In the twelfth year of Taixing and 1731, it came as promised.

Southwest of Wendeng, Pingdu Prefecture.

In the five years of Chongzhen in the previous dynasty, Kong Youdeden Prefecture mutiny, Tu Pingdu; In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered Shandong and robbed Pingdu......

Decades have passed, the survivors have sprouted, those who have moved from other places have taken root here, the dead unclaimed land has been redistributed, and there have been several years of famine in between, but it is better than the hellish days of the wars at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Just after the New Year, there is still no snow, and many experienced old farmers have already counted the wheat in the wheat fields that were prematurely jointed last winter.

The smart man didn't tell anyone, and confirmed that his family's grain storage could not support the autumn, so he took advantage of the high price of the land to sell the land and slip away.

There are more and more people, food prices are getting higher and higher, and more people are being numbered.

As soon as the green turned green, the wild vegetables, elm leaves, and willow leaves of the young shoots in the field had been stripped away.

They all know that they can eat elm money if they wait for a while, but many people know that they may not be able to wait, and they can save a little food.

We also know that the tree will die if it has no bark, and if the tree dies, it will not be able to regenerate leaves, and the bark of the elm tree that may have been eaten is still stripped away.

Everyone thinks that if they think that they can eat the leaves for a long time without picking the bark, and if others don't want to pick the bark directly, then they will lose money.

By the beginning of April, it had not rained yet, and the bark had been peeled clean.

More people began to sell their land and prepare to flee the famine.

The land price has dropped from 321 mu at the beginning, to 221 mu in April, before it rains. Wait until a hot and dry wind blows in mid-April, cut it in half, and exchange it for a few buckets of grain.

The wheat is ripe in May, but the wheat is dried up before it is ripe, and there is not a single harvest.

I heard that Feicheng, Jinanfu, and Mount Tai are also great wilderness, and there are so many dead people in Feicheng that they don't even carry corpses.

The governor of Pingdu Prefecture knew that something was wrong, put down his official position, and personally implored the people not to flee the famine.

If they all flee, the population will be greatly reduced, and the taxes will not be collected, this evaluation will inevitably be extremely poor.

Now those who have fled the famine are all yeoman farmers, who have sold their land and fled the famine alive. If these people escape, how will the taxes be collected next year? It is difficult for large households to harvest, and the best harvest is homesteaders. What if they run away?

only said that the imperial court would definitely provide relief for disaster relief, but the people who fled the famine knelt and cried to the state pastor: "Even if you give seven or eight buckets of relief, what will happen after eating?" Please, sir, let us live. ”

The state pastor begged the people to stay in tears, and the people also begged the state pastor to let him live.

Even if he was given a way out, he had nowhere to go.

Feicheng, Jinan, and Zichuan have all begun to have large-scale harvests.

The people who flee the famine are like headless flies, they don't know where to go, they only know that they follow the crowd of people, and they go wherever they go.

The landed ones sold their land, and gathered up silver to flee the famine.

Those who have no land have long been out of food, and they had to rely on some wild vegetables and leaves to survive when they were not green, and they ate up all the bark early this year.

When the wheat harvest is out in May, and there is nothing to eat, where can we flee?

The first to flee the famine were still homesteaders, who could exchange a little silver for a little money and survive to a place that was not deserted.

Those who leave late to flee the famine, there is nowhere to go, fleeing the famine is death, and staying at home is also death.

Chang closed the warehouse to start disaster relief and sell cheap grain, but there was not much grain in the warehouse.

There is not much grain released every day, and there is not much food left in the warehouse, and each person can buy it every day, so as to keep it as cheap as possible, and a bucket of silver and a penny.

However, what about the nearby villages?

Pingdu Prefecture, Renzhao.

Eighteen-year-old Zhang Dadun lay on the plank, panting hard.

The mother lying next to her was swollen all over, and her legs had begun to fester. Green-headed flies buzzed around the yellow water that flowed from the swollen breaches in their legs.

Zhang Dadun wanted to reach out and wave it, but his mother said in a vain accent that was about to die: "Boss, save effort." ”

The younger brother Erdun had a hungry belly, like a bean sprout, curled up on the ground basking in the sun, only hating himself for why he was not a bean sprout, and he could be full by basking in the sun.

There was a smell of corpses outside the door, and from time to time there was a loud bang, and I don't know whose dead person blew up.

I've listened to it a lot in the past few days, and I think it's a good sound, at least it's a little bit of movement, and I know that I'm still alive.

The dog is long gone, eaten up. The tree was stripped of its bark and dried up, and it didn't bother to scream when it was known. The explosion of this corpse is only a cannon for one's own funeral.

There was no rain in May, and the summer grain that had been planted dried up immediately afterwards. It's June, and it finally rained a few days ago, but it's late.

Zhang Dadun has a total of eight brothers and sisters, five of whom did not live to the age of six, and one younger brother just starved to death a few days ago, and his father also starved to death, and now there are three people left in the family.

There was a sound of footsteps outside the door, and Zhang Dadun didn't bother to turn around to see who it was, so he could save a little effort.

"Auntie, my father is gone. Brother Da Dun, my father is dead, my sister and I can't lift it, you and Er Dun help carry it. ”

A young man, weak enough to stand against the wall, shouted into the room. It is said to be shouting, but in fact, it is not as loud as a normal person's voice.

Zhang Dadun's mother hummed weakly, and said, "Da Dun, Er Dun, go, go to the third uncle's house." It can't stink in the house. There is still a little bran noodles in the tank, you shake it, and you can eat it there at noon with Huzi and Dani. Huzi came, and he didn't say anything about making a meal......"

Hungry like this, the most basic etiquette is still thinking, always thinking that when his nephew comes, even if he gets a leaf, it can be regarded as a hospitality.

Zhang Dadun leaned against the wall, stood up hard, and moved to the side of the tank, where the bottom had already been seen.

After picking for a long time, I got a small half bowl of bran, and went to the third uncle's house with the bowl.

The man on the mat had stiffened.

There was also a ten-year-old girl, who also had swollen legs and round, and did not cry, and when she saw her cousins coming, she smiled hard at her father's corpse.

Zhang Dadun put the half bowl of bran on the stove.

"Dani, let's go get some leaves and mix this bran with it, and steam a few dumplings. Otherwise, the four of them won't be able to lift it. ”

"Hey."

The little girl staggered outside, and only came back after more than an hour, holding a handful of messy grass, and on top of it were a few shepherd's cabbages, like a crown embellished.

With the mucus of these leaves, the half bowl of bran was doughed into ten egg-sized balls. The four of them ate eight, and left two of them with shepherd's cabbage dumplings for Zhang Dadun's mother.

After this meal, he seemed to have some strength, and walked up to the dead man who had been stiffened, rolled up the mat, and found a rope to tie it.

The seven-foot-tall man, after he died, was starved and only had less than 100 catties left, but the four of them were also staggered and carried out of the house.

When I came to the outside of the village, I didn't have the strength to dig a pit, so I dug up a little soil and filled it on the mat. He knelt down and kowtowed again, and with a kowtow, the strength to stand up on his body was suddenly dissipated, and the four of them didn't stand up for a long time, just panting vigorously.

Zhang Dadun touched the two nests in his arms, thinking that his mother was still hungry at home, so he grabbed an old vine next to him and stood up.

Knock knock knock......

Just as he stood up, the sound of gongs and drums came from the village, accompanied by shouts in local accents.

"Recruited! Recruited! Is there anything left alive in the village? Recruited, recruited! Eat the royal food! Those who can breathe and walk around come to the entrance of the village! The death in the family is a priority. ”

Knock knock knock......

The sound of drums and gongs was so noisy, Zhang Dadun heard the word "grain", and suddenly had strength under his legs, but he didn't care about the sentence "The old and the young in the family are given priority".

Thinking about being a soldier by himself, how can he not stutter for a month and feed his younger brother and mother? With the strength born in his heart, he moved towards home step by step.

"Mother! Mother! Recruited, starving to death. ”

I shouted twice, but there was no response, and when I looked into the room again, the flies had already landed.

Zhang Dadun knelt on the ground with a grunt, and tried his best to blast away the flies all over his body, but he didn't cry.

just silently took out a nest, broke half of it and stuffed it into my mother's mouth.

kowtowed three times to the dead mother and only asked.

"Mother, why don't you hold on for a while?"

"Mother, I'll go to be a soldier first, eat rations, and I'll come over to carry you later."

With that, he kowtowed again, and one last futile attempt swept away the pile of green-headed flies, and before the flies could fall again, he turned and went out of the house.

When he arrived at the third uncle's house, his cousin Zhang Hu didn't wait for him to speak, and shook his head directly.

"Brother Da Dun, you go, I won't go. I'll go, and my sister will be finished. ”

Without waiting for him to finish speaking, Zhang Dadun called his younger brother over, stuffed the half-nest into the hands of his second brother and cousin, and pulled Zhang Hu out.

"That's also Erdun's sister. Let's go to the army and let them be at home. I went there to eat food first, and when I had the strength, I came back and buried my mother. ”

Dead people are already a very common thing, since they are directly buried, they are already dead.

When the two of them wandered to the entrance of the village, they saw dozens of sturdy men with guns and a few large pots, cooking porridge there.

Zhang Dadun didn't have much knowledge, but he also knew that he had to be sixteen or seventeen to be a soldier, but there were seven or eight-year-old dolls squatting on the ground and drinking porridge in the back, and there were even women.

I suddenly thought of a possibility, could it be that this is still recruiting soldiers and prostitutes, or is it that the old bustard also came with these military masters? If the soldier leaves, it is good to give some food, and if he gives it to his second brother and cousin, he may be able to support the past.

If you don't give food...... Then be Dani, they all say that they laugh at poverty and don't laugh at prostitutes, even if they are prostitutes, they will die in the future, at least they are alive now, right?

Thinking of this, I talked to my cousin.

However, before the words fell, the cousin, who was walking hungry and fluttering, came out of nowhere with the strength to slap him in the face.

"Mommy's beep!"

Zhang Dadun was already hungry, and this slap came down, and his eyes suddenly turned black, and he subconsciously grabbed his cousin's neck, hugged him and fell to the ground.

The two of them were so hungry that they didn't even have the strength to roll, and the two soldiers carried them away like chickens, and scolded: "What are you doing? Running here to fight? It seems that you are still not hungry when you come, and you still have the strength to fight! ”

After the separation, a young man dressed in a strange military uniform with tassels on his shoulders walked over, and without asking the reason for the fight, he first asked Zhang Dadun: "What's your name?" ”

"Zhang Dadun."

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"Who else is in the house?"

Subconsciously touched the slap on his face, smelled the aroma of cooked rice next to him, and said after a little hesitation: "There are two younger brothers and a younger sister." Everything else starved to death. ”

When Zhang Hu on the side heard this, he shouted: "I went to kill my mother's legs, you are a younger brother, where is the younger sister?" Master Jun, Master Jun, don't listen to his nonsense, he is just a younger brother. ”