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

Chapter 378 The Dream of Freedom

"I am willing to surrender!"

“Prefect Zheng, I am willing to surrender. The evil deeds committed by the Wang family have nothing to do with us. Please spare our lives.”

"Surrender, I surrender!"

"..."

Soon, the Wang family's retainers knelt down in a rush. With most of the Wang family's leaders already dead, surrender had become their only option.

After all... the people of Xia Kingdom generally have great fear of the imperial court, and even they, the royal family's retainers, are no exception. They do not have the courage to rebel or become outlaws.

Zheng Qing breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing all of the Wang family's retainers kneel and surrender. The reason he had thrown the spear earlier was to intimidate these retainers, and it seemed to have worked quite well, successfully causing them to give up resistance.

"Brother Han, please take some men and subdue them first!"

Zheng Qing gave Han Yue an order, then turned to reassure the Wang family's retainers: "Don't worry, I know the Wang family's affairs have nothing to do with them, and I won't take your lives. Just stay put, and I'll let you leave in about a day!"

Having received Zheng Qing's promise, the Wang family retainers were immediately relieved and ceased all resistance, allowing Han Yue and the others to take control of them.

Meanwhile, Zheng Qing led the remaining men to search and confiscate the Wang family's property, and also dealt with the remaining members of the Wang family and their female relatives.

…………

…………

As the sun gradually rose and the sky just began to brighten, Gou Xin woke up in his dilapidated thatched hut in the Wang family manor.

"daughter in law."

Gou Xin patted his wife who was sleeping beside him and said softly, "Get up, we should go tend to the crops."

Gou Xin was a peasant, or more precisely, a serf of the Wang family.

From his ancestors onwards, they had been farming for the Wang family. However, as serfs, the crops grown on the land had nothing to do with them. No matter how well they managed the land, all the grain produced belonged to the Wang family. As for the food rations they needed for their lives, those were naturally provided by the Wang family.

Serfs like Gou Xin, who farmed for the Wang family, received two meals a day from the Wang family. Occasionally, they could eat a meal of gruel, but most of the time, they ate a mixture of bran powder and bran, living in a state of being neither full nor starving.

Even so, Gou Xin dared not slack off in the slightest while working, simply because...

The Wang family would send overseers to keep an eye on them. If any serf was found to be slacking off, they would be severely beaten or even executed!

Gou Xin once witnessed the fate of a lazy serf. It was a boy who was only a little over 18 years old. Just because he was playing around while working and was a little late, he was severely beaten by the Wang family overseer. He was so badly beaten that he couldn't get out of bed for several months. Even his family members were punished and had their rations for three days deducted.

It was only because their neighbor was kind-hearted and secretly shared some of their food with them that the family survived; otherwise, they would have starved to death long ago.

Under such immense pressure, the Wang family's serfs naturally dared not slack off.

Every day at the crack of dawn, Gou Xin and the other serfs had to get up, eat breakfast provided by the Wang family, and then go to work in the fields.

"Well."

Gou Xin's wife slowly woke up and asked groggily, "Husband, is it dawn yet?"

"It's lit! Let's hurry out and get to work, or the Wang family's whip won't show any mercy!"

Upon hearing this, Gou Xin's wife was instantly wide awake. She quickly got up, dressed, and left the house with Gou Xin, heading to the threshing ground where the Wang family usually fed the serfs.

"Uh... what's going on?"

When they arrived at the threshing ground, Gou Xin and his wife looked puzzled, because the scene there was completely different from what they remembered.

It's not that the threshing ground has changed, but rather that there are just too many people gathered there right now.

In the past, serfs were not allowed to stay in the threshing ground for long. After eating, they had to go to the fields to work immediately. However, at this moment, the threshing ground was crowded with people, and none of them showed any intention of leaving.

Furthermore, Gou Xin did not see the supervisor from the Wang family coming to serve the meals.

"Liu San".

Gou Xin grabbed a familiar serf and asked with a puzzled look, "What's going on today? Doesn't anyone have to work?"

Liu San, a dark-skinned man, glanced back at Gou Xin and said, "What's the point of doing any work? The Wang family is all dead!"

Are all the members of the Wang family dead?

Gou Xin was completely dumbfounded. As a serf of the Wang family, Liu San's words were truly disrespectful. If the Wang family heard them, Liu San would at least be whipped.

"you do not say!"

Liu San said gloatingly, "Did you see that person in the shed?"

"I saw it."

Gou Xin nodded. There was a shed in the threshing ground, which was where the Wang family usually fed the serfs. However, there were no cooking utensils or grain in the shed at this time. There was only a middle-aged man dressed in official robes talking to the serfs.

"Those are officials from the prefectural governor's office."

Liu San said excitedly, "I just found out that last night, the prefect led his men into the manor and killed the entire Wang family."

Kill them all?

Gou Xin was stunned!

Although he was just a serf, that did not prevent him from knowing the power of the royal family. How could such a powerful royal family be killed?

"Good, kill them all!"

Liu San nodded and said, "The Wang family's patriarch, elders, and those martial artists who often bullied us were all killed by the prefect, not one of them was left!"

After saying that, Liu San added, "Besides these people, all the collateral relatives of the Wang family and the women were also arrested. Even the foremen who usually bullied us couldn't escape. They were all arrested and imprisoned in the county jail."

"hiss!"

Gou Xin and his wife both gasped in shock and asked instinctively, "Does that mean that there isn't a single member of the Wang family left in this manor?"

"you do not say!"

Liu San said with a smile, "The scholar in the shed said that this place will no longer be the Wang family's manor. We serfs will no longer need to be beasts of burden for the Wang family. We can choose to leave the Wang family manor and work in the county town, or we can stay on the manor and continue farming. In short, we are now free!"

free……

Upon hearing this word, a hint of longing flashed in Gou Xin's eyes. The word "freedom" was not unfamiliar to others, but for a serf like him from the royal family, it was a completely foreign word.

As serfs of the royal family, they had no freedom. They had to plow the land for the royal family at sunrise and return to their thatched huts to rest at sunset, repeating similar work every day, like tireless machines.

As for freedom... Gou Xin only ever dreamed about it.