Episode 1225 Can I do this? (5)
“Are you done?”
“Yes. Now all you have to do is take a break.”
“hmm.”
Tang Xiaoxiao smiled and looked back at Yu Yi Xue. Yu Iseol rarely urges people. It’s truly rare for someone like that to talk behind your back and ask you so many times.
‘You seem to care.’
Tang Soso did not miss the sight of Yu Yi-seol secretly casting glances at the village children. The children continued to watch, hiding behind their mother’s skirts, with very frightened faces.
“Are you afraid the kids might be hungry?”
When Tang Soso asked, Yu Iseol answered in a slightly blunt voice.
“…… it’s hard.”
“yes?”
“I’m hungry.”
“……”
“Especially when I was young.”
Tang Xiaoxiao was speechless for a moment. If you think about it, when Yu Iseol was young, she would have endured each day clutching her hungry stomach.
Tang Soso must have memories that cannot be sympathized with.
“It’s done. I’ll give it to you quickly.”
“huh.”
“So, don’t just watch, please bring some dishes too.”
“okay.”
Tang Soso laughed a little as he watched Yu Yi-seol rushing to get the plate.
Originally, they weren’t going to do something like this. Since my life was saved, I just have to continue on my way.
The problem was handling the grain loaded on the cart. In order to pretend that the Sapa men escaped with a cartload of grain, they had to destroy the grain.
Even though they were told to eat it in moderation and dispose of it, none of the villagers were willing to touch the grain.
Even though he knew in his head that Sapaeryun was not free enough to investigate all of these things, his instinctive fear made him reluctant to do anything.
So the Party Office rolled up its sleeves and stepped forward. Normally, Jo Geol would have cooked rice instead of a precious member of the party (?), but now Jo Geol is also doing other things.
Dang Soso glanced at the sun and checked the pot out of the corner of his eye. Even though it is something that needs to be done, it should not be a waste of time.
If those who set out to erase the traces of the cart do not finish their work before returning, it will only be in vain.
“That’s it! Everyone come and eat!”
“……”
“Come on!”
As the villagers hesitated and could not bear to approach, Dangsoso opened the pot and scooped up a large bowl of rice with a spatula. Then, he poured a generous amount into the bowl Yu Iseol brought.
“It’s here! Quick!”
“……”
Still, Yu Yi-seol, who was staring at those who could not bear to approach, reached out and picked up a handful of the rice that Tang So-so had cooked. And he shoved it into my mouth.
“Buy buy buy.”
Yuisul chewed the rice until her cheeks exploded and swallowed it in one gulp. She glanced at the villagers and grabbed a large bowl of rice again.
“We too…”
Only then did the anxious people begin to approach cautiously. Those who were slightly frightened by Yu Yi-seol’s expressionless face were greeted by Tang So-so with a bright smile.
“Now, now! Welcome! Our sago eats more than we think. If you don’t take it quickly, the sago will eat it all.”
“Thank you…thank you.”
The first time with anything is difficult. The village people rushed over and began to accept the food that Dangsoso gave them. Although it was just plain rice without any proper side dishes, I was so hungry that I had to eat urgently.
His bony ribs were exposed through his tattered clothes. Seeing this, Tang Xiaoxiao’s face hardened slightly, but then he smiled brightly again.
“There is plenty of grain, so eat more! It’s not the grain I brought.”
“Thank you!”
Dang Soso started scooping up rice quickly with a cheerful expression on his face.
Baekcheon, who was at the village chief’s house, opened his mouth after seeing the situation outside the door.
“……The situation looks very bad.”
Then the older man, who introduced himself as Hyeong-wook, sighed.
“It may sound a little absurd to say this with my own mouth, but I feel fortunate to be able to receive grain like this.”
“……”
Considering that these words came from the mouth of someone who had almost lost his life at the hands of the Sapae-ryeon a little while ago, I got a glimpse of how difficult the situation was.
“If I had been hungry for a month… no, even 15 more days, I would have died of starvation rather than being stabbed to death.”
“Didn’t fire and fighting go well?”
Hyungwook shook his head.
“I don’t know if you know, but it’s not that easy to make a living by slash-and-burn farming. Usually, while working a slash-and-burn farm, I dig up various things from the mountains, take them to the bottom of the mountain, sell them, and use the money to buy grain.”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“But… It has become very difficult to find grain a few years ago. Of course, the price of grain has skyrocketed… Later, even that grain was no longer available in the market, so no matter how many herbs I dug up, there was no one who would buy them. “I had no money, and
even if someone bought it, I couldn’t buy grain with that money.”
“Ah…”
It would be obvious to say it was a few years ago.
Gangnam fire. Ever since Sapa began to dominate Gangnam.
“Still, I managed to hold on until now… but now I really thought there was no way…”
Baekcheon asked again, his complexion hardening.
“Is it because this is a mountain?”
At those words, Hyungwook shook his head.
“No, warrior. We are in a better situation.”
“…… yes?”
“But since we live in a remote mountainous area, there are very few people who bother to come here and engage in mischief. Those who do it in big places really live day by day without being able to die.”
Baekcheon turned his head with a puzzled face.
Before I knew it, I could see the villagers eating as if they were possessed. Looking at his scrawny face, I felt so pitiful that I felt miserable. But their situation is actually better?
So what on earth is going on elsewhere?
“By… do you mean the behavior and corruption of the Four Leagues?”
The man could not bear to answer. It seemed like he was afraid to even say those words.
“Once upon a time…”
The man who hesitated for a while continued speaking with difficulty.
“When you go down the mountain to go to the market… there are dead bodies lying all over the road. Half-decomposed bodies.”
“……”
“People are starving to death and they can’t even think of cleaning it up.”
“How could that…”
“They don’t have the energy either. And… if we try to clean it up, someone else will die anyway.”
Baek-cheon looked back at Lim So-byeong with a blank face. Lim So-byeong shrugged his shoulders.
“What a surprise. Wasn’t that what you guessed?”
“Jang Il-so… Jang Il-so’s goal is to devour Gangbuk, right? Why is a guy like that… This is of no help…” “
Yes, that’s right. Jang Il-so is like that.”
Baekcheon closes his mouth at those words. This is because I understood what Lim So-byeong meant.
“But that’s not the case for the other sub-lords of the Sapae-ryeon. They had no interest in Gangbuk in the first place. Rather, what is more important is that the place that they had been moderately exploiting for the sake of the political factions was completely lost to me.”
“I don’t understand… I don’t understand.”
Baekcheon bit his lip so that blood showed.
“They say they are a sect… They are a sect that doesn’t know what to do or what to protect, but even so, if they become the head of a force, wouldn’t they be stupid? What will happen if they exploit the place they belong to
? Are you saying you might lose?”
In the first place, unmanned people are no different from parasites that attach themselves to ordinary people. How can people who only wield swords and learn martial arts make a living?
Political factions run their headquarters by earning money from donations from people in their area and from stores they use.
But if the people in that area are dry, where will they make money to maintain their headquarters?
“They are not so stupid that they don’t know that. Nokrim is also a Sapa, but they don’t exploit people like this.”
If the number of people traveling to and from the mountains decreases, the ones that suffer as a result are green forests. That is why the Green Foresters do not try to harm those who come and go on the mountain.
It was not the government that condemned those who violated the rules, but rather the same green forest. If bandits kill people everywhere, make a lot of money and run away to other mountains, Green Forest will be
destroyed not by external attacks, but by the internal strife of the bandits fighting each other over the mountain.
“Obviously, under normal circumstances, we wouldn’t have come this far. But…this time was different. Have you forgotten? What happened at the Sapae-ryeon?”
“……”
“Obviously, if my base disappears, it will be impossible for the faction or the political faction to survive. But it’s not a situation to consider that. If I were to lose anyway and be eaten by the enemy, wasn’t it a situation where I would lose my base and everything else?”
Only then do I understand.
The Black Ghost Treasure and even that Surochae must have known that one day they would have to compete among themselves to decide the position of leader of the huge group called the Four Sisters.
So, without looking back, they raised funds and stockpiled military supplies.
“What about bullying people and being abusive? That has nothing to do with it, right?”
“Seal. You seem to be forgetting, but that’s what the Sa Sect is all about. Would those who live their lives protecting their sanity commit themselves to the Sapa?”
“……”
“In peacetime, the superiors would have restrained themselves appropriately. But when war is about to break out, what is the need to forcibly control the subordinates and lower their morale? Then, they decided that somewhere else would be better
. “If you deviate from this, you will only lose.”
“No…”
“If it’s the Ten Thousand Gangs, it might be possible to control it in that situation, but it’s impossible to control it in other Shinjuo factions.”
Baekcheon had a puzzled expression, as if he both understood and didn’t understand. Or maybe he understands it but doesn’t want to accept it.
Seeing him like that, Lim So-byeong let out a strange smile.
“You knew that, didn’t you?”
“……”
“If there was that much chaos in Gangbuk, most people wouldn’t have guessed what was going on in Gangnam. Even those who couldn’t survive here and were pushed out to Gangbuk devastated people’s lives, but this
place How must it have been for those people to have to endure against even more vicious people?”
I felt sick to my stomach, as if I had swallowed ashes.
They just didn’t think.
It was understandable since he had seen that the public sentiment had become so uneasy due to the people who had been driven out to Gangbuk after the Gangnam non-aggression pact… As he
headed toward Gangnam, the only thought in his mind was Haenam. There was no concern at all for the people living here. That fact made Baekcheon even more embarrassed.
Lim So-byeong shrugged his shoulders and said.
“Well… there’s no need to look so serious. The situation will get better. Just as the dojo said, Jang Il-so is not an idiot and the power within the Sapaeryeon has already been sorted out. Perhaps he can be managed properly now
. “We will start, just like we sown grain this time.”
“……”
“But.”
Lim So-byeong’s calm voice penetrated Baek-cheon’s ears with an even sharper tone.
“The fear that my life could be taken away by someone’s short whim, the fear that I have no power and so I have to bow my head servilely no matter what happens, the helplessness and despair caused by that will never go away. That is, as long as the reign of Sapae-ryeon continues.
”
