In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 557 Welcoming Marshal Yang

The woman, who had lived among the refugee community, knew how brutal the competition for survival was in this group. Therefore, when she saw the men among the refugees feasting, even though she was starving, she did not choose to go forward and compete with the men for food, because this could easily provoke an attack from the male refugees.

Of course, the main reason was that Yang Zheng was involved in a rebellion, and the woman couldn't be of much help in this matter. Feeling that she shouldn't accept undeserved rewards, she didn't dare to go up to eat.

"What's wrong with that?"

Yang Zheng grinned and said, "I already said, as long as you're willing to follow me, you can have a meal."

"Can I do it too?"

The woman pointed incredulously at herself, seemingly unable to believe that Yang Zheng would be willing to accept her.

"Of course! Regardless of gender, as long as you're willing to join us, you're one of our brothers!"

Yang Zheng said, "Let's go, I'll take you to eat."

"thanks, thanks!"

The woman kept thanking him, her eyes filled with gratitude. Even the baby in her swaddling clothes, who had been crying incessantly from hunger, stopped crying and looked at Yang Zheng with innocent eyes.

Soon, Yang Zheng gathered several women among the refugees together and made them sit on the ground to eat by themselves.

Yang Zheng returned to the group and, looking at the men wolfing down their food, asked loudly, "Brothers, how's the rice?"

"great!"

A man with a grain of rice still stuck to the corner of his mouth said, "I have never eaten such delicious food before."

"Me too!"

"This rice tastes even better than meat."

"You talk as if you've ever eaten meat."

"Damn it, we've had a good meal today, so even if we die tomorrow, it'll be worth it!"

"Thank you, Brother Yang, for taking us out to eat!"

"..."

The men sitting on the ground responded warmly to Yang Zheng. For these hungry refugees, whoever could give them a full meal was their greatest benefactor.

"My uncle is a farmer who often grows rice."

Yang Zheng picked up a bowl of rice and looked intently at the crowd in front of him: "But he has lived for more than forty years and has never eaten rice more than a few times. Do you think that's reasonable?"

Is it reasonable?

Of course it’s unreasonable!

The crowd subconsciously thought to themselves, "It's incredibly ironic that the people who grow rice have hardly ever eaten any rice themselves."

However, this is the true state of affairs in this world.

Just as people who build houses on Earth may not be able to afford to buy them, in the Xia Kingdom, very few people who grow rice can afford to eat rice.

Because... a large portion of the rice they grow has to be handed over to the imperial court, and the remaining rice... the farmers simply can't bear to eat it themselves. They will choose to sell the rice and use the money to buy cheaper grains such as sorghum flour and bran to ensure that their families don't go hungry.

"Damn it, I used to grow rice for the landlord all the time. I worked myself to the bone all year round, but I never even got to eat a single bite of rice. Damn landlord."

"Hmph! Those rich and heartless landlords, have they ever treated us like human beings? The cows in the cowshed eat better than us."

"That's right! I even helped the landlord take care of his cattle for a while, and those cattle lived much better than we did!"

"..."

Yang Zheng's words undoubtedly rekindled everyone's hatred for the landlord.

Having anticipated this, Yang Zheng remained unfazed and continued, "Those who grow rice can't afford rice, and those who grow wheat can't afford steamed buns. The emperor, the court, and the landlords have never treated us like human beings. Even though we work diligently for them, we can't even get a full meal, and they haven't even left us a way to survive..."

At this point, Yang Zheng took a deep breath and suddenly raised his voice a few decibels: "Since they won't let us live, then we'll fight them to the death! We'll rebel against them!"

"Fuck them!"

"Fuck them!"

"That's outrageous!"

"..."

The crowd shouted in unison, and thousands of voices converged, carrying far and wide.

"Brothers, eat your fill tonight, and tomorrow we'll march on to the next county!"

"Yes."

Thus, these thousands of refugees became the Yang family army that initially followed Yang Zheng in his rebellion.

After a night's rest and a full meal, Yang Zheng led thousands of refugees on a swift raid on the neighboring county.

Yang Zheng was very clever. He knew that if he led these thousands of refugees directly to the neighboring county, he would definitely be discovered by the city guards.

Therefore, Yang Zheng did not directly lead thousands of men to the city gates. Instead, he selected several dozen strong men from his team, had them disguise themselves as ordinary civilians to enter the city, and then... quickly launched an attack, killing all the city guards at one of the city gates.

In this way, the group of over a thousand people was able to enter the city smoothly.

After thousands of people entered the city, the county naturally fell into Yang Zheng's hands, although some constables and martial artists still put up a stubborn resistance.

But when the power of thousands of people is gathered together, even martial artists have to give way.

In less than a day, Yang Zheng had beheaded all the officials in the city who refused to surrender. Then he opened the county's granaries, distributed grain, and used the grain to attract more refugees to join his ranks.

After capturing the second county, Yang Zheng's army had grown to three thousand men, and more and more refugees were coming to join them, with the number continuing to increase.

However, this number did not make Yang Zheng complacent. He knew very well that he had to grow stronger before the court could react, otherwise... once the court's army arrived, his army of several thousand refugees would collapse in no time.

"We must seize a large enough territory and have a large enough army before the imperial court can react!"

Despite having occupied two counties, Yang Zheng was not complacent at all. In the following days, he continued to lead his troops to conquer new territories.

One county town after another was captured by Yang Zheng's army. Every time a county town was breached, Yang Zheng would generously open the county's granaries to distribute grain, using the grain to attract refugees to join his army.

Yang Zheng was even willing to share some of his grain with ordinary people to satisfy their hunger.

Because of Yang Zheng's actions, the people wherever his team went were surprisingly not alarmed, but rather quite welcoming.

In fact, in many counties, nursery rhymes like "Welcome Marshal Yang, Marshal Yang will bring us plenty of food" have been circulating, which shows how popular Yang Zheng is among the people.

There was no other way. Compared to those officials and landlords who exploited the people to the bone, Yang Zheng's act of opening granaries and distributing grain to the people was like that of a living bodhisattva.

Of course, this is also related to Yang Zheng's extremely strict requirements for his troops.