I was pulling trees in Daming, and Lao Zhu begged me to come out of retirement

Chapter 2 NPC!

In the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty,

At this time, the Yellow River flooded, and hundreds of thousands of people in Shandong and Henan along the river became refugees.

Although the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty did not regard the Han people as human beings,
However, in order to prevent them from rebelling, the construction of river embankments had to be put on the agenda.

Emperor Shundi of Yuan Dynasty issued an edict to provide disaster relief at the suggestion of Prime Minister Tuotuo.

But at this time, the Yuan Dynasty was already at the end of its strength. Even if there were no rats in the national treasury, it was not enough to sustain a massive disaster relief campaign.

So the wool comes from the sheep,
Officials from all over the country received orders from the court and began collecting taxes from door to door.

Among them, a fat and big-eared official from Dongxiang, Zhongli, Haozhou, was holding an abacus and sneering at several villagers who were dressed in tattered clothes and looked like beggars:
"Listen, since the third year of Zhizheng, we have owed two dan and three liters of rent, and one liang and three qian of tax silver! And the tax silver that has not been settled over the years is six liang and seven qian."

"Adding the compound interest over the past decade, the total tax is..."

The poor people who earned their living on firewood knelt on the ground trembling as they watched the other party's abacus making a clanging sound.

After an unknown amount of time, the official stroked his goatee and called out a number.

"The total is two thousand four hundred and three taels!"

The oldest man collapsed to the ground and burst into tears:
"Sir, even if you sell me in small pieces, you won't get more than two taels of silver!"

But the official knew all this, he was just looking for an excuse to take action.

"Someone, come in and search the house!"

The officers and soldiers kicked the old man away and rushed into the leaky mud house. After a clanging sound, several people came out with a cloth bag with holes in it, looking disgusted.

"My lord, that's all. It's the grain."

The old man's face changed drastically, and he knelt on the ground in despair and kowtowed desperately:

"General! General! This is not millet, this is rice seed! This is the life of our whole family. Our two daughters starved to death but they were unwilling to eat it! General, if you take it away, our whole family will die."

If they don't even have the rice seeds, they won't have any hope of surviving this year.

But the Yuan soldiers, who didn't treat them as human beings, didn't care about these things.

He kicked the old man away and yelled:
"You rascal! This is the grain tax that the imperial court pays you for building the river embankment! You owe so much tax, and yet you are not satisfied with this little? Get out! Use this grain to feed the horses."

The official led the soldiers out of the courtyard, cursing.

The old man wailed and cried out in despair: "My rice seeds! My rice seeds!"

He numbly picked up the scattered rice seeds from the ground, his eyes filled with gloom. His body and mind could not bear the pressure of such despair and he fainted.

Seeing this, several pale and skinny young men nearby shouted in horror:
"Dad? Dad!"

The scene was in chaos, and a cloud of despair hung over the already dilapidated yard.

The older youth, with tears in his eyes, picked up the thirteen rice seeds that his father had dug up from the ground and said to the younger face:
"Chongba, these rice seeds...you can make some porridge with them. You can herd cattle for the rich man Liu, maybe you can still make a living."

After he said that, he placed the grains of millet in Zhu Yuanzhang's hands and supported his unconscious father into the leaky thatched house.

Without rice seeds, even the landlord would not advance them food, and the fate of this family was already sealed. Zhu Chongba opened his hand and looked at the 13 seeds left in his palm, his eyes full of despair for the future.

On the sixth day of April, Zhu Yuanzhang's father starved to death, on the ninth day, his eldest brother starved to death, on the twelfth day, his eldest son starved to death, and on the twenty-second day, his mother also starved to death.

Apart from his married elder sister and his third brother who married into the family, he only has his second brother to depend on.

The ancients believed in burying the dead in peace.

The two wrapped their parents' bodies in sleeping mats and tried to find a piece of land to bury them, but they were sad to find that no land belonged to them.

Zhu Chongba found the landlord Liu Xiaode, his employer who had been herding cattle for twelve years.

Landlord Liu Xiaode unceremoniously drove the two brothers out.

"Get lost! You unlucky thing! What does your parents' death have to do with me? You're ruining my good land. I didn't fail to feed you when you worked for me! And you want to use my land to bury these two unlucky things? Pah!"

The two brothers were driven out with red eyes, pulling the straw mats in frustration.

However, the landlord Liu Jizu sighed and said:

"You two, I have a piece of land that I don't need, I'll give it to you to bury."

Zhu Chongba gritted his teeth with a look of grief and indignation and said:
"We don't need it!"

Zhu Chongliu, who was standing by, looked at him in astonishment and said anxiously:
"Zhongba?!"

Zhu Chongba shook his head and said painfully:

"Second brother, we don't even have a coffin for burial."

Originally he was planning to sell himself in exchange for a coffin, but who would have thought that the landlord Liu, who had worked for him for more than ten years, looked down on him as a cowherd.

The second brother was silent for a long time after hearing this.
The two brothers silently pulled up the straw mat and walked numbly away.

Liu Jizu curled his lips and ignored the two brothers.
In troubled times, even if there is kindness, there won’t be too much. Giving a piece of land is already the most benevolent thing you can do. You still want a coffin? You’re dreaming!
I don’t know how long I’ve been gone,

The two had arrived at the foot of a deserted mountain.

Zhu Chongba said hoarsely to his second brother beside him:

"Second brother, put some clothes on our parents and bury them here."

Zhu Chongliu opened his mouth and finally nodded.

The two men took off the only tattered clothes they had left, wrapped them around the two elders, and began digging a hole at the foot of the mountain.

It was April now.

Even though they were in the south, the cold wind made the two of them shiver all over.

Because they had no tools, they didn't finish digging the grave to bury their parents until the sun was about to set.
However, at this time,
A surprised voice sounded in the ears of the two people:

"Oh shit! NPCs! Villagers! Finally I met a living one!"

(End of this chapter)