"The weather this year is bad. It's been dry for a few months. If this continues, I'm afraid there won't be much harvest. Life is hard."
"We're doing better. The taxes we pay are much lighter. The people outside the farm are suffering. The drought is causing more bugs. I don't know what's going on."
"The new Manor Lord just changed this month. It's said that he doesn't know any farm work and has never planted any food or herbs. He's just a freeloader and can't help us solve the problem."
"When winter comes, I'm afraid many people will die again. I hope the new lord doesn't exploit us too much. He must leave us some food so that we don't starve to death."
Upon hearing these discussions, Song Ankang fell silent. Qiu Shi, who was beside him, was a little angry. "These people are too much. They're gossiping behind my back again. I'll teach them a lesson."
"Ignore them. They're telling the truth." Song Ankang stopped Qiu Shi. His good mood had been greatly reduced.
Originally, with Song Ankang's status, when he heard these tenant farmers gossiping, he could slap them or even whip them. Others wouldn't say anything.
However, Song Ankang, who had just transmigrated from the modern world, was still not used to doing such things. Furthermore, there were many employees who gossiped behind Earth's back. He had never seen a boss slap his employees or whip them because of gossip. Song Ankang had also done such things before, so he did not deal with them.
The tax on Chaoyun Manor was not high. If it was a normal year, after paying the tax, the farm would still have about 20% of food and 10% of medicinal herbs left.
Ten percent of the medicinal herbs and half of the food belonged to the Manor Lord. The Manor Lord could decide where they went, and the remaining fifteen percent was the harvest of the villagers.
It seemed quite ruthless, but one had to know that outside the farm, even during normal times, the villagers had to pay more than 90% of their taxes. Only 10% belonged to them.
On the other hand, Chaoyun Manor's share of the profits could reach 15%, far surpassing that of the villagers outside. This naturally caused many people to scramble to become tenant farmers of Chaoyun Manor.
However, because of the drought this year, both food and medicinal herbs were greatly affected. However, taxation would not be reduced, and it might even increase. This meant that the Tang family would take away more of the profits from Chaoyun Manor.
If that was the case, not to mention 20% of the food and 10% of the medicinal herbs, they probably wouldn't even be able to leave half or even less.
Even so, Song Ankang, who was the owner of the villa, had to share a lot of the profits. The remaining money belonged to the tenant farmers. There would definitely not be much left, and it would be very difficult to survive.
However, even under such circumstances, not many people felt that it was too much. In fact, basically no one would feel that it was too much.
This was because these taxes were not handed over to the Tang family, nor were they embezzled and stuffed into their personal pockets. Instead, most of them were sent to the front line.
As mentioned previously, there were thousands of races in this Mysterious Desolate Great World. The human race was just an unremarkable third-grade tribe amongst them. The region they occupied was only one state, and there were many races surrounding it. There was no lack of races that far surpassed the human race.
Among these races, there were two who fought with the human tribe leader, one was a mermen race, the other was the angel race, and there were demons and ghosts wreaking havoc within the human race, they were in a precarious situation. Of course, the greatest danger came from the frontlines.
The human race would not be far from destruction no matter which fell.
In order to defend these two frontlines, the entire human race was conserving food and clothing to support the soldiers on the front lines. It didn't matter if they were a little hungry. It was better than being wiped out.
The soldiers at the frontline were fighting for their lives, so it was only natural for them to pay more tax.
Therefore, no matter how many taxes the country received, no one would object because they knew that they were doing this for the soldiers on the front line and for themselves.
Song Ankang once again experienced how difficult the situation of the humans in the Mysterious Desolate Great World was. It was not an exaggeration to say that he was walking on a steel wire.
He relaxed his mind and became nervous again as he sighed. He heard shouts coming from the village walls just as he was about to return to cultivate.
"Hurry up and run. We'll be safe once we get back to the manor. There are many places in the manor with the Green Ridge Slate. It won't be too dangerous if we can stand on it."
"Don't look back. The worm is right behind you. You have to outrun it."
"Help, help me!"
Song Ankang's expression changed and he hurriedly ran towards the village wall. There were already many people standing on the wall. When they saw Song Ankang coming over, they quickly made way for him.
Song Ankang quickly came to the village wall and saw the situation outside.
Outside of Chaoyun Manor was a large patch of forest and grassland. There was no way to grow food and medicinal herbs, so they needed to cultivate for a long time before they could slowly use them.
There were always fierce beasts roaming about in the forest, which was why the Chaoyun Manor Plantation had built a wall to protect the tenant farmers against small and medium-sized beasts.
At this moment, on the grass to the north of the estate, there was a tenant who was wearing coarse linen clothes frantically running away. Behind him was a protruding dirt line that was chasing after him.
If the host body's memory was correct, it should be an earthworm. It was a ferocious beast whose strength was comparable to a martial artist at the second level of the Internal Realm. It was active in the red leaf forest around the village and would occasionally feed on humans.
It was obvious that this tenant named Shan Wa had been targeted by an earthworm when he was outside and wanted to eat him. He had been forced to run near the farm.
No one dared to go down even though there were many people shouting on the walls because going down was basically courting death.
At this moment, the strongest person in Chaoyun Manor was only at the fourth minor realm of the External Realm. He was a full two levels away from the earthworm and the difference between External Realm and Internal Realm was even greater.
Not to mention, when the worm was hiding in the soil, even martial artists who had surpassed Internal Realm could not do anything to it, so no one dared to go down and save it.
"Pfft…"
When Shan Wa was still dozens of meters away from the village wall, the earth line that was chasing after him suddenly accelerated under him. Then, a grayish-black worm that was as thick as a bucket and three meters long rushed out of the ground and swallowed him. Then, it quickly burrowed underground and disappeared.
If nothing unexpected happened, this tenant named Shan Wa would not be able to survive.
There was dead silence. A moment later there was a cry. It was from Shan Wa's relatives and friends.
"Just a little bit more. If Shan Wa had been a little faster, he would have been able to escape to the farmstead. The farmstead has the stone road of the green hill, so the earthworms won't be able to pass through it."
"What a pity. This must be the first time that Shan Wa has been out of the village in the past few months. I originally wanted to get some wild vegetables for my family, but I didn't expect her to leave just like that."
"If the harvest is good, who would be willing to go out and take a risk? The sky is getting drier and drier. I don't know how many things we can collect this year. I hope you can share less and let us live."
"Lord, you are providing for people. We still have many important people who are in charge of the Chaoyun Manor. They have to live their lives too."
The ten percent of the medicinal herbs and half of the food that the Chaoyun Manor's lord could obtain during normal years didn't completely belong to him. After all, as the manor lord of the Chaoyun Manor, he was responsible for the monthly salary of many stewards in the manor.
Now, Song Ankang's monthly salary was saved from last year's great harvest. If the harvest this year wasn't good, next year, Song Ankang and the management staff of Chaoyun Manor wouldn't be able to live comfortably.
With a sigh, Song Ankang got someone to deal with the aftermath of Shan Wa's death. Actually, there wasn't much to deal with. He had been swallowed whole, so there was basically no need for caskets or cemeteries. At most, he could make a cenotaph and bury a few of his clothes when he was alive.
After bringing Qiu Shi back to his residence, he heard a knock on the door. "Young master, I'm back!"
"It's Instructor Jiang. Instructor Jiang is finally back." The listless Qiu Shi immediately became spirited and quickly walked towards the courtyard gate after hearing the voice from outside.