It turns out that selling children is not the worst thing. The worst thing is that they can’t be sold at all and have to starve to death!

These days, there are at least three to four billion poor people in the world. Who is short of people? Even if there are some who want to buy a son to inherit the incense or a child bride to solve their son's marriage issues, they cannot absorb such an excess population.

supply!

For many poor people who have grown up, "having nothing but chains" is not the most despairing thing. The most despairing thing is that they have no chains...no one wants to chain them at all.

Then exploited ruthlessly.

In fact, the most unsolvable problem of the Qing Dynasty today is that the population is too large, which has exceeded the upper limit of the agriculture of the eighteen provinces of Han Dynasty, and there is no industrialization or colony to absorb this population.

The contradiction between man and land in the Qing Dynasty was so intensified that it was about to explode!

Oh, maybe it exploded!

It's just that the flames generated by the explosion have not ignited most of the poor people who are in despair and will explode at the touch of it...

Wang Huoxiu, a former tenant who has lived in a village near Etang Town for generations, is such a poor man who has nothing and has lost all his chains!

The reason why he is a "former tenant" is because the two acres of irrigated land he rented from Mr. Huang were flooded last summer, and he had no harvest. Naturally, he could not pay the rent, nor could he repay the loan sharks.

Food rations became a problem. In order to keep the family alive, he was cruel and wanted to give his thirteen-year-old sister Wang Xier to Mr. Huang as a maid.

But I didn't expect that Mr. Huang wouldn't... It's not that Mr. Huang has high moral standards because he read books about sages, but last year's floods flooded not only the land rented by Wang Huoxiu, but also a large area on both sides of the Xiaoshui River!

There are too many poor farmers who want to give their sisters or daughters to Mr. Huang’s tenants! Even if Mr. Huang wants to help, his body and bones won’t allow it!

However, Mr. Huang was kind-hearted and did not embarrass Wang Huoxiu too much. He just asked him to give up his tenancy without forcing him to pay back rent. He also waived the debt he owed to the King of Hell and even gave him half of the deposit he paid when renting the land.

...

For Huang Shijie to be able to do this, it can be said that he has surpassed 99% of the landlords in the Qing Dynasty, and he is definitely a good person among the landlord class.

But so what?

Relying on the half of the deposit they got back when they quit their tenancy, Wang Huoxiu and his family managed to live frugally for a few more months, but now they are still without food - there is really no way!

Now he wants to rent land but can't pay the deposit, wants to borrow a debt from the King of Hell but can't, and wants to work on a boat... The water transportation on the Xiangjiang River and Xiaoshui River is extremely depressed, and they don't hire new people at all. He even wants to go

Daozhou Mining, people dislike him because he is as thin as a stick due to hunger and lacks strength. He is not yet a disciple of the Tiandihui, so he is not wanted at all!

Seeing that his whole family was about to starve to death, Wang Huoxiu could only lead his already hungry and skinny girl to hawk on the embankment street and beg for food.

His "chaihuo girl"'s eyes lit up when she saw the tall and handsome Mr. Huang, who was patrolling the streets on a slider. She kept moving up and begged: "Mr. Huang, please buy me, okay?

I'm so good..."

If Mr. Huang buys it...there will be something to eat!

But Huang Shijie really refused to buy anyone because his family was rapidly becoming poorer, getting poorer every year!

So he has to save some money, otherwise sooner or later he will become the Jia family in "A Dream of Red Mansions".

But Huang Dashan was kind after all. After a long sigh, he said to his old housekeeper: "Huang Fu, bring me the money bag!"

"Yes, sir!"

Butler Huang agreed, then took a heavy bag from a servant beside him and held it in front of Mr. Huang. Huang Shijie stretched out his hand and pulled open the rope that tied the bag, and then opened some bags, revealing the golden copper coins.

During this period, Huang Shijie would lead a heavily armed regiment on a patrol every day on the dike street where beggars gathered, to shock the poor people who had no enough to eat, and then give out a pocket of copper coins - not much in fact, just a handful of copper coins. Two thousand coins can't save you from the crisis or poverty, it just shows a gesture. By the way, it gives everyone a glimmer of hope to survive!

"Give one to each person, put it down and pull it down..." Huang Shijie ordered, "then ask someone to open a porridge factory on Di Street...cook two stones of brown rice a day."

Butler Huang reminded in a low voice: "Master, there are so many people begging for food today, I'm afraid two stones of brown rice will not be enough..."

Huang Shijie sighed: "The days are long, no matter how much I have, I can't take it out... That's it!

In addition, pick some strong poor people, give them a few extra pennies, and let them take care of the hungry and bury them in the wasteland outside the town. Alas, I don’t know how many people will starve to death today? What a crime. !」

In fact, Huang Shijie and Huang Guanjia knew in their hearts that the purpose of opening the porridge factory was not to survive at all, but to let the poor people who had no food slowly starve to death... They couldn't starve to death all at once! If they were still strong today Zhuang, I'm going to starve to death tomorrow, so I'll do the opposite right away!

There has to be a process. First, you will become thin and weak. When you have no strength, you will naturally have no choice but to die of hunger.

It is very important to open a porridge factory so that the poor and powerful can grab a bite of the porridge that will help them "lose weight" and survive by making do with it.

This is a means for the good people to maintain local rule... Of course, the good people Huang have no other choice.

"Yes! Master." Butler Huang agreed, and then raised his voice and said, "Master Huang, Mr. Huang Dashan, is offering relief! Master Huang wants to hire ten strong men to bury the hungry... each of them will be given ten coins!"

As soon as he finished shouting, there was a chorus of grateful voices below.

"Thank you Mr. Huang for saving my life!"

"Mr. Huang, you are such a kind person!"

"Master Huang, you will be a prince for generations to come!"

"I can live another day..."

"Master Huang, I still have strength!"

"I, I can still work..."

Listening to the poor people on the street thanking each other and begging for employment, Mr. Huang Shijie's heart felt... it was really chilling.

When he was young, he read history books, and every time he read about the end of the world, he saw descriptions of wealthy families stinking of wine and meat, and people freezing to death on the road. He always hated those wealthy families for being stupid - why couldn't they use some of their property to help the victims, so that everyone could Did you survive?

But he didn't expect that when his "rich family" encountered the apocalypse, he would find that there was no stinking meat and wine in his house!

Even if he, a "rich family", dissipates all his family property, he will not be able to save the poverty of Etang Town, Lingjiao Town, Shuangpai Town and the surrounding seven or eight townships!

But if he doesn't save anything and doesn't pretend to be a good person, sooner or later he will be torn apart by the poor people around him... This is probably the end of the world, right?

While Mr. Huang was looking at a group of "grateful" poor men and sighing secretly, suddenly a burst of "ding-dong-ding-dong" bells and the "clack-clack-clack" sound of horse hooves came over.

This is unusual!

Except for the green camp soldiers in Yongzhou Town, no one here in Yongzhou Prefecture keeps horses!

While there were no green battalion soldiers stationed in Etang Town, there was a flood green battalion stationed in Lingtang Town to the north. He had a good relationship with Zhang Dingxiang, the commander of Lingtang Flood.

Could it be that the long-haired thief arrived in Lingtang Town, and Boss Zhang sent someone to ask for help?

As soon as Mr. Huang thought of this, he heard Mr. Zhang's voice from a distance: "Ziying...Brother Ziying, it's not good, Changmao is calling!"

As soon as Huang Shijie heard "Shangmao is coming", an indescribable fear rushed towards him from all directions!

And Wang Huoxiu, who had just taken a few pennies from Butler Huang and was about to help bury the starved man, heard the words "Long Mao is coming", and suddenly there was light in front of his eyes... The Taiping Army is coming! Come and kill the rich man. Help the poor, come and save a poor man like him who is about to starve to death!

It doesn't matter whether they have "God" or not, as long as Wang Huoxiu can eat a few more good meals before he dies, it's worth it!

Having a full meal... I can’t even remember the taste!

The poor long for rebellion!

Wang Huoxiu is definitely not the only one who has this kind of thinking!

Embankment Street, which was bustling with thanksgiving just now, suddenly became much quieter.

The grateful look in the eyes of the poor men gradually disappeared...and light appeared in their eyes! Fire appeared!

In this weird atmosphere, a strong man with a beard wearing a green battalion officer's coat had already galloped up to Huang Shijie, crying and shouting: "Ziying, Changmao is calling... .”

Huang Shijie asked with a trembling voice: "Hit, where did it hit?"

The strong man pointed behind him, "Ziying, listen..."
Chapter completed!