At the end of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 11
Gao Kaishan's name is very domineering, and his appearance is also very domineering. His height exceeds 1.8 meters, which can be described by the word "Wei'an". He has a Chinese character face, thick eyebrows and big eyes, straight nose and square mouth, with sharp edges and corners. He is five or six times the same as Gao Bufan. They are similar, but appear more rigid and bold, while Gao Bufan's face combines his mother's characteristics, so it is relatively softer and more handsome.

Gao Kaishan is 47 years old, he has a son in his middle age, and he has only one wife, Mrs. Chen. Since they got married, the two have always been in love with each other, and they rarely blush. Even in modern times, they can definitely be regarded as a model couple. Very rare.

Just as Gao Bufan expected, Gao Kaishan was indeed taken advantage of yesterday. He accompanied Yu Wenhua and a group of people to the city to eat, drink and have fun. With a few more glasses of wine, he probably would have been too sore to sleep last night.

Just like the vast majority of ordinary middle-aged men, Gao Kaishan also carries the burden of supporting his family on his shoulders. He rushes to and fro in a panic every day, but it’s just a few taels of silver. But only he can understand the badness of it, almost all year round, and risk of being held accountable by the court at any time, the profit is only a few hundred taels of silver in a year, if the management is not good, a lot of horses will die , Maybe you have to pour money into it.

It was better in the early years, but the racecourse has become more and more difficult in the past two years. First, the imperial court lowered the purchase price of war horses too low, and secondly, a new racecourse was opened in a neighboring county. Under the competition between the two sides, the flying horses were further squeezed. Profit margins at Eagle Horse Farm.

According to Xia Steward's estimation at the beginning of the year, Feiying Racecourse is very likely to be in vain this year. Unexpectedly, the leak in the house was hit by continuous rain. Just when the horse was about to be released, Yu Wenhua and the plague god came to beat the autumn wind. 3000 taels of silver, which is almost four or five years of profit for the racecourse, Gao Kaishan almost turned his head white.

Fortunately, Gao Kaishan didn't seem to be taken for nothing yesterday, and the county magistrate Zhou of Yu County came forward to intercede for him very generously, and at least reduced the 3000 taels to 200 taels.

Gao Kaishan made some calculations, he scraped together the sum of money, he should be able to get it out barely, the heart that has been carrying it is finally relaxed, and he drank a few more glasses during the dinner, so he fell down when he got home I fell asleep and didn't wake up until the next day at three poles.

"Where did Fan'er go?" Gao Kaishan asked while drinking the hangover soup from his wife, Chen Shi.

"Early in the morning, I drove more than a dozen rough horses into the city."

Gao Kaishan wondered: "Why did he drive so many poor horses into the city?"

Mrs. Chen sighed: "Isn't the family in need of money urgently? Yesterday I was going to ask Ming Cui to sell the jewelry for some silver, but Xiaofan happened to bump into me, and it didn't sell in the end..."

Mrs. Chen repeated what Gao Bufan said yesterday, and finally said with red eyes: "Xiaofan has been sensible since he was a child, and he rushed to the city today, probably because he wants to sell it for some money and help the family tide over the difficulties. Well, alas, it’s hard for him at such a young age.”

Gao Kaishan smiled wryly when he heard the words: "Xiaofan has been very self-reliant since he was a child, and never caused trouble for us, but now he wants him to worry about his family, it's all useless for me to be a father."

Mrs. Chen took her husband's hand and comforted her: "The head of the family, please don't say that, this family still relies on you to keep out the wind and rain all the time, you are supposed to be a hero galloping on the battlefield, but you live in a corner for the sake of your concubine. Worry about daily necessities..."

Gao Kaishan covered Chen's mouth with his hand, not letting her continue, and said softly: "I am already very happy to have you in this life, let alone Xiaofan now, God actually treats me like Gao Kaishan. Not too thin, I'm very content."

Chen couldn't help leaning into her husband's arms, who patted her on the back and said: "Xiaofan is right, we are the men of the family, and we are the first to bear the burden when the sky falls. You don't need to worry about the money." Don't worry, I'll figure it out."

…………

The horses in the racecourse are divided into three classes, first class war horses, second class field horses, and third class rough horses.War horses are the best, their explosive power and endurance are the best, suitable for use on the battlefield, while field horses are second-class, they can be used for daily labor, such as plowing the fields and pulling carts.

As for the rough horses, they are the worst, either too thin, or have defects, such as lameness and rotten teeth, or are so violent that they cannot even do the daily work of plowing the fields and pulling carts.

Flying Eagle Racecourse will weed out a batch of poor horses every year, and most of these poor horses will end up being sold to restaurants and restaurants to be killed and eaten for meat. Of course, some people will buy poor horses and go back to do some light work.

Early this morning, Gao Bufan asked Gao Shou and Gao Ren to drive more than a dozen rough horses to the county town, intending to sell them for some money, and to see if there was any other way to make a lot of money.

Due to the heavy rain last night, the road was very muddy, Gao Bufan rode Qingyun and walked in the front, while Gao Shou and Gao Ren drove behind nervously. Although he thought it was unlikely that the young master would sell them, the two I was still a little worried, so I worked very hard today, for fear of offending the young master.

The big green horse under Gao Bufan's crotch is indeed a steed. It is covered in black and black, with no stray hairs to be found. It is a lot taller than ordinary horses. It has slender and powerful hooves, and it runs as fast as a stream on the muddy official road. Yun, with a slight lift of his hoof, can jump more than ten meters away, and those nasty horses can't keep up with it when they run out of breath, so every time they walk a distance, Gao Bufan has to rein in and wait, which makes the big green horse very unhappy. He kept shaking his head and sniffing.

Gao Shou and Gao Ren are not without merit, at least they are very good at driving horses. The two whipped the horses one from the left and the other from the right, and drove the horses steadily.

The county seat of Xing County is nearly forty miles away from Feiying Racecourse. At [-]:[-] in the morning, Gao Bufan and his party finally arrived outside the city, but the scene in front of them was a bit sad.

But seeing the bustling people on the straight road into the city, most of them are refugees in scanty clothes, all of them are sallow and emaciated, with dull expressions, moving towards the city gate like walking corpses, among them there are many people with their families. There are more than a dozen stiff corpses lying in the mud on both sides. They are probably refugees who died of starvation or disease. Some of them have already emitted a stench, and swarms of blowflies are buzzing around on them. Go, very creepy!
Gao Bufan subconsciously held his breath, while Gao Shou and Gao Ren had already covered their noses!

In fact, it is impossible for the city guards to let these refugees enter the city. The reason why they are blocked on the straight road into the city is just to occupy a favorable position and wait for the employer to choose them.

From time to time in the city, well-dressed people will come out and choose coolies from among the refugees to work in the city. The wages are so cheap that they can be ignored, and they only need to take care of the food. They were selected, but most of these people wanted to sell themselves as slaves. If they were lucky, they would enter the rich family as slaves. If they were unlucky, they could only sell their flesh and blood in brothels.

"Get out of the way, don't get in the way of Mr. Gao!"

The guards at the city gate obviously recognized Gao Bufan, and wielding spears and water and fire sticks drove the refugees to the two straight roads, clearing the middle road.

Gao Bufan raised his hand and tossed a string of five baht coins to the guards, and then led his horse towards the city gate under the hopeful gazes of the refugees. I couldn't help but put my hand into my pocket!
The woman was disheveled, dirty and tattered, she couldn't see her face clearly, and she couldn't tell her age. The baby in her arms was estimated to be less than half a year old, and the few sparse hairs were like withered grass in winter. The hoarse and weak crying, probably from starvation, the little brain subconsciously pushed towards the woman's shriveled chest, but the adults didn't have to eat, so where did they get the milk to breastfeed?
Seeing Gao Bufan stretching into her arms, the hope in the eyes of the woman holding the baby became stronger, and the refugees with dull eyes all around suddenly became brighter, and crowded towards the woman holding the baby one after another, like a group of hungry wolves smelling blood .

Seeing this, Gao Bufan frowned, and resolutely gave up the idea of ​​giving money, because even if he gave it, it is estimated that the woman would not be able to keep it, and it might even hurt her. The ugliness of human nature is most easily revealed in the case of hunger .

Gao Bufan withdrew his hand from his arms, it was empty, and the refugees couldn't help being disappointed, some even cursed in a low voice, but Gao Bufan turned a deaf ear, calling Gao Shou and Gao Ren to drive their horses into the city gate

Seeing this, the leader of the guard guarding the city gate came forward and said with a smile, "Fortunately, Young Master Gao didn't give money to the refugee mother and son just now!"

"Why?" Gao Bufan asked knowingly.

The leader of the guard pouted at the corpses of the refugees and said, "Hey, someone gave a handful of copper coins before, and several of them died in the scramble. Once this person is hungry, he is like an animal, biting his ears and eyes. So, if Young Master Gao gave money just now, it might have killed the mother and child."

The tone of the officer's leader's narration was very indifferent, obviously he didn't take the death of the refugees seriously at all.Gao Bufan frowned and asked, "Why are there so many refugees here all of a sudden?"

The guard said hesitantly: "Some time ago, there was a flood in Zhangnan County downstream, and tens of thousands of houses collapsed, causing countless casualties. I heard that half of the city wall collapsed, so most of these refugees came from Zhangnan County. Those who came from there, it is said that there are more disaster-affected places in Shandong, and our county is not bad, basically not affected, no, the refugees are all here!"

Gao Bufan couldn't help sighing secretly, as the saying goes: When a country is about to prosper, there must be auspiciousness; when a country is about to perish, there must be monsters.The Shandong area was hit by a severe drought last year, and this year there was another severe flood. Coupled with Yang Guang's excessive expropriation in order to send troops to Korea, the common people have no way of life, and it is strange that the country is not in chaos.

(End of this chapter)