Chapter 11: Changing children and eating them
Xi Xingchen knew that Yang Liusheng was complaining about the government's failure in doing things again, so he didn't point it out and said: "If this fire is man-made, who do you think is the biggest suspect?"
"I don't dare to say this without any evidence." Yang Liusheng waved his hands repeatedly.
"What I mean is that you think that without any evidence from you, you just think that we two are just guessing." Xi Xingchen said skillfully.
"Just a wild guess!"
"Yes, just a wild guess!"
"Then I'll say it."
"you say!"
"I think whoever benefits the most from this matter will be the most suspect."
"Then who do you think has benefited the most?"
"Of course it's Yao Wenbin!"
…
"What a simple truth! Every farmer knows it, but some people just don't understand it."
In the Discipline Hall, Wen Gaoming slapped his thigh, stood up suddenly, looked at Zhou Zhenhai and said.
"Who are you talking about, Wen?" Zhou Zhenhai's face turned red with anger and he blew his beard.
"Who doesn't know the suffering of the people, who doesn't know that people starve to death every day, and who doesn't know that the policemen in the yamen have no time to collect the corpses every day, so who am I to blame?"
Since Ye Feiyang and Sikong Zhaixing, the two people Wen Gaoming was most afraid of, were not present, Wen Gaoming's combat effectiveness today was simply off the charts. He hit Zhou Zhenhai with all his strength, without any psychological pressure at all.
What's terrible is that when this guy is arguing with others, he doesn't forget to block his own back door.
To put it bluntly, Wen Gaoming was Sarai, and he blocked Zhou Zhenhai's mouth with words.
According to Wen Gaoming, as long as Zhou Zhenhai refutes him, Zhou Zhenhai is ignorant of the sufferings of the people and the fact that so many people starve to death every day that even the yamen has no time to collect their corpses, and he is not even as good as a farmer.
If you don't refute, he will look at you with wide eyes and just point his nose and scold you.
After all, Zhou Zhenhai was the leader of Dong Mo and the number one debater of the Mo family. Given his status, he naturally could not argue with Wen Gaoming like two children. But if I didn't say anything, I wouldn't feel happy, so I held it in for a long time, glared at Wen Gaoming, and said, "I don't know what to call alarmist talk!"
When Wen Gaoming saw that Zhou Zhenhai refused to fight, he immediately sat back in his seat proudly as if he had won a battle.
Just when everyone thought the matter was about to come to an end, Han Xiuxian suddenly sighed and said, "Actually, it can't be completely considered alarmist. I heard a rumor when I went shopping a few days ago."
When Zhou Zhenhai heard this, he felt as if he had eaten a fly. There was a long black line on his forehead and he was speechless for a moment.
People like Xi Mo have straight intestines. As for what emotional intelligence is, it does not exist for them.
"What rumors?" Seeing Zhou Zhenhai's defeat, Wen Gaoming couldn't help but feel happy, and his gossipy heart suddenly began to tremble. I saw him looking at Han Xiuxian with a longing look on his face. If he had a tail, his tailbone might be broken at this moment.
Before Han Xiuxian knew what he had just said, he had already helped Wen Gaoming slap Zhou Zhenhai in the face. Seeing that everyone was trying to listen, he said, "It's about a daughter-in-law in the countryside who woke up hungry in the middle of the night. She got up and wanted to get a ladle of water from the kitchen to satisfy her hunger. When I passed the room of my parents-in-law, I heard the sound of sharpening a knife coming from the room."
"Out of curiosity, the woman hid under the window and eavesdropped. She happened to hear her mother-in-law talking to her man: 'Now there is no food in the house. Don't be reluctant to leave that woman. We cooked her today. Not only will we have meat to eat. , and you can save a ration.'"
"The man didn't say anything. The mother-in-law knew that the man was reluctant, so she said: 'There are plenty of women. Next year I will spend a few liters of rice to help you marry a younger and more beautiful one.'"
"Hearing this, the woman was so frightened that she rushed back to her parents' home all night, hugged her mother and cried bitterly, and stayed at her parents' home that night."
"While sleeping, the woman heard her father arguing with her mother: 'After raising food for so many years, instead of making food for other people, it is better to keep it for myself..."
Having said this, Han Xiuxian stopped talking.
"Then what?" Wen Gaoming asked, still unfinished.
"Then that woman went crazy." Han Xiuxian could only reply.
"What happens next?" Wen Gaoming asked again.
Han Xiuxian looked at Wen Gaoming who broke the casserole and asked for the truth, and shook his head helplessly: "This is just a rumor and cannot be taken as true. But one thing is for sure. In some of the hardest-hit areas, people are really eating people. "
"But……"
Wen Gaoming was about to speak, but Yuan Xingbang was afraid that Wen Gaoming would cause trouble again, so he quickly interrupted him and said, "Elder Wen, we are currently trying a case. Please don't talk about anything unrelated to this case."
"Oh!" Wen Gao secretly cried out that it was a pity and responded angrily.
In fact, Wen Gaoming didn't understand. He just kept remembering Ximen Zhaixing's instructions to him to delay as much time as possible before leaving. Therefore, whenever he had the opportunity, he would try his best to make jokes and confuse the situation as much as possible.
"Go on!"
Seeing that Wen Gaoming was no longer causing trouble, Yuan Xingbang turned to Xi Xingchen and said.
Xi Xingchen nodded and continued: "The food stored in Yang Xiaojin's home was burned down, and his legs were broken and he couldn't get out. The family can only rely on Yang Xiaojin's mother-in-law to support the family."
"If it's a good year, the Yang family can farm ten acres and hire some people or lease the land. Although it will reduce some food, it is not difficult to survive. But this is a disaster year, and there is no harvest in the fields. The price of rice The prices skyrocketed, and the woman who had no rice to cook quickly spent all her savings, and in the end in order to survive, she had to sell her land to Yao Guoping."
"This woman really has long hair and short knowledge." Wen Gaoming stamped his feet, hating that iron could not make steel, "That Yao Guoping has caused so much misery to their family, why do you want to sell the land to him? Aren't you just looking for death?"
Xi Xingchen smiled bitterly and said: "She is just a woman and doesn't have so many choices. Moreover, Zhuma Town is not a big place. The Yao family is a famous gentry in eight villages in ten miles and eight, and is also the largest landowner in the area. There are ten rice shops in the town. Nine families are owned by the Yao family, and the remaining family is more or less related to the Yao family."
"Think about it, everyone, the farthest Yang Xiaojin's mother-in-law has ever traveled is to the town to attend the market. For such a helpless woman, at this juncture when the whole family is screaming with hunger, where do you ask her to find some food? Home?"
"Besides, even if she can find a buyer, will anyone dare to buy her land?" Xi Xingchen glanced at the elders and asked.
Of course not.
It has been said that the Yao family are local gentry and large landowners. In other words, the Yao family are the local emperors in Zhuma Town.
To offend the biggest local gentry in order to buy one-third of an acre of land, unless this person's brain is kicked by a donkey.
This is a very simple way of dealing with the world. All the elders here are all human beings. How can anyone not understand this?
They knew very well that since the Yang Xiaojin family's granary was burned down, the fate of their family was there. It was only a matter of time.
Therefore, the Mohist elders collectively fell silent.
