt bandits he had encountered last time.

Many able-bodied men lost their lives protecting the salt fields during that bandit attack.

There are one or two families like Fang Qing's where both parents lost their lives.

In Li Laolai's view, other households had three to five mouths to feed, but Fang Qing's family only had one mouth to feed, yet he was also taking up an opportunity to catch seafood from the Chaohe River ditch.

This is so unfair to them.

"So, Mr. Yang, I think this rule needs to be changed."

"For families like yours with a large number of orphans, there's no need to fish out crabs from this tidal flat every time."

"I think the rule should be changed so that it's their turn to collect the snails and seafood here every two days, that would be fair."

Li Laolai's words immediately drew the support of some of the salt workers in the surrounding area who had large families.

After all, with Li Laolai stepping in, those with larger families can simply sit back and reap the benefits. Why wouldn't they be happy to do so?

Hearing the voices of approval around him, Li Laolai became even more confident.

The next moment, he glanced directly in the direction of Fang Qing and the others before turning to look at Yang Zhi:

"We're all team leaders, so I won't bully you."

"This time, we want half of the seafood from the muddy trenches."

"The original share of Fang Qing and other orphans, as well as several other families with orphans and widows, has been reduced by 70%."

"After all, there are only one or two mouths to feed in their family."

"Giving them too much food would be a waste, they wouldn't be able to finish it..."

Li Laolai's meaning is already very clear.

The seafood portions originally intended for Fang Qing and several other orphan families were to be taken by Li Laolai and his normal families, who were supposed to receive 70% of the total.

Only 30% was left for Fang Qing and his group.

Fang Qing narrowed his eyes upon hearing this.

Yang Zhi was about to say something when he was suddenly pulled aside by his aunt, Yang Shi, who had rushed over from behind.

"Old Yang, I heard that Li Laolai just offered his daughter to Li Zaotou as a concubine a few days ago."

"This guy now wields immense power in our salt field; we can't afford to offend him."

Upon hearing what his woman said, Uncle Yang's expression froze slightly.

Meanwhile, the other families in the same household as Fang Qing, upon hearing Li Laolai say that their share of snails and seafood had not been reduced, immediately whispered and came to Yang Zhi's side:

"Old Yang, I think Li Laolai has a point. Anyway, Qingzi's family is small, so a 30% share is enough."

"There's no need for us to stand up for the Fang family over some snails, is there?"

"That's right, if Old Li goes to Li Zaotou to complain, we in this class will be in deep trouble..."

As for the other salt farmers in Group A, they were none of their business and didn't care, since it wasn't their share that was being reduced.

It's not their place to dredge seafood from the mud and sand.

If Li Laolai sets the rules this time, every time in the future, families with orphans like Fang Qing can have their quotas reduced, and perhaps everyone can benefit from it.

The surrounding chatter was incessant, with many agreeing with Li Laolai's actions.

"This is how the rule should be set."

"We can't do things like before, where everyone has to eat the resources of another family. Why should we?"

Upon hearing this, Uncle Yang's face flashed with an unpleasant expression:

"But Qingzi's parents were killed by salt bandits while protecting our salt fields."

"Then can't we take care of their offspring?"

Before Yang Zhi could finish speaking, a voice came from somewhere:

"We take care of their offspring, but who will take care of us?"

"That's right, the saltworks only offer this one opportunity a year to eat snails and seafood."

"If we feed all of them, like Fang Qing and the other orphans, what are we supposed to do? Let them starve to death?"

A stone stirred up a thousand waves.

This method of distribution immediately sparked controversy among the crowd.

Many families like Fang Qing's, where most of the orphans are quite young, don't even have the chance to stand up and defend themselves.

Yang Zhi wanted to say something more, but Aunt Yang pulled him hard again.

Yang Zhi stumbled every time he tried to pull himself apart.

Yang Jiumei was carrying a basket in her hand.

She had already planned that after collecting the seafood today, she would cook a delicious seafood soup with the tasty snail meat and share it with Fang Qing.

Little did I expect that as soon as I arrived with my mother, I would witness a scene of argument and confrontation between the two sides.

Especially after seeing that Fang Qing's seafood portion was reduced to only 30%,

Yang Jiu Mei immediately burst into tears:

"You can't bully Brother Qing like this."

"Uncle Fang and Aunt Fang lost their lives because of the saltworks."

"Besides, the host family has not said anything about changing the way seafood is distributed, so you can't reduce Brother Qing's seafood share on your own."

Yang Jiu Mei was, after all, just a young girl, and her voice carried little weight in the room.

He tried desperately to speak up for Fang Qing, but all he got in return were glares.

At this moment, Fang Qing's eyes were completely hidden in shadow.

Having grown accustomed to Earth, Fang Qing hadn't previously had much of an understanding of this bloody, survival-of-the-fittest mentality.

But after transmigrating to the world of the Great Qian Dynasty for two months, seeing everything that happened around him every day, Fang Qing truly realized just how cruel it was to survive in a world where even food was scarce.

In order to have his own space to live, Li Laolai did not hesitate to offer his daughter to Li Zaotou, who was forty or fifty years older than him, as a concubine.

Most importantly, there are many such people in the entire salt field; Li Laolai will not be the first, nor will he be the last.

Faced with nothing more than some seafood and snail meat, these low-level salt producers showed absolutely no unity.

They even targeted orphan families like Fang Qing's, whose parents sacrificed their lives working at the salt fields.

This can only be described as a perfect example of turning a corner and kicking someone when they're down.

This is the coldness of human relationships.

Fang Qing didn't speak, but took a step forward.

His foot happened to kick the mud and sand that had just been dredged up from the tidal ditch.

He kicked out a mussel shell full of plump snail meat, which appeared at his feet.

Fang Qing looked down, lost in thought...

……