The prince is very fierce

The rice clouds are not yellow without rain, and the empty buckwheat flowers are frosted early.

I have endured hunger to spend the rest of the year, and it is even longer than the leap year.

The cold winter of the twelfth month of the eleventh year of Zhaohong seemed much longer than in previous years. This was true for Xu Buling who was running around, and for the people of Jiangnan Road, it was so long that it was a luxury to spend a day.

The "New Year's Eve" that used to symbolize family reunion also showed its original meaning at this time - people who owed rent and debts had to pay off their debts on the last day of the year. The New Year was like passing a customs check, so it was called the "New Year's Eve".

It is true that Jiangnan is the richest in the world, but the rich can never be the people who face the loess and back the sky. A flood in autumn left no harvest in Muzhou, Xiuzhou and other places, and the people's houses and farmland were washed away. Hundreds of thousands of people suffered and became refugees with "no money in their pockets and a thousand thunders in their stomachs".

Originally, the court should have vigorously provided disaster relief and exempted taxes at this time, but last year, there was a severe drought in Shu, and the court had exempted Shu's annual tax for one year. Tax revenue was hit hard. If the annual tax in Jiangnan was exempted, how could it support nearly one million troops on the long front?

The court did not care and let the King of Wu find a way out. The King of Wu paid out of his own pocket and lobbied the wealthy families to make up for the tax deficit for the court, but how to feed hundreds of thousands of mouths?

Perhaps the King of Wu could help hundreds of thousands of people survive this winter by draining his family's assets and forcing the wealthy families to open their warehouses, but why did the King of Wu risk his own vitality to take the blame for the court, which was not his fault, Song Siming?

Just because his surname is Song, he has to open his heart to your cousin who is the emperor?

Obviously impossible, the world is not his King of Wu!

Song Ji summoned the seventh prince to the capital and took action against Xu Buling with the intention of reducing the vassal state, which made the King of Wu feel the knife hanging on his neck.

It is impossible to stop at just one vassal. As long as this knife is raised, Song Ji will definitely find ways to reduce the power of the seven vassal kings to a controllable level during his reign.

Song Ji's plan against Prince Su ended in failure, and he may stop temporarily, but many vassal kings have seen Song Ji's ambition. How can they let Song Ji stabilize the situation and find an opportunity to attack again?

The court repaired the pass, raised the iron cavalry, and accumulated heavy troops, sucking the blood of the people in Jiangnan and Shu. The court's taxes increased year by year, and the families with fields at home gradually became unable to bear it. They had long been complaining. Now a disaster has exposed all the accumulated drawbacks in previous years and broke out in just a few months.

As the extremely cold weather that has not been seen in many years ravaged Jiangnan, the refugees spread across thousands of miles were homeless and hungry. When the despair in the hearts of the refugees reached the extreme, only a small flame was needed to burn the entire Jiangnan.

The right time and right place were all there, only one person was missing. After the King of Wu got the jade seal, the person who started the fire naturally appeared.

In the evening of the end of the twelfth lunar month, outside the residence of Zhang Youchang, the local head of the village in Wannian Township, Qingxi County, Muzhou, the light of the torch illuminated the snowy wilderness.

The refugees gathered from the surrounding towns and villages stood in the wind and snow like zombies, with ragged clothes, pale faces and thin bodies, and there was no end in sight.

Qingxi County produces a lot of bamboo paper, which is famous in the north and south of Dayue. It is a very common thing in the study of rich people, but no one knows how much blood and sweat of barefoot people are hidden behind this simple Qingxi bamboo paper.

Because of its rich production of bamboo paper, Qingxi County has always been a focus of government extortion, and it has been overwhelmed in the past. In the autumn, a flood hit Qingxi County very hard, and most of the workshops and houses were destroyed. The people who could not escape suffered heavy casualties and are still homeless today. The imperial court, which had been paying taxes every year, did not send a single grain of food to save lives. At this critical moment, the village head Zhang Youchang was still collecting head taxes from house to house. If they could not pay, they would be beaten with sticks.

The family was gone, and the people were gone, so why should they pay the head tax?

The local people did not know that the village head was also forced to collect taxes by the upper level with a knife. They only saw Zhang Youchang's ugly face of collecting silver and grain from house to house with a list of yamen runners, who had no worries about food and clothing.

The people either starved and froze in the deep mountains and old forests, protecting the last bit of food in their hands, or fled and became beggars and refugees, but their roots were in Qingxi County. Where could they escape? Their ancestors did not escape when the officials of Da Qi ruled here a hundred years ago. Why should they escape now?

The pent-up resentment and the despair of being in danger of losing their lives have reached a peak in the hearts of the people of Qingxi County. And today, someone vented their anger for them-Sun Qian is back! Kill Zhang Youchang!

Sun Qian was born in Qingxi County. When he was young, he was quite famous in the world. He was also a figure from Qingxi County. Most of the people in Qingxi County have heard of Sun Qian's name, and many people have seen him when they were young. Later, it was heard that Sun Qian committed a murder. In order to avoid being arrested by the court, he ran to the Hongshan Lake area and became a bandit.

When the flood occurred in autumn, many desperate people in Qingxi County also ran to Hongshan Lake for refuge, and Hongshan Water Village also accepted them.

Sun Qian peeled people's skin, tied up hostages and blackmailed wealthy businessmen. He was obviously an unforgivable evil man, but for the elders and villagers of Qingxi County, how could he be as evil as the court?

At least when they were starving and cold and had nowhere to go, it was Sun Qian who gave them a bite of food, not the court.

Today, Sun Qian came back and did something that the local people wanted to do but didn't dare to do - killing Zhang Youchang's family of twelve and hanging them on the gate.

The ugly face that had once robbed and plundered people now appeared in front of nearly a thousand people, dripping with blood.

The tall and thin Sun Qian held a bloody knife in his hand, and behind him were nearly a hundred men with murderous eyes. The elite water villagers who had escaped from Hongshan Lake stood outside the Zhang family's mansion, wearing yellow scarves on their heads and raising big flags.

Sun Qian stood on the high platform, holding a head in his hand and said loudly:

"The emperor calls us 'subjects.' Have you ever seen a father forcefully ask for money and food when his son is about to starve or freeze to death? We pay money and food every year. These are all our blood and sweat. What did the emperor do with our blood and sweat? He gave it to rich squires and dignitaries, so that they could live in fine clothes and live happily, chatting about romantic poems and songs...

... Even living is a luxury for us now, but no one has ever looked at us. We only need a handful of rice. As long as a handful of rice, our son will not die, and our parents will not die. We paid so much money and food before, When parents, wives and children were starving to death, what did those officials do? They were still eating, drinking and having fun in the city, and even blocked the city gate to prevent us from entering, not even letting us pick up leftovers...

...Why can they stop working and sit at home and enjoy their happiness? Why do we have to work hard year after year to provide them with food, drink and enjoyment? They all have only one head and two hands, why are their lives more valuable than ours? Are princes, generals and prime ministers born to be successful? Old General Xu was just a butcher back then, and he was even meaner than us. He could split the territory and become a prince, so why should we suffer such arrogance here? We can't survive anymore, why should we just wait here to die? …

...I, Sun Qian, commit murder, set fires, and do all kinds of evil. I am not a good person. But I, Sun Qian, was born in Qingxi County. I will never let my parents down. You gave me a mouthful of rice and a bowl of water back then, and I can give you a life back now. I killed Zhang Youchang for you. The court doesn’t care about you and me. We went to the city to rob if we had no food or clothes to wear. We robbed from rich people’s houses. Those are ours. They are the robbers and bandits. They forced us... …”

Passionate and passionate, a few words touched the pain of everyone in the audience without any bias.

The hungry and cold people could no longer bear the grievances in their hearts at this moment. Their emotions were gradually infected, and they screamed and cried loudly.

What does the peace of the world have to do with them who are desperate?

Their lives are already in jeopardy. All they want is a handful of rice. If the court doesn't give it to them, then they will give it to the court!

A spark that burns everything!