Zhu Yihai hugged the little girl and teased her with a smile. The little girl is no longer as embarrassed as before. She is very clean all over, even her hair has been trimmed. She also carefully removed the lice, tied up two little buns, and tied them with a red silk belt.
.
Her forehead is high and prominent, her clean face is still yellow, but her eyes are big.
Wearing a small skirt, Zhu Yihai could hardly feel her weight in his hands, as her arms and legs were so thin.
"Call daddy."
But the little girl was just grabbing a boiled egg and eating it, without any happiness on her face.
This girl has not smiled since her mother died and was buried that day. She neither cried nor made trouble, but she just did not laugh, no matter how teased she was, she would not laugh or speak.
Either she was in a daze, or she was looking for something to eat. She ate an astonishing amount of food. If Zhu Yihai hadn't had people watching her and controlling her diet, this little guy would have eaten herself to death.
The imperial doctor prescribed prescriptions to help regulate the spleen and stomach, and the little guy's appetite became better.
Whenever he is free, Zhu Yihai will come to see her, hold her and tease her. Although she still didn't speak today, Zhu Yihai can feel that the child is now close to him. After he comes over, he will obviously look at her from time to time.
He even hugged her without struggling or objecting.
Seeing her eating eggs so intently, Zhu Yihai felt distressed. She was a poor person like grass in troubled times. To this day, Zhu Yihai has not yet figured out the identity of this girl. Her mother is still just an unknown person. She doesn’t know where she came from or what her original name was.
, is there anyone else at home?
"Daddy, can you give me a name?"
The little girl continued to eat the eggs.
Zhu Yihai wiped the egg yolk from the corner of her mouth and said, "How about calling her Ningwei, Zhu Ningwei? In the Book of Songs, picking weeds and weeds are said to be the smallest vegetables. The wei mentioned in the ancient Book of Songs is said to refer to wild peas and small nest vegetables.
Wait, it's some wild vegetables.
Although you were born just like that Ye Wei Fu Ping, dad believes that you can grow up strong and be peaceful and healthy in the future.
Ning Wei, do you like this name, my fifth princess?"
The little girl glanced at Zhu Yihai, and then handed the egg in her hand to Zhu Yihai.
Zhu Yihai took a small bite and said, "Thank you, dad, take a bite, and you take a bite too."
Liu Chao sighed on the side, "The fifth princess has been very protective of food since she was adopted by your majesty. She usually eats every grain of rice in the bowl, and even takes medicine prescribed by the imperial doctor to regulate the spleen and stomach. No matter how hard she suffers,
They would take the initiative to drink until there was not a drop left. Even if they fell asleep, they would always have something to eat in their hands.
I didn’t expect that I would be willing to take the initiative to share the eggs with the emperor now.”
Zhu Yihai touched the girl's head. Her hair was yellow and split. He helped her bathe and comb her hair before, but it took a lot of effort to straighten out the knotted hair.
This child is estimated to be only about three and a half years old, and only about 80 centimeters tall. He is definitely short. Some normal one-year-old children are this tall.
There is severe malnutrition, some ribs are even valgus, and there is slight rickets. Fortunately, the treatment can be improved.
She is a poor child. Like countless refugees from the Central Plains, wars, natural disasters and wars have caused them to be displaced and leave their homes. In the end, their families may have been separated, but they have already starved to death. The only remaining relatives around her also starved to death next to her, leaving her helpless.
.
But she was lucky. She met Zhu Yihai and the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who took her back directly, adopted her as his child, and named her the fifth princess.
The egg yolk broke into small pieces and fell to the ground. The girl struggled to get down, insisting on picking it up and eating it.
After eating the eggs, the girl yawned with satisfaction and felt sleepy.
She lay in Zhu Yihai's arms, feeling very safe, holding on to the necklace made of wooden hairpins left behind by her mother in one hand, and fell asleep deeply.
Zhu Yihai hugged her and patted her gently.
"Your Majesty, please come and hold me."
"Need not."
"How is the adoption of refugee orphans going?"
"The slave has sent people to each refugee camp to take charge of this matter. All orphans who have lost their parents and relatives will be sent to Denglai first, and then transferred to the orphan camp in Changshan, where they will be nursed back to health for a period of time before being sent back.
In Jiangnan, orphanages are also being built there, and they have begun to contact officials, soldiers and civilians about adopting orphans." Liu Chao replied quickly.
Zhu Yihai sighed, "It's not enough to just accept orphans in refugee camps. This time the Yellow River Damage in Shandong Province is estimated to have affected three provinces, ten prefectures, forty and fifty prefectures and counties. After the floods, there will be a major epidemic, and then there will be a big famine. You have to think about it."
The best way is to go deep into the disaster area and rescue more people, especially those orphans. If no one rescues them, they will only die miserably and their lives will wither away just at the beginning. It is too cruel."
"Your Majesty, we can't save so many people."
"Think of a way to save one more person."
"Then slave girl, try your best to find a way to use some other identities to go over there and rescue people." Liu Chao suggested some ways, such as buying people directly and buying those orphans from their fellow villagers and relatives. If there is a big disaster,
At that time, after losing a parent or close relative, relatives and fellow villagers could sometimes provide temporary relief, but the relief could not last long because they had too much time to take care of themselves.
You can also go to give out porridge or take in orphans directly in the local area.
There are also many other ways, such as recruiting orphans over eight or nine years old as apprentices and taking them away.
Just like the imperial camp now sends people from Henan, Shandong, Huainan and other places to contact the local Zhongming forces and marry a large number of young girls back to the imperial camp soldiers to marry.
There is turmoil there now and it is still a disaster area. A few buckets of food can bring back a young girl. Compared with Jiangnan, the cost is very small. Although there are many soldiers in the imperial camp who are willing to marry girls from their hometown, after all, many soldiers in the imperial camp are actually originally
The conditions are very poor, and some are even purely proletarian, or even slave-tenants.
Marrying soldiers in the imperial camp is considered a welfare of the imperial camp. If it can reduce expenses and find a good girl, of course the imperial camp will be happy.
For the victims, survival is the most important thing. With a few buckets of food, the family may be able to survive the famine. If the daughter is married to the south, she may even live a good life without going hungry. In the year of peace,
In the past month, the conditions for accepting betrothal gifts depended on the family, but now there are not so many details.
The last thing parents can do for their daughter is to prevent her daughter from becoming a prostitute and falling into the fire pit of a brothel.
It is said that the locals in the south of the Yangtze River are now hostile to and even hate women from the south of the Yangtze River because of the large number of women from the north of the Yangtze River. They think that they have robbed those young and high-quality soldiers from the imperial camp. The women from the south of the Yangtze River are packed with baggage and sent south in groups to attack the soldiers from the imperial camp.
Very attractive indeed.
This also began to have a serious impact on the wedding tradition in Jiangnan. In the past, by the middle and late Ming Dynasty, marriage was a big event. The betrothal gifts and dowries were heavy, which put a lot of pressure on both men and women. Many poor people could not afford to marry a wife.
He can't even afford to marry his daughter.
Therefore, in many places such as Fujian, the situation of female infanticide has always been serious.
Although this custom puts a heavy burden on the people, it is not easy to break the custom. If you don't do this, you will not be able to hold your head high in the countryside, and others will laugh at you.
Moreover, if a man cannot afford the bride price, others will not marry the girl to you.
But now, because of the large number of women from Jiangbei going south, they are basically getting married with only three to five buckets of food, and apart from bringing a small baggage, they will not have any dowry.
The Royal Camp will help them arrange blind dates, and they will have three chances to meet each other, and then they will be forcibly matched. After they are matched, they will hold a wedding for them, and they will also get a red envelope for them. It is considered a low-end dowry, not much, but it is meaningful.
Such a simple but efficient new style of marriage has had a great impact on the local people in Jiangnan.
Others will get married with only three to five taels of grain, and if the imperial camp comes forward, the soldiers of the imperial camp do not have to provide the grain themselves. If you marry, you can get a few taels of silver as a dowry. Not only do you not have to pay for it here, but you can also get some real money.
The girls are often young and fit. With such good conditions, many soldiers from the imperial camp who had poorer conditions in the past are naturally willing to marry these Jiangbei girls. They are not willing to pay extra high wedding gifts but find local girls.
Local men will also use Jiangbei girls to speak.
Even what the imperial camp can do, they can naturally do it. Now there are many such human teeth intermediaries in Jiangnan. They go to Jiangbei and bring girls back to Jiangnan with three or five buckets of food, and then introduce them to Jiangnan men. Of course, they have to do it again.
Although charging some extra money for introducing tea and water, etc., is an extra expense, it is still much cheaper than marrying a local girl.
Faced with the impact of girls from Jiangbei, local girls can only change their traditions. They either reduce the betrothal gift or do not accept the betrothal gift when they see outstanding men, such as promising military officers or scholars, or they stop picking and choosing.
Once you have chosen, you will get married if you are close enough, and you will no longer want this or that.
Many things are changing.
The refugee girl in Jiangbei exchanged a few buckets of food for her family, and the imperial camp used a small cost to find a very good welfare for the soldiers, giving them wives.
The soldiers in the imperial camp got wives for free, and they were filled with joy and extremely grateful to the court and the Holy One.
As for the girls in Jiangbei, they left the turbulent Jiangbei disaster area and came to Jiangnan to get married and settle down, and start a stable life again.
This seems to be a virtuous cycle. It even spawned a Jiangnan tooth shop, which brought some food to the disaster area in Jiangbei, brought back girls at a very cheap price, and then introduced them to Jiangnan men, earning a good intermediary fee and making a fortune.
, and ordinary men in Jiangnan can finally marry wives.
"Liu Chao, I have been thinking about it for a long time. There must be a detailed plan for rescuing orphans. For example, we must think of more ways to get those orphans from the disaster area as quickly as possible. Then we must treat and recover in time. After three or five days,
It will take a month to recuperate, and then we still have to find a way to find someone to adopt her."
"Either the imperial court or my internal funds can provide money to find a family to foster her."
"We can also encourage people to adopt orphans and provide appropriate incentives through policies."
Liu Chao lamented the emperor's kindness, but he had to remind the emperor, "Your Majesty, the world is in turmoil now, victims are everywhere, and orphans are constantly being produced. If Your Majesty wants to do his best to rescue and adopt, it will cost a lot of money, very much."
many."
"Try your best to save her."
Faced with the tragedy of this chaotic world, Zhu Yihai also knew that he could not save everyone, so he could only prioritize and rescue orphans. They are the future of the country and the nation.
Then there are craftsmen and scholars, these are the foundation for the development and growth of the imperial court.
Then there are young people, which are high-quality labor.
Although such grading will inevitably lead to a situation where one person is saved first, then that one may not be saved, but this is a helpless move.
Maybe everyone should be treated equally, but in this kind of disaster and famine, orphans are the least able to resist and should be rescued first.
