Under the scorching sun, the old man lowered his head, seemingly resigned to his fate, and remained motionless despite the scorching sun.
The skin was loose and thin, with almost only a handful of bones left.
A three-foot-long tree trunk, used as a walking stick, lay quietly on the ground.
"Old man, the weather is so hot, why don't you go home? The sun outside is so sunny." Duan Tianming approached the old man, squatted down, picked up the old man's tree trunk walking stick, and gently leaned it under his buttocks.
next to the stone.
The old man slowly raised his head, opened his two cloudy eyes that were deeply sunken in their sockets, and his throat surged: "The door is locked, I can't get in."
His tone of voice was unusually calm.
It seemed that the Duan Tianming in front of him was not a fully armed imperial military attache, but just an ordinary soldier in his own "village".
After hearing the old man's words, Duan Tianming raised his head and looked at the house in front of him.
On the earth-yellow mud wall, two opposite doors were tightly closed, with an old door lock hanging on them that seemed to open with a pull.
"Did you lose your key? Let me open the door for you." With that said, Duan Tianming stood up and walked towards the Chaimen.
"Don't, don't, don't dare to open it." The old man was breathing rapidly because he was anxious.
Duan Tianming was startled. Could it be that there was some ancient beast in this room? If he opened it, he would be afraid that the beast would come out and hurt people.
Or is it that there is a lot of treasure behind this chaimen, and I am afraid that people will have evil intentions after seeing it?
"Old man, you're just hanging out in the sun like this and you don't even allow me to open the door to your room?" Duan Tianming lowered his body again and looked up at the old man.
"They locked the door because they didn't want me to come in. If you open the door for me, you won't scold me to death when I come back." Looking at Duan Tianming, the old man whispered.
"Is this house behind you your home?"
"yes."
"Then who locked the door and didn't let you in?" The anger in Duan Tianming's heart couldn't help but surge up.
No matter what the reason is, it is wrong to let the old man sit in the sun outside the door under such a strong sun.
"She's my daughter-in-law." The old man looked around to make sure there was no one else, then whispered.
"Daughter-in-law? Why did she lock the door and not let you in? Did she lock the door occasionally or often?"
"It's often locked." The old man sighed, "I'm old and have difficulty moving. People think I can't see the door, and they're afraid that I'll steal food. So, when I go to work in the fields every day, they let me sit out.
Outside, lock the door."
"You're just going to be exposed like this all day long?"
"Yes." The old man nodded and whispered, "As we get older, our skin is thicker and cannot be damaged by the sun."
"Where is your son? Doesn't he care?"
"The year before last, there was something going on in the guardhouse. I went out and never came back. Five hundred people went out together, and no one came back."
"Oh." Duan Tianming stood up.
If the son of a military household was at home, the old man would never be treated like this.
All the mistakes were made, and they were all the fault of Zhang Xing, the commander of Gong Changwei, and the fault of Dingxi Marquis.
"Has the imperial court paid pensions to everyone?" Duan Tianming asked with a smile.
"Yes, thirty taels of silver per household."
Duan Tianming reached into his arms with his right hand, took out fifty taels of silver notes, and prepared to hand it to the old man.
After thinking for a while, he took out another fifty taels, put the two banknotes together, and handed them to the old man.
"Your son and other soldiers all died for the country. The imperial court asked me to come and provide each household with an additional fifty taels of silver pension. This fifty tael was given by the imperial court, and the other five
Twelve, I gave it to you myself."
The old man waved his hand and pushed the banknote back.
"I'm old and don't have many years to live. Leave this money to those who need it. These military households never came back after they went out. They left a lot of children at home with no one to raise them. If the court is interested, they will take care of them.
Those children will be fine. As a dying person like me, I won’t waste the court’s money.”
"Take it." Duan Tianming said nothing, took the old man's hand and put the banknote in his palm.
"Every household has it, and each household is given fifty taels of silver."
"Thank you, court." The old man raised his right hand and wiped the tears from his eyes.
Duan Tianming stood up and ordered the captain behind him: "Gather all the people from these five hundred households here."
An hour later, the official road in front of the old man's door was darkly filled with people.
The school captain came over and said: "There are 483 households in total, and 17 of them have abandoned their houses and have no people left."
"Did the pillar of support fall and the family break up?" Duan Tianming sighed.
Duan Tianming found a slightly larger stone and stood on it.
He raised his head and slowly scanned the crowd with his gaze.
The entire group of people, except for the elderly, women and children, does not have a single working-age person.
Wearing tattered cloth clothes, with tanned skin, they all have slender bodies and are skinny and bones.
"Two years ago, your son, husband, and father sacrificed their lives for the country and will never come back again. According to normal procedures, the court has paid pensions to everyone. This year there is a drought in Gongchang, although the military fields of the Weisuo can
Irrigation, but the stream water has decreased, and the crops are not growing very well. The imperial court is sympathetic to everyone, and will provide each household with an additional fifty taels of silver as a pension for your relatives who sacrificed their lives for the country."
"Thank you, the court."
Someone said this and started crying.
As if it was contagious, the entire crowd started crying.
The old men at the front wiped away the tears on their faces and slowly knelt down towards Duan Tianming.
In an instant, like a long queue, the entire crowd knelt on the ground.
Duan Tianming turned around, took out a thick stack of banknotes from his waist, and handed them to the captain behind him.
"Fifty taels per household, distribute them."
Duan Tianming admits that he has never been a kind person.
But facing such a large number of orphans, widows, old, weak, sick and disabled, they were oppressed by life, and expressed their helplessness and struggle with tears and cries, I really couldn't stand it.
In a short time, all the military and family members received a pension of fifty taels.
Taking the remaining banknotes and putting them into his arms, Duan Tianming turned back.
He straightened his waist, stood on the stone again, and looked at everyone who was smiling at this moment.
"These fifty taels of silver are the imperial court's recognition of your deceased relatives and care for everyone's lives. However, I will say something ugly first." Duan Tianming's tone became cold.
Everyone was stunned.
What's wrong with this gentleman? Just now he was giving out money to everyone with a bodhisattva-like heart. Why is he saying ugly things in the blink of an eye?
What ugly thing to say?
They couldn't help but raise their heads one by one, looking at Duan Tianming, waiting for his "ugly words".
"This money is for everyone to improve their lives. Children should be raised, and they should be raised well. Old people should be filial, and they should be filial. If I hear that someone has taken money and neither raised children nor the elderly,
This stone is what will happen to him."
With that said, Duan Tianming jumped off the stone, turned around, and slapped him with one palm.
There was a loud "boom", and the stones that were standing under my feet disappeared, replaced by dust and dust in the sky, and a faint smell of stone powder filled the air.
Seeing the expressionless Duan Tianming, everyone was shocked.
Several women, not sure whether because of fear or shame, quietly lowered their heads.
"Let's go." Duan Tianming greeted, walked to the military horse on one side, turned over and jumped on the horse's back.
He crossed his legs and headed due north.
The team of captains behind him also hurriedly followed.
On the official road, billowing dust was raised, covering the sky and blocking out the sun.
Around a huge complex of adobe houses more than ten miles away from here, a heavily armed soldier stood every three feet.
This is where Gong Changwei's family members of the 500 caravans who were later added live.
According to Xiao Chen's order, two hundred households guarding Longyou Road, together with more than 200 people, controlled the place.
Unlike the families of the military families in the west, the families of these caravans seemed to be very wealthy.
Although some people were wearing cloth clothes, they were washed cleanly.
The cloth shoes on his feet were also spotless, with no trace of work in the fields at all.
In particular, a young man of about twenty years old, wearing an embroidered gown, looked somewhat elegant.
Next to the young man, stood a middle-aged man with a three-inch long beard, holding a folding fan in his hand and yelling at the hundreds of households guarding Longyou Road in front of him.
"Who are you, and why are you surrounding us and not allowing us to go out? We are all military households, do you have any laws?"
