At the Worker-Peasant Council, Zhou Qing informed everyone that Nuoding City's newly appointed city lord, Li Ai, had increased the agricultural tax.
The Village Chiefs from every village frowned deeply, while the newly joined young adults from each village wore equally gloomy expressions.
They had thought everyone would finally be able to live good lives, only for the new city lord to immediately try to put them in their place. It was truly hateful!
Based on headcount, every person had to hand over five hundred jin of grain!
Even Holy Soul Village, which had once produced a Soul Saint and was allowed to pay less, still had to hand over three hundred and fifty jin per person—
They might as well rob them!
At that moment, nearly everyone understood that the new noble lord had seen them living better lives and felt displeased, or perhaps simply wanted to squeeze more out of them.
"For now, we can only comply. Otherwise, if Li Ai reports this upward and embellishes the story, he might slap us with the charge of rebellion."
Zhou Qing sighed.
"Ah..."
The others were equally helpless.
They were commoners. How could they fight noble lords?
How could they possibly win!
"However, don't worry. To keep everyone's lives from returning to how they were before, I have a solution. The Red Assembly has quite a few connections outside. When the time comes, we can raise the prices of Blue Silver Rice, Soul Tools, and other agricultural products that the major villages sell to unfamiliar cities. That will make up for everyone's losses." Zhou Qing proposed a solution, easing the worries of most of the elders.
However, the newly joined members between the ages of fifteen and twenty felt that this was not a long-term solution. After all, that damned