novelaction Chapter 928 Ha Says
Chapter 928 Ha Says
The story is set in a disaster year. The government colluded with the landlords to exploit the poor with heavy taxes and usury, creating a dark and oppressive social environment, laying the groundwork for the poor's resistance. Character creation: The protagonist Chen Shi, from an ordinary person who silently endured the suffering for his family, gradually awakened and grew into a resistance leader after experiencing heavy blows such as the death of his relatives; other villagers also have their own characteristics and together constitute a resistance group. Plot development: From the plight of Chen Shi's family, to being forced to borrow usury, to the death of his mother and daughter, the cruelty of exploitation is gradually revealed, and finally triggered the climax of Chen Shi leading the villagers to resist. Blood of the seedlings Chen Shi knelt in the muddy water of the threshing ground, holding the sickle tightly with both hands. The autumn sun was like a rusty and blunt knife, cutting obliquely on his spine, and the wheat awns pierced into the wound on the palm of his hand, mixed with salty blood beads seeping into the soil. The sound of the supervisor's gong in the distance made his temples throb. Behind him, more than twenty tenants were hunched over, piling bundles of newly harvested rice onto the landlord's horse-drawn carriage. "Chen Shi!" The housekeeper Wang Si whipped him at his feet, splashing mud on his trouser legs, "Last year's rent has not been paid, and this year's tax has been delayed for another half a month. Do you think Wang Yuanwai's land is a porridge stall run by a kind-hearted bodhisattva?" Chen Shi's throat rolled, staring at the golden rice ears on the carriage. During the spring drought, he knelt in the Wang family ancestral hall to ask for seeds. Wang Si held the account book and sneered: "Borrow one stone and return three stones. Interest is compounded. It's only natural." Now, 30% of the grain harvested cannot fill this hole. He thought of the blood foam his mother coughed up on the handkerchief last night, his daughter Xiaocui's lips turned blue from hunger, and the taste of rust in his throat: "Manager Wang, give me some more time..." "Grace?" Wang Si kicked him on the back, and Chen Shi staggered and fell into the grain pile, "Wang Yuanwai's money is lent to you, but it's for giving birth to a baby!" The tenants watching were silent, and some quietly buried their faces in their straw hats. Chen Shi's wife Alan stood at the edge of the crowd holding her daughter's hand. Xiaocui suddenly broke free from her mother and rushed towards her father screaming. "Wild girl!" Wang Si's whip broke through the air. Chen Shi turned over suddenly and blocked the whip with his back. The whip hit the old wound, and the burning pain ran up the spine to the top of his head. Xiaocui lay in his arms and cried and trembled all over. Alan rushed over to grab the child, but was stopped by two servants. "Finish loading the grain!" Wang Si flicked his whip. "If you don't pay the tax in full in three days, the house will be demolished!" The carriage rolled over the straw on the ground, and the dust raised was wrapped in the fragrance of rice, like a layer of gauze covering the sobbing in the threshing ground. Chen Shi stood up holding his daughter. Alan silently picked up the broken straw hat scattered on the ground. There was still a half-dried tear mark on the brim of the hat. Late at night, Chen Shi squatted in front of the stove to make a fire. The wild vegetable porridge in the pottery pot was steaming, but it couldn't cover the mother's violent cough. Alan broke the last half of the sweet potato into three pieces and stuffed one piece into Xiao Cui: "Eat it quickly, you will gain strength after eating it." Xiao Cui shook her head and stuffed the sweet potato into her mother's hand: "Grandma, eat it." Chen Shi looked at the leaky window paper, and the moonlight sprinkled in like broken silver. He remembered what Wang Si said during the day, and the whip marks on his spine began to heat again. Suddenly, there were hurried footsteps outside the courtyard. Uncle Zhang from next door pushed open the wooden door: "Chen Shi! It's bad, Wang Si is here with his servants!" The light of the torch shone through the window lattice, illuminating the house. Chen Shi picked up the shovel in the corner, and Alan protected Xiao Cui behind him. The door was kicked open with a "clang", and Wang Si walked in with a pipe in his mouth, followed by four servants carrying axes. "Chen Shi, it's three quarters of the morning." Wang Si knocked on the door frame with his pipe, "Where is the tax silver?" "Give me another half month!" Chen Shi's hand holding the shovel was throbbing, "There are still two acres of late rice in the field..." "Late rice?" Wang Si sneered, "Mr. Wang can't wait." He winked at the servant, "Tear it down!" The sound of the axe hitting the beam was so loud that it hurt people's eardrums. Alan rushed to stop him, but was pushed to the ground by the servant. Xiao Cui cried in fear, and Chen Shi waved the shovel with red eyes, but was held down by two people. Wang Si picked up the pottery jar on the ground and poured the porridge on Chen Shi's face: "Poor bastard, this is not worthy of being called a meal?" His mother suddenly rushed out from the inner room and grabbed Wang Si's sleeve: "Please, let my grandson go..." Before he finished speaking, Wang Si kicked the old woman in the chest. His mother staggered back and hit the corner of the stove, blood flowing down her white hair. "Mom!" Chen Shi broke free from the servants and rushed over, but his mother's hands were already cold. Xiao Cui screamed and threw herself on her grandmother, and A Lan collapsed to the ground crying. Wang Si walked out humming a little tune: "Tomorrow at noon, bring the tax silver to the Wang family compound, otherwise..." He glanced at Xiao Cui, "This girl can be sold to a brothel to get some money." The moonlight was as pale as frost, and Chen Shi knelt beside his mother's body, his nails digging deep into his palm. Alan hugged the trembling Xiao Cui and suddenly grabbed his wrist: "Brother Shi, run away, take Xiao Cui with you!" "Run away?" Chen Shi's voice seemed to come out of an ice cellar, "Where to run to? All crows are black!" He thought of Old Wu who starved to death on the roadside during the spring famine, the daughter-in-law of the Li family who was forced to jump into the river last month, and the hunched backs on the threshing ground during the day. There was a fire burning in his chest. The next morning, Chen Shi knocked on Uncle Zhang's door. More than a dozen villagers had gathered in the yard, all of them looked pale. "Fellow villagers," Chen Shi held up his mother's blood-stained handkerchief, "Wang Si forced my mother to death and wanted to take Xiao Cui away!" His voice echoed in the morning mist, "Are we just going to wait for death?" "But..." someone stammered, "The Wang family has guards, and the government..." "Government?" Chen Shi sneered, "Whose pocket did the 'drought relief donation' we paid during the drought last year go into? Where did the bandits in the village come from for the 'bandit suppression tax' last month?" He clenched his fists, "It's going to be a death anyway, so why not fight it!" Everyone was silent for a long time, and Uncle Zhang stood up tremblingly: "I'm going to fight for my life!" "Fight!" "Fight them!" The shouts that came one after another scared the sparrows on the treetops. Chen Shi looked at the familiar faces in front of him and suddenly felt less afraid. He picked up a branch on the ground and drew a circle on the mud: "Gather under the old locust tree at three o'clock tonight." Late at night, twenty-seven villagers holding torches, carrying hoes and sickles, quietly moved towards the Wang family compound. The moonlight stretched their shadows very long, like a silent army. Chen Shi held the kitchen knife borrowed from the blacksmith shop, his heart beating deafeningly. The gate of the courtyard creaked open, and two guards came out yawning. Chen Shi winked, and Uncle Zhang and several young men rushed over and strangled the guards' necks with hemp ropes. Suddenly, a dog barked in the yard, and Chen Shi shouted, "Charge!" Everyone rushed into the gate with torches. The door of the granary was locked, and Chen Shi swung an axe and smashed it.