On the 17th day of the first lunar month, the heavy snow that had been falling for three days gradually stopped. The sun slowly emerged from the clouds, finally bringing a trace of warmth to the cold and miserable court.

At this time, Chaoyi was still in the devastation after the earthquake, and the survivors were still immersed in the grief of losing their loved ones. Fortunately, every family built an earthquake-proof grass hut a few years ago, and finally there is still a place to live. But now there are seven or eight aftershocks a day, and each aftershock brings secondary disasters of varying severity, and those crumbling houses are completely collapsed in the aftershocks.

The huts were very small, and every household did not have much food in stock, most of the grain was buried in the collapsed houses, and now the aftershocks continued, and no one bothered to look for food in the collapsed houses unless they were starved.

Now the magistrate has been arrested, and only the chief Bo is presiding over the government affairs of the county government. Now the county government and the yamen of various government offices have been affected by the disaster to varying degrees, and they have no time to take care of themselves, where is there still any spare strength to help the people. Expecting the government to provide disaster relief is simply an extravagant hope.

When the whole court was at a loss, Bo Zhuzhiming, the head of the county government, received an edict from the imperial court, which stated that on the one hand, the army of the nearby guard station would be sent to support the disaster relief in the court, and on the other hand, it was required to immediately organize the relocation of the victims to Juzhou to reduce the disaster relief pressure in the court.

When the lord Bo Zhu Zhiming received this edict, his mood immediately improved, and the imperial court's move undoubtedly greatly reduced the pressure on the imperial government. If half of the population can be relocated, the pressure of disaster relief will be reduced by half, and the people will no longer be a source of wealth, but a big burden, and if it is not handled well, there may be chaos.

Zhu Zhiming immediately dispatched officials to publicize the situation in the villages in the countryside, moved the entire households of the people who were seriously affected by the disaster and had no land or little land, and demanded that they gather in the suburbs of the county town in five days and escort the migrants to Juzhou as a whole.

One of the officials asked, "What if the people don't want to go?" ”

"If you don't want to go, you have to go! Even if you catch it, you have to catch it. Zhu Zhiming said decisively, and then said to everyone with a whim: "I heard that Juzhou is under the governance of Liang Zhizhou, a person raised in our court, and there are many workshops, and the people have land to plant, and they can also work to make money when they are not working. Now the people of Juzhou are very wealthy. After these people moved to Najuzhou, the Liang people in Juzhou could arrange to work in the workshop, which was much better than being frightened and starving and freezing here. ”

"Lord Bo, is it okay to deceive the people like this?" Some kind-hearted officials couldn't bear to ask.

"You just say that, let's move those victims out first!"

"Yes!"

The officials were ordered to go to the villages in the countryside to propagate. Two days later, the entire court knew that the imperial court had moved more than half of the people to Juzhou, but most of the people did not want to move to Juzhou. After all, it is difficult to leave the homeland, and it is difficult to give up the poor family! Although most of the people did not have land in the court, they relied on farming for the landlord's family and living as tenant farmers. But after all, here are still the villagers, relatives and friends help each other, and life can barely get by. But after moving to Juzhou, there are no relatives and friends and no land, how will I live in the future?

In Caijiapu Village, more than 50 families were selected by the government to move to Juzhou. The servants told them that this was the emperor's will, and they had to move, and if they didn't, they had to move, and they had no say!

Cai Youliang is nearly forty years old and has four children, the eldest daughter is sixteen and has not yet married, the eldest son is also fifteen, plus a sixty-year-old lady, a total of seven people. But his family only has five acres of thin land, and he lives by farming for the landlord's family.

Because of the mother's insistence, the lives of the whole family were saved. But now the whole family has little food, and they all rely on a meal of rice porridge that is so rare that they can show the shadow of a person hanging for their lives. Seeing that the rice bowl has bottomed out, the days of one gruel a day can't last long.

In the grass shed at night, under a dim oil lamp, a family of seven people gathered. The family was discussing whether to follow the government's arrangement and move to Juzhou, or to flee and become refugees, or to stay in their hometown in Tibet.

"Mother, let's talk about it first." Cai Youliang squatted on the ground and asked first.

Cai Youliang's wife, Cheng, has always been assertive, and she makes up her mind about the big and small things in the family. But for such a big matter, she didn't know how to decide.

Cheng thought about it for a long time, and finally made up his mind to "go to Juzhou!" ”

Cai Youliang didn't want to move to Juzhou, because this was his hometown where he had lived for nearly 40 years, his childhood friend, the woman he had a crush on when he was young, and the grave of his recently deceased father. There's so much to worry about here!

He was surprised that the old lady made this decision. It is said that the older people get, the more they love their families, and there are many old people who would rather starve to death or freeze to death than leave their homeland, but their own wife is an exception!

"Mother, have you thought it through?" Cai Youliang asked.

Cheng sighed and said, "It's hard to leave the homeland, people love home, and horses love stacks." My mother doesn't want to leave here, but I have to think about the babies. Since the earthquake, there have been seven or eight earthquakes a day, black water is bubbling everywhere in the field, and even the landlord in the village can't take care of himself, so where can he expect to be able to plant his family's land again this year? Seeing that I can't live here, I have to go to other places to find a way to live. ”

"Since we are going to other places, why don't we listen to the government and go to Juzhou, we can go to the south, to Huguang, where it is very rich, maybe there will be a way to live." Cai Youliang put forward his own ideas.

"Without a road guide, you can't even go out of Shaanxi, where can you go to Huguang! This time I'm going to Juzhou! Cheng insisted, then paused, and then said, "I heard that Juzhou is Lord Liang of Chaoyi who is an official master, and Lord Liang can still find a job to do over there, if only then we can have a way to live." ”

Cai Youliang's daughter-in-law, who had not spoken, couldn't help but speak at this time, "Mother, you can't believe the nonsense of the officials, they just deceived the people and moved away." Tens of thousands of people moved to Juzhou at once, where can the official master arrange it. ”

"yes, if you don't starve to death over there, you're lucky." Cai Youliang said.

Cheng shook his head and said very confidently, "I heard that Lord Liang from Juzhou wanted to resettle the victims. As the saying goes, if there is no diamond, he will not dare to take on the porcelain work, since Lord Liang dares to resettle the victims, he has already planned, otherwise which official will find such a big trouble for himself? This time it's still listening to me, and the whole family has moved away! ”

Cai Youliang saw that the old lady had made up her mind, so she no longer insisted on her opinion, but just asked, "What about Dad's grave?" ”

Cai Youliang's father passed away last year, it is said that Cai Youliang will keep filial piety at home for three years, and now the whole family has moved away, how to keep filial piety in front of his father's grave? That's why Cai Youliang asked this question.

Cheng said resolutely: "If such a big change happens, I believe that your father will forgive if he has knowledge." When you're doing well over there, come back and remove your father's grave. ”

"What about our five acres of land?" Cai Youliang asked again.

"It's all sold, exchanged for food, and eaten on the road!" Cheng said resolutely again.

The land is the life of the farmer, and for this family of seven, this is tantamount to a big gamble!

The next day, Cai Youliang sold five acres of land at a price of 30 taels of silver, and the whole family was ready to move to Juzhou. Everyone came to ask Cheng how he made such a decision, and Cheng told everyone his reasons. In the end, he also said to everyone, "As the saying goes, people move living trees and move to death, since there is no way to live here, instead of waiting here to die of cold and starvation, it is better to move to other places, maybe there will be a way to live." ”

Everyone also felt that it made sense, it was because of Cheng's persistence more than half a month ago that the lives of the whole village were saved, and no one in Caijiabao Village died due to the earthquake, this time they believed Cheng's words again.

Jiang Shoucheng, a blacksmith in the village, said, "My family is a craftsman, and I don't have an acre of land. I have to strike iron everywhere to live, and the government asks me to move, so I will move. ”

Cheng glanced at him and said, "Then you also have to sell the valuable things in the blacksmith shop and exchange them for grain and silver." You can't go to Juzhou with those hundreds of pounds of iron lumps, right? ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone laughed!

At this time, someone asked, "Mrs. Cai, let's move to see it first, why do we have to sell the land, if not, we can come back." ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone echoed them.

Cheng said slowly: "As the saying goes, the poor are rich, and it takes twenty or thirty days to go to Juzhou, how can you rush if you can't eat?" If your family has money and food, you can not sell the land. I don't have much food left over at home! Besides, since I moved away, I don't plan to come back, and it will take three years for the earthquake to stop, to say the least. If the land is not sold, three years later, the land will have already become ownerless land and will be repossessed by the government. ”

It turned out that in the Ming Dynasty, if the land was left uncultivated for more than three years, the government considered it to be terra nullius and could take back the land and sell it.

So when they went home, they immediately sold their possessions and packed up their valuables. Five days later, he put on his bed, put on a grain bag, pushed on a wheelbarrow, and helped the old and the young to gather at the south gate of the county seat.

When they arrived at the open space in front of the county seat, Cai Youliang's family found that there was a black area outside the city, full of ragged people, some crying and grabbing the ground, some shaking their heads and sighing, and some crying silently. It seems that none of them are willing to leave their homeland and embark on a migration path with an uncertain future. Cai Youliang even saw that some people were tied up by the officials. Those people scolded the officials, struggled desperately, and tried to run away at the first opportunity.

When Cai Youliang saw this situation, he began to doubt his mother's decision. Their old lady said, "Mother, is our decision wrong, you look at this posture, it seems that most people are unwilling to go." ”

Cheng Di shook his head firmly and said, "Don't worry about others, just take care of ourselves." ”

At this time, Bo Zhu Zhiming, the county magistrate, stood on a high platform and began to speak: "Wait a minute, the emperor is merciful, our Chaoyi Liang Zhizhou misses his hometown, heard about the earthquake in his hometown, and went to the court to settle the victims, Lord Liang has already arranged a living for you, and you leave your hometown to enjoy happiness, not suffering."

After Lord Bo finished speaking, the officials drove these people to start their migration path, and even Lord Bo didn't expect that this time he really made him right, Lord Liang had already arranged a life for them, and none of the victims returned to the court after two years.

Two years later, Zhu Zhiming realized that it was not the burden that he threw out, but the wealth!

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The little people of the Ming Dynasty

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