Chapter 3: Hunger, cannon fodder, and oppression
"According to the decree of the territory, what should he do?" A tall, middle-aged man in fancy armor asked Lauderno.
"Uh." Lauderno was a little surprised, but still replied honestly: "Lord Lord, according to the law of the territory, he stole your private property and should have one of his hands cut off. ”
"Then cut off a hand." After the lord finished speaking, he rode his war horse and returned to the castle under the escort of two knights.
"Your Excellency Lord is so merciful, if someone steals your belongings, you will spare one of his lives, and the great Lord will bless you."
The farmer who had secretly gnawed on the grasshopper said loudly to the lord's back, and the crowd around him echoed him.
Even his father, Mark, was among them, but he didn't dare to stand up to help his son.
The knight who was left behind stepped forward, drew his sword, and slashed it.
Fast, accurate, ruthless.
After the scream, Li Feng quickly picked up the bloodied little hand that fell to the ground, and returned home with a pale face.
After lying at home for a few more days, Li Feng woke up in severe pain.
"Ah, what are you doing, let go, let go."
His sister Juliet was actually tearing at his wounds, and he struggled to break free and rushed out of the house again.
Hungry, hungry like never before.
"Where is there to eat, where?" Li Feng roared hard, but he couldn't emit much energy in his throat.
The fish in the river can't be eaten, the rabbits in the mountains can't be eaten, and even the grasshoppers in the grass can't be eaten.
"Yes, grass, how did you forget this stubble."
The grass on the ground is fishy, hard and cut, but the roots are slightly sweet and contain a small amount of starch, which can somewhat relieve the speed of starvation.
Isn't this how ancient Huaxia came when there was a famine?
Li Feng grabbed a handful of grass and stuffed it into his mouth and chewed it vigorously, and then saw the tax officer coming over with an entourage.
This time he became wiser, and after a short sobering session, he ran up to the tax collector and told him that he had to pay his taxes.
The tax officer looked at the handful of grass in Li Feng's hand contemptuously, and took two-thirds of it in a thousand thanks.
"Untouchable, this kind of grass that even rabbits can't eat, he can actually eat."
"Adults don't know, this kind of untouchable is already hungry and faint, maybe he will eat cow dung."
"Hahaha." The tax collector held the entourage's shoulders and laughed for a while, handed the grass to the entourage, and said, "Hmph, eating grass is eating grass, but the tax that the lord should collect is not less at all, even if it is a stone and a grass, it must be taxed." ”
"Go, give this handful of grass to Lauderno's steward."
Follower: "..........."
When Li Feng returned home, he felt that his hunger was relieved, so he shared the matter of grass with his parents, and the family slept during the day and went to pull weeds as soon as it was dark.
His family's situation was relieved.
After autumn, in winter, even the grass is gone.
A large number of dead people began to die in the town, but they couldn't eat the corpses, and they couldn't eat them, and the corpses were also the lord's, and they were caught chopping hands and feet.
In this case, Li Feng's family had to kneel in front of the castle with the farmers who had not yet starved to death, and asked the lord who had rescued the suffering to show mercy and reward him with some food and clothing.
Li Feng's family received a small bag of black flour, about twenty catties, and finally survived.
At the beginning of spring, the snow melts, and signs of a good harvest are brewing.
The year of the disaster has finally passed, leaving behind a group of emaciated farmers.
In other words, in some idol dramas, Cinderella falls in love with the prince, which can still be believed, but the daughter falls in love with the farmer, Li Feng thinks it's.
There is a young lady in the lord's mansion, who is about the same age as his sister Elena, can he fall in love with a low-level working person like himself who wants money and has no money.
Unless, it's a bit possible to be tall and handsome.
On the ridge, Li Feng thought about it, came back to his senses, and with sharp eyes, he saw several strange-shaped figures rushing towards him, and he was so frightened that he hurriedly found a place to hide.
The thieves are coming.
This is one of the great features of this world, and there are several bands of thieves around each territory.
At first, Li Feng thought that they were all poor people who couldn't eat enough, so he had to fall into the grass.
After seeing a lot, I realized that thieves in this world are really a profession or hobby, and they are essentially no different from painters, craftsmen, and merchants.
The gang of thieves who came this time was the fiercest and most crowded group in the vicinity of Dialing, there were 8 of them.
They rushed into the territory and abducted people, burned down houses, raped women, killed livestock, and did all kinds of evil, which seriously affected the spring ploughing plan, and the angry Baron Carwindi jumped to his feet.
He was really angry, these thieves were encroaching on his private property.
"Today, I must kill all those thieves who are doing nothing."
Baron Cawindi was furious, and summoned all the knights and servants of the territory, as well as the farmers who could handle the weapons, as well as the merchants and craftsmen of the town, and issued some rudimentary weapons, forming a legion of 500 men, and chased them out in the footsteps of the thieves' retreat.
After a fierce encirclement battle, the team returned triumphantly, but there was no figure of his father Mark inside.
"Where's Mark, Senior, what about my husband Mark, why hasn't he come back?" Mother Juliet asked anxiously holding the hand of a neighbor's man.
The neighbor man shook his head and said, "Oh, poor Mark, he fell into the thief's trap, and three spikes pierced his body, and he went to see the merciful Lord." ”
"Mark, my Mark, my husband."
The mother sat on the ground with her butt down, crying heartbreakingly.
On this day, for Li Feng's family, it was extremely cold and dark.
Of course, Li Feng himself is okay, his father is used to it.
The problem now is that with one less man in the family, life will be more difficult.
After exterminating the thieves, Dia led a few months of peace.
A few months later, the weather warmed up and the epidemic returned.
There were more and more people in the town who had colds and coughs, and even if they drank the holy water sold by the church, their lives passed one after another.
Baron Cawindi panicked, remembering that the family nameplate recorded that there was a plague a hundred years ago similar to the current situation, and that time a third of the people in the entire kingdom died.
He didn't care about the farmer's life, but he still cared about the farmer's strength and the attitude of the top earl, and he had to do something anyway.
So, he arranged for the housekeeper Laudeno to hurry up and find the people of the church to make more holy water to save people, and to burn the bodies of the deceased.
He doesn't know how many people the holy water can save.
Anyway, if you save it, that's the credit of holy water, and if you can't save it, it's because you are not pious enough to the Lord's prayers, and you don't donate enough to the church, and it's my business.