On the south side of the earth building, at No. 123 on the fifth floor, Cao Xiu's family lived.
Cao Xiu was originally a cloth seller in the city of Damingfu (Handan). Although he didn't make much money, he could still support his family.
The Wanli era was the last sunset of the Ming Dynasty, and it was also a reflection of the past.
As long as the people are willing to put in the effort to collect a load of firewood and go to the city to sell it, they can buy back ten kilograms of grains, enough for a family to eat.
But since the Tianqi Dynasty, the life of ordinary people has been difficult. It’s like an old lady celebrating the New Year, and she doesn’t rush every year.
Food prices have risen like crazy in the past two years. After all the small-time workers spent all their savings, they had no choice but to flee the famine, otherwise the whole family would starve to death.
Cao Xiu took his father, mother, wife and three children with him. Hearing that he could find a way to survive in Zunhua, he fled to Zunhua with several neighbors. The other families all found work in the iron mines. Only Cao Xiu did not.
landing.
Seeing that the whole family had finished eating the food they had brought, Cao Xiu was so anxious that he was running around in circles.
Just at this time, the newly established Hexi Guards Thousand Households Office was established, and it wanted to recruit 3,500 military households. When I heard that they were going to be military households, the family felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured on them. Even their descendants would be ruined if they became military households.
Already.
But upon hearing this treatment, the family suddenly couldn't walk.
Because the treatment is so good.
Cao Xiu had good stamina and was able to carry heavy loads for long distances. He was trained to carry cloth for the store. As a result, he was hired after several rounds of screening.
Cao Xiu is thirty years old this year, and his wife is twenty-four years old. They have three children. Their daughter is eight years old, and their two sons are five years old and one is still breastfeeding. There is also a sixteen-year-old girl who is not married. Both of her parents are fifty.
He is old, his health is not good, and he cannot do heavy work. This is his family.
After the Cao family was hired, they were first taken away and given a thorough hot bath by men and women. Then all their original clothes were boiled in boiling water to eliminate lice, bedbugs and other parasites. New clothes were issued.
.
Then something happened that shocked their family.
They were taken to this huge earth building. They had never seen such a tall building in their lives. They looked extremely gloomy and majestic.
Their family and many other military households walked tremblingly into the big mouth of this monster. Now that they have registered as military households, it is too late to regret it. If you regret it, you will be hanged.
What I didn't expect was that the first thing I did when I entered this architectural monster was to allocate a house, and then I was given a house deed in a big red leather cover with Mr. Yang's customs seal stamped on it.
Then, all the supplies needed for the family's life were distributed. Suddenly, there was nothing missing. The family felt like they were in a dream.
Then a teacher came to inform that all children under the age of fifteen should go to school, and men and women would be taught separately. Boys would be taught by Xiucai Gong Professor, and girls would be taught by female teachers from Xinghe Academy. Those who did not send their children to school would have their military pay deducted.
.
The gentleman who just sent away the school, someone from the medical center came to inform again that everyone can enjoy free medical treatment. Everyone is scheduled to arrange a date and take turns to go to the medical center for a physical check-up. Anyone with infectious diseases must be reported and cannot be concealed.
Otherwise be beheaded.
Then, the shopkeeper of Xinghe Bank went door to door and calculated the accounts with them. Only then did they realize that Master Yang had given them a low-interest loan for this house and all their supplies. From now on, they owed a terrifying amount of money.
debt.
The family had no time to rejoice, so they hugged each other and cried. Now it was all over.
But the next day, the land distribution began. When they learned that no grains would be harvested from the ten acres of paddy fields, they realized that the debt would be paid off in fifteen years. In fact, the burden was not heavy. After all, the paddy fields were subject to drought and floods, and the current food prices
It goes up every year, and it may take less than three to five years to pay it off.
But the training that followed was really like hell on earth, it was so painful.
When it came to archery, he couldn't even draw the bow at first, so he was often beaten by the general flag and the small flag.
He was very thin at that time, but the food here was really good. Soldiers ate together, not at home.
Thirty kilograms of cornmeal was given to each person for a month, which was enough for his family. The food he ate every day in the military camp was all fried in bright lard.
Each person had a small stainless steel basin full of rice, and it was also topped with a layer of steamed fatty pork. He and other soldiers wolfed it down in their mouths, having not eaten meat in several years.
While eating big mouthfuls, I shed tears again and again.
However, soon everyone was reluctant to eat fat meat slices because the women, children, and fathers at home did not have meat to eat.
They all hid it and took it home to feed the elderly and children at night. As a result, they were beaten by the officers again.
The officer made them understand that you must do whatever you are asked to do in the military camp, and you cannot have your own ideas. You must eat all the meat you are given, and it is a violation of military law not to eat it.
As for you thinking about your family, then train desperately. As long as the training reaches the standard, you will be rewarded. If you are at the top, there will be more rewards. Only in this way can your parents, wife and children eat meat.
From then on, the rigorous training began. I would often stand motionless for an hour, and my legs would become swollen. Anyone who moved would be hit with a stick.
Every day after gymnastics, we have to go to a half-hour literacy class as a group. The scholars who teach children are all taught. Some soldiers who did not complain during the training are really miserable when they learn to read. Some people do
He is a good worker, but forcing him to study is more uncomfortable than killing him.
But there was nothing he could do. If he failed the literacy class, half of the family's food ration would be deducted. This frightened him. Food could not be deducted. The whole family relied on food to survive.
What made him ashamed was that his daughter, who came home from school every day, took the initiative to give him extra lessons. Her eight-year-old daughter could read faster than he did, and taught him how to write under an oil lamp every night. In the end, he finally learned the first issue
The required three hundred words.
The following days became more and more difficult day by day. Every day when he came home, his wife would boil hot water for him and soak his feet. This made him finally feel that these legs were his own, and he often fell asleep while soaking them.
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As the days passed, Cao Xiu finally persisted. He shot a hundred arrows every day and no longer got beaten for failing to complete the training.
There is no problem if you shake the big gun, practice the three moves of "blocking, zhanna", and stab three hundred times a day.
In the last month, Master Yang's caravan brought more than 300 slaves. These people were handcuffed and shackled, and each of them looked fierce.
The women and children were so frightened that they ran away crying.
Then they began to practice using wooden swords to pierce leather armor.
They were beaten all over the floor by Jiannu every day, and they were beaten to pieces, except for the feces. Jiannu completely vented his anger as a prisoner on them.
Even though this is a one-sided beating, they must grit their teeth and persevere. If they fail to complete the task, they will be beaten with military sticks and even have their family's rations deducted.
From the beginning, only Jiannu could hit them with a knife stained with white ash, and now they could also leave marks on Jiannu's leather armor.
In the end, everyone was able to persist for more than three quarters of an hour and was able to cut fifty traces of Jiannu.
During that time, he would come home with a bruised nose and face every day, and his wife would give him medicine while shedding tears.
Finally, it's all over.
This day came so suddenly. No one was mentally prepared.
Master Yang came and announced that the first training period was completed.
At that moment, he was in a daze and didn't know how he persisted.
How many times have I thought I couldn't survive it?
Unknowingly, he not only survived, but also exceeded the task.
A ten-kilogram jar of white wine was hung on a rope around his neck. He was carrying a pair of pigs in the water on his back, fifteen kilograms of fat pork in his left hand, and a whole big pig's head braised in soy sauce in his right hand. He walked up the five steps in a daze.
Upstairs, when I entered the house, I thought it was all a dream.
My wife and I took the things away and took them to the kitchen.
He hasn't recovered yet.
It wasn't until my eight-year-old daughter stuffed a piece of fruit candy in her mouth. After the candy melted, the sweetness filled her mouth that she realized what she was doing.
All this is true.
My daughter Cao Ying was awarded a pound of fruit candy by the school because she came first in the class in literacy.
Cao Xiu walked into the kitchen and said to his wife: "My family hasn't eaten pig heads for several years. Today I cut them all off and let them eat freely. There is enough meat in the pig heads."
The dinner was very sumptuous. Cao Xiu and his father drank wine and ate braised pork meat and pork heads, thinking about the upcoming spring plowing and ten acres of paddy fields. His wife and I planned the newly allocated vegetable plot outside the earth building.
Here, build a pigsty, raise a few pigs, and raise some chickens, ducks, and geese.
Did the wonderful life begin like this? He was drunk unknowingly.
