Qingchun's father never came back when he was cultivating Chi Dao. His mother remarried, and his uncle's family raised him for half a year, but he was unable to survive.
Speaking of which, Qingchun's uncle and aunt were extremely kind and righteous.
Because under the land equalization order of the Sui Dynasty, if the father died and the mother remarried, the family was considered to have no children, and all the land in the family would be automatically confiscated to the government and distributed again.
If Qingchun wanted to inherit the throne, he would have to wait two years before becoming a male and then report it to the government.
Of course, when the land is returned, it will definitely not be the original one.
During the Daye period, as the household registration system gradually collapsed, the shortcomings of the land equalization system, which relied on the integrity of local officials, gradually emerged.
Take the village where Qingchun is located as an example. Due to the sudden decrease in population, the government was unable to reduce the registration status in time. It could only be inherited by relatives. However, there were not enough people. Without reducing taxes, as the land increased, the consequences could only be
As the pressure increased, many farmers went bankrupt as they were overwhelmed, and wealthy households took the opportunity to collude with the government and commit expropriation.
As a result, many families became slaves or even refugees.
Qingchun's uncle's family also had to sell Qingchun to a wealthy family in the village as a slave. It can be said that this child has suffered a lot since he was a child.
But in the autumn of the sixth year of Daye, the villagers resisted taxation, accidentally killed the tax collector, and moved the whole village into the mountains.
The rich households in the village were unkind and finally suffered retribution not long after entering the mountains.
Qingchun escaped by luck and happened to see Li Po leaving. He was desperate and followed him.
Li Po asked him that he was also from a poor family and must be related to the villagers, so why didn't he stay with those villagers?
Qingchun replied, those in the lead are not good people, it would be best if they all died...
Although his words were unclear and his reasons were far-fetched, Li Po still understood.
In these chaotic years, the so-called reckless heroes who come to the fore are not good people.
A child would rather follow a stranger through the jungle with an unknown origin than stay among the villagers. Li Po can understand the sadness and pain involved in this.
Li Po did not ask any further questions. The situation outside the mountain was not good, but it was not as bad as he imagined.
It is not easy for everyone to have enough to eat, but it cannot be said to be a troubled time.
For him, this can be said to be a mixed blessing.
The advantage is that after going out, it seems that you don't have to fight with others. It shouldn't be too difficult to find a job to keep yourself fed and clothed.
The downside is that he still has to rack his brains to come up with an identity.
Moreover, there is another person around him now. According to the child's own words, he is a slave.
Slave, whether in the northern grasslands or the Sui Dynasty in the south, is now a very common term.
The difference may only be that slaves on the northern grasslands were no different from cattle and sheep, but in the Sui Dynasty, they already had certain rights to survive and limited freedom.
However, at this moment, Li Po had no intention of paying attention to the distinction between civilization and barbarism. He only knew that bringing someone else's servant with him, who was now a refugee, would add a lot of trouble to the rest of his journey.
But he finally decided to take the child out of the mountains and forests. As for the reason, Li Po actually only had one sentence: he was pleased with the child.
One big and one small climbed up the mountain ridge, Li Po looked down, and a large village appeared faintly in sight.
It is built near a mountain, with sparse vegetation, and not far away, a stream winds through.
A nice place.....
"Teacher, that is our village..."
Not long after he followed Li Po, his title was changed to this term, which made Li Po feel very awkward. Once upon a time, he, Li Po, was also a role model for others?
Qingchun, on the other hand, was very satisfied that he could think of this title. It was also the title that he could think of that best expressed his feelings besides father and mother.
At this moment, looking at the vague villages below, Qingchun scratched his head in confusion, and the affirmative sentence turned into a question sentence at the end.
Although it was still far away, I could still see clearly that the village was in ruins, as if it had just been hit by a sky fire.
There is no doubt that this is the result of the villagers killing the tax collector. There is nothing surprising about it.
But Li Po didn't know why he didn't go into the mountains to hunt down the fugitives since he destroyed the village?
According to Qingchun, if you keep walking along the stream outside the village, you will reach Mayi City, which is the county seat of Mayi County.
Next to Mayi County is Yanmen County, which used to be under the jurisdiction of Daizhou. However, during the Daye Period, the imperial court abolished state governance and the local area was divided into counties and counties.
In other words, it has changed from a three-level administrative agency to a county-level administrative agency.
Li Po had a certain understanding of this. After all, several veterans had military memberships in the Sui Army. They all joined the army in the last years of Emperor Wen. Although they knew little about the changes from the last years of Emperor Wen to the Daye Period, they also knew a thing or two about major events.
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But such a rough understanding was not enough to make Li Po's subsequent journey smoother.
After quietly looking at the village at the foot of the mountain for a long time, Li Po said: "After we go out, you and I will become brothers. If anyone asks, just say that we are here to find relatives."
"Yes." Qingchun responded in a muffled voice, and then hugged the dagger tightly in his arms, "When will the teacher teach me how to use a knife?"
Li Po looked at the village down the mountain and said absently: "With a knife? What do you want to do?"
"I've learned my skills...if someone hits me again, I'll kill him."
"How old are you that you talk about hitting and killing?"
"I'm not young anymore... When I have the skills, I will go hunting so that I can support the teacher."
"Well, that sounds reasonable, but didn't you say that you can't just hunt the prey in the forest?"
"A capable person can do whatever he wants. Even if I beat him, no one would dare to say anything."
.............
The older one and the younger one were talking incomprehensibly. Once they became familiar with each other, Li Po realized that it was not that this child didn't talk much, but that he had no topics to talk about.
The toughness of the people of the North was gradually revealed in his words and deeds.
This also made him somewhat regretful that he had picked up such a child in the mountains and forests, leaving his own ears untouched.
As the saying goes, "Looking up the mountain and running to death", all the way to the foot of the mountain, the sky gradually became dark.
The two entered the village in the dark. The village was indeed hit by a fire. There were ruins everywhere, and the smell of smoke was still very strong.
Li Po knew very well that this was not a place to stay for a long time.
Maybe someone will come over and take a look at it sometime.
Originally, Li Po wanted to go to this village to look around to see if there was anything useful, and then leave here to find another place to stay.
But things are unpredictable, and the two of them ended up staying in this abandoned village.
Because the first heavy snowfall of winter has finally arrived.
The house leaked and it rained all night. Qingchun was young and frail. He spent several days in the jungle. He was frightened and rushed back and forth. By the evening of that day, he developed a high fever.
The north wind is howling, the snow is flying, and the winter in the North finally shows its ferocious face.
It snowed for most of the day and the temperature dropped sharply.