Smuggling Daming

The Little Ice Age, as the name suggests, is a relatively cold period, but it is warmer than the real ice age, so it is called the Little Ice Age. Generally speaking, the Little Ice Age mainly refers to the period from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century in history. During this relatively cold period, unfortunately, the Zhengde period in which Zhou Zhong lived happened to be in the Little Ice Age.

In fact, Zhou Zhong had already felt the power of the Little Ice Age when he crossed over. In later generations, he lived in Shanghai and knew the local climate very well. Generally, it seldom freezes in winter, and the next snow is even more likely to be on the news. up.But in the land of the Ming Dynasty, the winter is extremely cold. People can walk on the ice of the pond at will, and it is not easy to break it even with a sledgehammer. If you sleep at night without two layers of quilts , You will be woken up by freezing in the middle of the night, and snow is even more common.

Although the Little Ice Age did not reach its peak until the [-]th century, the Ming Dynasty was already greatly affected. Disasters broke out frequently in the country, and grain production decreased significantly. Especially in the northern regions with relatively high latitudes, the climate was extremely abnormal. , The decrease in precipitation leads to drought and reduced food production, coupled with the severe cold weather in winter, so that countless people leave their homes every year and embark on the road to flee the famine in order to find a way to survive.

In the fourth year of Zhengde, southeast Shandong was close to Andongwei. From the beginning of the year to the end of autumn, there was almost no rain, rivers and wells dried up, and the crops in the fields were not harvested. It's all difficult.In addition, this year's winter came very early. As soon as September, the north was already frozen for thousands of miles. The mouthed ones fled to the south from the famine.

Administratively, Songjiang Mansion belongs to Nanzhili and is adjacent to Shandong. Therefore, these victims traveled all the way south and soon entered the territory of Nanzhili.Although Songjiang Mansion is a small place, it is a famous land of fish and rice, and the world-famous Songjiang Cloth makes the people here more prosperous. In addition, Songjiang is located in the south of Andongwei, so at least half of the victims They all flocked to Songjiang Mansion.

"Young master, these refugees who fled have no choice. Even the bark of the trees in their hometown has been gnawed clean. They even heard that people cannibalize people. In order to make a way out for themselves and their families, they left on one pair of legs. It took three months to come here with great difficulty, but the government was also afraid that these victims would cause trouble if they came in, so they closed the city gate immediately after finding out that the victims had entered the city. Now most of the victims are kept out of the city. The family just now The three of you are lucky to be able to advance to the city before the city gate is closed, and find a sheltered place to rest tonight, so you won't be frozen to death!" Steward Xu explained the situation of the victims just now to Zhou Zhong with a sigh.

Zhou Zhong felt sad after hearing this. From later literature and movies, he also saw a lot of situations about fleeing from famine, and he knew the tragedy of the victims. Whenever a famine happened, these victims fled their hometowns with their families. Then they embarked on an unknown journey. A considerable number of people died on the road, and many people sold their sons and daughters, and even sold themselves as slaves.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong could only sigh secretly in his heart. If the Zhou family did not fail, they could organize food to help the victims outside the city. Although it is impossible for all the victims to have enough food, it can also make many A morsel of life-saving food for the victims of the disaster may allow many victims to survive, but unfortunately, their own family is still struggling to maintain it, and it is really of no help. Now we can only see how the government will treat these victims?

Pushing the car back home, and with the help of Wu Shan, he unloaded the briquettes into the new kitchen of the inner house. Because of the disaster victims on the way, Zhou Zhong was in a heavy mood, and he seemed a little absent-minded when eating.

"Brother, what's the matter with you, is there something on your mind?" Bracelet'er was the most delicate minded, and soon noticed Zhou Zhong's strangeness, and couldn't help asking with concern.

"Miss doesn't know something. On the way back just now, we met refugees fleeing from Shandong. The young master was sympathetic to others. Seeing them shivering in the cold wind, I couldn't bear it, so I couldn't bear it!" Zhou Zhong didn't wait for an answer. , the butler Xu next to him rushed to put gold on Zhou Zhong's face.

Steward Xu said that Zhou Zhong’s compassion for the sky and the people is a bit too much. All kinds of experiences in his previous life have made Zhou Zhong suffer from human feelings, and he has long learned to treat everything around him with reason. Although Zhou Zhong sympathizes with those victims, he also knows that he is now His strength is still too weak to help at all, let alone feel sad because of his inability to help, but he just thinks about some things in the future.

Zhou Zhong also knew something about the Little Ice Age. From the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, it has been affected by the Little Ice Age. Not only are domestic disasters frequent, but the climate in the northern grassland is extremely cold. The people of the grassland are forced to survive and often go south. The looting caused continuous border troubles in the north of Ming Dynasty and consumed a lot of national power.

Coupled with the mistakes of domestic policies, a large amount of tax revenue was lost, corrupt officials were rampant, and finally died in the hands of braid Zizhen. The dignified China has been ruled by foreign races for more than 200 years, and the national civilization of thousands of years has undergone great retrogression. Later, it was bombarded by Western countries with opium and cannons, and the land of Huaxia once again fell into new darkness.

Thinking of those tragic histories of later generations, Zhou Zhong rationally told him that he was just a small person, and he was powerless to change these histories of later generations, but for some reason, Zhou Zhong always felt a little uncomfortable in his heart, as if there was a faint voice in his heart telling him Since I can travel here, maybe I should do something for the people of future generations?But as for how to do it?Where should we start?But Zhou Zhong didn't have the slightest idea. He was troubled by these problems when he was eating just now.

"Why, are there any victims outside the city again?" Aunt Wang asked eagerly when she heard Steward Xu's words.

Seeing that Aunt Wang was so concerned, Steward Xu recalled some past events, and said with a wry smile: "Aunt Wang, I know you are a bodhisattva, but you have also seen the situation at home. We are really sorry for the victims outside the city. There is nothing you can do!"

Aunt Wang is a believer in Buddhism. She often says, "Saving a life is better than building a seven-level pagoda." If disaster victims come, the Zhou family will set up a porridge shed outside the city to help the victims. Usually, Aunt Wang is responsible for it personally. That's why she is so concerned now when she hears that there are disaster victims coming from outside the city.

Aunt Wang was only out of kindness for a while, and soon thought of the situation at home, and she sighed and said: "Oh, it's so cold, I don't know how many victims outside will be frozen to death, I just hope the government can help Show kindness and distribute some food and clothes to the victims so that they can survive this winter!"

"Mother, don't worry, Mr. Xu, the magistrate, is honest and honest. He is a rare good official. Every time there is a famine in these years, he will organize the big households in the city to provide relief. I believe he will not sit idly by this time. The disaster victims will be properly resettled soon!" Biao'er understood her mother's temperament best, so she comforted her immediately.

When Zhou Zhong heard that Xu Shenzhong's father was mentioned in Zhuan'er's words, he couldn't help but think of the evaluation of the magistrate from the top and bottom of the Songjiang Mansion.

Speaking of the low salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty, it can almost be said that there will be no one before or after, and these salaries were fixed at the time of Zhu Yuanzhang. However, if all officials lived only on their salaries, many people would starve to death.

For example, Hai Rui, a model and upright official decades later, took nothing but his own salary, and it became news that he cut two catties of meat for his wife's birthday, and even his superiors were amazed.

However, people like Hai Rui are in the minority after all. Most of the officials in the Ming Dynasty were mortals. I went astray.Perhaps at the beginning, these people just wanted to take advantage of their positions to make some money to improve their lives, but corruption is similar to drug use. Once people's greed is opened, no matter how much money they have, they can't satisfy it.

It is precisely because of the above situation, coupled with the lack of a regulatory system, that the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty was rampant, and the means of officials to collect money emerged in an endless stream, such as fire consumption and kicking dendrobium. It is a custom in the officialdom, and there are various filial piety during the New Year and festivals.Even in the end, if the newly appointed official does not receive the money, he may not be able to secure his position at all, because no matter whether it is his colleagues, subordinates or superiors, he will not tolerate a strange person around him.

Once the atmosphere in the officialdom is established, it is difficult to change it. The increase in these gray incomes has made many officials open to accepting bribes, which has also opened the door for bribery.It can even be said that there was almost no one in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty who was not greedy, the difference was only a matter of more greed and less greed.Moreover, the climate of corruption in the Ming Dynasty had a far-reaching influence, and the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China and even further afield also inherited this culture in official circles.

Xu Shenzhong's father's name is Xu Guan, and he can be regarded as a relatively good official. He is relatively self-disciplined. He also takes those gray incomes in the officialdom, but he will not take the initiative to lend his hand.Moreover, he is quite capable. During the past few years when he was in power, he has done a lot of practical things for the Songjiang Mansion. Therefore, the prefect Xu has a good reputation in Songjiang. This is one of the reasons why Zhou Zhong is willing to make friends with Xu Shenzhong today. one.It's just that now that the victims are besieging the city, I don't know how the prefect Xu will deal with it?

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