The worst time travel, surviving seven years of famine

The crowd at the street corner was so crowded that Gu Liang couldn't even squeeze in. Gu Boxi grabbed a middle-aged man who looked like he was about to leave after hearing what happened and asked him what was going on.

A closer look revealed that the middle-aged man was the owner of the cloth shop. Gu Boxi had recently been helping villagers buy rags, and the two of them had become familiar faces, half acquaintances.

Gu Boxi exchanged pleasantries with the boss and asked what was going on.

After listening for a while, Gu Liang realized the reason why everyone was gathered together. It turned out that the King of England had sent someone to announce the announcement here!

At first, Gu Liang didn't react for a moment to what kind of person this King of England was. After a while, he remembered that half a month ago, Mrs. Gu said that we changed our place to Britain. It seems that this King of England should be the prince here.

The cloth shop owner continued: "His Royal Highness the King of England just arrived in our Jiangzhou, and he changed our state capital into his own King of England Palace. However, His Royal Highness the King of England felt that his current palace was too small, so he ordered the people of Jiangzhou to dig a lake behind the palace, and then build another palace by the lake. You two saw so many people gathered together just for this matter. It should be a few days before the yamen will come to your village to recruit people."

After understanding the whole story, Gu Boxi and Gu Liang expressed their gratitude to the cloth shop owner, promised to patronize more in the future, and said goodbye.

On the way, Gu Liang put the roast chicken he had just bought into the backpack. Originally, the two of them were going to visit the newly opened restaurant, but now they were in no mood at all. They just wanted to tell their family about this matter as soon as possible.

It was already the end of June, the hottest time of the year. If you really had to do corvée labor, you would be easily burned by the heat.

"Uncle, have you ever done corvée labor before?" Gu Liang looked up at his silent uncle and asked.

Gu Boxi was obviously in a heavy mood at this time, and said in a sullen voice: "No, I haven't been home in the past few years, and it was my father and my eldest and second brothers who went. In the past, corvée labor was to maintain the official roads or repair the rivers after the autumn harvest, or to help deliver official grain. This is the first time that corvée labor is recruited to do hard labor in the summer."

Gu Liang was also a little depressed after hearing this. How could his body bear to dig a lake in such a hot day? He was sweating just walking on the road. If he did physical work, he might die.

After the two finished talking, they were speechless. Gu Boxi thought that his father, Old Man Gu, was already old, and he couldn't even think about it if he got hurt. Gu Liang, because he was still young, naturally didn't have to go, but Gu Liang's father and grandfather would definitely go, and he couldn't help but worry about them.

During dinner, the atmosphere in the Gu family was low. If there was meat on the table in the past, it would be very lively. But today, even if there was a roast chicken bought by Gu Liang on the table, no one moved their chopsticks. Even the few girls who usually laughed and laughed felt that the atmosphere was wrong, and they didn't dare to pick up the dishes, but just ate the rice in the bowl silently.

"Eat, grandson, don't you always say you want to eat chicken? This chicken leg is for you. Go to the mountains every day, eat a chicken leg to replenish yourself, as the saying goes, you will replenish yourself wherever you eat!" Old Man Gu was the first to break the silent atmosphere and put a chicken leg into Gu Liang's bowl.

"Grandpa, should we think of a way to pay some money to exempt our family from this corvée labor?" Gu Liang looked at the chicken leg in the bowl with a bit of a bad taste.

After hearing what Gu Liang said, Mrs. Gu also hurriedly persuaded him, "Yes, old man, the money earned from selling medicine recently is all saved. Why not use this money to pay the corvée? In the past, corvée was not far away, and I never went far. But this time, Jiangzhou City is at least 300 miles away from our village. This unfamiliar place will be hard to go to."

"Yes, Dad, corvée basically does not provide food, and there is no way to store food in this hot weather! I don't know what the new British Royal Highness is thinking. Asking people to dig a lake in the hot summer is like sleeping on the floor in the toilet - not far from shit (death). Can't he find a place to sleep on first and wait until the weather cools down after the autumn harvest before repairing it!" The one who said this was Gu Liang's mother Chen. On weekdays, she rarely spoke in a harsh tone, and this time she said it with obvious anger.

"Sister-in-law, don't worry about your life. That's His Royal Highness the King of England. If others hear what he said, it will be terrible." Li quickly grabbed Chen and reminded her not to speak ill of the King of England casually, even though she was worried that her husband would be exhausted and hurt if he went there.

These days

The whole Gu family was preparing for this. When the head of the village came to notify every household, the Gu family wanted to pay the corvée, but they didn't expect the head of the village to offer ten taels of silver for one person's corvée.

Not to mention the old man Gu, even Gu Liang was shocked. Ten taels of silver, he hadn't earned ten taels in the past six months. The head of the village asked for ten taels of silver. In the past few days, Gu Liang also learned from his family that in previous years, one person only needed to pay three hundred coins to pay corvée, so the Gu family took out two taels of silver, thinking that it would be enough for this labor. Unexpectedly, these two taels of silver were not even as much as the fraction that needed to be paid this time.

The old man Gu asked the head of the village what was going on. How could the money for the labor service increase by more than dozens of times? The head of the village explained that this was the order of the King of England, in order to prevent our people from being unwilling to work in this season, so the money was specially raised to ten taels of silver per person.

Gu Liang thought to himself, this King of England is simply amazing. In order to prevent ordinary people from paying for work, he specially raised the money to this level. This way, there are people working, and secondly, the money paid by those truly rich people is equivalent to the money of dozens of people on weekdays. It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone.

But the fact is that the Gu family has no money and no power, so they can only serve the corvée honestly.

According to the head of the village, the Gu family must send at least three people to Jiangzhou City, and the current candidates of the Gu family are Old Man Gu, Gu Liang's biological father Gu Changping, second uncle Gu Changan, and third uncle Gu Boxi, a total of four people. As for who stays at home, it becomes a problem. The three brothers naturally want Old Man Gu to stay at home. After all, they are still young and strong. Old Man Gu's hair has begun to gray. It is impossible to enjoy the good life at a young age at home and let his father serve labor. This is really against filial piety.

But in the end, after thinking again and again, Old Man Gu decided to serve the labor himself. First, with his father, there is someone to make decisions if something happens on the construction site. Second, Gu Boxi was learning to dig medicinal herbs. Staying at home could not only make money but also take care of the family's fields.

Since the labor service was to start the day after tomorrow, the whole Gu family was busy. Old Mrs. Gu kneaded the dough overnight and made all the flour in the house, and rushed to make the easy-to-store King Kong crisp overnight. This King Kong crisp is baked, and because it is as hard as stone after baking, it is called King Kong crisp. King Kong crisp has little moisture, so it is very durable and can be kept for ten days and half a month in summer.

Chen and Li packed up the clothes that the men should bring at home. Clothes and pants are easy to wear out when doing hard labor, so they must prepare more. Especially shoes, the two people sewed for a day and a night, and temporarily added a layer of insoles to the shoes they brought to prevent wear and tear.

As for Gu Liang and Gu Boxi, they went up the mountain to pick some chicken shit vines and mint, and dug some dandelions and plantains in the fields to prepare for them to take to the construction site. These are all good medicines for clearing heat and detoxification, evacuating wind and heat, and clearing the head. However, since the time was too short to dry it in the sun, I could only put it in a pot to dry so that I could take it on the road.