Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 229
"Hurry up, everyone, there will be food in three miles! If you go late, they will all be robbed!"

With the hoarse yelling of the officials, thousands of craftsmen and their families gathered from Zezhou, Shuozhou, Xinzhou and other places in Shanxi on the official road leading to Tianjinwei in Fangshan County, Shuntian Prefecture, either pushing carts or carrying burdens. , moving slowly and firmly to the south.

"Father, we can't go thousands of miles away from home, right? Why don't we come to the land mentioned by the elder of the government? Xiaonan and the wooden box are almost unable to move!"

Li Erwa took a sideways look at her mother-in-law who was talking softly beside her while carrying the burden, and snorted dissatisfiedly: "I know how to babble all day long! How many times have I told you that we are almost at the end of the road! What kind of situation have you seen? If the government hadn’t moved us out of the house, our family wouldn’t be able to beg for food! We would have starved to death and fed wild dogs!”

Li Erwa is a carpenter in Zuojiaji, Zezhou, Shanxi Province. His family has passed down the craftsmanship for generations. He is famous for his carpentry work for dozens of miles.After a year, the income is not cheap. Although the family of four has no land, they live a happy life.

But all this has undergone tremendous changes since the eighth year of Chongzhen.

Since the seventh year of the Chongzhen War, there has been little rain and snow in Zezhou. The crops in the fields have been greatly reduced, and the price of grain has begun to rise. , but gradually felt the pressure.

In the following eight and nine years of Chongzhen, not only Zezhou Prefecture, but almost the entire northwestern part of Shanxi had no rain or snow. Seeing more and more.Li Erwa's business was also greatly affected. Many wealthy families reduced their daily expenses and saved money to hoard food to survive the famine.

Li Erwa really hoped that the drought would pass soon, so she gritted her teeth and used the silver saved at home to continue to buy food to make ends meet. Unexpectedly, when all the money in the family was spent, God also sent down a drop of water.

Just when Li Erwa was in desperation and was about to take his family out to flee the famine, the county government officials came to him and took his family to the county government.

On the square in front of the county government office, Li Erwa and a hundred other craftsmen with their families and families, after listening to the teachings of the county magistrate, were led by the government officials on their journey to the south.

The county magistrate said a lot, but Li Erwa basically didn't understand.I only heard the elder finally say that the imperial court has found a good land for everyone. It is warm and tight all year round, and you don’t need to wear cotton-padded clothes. If you sow seeds in the fertile fields, you can sow several stones of rice in a few months. They are going to Those who repair and build houses for local wealthy households and make various objects will earn much more than they did at home.

In this way, full of hope for the future, Li Erwa followed the officials on the road in a daze.

When they arrived at the junction of Shanxi and Gyeonggi, the Shanxi Governor's Yamen gathered here from various craftsmen from several states near Gyeonggi. After uniformly distributing several black flour cakes and a small bag of pickled vegetables to each household, thousands of Under the supervision of the government servants, the team of people marched towards the southeast.

After receiving the imperial decree from Zhu Youjian, with the assistance of Shuntian Mansion, the Ministry of Households set up a simple grain storage place every [-] miles on the official road, and temporarily built long and simple grass sheds on both sides of the road. Under the thatched shed were dozens of cauldrons boiling thick rice porridge, which was life-saving food delivered by the Zheng family's fleet.This kind of straw shelter will exist for a long time, thinking that it will provide food for the large number of Shanxi disaster victims when they pass through.

In addition to sending officials and servants to maintain order, Shuntian Prefecture also mobilized thousands of healthy women and strong laborers from counties on the outskirts of Beijing to carry and cook food.Of course, under Zhu Youjian's intervention, these healthy women and strong workers were all hired with money, rather than being forced to recruit in the form of corvee in the past.

In order to prevent the people in the government from embezzling food and making things difficult for the people when they received the relief, Zhu Youjian sent a large number of Jinyi Guards to patrol along the way.In addition, since the implementation of the new salary increase policy in the ninth year of Chongzhen, officials and servants have enjoyed huge benefits, and everyone's enthusiasm for business affairs has increased significantly. .

Since they have enjoyed many free meals along the way, the craftsmen are extremely obedient to the yelling and urging of the officials.

After walking for half an hour, Li Erwa saw the familiar porridge shed not far away. The people at the front of the line had already filled the thick porridge with various utensils they carried, and then they each found a place to sit or squat enjoy it.

Under the strict supervision of Jin Yiwei, the porridge served for relief has been as close as possible to the appearance of dry rice. The original standard for serving relief with chopsticks does not fall down, which means that the chopsticks can be inserted within a few breaths, so the porridge is still slightly thinner. But Zhu Youjian stubbornly believes that the time cannot be counted if the chopsticks are inserted, that is, the chopsticks cannot be inverted at any time. This is the standard for releasing relief, and it must be strictly implemented.

Regarding the emperor's prodigal behavior, the officials of the Ministry of Household and Shuntian Mansion are all slanderous. The release of relief is just a sigh of relief for the victims. Stuttering is not bad, why spend a lot of food to make them full?But since it is the holy will, it can only be followed.

Li Erwa looked at her two little ones eating pickled vegetables and wooden bowls, eating the sweet thick porridge, and couldn't help but feel relieved and guilty: the elders of the imperial court are really kind people, what about us? I don’t do any work, and I still care about such a good meal, I always feel indebted to others; I heard from the official servant that such thick porridge was ordered by the emperor’s grandfather. I will engrave a statue of the emperor's grandpa as an offering at home, and ask my whole family to kowtow every day, so that I will never forget the grace of the emperor's grandfather's life.

Seeing that Li Erwa was holding an empty bowl in a daze, the woman beside her moved towards her husband and poured most of the bowl of porridge into his bowl: "Dad, I can't eat anymore, so I won't work to eat it." I'm so overwhelmed, help me eat!"

Li Erwa, who came back to his senses, looked at most of the bowl of porridge in the bowl, and then at his wife's gentle eyes. A tender feeling surged in his heart. He knew that his wife was in a panic because she was afraid that he would not have enough to eat. Give him food.The government has a rule: adults have two bowls of thick porridge per meal, and children have one bowl; the wife knows that she eats a lot, and two bowls at a time can only fill her stomach, so she often uses various excuses to give herself meals.

Holding the wooden bowl in one hand, Li Erwa stretched out her hand to gently remove a straw stick from his wife's hair, and looked into his wife's eyes with eyes full of love.

The mother-in-law blushed all of a sudden, lowered her head and said softly, "There are so many people watching~"

　The love of grass people is simple and warm.

　　Thanks to the book friend idler for a 013 reward.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)