Smuggling Daming

The winter of the seventh year of Zhengde left a deep impression on many people, especially in the vast areas south of the Qinling Mountains and Huaihe River. The winter there is not very cold, and snow is even rarer. It was extremely cold, and snow fell in most parts of the south, and even Hainan Island, which is known as summer all the year round, also had a lot of snow.

In this winter with abnormal weather, the northern part of Daming is better. After all, they are used to the cold weather in winter, and they are well prepared before winter, but the southern region did not expect this winter to be so cold. The building structure is also not suitable for winter, so many people's houses were overwhelmed by snow, and many people were frostbitten. Occasionally, it was reported that the frail or old people were frozen to death.

Regarding the disaster situation this winter, Zhou Zhong only learned about it from the mansion newspaper, but did not see it with his own eyes. But now his carriage is walking on the road, looking at the villages on both sides of the road that are almost covered by ice and snow, and when passing by towns occasionally, The streets are also deserted, and most of the people I see have frostbite, and even the price of food has increased by several percent compared to usual. From this we can see the impact of this year's severe cold on the south of Daming.

"Wenda, this cold disaster is worse than we expected. Look at the road under our feet. The local county magistrate led the people to dig it out. Otherwise, the heavy snow just before Seal the entire county!" Li Zheng lifted the cotton curtain on the car window and sighed as he looked at the scenery outside.

"Indeed, the county magistrate here is pretty good. He knows how to organize the people to save themselves. When we see the prefect Xu in the future, we must ask for credit for him!" Zhou Zhong also nodded at this time.

When Li Zheng visited Zhou Zhong, he told him that Zhang Kuang and Zheng Jing wanted to become officials, which surprised Zhou Zhong. After Li Zheng explained the reasons why Zheng Jing and Zhang Kuang wanted to become officials, he finally fell silent. .Although it was not difficult to arrange for two people to serve as officials under his rule, Zhou Zhong felt that he needed to meet Zheng Jing and Zhang Kuang in person.

Originally, Shuangyu Port was frozen, ships could not move at all, people in the port were trapped on the island, and Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng couldn't get out for a while.However, Shuangyu Port is originally a strait. Not only was it unexpectedly frozen this year, but it was also very frozen. Even both sides of the strait can walk on ice. This finally solved the traffic problem, so Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng traveled together. .Stepping on the ice surface to Ningbo Mansion all the way to the north, today I finally entered the boundary of Songjiang Mansion.

Songjiang Mansion is located by the sea, and the climate is warmer than inland, but now even the sea is frozen, so it is actually not that warm here, but because the water vapor is too heavy.So there was a heavy snow some time ago, which was waist deep.Almost all the roads were blocked. Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng went around several times before finding the way to Songjiang City.

Along the way, Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng watched while walking, and found that compared with Ningbo and other prefectures in the south, Songjiang prefecture was more severely affected by disasters because it was further north, such as some villages they passed by before.Some farmers' houses were crushed by the heavy snow, so Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng stopped the car to ask about it.It turned out that there were still some casualties, which were much more serious than several southern state capitals.

After passing through several counties on the outskirts of Songjiang Mansion, Zhou Zhong's carriage finally arrived at the foot of the mansion. When he saw this familiar Songjiang City, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but sigh with emotion. Since he got married here, he rarely came here again. It's here, and I haven't been here for more than a year recently, so when I see Songjiang Mansion now, I can't help feeling very emotional.

Zhou Zhong was visiting friends this time, so he didn't bring his guard of honor, and he didn't intend to make it too public. Therefore, apart from a carriage, he only brought Wu Shan and a dozen other guards this time. He followed behind on horseback, but even so, when the city gate officer saw the momentum of Zhou Zhong and his group, he immediately nodded and bowed to invite them to enter the city, not daring to delay at all.

Zhou Zhong and the others spent a lot of time on the road. It was already dusk when they entered the city. People simply went to Li Zheng's house to rest first. As for Zhou Zhong's house, there were people taking care of him, but if he didn't live there for a long time, the mansion would lose popularity, so it was better to go to General Li's government for a few days.

It was common for Zhou Zhong to wake up after sleeping until the sun was up. He put on his clothes and found Li Zheng. The two of them didn't have breakfast at all, but went out to the North Street of Songjiang City, which is the busiest area in Songjiang Mansion. , every morning there are countless stalls set up, all kinds of local food are available, Zhou ordered a rice dumpling, that is, glutinous rice wrapped in fried dough sticks, plus a bowl of salty tofu nao, it is very sweet to eat with small pickles, although The food at Shuangyu Port is similar to that at Songjiang, but Zhou Zhong still thinks the food here is the most delicious.

After breakfast in the street, Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng came to visit Zheng Jing's home with a few gifts they had chosen in Shuangyu Port. The same, so they were immediately invited into the living room, and then rushed to the backyard to invite Zheng Jing.

But after a while, I saw Zheng Jing hurriedly came to the living room, saw Zhou Zhong and Li Zhengshi sitting in the living room, and said very enthusiastically: "Wen Da, Shrike, aren't you all in Shuangyu Port?" , Now that the road is blocked by heavy snow, when will you return to Songjiang?"

"Haha, Ming Lun didn't know. We were originally trapped in Shuangyu Port, but this year it was so cold that the sea was frozen, so we landed on the ice. It's just the distance between Ningbo and Songjiang. There is ice and snow everywhere along the way, and it took a lot of effort to come here, and I just returned to Songjiang yesterday!" Zhou Zhong also stood up and smiled at this time.

"Yes, we have suffered a lot on this journey, and we have not seen a few people lose their homes and relatives due to the cold disaster. The rest of the people can only live in other people's homes. It is extremely pitiful!" Li Zheng also said at this time. Open your mouth and say.

"Hey, I have also met those affected people outside the city. They are indeed pitiful, but compared to the refugees I met before, their situation is much better. After all, they can still have a warm place to live, and they can live in peace every day. If you have hot meals, you just need to get through this winter!" Zheng Jing also sighed.

After that, the three of them chatted for a while, and then Li Zheng proposed to visit Zhang Kuang together. After all, it was rare for Zhou Zhong to come here once, and the four of them hadn't been together for a long time.Zheng Jing also agreed with this very much, so the three of them came to Zhang Kuang's house together again, but unfortunately, the servants of Zhang's mansion told them that their young master was not in the mansion, but went to the city a few days ago. Zhangjiazhuangzi outside, where all the tenants of the Zhang family lived, heard that there was also a disaster, so Zhang Kuang went to Zhangjiazhuangzi to deal with it.

Speaking of which, Zhang Kuang's family background is also very good. What is completely different from Li Zheng's family is that the Zhang family does not have much business property, but it is one of the famous big landlords in Songjiang Prefecture. Not only does it have property outside Songjiang City, At the same time, several nearby counties also have a lot of land, and there are tens of thousands of tenants hired alone. For example, in Zhangjiazhuangzi outside the city, the whole village is tenants who cultivate land for the Zhang family.

Hearing that Zhang Kuang was outside the city, Zhou Zhong discussed with Zheng Jing and Li Zheng, and finally decided to find Zhang Kuang outside the city. It was an elegant thing for Bai Xue to find friends outside the city. In addition, they also wanted to learn more about the disaster situation outside Songjiang City.

As soon as they said it, Zhou Zhong and Zheng Jing boarded the carriage again and drove to Zhangjiazhuang outside the city. Although the driver did not know the way, the Zhang family sent a servant to lead the way, so there was no need to ask others. Soon they came to the vicinity of Zhangjiazhuangzi, but when it was nearly ten miles away from Zhuangzi, the carriage stopped, because the road ahead was all covered with heavy snow, although a small road was cleared, but it was too narrow, the carriage Can't get in at all.

In desperation, Zhou Zhong had no choice but to let the coachman wait here. The three of them, together with Wu Shan and a few other guards, led the servants of the Zhang family to walk along the path. Fortunately, the weather was very cold, so it was frozen hard. If the snow melts in spring, the whole road may be muddy and impassable.

After sweating profusely, Zhou Zhong and his party managed to come to Zhangjiazhuangzi with great difficulty. Zhang Kuang's family built a courtyard here. When the city was too hot in summer, the Zhang family would bring their family members to the courtyard. Zhang Kuang lives here now to avoid the summer heat.It's just that Zhou Zhong and the others were in vain again, because according to the servants of the other courtyard, Zhang Kuang went to the village to visit several tenants who were affected by the disaster, but he has not returned yet.

Although Zhou Zhong and the others felt a little tired, they did not go to the other courtyard to rest. The three of them immediately followed the Zhang family servants from the other courtyard into the Zhuangzi to look for Zhang Kuang. They are all tenants of the Zhang family, but the houses are fairly tidy, unlike those seen in later generations of film and television films, all the tenants are not full enough to eat and not warm, at least the houses of these tenants he saw now can cover Despite the wind and rain, the few children I saw occasionally wore patched clothes, but their complexions were rosy, and they didn't look like they were often hungry.

But Zhou Zhong also knew that he saw only a few of these tenants. After all, Songjiang Mansion was originally rich, and Zhang Kuang’s family was also an heir of poetry and books, so the tenants were treated preferentially, so the tenants could have a few mouthfuls of food, but if For other main families, if the land is relatively barren, those tenants will really not have enough to eat for many years, otherwise Daming would not have so many rebellions. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)