Chapter 617

“Why should we sell our land to you for five thousand coins?” The man known as Jiang Yan shouted angrily.

“Hm?” Old Xu and Hao Liu never expected that someone here knew how to read.

“Officer Hao. What is going on here?” Old Xu expression was pale as he looked at Hao Liu.

“I do not know.” Hao Liu also turned pale. He never expected someone to know how to read. Why would someone who can read come here to obtain fertile land instead of trying to become an official? Yangzhou is lacking people that could read and was looking for more personnel. Old Xu himself was one such person which is how he got his position.

“Hao Liu! If something goes wrong, you better not come back!” Old Xu was no longer polite.

“Don’t! Old Xu, Lord Xu! Do not worry! I will properly deal with this. Give some face to General Guo!” Hao Liu replied in a panic.

“Are you going to pressure me with the Guo Family?” Old Xu was not impressed. Hao Liu was backed by the Guo Family and Old Xu could not afford to offend them. However, if Old Xu was irritated enough, he could still get the Guo Family to send someone else instead.

“No, I don’t dare! Don’t worry, I will deal with this!” Hao Liu’s expression wasn’t good. He waved his hand to get his people to suppress Jiang Yan.

“Brother Jiang. Is this really a place to sell ourselves to slavery?” An illiterate person could not help but ask.

“Hmph! These people not only want to buy our land. They are even going to raise the tax every year until it reaches sixty percent!” Jiang Yan explained the terms of the contract.

“So high? Then we cannot put our handprints! It was sixty percent tax even at Yuzhou!” One of the commoners were dissatisfied. They suffered trials and tribulations to arrive at Yangzhou. There were many with weak constitution that died on the way to Yangzhou. All of this is to enjoy the benefits of thirty percent tax. Now they were being told that the tax is still going to be sixty percent. What was the point of their journey then?

“Everyone, do not be anxious! We at Yangzhou said the tax will be thirty percent, so how can we lie to you?” Hao Liu said to the refugees with a smile.

“Haha, it is written here in black and white! Officer Hao, you still want to act shamelessly?” Jiang Yan pointed out.

“Everyone. Can you all read?” Hao Liu asked the rest. The others shook their heads.

“Haha. Since you all cannot read, how can you all just listen to him alone? Thirty percent tax is thirty percent tax! This Jiang Yan is reading it wrong!” Hao Liu said as he hinted to his men. His men have already surrounded Jiang Yan.

“I did not read wrongly! It is definitely a contract where we sell ourselves to slavery! If you don’t believe me, we can go to Xinye and put this contract onto the bulletin board for others to see!” Jiang Yan shouted loudly.

Hao Liu’s expression had turned cold.

“This officer is forcing us to sell ourselves…” At this moment, Jiang Yan felt pain in his stomach. He looked around and saw that Hao Liu’s subordinates had surrounded him. One of them had punched him in the stomach, causing him to be lose his breath.

“… Sell ourselves to slavery…” Jiang Yan continued trying to speak but he was punched again. The other refugees saw this and was afraid of getting into trouble. They were afraid of Hao Liu.

Hao Liu noticed their fear and nodded with satisfaction.

Jiang Yan coughed out blood from the heavy punches of Xinye’s defenders.

“Haha. This is Yangzhou, the King of Shu’s place. This one have already met such subordinates. I am sure that the King of Shu, Liu Mang, is not any better as a person! Hao Liu, let me tell you that even if I die here, I will tell people that not to sign this contract!” Jiang Yan continued to shout.

“Let us not sign the contract!” The other refugees started to say. None of them want to put their handprints on the paper.

“Hmph! I gave you face but you rejected it!” Hao Liu said angrily. He did not kill Jiang Yan because the man had three mu worth of land but Jiang Yan was still being shameless. Hao Liu did not care anymore and waved his hand.

Xinye’s defenders immediately nodded and unsheathed their swords. Hao Liu was prepared to kill Jiang Yan to silence him.

“Come! Come and kill me! This fake King that fools the world!” Jiang Yan sneered and closed his eye.

At that moment, blood splashed. Jiang Yan felt confused. He felt the blood splash on him but not the pain. Was this what death felt like? Then there was a blood curling scream beside him. Jiang Yan was once again confused. He did not feel any pain so why was there someone screaming beside him?

Jiang Yan was shocked when he opened his eyes, he saw one of Xinye’s defenders screaming and rolling on the floor. Blood stained the floor.

“Brother Jiang. Have you not seen blood before?” A voice asked indifferently.

Jiang Yan turned to see that Liu Mang was looking at him. Liu Mang was holding a sword that used to belong to the defender.

“It’s you. You saved me?” Jiang Yan recognized Liu Mang as the person who introduced himself as Han Yang. Beside Liu Mang was also a robust man with a scarred face. “Why did you save me?”

“I simply can’t bear to watch this.” Liu Mang replied indifferently. The sword in his hand was bloody but he did not care at all.

“You! You dare! Do you all want to die?” Hao Liu was frightened and angry. He just wanted to shut up Jiang Yan but now, not only did he fail to silence Jiang Yan. His men was even injured and was now rolling on the floor.

“Die? Can you even kill us?”

“Haha! How refreshing!” Guan Hai added.

“Fine! I gave you all face but you are still shameless!” Hao Liu became angry. Killing intent was evident in his eyes. Even he has killed before in this chaotic era, several of which were innocent civilians though that was before he became an official.

“Men! Kill them!” Hao Liu ordered. His men were all his trusted subordinates. They too, were scoundrels and rogues who were once thrown into prison. They worked tirelessly for Hao Liu who accepted them and would happily kill the common people if they got in Hao Liu’s path.

“Understood!” Hao Liu’s subordinates all unsheathed their swords and stepped towards Liu Mang.

“Brother Han! Be careful! Everyone! This Hao Liu wants us to sell ourselves to slavery! We cannot allow them to get away with this! There are only a few of them while there are many of us! Let us fight together!” Jiang Yan felt a little guilty as he spoke. Because of him, he was going to get Liu Mang killed. He wanted to agitate the other refugees to provide help.

While Liu Mang was thankful for Jiang Yan’s gesture, he did not take it seriously. This is because he knew what those commoners would think.

As expected, they started to panic and run away. They were the kind of people that thought of their own immediate benefits and would rebel only if someone else led the way. That being said, they would quickly become afraid when they have to face against weapons. The people were timid out of the helplessness they feel when they have to fight against the government officials.

It was fortunate that Liu Mang had never counted on them helping at all.

“Guan Hai. Zhou Cang. We have rested enough. It is time to exercise a little.” Liu mang showed some killing intent. Hao Liu was not a good person. Based on how Old Xu had reacted to this, it was quite evident that this scam has been going on for quite a while now. When Hao Liu told his subordinates to attack, they all acted without hesitation. The way they treated the common people was enough to show their true nature. That was why Liu Mang had no hesitation in killing them.

“Milord. I want to fight ten!” Zhou Cang boasted shamelessly.

“Have you forgotten about your injuries?” Guan Hai sneered. “Stay here and protect the Lord. Leave this people to me!”

All of them boasted shamelessly. This caused Jiang Yan to be struck dumb while Hao Liu’s men laughed.

Liu Mang and the others were only three people. On top of that, only one of them was armed. On the other hand, Hao Liu and his subordinates had eighteen armed men, all of which were former fugitives that had killed before.

“Don’t kill them so quickly. Cut off their arms and legs first! I want them to regret ever being born!” Hao Liu said as he pointed at Liu Mang.

“Fine! The worst that can happen is death!” Jiang Yan gritted his teeth and stepped forward to help Liu Mang. Liu Mang could not help but look at Jiang Yan in surprise. This poor scholar was actually so brave.

However, Liu Mang found it funny from Jiang Yan’s nervous appearance. “Brother Jiang. Just look after yourself. Oh right, I forgot to say. The King of Shu did not fool the world and is not a fake king. He is conferred this title by the Imperial Court.” Liu Mang said this and slashed with the sword in his hand. The blade sliced the throat of one of the Xinye defender. The victim reflexively dropped his sword and held onto his neck. His mouth was open wide as he tried to breathe. However, it was too late. Blood continued to spill from his throat and he soon fell dead.

“Ah!” Jiang Yan screamed. Though he was obstinate, the sight of someone dying in front of him still frightened him.

“Guan Hai! Catch!” Liu Mang said as he threw one of the swords to Guan Hai. Guan Hai grabbed the sword and slashed immediately after. His blade split a defender’s head into two.

“I want ten! Ten!” Zhou Cang did not have a sword but he was strong. He grabbed one defender and pummeled his face. After three punches, there was a loud cracking sound. Zhou Cang’s hands was stained with something white and sticky. Jiang Yan almost vomited from the sight. That was someone’s brains.

“Pretty boy. This is for you.” Zhou Cang said as he threw the corpse towards Jiang Yan before looking for his next victim.

For some reason, the number of corpses at Jiang Yan’s feet continued to increase. Jiang Yan was naturally pale from fright. He only managed to resist losing consciousness with great difficulty.

“Zhou Cang. Guan Hai. Don’t frighten people!” Liu Mang rebuked the two when he saw what Jiang Yan was experiencing.

“Haha!” Zhou Cang laughed but Guan Hai showed disdain. Who told Jiang Yan to say malicious things about their Lord? If Liu Mang had not stopped him, he would have just let the defenders kill him.

“How dare you!” Hao Liu was finally afraid as the three were too powerful. His men were all fugitives who were experts at killing. Yet they were all killed so easily.

“You will be fighting me!” Hao Liu roared loudly as he took out his sword.

“Haha.” Zhou Cang and Guan Hai sneered. Who was Hao Liu going to fight?

“Guan Hai. You cannot snatch things from me. This one is mine.” Zhou Cang said with a smile.

“I won’t snatch from you. But if he wants to court death by fighting me, I won’t have a choice!” Guan Hai replied coldly.

“I want this Hao Liu alive.” Liu Mang added.

Guan Hai and Zhou Cang both waited to see who Hao Liu would pick to duel. However, they quickly opened their eyes in surprise as Hao Liu quickly bolted towards his horse at the opposite direction. He then ran away on his horse.

“What!” Zhou Cang and Guan Hai were struck dumb as Hao Liu escaped.

“Where are you running to?” Zhou Cang and Guan Hai chased Hao Liu. Zhou Cang also threw the sword in his hand.

“Argh!” The sword struck Hao Liu in his back, seriously injuring him. He would have died if he were not wearing armor. The sword then fell and struck the horse on its backside. This caused the horse to run wild.

Zhou Cang and Guan Hai wanted to chase him but they could only watch the horse take Hao Liu further away.

“Come back.” Liu Mang shouted.

“Shit! We allowed him to escape!”

“We can no longer chase him.” Liu Mang shook his head. If Hao Liu had only just got on the horse they could still chase him down. This is because the horse was an inferior horse, it could not outrun warhorses. Guan Hai and Zhou Cang could have chased it down with their explosive strength.

However, the injury Zhou Cang had caused made the horse run wild. At that point, they could no longer chase it.

“Brother Han. Many thanks for saving my life.” Jiang Yan could finally move. It was already an achievement for him that he did not faint after seeing all the gore.

“There is no need for thanks. I would have act even if you weren’t here.” Liu Mang waved his hand to dismiss Jiang Yan’s gratitude.

“Brother Han. Let us quickly run!” Jiang Yan did not argue and said to Liu Mang.

“Run? Why should we run?”

“That Hao Liu would definitely return with more men! They will definitely come back to take revenge on us!”

“If they don’t come, I would go looking for them!” Liu Mang narrowed his eyes. He never expected his policy to be abused this way. What about the other cities like Shouchun, Wancheng, and Hefei. Were they like this as well?

The reason Liu Mang hated the nobles was because they stood in the way of his policies. Yet after he killed the nobles, another group came to interfere.

“There are only four of us!” Jiang Yan tried to persuade Liu Mang. They still had the chance to escape since Hao Liu was going back to Xinye. However, it would become a problem the moment Hao Liu comes back with an army.

“Guan Hai. Bring that Old Xu here for me!” Liu Mang ignored Jiang Yan and gave his orders to Guan Hai.

“Understood!” Guan Hai nodded and walked away before he came back with Old Xu in tow.

“Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! I beg you! I will give you anything! It has nothing to do with me! It is all Hao Liu’s fault!” Old Xu begged. He was frightened after Liu Mang’s group of three killed Hao Liu’s subordinates.

“Whether we kill you or not depends on your behavior.” Liu Mang said with a smile.

“As long as you spare my life, I will listen to everything you say!” Old Xu begged.

“Speak. Who is backing Hao Liu?” Liu Mang asked. Hao Liu was just a gatekeeper. He would not have been so bold nor could he have managed to gather thousands of people. Otherwise, someone would have noticed this and killed him. After all, there were too much profits to be made here. Liu Mang was uneasy because of Hao Liu’s surname. If it was really that person, Liu Mang would have to regretfully use martial law.

“I will speak! I will speak! Hao Liu is the Guo Family’s person!”

“The Guo Family?”

“Yes! Officer Guo Yi of the Guo Family from Xinye!” Old Xu explained. The Guo Family were the new nobles of Xinye. Originally, Guo Yi was just a county officer but then most of the nobles left for Jingzhou after Xinye became Yangzhou’s territory. As a result, there was a power vacuum and the Guo Family became influential.

Liu QI may know how to govern but his vision is limited. He followed the old methods or ruling with the nobles. It was because of this that the Guo Family could rise. The real problem started when Liu Qi had vanished. This allowed the Guo Family to act brazenly.

“The Guo Family? Hahaha!” Liu Mang laughed angrily. How dare such an insignificant family do such a thing? Liu Mang also remembered that these were the people that took their horses.

“Brother Han! Let’s run away! It is not worth fighting against the Guo Family. Let us go to Jingzhou or Yanzhou. I am sure you can obtain a good position with your skills! Then we can come back, revenge and expose the King of Shu’s true identity!” Jiang Yan continued to persuade.

“Shut up!” Guan Hai immediately scolded before Liu Mang could say anything. “If you continue to speak badly of the King of Shu, do not blame me for being impolite!”

“Why are you angry?” Jiang Yang could not understand Guan Hai’s anger. He was talking about the King of Shu, Liu Mang. What does it have to do Han Yang? Jiang Yan was annoyed and confused about why they keep telling him not to speak badly of the King of Shu when it was the King of Shu’s subordinates causing trouble.

“Brother Jiang. If you want to run, you can run.” Liu Mang furrowed his brows. No matter how generous he was, he would also get angry when people continued to say bad things about him.

“Nevermind. So what if I die? In the end. This Jiang Wan’s life was saved by you all. At worse, it is giving my life back to you!” Jiang Yan, or rather, Jiang Wan, said while gritting his teeth.

“Jiang Wan?” Liu Mang felt that the name was familiar. However, he did not think too much about it as there were many people who concealed their real names. Even he was using the name Han Yang as an alias.

****

“What good horses!” At the Xinye defender’s horsetrack, Guo Yi, the Patriach of the Guo Family praised his newly obtained horse after trying it out. The dust created by the horse floated in the sky. He was very satisfied with all the horses he just obtained. Even the lousiest horse of the group was good enough to use for war.

Amongst the horses, the best one in his opinion was black warhorse.

“General. Congratulations for obtaining precious horses!” Guo Yi’s deputy general flattered.

“Hahaha!” Guo Yi liked this kind of flattery. “Except for the black one, choose one of these horses for yourself!” He had four horses so the remaining three needed to be given away. He decided to gift one horse to his deputy general.

“Thank you General!” The deputy general was also a fighter so he coveted the horses. People like him loved weapons and horses the most. A good horse could save your life. So why would the deputy general not be happy about this?

Besides that, horses were all bred in the North. With Cao Cao controlling the North, there was no chance for there to be horses in the South. Anyone who dares to sell horses in the South would receive the death penalty. Though Liu Mang had opened up a trade route with the Gongsun Family via the ocean, he only had enough horses for the main army. These garrison troops won’t get any horses at all.

It was also because of this that horses were very expensive at the black market. Good horses on the other hand, were priceless.

“I wonder how those people obtain these horses. It would be great if they had a way!” Guo Yi patted the horse as he thought of the horse’s original owner. It would be great if they had a way to procure more as these horses were thousands of gold at minimum. He then felt a little remorseful that he handed over those people to Hao Liu. Though at the very least, they would be able to work the farmland to provide for him. In a sense, he was still doing a good thing.

“Come. Let us go back to camp!” Guo Yi was also starting to feel tired and wanted to return.

“G, General! Officer Hao Liu is injured and is requesting an audience!” A messenger quickly reported.

“Hao Liu? Injured?” Guo Yi could not believe it as Hao Liu went to scam people. How could he have gotten injured? There were no bandits at Xinye.

“What about my horse?” Guo Yi asked. His horse was his first concern. It may not be the best horse but it was still a horse.

“General. Your horse have already perished.”

“My horse!” Guo Yi said ruthlessly. “Bring Hao Liu to me! I want to hear his explanation!” Guo Yi said and headed towards the military’s tent.

Guo Yi waited for a while before Hao Liu arrived. Hao Liu was supported into the tent by others as his injuries were quite serious. His back and butt was injured. The injuries on his back was light because of the armor but his butt wasn’t armored. The injury may not be fatal but it was still terrible.

“General! You must avenge me!” Hao Liu cried out in pain. Guo Yi initially intended to blame Hao Liu for the death of his horse. Though he intended to replace his horse, that horse was still at least eighty gold. On top of that, his old horse has been with him for a while so he felt sentimental towards it. However, his intentions of blaming Hao Liu faded away when he saw Hao Liu’s condition.

“What happened to you? Didn’t you go to Xu Lian’s place? How did you get so injured?” Guo Yi asked.

“General! There is a revolt! I was almost unable to come back!” Hao Liu then explained what happened.

“What? Your subordinates were killed? Useless! What are you doing? How can a dozen people be killed by three?”

“General! I…!” Hao Liu did not know how to explain things. He and a dozen of his men were killed by three people that were initially unarmed.

“General. There is something wrong here. Where did these good horses come from? If they were only here to visit relatives, they could just sit on a carriage. Why would they need warhorses?” The deputy general said.

“General! Those bandits are encouraging the people to rebel. If they succeed, we would lose our land! We would be finished if the Governor shows up!” Hao Liu wailed.

“The land?” Guo Yi finally realized it was not the time to blame Hao Liu over the death of this horse. He needed to catch these three shameless instigators before the Governor, Liu Pi, is alerted. Otherwise, Guo Yi would have to suffer the consequences.

“Men! Follow me to the settlement!” Guo Yi said to his guards.

“General! These few people are not enough!” Hao Liu said to Guo Yi. He was already traumatized by Liu Mang’s subordinates.

“Do you think I am so weak like you?” Guo Yi asked with disdain.

“No General!” Hao Liu could not say that he was afraid. “General, there are a few thousand weapons at the settlement. If the people were instigated to fight, you would be in danger.”

The deputy general nodded at this and also persuaded. “General. It is best to be safe. It would be bad if several thousand people charge at you.”

“Fine. Let us bring a thousand people!” Guo Yi nodded. “Gather the troops!”

“Understood!”

***

“Brother Jiang. Are you not running away?” Liu Mang spaced out as he thought of something. He then realized that Jiang Wan was still around.

“If you all are not running, then I would not run as well!” Jiang Wan replied unyieldingly.

“You do not need to worry about us! When the battle starts, we cannot protect you.”

“The worst that could happen is death and you have already saved this life once.” Jiang Wan replied loudly.

“Hmph. I wonder who is the one whose face turned white when he saw corpses!” Zhou Cang said, causing Jiang Wan to feel awkward.

“Enough, speak less!” Liu Mang waved his hand. “Brother Jiang. Why are you here?” Liu Mang asked as Jiang Wan was a scholar. He should not have appeared at this settlement camp. Yangzhou was lacking in scholars so Jiang Wan could have easily gotten a better job.

“I also wanted to become an official but I was robbed along the way so I ended up like this.” Jiang Wan explained. Jiang Wan, courtesy name Gongyan, was a villager from Xiangxiang. He was also famous at Jingzhou because of his talent. He wanted to go to Yangzhou but only managed to reach Xinye after his money was stolen. Since he could not pay the fare to enter Xinye, he was caught and brought here by Hao Liu.

“This Hao Liu should be killed!” Liu Mang said with killing intent. To think there was a toll for entering the city even for the common people.

“Hmph! To think I was going to join up with the King of Shu but ended up like this!” Jiang Wan started to speak with dissatisfaction again.

“Brother Jiang. The King of Shu is the King of Shu. Hao Liu is Hao Liu. The King of Shu definitely did not allow Hao Liu to act this way.”

“Then he is a fool!” Jiang Wan said boastfully.

“Boy. You really don’t know the meaning of death!” Guan Hai said and was about to punch Jiang Wan but Jiang Wan remained firm.

“Hit me if you want! I did not say anything wrong! I thought the King of Shu would be wise and capable for the people but in the end he only brought harm!”

“Oh? Why do you say that?” Liu Mang was interested.

“Brother Han. You can see it for yourself! His Highness gave three mu of land and reduced the tax to thirty percent. This is good, but look at what happened! What is the difference here compared to other places? The land still belong to others! Elsewhere, they possess it openly while here, they act secretly! In the end, the corrupt simply become richer while the common people suffer!”

“You!”

“Then does Brother Jiang have a way to fix this problem?” Liu Mang could tell that Jiang Wan was talented from his logical arguments so he asked with interest.

“Of course!”

“Oh? Tell me!”

“His Highness the King of Shu might be merciful to the people but he made a mistake. If we change one policy he would be able to implement this.”

“Speak.”

“The King of Shu’s policy failed because he allowed land to be sold. As a result, the corrupt officials could greedily grab for more. If we make the land unable to be sold, these corrupt officials would not be able to do anything!” Jiang Wan gave his suggestion.

“But if you cannot sell it, the common people may not have a sense of belonging!” Yangzhou could attract so many people because they were giving away land. If you go to Yangzhou, you will obtain your own private property. If you only allow them to farm but not sell the land, the people would be less enthusiastic. Only by having their own land could they have a sense of belonging. If they could not sell the land, then there was no point to Liu Mang giving them land.

“That is easy. Make it such that they could only sell it to the authorities.” Jiang Wan spoke frankly.

“Sell to the authorities?”

“Yes. The authorities buy it at market value. Then the nobles would not be able to steal land!”

“Nationalization of land?”

“Yes.” Jiang Wan nodded. That was exactly what he meant. Don’t all the land belong to the King? By nationalizing land, they could only sell to the authorities. This prevents the land from being annexed by the nobles and the people could continue to farm.

“Jiang Wan?” Liu Mang mumbled the scholar’s name. Nationalizing the land sounded simple but it was not easy to come up with the idea. Jiang Wan was able to give the rough idea but the main idea was still there.

“Brother Jiang. Where did you study?”

“The Lumen Academy from Jingzhou.”

“You graduated?”

“Yes.”

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