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

Chapter 817 Unbelievable

"Brother Jing, you may not know this, but there are no more powerful clans in Liangzhou."

Yang Zheng said, "King Yang has a great aversion to landlords and powerful families. He killed many people in Liangzhou. Those greedy and exploitative families have long been wiped out by King Yang. So, there may still be some small landlords in Liangzhou, but the big landlords and powerful families have disappeared."

"Does King Yang really have such courage?"

Jing Yu muttered to herself, her face filled with shock.

No one understood the influence of powerful clans better than him, who lived in Youzhou. Take the Lu family of Youzhou, for example. With a history of thousands of years, their family foundation was incredibly deep, and their influence spread to every corner of Youzhou. Even in the imperial court of the capital, there were countless members of the Lu family and officials who were on good terms with the Lu family holding important positions.

Ordinary people had no power to resist such powerful clans, and even most of the rebellious warlords in history chose to befriend these powerful clans.

Without the support of these powerful clans, those warlords who rose to power amidst the chaos of war could not have grown so large, let alone conquer the world.

And what about Yang Zheng?

Instead of befriending those powerful clans, he massacred them, which made Jing Yu feel a little admiration for Yang Zheng.

He couldn't help but think how wonderful it would be if Youzhou had a Heavenly King Yang, that way...

The people of Youzhou might not be suffering so much!

"In short, there are no powerful clans left in Liangzhou now."

Yang Zheng concluded, "The grain tax that the people need to pay is only 30%, so the people of Liangzhou can barely survive."

Is it just a matter of barely surviving?

Jing Yu remained silent for a long time. According to Yang Zheng, the people of Liangzhou who paid 30% of the grain tax could barely survive.

What about Youzhou?

The people of Youzhou have to pay 80% of the rent. Compared to the people of Liangzhou, the people of Youzhou can barely survive...

Jing Yu is thirty-five years old this year. Having lived in Youzhou for thirty-five years, he has seen far too many people starve to death.

The Lu family, which controlled the vast majority of arable land in Youzhou, obviously did not need so many people to cultivate the land for them. Therefore, even though there were countless people willing to work hard for the Lu family, only a small number of them could gain the Lu family's "favor." The rest either had to find other ways to make a living or starve to death.

This is the cruel reality of Youzhou. Many people have no land to cultivate, and even working for the Lu family has become an extreme luxury.

It's only because Jingyu's father was a village chief that Jingyu could have gone to school, let alone grown up.

"The people of Liangzhou are truly lucky to have encountered a Heavenly King Yang!"

After a long silence, Jingyu sighed and said with a face full of emotion.

Yang Zheng suddenly changed the subject, saying, "Brother Jing, when we entered the village just now, we didn't see many children. Why is that?"

This was an anomaly that Yang Zheng and his group noticed when they entered the village. Logically speaking, having more children means having more labor in the family, so the people of Xia Kingdom have a high desire to have children.

Even in the poorest villages, there will always be children.

However, when Yang Zheng and his group entered the village, they couldn't see a single child, which was clearly illogical.

"child……"

Jing Yu and his wife Meng Jie suddenly became somber, as if they had thought of something sad.

After a while, Jing Yu finally spoke: "In recent years, there have been many cases of children going missing in Youzhou. At first, people thought that the children had just gotten lost. But as more and more children went missing, people realized that it was not a simple matter of children getting lost, but that someone had kidnapped these children."

Could they be human traffickers?

Yang Zheng and the others exchanged glances. Kidnapping children was not an uncommon occurrence in Xia Country; in fact, it was quite common.

In Qingzhou and Liangzhou, there have also been many cases of children being abducted by human traffickers.

"Not a human trafficker."

Seemingly aware of what they were thinking, Jing Yu shook her head and said, "Although human traffickers do kidnap children, they are not this rampant. In recent years, at least a hundred children have been kidnapped from nearby villages. Human traffickers could not possibly have such power."

In the Xia Kingdom, human traffickers are like rats in the sewers, hated by everyone. Even the government will crack down on them.

Therefore, it is impossible for human traffickers to kidnap hundreds of children without being detected.

"Not a human trafficker?"

Yang Zheng and the others frowned and asked, "Have any of the families who lost their children reported it to the authorities?"

"I have already reported it."

A flash of anger crossed Jing Yu's eyes: "But the government doesn't take this matter seriously at all. After reporting it to the authorities, they just asked a few simple questions and then let the matter drop!"

"..."

Yang Zheng and his companions were speechless. Hundreds of children had gone missing, yet the government had turned a blind eye. This was simply unbelievable!

"To be honest, Brother Yang."

Jing Yu continued, "My wife and I also had a son, but a year ago, our son mysteriously disappeared. No matter how hard we searched, we couldn't find any trace of him. It was because of this incident that we couldn't see any other children in Jingshan Village, because their elders didn't dare to let them go out to play."

As she said this, Jing Yu's face was full of pain, and Meng Jie burst into tears.

The child they had raised with such care and love mysteriously disappeared and could never be found again.

The pain they felt as parents is unimaginable.

During the time the child was missing, Meng Jie spent her days in tears, and Jing Yu was also heartbroken.

Despite their best efforts to search, they could not find any trace of their child, which caused them great distress and left them constantly consumed by self-blame.

That's it!

Yang Zheng finally understood why Jing Yu's expression had been so strange earlier; it turned out that one of their children had also gone missing!

Although he didn't have children of his own, Yang Zheng could understand Jing Yu's pain, and his gaze towards Jing Yu held a touch of sympathy.

Chen Dao and the others also looked on with sympathy. The complete disappearance of their child, whom they had raised with such care, must have been heartbreaking for Jing Yu and her husband, as parents.

"Brother Jing, do you have any guesses in your mind?"

Yang Zheng asked, "The child has been missing for a year. Given Jing Yu and Meng Jie's concern for the child, they should have made inquiries from various sources. Even if they were inquiring about information related to the child, they should have suspected someone!"

"If I'm not mistaken, this matter must be related to the Lu family!"

Jing Yu's eyes were filled with hatred as she gritted her teeth and said, "Over the years, it's not just the nearby villages where children have gone missing; there have been a large number of missing children throughout Youzhou. Logically speaking, with such a large number of missing children, even if the murderer was very secretive, there shouldn't have been no trace of them!"