Seventy-seven, the world's chess (fourth)

Seventy-seven, the world's chess (fourth)

Kaifeng Prefecture, Henan

The dry and bitter autumn wind roared across the bleak earth, rolled up sand and dust, dyeing everything in the world a layer of gray and yellow dim colors, and casually took away the water that was not much on people, making people feel very hot.

The turbid Yellow River has brought too much mud and sand to this once fertile land of the Central Plains, and has also made this ancient capital of Zhongzhou feel like it is in a desert. Throughout the year, the sky above Kaifeng is always shrouded by sandstorms, sprinkling endless yellow sand, flying in the sky during the day, and blocking the stars and the moon at night. This makes the sky always look so chaotic and hazy.

Between the suburbs of Kaifeng, this season was supposed to be a golden harvest, but now there was ominous black smoke lingering - the bean and wheat crops that were about to mature in the fields were all lying in a mess, trampled into pieces like shattered catkins.

Countless ragged and pale-faced farmers, holding simple sickles and wooden sticks in their hands, have been knocked down and cut down, lying down incompletely, and have been buried forever in this field where they worked hard to sow. Gurgling blood spurted out from their bodies, mixed with grass and soil, turning into a dazzling red and black...

But a team of knights showing off their mighty horses galloped between the red and black blood stains and the corpses, chatting and laughing calmly.

"...These tax-resistant and unruly people who don't know how to live and die! They are really stubborn!"

"...Yes, they dare to beat the servants who collected food and grass! Do they want to rebel?!"

"...We have to kill these unruly people a few times to make them obedient!"

"...Oh, but the heads are not leeks after all, and they can't grow back if they are cut off... After killing so many people, who will plant these lands next year?"

"...Hi! Why are you sighing! We have swords and horses. As long as we go to the south, we still have to worry about not being able to catch the coat slave?"

...

In front of this team of fierce and bloodthirsty knights, a dark-faced general was patrolling the scene of the tax-resistance violence, surrounded by several loyal guards.

This is a tall, heroic and handsome middle-aged man, wearing gorgeous and heavy armor. On the chest, shoulders and the armor pieces behind him, there are gilded reliefs decorated with beast patterns, and behind him is a scarlet wool velvet cloak. A big black and shiny braid is casually wrapped around his neck. The war horse under his crotch is also agile and majestic, with a rainbow of momentum, like a divine dragon. It is definitely not comparable to ordinary people.

He is the most powerful prince who is now the most powerful prince, the last pillar of the royal family, and the King of Wei Wanyan Chubai, who dominates the Central Plains.

However, at this time, His Highness the King of Wei was in a panic.

"...Baoding, Cangzhou, Dezhou, Luoyang... Even the Kaifeng Mansion where I stationed in is not stable now! Why are these damn mud legs unwilling to pay the food and tax obediently?!"

Looking at the bloody slaughterhouse outside Kaifeng Prefecture, His Highness Wanyan Chubai, who has always been cruel and easy to kill and is willing to give people lunch boxes, did not have any pity or regret, but just felt full of irritability and annoyance.

Since this summer, many prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of King Wei have been frequently exploding in various tax-resistant violence. So far, less than half of the autumn grain has been put into storage, but the garrison has cut off and killed the unruly people until they are lenient.

But to be honest, the reason why civil rebellion is so frequent is that His Highness the King of Wei is not aware of restraint and is determined to impose heavy taxes. Although the Wei vassal jurisdiction includes more than 100 counties in Henan and Hebei, it is also the essence of the Central Plains, and it is the best place in the world on the map. But in fact, most of these places have not been recovered for a long time. They were ravaged by war, and were filled with desolate scenes of city decay, fields desolate, and people being separated.

Faced with such a broken scene of people's livelihood, as a person in charge, he should have been able to streamline the government and rest with the people.

However, in order to support the 130,000 army that was arrogant and the 130,000 cavalry under his command, Wanyan Chubai had to plunder this difficult land and squeeze out the last drop of oil and water from the thin and thin people.

Therefore, the people of the Central Plains who returned to the jurisdiction of the court suddenly realized with grief and anger that the life they were about to live was not as good as those of the years when the Tukan Hushang was rampant!

Especially this year, there was a severe drought in the Central Plains, withering large tracts of crops, severe wheat harvests, and famine spread in Henan and Hebei. However, the powerful King of Wei Wanyan Chubai was ambitious to expand his army to 180,000 to completely overwhelm the other vassals and strengthen his voice in the country.

However, due to the extreme financial tension, the court had basically stopped funding for the King of Wei. This astronomical military pay, food and rice could only scrape three feet from his jurisdiction!

As a result, in this year of disaster, the government not only did not exempt the people from taxes, but also had to further impose taxes. The servants asked the farmers to pay more food than the actual food produced in the fields, and there was no tolerance. The farmers who gnawed on the bark of elm and dried leaves were forced to hand over the last bit of food seeds they had treasured after being tortured to death; swollen patients who were so weak that they could not walk had to hand over horse feed to the army; in front of the doors of government offices in various places, there were even piles of corpses of poor peasants who were beaten to death...

Many people sadly found that even if they sold livestock, land, or even their wives and daughters, they still could not pay the full tax... So, these poor people naturally embarked on the road of rebellion and began to gather people to besiege the government and wealthy families to grab grain and money to grab women.

As a result, the territory of the King of Wei was full of war. The 180,000 troops were busy putting out fires all day long, until they killed people and blood flowed into rivers, but they still could not stabilize the situation. Since they would starve to death without rebellion, then those who still chose to be good people were definitely fools!

His Highness the King of Wei expressed his great discomfort in this regard.

"...These damn bad guys don't even starve in An'an, and they will be like You Fen's mantis!"

Wanyan Chubai cursed in resentment, not expecting how terrible it would be to be a prince who was under his jurisdiction to be given to death after paying all the food.

Then, he looked down at the full text of a bright yellow silk imperial edict he had just received. He was really worried, "... Why did I, the emperor's nephew, cause a big disaster at this time? I am really powerless!"

Due to the raging refugees in the territory, they were unable to calm down. Until late November, as the situation in the capital was about to collapse, the King of Wei, Wanyan Chubai, who claimed to have 180,000 troops, resolutely brought troops south to serve the king and rescue the emperor despite the fire in his backyard.

However, at that time, the world situation had already begun to be reshuffled again and could no longer be cured.

Divide-Separation-Line
Chapter completed!