Carrying AK into Ming Dynasty

Chapter 520 Whose Sorrow
Three days ago, the capital.

Tong Liben, head of the Ministry of Rites in his 40s, stared at the dim oil lamp and frowned. The rice tank at home had bottomed out yesterday, but there was no money left to buy rice.

"Father—hungry, son wants to eat, hungry—" the son lying on the bed yelled with his mouth tilted and his eyes slanted.

"Son, let's wait until tomorrow, tomorrow dad will sell this pepper and buy you rice porridge to eat, go to sleep, you won't be hungry when you sleep." Tong Liben hurried to his son who was suffering from brain disease and coaxed in a low voice .

"My son wants to eat meat, I don't care about it, my son wants to eat meat, my son wants to eat meat..." Tong Qiang cried and threw himself into Tong Liben's arms.

Tong Liben hugged his son speechlessly, and sighed deeply.

Seven days ago, the Ministry of Household Affairs issued this month's salary, which was still [-]% of the pepper and linen discount. This has been the case for several months. As a result, no matter how low the price of pepper in the capital is, no one cares about it.

And because it is the season when the harvest is not harvested in the north, even the price of rice in the capital has risen to two taels of silver per stone.

It's a pity that he studied hard for ten years and became an official for ten years, but he couldn't even support his own family.

"Master, it's late at night, you should rest." His wife, Mrs. Zhang, came to urge her in her pajamas that had been patched several times.

"Well, let's go to bed first, the old man still has some things to explain to your brother." After finishing speaking, Tong Liben walked out of the main house and walked towards a dilapidated cabin beside him.

"Zhang Sheng, what are you doing, what are you eating?" Tong Liben saw his wife and brother lying on the bed eating something as soon as he entered the room.

"Master... I didn't eat anything... I..." Zhang Cheng was taken aback and quickly stuffed the food into his arms.

"Hmph, where did you get the sweet potatoes? You went to steal again? Alas! You've lost all face of the Tong family!" Tong Liben grabbed the half-gnawed sweet potatoes and dropped them to the ground.

Zhang Sheng stared at the soil-covered sweet potatoes and dared not speak. He had indeed brought them from a grain shop in the city, and he was really hungry.

"Tomorrow, we will continue to sell peppers at the market, and we must sell the peppers." Tong Liben wanted to go back to the room after speaking.

"My lord, now the streets are full of pepper sellers, and they can't be sold at all~!" Zhang Sheng said with a bitter face.

For the past seven days, he has carried pepper out every morning and brought it back in the evening. If there is a lot of it, it will be cheap. Nowadays, most people in the city are counting money to live. Who would buy this pepper with life-saving money?
"Sell it if you can't sell it, won't you lower the price?" Tong Liben naturally knows the current market price of pepper, but if it can't be sold tomorrow, the children in the family will really not be able to support it.

"It's still lowered, it's already reduced to ten cents a catty, and it's better to give it away for nothing." Zhang Sheng lowered his head and said in a low voice.

Tong Liben said nothing, went out and returned to the house, while Zhang Sheng hurriedly got out of bed and picked up the dusty sweet potato from the ground, wiped it on his clothes and continued to eat it.

On the second day when he was on duty, Tong Liben simply tidied up the documents on the desk and case, and walked out of the yamen of the Ministry of Rites towards the yamen of the Ministry of Households.

"Hey, isn't this Master Tong from the Ministry of Rites? Why did you come to my household department suddenly?" the household member Wailang Zeng Dechang said strangely.

"Master Zeng, the family of the lower official is in a difficult situation. I hope Master Zeng can forgive me and allow the lower official to advance five taels of silver." Although Tong Liben was a few years older than Zeng Dechang, he still bowed down and bowed his hands to ask for something.

Scholars are most concerned about face, but thinking of his son who is hungry and exhausted at home, he has to be so humble, which makes him feel very embarrassed.

"Master Tong, as an official of the imperial court, don't you know the rules of our court? The salary is paid once a month and cannot be paid in advance. Please come back, Mr. Tong." Zeng Dechang looked businesslike.

"However, Mr. Zeng, this month is another month when the pepper is discounted. Now there is a backlog of pepper in Beijing, and we can't sell it at all. There is no rice for the next official's house. Please, Mr. Zeng, please help!"

Tong Liben's waist was bent at ninety degrees, and tears welled up in his eyes.

"It's not that I don't want to help you, if I give you the money, Tong Liben, Zhang Liben and Sun Liben will come tomorrow.

There are thousands of officials of various types in the court. If they are all like this, wouldn't it be a mess?Who can bear this responsibility?Come back quickly, don't embarrass me. "Zeng Dechang couldn't bear it, but there was nothing he could do.

If there is not a relative in his family who is always filial in business, it is probably very sad at this time of year!
In addition, the imperial court took back the land of the officials and only distributed the land by head. Most of the officials lost the tenants they depended on for survival, and could only live on the meager salaries of the imperial court.

Alas, who can get better?

Tong Liben cupped his hands and said nothing more, almost walking towards the house weakly.

The weather was gloomy in the evening, and when he opened the door, he saw his brother-in-law Zhang Sheng walking into the house with Pepper on his back. Tong Liben felt stagnant.

"My lord... I lowered the pepper to eight Wen a catty, and only sold it for six catties. You count the money." Zhang Sheng took out dozens of copper coins from his waist and handed them to Tong Liben.

"Don't count, just go to the street and buy three taels of pig offal, then two taels of soju, and the rest to buy some potatoes and sweet potatoes." Tong Li had no expression on his face, and wanted to go back to the house after speaking.

"But...Master..." Zhang Sheng wanted to say, if these tens of renminbi were used to buy rice, it would be enough to eat for several days if it was so expensive, what would happen tomorrow?
"Don't dawdle, let's go!" Tong Liben entered the room without stopping.

Inside the house, his wife, Mrs. Zhang, was mending clothes. When she saw Tong Liben coming in, she hurried to pour water.

"Father, I'm hungry—I'm hungry—" Tong Qiang, 20, hadn't had the strength to cry for more than a day. He took out a piece of dirty black cotton from somewhere and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Son, spit it out quickly, and wait a little longer, we'll eat meat later." Tong Liben hurried over and took the cotton out of his son's mouth.

"Well, dad, I can bear the hunger, let's eat meat together." Tong Qiang grinned.

Boom—a pale lightning illuminated the night, and then there was a loud thunder, and it was going to rain.

"Master—Master—" Zhang Sheng's shout came from outside the room, and Tong Liben heard it and went out.

It was raining heavily, but I saw my donkey lying on the ground in the shanty and did not move.

The Tong family was poor, and they never took a sedan chair to go to court, and they all relied on a donkey raised by the family as a means of transportation.

"God! Why did you treat my Tong family like this!" Tong Liben walked into the wooden shed regardless of the wind and rain, and cried while stroking the donkey that had been with him for several years.

He walked into the house in a daze, but saw a plate of pig offal, two liang of shochu, and a large bowl of boiled sweet potatoes on the table.

Tong Liben took half of the pig offal from the plate, and signaled his wife and brother-in-law to eat first, while he took a bowl to feed his son.

"Son, eat slowly, there are more!" Tong Liben smiled and looked at his wolf-hunting son.

"Father, it's delicious! You can eat some too." Tong Qiang stopped opening his mouth, motioning for Tong Liben to eat too.

"Father just ate, I'll give you all of these, quick, open your mouth!"

……

It was just dawn on the second day when Mrs. Zhang woke up and saw that there was no figure of Tong Liben beside the bed, so she got up to look for it.

I searched all over the simple yard but couldn't find it, but seeing that the door of the hut where the sundries were kept was open, I walked in slowly.

The room was dark, with only two large sacks of pepper left in the corner of the room. Mrs. Zhang stood at the door and vaguely saw something hanging in the room. She walked in and her pupils dilated instantly.

"Master—Master—" Mrs. Zhang cried out.

On the roof beam of the leaky hut, Tong Liben had already hanged himself on it with his eyes open.

……

(End of this chapter)