Concubine

Chapter 181 Famine
After taking a bath in the twelfth lunar month of winter, my whole body is refreshed.Yang Qiuchi came to the corridor, looked at a bright moon hanging on the eaves opposite the yard, and thought, if he had martial arts, jumped lightly, jumped on the roof, and sat on the roof to watch the moon, it would be so rewarding. Poetic.

While admiring the moonlight, a gust of cold wind blew by, feeling a little chilly, and as soon as her body warmed up, it turned out that it was the little maid Yuechan who put the cloak on Yang Qiuchi's shoulders.

Yuechan asked: "Master, what are you looking at?"

Yang Qiuchi pointed to the round moon on the eaves: "Your name is Yuechan. Since you are Chang'e on the moon, tell me, what is on the moon?"

"I'm just a little girl, what is Chang'e, young master, don't laugh at me, I don't know what's on the moon."

"Then do you want to know?" Yang Qiuchi took a hot bath and was in a good mood.

Yuechan wondered: "Young Master, do you know what is on the moon?" After a pause, she giggled: "Yuechan knows, the young master must be Wu Gang on the moon, who chops osmanthus trees with an ax every day."

"You are Chang'e, I am Wu Gang, so don't we just happen to be a couple? Hehehe." Yang Qiuchi joked.

"You are the elder, and I am the little maid, how can I be so lucky." Yuechan said with her head lowered, but her heart was sweet.

Yang Qiuchi felt that such a joke was not good, so he coughed and said, "Actually, there is no Chang'e, no Wu Gang, no sweet-scented osmanthus trees, no water, no rivers, no flowers, birds, fish and insects on the moon, and you can't hear what others say. It's a dead world."

Yuechan shuddered: "Really? Young Master, you speak so frighteningly."

"The moon is so beautiful, how can there be no flowers, birds, fish and insects?" A girl's voice came from behind.Yang Qiuchi looked back, it was Bai Sumei.

"Miss Bai, you haven't slept yet?" Yang Qiuchi's heart skipped a beat.

"Not yet." Bai Sumei walked to Yang Qiuchi, looked up at the moon, "Mr. Yang, I heard from the old people that the black shadow on the moon is an osmanthus tree. How could there be no flowers?"

Yang Qiuchi didn't want to talk to them about the story of the spaceship going to the moon, so he smiled immediately: "I'm just talking nonsense to tease Yuechan."

Bai Sumei had obviously just washed up and changed into a clean plain robe. The bright moonlight shone on her thin face, making her look extraordinarily elegant.

Yang Qiuchi didn't dare to look at her again, fearing that he would recall the feeling of giving her artificial respiration again, so he also looked up at the moon and sighed: "The moon is so beautiful and round. The moon on Mid-Autumn Festival is nothing more than this."

"Yeah." Bai Sumei said leisurely, "In the past, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, my father would prepare melons and fruits in the garden. The whole family ate while admiring the moon, thinking about the beauty on the moon, imagining sweet-scented osmanthus trees, Chang'e, and It looks like Wu Gang. By the way, there is also Chang’e’s little white rabbit—I really want to fly to the moon to see Guanghan Palace.”

Yang Qiuchi said: "I'm not as romantic as you. When I was young, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, we stole pumpkins from other people's fields and cooked pumpkin soup in a pot in the yard. A group of children danced and smiled to watch the moon rise."

Bai Sumei pursed her lips and smiled, and said, "Mr. Yang must have been very naughty when he was young."

"Yeah, every time I go to steal pumpkins in the fields during the Mid-Autumn Festival, I take the lead. Once, a melon watcher hit a lump on my forehead, which swelled up to a big size."

Bai Sumei asked curiously: "Why did you steal it? Don't you have money to buy it?"

"This is the custom in our place. When cooking pumpkin soup on the Mid-Autumn Festival, only the pumpkins stolen from the field are delicious. So many ordinary people have to guard the field on that day. However, when there are children who steal, just drive them away. , generally don’t use rough things, I deserved my bad luck, I stole it once and went to the same piece of land to help others steal it a second time, and ended up getting dirt lumps.”

Yuechan giggled when she heard it: "Master, you were so naughty when you were young!"

"What is this? I still have a lot of mischievous things," Yang Qiuchi said happily, shaking out all the embarrassing things of his childhood: "For example, secretly putting four-legged snakes in the chalk box of the teacher's podium, being the class monitor in elementary school, and The female classmates quarreled, and in a fit of anger, they locked the female classmates in the classroom and ran home by themselves, causing the principal to come to the door..."

Speaking of this, Yang Qiuchi felt that Bai Sumei and Yuechan looked at him strangely, and suddenly realized that he was now in the Ming Dynasty, and of course they couldn't understand the modern campus life he was talking about, so he said: "Okay, God It's getting late, go back to sleep. You have to get up early tomorrow to hurry."

Bai Sumei nodded: "Young Master Yang, you have worked hard to take care of us along the way, so you should go to bed earlier."

"En." Yang Qiuchi watched Bai Sumei enter her own room, smiled at him and closed the door before returning to her own room.

Yuechan had already spread the quilt, helped Yang Qiuchi to sleep, put the curtains down, then turned off the lights and went to sleep outside.

Early the next morning, I got up and went on my way.It was still the five of them riding in Yang Qiuchi's luxurious carriage.

Seeing that Song Yun'er was depressed, Yang Qiuchi felt a little strange: "Yun'er, what's wrong with you? Didn't you sleep well?"

"Why do you sleep! Three little mice are chattering about the moon in the corridor, how can you sleep?"

Knowing that she was talking about Bai Sumei and the three of them, Yang Qiuchi looked at each other with a smile, Yang Qiuchi said: "Then why didn't you little mouse come out to look at the moon?"

"I don't have that much poetic charm," Song Yuner said with a bit of sourness.For a moment, Song Yun'er was reminded of her childhood by Yang Qiuchi's past events, and she said, "Brother, you scare people with four-legged snakes, what kind of naughty is that? I was naughty when I was young!"

Yang Qiuchi thought to himself, I can guess the glorious deeds of you tomboy, since you robbed me of money, but he still asked curiously: "Why are you so naughty?"

When it came to the interesting things about her childhood, Song Yuner immediately became interested and began to point fingers.

Bai Sumei listened with gusto, and couldn't help but talk about her own childhood. Mrs. Bai interrupted from time to time to add, chatting and laughing, and the room was full of spring.

If there are words, it will be long, if there are no words, it will be short. After a few days, Yang Qiuchi and his party passed through Anqing Mansion, then left the boundary of the capital and entered Huguang.

After entering Huguang, they found that the number of beggars on both sides of the official road gradually increased, and some dragged their families along, as if they were fleeing famine.Song Yuner asked a random question, and only then did she know that there was a plague of locusts in Huguang last autumn, and the crops were eaten up by locusts. In winter, there was heavy snowfall for days, and the common people could not live on. After the new year, the food accumulated at home would also be eaten. It was almost the end of the day, so I dragged my children and daughters to flee around.

Going forward, you can already see starving people on the road, and those who fled famine to beg for food are all yellow, emaciated and dying.

Yang Qiuchi bought as much dry food as possible to distribute to these victims, but once the distribution was made, other victims came and kowtowed around Yang Qiuchi's carriage and begged. The hungry people followed them pitifully.

This would not work, even if he had gold and silver mountains, he would not be able to rescue so many victims, and instead delay the trip, so Yang Qiuchi had to decide to only save those who were about to starve to death.In this way, stop and go, on this day, they finally came to Wuchang, the capital of Huguang Province.

After entering Wuchang, I realized that the whole city was fleeing famine, and the streets were full of frail and hungry people.Patrolling officers and soldiers galloped past, and occasionally heard news that hungry people were hacked to death in the street by patrol officers and soldiers because they robbed food.

While lamenting the fragility of life, Yang Qiuchi really hoped that God could help these victims.

The prostitutes also appeared, with a grass badge stuck in their messy hair, ragged clothes, shivering in the cold wind.

I used to see in movies that the people in the old society couldn’t survive, selling their children and selling their daughters. Now that he saw the real thing, Yang Qiuchi was very emotional. Thinking about it, the common people sold their children and sold their daughters just to let their children find a rich life. There is no other way for people to survive.

Yang Qiuchi and the others came to the Wuchang post station, which was set up next to the chief envoy's office.

After Yang Qiuchi and the others moved in, according to Master Jin's proposal, Yang Qiuchi prepared two generous gifts and went to visit the Huguang Chief Envoy and the Left and Right Chief Envoys respectively.

Yang Qiuchi solves cases like a god, but he is only famous in Guangde County and Ningguo Mansion. In the Ming Dynasty, communication was underdeveloped and information was blocked, so no one in Huguang knew about him.

The chief envoy is a second-rank high-ranking official from the imperial court, which is equivalent to the current high-ranking official or provincial high-ranking official. Yang Qiuchi, a small seventh-rank county magistrate, would never receive him.However, in view of Yang Qiuchi's two generous gifts, the left and right chief envoys Mr. Qian and Mr. Quan still received him respectively.

It's just that the two chief envoys were very preoccupied, and after exchanging a few pleasantries, they served tea to see off the guests.

Yang Qiuchi was so angry that his nose was crooked, but Master Jin was very happy, and comforted Yang Qiuchi, saying, take your time, with this foundation, the next visit will be much easier. This is how the officialdom is, and it cannot be opened without money. There is no relationship that money can't get through.

Yang Qiuchi has no big ambitions, and he doesn't expect to be a successful official. Of course, he doesn't reject being an official.

Master Jin also arranged for him to meet Mr. Shi, the procurator of Huguang's punishment.Although this procuratorial envoy is one level lower than the chief envoy, he is also a senior official of the third rank.He is in charge of the impeachment of criminal names in a province. At the same time, he is also responsible for correcting official evil, eradicating rape and violence, resolving prison lawsuits, avenging injustice, and clarifying his official governance duties by promoting morality.Yang Qiuchi will inevitably have to deal with in the future.

This punishment is lower than that of Mr. Shi, who is a procurator, and his airs are relatively small. Coupled with the effect of Yang Qiuchi's generous gift, Mr. Shi and Yang Qiuchi chatted for a long time, speaking very politely, and finally served tea see a visitor out.

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(End of this chapter)