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

Chapter 721 Yang Tianwang, the Three-Headed, Six-Armed Heavenly King

Led by Chen Cheng, Yang Zheng and his group soon arrived at Chen Dao's house and saw Chen Dao lying on a deck chair in the front yard, sunbathing.

Looking at the young man lying comfortably on the recliner, a hint of surprise flashed in Yang Zheng's eyes.

He had imagined many images of the head of Chenjia Village in his mind. In his imagination, the head of Chenjia Village should be a very dignified person, or someone with the air of a superior. However, the boy in front of him...

Dressed plainly and with a languid expression, Yang Zheng probably wouldn't have mistaken him for the head of Chenjia Village if he hadn't already known his identity, much less thought that he was the ruthless person who dared to kill the Green King.

"Cheng-ge, go and get some chairs for the guests."

Having already heard the commotion and knowing that Yang Zheng and the others had arrived, Chen Dao sat up. He first instructed Chen Cheng to fetch a chair from inside the house, and then turned to Yang Zheng, looking him up and down as he said, "Yang Tianwang is quite different from what I imagined."

Because Chenjia Village is very close to Liangzhou, Chen Dao has been paying close attention to news from Liangzhou, and his focus is undoubtedly on Yang Zheng, the current de facto ruler of Liangzhou.

However, most of the information Chen Dao had about Yang Zheng came from the refugees in Liangzhou. The refugees obviously had no contact with Yang Zheng, and the information they told Chen Dao was often hearsay.

Therefore, Chen Dao was never able to form a concrete image of Yang Zheng in his mind.

However, in Chen Dao's imagination, Yang Zheng, known as King Yang, should be a person with a majestic appearance and extraordinary temperament, but the Yang Zheng in front of him...

Dressed in simple clothes and not particularly tall, Yang Zheng's true appearance, apart from his resolute face, was far from what Chen Dao had imagined.

"Really? How is it different?"

Yang Zheng asked with a smile.

“Everywhere is different.”

Chen Dao laughed and said, "According to the rumors circulating in the streets, King Yang is a man-eating demon with three heads and six arms, but now it seems... King Yang doesn't have three heads and six arms, and probably doesn't eat people?"

Upon hearing this, Yang Zheng immediately laughed, knowing that Chen Dao was referring to the slander against him by those powerful families and the imperial court: "Mr. Chen is also somewhat different from what I imagined."

"Oh? Tell me."

"I imagined Mr. Chen to be a steady, mature, and wise person, but Mr. Chen doesn't seem to be mature at all?"

"Ha ha!"

Chen Dao smiled and said to Yang Zheng and his group, "King Yang, please have a seat."

Upon hearing this, Yang Zheng and the others sat down on the stools that Chen Cheng had brought over.

After everyone was seated, Chen Dao continued, "May I ask what brings Heavenly King Yang here?"

"I came here to spend money."

Yang Zheng stated frankly, "The weather in Liangzhou is cold right now, and the people are in dire need of warm clothing. I have come here to purchase some down jackets for the people of Liangzhou."

"Just a down jacket?"

"Of course more than that."

Yang Zheng shook his head and said, "Besides down jackets, Liangzhou also needs a large number of yellow-feathered chickens and white-feathered ducks. I wonder if Mr. Chen would be willing to agree?"

Chen Dao did not answer the question directly, but instead asked, "Has King Yang ever considered sending troops to Chenjia Village to seize its wealth?"

Upon hearing this question, Yang Zheng paused for a moment before replying, "To be honest, there have indeed been similar proposals within the Yang Family Army."

"It seems that King Yang has rejected this proposal?"

"Exactly."

Yang Zheng nodded. "Everyone thinks that I am a warlike and bloodthirsty person, but in reality, I have never liked war, let alone killing."

The reason for the rebellion was simply that they couldn't survive, and the reason for the massacre of the powerful families in Liangzhou was that without slaughtering them, the people of Liangzhou would have no way to live.

Chen Dao nodded in agreement. According to the information he had, Yang Zheng rebelled because he couldn't survive. Rebellion meant death, and not rebelling meant death anyway, so why not rebel?

As for Yang Zheng's explanation of the reasons for the massacre of powerful landowners, Chen Dao also agreed. Because Liangzhou had barren land and even less arable land, the local landlords and powerful landowners had an even stronger desire to possess land, and land annexation became more serious, truly creating a situation where the rich owned vast tracts of land while the poor had no place to stand.

If Yang Zheng doesn't deal with the landlords and powerful families in Liangzhou, even if he drives away the imperial army and officials, he won't be able to ensure that the people of Liangzhou have enough to eat.

It's a very simple principle: the land was all in the hands of landlords and powerful families, and the common people had no land to cultivate, so where would they get the food to feed themselves?

In fact, Yang Zheng was not the only one doing the massacre of landlords and powerful families; Chen Dao and Zheng Qing, along with other officials in Taicang County, were also doing it, and Chen Dao and Zheng Qing did it even more thoroughly than Yang Zheng.

Now, there are no large landowners left in the entire Taicang County. Only some small landowners and rich peasants were spared from the purges by Chen Dao and Zheng Qing because they had never done anything to oppress the people.

"Yang is not a warmonger, and Chenjia Village is not a place of wicked landlords and powerful families. Why would Yang send troops to attack Chenjia Village?"

Yang Zheng continued, "In my opinion, resorting to force is not advisable. The best course of action is to be on good terms with Chenjia Village and cooperate sincerely!"

"King Yang is quite frank."

Chen Dao nodded, then asked, "What are your chances of winning this world, King Yang?"

"To be honest, Mr. Chen, I don't actually have much confidence."

Yang Zheng said with a slightly heavy tone, "When I rebelled, all I wanted was to find a way to survive for myself and the people of Liangzhou. I never thought that one day I would be able to defeat the government army and become the King of Liangzhou in people's mouths."

Yang Zheng's success today is undoubtedly due to his own hard work, but it is mostly thanks to the support of the people of Liangzhou.

It was the united will of the people of Liangzhou that gradually propelled Yang Zheng, a cowherd, to the position of King of Liangzhou, and they even planned to push him further up to the position of ruler of all the provinces...

To be honest, at the beginning of the rebellion, Yang Zheng never thought that he could cause such a huge commotion, let alone that the people of Liangzhou would support him so much that he would become the ruler of Liangzhou.

An ordinary person sitting in this position would probably have already become arrogant and complacent, and begun to enjoy wealth and luxury.

However, Yang Zheng was walking on thin ice, and he never slackened in his efforts to improve his governance and leadership skills, for fear of betraying the trust of the people of Liangzhou.

"What I seek now is simply to improve the lives of the people of Liangzhou. As for the position of ruler of all the nine provinces, to be honest, it's not that I don't want it, but..."

Yang Zheng sighed: "Liangzhou has barren land and poor people. I'm afraid it is unable to support me in my quest to conquer the Nine Provinces."

Yang Zheng was well aware that compared to the rebel armies in other states, he, being in Liangzhou, had a natural disadvantage.