Huanxi Farm: Pick up a husband for farming

Chapter 233 The Disturbance of the Refugees
It was only for a short moment to hold hands with Junli, Rong Shui and him restrained themselves, and before leaving, they naturally had to inform the host.

When he was brought to the door of Huang Zhi's study, he found out that he still had guests. The servant was wondering whether he should report it, but Rong Shui took the initiative to resolve his difficulty, and said directly: "Since Mr. Huang still has guests who want to see you, I will I have nothing else to do with Junli, so I don't want to disturb you, please wait for Master Huang to come out and let me know."

But the servant said: "Miss Rong, you can't do this, just now the master just explained, after you came out of the wife's room, I brought you two over to tell him, it seems that I have something to say."

Since this is the case, Rongshui and Junli naturally don't want to insist on leaving. It's just that people in Huangzhi's room can't come in and out at will, and the people outside in the ice and snow can't help shaking after standing for a while. She doesn't care, thinking He just stood there for a while, but... Junli next to him became unhappy.

There is no fear of ordinary people towards their parents and officials, and they are not afraid of being heard by Huang Zhi who is separated by a wall, so he said directly: "Since Master Huang has something to see us, is it possible that he plans to meet in this courtyard where the wind is cold and the road is frozen?" Please excuse our inconvenience.”

Rong Shui tugged on his sleeve, and reminded him with his eyes, this Junli...sometimes he was so flamboyant, although he knew that he was doing it for his own good, but there was already a gap between him and Huang Zhi that couldn't be bridged, Still so provocative!
She was about to tell the boy that they were willing to wait for a while, but the door of Huang Zhi's study room was opened in front, and a bookboy inside came over and said: "I have offended you two, my lord, please come in and wait, there is a burning fire inside." The stove, and tea is prepared for the two of you, we can only wait for the adults to meet with our master."

After listening, Rong Shui nodded respectfully, and dragged Jun Li, who was still a bit arrogant, into Huang Zhi's study.

This study is also partitioned. Facing the door are two couches side by side. The layout is elegant. Huang Zhi's own pen and ink are hung on the wall. Tea is served on the small table as the boy said. I didn't see Huang Zhi.

Knowing that he was meeting guests in the back room, Rong Shui deliberately lightened his footsteps and sat down with Jun Li.

The two drank tea quietly and waited quietly, but Rong Shui soon discovered that the room was not soundproof at all.

Behind the wall came the conversation between Huang Zhi and his master. Although the voice was not very clear, it was still enough for Shui and Junli to distinguish what they said in the quiet room.

I heard the master's voice preaching: "Master Huang...you should really think more about opening the city gate now! The people in the city complained, saying that the streets and alleys were full of refugees from the north who came to spend the winter, and they all occupied the city. In every corner of the city, crimes of petty theft were wantonly committed on the streets, just yesterday, a dozen of them were sent to the county government office, seriously affecting everyone's life!"

Huang Zhi said: "What do those ordinary people know! If the city gates are closed and the traffic is strictly enforced, small merchants and hawkers from all over the place will not be able to enter, so what should we do if the economy and taxation cannot be improved? In the winter, the trade itself It is depression, and the imperial court is only interested in the road that Jiangcheng has connected to the two prefectures of Suzhou and Hangzhou this year. The income has increased several times, and the monthly increase in taxes is overwhelming. Seeing that the economic exchanges in winter are declining, they still continue to rise. Closing the city gate will not collect the transaction tax from the merchants! Go and pay the tax to the imperial court for me!"

The master was helpless after being taught such a lesson, and said: "My lord, what do you think should be done? The door is closed, there is no economic contact with merchants, and if the door is not closed, the refugees are all idle. Now start to do something secretly. Small actions, big crimes will be committed sooner or later, and it will be a troublesome thing to affect the law and order of Jiangcheng."

In this way, the pros and cons cannot be weighed, and it is still a difficult problem whether to close the city gate. If it was a few years ago, the county magistrate of Jiangcheng would not have to worry about this matter at all.

In the past, the small county was a barren land, not as well-connected as it is now, and the economic exchanges were meager. The imperial court knew it, and it was not that they did not raise various taxes, but if you increase it, it is the increase. Even if he confiscated all his family assets, he still couldn't get it back. After the imperial court angered several officials and punished several officials, it was still the same. After all the county officials tried their best to embezzle people's livelihood, they still couldn't reach that amount. The imperial court was finally dead. Heart, simply do not care.

As for the refugees, I have never seen them before. Most of the displaced civilians escaped from poor and cold places to seek refuge, or went to the rich and prosperous Jiangnan to seek a living. It would be fine if the people here didn’t escape and become refugees. Can you still come to refugees for refuge?
In recent years, Jiangcheng has been doing very well, and it has spread throughout the territory of Dayan. In addition, other big cities have gradually begun to be strictly guarded, preventing many homeless refugees from entering the city, so the refugees from the north naturally choose This is a nice piece of land in Jiangcheng.

Huang Zhi didn't know how long he thought about it, but he decided in his heart that he couldn't close the city gate. It might seem like nothing at this time to lose the popular support that he didn't have in Jiangcheng. If he couldn't pay taxes in the first year of this year, he would lose the court. The trust in him made the emperor and the upper-ranking officials disappointed in him, which affected his future career, so I really regret it! ...And he still has an unspeakable soft-heartedness towards refugees...

So after thinking about it, Huang Zhi said to the master: "You can't close the city gate, and you can't strictly check the people entering and leaving!"

The master is helpless, Huang Zhi's tone is so firm, it is almost unconvincing... But it is also understandable, Mr. Huang took office for the first year, the court waited to see what he did, if at this time he could not even collect taxes, then there would be What future is there?It's just that the residents of Jiangcheng...worry all day long that these refugees will commit crimes.

When Rong Shui heard this, he was a little puzzled. Isn't it easy to distinguish between refugees and businessmen?
Businessmen don't talk about brocade clothes, at least they don't look like the shabby clothes of refugees, right?Let the guards guarding the city gate identify them a little bit, isn't stopping the ragged people basically preventing the refugees from entering?Why bother?
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but want to discuss in a low voice with Jun Li beside him.

So he lowered his voice to the lowest level, leaned close to Junli's ear, and said, "Junli...you said why didn't Mr. Huang send more people to identify the refugees and businessmen? Then all the problems will be solved?"

Just as she finished speaking, she heard footsteps, Huang Zhi and Master had already come out together, even though Rong Shui's voice was so quiet, her whispering could be heard in the quiet room.

Huang Zhi only knew that Rong girl's mind was really simple, so he answered her for Junli: "Rong girl, how can the reality be as simple as you think? If so, we still need to worry like this!"

Huang Zhi said half of what he said and left half of what he said, which completely aroused Rong Shui's interest.

Jun Li explained to her: "Shui'er, you don't know something. These refugees who escaped from the poor and evil places in the north were not poor at the beginning. At least they can be self-sufficient before winter, with enough food and clothing. After winter, there is nowhere to make a living in the ice and snow. When you are down and out, your family will be homeless. The clothes you wear are still the same as ordinary people. Moreover, these northern homeless people have been homeless every year. They have learned to be treacherous! I know that some counties will stop them. I deliberately tidied it up so that it doesn’t look unkempt, and I learned a few local accents, so ordinary people really can’t tell the difference!”

The master also nodded approvingly, and said: "It's true, this young master's analysis is very correct! If there is more investigation, it will not be unrecognizable, but... the delay is too long, one or two are fine, if the sudden A large number of refugees and merchants poured in from time to time and mixed together. It is impossible to distinguish, and the possibility of making mistakes is not ruled out. If the normal people in and out of the city are accidentally excluded, it will also attract a lot of protests. of."

Rong Shui didn't expect that there would be such a reason. It seems that the matter is indeed difficult, but it must be too much trouble for these northern refugees, right?
Every year when the heavy snow is approaching, they flee to the affluent places in the south, or wander and beg for a living, or commit crimes to seek wealth and kill, committing many crimes!When the spring warmed up, he returned to his hometown again, picked up a hoe, and plowed the fields for a living. In winter, he fell into such a vicious circle...

So and so...why not save food, clothing, and charcoal for the winter before the twelfth lunar month comes, so that we can spend the entire severe winter safely in our hometown?
Rong Shui sighed: "It's so far away from home... this group of refugees don't think it's hard? It's snowing on the streets in the south? Why are they... why are they swarming here?"

This question made the master silent, and usually he only said that it was refugees who disturbed others, but for some reason these people always flocked to Jiangnan every year.

However, his ignorant silence did not mean that Jun Li and Huang Zhi who were present did not understand the reason.

When Jun Li stayed in the frontier barracks, he had heard about the horrors of that extremely cold place, so he said to Rong Shui: "We are all born in the south of the Yangtze River, and you, Master and Rong Shui, don't know the people living in the north of the border. The severe cold faced by the residents is said to be heavy snow for hundreds of kilometers in winter, and it is not surprising that dripping water turns into ice at the coldest time! You can’t even stockpile food and charcoal for a whole winter to make a living, and local officials have done nothing to increase the price of charcoal in collaboration with profiteers, how can ordinary people get enough money to buy enough for a season?”

As soon as these situations were mentioned, Rongshui felt the hardships of the refugees in the north, so he stopped saying such ignorant words.

At this time, Huang Zhi also followed Jun Li's words and said, "So it's not that those people are willing to come out, but if they don't escape before the heavy snow falls, how many people will be trapped to death in the cold. They are corpses frozen to death, beyond the reach of the imperial court, and they are all poor people who have no ability to pay taxes, no one cares about them, the people really are in dire straits!"

After Huang Zhi finished speaking, Rong Shui remembered that he was also a quartermaster in the frontier before, and he probably had a general understanding of those situations...

So Huang Zhi did not allow the city gate to be closed, is it because he has seen the misery of the refugees?

(End of this chapter)