Suiping County is not far from Xiping County, so a lot of news about Xiping can reach Suiping, especially the villages not far from Xiping.
They all know that Xiping next door was invaded by rebels last year and many people were killed. Then a female county king was replaced.
It is said that the female county queen was very kind-hearted. Not only did she provide food relief to them, she also provided work in exchange for relief after the winter, allowing them to make money by building roads and water conservancy. She suppressed the price of food in their county.
I heard that there were people in the next village who were married from Xiping, so they secretly brought people there to work. They also made a lot of money and bought a lot of food. They lived better than them in the spring this year.
They received the news a little later and had no connections, so they could only watch with envy, but later they also went to Xiping County together.
They went to buy food.
I heard that the price of food in Xiping is much lower than outside.
Once I went there, it turned out to be much lower.
Life is difficult for everyone. Although we envy the people of Xiping County, they also suffered a lot of losses last year and many people died. This envy is at a discount.
But this envy gradually escalated to jealousy after paying the summer tax. They are all from Runan County. Why should they pay full tax, while Xiping next door only pays half?
Originally, they were very resentful towards Magistrate Gao. They felt that Magistrate Xiping next door was a girl and she had the guts to pay only half of the tax, but he, a grown man, would only force them to pay the full amount of tax;
But soon, news came from Aoyang County, which was also next door to them and had more borders. They heard that their county magistrate had increased their taxes, and then County Magistrate Sun also followed suit and forced them to increase taxes.
Then the people of Suiping County calmed down and began to lie down and pretend to be dead. Forget it, forget it, at least their county magistrate would not increase taxes. In fact, they really couldn't pay the taxes, and neither would the high county magistrate.
and put them in jail.
It is this kind of mentality that makes them lie down, but lying down cannot fill their stomachs. People will still be hungry when they should be hungry, so some people leave their hometown and wander far away.
They don't know if they can survive outside, but they have to give it a try. If they stay, they will die.
Some people bear the heartache to cut green seedlings and barely fill their stomachs with unripe beans and rice;
More people are waiting, waiting for the arrival of August, waiting for the rice and beans to mature.
They thought that life would just go on like this and they would just wait until the autumn harvest. Who knew that Li Zheng went to the county town and came back and said to them, "Call the young men in the village and follow me to the county government to get food for relief."
The villagers were shocked and asked one after another: "Can the county government provide food for relief?"
Li Zheng said with a profound expression: "Hai Yang rebelled..."
"We know. We heard that the beating was very severe and even the county magistrate was killed."
Li Zheng: "...The county magistrate was not killed, but the county magistrate was killed."
"Just kill him, what are you doing to us?"
"So we changed to a new county magistrate," Li Zheng said: "The new county magistrate is the female county magistrate of Xiping County. She is kind-hearted. Seeing that our people in Suiping are living a hard life, she spends a lot of money to buy food.
, let’s go get the relief food now.”
The villagers were stunned. It took them a while to react, and they immediately praised: "The female county gentleman is a good person!"
"The county king is the county king, now he is the county magistrate!"
They immediately changed their words and said, "The female governor is really a good person!"
Li Zhengdao: "Our county magistrate's surname is Zhao."
The villagers made a note and planned to pay their respects to Zhao Juncheng properly when they went to the county seat.
This is one Li, and there is another Li. When Li was rushing back from the county government office, he happened to encounter several families in the village who were going out to beg for work. He quickly stopped them and said, "Where are you going?"
?”
"Go out and beg for work."
"You all have fields in your family..."
"That's why my parents didn't leave. They were old and couldn't walk anymore. I cut a handful of green seedlings and ate them slowly. They could last for a few days. It'll be fine until the beans or rice are ripe in August." He said: "
We are young and can still walk. If we go out to beg for work, our family cannot survive if we stay together."
After that, he left.
Li hurriedly stopped them and said, "Goodbye, the county government has provided food relief, you can stay."
They looked suspicious, "Li Zheng, don't lie just to keep us. We really can't live anymore. If you keep us, will you support us?"
Li Zheng said angrily: "I won't support you, someone will support you. Our Runan County has a new county magistrate. She is the female county magistrate from Xiping County next door. She has sent relief food to our county."
When the villagers heard this, they turned around and left.
Li Zheng's eyes widened, "Why are you going?"
"Go home!" the leading man shouted to the sky, "We can survive!"
The person on the side explained: "We originally planned to go to Xiping County. I heard that the female county gentleman in Xiping County is very kind-hearted and accepted all the refugees in the past."
So they are very envious of the people of Xiping County. Now, the female county minister is also their county minister, and they are all the subjects of the female county minister!
Thinking about it, the villagers' eyes turned red, and their hearts were extremely sour and happy.
Young men from every village rushed to the county seat under the leadership of Li Zheng. On the way, villages met with villages, and villages met with each other. Everyone got together to exchange various specious news.
"...I heard that Aoyang County was particularly miserable, and a whole county's population died. The female county monarch arrived with reinforcements. Seeing the tragic situation, she couldn't help but shed tears, so she got angry and offered sacrifices to the people.
I killed Magistrate Sun and wrote directly to the emperor to become the county magistrate, and the emperor agreed."
"Did you kill County Magistrate Sun? How did I hear that the female County Lord killed the County Cheng?"
"The county magistrate was killed by the villagers of Aoyang, right?"
"Oh, no matter who is killed, our county magistrate has been changed anyway."
"If I had known that we could change the county magistrate if we rebelled, we would rebel too."
"No, what if we get a worse one? The old blind man in our village said that it depends on luck. It won't work if you do it early, and it won't work if you do it late. Moreover, it will only work if the people in Gaoyang rebel."
"Why?"
"No reason, God arranged it this way."
Because they knew that Zhao Hanzhang had become the county magistrate and would distribute relief grains, the villagers who rushed to the county were relieved and unknowingly they were glowing with vitality.
Li Zheng, who was keenly aware of the changes in the villagers, couldn't help but sigh with the village elder who was following him: "After many years, everyone finally has some vitality."
The village elder said with tears in his eyes, "This is a good thing."
Li Zheng also nodded, "It's a good thing."
The people of Suiping County easily accepted a girl as their county magistrate. They even cheered and went straight to the county government office after entering the county seat.
Ji Yuan has already sent someone to deliver a batch of money, as well as the paper, books and various glass products she asked for.
Zhao Hanzhang brought private goods, including only two books, "Three Character Classic" and "Thousand Character Classic", but each of them was printed in 1,000 copies.
Her price is not high, at least it is much cheaper than other books, but the books of this era are not much cheaper no matter how cheap they are.
She can get a lot of food in exchange for just these two books.