This spring of the nine years of Taixing was so cold that it was unbelievably cold.
It was already March, but the sky was gloomy and the thick clouds were like a heavy lead plate, which made people breathless.
The spring wind should have been gentle, but now it is still cold and harsh, as if even the flowing blood can freeze. The plants withered, and the green spring before disappeared, leaving only a decay at this moment, without any vitality.
There are few pedestrians on the street, and occasionally a few travelers hurriedly wrapped their robes, shrank their necks, and resisted the invasion of the cold wind. Their faces were filled with fatigue and helplessness, as if the cold weather also reflected the desolation in their hearts.
In the distant fields, farmers tried hard to fight against the hard land, their eyes full of despair and confusion. They realized that this late spring cold would not only destroy their harvest, but also put their lives in desperate situations.
In the sky, occasionally a few lonely birds flew by, making shrill screams, as if telling the suffering and helplessness of this world.
Spring plowing was severely delayed.
The land of Jizhou and Yuzhou was originally the most suitable land for cultivation in China, and it was also the area with the largest number of cultivated fields and relatively concentrated. On this land, due to the prosperity of agriculture, it also nurtured a large population, and once produced an agricultural value of 80 to 10 in the entire Han Dynasty.
Originally, the time for farmers was too late to endure, but now it was accompanied by the malice of nature. This is like the future hunger or hunger for farmers who are struggling on the line of food and clothing in daily life, or...
Family is destroyed and people are killed.
But when facing such a threat, the farmer still didn't know what he should do...
Well, it's not actually that they're not doing anything, they're working.
The farmer's measure in the face of his own disaster and a terrifying future is to work.
Very, very, very much life.
The difficulties of farming in the Han Dynasty exceeded the imagination of later generations.
In later generations, there were often mechanized harvesting and large-scale planting in the Central China Plain, which made people feel relaxed and happy, and felt the prosperity of the national strength and the health of the people. But if the machinery and iron tools were removed, the people would only have simple wood or a small amount of iron tools, but they still had to cultivate such a vast acre, it would not be a comfortable thing in any case.
In Yingchuan, this family of people who had originally been a land that belonged to the emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who had been working for a day, sat exhausted... or it was called lying on the mud ridge beside the field, sweating heavily, wet clothes, eyes were dull, half open his mouth and gasping for breath, throwing his hands and feet shaking.
The hands and feet of the three people were shaking rhythmically.
An old man is his father.
The two young ones are brothers.
Because they were repeating this very rhythmic movement all day long.
Rake...rake...and move...
Then rake... and then move...
This is all their actions at the end of the day.
No drinks, no snacks, no rest, no laughter.
There is no so-called life is so hard, and you can't just lie down and have fun.
I don't spend money to suffer the anger of this sin, because they really have no money, no money at all, and they borrowed money from the seeds they cultivated.
Qingmiao Loan.
Before the implementation of the Qingmiao Law in the Northern Song Dynasty, such loans were actually already in the feudal dynasty of the Chinese feudal dynasty. The reason why Wang Anshi failed to successfully develop the Qingmiao Law was that in addition to the so-called reasons that could be explained on the stage, there were two reasons under the shadows. One was naturally because of interests, and the other was the long-standing "heavenly granted the monarch."
In feudal dynasty, when the people encounter irresistible disasters and pains, they will cry "God" that actually does not really refer to the gods and emperors, but the government court of the feudal dynasty.
In the hearts of the people, the governments of these feudal dynasties should have represented their most fundamental rights and interests, and the Qingmiao Law should not be implemented for the sake of interests. After all, the civil servants have to bear taxes and have to bear additional loans in addition to taxes. But in fact, this hope is just a beautiful lie, just like the constitution in later capitalist countries expressing freedom and equality, and it is cold and not very warm.
It's like the late spring cold right now.
The farmers who should have been busy with spring plowing were helpless because of the sudden cold.
The land is as hard as iron, and the plowshares are difficult to get down to the ground, and the seeds cannot be sown.
Even the seeds that have been sown are difficult to grow in the cold, and those that have grown are frozen to death in the fields.
What can a farmer do?
They could only try their best to plow the fields again, endure tears and bury the frozen seedlings again underground, as if this could bury their sadness and usher in hope.
Hope for the whole family.
Speaking of which, they were lucky because the war did not last too long on the land of Yingchuan, and because Cao Cao's core focus in the Xuxian area in the middle of the year, the surrounding agricultural areas were restored as soon as possible. Therefore, compared with the people in other areas, the farmers here suffered relatively less losses in terms of military disasters and man-made disasters.
More importantly, their family has three laborers.
One big, two small.
If we count based on the age of later generations, two and a half-year-old boys, one should still be in high school, and the other should be at most junior high school. However, according to the standards of the great man, they are already "Ding".
So the women in their family can also be taken care of at home, otherwise they would like to be from the next door...
The farmer on the next acre of land is still arable.
In the cold wind, the farmer next door just wrapped a roll of fabric that could no longer be seen around his waist. The fabric was covered with holes, and it looked like it was originally a short shirt, but later because it really couldn't be repaired, it was regarded as a lollipop cloth used to cover its current shit.
His body was exposed in the wind, and his ribs were clearly visible. He was panting, his legs and feet were trembling, but he was still working hard to plow the fields, his face and limbs were covered with mud of all sizes.
A woman followed the farmer, wearing a short jacket with at least a dozen patches, holding a wooden shovel in her hand, and was working the man's turn up the ground.
She fell on the ground barefoot, her feet covered with calluses and sores.
At one end of the field, a big child was holding a little child, staring at his parents blankly.
The child was still crying during the day, but he was soon exhausted.
Crying, depression, cursing, and complaining all require a certain amount of physical strength. When you are extremely tired, you will not have any emotions, and only numbness will be left.
『Our family is fine...it's fine...
The older farmer sitting on the mud ridge muttered a little, and seemed to have a little comfort from the farmer in the next mu. He stood up, packed up his tools, put on his short robe, and said, "Let's go, go home."
The two and a half old boys also responded, stood up, and shook the soil on their bodies. They had no outer robes, only short robes. The outer robes were qualified to wear by the head of the family.
Then the three of them, in silence, dragged their tired steps, and walked home in the setting sun.
The pain of others may not make you happy, but at least you can know that you are not as painful as others.
The paths in the fields are difficult to walk.
Because in order to free up more land to plant crops, the ridges in the manor are as small as possible.
The old farmer walked in front and the young farmer followed behind, not only was the same pace, but even the shadow of the hunchback carrying the farm tools was similar.
Their home is not near the land.
Because their fields are not their homes, they are just tenants, they need to walk through a considerable length of flat land, cross two small single-wood bridges, and then climb over a small hill to see their homes.
They need to spend at least one hour of their time walking every day.
From a place of work to a home of rest.
This is how it is every day.
The land they cultivated belongs to the owners, and the land of their house belongs to the owners.
Therefore, the owner of the manor will never allow them to build houses beside the fields, even if it is just a simple shed, because it is equivalent to invading their means of production, just like later companies will never allow employees to live in the company. Although they shout that employees regard the company as their home, they are actually just to make employees bleeding, sweat and cry. If there are really foolish employees who regard the company as their own home, capitalists will let employees know what is a free iron fist.
Their home was by a stream, surrounded by gravel and rocks, which were not suitable for farming, so it became a gathering place for these tenants.
The surrounding environment is the most primitive and civilized state, and even the moss on the shed can prove this. In this case, many people who are tired of the fast-paced life in the city will be envious...
Those who live around the tenant are also tenant farmers.
Even refugees who are worse than tenants.
The tenants still have one or two sheds, and the refugees are the land nests that do not even have huts.
Digging a pit underground and then using a few wooden sticks to build a small piece of space on the pit is where these refugees settle down. Such a land nest is naturally broken and shattered without exception, looking crumbling. It seems that when a strong wind blows, these refugees can be buried directly in the dug soil pit.
So sometimes the land of these refugees looks more like the graves they dug for themselves.
However, even if these refugees really die, they cannot own the pits they dug out by themselves. Most of them will be carried away, burned, and become a handful of ashes, so that they will not encroach on the land of the manor owners too much.
When passing through these nests, the farmers, young and old, looked straight and their heads were raised.
And there are often some envy or desire-like eyes projecting from the ground nest...
In fact, no matter the three farmers or the people in the land nest, they did not realize why the manor was so big, but why did the manor owner who was usually full of benevolence, righteousness, morality, truth, goodness and beauty deliberately put the tenants and refugees together?
After walking a little further ahead through these nests, some sheds will appear one after another.
This is the tenant's living area.
The tenant's house looks like a house at least. Although most of it is built of stone, yellow mud, logs and weeds, it can be seen that most of it has been carefully cleaned up, and some houses have traces of new wood repair with obvious lighter colors.
People around the house are more or less wearing normal clothes. Most of them wear clogs and straw sandals, and the occasional cleaning traces can be seen on their heads and faces.
If it was a normal day, these people would probably greet each other, but in today's strange and abnormal climate, no one seemed to have no intention of greeting each other. They were silent and even looked at each other numbly, and they were each busy with their own affairs with their heads down.
The back, which was originally straightened in the local nest area, unknowingly hunched over again.
Their home has arrived.
The building is built with some stones of different sizes, filling the gaps with slurry soil, and a beam is built on it, without tiles. The paved bunches of hay are bunches of selected bunches of bunches of bunches of bunches of bunches of bunches of them. The building is not high, and even the doors need to bend over to enter, but compared to the previous ground nest, it is already excellent.
There is a fire pit in the middle of the house.
According to usual habits, when the farmers and the other three returned home, the hostess at home almost cooked the food, cleaned up and rested when the sky was still bright, and went to bed when the night came.
But today, the hostess by the fire pit seems to have not cooked the rice yet...
『What happened?』
The male owner asked.
The hostess looked at the two children beside her.
The male owner turned around and asked the two and a half-old boys to go to the surrounding area to fetch water and chop firewood.
After two and a half-old boys walked out of the house, the hostess said: "The old Wang family next door is here... and said they want to borrow some food..."
The male owner immediately became nervous, "What? Didn't you lend them?"
Lao Wang is a neighbor for many years and has always been in love. As usual, there is no problem in borrowing a bite of food, but now...
Not normal.
"No... the wild vegetables around me have been lit. I have walked a long way to pick them... I dare not borrow them..." The hostess was silent for a moment, and then said, "I heard that the food price has risen again..."
The hostess didn't say the miserable appearance of the old Wang family next door when they came to borrow food.
The look that looked like a walking corpse made the hostess still shudder when she remembered it.
The male owner was silent and sat down by the fire pit. Looking at the wild vegetables and pitiful rice in the pot, she sighed for a while, "It's not that we are cruel... It's because Lao Wang can't stand it, his family will be over... We borrowed it once last time, and it's already done our duty of friendship, and we borrowed it again... Our family...
The price of food has risen, which has never been a good thing for ordinary people.
Although they are the people who produce food, they cannot enjoy the benefits brought by the rise in food. Instead, they become increasingly poor due to the heavier burden of living. Just like the construction workers in later generations, the profits of housing prices will never be less than those workers who touch the mud and make bricks. Even if they built tens of thousands of houses, none of them belonged to them. The rising cost of living caused by excessive housing prices will not be late or absent.
The late spring cold not only caused serious disasters in the fields, but also caused the plants and trees in the wild to be affected. The wild vegetables that could have been used as food for spring were also very rare, which caused many poor people to live a shaky life, and suffered a heavy blow.
At the same time, due to the late spring cold, the weather is still warm and cold, which makes many farmers who don’t have many clothes to protect themselves from the cold.
In winter, because you don’t need to go to the world to cultivate, even if it is cold, you can resist the past. However, when spring comes, the fields must be tilled, otherwise the whole family will eat and wear whatever they want in a year? But who would have thought that this damn climate will suddenly change its face?
Working for a day must be full of sweat, and then the cold wind blows...
Some people can withstand it, while others can't.
In the current era of the Han Dynasty, there is no special medicine. The cold weather has also led to the outbreak of many diseases. Due to the lack of sufficient cold-proof clothing and heating facilities, many people suffer from diseases such as wind and cold, cough. The backward medical conditions make it difficult for these diseases to be effectively treated, and further aggravated the panic...
It's like Lao Wang next door.
"Two days ago, in order to cure the disease... Lao Wang and the others sold Erya..." The hostess' voice was low, "I originally wanted to say a kiss to my eldest son..."
Once natural disasters and man-made disasters occur, the traffickers who buy and sell people will be particularly attentive and can even inspect the goods at home. They will never make the seller feel any inconvenience. They will pay in person and will never default.
But even so, after selling the children's money, I still can't buy much food.
The male owner's voice was also dull, "...it's all fate... why do you say this? I'm done with cooking? Let the eldest brother and Er'er come back, finish eating early, rest early, and make up the floor tomorrow..."
The two and a half-boys who were called back seemed to know something. They were not as active as the teenagers. Instead, they were silent like their parents, and shared the wild vegetables and rice soup that were not much in the pot, and then lay down and rested silently.
In the middle of the night, perhaps before dawn, a silence broke through the silence.
The sad voice is not nice at all, nor is it as gentle as the so-called cuckoo's blood cry, but only the wailing of pain to the extreme.
The whole family was awakened, and the male owner got up, went out, and soon came back.
"Old Wang is dead..."
The family was a little surprised and expected.
"No..." The male owner's lips trembled for a moment, and after a while, he whispered: "It's not that he left sick... Yes, it's Lao Wang... He committed suicide..."
"For..." The youngest son seemed to want to ask why, but as soon as he spoke, he understood and swallowed all the words behind him.
Those who commit suicide are not considered dying of illness, and will not trigger the owner's epidemic alarm.
"Come on, if you can, please help me, hurry before dawn...
The male owner said, then turned around and went out.
They can only help before dawn.
Because after dawn, men have to work hard in their own fields, and women have to go to the wild to collect wild vegetables...
The poor are not qualified to get sick, they are only alive and dead.
They don't even have the right to be sad for a moment.