Chapter 221 A Difficult Beginning

There is an oval table in the conference room and several lotus-shaped lamps are hung on the wall. It feels warm like spring as soon as you enter. It is because there are floor heating. This is also one of the few conference rooms in Konoha Village with heating.

Ye Shan smiled and pulled Gong Yan, who seemed very restrained, especially after entering the magnificent conference room. For Gong Yan, who had been digging for food and clothing for most of his life, the past six months were as unreal as living in a dream.

"Hokage, I won't go in. I'll just squat outside the door and listen." Gong Yan said timidly.

Ye Shan looked at the brightly lit conference room, then at the patched clothes on the other party, and smiled: "Don't worry, old man, you deserve it. These items are nothing compared to you."

No matter how shiny or precious an item is, it cannot compare with excellent human nature, or it can be said that the two are not on the same conceptual level at all.

As he spoke, Ye Shan pulled Gong Yan straight to the middle of the table and pushed him to sit down without saying anything: "You are the protagonist of the meeting today. If you squat outside the door and listen to us, won't you have to lie on the ground to attend the meeting?"

At this time, Namikaze Minato came in with oranges and a notebook. Hearing this, he smiled and said, "Master Yeshan is right. Today you are the teacher. We ninjas are your students. We are here to listen to your lectures."

The two of them sat on Gong Yan's left and right. As for the remaining dozens of people, they naturally sat down in order of importance. The spacious conference room was filled in an instant.

Namikaze Minato cleared his throat, opened the record book and said, "The ninth collective meeting of the Konoha Ninjutsu Research Association has officially begun. There are 17 participants, which meets the required number."

"Next, please welcome the Fourth Hokage of Konohagakure, Bai Yunyeshan, to give a speech!"

"crash"

The ninjas attending the meeting applauded together, making the atmosphere very lively.

Ye Shan pressed his hands, and after the applause stopped, he smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work, everyone. Today we have held a meeting here for only one purpose, and that is to listen to the lecture of Gong Yan, an old farmer from the Rain Country. Of course, everyone doesn't need to be restrained, and there is no need to remember anything, just listen and think carefully."

Many ninjas closed their open notebooks and turned their gazes to Gong Yan who was sitting in the main seat, their eyes flickering and it was unknown what they were thinking.

"I hope that everyone can gain something from listening to this speech, and can use their intelligence and wisdom to offer suggestions for the development and construction of the village. Let us welcome Gong Yan's speech with warm applause!"

"crash"

The applause was still loud, but I don’t know how much sincerity there was in it.

Gong Yan scratched his head helplessly, sweat dripping down his forehead due to nervousness, and he couldn't speak clearly: "I'm very happy... to be able to attend this meeting..."

Ye Shan suppressed his smile and listened attentively, but he didn't expect that there would be no further talk. He turned his head and saw that the old man named Gong Yan had tears in his eyes and looked as if he was choking with sobs.

Minato Namikaze patted the old man's shoulder gently, signaling him not to be nervous or excited, but it had no effect at all.

Ye Shan thought for a moment, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took out a cigarette and handed it to Gong Yan, saying softly: "Come and have a cigarette to calm down. Everyone here is our own people, so you can say whatever you want to say."

Gong Yan stretched out his dry hand to take the cigarette, and brought it to his lips tremblingly. The small cigarette seemed to have a lot of weight and kept shaking between his lips.

"Hi~hoo~"

Gong Yan took a big puff of the cigarette, and gradually the shaking stopped. He smiled apologetically and said, "I have never seen the world. I am embarrassed for the Hokage."

"Before I came here, my son repeatedly told me not to lose my composure, saying that this was an opportunity that three generations of our ancestors had never had, and that we must bring honor to the village and have a good talk. I also prepared a lot of speeches, but for some reason, I couldn't think of anything when I sat here."

"Where should I start? I want to start with my life story. My name is Gongyan now, and I was called Yamae three months ago. It's just because our village is close to the mountains. It's a new name given to me by the resident ninja."

The smoke from the burning cigarette floated in the air, as if embellishing the old man's story.

"My village belongs to the daimyo's territory, which has been passed down from generation to generation. Every year, we have to hand in all the grain we produce. As for how much we have to hand in, it depends on how much they want. Often, we can't even save the seeds we have planted for a whole year. Fortunately, the mountains are rich in resources, and we can rely on hunting to make a living. But because of this, many people died in the mountains, and even their bodies could not be found."

The meeting room was as warm as spring. Everyone listened attentively as an old man told about the most miserable thing in the world. The name of this miserable thing is - hunger.

For a bite of food, humans can kill each other; for a bite of food, humans can even eat their own children.

Don't think that there is no hunger in the Naruto world. In fact, countless people die of starvation every year, especially in small countries. Ninjas can enjoy abundant supplies by force, nobles can live a life of luxury by relying on the blessings of their ancestors, and ordinary civilians are lucky to not starve to death.

Where there are people, there is the world; where there is the world, there is struggle; where there is struggle, there are classes; where there are classes, there is division.

In the ninja world, the division can be roughly divided into several stages: ninja - daimyo - nobles - civilians. It seems that the ninja world war did not affect ordinary civilians, but in fact, ninjas are fighting with the people's money every minute and every second. Because ninjas, daimyo and nobles do not produce, all materials are provided by the lower-class civilians, which makes the lives of civilians really miserable. They can only grit their teeth and pay taxes, and it is even impossible for them to rise up in rebellion, because in the chakra world, the so-called swords, guns, sticks and clubs are pure garbage. A genin has the strength to annihilate hundreds of bandits, and ordinary people have no chance of getting ahead.

"But everything changed with the arrival of the ninja masters stationed in the village. The three masters used ninjutsu to prevent rain from flooding the crops and increased our grain production. They drove away the daimyo's slaves, and we no longer had to worry about insufficient food storage for the winter. My family even had two meals a day, and they were two meals of rice!" Gong Yan said excitedly, not realizing that the cigarette between his fingers had long burned out.

"All this is thanks to the Hokage-sama. Without the help of the Hokage-sama, I would have starved to death and frozen to death!"

Having said that, Gong Yan stood up, and his knees softened as he was about to kneel down to Ye Shan. Fortunately, Ye Shan was quick enough to hold him back, otherwise it would have been a very bad ending.

"There's no need to do this. This is what you deserve." Ye Shan said seriously.

Gong Yan shook his head repeatedly, and looked at Ye Shan with eyes that were frighteningly hot, as if he was looking at a god.

Namikaze Minato was the first to applaud, and the rest of the ninjas followed suit. Even though they had witnessed many such stories before, they still had to give face to the Hokage.

Ye Shan helped Gong Yan sit on the chair, crossed his hands on his chin, and scanned the ninjas with his eyes slightly narrowed. He said slowly: "I know that everyone here may disagree with this, thinking that the job of a ninja is to fight and kill, and improving people's livelihood is what the daimyo should do. But people are not plants and trees, so who can be heartless? Since we have eyes and see it, we will help if we can. What do you think?"

"Yes Yes Yes"

"Hokage-sama is right."

Ye Shan was already immune to insincere flattery. What he wanted was for these people to bend down and do it, not to flatter him with a calm demeanor!

"Oh!"

Ye Shan slammed the table, frightening Gong Yan beside him so much that he trembled all over and almost trembled his heart out: "You all agree with me, but how do you do it? Huh?"

"I asked you to develop some ninjutsu to improve the growth of crops. What did you submit?"

"Sarutobi Shinsuke, stand up and tell everyone!"

The middle-aged ninja named Sarutobi Shinsuke looked bitter, and quickly stood up and said, "Hokage-sama, I can explain this matter!"

Ye Shan frowned and shouted, "I don't want to hear perfunctory explanations. The Ninjutsu Research Association doesn't need people who are good at talking. Just tell me, can you do it or not? If you can't do it, just report it. Minato will give you a backdoor approval, and you can return to the battlefield to fight tomorrow!"

"Capable! I promise to report the research results within five days!" Sarutobi Shinsuke stated.

Ye Shan nodded in satisfaction, and continued, "Other people have their own ideas, so I won't name them to avoid embarrassment."

Namikaze Minato looked at the ninjas meaningfully, and when Ye Shan finished speaking, he announced: "The meeting is over. Everyone should submit 10,000 words of insights within three days, which will be posted on the public notice board at that time."

No one dared to object and nodded in agreement.

Ye Shan waved his hand and said, "The rest of you, disperse. Study this carefully. I will not tolerate it if it happens again!"

Everyone stood up, made hand seals and saluted, then left the meeting room in an orderly manner. Gong Yan didn't know whether to walk or sit, so he could only look at Ye Shan for instructions.

After everyone left, Ye Shan smiled again and said, "Uncle, don't leave tonight. This is a rare opportunity for the three of us to have a few drinks together."

When he heard that there was wine to drink, Gong Yan couldn't help swallowing his saliva, but still said: "I should go now. Where does the Hokage have time to eat and drink?"

That's true. Ever since becoming Hokage, Yeshan has basically quit drinking. It's not that he doesn't want to drink, but he's really too busy to drink.

"No matter how busy you are, you still have time. Don't worry." Ye Shan said with a smile: "Minato, please arrange for the kitchen to cook a few more dishes."

Minato Namikaze nodded. He had already arranged this little thing, and it was probably already cooked by now.

The three of them sat in their chairs, confused. Ye Shan felt a little tired. He hadn't expected that getting something done would be so difficult. It seemed that top-down reforms had always been full of thorns, and there was still a long way to go.

But then again, Ye Shan is a person who likes to take on tough tasks. The harder the task, the more he likes it. He just doesn't believe it!