Peace Was a Luxury

"Let me ask you one last time: are you paying this tax or not?!"

The tax officer narrowed his eyes, looking impatiently at the family of three before him.

Zhang Shun said righteously, "Sir, our family paid the autumn tax ten days ago!"

Holding up the ledger in his hand, the tax officer snorted coldly. "You paid it? Then why isn't your family's name written here?"

"Impossible!"

Zhang Shun shouted, "I watched you write it down with my own eyes! You're deliberately trying to collect our taxes twice!"

"Bloody slander!"

With a crack, the tax officer lashed out with his whip, knocking the youth straight to the ground. "Why don't I collect twice from other families? Why only yours?!"

A bloody gash immediately appeared across Zhang Shun's face.

He gritted his teeth and tried to argue further, but Aunt Li hurriedly stopped him, forcing a smile. "Shunzi, shut your mouth! If sir says we didn't pay, then we didn't pay."

The boy was young and did not understand how terrifying tax officers could be.

There was a saying: do not fear officials, fear those who manage you. A tax officer might only be a lowly clerk, but sometimes he was even more frightening than the County Magistrate!

"Wait here, sir! I'll go inside and get the money to make up the payment!"

Aunt Li had no idea when her family had offended the tax officer. For now, she could only get through this immediate crisis first.

She hurried home to fetch the money.

Before long, a despairing scream came from inside the house.

"Heavens!"

"Where's the money—"

The full thirteen taels of silver hidden beneath the water vat had vanished without a trace!

Hearing the commotion, Zhang's lame father staggered inside. Seeing that the place where the money had been hidden was completely empty, he collapsed onto the ground. "Thieves! There were thieves!"

Losing patience, the tax officer gave Zhang's father two lashes across the back. "Are you playing games with me?!"

"Sir!"

Zhang's father bared his teeth in pain. "Our silver was kept right here! Thirteen taels, thirteen taels!"

The tax officer sneered. "I could say there are three thousand taels of gold in my house. If you have no money, then honestly admit your crime!"

"Father—"

Seeing his father beaten, Zhang Shun rushed forward in a frantic blaze of fury. Naturally, he was knocked down by another lash, his entire face running with blood.

Lying prone on the ground, he could not understand what was happening.

Only when he saw two white-robed figures in the crowd flash him triumphant smiles did realization suddenly dawn on him.

"You! It was you!"

Zhang Shun staggered to his feet and charged at the two disciples. "Give back our silver!"

"Fuck off!"

The slightly plump disciple kicked the youth to the ground. "Where's your proof?!"

Zhang Shun was beside himself with rage. "You colluded with the tax officer!"

"Bloody slander."

At those words, the tax officer raised his hand and lashed him several more times, tearing the youth's flesh open.

"Damn unruly commoner!

"Biting everyone he sees like a mad dog! Arrest him!

"Send the old one to Cangzhou to build city walls, and send the younger one to Hezhou to dig river channels!"

The surrounding villagers fell silent as cicadas in winter.

By this point, almost everyone understood what had happened, but no one dared say a word.

Officials and martial artists—neither was someone ordinary folk dared offend.

If the masters wanted you dead, then you had to die.

Zhang Shun was covered in blood and mud as he roared in unbearable grievance.

He had risen before dawn and returned after dark, fishing desperately to save money for four full years, all so he could learn a few martial moves and someday earn an easier living. Why had it turned out like this?

Was it because he had not worked hard enough?

"Shunzi!"

A vigorous voice sounded out.

Chen Sanshi pushed through the crowd.

The moment he saw those two martial arts school disciples, he immediately guessed most of what had happened.

Shunzi had offended them by splashing golden juice on them, so they had deliberately retaliated. They bribed the tax officer to levy taxes a second time, then stole the family's savings, intending to use this method to kill Shunzi's entire family outright.

What utter nonsense. Thinking it over carefully, even Chen Sanshi felt a lingering chill of fear.

If Qin Xiong had been willing to spend silver on bribes, Chen Sanshi himself might very well have suffered the same fate.

He stepped forward. "Sir, may I pay the tax in their place?"

"Brother Shi?"

Hearing this, Zhang Shun lowered his head in shame.

Earlier, he had not persisted to the end and taken out his silver to help Shi Ge'er. How could he possibly have the face to let Shi Ge'er help him now?

Aunt Li and her husband were equally ashamed, wishing they could crawl into a crack in the ground.

Not only them—the watching villagers also looked stunned.

"Hmm?"

The tax officer's expression darkened. "Boy, are you sure you want to meddle in other people's business?"

"Of course I would not dare interfere with your official duties, sir."

Chen Sanshi pulled the tax officer to a corner and pointed at Zhang's father, speaking softly. "But how can this cripple do labor? He might die halfway there, wasting food for nothing."

The tax officer raised his brows. "You mean..."

Chen Sanshi took out two taels of silver and quietly slipped them into his hand. "Sir, let the cripple go. As for Zhang Shun, he disrespected you. He deserves to do hard labor."

This was all he could do.

The other side was clearly targeting Zhang Shun. Zhang's father had merely been caught in the blast.

If Chen Sanshi forcibly stood up for them, not only would he fail to change the outcome, he would draw disaster upon himself as well.

While he spoke, the two martial arts school disciples were staring at him fixedly from within the crowd.

Better to save one if he could.

After all, Zhang Shun was young. If he went to perform corvée labor, he still had a twenty percent chance of surviving.

"Heh, you're quite good at handling matters, kid."

The tax officer found it amusing.

He had accepted money to teach Zhang Shun a lesson. The old man had been dispensable from the start, and he could earn another two taels of silver besides. Why not?

With that thought, he accepted the silver without changing expression and announced, "The Zhang household head has made up the tax payment. Release him. Take the young one away and exile him to Hezhou!"

The matter was settled.

The people present could now more or less see what had happened.

"Little Stone handled this well. He didn't offend anyone, and he saved Shunzi's father."

"This boy really is loyal and righteous."

"It's a pity he stopped studying. Otherwise, if he became an official someday, he would definitely be a good one."

"Little Stone, this time, I, Scabby Head, am convinced!"

The villagers whispered among themselves, expressing their admiration for Chen Sanshi's actions.

"Shunzi."

Chen Sanshi walked before the dark, skinny youth and gently patted his shoulder. "I did my best."

"Brother!"

With a thud, Zhang Shun dropped to his knees. "You saved my life, and now you've saved my father's life too. If I can come back alive, I'll become an ox or horse to repay you!"

He knocked his head against the ground three times.

"Are you putting on an opera here? Cut the crap and move!"

The yamen runners took Zhang Shun away, while the tax officer continued checking the next household.

Watching her son leave, Aunt Li cried until she fainted on the spot. Zhang's father sat on the ground, numb all over.

Similar scenes would continue to unfold on this final day of autumn tax collection.

Inside and outside Poyang County, at least one-tenth of the able-bodied men would be seized.

The overwhelming majority of them were farming households.

After three hundred years of land annexation, more than ninety percent of the land in and around Poyang County had become the property of wealthy gentry and martial arts schools.

Farmers were basically all tenant farmers.

Every year, they first had to hand over half their harvest as rent, then pay taxes with what remained. By year's end, they could barely fill their stomachs.

"Mercy, sir!"

"Several years of poor harvests in a row, and we still have to plant one-tenth of every mu with Spirit Grain. We truly can't survive anymore."

"Enough nonsense. Take them away!"

"..."

The Great Sheng Dynasty had all manner of taxes.

The most bizarre of them all was the Immortal Tax.

Fifty years ago, in Year 21 of Longqing, Emperor Longqing had a dream. He claimed that he had met immortals in it, and that the immortals gave him a batch of seeds, saying they could grow immortal grass. If this immortal grass was offered to the immortals above, the realm could endure for a thousand autumns and ten thousand generations.

Thus, beginning in Year 22 of Longqing, the emperor issued an edict.

One-tenth of all farmland throughout the nation had to be planted with Spirit Grain. Those without farmland had to pay the equivalent amount in silver as tax.

The problem was that this Spirit Grain was not immortal grass at all. Not only was it inedible, it was poisonous—violently poisonous!

If an ordinary person ate it, they would die on the spot!

It was equivalent to wasting land for nothing, making life even harder for tenant farmers who had already been barely clinging to survival.

Standing beside the field ridge, Chen Sanshi saw at least three or four households have their able-bodied men seized in less than half an hour. Even seventy-year-old elders were not spared.

Misery!

The people suffered!

Material oppression alone would have been one thing, but the oppression of the spirit was even heavier. Officials and martial arts school disciples were all masters—who dared provoke them?

Just like earlier, when Chen Sanshi had saved them.

He would never forget the looks in the two martial arts school disciples' eyes for the rest of his life.

It was as though one wrong word would condemn him to eternal damnation.

That feeling was truly unbearable.

Because he was a commoner, he was oppressed and exploited at every turn, living with extreme caution.

He suddenly made a decision.

Old Xu had been wrong about one thing.

In a world like this, living peacefully was a luxury for ordinary people.

Only by fighting with all his strength would he have a chance to turn his life around!

"Tomorrow, I enlist!"