In the sixth year of Longwu, Wei Zhai.

Suddenly there was a roar in the house, and a small figure ran very fast through the hall and around the pillars. The housekeeper was chasing after him, constantly shouting: "Slow down, slow down! Young master, young ancestor! If you fall,

If I fall, won't it kill me?"

The boy is Wei Yuan. Although he has just turned three this year, he is extremely tall. Children from farmers in the mountainous countryside are generally thin, so he already looks taller than many seven or eight-year-old children in the town.

At this time, the aroma of food wafted out of the main hall. The running little Weiyuan seemed to be caught by a fishing line and immediately turned around.

In the main room, the Great Master Wei and the two wives were sitting at the table. The food had been set. There were two pottery basins on the table. One contained several cooking cakes and brown multi-grain steamed buns, and the other contained yellow multi-grain porridge. Table

Four dishes were placed on it, namely pickled beans, salted radish, fried shredded radish and a small plate of pickled pheasant.

This is the lunch served by Wei Dashan, a wealthy family in the county.

Xiao Weiyuan was already very hungry. He broke open a steamed bun that was almost bigger than his head, stuffed it with chicken, and then ate hard. In a blink of an eye, he ate everything. One steamed bun was not enough, so he ate again.

Two pieces of cake and a bowl of porridge were enough. After eating, he jumped off the stool, saluted Mr. Wei and the two ladies, and went out quickly.

Mr. Wei and the two ladies basically didn't use their chopsticks, and they didn't start eating until little Wei Yuan had finished eating and left the house. The third lady said: "Yuan'er really grows up fast. Now he has the same appetite as an adult, and he also understands etiquette. That's it."

She doesn't like to talk. If the fourth sister was still here..."

The second lady quickly pulled her sleeve, and the third lady immediately realized and shut up.

Little Weiyuan outside the house stopped for a moment, and then ran to the front yard as if he hadn't heard anything. The old ladies, maids and servants he met along the way all avoided him and saluted when they saw him, but farther away,

The quiet discussions among the servants reached Wei Yuan's ears one by one.

"The young master grows up really fast and eats more than adults. It's a pity that he lost his mother."

"Keep your voice down! The master said not to let the young master know about this."

"What's the point? Who doesn't know that the Fourth Madam ran away with the young master not long after she gave birth? The Master only said that the Madam was dead, and even pretended to build a grave. But who can hide this?"

Xiao Weiyuan kept walking, walked out of the back house, and came to the front yard. The front yard was quite noisy, with long-term workers, kitchen workers, and servants going back and forth.

He walked into an open space in the front yard. There were some stone lock guns and sticks on the open space. It was usually the place where the nursing staff practiced. As soon as he entered the open space, he heard whispers again.

"The young master is good-looking, but he doesn't look like the master."

"Tell me, could it be the bastard born to the fourth lady and an outsider..."

"Keep your voice down!"

"What are you afraid of? No one is around, who will hear you?"

Wei Yuan wanted to put those voices out of his mind, but he could hear them clearly no matter what. The people who were secretly talking were two guards who were ten feet away. They were far apart and they spoke softly. It was really impossible under normal circumstances.

It was heard by others, but Wei Yuan heard it clearly. In fact, no matter where he stood, Wei Yuan could hear most of the movement in the house.

In Wei Yuan's memory, at a certain moment when he was very young, he suddenly heard these sounds, and then he listened more and more, and it didn't take long for him to understand the meaning of most of the words.

The countryside is rough and vulgar, and the servants' private discussions about the master's family are naturally not pleasant to hear.

Since he could understand, Wei Yuan has become more and more silent. Although he can understand what others are saying, he doesn't understand why they say what they say.

Wei Yuan came to the stone lock as usual and picked up the ten-pound lock that he usually played with. But after only lifting it a few times, he felt a little itchy in his body. This kind of itching that came out of the bones could only be caused by running or running.

It gets better when you bear a heavy load, but the light stone lock in your hand is no longer enough to relieve you.

Xiao Weiyuan walked to the large stone lock not far away. This square stone lock weighed fifty kilograms and was usually the heaviest stone lock used by the servants for training. Xiao Weiyuan grabbed it with both hands and lifted it hard, and the stone lock had already moved away slightly.

land.

At this moment, Wei Youcai's voice suddenly sounded in the distance: "Put it down, put it down quickly!"

Xiao Weiyuan turned around and saw Wei Dashanren running over, saying repeatedly: "How dare you touch such a big stone lock? What if you hurt your muscles and bones? I know you like to play with this, so I asked someone to give you a shot.

OK."

With that said, Wei Youcai took out a small stone lock made of white marble. It was exquisite and delicate, weighing a pound.

Xiao Weiyuan reluctantly took the jade lock.

Although this thing had almost no weight in his hand, Xiao Weiyuan could feel his father's concern. So although he was reluctant, he left the square stone lock and pretended to play with the small jade lock.

Wei Youcai wiped Wei Yuan's sweat again. After all this trouble, he himself was sweating. He squinted his eyes and looked up at the sky. There were no clouds in the sky. The scorching sun hung in the sky, making it look like flowing fire.

Light and heat are thrown onto the earth.

Wei Youcai asked Wei Yuan to play by himself, then called the housekeeper to his side and asked, "Is it the beginning of summer today?"

"Master, yesterday was the beginning of summer."

Wei Dashanren frowned and said, "It's the beginning of summer? How is the situation in the fields?"

The housekeeper made a sad face and said: "It's the right time for the crops to bear ears, but there has been a rain in the past two months, and it's impossible to survive! Now the fields near the mountains have lost their harvest, and the fields next to the river are fine.

Some. Just getting water from the river is a life-threatening job, and two people in the village below have already died from exhaustion!"

"Prepare the donkey and go to the village to have a look."

After a while, Wei Dashan took the housekeeper and a servant and headed towards the mouth of the valley. There are only eight miles of land from Wei's house to the mouth of the valley. Beyond the mouth of the valley is Xiahe Village, which faces the Tong River and has the best fields in the county. If

If it doesn't rain, Xiahe Village will probably be the only village in Ye County that has a harvest.

When you leave the house, you will see a bright yellow color.

The fields are yellow, the roads are yellow, the trees are yellow, the mountains are yellow, and even the wind is yellow.

Looking around, only the old tree behind the Wei family yard is still lush and lush, becoming the only green in this area. In fact, if it were not guarded by the servants day and night, this big tree would have been bald long ago:

In one night, the bark can be peeled off.

Suddenly, a gust of wind came, whipping up yellow dust and blurring Wei Youcai's face.

Wei Youcai vomited several times before vomiting all the dirt out of his mouth. He wiped his face, jumped off the donkey, walked to the fields on both sides of the road, reached out and dug hard in the field a few times, and dug out

The soil was all dry, and the seedlings on the ridges had all withered.

Wei Youcai braced his knees and stood up with difficulty. The housekeeper quickly came over to support him.

Wei Youcai took a few breaths and asked, "How are the conditions at the tenants' homes?"

"Master, it was just a little hotter the year before last, but there wasn't much rain last year. The harvest in the fields was poor, and the court didn't reduce taxes. Not only did every household eat up all the grain they had in stock, but they also owed us some grain to some extent. Let's see this year.

If this happens, the harvest will most likely be lost, but our family doesn’t have much food in stock, and I’m afraid people will die..."

Wei Youcai looked gloomy and said, "If we don't provide disaster relief, it will be too late. Is there any news from the county?"

The housekeeper said: "A few days ago, I went to the county to find Master Zhao in the Yamen. The Master said that there was no news about disaster relief, and there will be a few more taxes this year. The name seems to be some kind of Bujia tax, which is a levy.

tax and cattle tax.”

"What, cattle tax?" Wei Dashanren picked his ears.

"Bull tax." The second steward nodded. He had confirmed it with the master several times.

Wei Youcai was surprised: "Has there ever been a cow in our county?"

The second housekeeper said: "At least in the past few decades, I have never heard of cattle."

In fact, not only Ye County, but Fengyuan County has not had cattle since ancient times. This place is adjacent to the mountains in the south and has a unique climate. It is difficult for cattle to survive. Farm work uses a kind of donkey-like, but slightly smaller than donkey mules. Not to mention Fengyuan County,

In the entire Kingdom of Ji, there are only twenty-three out of ten places with cattle, unlike the northern countries where cattle are everywhere.

“If we don’t have cattle, why should we levy cattle tax?”

The second steward looked at Wei Dashan's face and whispered: "Master said that even if there are no cattle, it will not prevent the court from collecting cattle tax."

Wei Youcai asked solemnly: "What's going on?"

"Master Zhao said that the imperial court recently appointed a great Confucian from the north who was very famous for his writings. After he came, he began to reform and proposed a method of 'equal taxation into ding', which is to collect taxes on a per-capita basis. Every fifty

Even if you own a cow, you have to pay the cow tax. It is said that fishermen and boatmen also have to pay the cow tax."

Wei Youcaiqi laughed back: "What kind of monsters and monsters have crawled out! Can you write articles? How can you do such an immoral thing if you know how to write articles?"

The housekeeper also said angrily: "Maybe it's because I can write articles that I can be so wicked!"

Wei Youcai cursed a few times and then fell silent. After a while, he said, "Go back."

"Aren't you going to Xiahe Village?"

"I won't go. The weather will change soon. You go to the mountains and call Lao Liu back."

The housekeeper was surprised and asked: "You want to call Mr. Liu back?"

"In the year of great disaster, there will definitely be refugees. Without Lao Liu, we would have to flee."

The butler's expression changed and he didn't dare to ask any more questions. He led the donkey back to the house under the burning sun.

As expected, Mr. Zhao's information was well informed. Within two days, the imperial decree to increase taxes arrived in the county. Ye County is located in a remote area, so the decree was the last to arrive. In other places, the decree arrived half a month earlier. People everywhere were filled with resentment.

, naturally many people began to think about other ways to survive when they saw that they could not survive.

In Yongzhou, since ancient times, there have been no good people willing to starve to death.

Early that morning, after having breakfast, Xiao Weiyuan ran towards the open space where his servants were practicing. Just as he reached the edge of the open space, a pair of big hands suddenly descended from the sky and picked him up like a cloud.

This was a bald man with a sinewy face, and a long scar on the right side of his face. The man held up Wei Yuan and stared at him fiercely, with a ferocious face.

Xiao Weiyuan looked around and found that his position was much higher than when he was held by others. All he could see was the tops of everyone's heads, and he was immediately happy.
To be continued...