novelSusiti Chapter 76 Fairness, fairness, and more fairness!
Chapter 76 Fairness, fairness, and more fairness!
Li Sheng's voice wasn't loud, but it carried far across the playground.
The crowd quieted down, and many people lowered their heads, their expressions not looking good.
These people came from various villages and hamlets in Xiapi County. Each village had its own leader, and each hamlet had its own backbone. They followed Li Sheng in making trouble, firstly because they wanted Li Sheng to be the one to take the lead, and secondly because Li Sheng could help them get pay and loot. But this did not mean that they were truly willing to submit to a mere village head in Siyang Township.
At this moment, Li Sheng immediately accused them of fighting over the food, and some people began to feel uneasy.
Li Sheng's gaze swept across the audience, taking in everyone's reactions.
He also knew that not all of these people were truly loyal to him.
Some people followed him because he dared to stand up for others; some followed him because of Liu Lu's influence; and some followed him simply because they genuinely needed to fight for their own interests. This kind of group, bound together by interests and emotions, would crumble at the slightest breeze.
But he wasn't in a hurry.
Li Sheng changed the subject.
"But is this everyone's fault?!"
His voice suddenly became heavy, carrying a suppressed anger.
"If anyone's to blame, blame those officials! It's those officials, those powerful figures, those high and mighty people who have oppressed us far too much!"
He turned around and pointed sharply at the row of high-ranking military officers behind him who were tied up.
All eyes followed his hand and landed on those once arrogant faces.
"If everyone doesn't fight over food, what will the elderly eat? What will the wives wear? How will the children survive?"
Li Sheng's voice exploded in the air.
"Brothers, what you're stealing isn't goods, it's lives!"
There was a deathly silence in the audience.
Then, it was as if something exploded in the crowd.
"Well said!"
"Exactly! How can we survive if we don't fight for it?"
"Those corrupt officials embezzled our salaries and won't even let us take anything!"
"Damn it, I've been out fighting, and my family is starving!"
The shouts grew louder and louder, a mixture of cursing, yelling, and crying, like boiling water in a pot.
The soldiers who had been bowing their heads just moments before now raised them one by one. The guilt and unease in their eyes disappeared, replaced by a burning light.
They no longer felt they had done anything wrong; on the contrary, they felt that what they did was perfectly justified.
Looking at the faces below the stage, Li Sheng knew he had made the right move. He didn't need these people to be grateful to him forever; he only needed their trust in him at this moment.
Trust is sometimes more useful than weapons.
Li Sheng raised his hand and pressed down, and the crowd gradually quieted down. He walked to the row of people who were tied up and pointed at one of them with his finger.
"Who is this?"
Someone in the crowd answered.
"This is the second son of the Wang family!"
"The Wang family?"
Li Sheng's voice was filled with doubt.
"It's the Wang family!"
An angry voice rang out from the crowd.
"The Wang family occupies half of our land, and they demand 70% of the rent! Their foreman even killed someone!"
The man from the Wang family turned pale instantly. He opened his mouth to say something, but Liu Wu slapped him back down.
"Seventy percent of the rent?"
Li Sheng's voice turned cold.
"The farmers eat chaff and wild vegetables, while the Wang family eats fish and meat every day. Is this what they call benevolence and righteousness?"
A chorus of agreement erupted from the crowd, with voices cursing the Wang family and exposing their crimes rising and falling.
Li Sheng walked up to the second person, and without him asking, someone in the crowd had already called out who this person was.
"That belongs to the Sun family! They lend money at exorbitant interest rates; if you borrow one string of cash, you have to pay back two strings in six months! My father was driven to his death by them!"
"My land was also seized by the Sun family!"
"The Sun family even colluded with the county authorities; they can't win a lawsuit against them!"
The man from the Sun family was trembling all over, and his crotch was soaked.
The situation that followed was no longer under Li Sheng's control.
People, like a floodgate opened, recounted the crimes of these powerful figures one by one. Some said the Zhang family had forcibly seized his land, others said the Li family had driven his father to his death, and still others accused the Wang family of colluding with the government to oppress the people.
When someone mentioned Chen Yuan, they paused and said that his reputation as an official was decent, and that he did not really oppress the people when he was the county magistrate of Xiapi County.
But someone immediately objected.
"Commander Chen is indeed capable, but what about the Chen family? How much land does the Chen family occupy? How high are the rents they collect? Every single grain piled up in the Chen family's granaries, wasn't it all taken from our mouths?"
No one refuted this statement.
Because that's the truth.
Chen Yuan stood on the high platform, his lips pale, without uttering a word.
Li Sheng watched all this without rushing to interrupt.
He let the people speak, let them curse, let them vent all the resentment that had been bottled up in their hearts for decades. He knew that these people needed more than just food and clothing; they needed a reason, a reason to feel that what they were doing was right.
Ultimately, all the people want is fairness! Fairness! It's all about fairness, damn it!
Li Sheng only spoke again when the noise gradually subsided.
"Brothers, I have heard everything you have said."
He stepped to the front of the stage, facing thousands of eyes.
"What happened today was done by me, Li Sheng, and you. We took their things and tied up their people. I will take full responsibility for these crimes."
He paused.
"But I want to ask everyone a question: if I release them today, will they let us go?"
There was a moment of silence in the audience, followed by a burst of unified shouts.
"Won't!"
"They'll definitely retaliate!"
"If we let them go, we'll all die!"
Li Sheng nodded, his voice becoming deep.
"Then tell me, should these people be killed?"
"He deserves to die!"
"He deserves to die!"
"He deserves to die!"
The sounds rose in waves, exploding in the night sky like rolling thunder.
The row of bound tyrants were ashen-faced; some were limp on the ground, some were struggling desperately, and some were defecating and urinating indiscriminately.
Li Sheng turned around and glanced at them, his gaze eerily calm.
Then he turned his head, faced the crowd, raised his right hand, and chopped it down sharply.
"kill!"
As soon as that word was uttered, the crowd surged forward like madmen.
Screams, curses, and pleas for mercy mingled together, and blood splattered in the firelight, a blindingly red.
After a moment, everything fell silent.
There were more than a dozen corpses on the ground.
However, Chen Yuan was not there; Li Sheng had arranged for someone to take him away beforehand.
Chen Yuan, shrouded in shadow, was trembling. His crotch was soaked, his lips were quivering, and his eyes were vacant.
He saw Li Sheng turn around and walk towards him step by step, his boots making a sticky sound as they stepped into the pool of blood.
Li Sheng stopped in front of him, looking down at him.
Chen Yuan opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but it felt like something was stuck in his throat, and he couldn't utter a single word.
Li Sheng looked at him for a moment, then suddenly smiled.
"Don't worry, Captain, you won't die yet."