allonlinenovel Chapter 232 The Poor Man
Chapter 232 The Poor Man
Upon hearing Xu Zhiwen's question, Li Qingyun sighed and said, "Old Xiang is a man with a tragic fate! He used to be a beggar!"
beggar?!
Chen Dao and the others looked at each other in bewilderment. They wondered whether Li Qingyun was unconventional in his use of people or simply eccentric.
"Yes, he was a beggar!"
Li Qingyun nodded and said, "When I first arrived in Ding'an County, I saw Old Xiang begging for food by the roadside. Perhaps because he was old and couldn't compete with the other beggars, Old Xiang was as thin as a skeleton from hunger. Seeing how pitiful he was, I couldn't help but take pity on him and gave him some of my own dry food so that he could have a full meal. After that, I took him in and made him my servant!"
"After that, through Mr. Xiang's account, I also learned about his experiences!"
At this point, Li Qingyun's voice became somewhat low: "Old Xiang was not originally a beggar, but a farmer. His wife died early, leaving Old Xiang to raise his only son alone, and even find a wife for his son, adding a male member to Old Xiang's family!"
"With a complete family, Old Master Xiang should have been enjoying the pleasures of family life, doting on his grandchildren..."
Li Qingyun sighed and continued, "It's just a pity... the cold disaster has arrived!"
"With the arrival of the cold disaster, the harvest of Xiang Lao's several acres of land has been greatly reduced, and life at home has become increasingly difficult. They can only rely on the food stored in the family in the past to get by."
"Originally, this was nothing. Although the cold disaster made life a bit tougher, Xiang's family could still manage to get by with the surplus grain."
"But... sometimes what's truly terrifying isn't natural disasters, but man-made ones!"
"With the arrival of the cold disaster, the Sun family in the county also began to acquire land on a large scale. The top-quality land that was originally worth 10 taels of silver per mu could be bought by the Sun family for only 2 taels of silver. Of course, there were also people who were unwilling to sell their land to the Sun family. For ordinary people, land is undoubtedly as important as their lifeline, so there are many people who are unwilling to sell their own land."
"But the Sun family is clearly not a reasonable family; on the contrary, they are extremely domineering! If the owner of any land that the Sun family has their eye on is unwilling to sell, thugs will immediately come to their door and harass them, making their homes unbearable. In the end, they have no choice but to sell the land to the Sun family!"
"The same situation exists in Xiang Lao's family. Neither he nor his son are willing to sell the land, and they even got into a dispute with the thugs sent by the Sun family, which even led to a conflict!"
"In the midst of the conflict, Xiang Lao's son was accidentally killed by thugs sent by the Sun family! After killing Xiang Lao's son, those thugs, relying on the Sun family's backing, not only showed no remorse, but instead intensified their persecution of Xiang Lao and his daughter-in-law! They even... threatened to sell Xiang Lao's daughter-in-law into a brothel!"
"Under these circumstances, it wasn't long before Old Xiang's daughter-in-law died of worry, leaving Old Xiang alone as an elderly man to take care of his infant grandson."
As Chen Dao and the others listened to Li Qingyun's account, their expressions grew increasingly grim. The things the Sun family had done were enough to incite the wrath of both heaven and man.
For just a few acres of land, a family was driven to their deaths...
"Fuck him!"
Even a man as taciturn as Chen Cheng couldn't help but speak out in anger: "The Sun family is truly worse than beasts!"
Zhang He, Xu Zhiwen, and Chen Dao all nodded in agreement. What the Sun family had done was outrageous and infuriating. Anyone with a conscience would probably not have done such a thing.
"This is the story of Elder Xiang, and also the evil deeds of the Sun family."
Li Qingyun sighed, "The crimes committed by the Sun family in Taiping County are too numerous to count, but unfortunately... my abilities are limited, and I am powerless to bring them to justice!"
This is Li Qingyun's most painful point. As an official with conscience and ambition, he clearly saw the crimes of the evildoers, but he was unable to bring them to justice. This undoubtedly caused him great pain. Every night when he closed his eyes, he seemed to see the innocent people who died unjustly crying and wailing in front of him, which made his conscience suffer.
"This Sun family is truly...utterly wicked!"
Xu Zhiwen also sighed softly. Just from Li Qingyun's description, he knew how domineering the Sun family was. Their evil deeds were even worse than those of the Yuan family in Taiping County.
The Yuan family still had some sense of shame, and even when they were raping women, they would try to cover it up to some extent.
And what about the Sun family?
In broad daylight, they drove people to their deaths so they could seize their land...
The Sun family in Ding'an County is even more wicked than the Yuan family.
"The Sun family..."
Chen Dao's gaze was deep and unfathomable. In his previous life, whenever he read history textbooks, he would always see the term "powerful clans". Chen Dao used to despise these powerful clans that were like parasites, sucking the blood of the country. But in the end, these powerful clans were just things that existed in history. He had never personally experienced the influence of powerful clans on the country or the harm they caused to the people!
Only now did Chen Dao truly realize the influence these powerful families had on a country and the harm they caused to the poor!
The Sun family, though just a large clan in the county, is so domineering that they dare to drive a family to their death over a few acres of land, completely disregarding the law...
Chen Dao couldn't even imagine how...evil those truly powerful families could be!
"Alright! Let's not talk about these unpleasant things anymore."
Li Qingyun timely ended the topic, forcing a smile and saying, "Brother Xu and young friend Chen have traveled a long way to Ding'an County, they must be hungry, let's have a meal first!"
Li Qingyun got up and led everyone to the restaurant next door.
Meanwhile, Old Xiang had already prepared several dishes and was placing them one by one on the dining table.
"This is a simple meal, please don't find it offensive!"
Li Qingyun pointed to the food on the table and said somewhat embarrassedly.
Upon hearing this, Chen Dao and the others looked at the food on the table, only to find that there was very little food on the table. Apart from white rice, there was only a plate of scrambled eggs and a bowl of soup made from an unknown ingredient.
Such food would be considered a luxury for ordinary people, but Li Qingyun was not an ordinary person, but a county magistrate!
Such simple food appearing on a county magistrate's table is clearly unusual.
"Brother Li!"
Xu Zhiwen chuckled and teased, "Isn't this kind of food a bit too meager?"
For a county magistrate to be unable to even offer a plate of meat to his guests is somewhat beneath his dignity.
"I'm sorry to have troubled you, Brother Xu!"
Li Qingyun said with a wry smile, "My salary is really not much. It's freezing cold these days, grain prices are quite high, and meat is extremely rare. This is all I can offer to Brother Xu."