Ignore literacy?

Recalling the information of the leaders of various villages I had read before, Tianhao couldn't help but smile. This was not the ritual smile he had before, but from the heart: "This is what I want to announce next: From now on, all village leaders, including 100 heads and officials above the preparatory priests, must undergo half a year of training in Leijiao City."

As soon as these words were spoken, the audience was in an uproar and there were many discussions.

"Half a year? We will stay in Lei Point City for the first half of the year?"

"Why do we need training?"

"Don't care about the matter in the village anymore? Or do the king want to bring our village to the city?"

Tianhao put away his smile and his expression became serious: "Quiet!"

He raised the volume again: "Give me peace of mind!"

Seeing the audience calmed down again, the young patriarch restored his majesty: "Our Leiniu tribe is a tribe with a long history. It is really not easy for patriarchs of all generations to gradually become as large as today's scale from a village of thousands of people. However, history returns to history, and we cannot always look at the world from our ancestors. If we want to become stronger, we must make changes."

Tianhao took a deep breath, left the throne, stood up, and swept the audience with a cold gaze: "It's not that I look down on you, but a large number of people here are not worthy of the position of leader at all. You have no ability, no vision, and no courage."

"Take you for example." Tianhao turned his eyes and stared at standing in place like a benchmark. He stood at a loss: "A illiterate illiterate can actually become the leader of a village, and he openly told me on such occasions that you can't even understand the newly revised clan rules... Don't you think this is a shame? Do you not even write your own name?"

Li Dao was stunned, and the others didn't dare to say a word. Only Tianhao's lingering sound was left in the hall, as well as heavy breathing from each other's nostrils.

Tianhao stared at the leader of Changchuan Village coldly: "Since you are illiterate, you can't understand the orders issued by me. I guess the priests in the village are usually responsible for such things, and he will help you take care of everything?"

"...Yes." The burly and tough Li Dao made a voice reluctantly.

"You haven't thought about learning to write?" Tianhao's questioning was extremely harsh: "It doesn't take too much time for such things."

"...I..." A painful and awkward expression appeared on the face of the leader of Changchuan Village: "I have to let the people in the village eat, I really don't have the heart to think about other things!"

Tianhao asked a quick question: "Changchuanzhai paid 50% of the tax this year. Is this the reason for hunger?"

Li Dao did not hear the deep meaning of the young patriarch's words. He knelt on the ground with a "splash" and looked very frustrated: "Your Highness, our village is located in a remote place. Although there is a river, the places where food can be grown near the village are very small. If you don't hunt and don't dig more wild vegetables in the summer, many people will starve to death. I... I really don't have time to learn!"

"Stand up! I didn't let you kneel down and speak!" Tianhao let out an angry roar, frightening the leader of Changchuan Village to jump up from the ground, with a completely conditioned reflex speed.

"The annual tax amount stipulated by the ethnic group is only 30%. If paid according to this ratio, will the people in your village still be hungry?" Tianhao changed his question.

Li Dao was stunned. He quickly calculated in his heart and quickly came up with the answer: "It's almost enough, and the rest can be supplemented with prey."

After saying this, he was quite afraid and asked anxiously: "...Your Highness, it's too little to pay only 30% of the amount. That... can you really accept it?"

Tianhao sneered and asked back: "Who told you that I want to collect 50% of the tax grain?"

He said honestly and said a moment of speech. He licked his thick lips and hesitatedly replied: "Everyone did this. When I paid the food this year, someone said that 50% was too little, and other villages paid 60% or even more..."

Tianhao's face darkened and he growled: "How do you write the clan rules?"

"I can't read." Li Dao's answer was completely instinctive. He immediately realized that he shouldn't say this and quickly changed his words: "The annual grain tax paid is 30%, and all villages are the same."

"Since that's the case, why don't you follow the rules?"

Tianhao turned around slowly, his majestic gaze swept across the other participants, and settled on a tall and thin man.

"Yikun, the leader of Pingzhai, stand up." He issued an irresistible order.

The huge volume produced a shocking effect: an old man in his sixties, with wrinkles on his face, almost white hair, and a sparse white beard hanging on his chin and cheeks suddenly bounced off the chair. The command of the young patriarch was like a spring to him, instinctively intimidated by a strong fear and fright.

"Your Highness...I...I am Zhikun." He responded stutteringly.

Tianhao turned around and picked up a report from the wooden table next to the throne. This was the information he had prepared before. He stared at Zhikun with a cold look, raised the report in his hand high so that everyone in the hall could see: "The whole Lei Niu Ministry, this year, you only count your Weipingzhai to pay the most tax grain. I mean the amount, not the quantity, it has reached 95%.

These words had a violent response that was comparable to a storm.

People were stunned, and then countless exclamations and discussions broke out.

"The gods are above, ninety-five percent, this...is this true?"

"Oh my God, this is simply incredible."

"Zhikun must be crazy. He has handed over so much food. What are the people in Pingzhai eating next year?"

Tianhao was walking on the platform, and he kept going back and forth with the throne as the center. Not to mention that there were hundreds of village leaders in the audience, even with excellent psychological quality, when he saw this report on the grain tax payment, he was also surprised by such a high payment amount, which triggered thoughts in his mind.

He knew it would take some time to ferment this matter. An excessively high tax and grain payment ratio was not appropriate. If you want to fundamentally change this approach, you need to find a typical example to hold it accountable.

Tianhao was very patient. He waited until the audience was almost talking, and his voice gradually subsided. Then he raised his hands and made a downward pressing action. Tianhao slowly stopped, with the majesty and solemnity unique to the king of the tribe, and his eyes were like an invisible iron cage, which firmly covered Zhikun standing in place.

"According to this ratio, only Pingzhai has almost no grain reserves. Even if you are lucky enough to survive this winter, what should you do next year? How do you survive the spring famine? What should you use as seeds when you plow in spring?"

Zhikun's old face turned pale, and he replied in a hurry: "Report to Your Highness, I...I have sent a hunting team to catch a group of prey."

"How many specifics are there?" Tianhao's tone was cold, and he didn't plan to let him go.

"Two deer, some hares, and... and..." Zhikun kept licking his mouth. He half lowered his head, and his anxious eyes kept searching between the back of the front chair and the floor, as if there was a certain location there that could be hidden for him to pass.

"Two deer, six hares, nothing else." Tianhao stopped his useless thinking with a serious voice: "There are only more than two thousand people in Pingzhai. How long can this little thing be eaten?"

The accurate data shattered the last bit of reliance in Zhikun's heart. He tilted his body and knelt heavily on the ground, his forehead was covered with cold sweat, begging: "Report to your Highness, I am loyal to you! The food... I did not keep the food privately at all, and I handed it all over to the public warehouse in the city. The warehouse manager checked it at the time of handover. I really didn't deceive Your Highness!"

"I didn't say you lied to me."

Tianhao let out a heart-wrenching roar: "I have read the statistical reports over the years: Ten years ago, the population of Weipingzhai exceeded 5,000. That is, since then, you started paying extremely high grain taxes, which reached 60%. Since then, the grain tax you pay every year has been higher and higher every year, 70, 80, 90%... This year it has reached its peak, and it has reached 95%. Conversely, Weipingzhai has fewer people every year, and now there are only 2,703, which still counts all the four children who were just born last month."

Zhikun, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly stood up, his mouth widened, his eyes widened, and looked at the young patriarch standing on the stage in disbelief.

This number is too accurate, and the new clan leader is well aware of the situation in Weipingzhai.

"In ten years, nearly half of the people are gone. Should you give me a reasonable explanation?" Tianhao did not intend to let him go.

"I...I sold some people... to exchange for food." Zhikun was frightened and finally found this reason that seemed to be able to get rid of it.

Tianhao jumped off the platform and walked into the crowd with fierce and wild aura. The distance between the front and back of the town seats was very wide. He walked in from the left passage and came to Zhikun. The people around him stood up one after another. The order of the venue was instantly disrupted. The leaders formed a circle with Tianhao as the center. No one dared to speak at this time. They watched the development of the situation in silence.

"Selling a few people when you are not full is understandable." Tianhao looks very calm, but it reveals the danger of wild beasts preying on the predation: "But nearly half of the people in the village are sold... This is abnormal and unreasonable."

"...I... the crops in the fields are not well harvested, I... I can't support them." Zhikun searched for a reasonable basis.

Tianhao looked at him calmly: "Is it really that difficult? As long as the amount of grain tax paid is reduced, even if 70% of the stored grain cannot be filled, there should be no problem maintaining the harvest season in the second year."

"…yes.” Despite his extreme reluctance, Zhikun had to admit it.

"Niu Weibang has never issued an announcement requiring villages to increase the amount of grain tax payment." Tianhao's tone became cold: "Why do you do this?"

"...I..." Zhikun was speechless for a while, and suddenly he felt that all the answers prepared in advance had lost their effect.

"Don't tell me this is the so-called loyalty." Tianhao stared at him: "I have no intention of slandering the previous kings, but you have to understand that the biggest difference between me and Niu Weibang is that I have been in charge of a village. I know what the food tax exceeds the normal amount, and I also know the reason for you to do this."

There were charcoal basins burning around the hall, and there were special heating pipes on the outside of the wall. Kneeling in the warm environment, the elderly Zhikun felt cold all over and couldn't help but tremble all over. He saw the predator's gaze from Tianhao's eyes, and understood that he was in danger, but all this could not be argued. The huge and unshirkable responsibility was pressing on his head like a mountain, unable to remove it, unable to relax, unable to escape.

"Ten years ago, you were fifty-one." Tianhao's tone was smooth, with a hint of sarcasm: "Since then, you have planned to get a surname, and you want to become a noble."

Zhikun bent over, his upper body that could not stand up was almost lying on the ground. He could not refute or dared not defend himself.

"It is a good thing to have a goal, which can inspire people and create strong fighting spirit." The young patriarch's words hit Zhikun's heart like a heavy hammer: "You can use other methods to obtain surnames. Make military achievements, work hard to manage your own village, and strive for a population of over 10,000."

"...This is too difficult." Zhikun cried loudly: "All the arable land is used, but Pingzhai is surrounded by mountains and cannot grow crops."

"Why can't you go north?" Tianhao asked coldly: "As long as you climb over the mountain on the back, there will be a lake, and there is a large plain. Not to mention five thousand people, it will not be a problem to support 50,000 people... Humph! Don't tell me you don't know that place."

Zhikun was stunned. He stopped crying, raised his head, stared blankly at the young patriarch standing in front of him, and even forgot to wipe away the tears and snot from his face.

"You never thought of changing the status quo." Tianhao pointed out the core of the problem incisively: "You just want to use the simplest way to get your surname and become a noble. Anyway, you have enough food in your family, and even if all the people in the village starve to death, it doesn't matter to you. Ninety-five percent of the grain tax quota... It turns out that people are old and do things without restraint and fearless."

A huge fear suddenly came, Zhikun felt his blood was frozen, and he finally made his stiff body shake a little, opened his lips, and wailed in a whisper: "I was wrong, please spare me this time. I... After I go back, I will take people across the mountains to the lake area to clear the land next year. I promise..."

Tianhao interrupted him: "You no longer have a chance. With so many people dead, do you think you are still qualified to continue to sit in the position of leader?"

"By the way, your family has been arrested from Weipingzhai by my order. In ten years, nearly three thousand people, you and your family must pay the price for it."
Chapter completed!