{Originally, yesterday's chapter was going to end the plot of the victory over Ukka, but I found that some of the content in the chapter story was not detailed enough, so I added a plot to delay the plot of the victory over Uka to this chapter.} Wait for me to update the official content. I will also share the story of the card with you, Mu Xia classmate. }

In the winter of when I was twelve, I ushered in the year of my birth, and my family specially boiled red eggs to celebrate. After four or five years of study, I have become a good hand at doing farm work, and my body is quite strong under the influence of long-term labor, and the natal year is more like a coming-of-age ceremony for me. In order to feel the responsibility of an adult, my father decided to let me attend this year's land distribution lottery.

The land in the village does not belong to any one person, I have learned about the history of the land, and my father told me about it. Father said that in ancient times, the monarch owned everything on the land and everything on the land, and the monarch levied a lot of taxes, and the people were miserable. Later, the Cult of God used the slogan of private ownership of land to encourage the people to rebel against the monarchy, and many people were attracted to it, and in the battle between strength and numbers, the Cult won the victory, and the Cult fulfilled its promise to distribute the land to the peasants. However, about 20 years ago, the Divine Religion suddenly made a series of decisions, separating the right to use land from the ownership of the land, and the ownership of the land was classified as the Divine Religion. There is a contradiction in this history, that it is wrong for the monarch to own the land, and it is right for the religion to own the land. I couldn't figure this out, but then I figured it out, we were saved from the reign of terror of evil heresies by the Cult of God led by the Pope, and we needed a great Cult of God to rule. This is obviously another contradictory idea, but I dare not say it, because to say it would be to incite subversion of the Religion, which is punishable by at least five years in prison and confiscation of all property.

The village chief and several clergy had already divided the area of land, and the whole village gathered together and began to take turns grabbing the notes in the basin. The strip of paper reads the code of the land area, from one to two hundred, representing the range from fertile land to barren and barren. One thing is for sure, the first 50 notes have long since fallen into the hands of the relatives of the village chief and the clergy, while the 51 to 80 have been reserved for those who gave bribes. Before drawing lots, I always fantasized that I could catch below 90 with good luck. After drawing lots, disillusionment, one hundred and thirty-seventh, my father could only sigh silently when he saw this number.

Once the land was chosen, the clergy began to solicit land use fees. Land use fees are better than land taxes, and the same is to collect money, and the tax word is much more terrifying, which is one of the greatness of the new language. In previous years, this money had to be paid, and each person needed to pay three catties of salt according to the capitation. In our region, there are many salt wells, and the production of salt is balanced, and it is a daily necessities, so salt plays the role of currency in the transaction process. The salt coins in the village, each ten points in diameter, four points thick, where thirty pieces weigh one catty, every thirty salt coins can be exchanged for eight silver coins. The land use fee of three catties of salt is an acceptable amount, so we are also happy to pay. But this year is very different, the clergy said that the border war is chaotic, and the empire needs a lot of military pay and materials, so this year's land use fee has risen to ten catties of salt per person, even counting the newborn children.

The increase in land use fees more than tripled immediately caused controversy, and everyone expressed their dissatisfaction and insisted on protesting against the refusal to pay. The drawing of lots was boiling, and the quarrels continued. I saw the village chief secretly talk to his relatives, and then the relatives stood up and expressed their opinions, first he said that the matter of the empire defending the people was very important, then emphasized the importance of military pay to the soldiers, and finally took the lead in paying the whole family forty catties of salt coins. Everyone saw that some people took the lead in paying, so some people took the initiative to pay the land use fee, because ten catties of salt were still within their acceptable range. But many of the remaining people did not have the ability to pay, and the situation suddenly became deadlocked. The clergy constantly said harsh things, such as leading the army to sweep the village. The village chief kept begging, saying that he was already an old bone and couldn't stand the toss. In this way, there are some people who grit their teeth and pay the usage fee, including our family. We are all praying that the war will be over this year and that the land use fee will be lowered, but this is not possible.

The last group of people really couldn't come up with so many salt coins, and they were anxious and angry.

"We really can't come up with so much money, the land is the worst, the harvest is not good, and we don't get the money."

"No matter. Either pay the money or return the land. Freedom of choice. ”

"I don't have any money. After paying the money, our whole family starved to death before they could thresh the grain, and you have pity on us. ”

"No matter. Either pay the money or return the land. Freedom of choice. ”

"No, retreat to the ground, we will starve to death if we eat, you have pity on us, kneel down for you."

That's it, whether it's a small teacher or a big clergy, they will claim to give you free choice, but they will certainly not give you freedom of choice. This is the logic of robbers and scoundrels, and the terrible thing is that robbers and scoundrels are proud of this logic, and what is even more terrible is that the robbers also praise this logic.

In the free choice of either paying money or returning the land, these people chose to mortgage the land use fee with living utensils in desperation. A piece of land that was supposed to bring life to the peasants has extracted some of the peasants' vitality in advance, and I believe that as long as we continue to remain silent like this, the land use fee will definitely rise next year. Sooner or later, there will be a vicious circle of buying land in order to live and living hard in order to buy land. Suddenly, I understood that the empire needed us to stay poor. I understood this when I was 12 years old, and although I don't know the root cause, I just understood it. As soon as I understood, I began to be afraid, and I thought about running away, desperate to get away from poverty and ignorance.

Winter is gone, spring is coming. At the beginning of the rice planting season, I barely straightened my waist for a day, and even when I slept, I was bent over, and as soon as I straightened my waist, there was a burst of soreness. Every day I lay in bed thinking about one thing, and when the rice planting was over, I would leave the house, take nothing with me, and run in the direction of the city while it was dark.

I finally left my parents and ran to a city with countless beautiful legends on a night that no one knew, taking that broken card with that broken card. I fantasize that tall buildings, fast horses, machines, cards, money, beauties, and glory are welcoming me with open arms, but the only ones who really welcome me with open arms are beasts that go out to forage. The roar of the beast shattered my illusions in an instant, and I was so frightened that I peed my pants and stood stupidly and didn't dare to move. Probably because I was lucky, the beast didn't come and eat me, maybe it was full, or maybe I had too little, and it looked at me twice and left.