A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 4

A quadrangle courtyard with two entrances, the screen wall of the gatehouse with brick and tile structure represents the glory of the past, but now the house is tilted and the mud wall is falling off, which shows the decay of the gate.

This is Wang Dou's home, the place where he grew up. After Wang Dou came, he also came back several times.

The door was ajar, and the faint sound of rooster crowing came. Wang Dou pushed the door and went in. In the main courtyard, a girl was feeding there. She wore a coarse cloth dress and was thin and thin. You could see some obvious patches on the clothes. A flock of chickens and ducks were feeding. Shout around her.

Hearing the movement, the girl turned around. She had a small and weak face, a little pale. Seeing that it was Wang Dou, a joyful expression appeared on her face: "Brother is back?"

Wang Dou nodded and walked over. The girl came over and took Wang Dou's military cap, spear, bow and arrow, put them away carefully, and asked him softly if he was tired.

Wang Dou responded a few times, saw some wheat planting tools next to a wooden chair, and asked, "Xiu Niang, have you picked all the wheat seeds?"

The girl said: "Everything will be healed today."

This girl is Xie Xiuniang, the child daughter-in-law of Wang Dou's family. She is 17 years old. She was sent by a family surnamed Xie in Sunjiagou, Xishan, when Wang Dou was ten years old. , I also hope she can live a good life.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the atmosphere was extravagant. Not only the rich and the rich were extravagant, but ordinary common people also compared each other to show off. This was reflected in the marriage of children.Child brides-in-law did not need to pay expensive marriage gifts for the man, and the woman’s family did not need to accompany the dowry. Both parties could greatly reduce expenses. Therefore, child brides-in-law was very popular in Ming Dynasty at that time. Even wealthy families gave their daughters to others as child brides-in-law, and even in many places The exchange of daughters was also prevalent.

Xie Xiuniang has been in the Wang family for 12 years, but although she and Wang Dou have reached the age of marriage, it is a pity that the Wang family does not even have the money to officially marry, so the marriage has been delayed again and again.Although child brides-in-law do not need dowry gifts when they get married, and the wedding ceremony can be simplified, the money for getting married is still a lot of money.

The queen mother is also a strong person. She doesn't want to be gossiped when the only male in her family gets married, so she has been working hard to save money, hoping to hold a decent wedding for her son in the future. Her plan is to give her son a wedding next year or the year after get married.

For Xie Xiuniang, Wang Dou felt a little complicated. In the past, Wang Dou treated Xie Xiuniang just like him. Although he was considered a fool and a coward outside, he was very airy in front of Xie Xiuniang, and beatings and scolding were common.

Now that Wang Dou has come, Xie Xiuniang can feel the unintentional care and love for women from later generations. She can't describe this new feeling in words, but she is very happy and looks forward to Wang Dou's return.But she found that Wang Dou was silent a lot every time he came back, she didn't know how to deal with it, and no one taught her this knowledge, she just served cautiously.

For this woman, Wang Dou felt a little pity and helplessness in his heart. There was no common language, no emotional basis, and the two of them wanted to live together for a lifetime?Forget it, let's not talk about this, maybe this is my destiny in this world, it's too extravagant to talk about it.

The two talked for a few words, and then they had nothing to say. Xie Xiuniang noticed Wang Dou's silence, so she obediently stood aside and did not speak.

Wang Dou softly said: "Xiu Niang, if you are tired, take a rest, what about your mother?"

Xie Xiuniang showed a smile on her face: "I'm not tired, I still need to tidy up some farm tools, my mother is inside."

……

When Wang Dou walked into the back room, his mother, Zhong, was weaving with a simple loom, and that kind of monotonous movement was repeated countless times a day.She works non-stop every day, sometimes at night when the rooster crows, and then she takes a break to weave cloth for some money and rice. Her skills are very good, and the cloth she weaves is often very popular.

Zhong's age is less than 50 years old now, but his hair is all gray, and the wrinkles on his face are getting deeper and deeper, but his hair is still combed meticulously, and although the clothes on his body are worn out, they are washed very clean.

Wang Dou heard that his mother was married from Weizhou, and he had a falling out with his family because of this marriage. This was a shocking event in Ming Dynasty at that time, and there was a lot of uproar for a while.When Zhong married, she was known as Fourth Sister Zhong, and of course she was promoted to Fourth Aunt Zhong now. She had several sons and daughters with Wang Dou's father, Wang Wei, but died one after another, leaving only Wang Dou, the only son.

When Wang Dou was two years old, his father Wang Wei was seriously ill. In order to treat the illness, all the fields in the family were pawned and sold, even the cattle.After Wang Wei passed away, when he was 16 years old, his grandfather passed away again, and the family life became more and more difficult, which was all managed by the Zhong family.Her character was chaste and fierce. After Wang Wei passed away, someone once attacked her with frivolous words. She insisted on chasing that person for several blocks with a kitchen knife until he knelt down and begged for mercy.This incident caused a sensation in the village, and no one dared to think of her again, and the government also greatly praised her behavior.

At present, Mrs. Zhong has been keeping the chastity for her husband for almost 20 years, and some officials are discussing whether to honor the chastity archway for Mrs. Zhong.For this matter, Jiang An, the village head, is also very concerned, after all, this is the glory of Sangqianli.

Perhaps Zhong Shi was too focused, when Wang Dou walked into the room, Zhong Shi hadn't noticed Wang Dou coming in.

The light in the room was not very good, Wang Dou could vaguely see the strong outline of his mother's face, and he called out: "Mother."

Zhong turned her head and saw that it was Wang Dou, with a joyful smile on her face: "Dou'er is back?"

She stood up and looked at Wang Dou carefully: "You're skinny again. Is it hard work in Dunnei?"

Wang Dou smiled and said, "It's not hard work, it's just a little boring."

Zhong said with a smile: "This is how you eat official meals."

For the Zhong family, the previous Wang Dou was fearful and dependent, but the current Wang Dou is respectful in his heart.He said a few words with his mother, and Zhong also felt that his son seemed to have become more sensible recently, and he also appeared calm, which made her happy.But the words are getting less and less, sometimes looking at you quietly, even she, the mother, doesn't know what her son is thinking, maybe it's because things are not going well in Jingbiandun.

She looked at the sky and said, "It's getting late, it's time to make dinner."

She smiled and said to Wang Dou: "Mother cooks herself and cooks some delicious food for you."

Wang Dou smiled and said, "Thank you mother."

Zhong glared at Wang Dou: "This kid is getting stranger and stranger."

……

Mrs. Zhong was busy on the stove, a ball of white flour kept changing shape in her hands, Xie Xiuniang was helping.Wang Dou changed into rough clothes and sat on the sidelines watching.

Zhong's skills are very good, her movements are smooth and flowing, and she looks pleasing to the eye. Since she was a child, Wang Dou's favorite thing is to eat the noodles she rolled out.However, white flour is precious, and farmers are not willing to eat it casually. Most of them exchange wheat for some coarse grains to eat. Those white flour steamed buns and white noodle noodles can only be eaten with an open stomach during the New Year's festival.

The current season is not good, and it would be nice for ordinary people to eat black-faced steamed bun scones. Many Xinzhuang people now eat bran mixed with wild vegetables, or even grass roots and bark.

Later generations advocate eating white flour and bran together, thinking that it is more healthy and healthy. White flour steamed buns every day actually lose all the nutrition, but in this era, being able to eat white flour every day is a symbol of status.

While working, Mrs. Zhong talked with Wang Dou about family affairs. Apart from the farm work in the fields, there were also some things about taxation for autumn grain.Maybe it was because she thought her son was sensible enough to share his worries, so she inevitably talked a little more.

The summer tax has already been paid, and the collection of autumn grain will soon start again. However, last month the Tartars came to plunder, and the security areas suffered greatly. Many places are empty. I hope the government can reduce the collection of autumn grain, otherwise it will be next year I really don't know what to do.

The land tax in the Ming Dynasty is collected in summer and autumn, which are called summer tax and autumn grain.It is stipulated that the summer tax should not exceed August, and the main thing is wheat, and the autumn grain should not exceed February next year, and the main thing is rice.After the "one whip method", most of the summer tax and autumn grain were levied in silver.

The Wang family now only has [-] mu of land left. Since it is not close to the river and the drought continues, the current wheat production is less than [-] shi per mu, and the annual income is about [-] shi.From the Liao payment in the Wanli year to the current Chongzhen seven years, the Ming Dynasty has increased land tax several times, but the actual tax is not much, and it is frightening that there are countless additional subsidies from the local government.There are also local officials and gentry who transfer the money and taxes they should pay to the small people. The burden on small farmers like the Wang family is getting heavier and heavier.

Because of the silver levy, they had to exchange wheat and rice for silver, and had to endure another exploitation by the merchants. After paying the tax, more than half of the income had been lost, not including the expenses of seeds, farm tools, and debt interest.The rest is the food of the family. Assuming that a family of three eats one liter and five a day, the surplus food is only sufficient for a few months. In this way, there will be a gap of several months in the grain production period of the second year. This is the so-called shortage.

Usually, in good years, the Wang family can still support themselves, or make up for it with the income from weaving and raising silkworms, but in this kind of famine year, things will be difficult.If the family has no savings, or can't get through this blank period after trying their best, most families can only borrow usury besides selling their wives and selling their children.

However, borrowing usury is tantamount to drinking doves to quench your thirst. Like the business schemes in various places in Baoan Prefecture, the usury in this territory is also controlled by those officials. One loan shark, and the end result is further poverty and total bankruptcy.

Just like the Li family in Xinzhuang, which is a well-known loan-lending family in Baoan Prefecture, Wang Dou is sure that if his family borrows a usury loan from the Li family once, after a few years, not to mention the remaining acres of his family will disappear, the ancestral house in front of him will be able to survive. Not being able to keep it is a problem.

Zhong came together one by one, although his words were relaxed, he believed that the Wang family could overcome all kinds of difficulties. They have come like this for these years, but Wang Dou can feel the heaviness and hardship inside.

His heart is heavy, survival, this is a serious problem.

(End of this chapter)