Volume 9: Home Chapter 301: The Magic Revised White-Haired Girl (Part 1)
After the battle, the large plain in front of the prisoner camp became a special area for the prisoners to take a rest.
After more than a month of high-intensity physical labor reform, the prisoners have gradually become accustomed to a life of 8 am to 8 pm - with a two-hour break at noon. Even for the prisoners, Huoyan City only allows them to follow the ten-hour work system.
In order to prevent the prisoners from accumulating too much stress under forced collective life and labor, and from rioting due to lack of outlets for catharsis (the bear tribe is still quite combative), the guards would arrange 90 minutes to two hours of leisure and entertainment activities for them during the daily lunch break and before going to bed every night, such as playing war ball, doing manual labor to earn extra money, or arranging for them to listen to stories.
The latter was the most popular. The stories accumulated by Fire City over the years made these bear-headed people unable to stop listening. They had a growing respect for the storytelling Snow Wolf guards, second only to the resident chef sent by Fire City...
During today's lunch break, the captives from each team (for ease of management, they continued to use the fifty-person team formation model used when training the cat tribe) finished their morning work, took half an hour to get their meals, actively cooperated with the arrangements of the guards and supervisors, and gathered early at Huangni Square.
In the middle of the yellow mud square roughly leveled by the road roller, a crude and simple stage was temporarily built with stones and wooden boards. After the captives who were qualified to watch the performance were in place (the entire class would be held jointly responsible for not completing the morning work or fighting within the class, and they could not play war balls, listen to stories, or watch performances), an amateur drama class composed of female human workers from the textile factory, male human workers from the MSG factory, as well as cat and snake tribes, took to the stage...
The background curtain was made by the goblins in their spare time during their break, using the painting skills comparable to those of elementary school students to paint a rough landscape on a large piece of abandoned sailcloth. The actors' stage costumes were patchwork and rework of worn-out work clothes that they were reluctant to throw away. It was unknown how the bear-headed people in the audience felt when this tattered troupe came on stage. Lieutenant Selina, who followed Xiao Yun to see how they "trained" the bear-headed people, burst out on the spot.
In the "VIP room" near the earth wall, Selina turned to look at Xiao Yun and asked strangely: "Is this your theater troupe?"
Selena deliberately emphasized the pronunciation of the word "theater troupe".
"It's just a drama group of amateurs~" Xiao Yun said calmly, "You know we are always in a labor shortage here, how can we spare people to become professional actors? Anyway, it's just a different way to reform the prisoners' thoughts. It's enough to act out the plot. There's no need to be too particular."
Selina took a deep breath, and another deep breath, and the veins on her forehead disappeared before they even appeared.
No matter how highly the outside world thinks of "Sage Ayun", Selina knows very well that this guy is a blasphemer who uses great art as a tool, and she will not let herself get angry about this!
"I want to see how this beggar-like troupe of actors will perform the plot!" Selena muttered inwardly, enduring the torture in her eyes and watching the performance with a correct attitude.
Well, this drama troupe, which was described by the Snow Elf Lieutenant as a "Beggar Troupe", performed... a modified version of the White-Haired Girl.
The role of the White-haired Girl was played by a snow leopard cub born with white hair (the adult's body size does not match, so only the cub could play the role), the White-haired Girl's father, Old Sar, was played by Sar, and the villain was played by Xia himself, and the villagers, noble lackeys, etc., were played by whoever drew the lot...
Since this is a drama used to reform the bear tribe's thoughts, the plot in the original version where the White-Haired Girl was forced to become a concubine naturally cannot be transplanted here, because the orcs do not have the ability to rape... Except during the estrus period, the male orcs' birds can only excrete.
This was not a problem for Xiao Yun. After chatting with the converted soldiers and understanding the living conditions of the lower-class civilians of the bear tribe, Xiao Yun combined it with the dark history of , and replaced the oppressive plot with a way that the bear-headed people could more easily empathize with. That's it!
Halfway through the first scene, the bear-headed people who had been muttering in low voices, "How could the snow leopard's father be a human? Can cats and snakes live in the same village with humans?", suddenly lost their sense of incongruity with the casting. They stared with wide eyes, clenched their fists, and followed the actors with exaggerated acting skills, unconsciously immersed in the world of the plot.
The "background" of this play is a fictional village in the Far East, where a snow leopard cub and her old human father, Sal, originally lived a poor but peaceful life, working from sunrise to sunset.
Well, the scene of buying a red hairband has naturally been replaced by buying fish to eat...
Suddenly one day, Xia, who played the villain, led a group of snake tribe followers to the village and announced that the Beast King was going to go to war with the elves. All tribes had to share the burden of preparing military rations, and required every household to pay an additional 20% of the grain in addition to the normal taxes...
When the performance reached this part, the soldiers and auxiliary soldiers who were of civilian origin all frowned.
Yes, the Beast King's rule (oppression) over the Far East is relatively relaxed, far less harsh than that of the human kingdom. The average tax borne by civilians is more than 50%, the bear tribe only needs to hand over 20% of the total harvest, and non-bear tribes only require 30%.
But these are the taxes collected by the Beast King. Are the leaders of various tribes, the elders, and the military generals willing to not realize the power they possess?
Before the harvest season comes, it is very common for the leaders of each tribe to find any excuse to collect an extra 10% or 20% in taxes. The relatively mild-mannered officials in ancient China among the feudal rulers all have the awareness of "generating income" by kicking the grain bucket. It is unrealistic to require the powerful people of the orcs to be as pure as little white flowers!
The lion tribe is too lazy to follow the ghost, and even created a commodity tax to "generate revenue"!
On the stage, when Xia led several snake tribesmen to rush to the house of Sar and his daughter to turn over the grain jars and pry open the wooden cabinets, the bear-headed people who had similar experiences all stared with red eyes...
The atmosphere in the Huangni Square, which was packed with more than 10,000 spectators, was silent and depressing. Only the actors' lines, which were not pronounced clearly enough, echoed in the air from the stage sound box.
In such a heavy atmosphere, Xiao Yun was all smiles, and even turned to show off to Selina: "Look, the audience has been immersed in the show for less than ten minutes. Isn't a plot that is close to life much more important than acting skills and costumes and props?"
Selina: “…”
The performance on the stage continued. Old Sal and his daughter (er...) paid an extra 20% tax reluctantly. The days that followed were a bit tense. Both father and daughter (er...) tried to save food as much as possible and would rather work on an empty stomach than let the other eat enough. Such a heartwarming plot effectively eased the tense emotions of the bear-headed people. Many of them showed lonely and gentle smiles, as if they were thinking of their families.
The second scene opens, and the villain Xia appears on stage again.
Xia, who had no interest in being an actor, took on the role of "Huang Shiren" purely because Xiao Yun was impressed by his natural performance. In the first scene, he appeared on the stage for less than three minutes, but the bear-headed warriors hated him. When he appeared on the stage this time, many Moon Bear warriors subconsciously clenched their fists...
In the play, Xia plays the role of the deacon of "a great elder in the city". In the second scene, he comes to the small village where the protagonist's father and daughter live before the spring plowing and puts forward a request: the great elder wants to open a new farm, and every family must send an adult member of the tribe to work for the great elder free of charge.
In terms of requisitioning labor, the orc high-ranking officials and the human nobles are very similar... The difference is that most human farmers cultivate the land of the nobles and have no land or property of their own. If they use the farm tools and cattle provided by the nobles' stewards and deacons, they must work for the nobles for free and do not need to be specially conscripted.
As for the Orcs, agricultural practitioners all have their own land to a certain extent. The reason is that the total population of the Far East Orcs is only one-tenth of the human kingdom in the south, and the powerful people in the Orcs cannot take away so much land.
This plot, where any deacon has the power to recruit young and strong men when they want to use manpower, is also very close to reality. From Xia's appearance and announcement to Xia's snake brothers rushing into every household to select young and strong men with a nonchalant look on their faces, Xiao Yun learned all this from the mouth of the Moon Bear auxiliary soldier...
There were only two people in old Sar's family. Sar, the father played by the human race, was not as strong as the white-haired girl played by the snow leopard cub, so the white-haired girl had to leave with Xia along with the young people in the village...
The next plot is a realistic portrayal of how the snow leopard cub suffers in the elder's new farm. He eats beans three times a day, but is not full. The white-haired girl played by the snow leopard cub has to sneak into the stable in the dead of night to steal the black beans in the fodder...
"This is too exaggerated!" After seeing this part, Lieutenant Selina, who had been immersed in the plot unknowingly, was immediately distracted.
Xiao Yun chuckled and pointed at a bear-headed spectator who was secretly wiping tears in a corner of the yellow mud square: "He was the one who came up with the plot that the elders of the tribe were so hungry that they ate beans for fodder. You can ask him later if it's exaggerated."
Selina showed an expression of doubt about life.
Xiao Yun glanced at her calmly. This snow elf who grew up in the Ice and Snow King City was just ignorant. This was nothing. Ten years ago, the snow werewolves couldn't even steal hay beans when they were hungry!
When he first crossed over, the bag of particularly unpalatable black beans he used to sprout bean sprouts was all the belongings of the original owner, Ayun, and his uncle, Ashan...
He was called to work before dawn, and was whipped by the snake tribe supervisor for breaking his hoe. He was hungry every day and could only sleep on the muddy ground covered with reeds. When the plot progressed to the point where the snow leopard cub was crying in the corner with his arms around his belly because he missed his father, faint sobs were heard from the audience...
Except for the tea bears who don't have a large area of land suitable for farming, and the lion tribe who are so lazy that they are scary, the young and strong orcs from other races have been recruited more or less. They are either taken by the stewards and butlers of a big man to do unpaid labor like the protagonist in the play, or they become auxiliary soldiers like this expedition to the grassland.
To be fair, not all orc high-ranking officials will mercilessly exploit the labor of their own people when they recruit them. Some high-ranking officials will still try their best to provide a better working environment for the voluntary laborers. If nothing else, at least they will be well fed.
However, when the lower classes have to rely on the moral conscience of the rulers for their own situation, this itself is a kind of pathology - the feudal ruling class in ancient China liked to advocate benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness, and regarded this as political correctness. Did the lives of ancient farmers get better?
The fact that most of the auxiliary soldiers and some of the combat soldiers empathized with the snow leopard cubs' experience and recalled the grievances they had suffered, either had red eyes or shed tears silently, is very telling!
Selina sniffed slightly. She couldn't empathize with the plight of the snow leopard cubs, but this plot did make her very uncomfortable and upset. It was like a heavy stone was pressing on her heart. If she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Xiao Yun, she might have cried too.
With difficulty, she turned her gaze away from the crude stage which she found ridiculous at first, and looked at the bear-headed people sitting on the ground. Her eyes swept across the faces of those who were trying to endure the pain and watching intently. Suddenly, an unbelievable and bizarre idea popped up in Selina's mind.
The Bear King, who was more difficult to deal with than any previous Beast King and whom the Elf King had to pay special attention to, might lose this time...
