Everyone returned to the richest family in Zhuangzi - Zhang Ren's family.
Tables and chairs have been set up in the house and courtyard. On the table are dishes that cannot be named, and everyone is seated one by one.
Most of the stools are borrowed from neighbors, and they are all small wooden stools.
Yu Mao knew that Huang An wanted to discuss things with his men and brothers, so he took the initiative to take his men to other houses.
Huang An only had Yang Chengwu with him, and the two of them were arranged into a main hall.
There were about twenty men from the village standing on both sides of the hall, and in the middle were seven or eight old men.
Huang An stepped into the house, and everyone, including the old man, subconsciously stood up with a look of flattery on their faces.
Huang An scanned the entire main hall with his tiger eyes and sat on the main seat without hesitation.
I came today not for inspection, but for business and to order them to be forcibly relocated.
Presumably these people are here to hear about my arrangements for them.
They gathered together and let the old men accompany them, which must be a way to build momentum.
In order to welcome Huang An's arrival, Dahuaishuzhuang spent a lot of money to buy a lot of meat and wild game from the city and set up a table.
Of course Yu Mao and the others also have them.
Huang An didn't like it, but he didn't say anything.
He asked directly:
"How many people are there in Zhuangzi?"
Zhang Ren is Huang An's most senior officer, even though he is only forty-five years old.
But after all, he was an officer and a warrior himself, so he was the person with the highest status among Zhuangzi.
His status and voice in Zhuangzi are higher than these old men who are half-broken into the earth.
The status of a warrior is lofty, and even among relatives, status cannot be judged based on age and seniority alone.
He took out a roster, presented it with both hands, and replied:
"There are 961 people in total! 414 are mature men, and the rest are women, children and the elderly."
Huang An frowned slightly when he heard this.
414 prime-age men?
Why so many?
This accounts for almost half of the entire Zhuangzi population.
A suspicious look flashed in his eyes, and he stretched out his hand and said:
"Bring me the roster!"
Zhang Ren didn't know Huang An's intention and quickly handed over the roster.
This book is still new, and you can smell the smell of ink when you open it. It must have been compiled into a book after counting it this morning.
He opened the roster and read it directly.
After flipping through several pages, he found no clues, but he found an inconspicuous detail.
He raised his head and asked directly:
"Why are there so many bachelors in this village?"
After hearing Huang An's question, the room instantly became much quieter.
Several old men lost their composure, lowered their heads and said nothing.
Huang An focused his gaze on Zhang Ren's face.
Zhang Ren hesitated for a moment and then replied bravely:
"Thirteen or four years ago, we had a severe drought in Youzhou, and the government's corvee and taxation were heavy. Feng'an and Fen counties were short of girls. Daughters from good families in other places would not marry us.
Come here."
After saying that, he subconsciously looked at the faces of the old men sitting in the room.
This group of old immortals said nothing, all bowed their heads.
When Huang An heard this, his hands shook violently, and he suddenly felt a chill in his heart.
He did not ask why there was a lack of girls and why there was such a big gap in the number of boys and girls.
The answer was so obvious and cruel that it was hard for him to even think about it.
This dark side of Ming Dynasty once again shocked his heart.
Before facing a large-scale death crisis, any morality, righteousness, family affection and kindness will be vulnerable.
Everyone likes the happy ending.
But the reality is often that even after compromise, it is still cruel, so cruel that even outsiders are unwilling to look back.
Huang An suddenly felt flustered and had the urge to leave the table.
There is even an urge to beat up these men in the house, especially this group of old immortals, or even directly slaughter them all.
After a long time, my mind felt like a frozen lake, hard and bone-chilling.
he asked:
"How many people are going to go?"
The voice was very flat, as flat as the autumn breeze, without any emotion.
Zhang Ren gritted his teeth, trembling his lips, and replied:
"Two, two families!"
When Huang An heard this, his eyes suddenly moved, a pair of tiger eyes stared at Zhang Ren's eyes, and he suddenly said angrily:
"Can you say that again!"
At this moment, Zhang Ren was like a prey being stared at by a tiger, his heart was beating fast and he repeated:
"Big, big brother. Two households!"
The angry expression on Huang An's face suddenly disappeared.
The corner of his mouth traced an arc, and he smiled. His gaze was like a torch, slowly sweeping over all the men in the hall.
Especially on those old men, they stayed for a full three seconds.
They all lowered their heads, not daring to look at him.
"Why?"
Huang An clenched his fists under the table tightly. He needed a reason.
Zhang Ren secretly scolded Zhuangzi for being too stubborn and stupid, which made him angry. He explained:
"It's hard to leave your homeland. I'm afraid to go out. I'll starve to death when I go out!"
Huang An frowned slightly when he heard this.
He actually expected this situation.
After all, even in his hometown, in the information age, it is extremely difficult to persuade others to move their families.
For example, the Poverty Alleviation Office persuades villagers who are not suitable for living in the mountainous areas to relocate.
Even an outsider like Huang An has heard of that level of difficulty.
Concepts and thinking are like mountains. How can a few words break them?
This kind of stubborn thought and way of thinking is not formed overnight.
They would rather remain single here, continue to suffer from hunger and poverty, or even starve to death, than make changes.
Huang An really didn't expect that the situation would be so bad.
Fortunately, this is not my hometown, there is no civilized law enforcement, and there is no supervision by public opinion.
The entire Dahuaishu Village belongs to him.
Let alone asking them to relocate, even if they kill someone, it won't be a big deal.
The atmosphere in the room was very solemn, and many men and old men did not dare to breathe.
These old men are only older in years, but in terms of knowledge, they are not even as good as Zhang Ren and other junior soldiers.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Facing Huang An, who can decide their life or death and is in charge of their family's snacks and drinks, they are even more fearful and awe-inspiring, and they don't even dare to say a word.
Except for Yang Chengwu, no one here dared to look directly at Huang An.
They could only lower their heads and pay attention to Huang An's movements with their peripheral vision.
Of course, there are also wine, food and meat on the table.
The aroma went straight into their nostrils and they couldn't stop it.
It's not that they don't know the importance of food and they only think about eating and not thinking about tomorrow.
It's because they have been hungry for too long and lack oil and water in their stomachs.
Turning towards the food and swallowing saliva are just their instinctive reactions as human beings.
At this moment, most of the people in this room are actually no different from animals.
Huang An was thinking deeply about how to get some of these villagers to move out and live in Xialin Village. After all, Xialin Village cannot live without its own people.
But time was too tight, and Huang An was very skeptical about the effectiveness of verbal persuasion.
Therefore, his expression suddenly changed and he slapped the table with a "bang" sound.
Drinks were flowing everywhere and the table seemed to be falling apart.
Everyone was so frightened that they didn't dare to breathe. After hearing the noise, Yu Mao and his brothers came to the door to watch the excitement.
Many people in the big locust tree village in the house became even more uneasy.
Huang An stood up, like a lion patrolling his territory, and his eyes slowly scanned everyone's face.
Finally, his eyes stopped on the long faces of Zhang Ren and Yang Hao.
Word by word, he ordered:
"Tomorrow morning at 4:30 a.m., I will see at least 300 villagers at the gate of Xicheng, with their families and families following behind you!"
The will contained in the words can even be felt by the three-year-old child watching the excitement at the door.
After Huang An finished speaking, he threw up his sleeves and left.
When he stepped out of the threshold, he turned around and gave a cold warning.
"Pick out the poorest ones! Beat them crippled or even kill them to move them out!"
Hearing Huang An's gloomy threat, the temperature in the room seemed to drop below zero in an instant.
Zhang Ren shuddered and seemed to have come back to his senses. He nodded repeatedly and promised:
"Yes Yes!"
Huang An was in a bad mood, so he didn't stop at Dahuaishu Village and rode away directly.
Yu Mao didn't ask, but he made a guess. Without saying anything, he led his brothers to follow Huang An.
He has seen this kind of thing too many times and can't handle it at all.
It was his ability to keep the brothers in Xialin Village from starving to death and still have enough energy to adopt some orphans.
However, there was something strange in his heart about his fourth brother's reaction.
According to his people's earlier inquiries, the fourth brother suddenly appeared in Feng'an City alone, with only a small courtyard.
Since there was no one in his family, his life in the early years must not have been much better. He should have been used to this kind of thing.
And why did you react like this today?
Although he was curious, Yu Mao didn't ask, he continued to act stupid.
When Zhang Ren and others chased him out of the village and wanted to see Huang An off, they saw dust in the distance and Huang An was nowhere to be seen.
The seventy or eighty people who were chased out of Dahuaishu Village looked at each other, not knowing what to do.
Suddenly, there was a suspicion among the crowd.
"Well, Mr. Huang, Mr. Huang, you didn't ask us to pay taxes and food? Whose daughter did you want?"
As soon as this statement came out, the crowd was stunned for a moment, and then there was a buzzing sound.
"Hey, what you said is really true!"
"Could it be that you forgot?"
"Definitely not, we will definitely hand it over in two days!"
"No, no! Grandma heard from my boys that they will leave tomorrow. If we don't pay today, where will we have time tomorrow?"
"this......"
Zhang Ren and several brothers naturally heard these discussions. They looked at each other and found confusion and confusion in each other's eyes.
Involuntarily, everyone frowned.
Shi Chang Wang Liu suddenly said:
"Did brother forget?"
Everyone was stunned and nodded subconsciously, maybe they really forgot.
One of them hesitated and said:
"Do you want me to catch up and ask my brother?"
The man had just finished speaking and was about to seek the brothers' opinions when he suddenly realized that something was wrong in the atmosphere.
His face froze and he immediately covered his mouth tightly.
He realized he had said the wrong thing.
Zhang Ren glared at him and didn't answer.
There are so many strong men in the village who can't even fill their own stomachs. How can they take the initiative to ask for food from their elder brother?
Maybe the elder brother is kind-hearted and didn't forget.
After all, it has been so many days, and on the way here, he asked in a roundabout way how much grain he would pay, but the elder brother did not tell him.
Since the eldest brother knows, he must really look down on the little food in their Dahuaishu Village.
Everyone tacitly agreed not to mention this matter, and no one even mentioned it again.
"Then, what should we do with the three hundred people that brother mentioned?"
Yang Hao frowned and raised this question that no one wanted to face and that was also the most difficult question.