"One tenth of the grain is in your hands, nine tenths in Rich Harvest's! Open the granaries, save the people..."
Shouting at the top of his lungs, Yang Ge turned and charged into the granary. One slash tore open a sack, and golden wheat came pouring out like running water.
The nearby residents who had followed him through the gates of the Rich Harvest granary stood helplessly outside at the sight, hesitant to enter yet unwilling to retreat.
Seeing this, Yang Ge strode out of the granary and snatched the light from someone's hand. He held it up to illuminate the Nine of Diamonds mask on his face and shouted with all his might, "The Three Great Grain Merchants control the channels through which grain flows! They hoard it, inflate its price, and force everyone to sell their houses and fields, their sons and daughters, to buy grain they bought for a pittance at prices dozens of times higher! The law cannot tolerate it, heaven cannot tolerate it, and human decency cannot tolerate it!"
"I've driven off those conscienceless bastards from the Rich Harvest Granary and opened its stores for everyone to take grain! Whatever crime this may be, I, Zhang Mazi, will bear it alone!"
"Please hurry! If you delay any longer, dawn will be here!"
"And once you've taken your grain, please do what you can in the days ahead to help those neighbors who didn't get any!"
"I, Zhang Mazi, thank you here on their behalf!"
He returned the light and stepped aside to clear the granary entrance. "Hurry! Time waits for no one!"
As more and more nearby residents gathered in the courtyard, their eyes shifted back and forth between him and the wheat pouring out inside the granary.
The sound of swallowing was everywhere.
Yet