The Sun King's Evidence

One day in late winter, the cold wind howled.

This is another extremely normal winter in the Principality of Lyonnaise. It is dark and cold outside. No one dares to leave the village at night. The town wall composed of fences is the only line of defense for the serfs. When the darkness falls, Robbers, bandits, vampires, and beastmen will appear in the wild, looking for their prey.

The fire in the house was not extinguished, hot water was boiling inside, the floor was swept very clean, and an old mother was working hard to mend clothes and do needlework.

From time to time, she looked at the child lying on the yellow linen bed with worried and reproachful eyes. The child knew that he had made a mistake. He lowered his head and said nothing.

This is her youngest son, her husband died in the Chivalry War five years ago.

The house was not far from the fence, and the old mother could hear the frightening roars of beasts from time to time. While sewing and mending her clothes, she prayed silently: "Ms. Salia, my Ms. Salia, please bless Raymond." Come back safely."

Raymond is her eldest son, and is now the only adult labor force in the family. During the off-farm time, he goes to work for the knight early in the morning. The younger son is only eight years old, and it will take several years before he can work in the fields. Since his husband died, Chun Last autumn, she and Raymond worked extremely hard from morning to night, never daring to slack off for a moment, and they could barely survive. Lunch was porridge with flour mixed with vegetables and bran, and black rice was served in the evening. Eat bread.

And just today, her youngest son got into trouble. The old mother took out a piece of black bread for dinner and cut out one-eighth of it for herself. She planned to leave the rest to her two sons, but the younger son gave it to her. I ate all the remaining brown bread and still felt hungry.

The old mother wanted to scold her youngest son, but when she saw how skinny her son was - the ribs were clearly visible on the child's body, and his little arms and legs were as thin as reed poles, the old mother wanted to scold her. Unable to speak.

The younger son's belly is ridiculously round. It is due to edema caused by year-round hunger and lack of nutrition for a long time. The belly will swell up. When pressed with a finger, it will become dented and it will take a long time to recover.

The family's food stock is running low, and the daily ration must be halved to survive until the next harvest. Is it not just the younger son who is starving during this period? Just a moment after finishing her meal, she could hear her stomach growling.

The old mother forced herself to turn her attention back to the needlework in her hands. As the sky became darker and darker, she became more and more anxious.

"Hey, I ate too much again today. I'm sure Raymond will scold me when he comes back. If you want to scold me, scold me. Thomas is really hungry and can't stand it anymore. Children are ignorant. If you want to scold me, then scold me." The old mother said She reached out and caressed the face of her youngest son Thomas. She was only in her early forties, but her face was already full of wrinkles and white hair: "It's okay, Thomas, I don't blame you, I don't blame you..."

"Mother... mother." The youngest son said timidly, with tears in his eyes: "Yes... I'm sorry."

"Oh, it's all my fault for my poor youth! And that damn tax collector!" The old mother shook her head. She wrapped her long, yellow hair with a scarf and carefully checked how much food was left in the house.

There are also a dozen brown breads and a bag of semolina. If I reduce my daily intake by another 20%, I should be able to survive until the winter wheat harvest.

People in the village had already begun to eat bark. The old mother reluctantly cut half of the black bread with a knife. To work for the knight, you had to prepare your own food, and this kind of labor was always high-intensity labor. Raymond had to eat it. Something else, otherwise he wouldn't be able to hold on.

"Boom~" There was a sudden sound from the door, and the old mother jumped up subconsciously. She looked at the door nervously.

A cold night wind blew into the house, making people shiver.

The figure of the eldest son Raymond gradually emerged from the night wind. He looked tired, carrying tools on his back, and only wore single clothes in the cold weather. The animal skin cloak outside was added with a lot of thatch: "Hey, Mom, I I’m back, I’m exhausted.”

"Oh, Raymond, you're back." The old mother felt very nervous, like a child who had made a mistake. She said unnaturally: "Well, I've cut the bread. Eat it quickly. There's heat in the stove. water."

Although his mother's movements were unnatural, Raymond did not realize that he was too tired. He washed his hands with water in the wooden bucket in the corner of the room, prayed without sincerity, and sent the cut bread into the room. After soaking in hot water for a while, I was ready to have dinner.

"Raymon...what have you done today?" the old mother asked worriedly.

She saw the wounds and abrasions on her son's hands, and the blood had just scabbed over them.

"What else can you do? Cut down trees, dig ditches, build fences, and chop firewood. Each one must be done 100%, and some must be overdone, otherwise it will be a severe beating." Raymond sighed: "Knight It is said that the master left because of something, and his housekeeper is even more fierce...Thank you, madam, thank you, Ms. Shalia, I am finally back alive, mom, what are you doing at home?"

"Me? I sew... boil water for cooking." The old mother's eyes moved away unnaturally.

"Where's Thomas?"

"Thomas is already asleep," the old mother said quickly.

"...I've finished eating, is there anything else?" Half of the black bread was eaten by Raymond at an extremely fast speed. Even so, there was still a strong sense of hunger in the serf's belly.

"Go and rest, it will be better if you fall asleep." The old mother shook her head silently.

I can’t eat any more, I really can’t eat any more.

Raymond didn't say anything more. He had to do hard labor tomorrow. The family extinguished the fire and went to bed early.

…………

The old mother lay on the bed, unable to sleep for a long time.

Since her husband died in the Chivalry War five years ago, their family's life has become worse and worse. Before, they could barely keep food and clothing, but now they are hungry. During the harvest, the family often runs out of food. .

And the worse was yet to come.

The Chivalry War five years ago was said to have been a complete victory, but none of the knights and soldiers of the Principality of Lyonnais came back. Public security became bad, bandits and robbers appeared everywhere, and occasionally a small number of beastman tribes came out to look for them. food for the winter,

Bandits, bandits and wild beasts gradually left the forest and harassed the villages near the forest. Due to the poor harvest, the already shaky peace was severely damaged. The reduced number of garrison troops were transferred to the vicinity of the city and noble manor to ensure the safety of the lord's property. Poor and defenseless serfs were thrown to them.

Robbers and bandits always rush into villages, looking for anything valuable. Their favorite places are the houses where the village elders live and the taverns in the villages. There are shiny coins in the village elders’ houses, and there are shiny coins in the taverns. Grain and ale.

If the serfs resist, they will be killed. If they choose to escape, most of them will starve to death in the wild or be hunted. If they sit still and wait to die... they will lose their rations and eventually die.

Several villages suffered a tragic fate.

The income sources of the noble gentlemen have been reduced, but their income cannot be reduced. Their luxurious banquets, high expenses and the family's children all require a lot of expenses. They will definitely not pay for this money themselves, and they will eventually have to pay for it. On the heads of the serfs.

Therefore, in addition to the ten taxes and nine taxes, the serfs were also deprived of their rations. The tax collectors taught the serfs the principle "this will make the kingdom better", and then ruthlessly took away most of the serfs' rations. .

Has the Kingdom really changed for the better? The old mother didn't know. She only knew that life was getting worse. The tax collectors came more diligently and asked for more. They might have thought about seed grain.

At this time, there was a slight noise in the quiet room.

The cold wind blew against the wooden windows, making a snoring sound, which greatly affected the old mother's hearing. However, she had lived in this house for decades, and no sound could hide from her.

Raymond got up secretly. The serf dragged his tired body. He got up secretly in the dark. The eldest son swallowed hard, and his stomach was growling.

He is too hungry.

The old mother said nothing. With tears in her eyes, she tried hard to cover her mouth to prevent herself from making any sound.

"Rustling~" She heard the sound of Raymond flipping the bread basket, and also heard the sound of the knife used to cut bread being taken off the wall.

Then there was the sound of chewing. This sound should have been covered up by the wind, but for some reason, the old mother felt that she could hear it very clearly.

"Raymond, what's wrong? What happened?" The old mother finally decided to speak out. She choked and said, "Why are you up?"

"Ding!" The knife fell to the ground.

"I...I heard some noises...check...whether the windows are closed tightly." Raymond was obviously surprised when he heard his mother's voice. There was a lot of fear in his voice: "Recently... the food in the village... There isn’t much left, and I’m worried that someone will come and steal…steal the food.”

The son lied, Raymond lied to himself, just as he lied to Raymond.

"If nothing happens, go to bed early. You will have to do hard labor tomorrow." The old mother's voice was filled with tears, and tears flowed down her wrinkled face.

"Mom!" Raymond didn't know that his mother had discovered his stealing bread. The serf sobbed: "I'm sorry, Mom, I'm so hungry."

"I know, I know everything." The old mother also cried: "How are you going to live this day? The food is almost gone, and your brother is still hungry."

"When we farm, the food is theirs; when we hunt, the prey is theirs; when we fish, the fish and shrimp are also theirs. Mom, while doing labor today, Alang's father was killed by a log because he was hungry. We have no strength left, we can’t live this life any longer!”

"Ah! Alang's father is dead? He is only thirty-five years old. Alang's mother died a long time ago. How will he live the rest of his life? He..."

Raymond thought about it again and again, and finally made up his mind: "Mom, let's run away. Take Thomas with us. Our family of three will run away. We will run far away. If we don't run away, we will starve to death if we continue like this. I overheard the knight today. According to the master’s butler’s instructions, this year’s winter wheat will have to increase taxes!”

"Huh? Are you going to raise taxes?" The sudden bad news made the old mother almost unable to breathe. When more than half of the rations were collected, the lord also wanted to raise taxes? !

"Yes, this year's food harvest is bad, and the lord may lose a lot of income, so the housekeeper and the tax officer plan to continue to raise taxes, because the tasks left by the lord must be completed." Raymond hesitated again and again, and he said to his mother : "Mom, there is no hope for this day. Even if the winter wheat can be harvested, those things are not ours. Not only are they not ours, we don't know where to get more food from, so that those greedy tax collectors will be satisfied. "

The dark room was like a big black hand holding the poor people's necks, suffocating them to breathe.

In the past, even if there was no food at home, serfs could go to the forest to collect berries and try to hunt. The lords had expressly stipulated that serfs could hunt rabbits and birds on their own. In principle, the berries belonged to the lord, but most lords turned a blind eye to this. If you close one eye, you can still live this day.

But now that public security is so bad, how can the serfs dare to enter the forest? If you are lucky, you can only get enough food for a day or two. If you are not lucky, you will never get it back.

"Escape? If you are caught, you will die! You will be hanged by the knight!" The old mother said hesitantly: "It's too dangerous, Raymond, how can we escape?"

"...Everyone is very hungry, many people are very hungry, there are many young men like me, young men who are strong and know how to use a manure fork and a hoe, mother." Raymond hesitated for a while, but decided to say: "Many young men have already There is nothing... There is food in the Lord Knight's house. There is a lot of food. Many people want to have a full meal. We smell the smell of bacon and butter. If we can have a full meal, they no longer care. Mom, you know I am here. What did you say?"

"You mean, they plan to..." The old mother opened her mouth in surprise.

"Yes, so this is an opportunity. We can escape. The housekeeper will focus on those young men. No one will care about us. We can escape. No matter where we go, it is better than starving to death. Luck next door We have made an appointment. Tomorrow evening, those young men will rush into the knight's house together to look for food, and we can take the opportunity to escape." Raymond gasped: "Mom, I have you and my brother, I can't follow you If those young men go to cause riots, you will be implicated by me. We can’t do nothing, let’s run away, mother!”

"Be a runaway slave...be a runaway slave." The old mother murmured to herself.

"Mom! If we don't do anything, we will starve to death! I can't lose you and my brother. Tomorrow night, we will escape in the opposite direction. We will definitely succeed. Tomorrow you pack your things and boil water to cook for the whole family. Once we’re full, we’ll run away!”

"Okay...okay."

…………

The next evening, a long-simmering riot finally ignited the village.

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