Hanzhong County, Chuyang County.

Since the establishment of Hanzhong County, Chuyang has always been the second largest county in Hanzhong County after the county governance Nanzheng.

At that time, Cao Cao, under the advice of his subordinates, migrated a large number of people from several counties near Nanzheng to Guanzhong.

Under Cao Cao's move, the population of Nanzheng and its nearby counties was drastically reduced, and the powerful families in their counties were also hit hard.

However, the county was closer to Yizhou, and Cao Cao's move to move the population of Hanzhong was somewhat hasty.

Therefore, the population in the county has not plummeted much.

In the same way, under the same situation, Chuyang County surpassed Nanzheng County and became the strongest base of the wealthy families in Hanzhong County.

It was precisely for this reason that Liu Bei specially placed the location of the king in Chuyang County.

His purpose is to deter those powerful families in and outside of Chuyang County.

It has been several years since Liu Bei became emperor.

Perhaps the grand event of tens of thousands of troops gathering and hundreds of ministers gathering to claim the throne greatly shocked the ill-intentioned powerful forces inside and outside the county.

It's just that over time, that deterrent is slowly dissipating.

The powerful forces inside and outside of Chuyang County are also slowly recovering from their old ways.

For example, the Xiao family, which can be called a hegemon in Chuyang County.

This Xiao family is the family that dares to openly question Xiao Pu who threatens Mi Yang.

It's autumn, and it's the time for the ears of wheat to ripen in the fields.

There is water in the vicinity of Chuyang, and this superior water conservancy condition has made agricultural production outside Chuyang County always the leader among the counties in Hanzhong County.

A large endless wheat field lies outside the city, and under the sunshine, the wheat fields exude a golden light.

When a breeze blows, the fragrance of the unique ears of wheat fills the world outside of Chuyang County in an instant.

Looking at the acres of wheat fields full of ears of wheat in front of him, when he thought of how much grain he would get if he harvested all the ears of wheat in the wheat field in front of him, a member of the Xiao clan had a smile on his face that he couldn't hide.

There were at least 100 acres of fertile land in front of him.

These hundreds of acres of fertile land, although nominally hung on the household registration of many ordinary people, are actually all his Xiao family business.

Moreover, the land belonging to the Xiao family is far more than these 100 acres, and the 100 acres of fertile land in front of him are only the tip of the iceberg of the Xiao family's property.

With such a vast family business, as a member of the Xiao clan, how could he not feel happy?

In the hundred-acre fertile field in front of this Xiao clan, there are at least a thousand unclothed, yellow-skinned farmers who are constantly harvesting ears of wheat in the wheat field.

These thousands of peasants who are working hard are all shaders who belong to the Xiao family, or it is more appropriate to say that they are slaves of the Xiao family.

Despite the appearance of the thousands of peasants, all of them are malnourished and tired.

But even so, they must not stop their work for a moment under the scorching sun.

Because their lives do not belong to them.

What happens if you accidentally stop?

An old farmer with gray hair and skinny uses his personal experience to verify this.

The old farmer was scrawny, and his arm was not even as thick as the hilt of the sickle in his hand.

This is enough to show that his whole person is in a state of extreme hunger.

But despite this, he still has to endure the scorching sun, and quickly consume his remaining life for the fertile land that does not belong to him.

Under old age and frailty, the old farmer unsurprisingly fainted.

But when the old farmer collapsed directly into the wheat field because of his physical exhaustion.

There were many common people around him who had the same experience as him, but it was as if they had seen a snake and scorpion, lest they avoid him.

They were afraid that the old farmer would implicate themselves.

As these commoners expected, the Xiao clansman who had been supervising the work of thousands of slaves disappeared from his face in an instant after seeing the old farmer fall.

But then what appeared on his face was not a look of concern and nervousness, but a kind of anger.

The Xiao clan man held the horse whip in his hand, and with a few followers behind him, he cautiously jumped into the wheat field.

When heading to the old peasant's location, the Xiao clan and his entourage were very careful in their movements.

They were worried that if they were not careful, they would crush the ears of wheat that had not yet been harvested.

But when the Xiao clan came to the place where the old farmer fell to the ground, looking at the old farmer who fell to the ground and didn't know whether he was alive or dead, the cautious look in his eyes immediately disappeared.

In its place, there was a cold look of indifference to the extreme.

Especially when he saw the old farmer fall to the ground, he also overwhelmed a lot of ears of wheat.

This made the eyes of this Xiao clan man even more cold.

Without hesitation, he raised the whip in his hand and kept pumping it at the old farmer who had fallen in the wheat field.

The old peasant didn't wear much clothing, and he was so thin that he was almost all bones.

Therefore, when the horse whip was whipped on his body under the vigorous wielding of this Xiao clansman, he, who was originally in a coma, was immediately awakened by the huge pain coming from his body.

But when he was awakened by great pain, what awaited him was continuous torture.

The horse whip was in the hands of the Xiao clan, and it whipped the old farmer's body.

Because the old peasant's body was full of bones, the whip struck him like a stone.

Although the voice is similar, the old peasant is not a dead thing that does not know pain, he is a person who knows what pain is in flesh and blood!

Under the continuous whipping of the Xiao clan, the old farmer's body had already been wrapped in blood marks that could be seen deep in the Dao.

The hoarse but miserable cry of pain belonging to the old farmer resounded in the golden wheat field.

The old farmer cried helplessly for mercy, and anyone who heard it would be unbearable, but this Xiao clan member did not stop his movements at all.

In his mind, how could the old peasant's cheap life compare to those ears of wheat that were overwhelmed by him.

When the old peasant's cry for mercy reached the ears of the farmers in his vicinity, the most shocking scene appeared.

There was no fear, panic, or even a hint of sympathy on the faces of the peasants.

From the beginning to the end, all that hung on their faces was numbness.

All people have emotions, and they have this performance, not that they are born to be hard-hearted.

It's just that these kinds of events have happened too many times in the past.

When I see too much, I naturally become numb.

Countless ears of wheat are still fluttering in the breeze, and the aroma of the ears of wheat is still wafting in the air of the wheat field.

But in this venue, which originally represented hope and beauty, a human tragedy of despair and numbness was being staged.

With the continuous whipping of the Xiao clansman, the old farmer's original mournful cry of pain had gradually become weaker, and soon after, he completely disappeared into the field.

Seeing that the old peasant was whipped to death by himself, there was no fear on the face of the Xiao clansman.

In the past, he whipped dozens of people to death, how could he care about one more?

After Han Taizu entered Guanzhong, he made three chapters with the people of Guanzhong, one of which was the death of a murderer.

Since then, the death of a murderer has become an insurmountable red line in Han law.

It's just that as the authority of the Han Dynasty court is falling more and more locally, this insurmountable red line has long become a nonsense.

Perhaps it can be said that in the eyes of this Xiao clansman, the old farmer under him who was whipped to death by him can be regarded as a person with the same status as him?

Nature is unworthy.

Looking at the corpse of the old farmer at his feet, the Xiao clan first kicked a few times hard, and after proving that he was completely dead, he spat on the corpse of the old farmer, and then said dissatisfiedly:

"It's really unbeaten.

Bad luck! ”

After saying this, the Xiao clansman handed the horsewhip in his hand to the retinue behind him, and then he commanded the other retinue:

"Move it back to the house.

It just so happens that the mighty general raised in my yard has not tasted human flesh for a long time. ”

After saying this, the Xiao clan man glanced at the scrawny old farmer's corpse with disgusted eyes.

His disgusted eyes seemed to say: Why don't you grow more meat, so thin, I don't know if I can feed his mighty general.

And as soon as the Xiao clan's words fell, the entourage with flattering faces immediately stepped forward to carry the old peasant's body.

They are not from the Xiao clan, they were born in a family of middle peasants in Chuyang County.

Logically speaking, the living conditions of the middle peasant families in the Han Dynasty should be good, at least not to the point of being slaves.

But once upon a time, this old farmer was also born in a middle peasant family.

It's a pity that a drought and a protection of officials and officials made this old farmer sell all his acres to the Xiao family.

Even himself and his family have become Xiao family slaves who have completely lost their personal freedom.

And what happened to an old farmer like this is not known in Chuyang.

The hundreds of acres of fertile land under their feet at present, did they belong to the Xiao clan in Chuyang from the beginning?

These hundreds of acres of fertile land belonged to the thousands of farmers who were working hard at first.

But now, the thousands of farmers are still working hard in the fields, but what they are cultivating is no longer their own.

The reason for this situation is that in the past few decades, too many dirty things have happened in Chuyang.

The reason why they are willing to follow this Xiao disciple day and night is just to curry favor with him, so that those dirty things will not fall on their own family.

It is precisely because he has a general family background with the old farmer that one of these entourages knows the old farmer.

In his memory, the old farmer in the past was amiable, although his family was not a wealthy family, but it was also a happy family, and there were dozens of acres of thin fields at home to make him worry about food and clothing.

But I didn't expect that in just a few years, the old farmer who originally owned dozens of acres of thin fields had his wife and son scattered.

Even when he died, he didn't even have a place for his corpse to stand, but instead went into the belly of a vicious dog.

This tragic situation with strong contrasts made the entourage feel inexplicable.

It's sadness, it's fear.

But no matter what he thought in his heart, he now dared not disobey the orders of the Xiao clan he followed.

Although this Xiao clan member is not the concubine of the Xiao family, otherwise he would not have been assigned this task of supervising the work of the servants in the family.

But he is also the son of the contemporary Xiao clan patriarch Xiao Pu, who is not out of five suits.

The Xiao family has been breeding in Chuyang for hundreds of years, and the clansmen in his family have served as officials in the county for many years.

Mo said that in Hanzhong County, that is, in the entire Liangzhou, the Xiao family of Chuyang is also a well-known wealthy family.

What's more, according to this Xiao clan's son, his patriarch Xiao Pu had just been appointed as Gong Cao by the Liangzhou Pastor not long ago.

With the limited knowledge of this entourage, although he did not know exactly what kind of authority Liang Zhou Mu had, he knew that Liang Zhou Mu was the master of Liang Zhou.

Xiao Pu can be favored by such a prominent figure, then his power in Liangzhou will definitely become more and more vigorous in the future.

Such a powerful clan, how can ordinary people like him provoke it?

Since you can't afford to provoke it, you can only serve it well.

With this in mind, the attendant and his companions carried the old peasant's body up the field and placed it on a donkey cart.

The Shaw Mansion was still some distance from this field, and it was not appropriate to carry it back with bare hands.

After carrying the old peasant's body onto the donkey cart, the entourage drove the donkey cart and walked along the dirt road of the wheat field in the direction of Xiao Fu.

But after they had driven for several miles, the attendant, who had just had an idea in mind to lead the way, noticed a large cloud of dust in front of the road.

And in the dust, he also heard the terrifying sound of marching.

When he realized this, the attendant was so frightened that he asked his companion to push the donkey cart containing the old peasant's body to the side of the road.

Then he told his companion to kneel on the ground with him, not to look up.

In troubled times, soldiers are sometimes worse than Menghu.

Although he didn't know what the soldiers in Liangzhou were like, under the warning of his father, this entourage felt that it was always right to be careful.

There is only one road, and it is too late to retreat at this time, so you can only kneel respectfully on the side of the road.

I hope that the soldiers who are passing here at a fast pace will spare them a way out for the sake of their respect.

Soon after the retinue led his companion to his knees on the side of the road, thousands of soldiers who had been hidden in the dust had already arrived not far from them.

After waiting for the distance to get closer and closer, the figures of thousands of soldiers hidden in the dust appeared on the field road outside the city of Chuyang.

The elite armor is full of lights, and the spears are numerous, and these thousands of soldiers are the elite Liang soldiers who have just arrived in Chuyang from Nanzheng.

And the one who led the thousands of Liang troops was Shi Bao, who had just been promoted by Mi Yang.

Because he knew the task in his heart, Shi Bao kept urging the soldiers behind him to hurry.

In the distance, he was on a horse when he noticed several pedestrians pushing a donkey cart forward.

It's just that he didn't care about this, and it was impossible for the disciplined Liang army to rob them.

It's just that when Shi Bao led thousands of Liang troops closer and closer to the location of the donkey cart, Shi Bao saw a corpse on the donkey cart.

The most important thing is that he saw that on the donkey cart, there was the banner of the Xiao clan in Chuyang.

Seeing this stone bag, he waved his hand to stop the thousands of Liang troops behind him.

When Shi Bao dismounted and approached the donkey cart, he saw more clearly that the donkey cart was the corpse of an old farmer.

At the same time, the dense and terrible whip marks on the old farmer's body also fell into his eyes.

This scene undoubtedly made Shi Bao, who was also from a farmer's family, subconsciously clenched the fist in his hand!