Qu Nihou's title was removed, but Chen Ping's family continued to thrive.
Many people think that Chen Ping's descendants will be extinct by the fourth generation, Chen He.
In fact, Chen Ping had more than one son, only his eldest son Chen Mai inherited the marquis lineage.
Not only did Chen Ping have descendants, but his sons would also multiply. By the fourth generation, the Chen family had spread out in Quni County and became a famous family.
However, in Chen He's generation, after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty bought gold and won the title, the Chen family completely declined and became ordinary civilians, disappearing from the rest of the world.
Some of these people make a living on their own, while some form clans, cultivate the land, and take root in the countryside.
The descendants of Chenjiacun in Anshun Township are the descendants of Chen Ping's grandson and Chen Kui, the second son of Chen Mai.
Although Chen Kui did not inherit the title of Marquis of Quni bought by Chen, he was a biological brother of the then Marquis of Quni, Chen Hui. Chen Hui helped him acquire many fields in the countryside outside the city, so that his descendants could
You can have a roof over your head.
As a result, after hundreds of years of reproduction, Chen Kui's descendants are spread all over Anshun Township, especially Chenjia Village, where the clan ancestral hall is located, and Chen Kui's descendants basically live here.
At this time in Chenjia Village, the north wind was blowing coldly in winter, and the withered yellow weeds on the fields were blowing in the wind. The farmland was overgrown with weeds, and no one was working on it.
When the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, it was the time for sowing seeds in spring. As a result, civil unrest broke out in Youzhou and Jizhou. Although the uprising in Puyin County was not large in scale, it was quickly suppressed by the local powerful and the government, but it still caused serious consequences.
Quite a bit of turmoil.
The spring plowing was not sown in time, and there was still time to switch to other crops. Unexpectedly, there was also trouble in the northern grasslands. Xianbei went south, bypassed the Taihang Mountains, broke into Youzhou and plundered, threatening the Zhongshan Kingdom.
Zhang Chun, the Prime Minister of the Zhongshan Kingdom, recruited strong men and forced them to submit to corvée service. He went to Guangchang County, Lingqiu County, and other places in the northern part of the Zhongshan Kingdom to "defend the fortress" and resist the Xianbei tribe going south.
Han law stipulates that adults under the age of fifty-six must serve for two years as a regular soldier. Although generally speaking, as long as they serve as a regular soldier, they do not need to perform military service in the future. However, in case of border defense emergencies and when the government needs it,
You must still obey the call to enlist and must not resist.
After more than three hundred years of reproduction, Chenjia Village has developed from the first generation Chen Kui to now. There are now three to four hundred villagers and one to two hundred young adults. When a conscription order was issued, most of the young adults were forcibly recruited.
.
It was the time of spring plowing, and half of the labor force was gone, leaving women, children, the elderly and the weak to stay behind. You can imagine how difficult life was.
However, disasters often don't come just once. The villagers managed to survive this difficult year. At the end of the year, the people who went to guard the fort came back. More than a hundred people went, and only two or three came back.
Most of the ten people died on the border and rested in foreign lands forever.
Every household in Chenjia Village is hung with plain white cloth. Every day, the countryside is shaken by howls and cries. The north wind blows like ghosts from hell howling miserably in the wind.
In a house in the west of the village, a middle-aged man limped out of the house with a cane in one hand.
Next to him was a boy of thirteen or fourteen years old, holding a box in his hand.
The shrew chased her out of the house. With red eyes, she roared at the man: "Chen Qing, if you dare to go, don't go back to this house and die outside."
A man who had been honest all his life turned around and yelled at the fierce woman: "What does this woman know? What does this little money mean?"
The nearby villagers came out of their houses one by one. Everyone looked at them blankly with red eyes.
The shrew burst into tears and cried: "You heartless thing, do I feel sorry for the money? The Zhang family has already said that what they want is hundreds of acres of fertile land in our village. Now you go
, our lives are about to be lost, and we are left with orphans and widows, so we might as well just die."
More and more villagers gathered together, but no one spoke.
At first, the prefect recruited strong men, captured most of the village's labor force, and forced them to work in the frontier. A year later, very few people came back from Chenjia Village.
After the labor shortage in the village, nearly half of the fields could not be taken care of. Some of the families were destroyed due to the war, and the remaining old and weak had to sell their fields to make a living.
The county government and the local powerful Zhang family used the excuse that Chenjia Village was underpopulated and did not need so much land, and jointly tried to buy these fields away through half-purchase and half-force.
If the price is right, it is not non-negotiable. After all, there are fewer people in the village now, leaving so much land that it is really difficult to take care of it.
However, not only did they want to buy all the fields, the price they offered was less than one-fifth of what it would be in a normal year.
How can this be done?
Puyin County was once the fiefdom of Chen Ping, and the entire farmland in the county belonged to Chen Ping.
The fields that Chen Hui gave to Chen Kui were all good and fertile fields in the east of the city. In later generations, they belonged to the grain-producing areas of the North China Plain. They were valuable and were the basis for the livelihood of Chenjia Village.
If these fields are bought at a low price, the villagers of Chenjia Village will no longer have a livelihood in the future. They will either have to rely on powerful people to work as farm slaves, or they will have to leave their hometowns and go to other places to reclaim their fields.
No matter which one of these two choices it is, the ending will not be very happy.
The man named Chen Qing was unlucky. When he went there, he was intact, but when he came back, he had a broken arm and injured a leg.
But at the same time, he is also lucky, because at least he can come back, which is always much better than those who did not come back.
A few days ago, a letter came back from out of town, saying that the eldest son of the family, who had gone out to work in the world, had made a career and became a minor official with a salary of 600 shi, and he brought back some money.
The man wanted to give the money to the Zhang family and the county magistrate to ask for mercy and see if they could let Chenjiacun go.
But everyone in the village knows that this is impossible.
In previous years, there were more than 200 young people in Chenjiacun, a mighty force, and they were a considerable force. Even local powerful people did not dare to pry into their fields.
But now, more than half of the young men's casualties were injured. Even those who were not dead were mostly wounded. The strength they could muster was less than twenty or thirty people.
Compared with the local tycoons who have hundreds or thousands of slaves, they are like throwing an egg at a stone and not overestimating their own capabilities.
Not to mention the government's involvement and the county magistrate's secret threats.
The elders in the village seemed to have accepted their fate. They debated for several days whether to move to another place or join the Zhang family as slaves, but to no avail.
Only this man named Chen Qing seems to have not given up yet and wants to give his last effort.
The man was limping, and although his steps were slow, he was very steady.
The boy turned back every step of the way, watching his mother's reaction.
"Chen Qing, come back here."
The shrew was still crying and ran out to grab the man. At the same time, she shouted to the surrounding villagers: "People around you, are you just going to let Chen Qing die? You should know that if he goes,
, he will definitely be beaten to death by the Zhang family."
Behind her, there was an ignorant little girl of eight or nine years old.
"Go away."
The man desperately wanted to throw the shrew away. After being obedient in front of the woman all his life, he was so stubborn for the first time.
It's not that he doesn't love his wife, it's that he knows there is a reason why he must do this.
He wanted to leave the land passed down from generation to generation to his sons and grandchildren so that they could all live on.
This is a farmer’s lifelong expectation, and it is also a farmer’s last bottom line.
Farmers of the Han nation have such simple thoughts throughout their lives.
If these fields are lost, how can he have the dignity to meet his ancestors after his death?
"Ah Qing, forget it, we can't defeat the Zhang family."
"Yes, this is no longer a matter of money. The Zhang family just wants our land. No amount of money will be of any use."
"My husband died in a foreign country, and he didn't even bring his body back. Now only this child is left. For the sake of the child, I have to live no matter how hard or tired I am. It doesn't matter if I sell myself into a slave. I still have something to eat. Don't
Go and die, Ah Qing."
Although the neighbors all wore white headscarves and their eyes were red from crying, they still endured their grief and came to persuade me.
Even the clan elders have accepted their fate, let alone them.
Selling yourself as a slave is very miserable, because becoming a powerful slave is equivalent to your death. You will no longer be listed in your household registration. Your master can humiliate you as much as he wants. Even if you are killed, it will only be like you.
It's killing an animal without any human rights.
But so what, it is still a way to survive.
This is the tenacity of the Han nation since ancient times. They live like weeds. No matter how humiliating and humiliating they are, as long as they can survive, they are willing to endure it.
When you are alive, there is hope.
Even a clan elder stood up and persuaded: "Ah Qing, I know you are doing good for the people in the village. You would rather spend all your wealth to keep the land in the village. But this amount of money is too little, and it is a drop in the bucket. If we don't agree,
, they will continue to recruit us, and people will die in the village, many people. Ah Qing, give up."
In the past, the man who couldn't beat a fart with a stick just smiled honestly and said to the clan elder: "Third uncle, I'm going to try. If the Zhang family doesn't want to, I'll go to the county magistrate to see if it doesn't work."
Come back, you don’t have to worry about me, you really just want to try."
"Hey, take a few people with you."
The clan elder sighed. Why didn't he understand the man's temper that even nine cows could not control? He said that if he tried it, he might not be so easy to be kind. If a quarrel broke out and angered the Zhang family and the county magistrate,
I'm afraid his life will be...
"No."
The man broke away from the woman arrogantly and continued to limp forward. The young man stood there and looked at his mother. The man shouted in a low voice: "Azhi, come here."
The young man named Chen Zhi had no choice but to continue carrying the cash box and slowly left the house behind his father.
The woman knew that she could not persuade the man, so she knelt down on the cold ground in the freezing weather, crying all over the place. Some of the women around her came to help persuade him, some remained silent, and some shed tears.
When people live in this world, they have to try everything. Whether it is the courage born at that moment, or being forced to do nothing.
As long as there is hope, as long as there is still possibility...
If we can really keep the land and sacrifice one person, it is not unworthy.
At least in the eyes of the people in Chenjiacun, Chen Qinghui is a hero.
Even if he was once unknown, even if he had been a coward in the village his whole life...
The howling north wind was still blowing, and the woman was sitting on the open space in front of the house, holding the little girl with a dirty face in her arms.
When I was tired of crying, the people around me were tired of persuading me, so they went home.
Life has to go on after all.
Her eyes were red, her tears were dry, and she couldn't cry, so she just looked into the distance dreamily.
The sound of horse hooves came from behind the house, but it could not divert her attention.
She stared blankly in the direction of the village entrance in the distance, expecting a limping man to come back.
No matter how slow you walk, no matter how missing a leg, as long as you are still alive, everything will be fine.