Luoyang City, Lijing Gate.

A few days later, the emperor will continue to the south and lead a large army into Sichuan, and when the news comes, the people are more lively than the official offices and royal residences in the city.

It was about nine o'clock in the morning in the later generations, and the Lijingmen Bazaar, as usual, suddenly appeared at this time, two young people who were still decent but had dishes on their faces, both in their twenties.

The two were of the same age, and their gestures were incompatible with the people around them, they were wearing ordinary clothes, but there was a hint of pride on their faces.

One person obviously couldn't walk, tired and panting: "I can't walk... You wait for me, don't be so fast. ”

Then the others turned back, stood there waiting, shook their heads, and said:

"I told you on weekdays, that little bit of rice can't support us at all, the court is in difficulty, Your Majesty even Liaodong's salary is sent to his own treasury, and the rice comes and goes, and everything has to rely on himself."

The person who spoke was named Zhu Shen, a descendant of the Ning Clan, and a disciple of the clan.

Although he has a vegetable face and a thin body, his eyes are still shining, and he is chasing after the child of the clan, he is from the same background, but his attitude towards life is very different.

Both of them are members of the many clan disciples who live a hard life in Luoyang City, and they have traveled to various markets, as well as the east and west markets in the city.

They probably also know that the bazaar in Lijingmen has the most poor and sour people, and there are no strange goods, so there will be no such people who are rich and noble.

Although they can't eat a full meal a day now, the two of them are still children of the clan after all, and they still can't get over this hurdle in their hearts.

In case you meet the rest of the clan's children, or businessmen whose status is not as good as your own, and are ridiculed and looked at by them, it is really a loss of face, and there is nothing you can do.

"Two, here you are again?"

The two came to a stall, groped for a while, and did not find a few copper plates in their pockets, but licked their lips and were about to leave.

Listening to the stall vendor who knew him, he asked himself if he would buy it this time.

The two smiled awkwardly, but they were panting, and Zhu Tongyi, a descendant of the Yi Domain, sat on the ground and said that he would not leave.

"Where do we have the spare money to buy this thing?" Zhu Shen put his hand in his pocket, tightly squeezing the few pennies used to buy steamed buns.

The peddler didn't say much, and he was used to it.

At this time, a woman brought a little girl about six or seven years old to the stall, and couldn't resist the girl's noise, threw out a few pennies and sold a string of sugar gourds.

The little girl took it in her hand, stuck out her tongue, and savored it beautifully.

Zhu Tong sat on the ground, ignoring the dirty clothes, staring directly at the string of sugar gourds in the little girl's hand, as if he was going to snatch it in the next moment.

However, he just licked his chapped lips, looked at Zhu Shen standing beside him, and said, "I haven't eaten a meal for two days... I am hungry. ”

Hearing this, Zhu Shen also suddenly felt that his stomach was spinning, and he was helpless, so he had to use the little strength he had left to pick up this fellow sect on the ground and walk carefully on the street.

The distance of more than ten steps, the thoughts in the hearts of the two people, is something that the people on the street can never understand.

The background of the children of the clan is a capital that is naturally superior, but because there are too many such people, Zhu Youxiao now has to live a tight life.

The Ming Dynasty is about to be eaten by them.

The arrears of the children of the clan were particularly serious in the first year of the Apocalypse in Shanxi and Henan provinces, but the border armies in the frontier and the guards in various places were in arrears for a longer period of time and in a wider range.

During the Hongwu Dynasty, there were only 58 men and women in the clan below the county king, and less than 200 years later, in the eighth year of Jiajing, there were nearly 10,000 male registered clan children alone!

Zhu Youxiao killed the king of Luoyang, and under the king of Luoyang, there are many children of the clan!

Shanxi and Henan are the hardest hit areas in arrears.

In the thirty-second year of Jiajing, Shanxi had 1.5 million stones of rice and wheat, but more than 3 million stones were needed to pay Zonglu.

In the forty-seventh year of Wanli, Henan retained 800,000 stones of rice and wheat, and Zonglu needed 2 million stones, and the grain of a province was still not enough to supply half of the rice in Lu.

For the children of the clan like Zhu Shen and Zhu Tong, the worse is still to come.

The imperial court has always had strict rules for the children of the clan, prohibiting them from engaging in the industrial and commercial industry, even if they are in arrears day after day, the poor middle and low-class clan children cannot even make a living for themselves!

Zhu Shen likes to read military affairs since he was a child and wants to take the martial arts test, but the background of the children of the clan is destined to make him unable to enter the battlefield like ordinary military generals.

Like him, many sect members issued demands for reform, and some even jointly appealed for the imperial court to open up the imperial examination to the children of the down-and-out clans.

Emperor Jiajing formulated a new "Zong Fan Regulations" to adapt to the current situation, but the reform of the Jiajing Dynasty was not strictly enforced due to the continuous deterioration of the government and the many barriers between the court and China.

To this day, even if there is such a small number of the huge sect disciples, who are full of revenge and blood, they can only passively eat and wait for death.

They can't do anything else!

When they were young, the two came to the outside of a store they frequented, and as soon as they came to the door, the proprietress of the store warmly greeted the two of them into the door.

Zhu Shen and Zhu Tongjing came to an inconspicuous corner on the first floor and sat down, and they were relieved to see that they had not attracted the attention of the diners.

Zhu Shen fumbled in his pocket for a while, took out a few copper plates, and said with a smile: "As in the past, four steamed buns." ”

The woman sighed, took the copper plate, and turned away.

She also knew that Zhu Shen and Zhu Tong, the two children of the clan, were different from ordinary clan relatives, even if they wanted to give alms, they would not accept it if they didn't take these few pennies.

Suddenly, in addition to the steamed buns, the woman also served two bowls of extraordinarily large wontons.

Zhu Shen and Zhu Tong took the steamed buns, and when they smelled the aroma of the wontons, they were all stunned, then raised their heads and glanced at the proprietress .

The woman smiled slightly, pushed the chaos towards them, and said:

"I made this wonton with my own hands, the old guy always said that the taste is not good, and no one will eat it if it is sold, you can taste it and see how it goes!"

This proprietress is very good, she knows that they are children of the clan, but she doesn't say anything about it, and often gives her more food.

"Thanks... Thank you. ”

Looking down at this bowl of wontons, a tear fell from Zhu Shen's eyes.

Immediately, he wiped his eyes, ate the piping hot wontons in his mouth, and said vaguely: "It's delicious, this wonton is really delicious!" ”

Zhu Tong also hurriedly took a bite, regardless of the heat, and said with a smile: "This wonton is simply delicious." ”

Immediately, his expression darkened, "I don't know, can I still eat such delicious wontons in this life..."

"It's delicious!" The woman also smiled, and shouted to the little old man inside, "Look, what I say, the guests say it's delicious!" ”

As she spoke, she turned and walked away.

Zhu Shen bit the chaos in his mouth, the entrance was full of light soup, his lips and teeth were fragrant, he lay on the table, slammed his fist on the table, and his voice was a little choked.

"I—I've disgraced my clansmen—"

When Zhu Tong heard this, he also looked at the wonton in the spoon and thought about it.

How could you end up in such a field?