The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 108 A refugee

In the early morning of Fuzhou City, Lin Tiansheng was walking furtively on the streets.

Lin Tiansheng was originally a farmer in the countryside of Quanzhou. The land in his hometown was barren and the people were poor. People with some ability stopped farming and went into business. However, Lin Tiansheng had no supporter, and his family could only make a living on the fields.

Compared with his fellow villagers, Lin Tiansheng is actually quite good. There are three brothers in his family, and they are only one or two years apart from each other. They are all adults at this time. Although they cannot marry a wife, they have three strong brothers. Labor is also a dominant force in the village.

When the famine first broke out this year, the three brothers of Lin Tiansheng's family simply borrowed a sum of grain to escape the famine.

In this year of approaching famine, ordinary people cannot borrow food at all. This is the benefit brought to them by the notoriety of the three Lin Tiansheng brothers in the village.

The three people thought they were lucky. On the way to escape the famine, they heard that people in Quanzhou and Zhangzhou were planting vegetables and vegetables. At first, they said it was promoted by the government, but they couldn't push it forward. Later, they entrusted a famine-rescuing vegetable fairy. They heard that it turned out that This method was taught by the immortal.

Lin Tiansheng and his group of people who were fleeing the famine couldn't believe it at first. The government was a place to collect taxes. How could they have done anything good?
Lin Tiansheng looked at those who were deceived into growing vegetables at home and regarded them as fools.

The road to escape famine is really difficult. Although there are no large-scale refugees in Zhangquan this year, small groups of people fleeing famine can easily gather in the thousands.

Lin Tiansheng and his three brothers followed the fleeing team, and all the villages along the way looked at them coldly.

They came to ask for food, but the villagers were afraid that they would stay in the village and would not even give them a sip of water. The wealthy family in the village defended their homes, so they released wolves, dogs, servants, and men with knives and guns to drive them away.

Many old, weak, women and children who fled the famine died within half a month. Some were bitten to death by dogs, some were beaten to death, and some of those who fled their homes could not even name their names clearly. Many of them died immediately. , not to mention that most of them couldn’t write, so they dug a hole and buried them. Without writing any names on the tomb, they put their hats or shoes on the mound to make a tomb, facing the direction of their hometown in Quanzhou.

Then everyone has to keep moving forward.

Lin Tiansheng felt that these old and weak people should not have come out to escape.

As a rule, the elderly and children should be housekeepers, grow some vegetables at home, take care of the farm tools, and then starve to death. When the famine ends next year, the children in their prime can go home and continue working.

These old and weak people who ran away were the result of family members who couldn't bear to be cruel and took them away as soon as their minds got hot. It was normal for them to die on the road.

As they walked to escape the famine, everyone realized something was wrong. There seemed to be no major disasters in the villages they passed. After asking around, they found out that the famine-rescuing melon and vegetable fairy was really effective. Many disaster-stricken places relied on melons and vegetables to survive. Really survived.

But this is not a good thing for those who are fleeing.

Everyone hated themselves for not staying in the village to grow vegetables, but when they got here they had no food at all. They had been away from home for a month or two, and they had to beg for food all the way back.

The villages along the road that grow melons and vegetables are just enough to survive starvation. Where is the extra food for them?Moreover, the first thing the people who have gained strength from eating melons and vegetables unite together is to prevent outsiders from entering the village.

Under such circumstances, the three Lin Tiansheng brothers relied on their physical strength and soon became a small leader among the fleeing men.

Like all refugee teams, Lin Tiansheng and others naturally became bandits when they were extremely hungry.

Lin Tiansheng and these eight people are good at robbing. They are all in their 30s and [-]s and have nimble hands and feet. So one night, Lin Tiansheng and eight people killed a baby in the refugee team and ate a meal of meat before leaving the original group. The refugee team started stealing and robbing themselves, and then Lin Tiansheng finally lived a basically full life.

Among the refugees, only such people can live well.

They were also the fastest and furthest among this group of refugees. They successfully arrived in Fuzhou during the New Year's Eve and finally had a full meal in the colorful world of Fuzhou.Like other refugees, Lin Tiansheng and others gathered at the Chenghuang Temple outside Chengguan Township, Fuzhou. They heard that there was a man in the city who was looking for work from outsiders, so Lin Tiansheng went there enthusiastically.

The old man was mysterious and mysterious. Only the next day did Lin Tiansheng realize that what he had to do was to distribute a pile of books in the city as early as possible, without being discovered by outsiders along the way, and just leave Fuzhou after distributing the books.

The reward is a huge amount of three taels per person!
Looking at the cautious look of the person who ordered the matter, even the book only told them a location for them to pick up. Lin Tiansheng also knew that this book must be a life-threatening thing, but for them, this job is very simple. , with a lot of money hanging in front of his eyes, how could Lin Tiansheng care about whether this book would harm others?

Before taking action, he quietly took out a carefully folded picture of the famine-rescuing melon and vegetable fairy from his arms and bowed to it.

This picture was torn from the stove when he went to a villager's house to steal something. Whatever food he got along the way, he would first put it in front of the immortal god and worship him before eating it. After these few months of living as a refugee, Those who survived had a narrow escape from death.

Lin Tiansheng carried this picture of the immortal with him along the way, stealing melons, fruits, and abducting children to eat. Lin Tiansheng felt that he could survive safely only because of the blessings of gods and Buddhas.

He muttered: "With the blessing of the Immortal Lord, I have made a fortune this time in Fuzhou. When I return, I will give the great vegetables to the Immortal Lord."

When everything was ready, Lin Tiansheng wrapped his head with a piece of rag and quietly took out a stack of thick leaflets from his arms.

He was originally dressed like a beggar and smelled dirty. Passers-by would walk around him when they saw him. Now he was walking slowly along the street, dropping flyers at the doors of the homes of wealthy people or the shops where merchants were buying and selling, and then He ran forward as if there was a ghost behind him.

Lin Tiansheng also had a clever trick. The master who gave the order asked them to distribute the money to each household. Lin Tiansheng was afraid that if he distributed the money too slowly, he would be targeted by the government after others found him out.

So he would leave at least two copies in front of every house, and sometimes he would be cruel and throw away three copies.

Lin Tiansheng felt that he had made a mistake. The paper with such printing must be very expensive. If the master who sent the task found out, they would definitely fight him.

After passing out along one street, Lin Tiansheng turned down another street. The stack of leaflets in his hand was so many that Lin Tiansheng felt dizzy as he walked.

His original plan was to go back and pick up the flyers after distributing them on three streets. However, he had just completed two streets and when he reached the third street intersection, he saw that flyers had been placed in front of every house on this street.

Lin Tiansheng patted his head and wondered: "Have you already sent it?"

It doesn't matter if he sends it over, Lin Tiansheng thinks that when people come to check, they will see that he has handed out enough and full, so there will be no fault. As for the extra flyers, he can just find a street corner and throw them away.

……

At the same time, Wang Pingbao also wrapped his head and wore a rag, pretending to be a beggar, and even put on a fake beard, and walked furtively on the street.

The number of leaflets printed by him and Wang Wenlong was not many, less than [-] in total. In order to achieve maximum effect, the chosen locations for leaflet distribution were the commercial streets in the south of Fuzhou and in front of several wealthy houses in the north.

The job of distributing leaflets cannot be finished in one day. Wang Pingbao has been secretly distributing leaflets for two days. He thought the leaflets distributed to wealthy families the day before would cause a bit of a sensation, but unexpectedly there was no sound at all. Wang Pingbao secretly went back to read them. I found that those leaflets had been collected by those people, and I didn't know what they were trying to do.

But it doesn't matter. I'll feel relaxed after posting it in front of the shops in a few commercial streets today.

Wang Pingbao thought and walked to the next street.

(End of this chapter)