The most important thing hanging over the heads of the people of Daming is only two words, eating.

Especially in this day and age, disasters are frequent, and they also face exploitation by bureaucrats and gentry.

The price of food is very high, and it is just a simple meal to eat, but it is the most difficult thing.

I don't know how many people starve to death every year.

Xiang Lao Liu, who lives near the West Tile Factory, is one of the many coolies in Chongwenmen, and he can barely ensure that his family will not starve to death by carrying goods on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal every day.

But who knows, the price of grain in the capital has not been maintained for a long time, because the bureaucrats and gentry have purchased a large number of dollars, and they have skyrocketed to one dollar and nine cents of silver.

A penny of silver may starve a person to death, let alone three cents of silver.

Xiang Lao Liu's family is only one male in his family, there is no brother and younger brother, his name is Lao Liu, and that is because the five elder brothers above all starved to death.

Hearing that the price of food had risen, Xiang Lao Liu carried the sack for a day and returned home with a sore body.

I opened the wood door and walked into the dilapidated courtyard.

The blind old lady sat in the stove room with a pile of gray soil beside her, making steamed buns: "Liu'er is back." ”

Xiang Lao Liu was extremely burly, more than nine feet tall, and saw steamed buns made of clay.

Such a tower-like man, tears almost fell.

It's going to be my father's sacrifice day soon, and his father had a famine the year before last, and like many old people, he hanged himself from a tree.

My father's greatest wish before his death was to eat enough steamed buns at one time.

Xiang Lao Liu, who is a son, failed to let his father eat a few times when his father was alive.

People are dead or still can't do it, other people's families use real steamed buns to pay tribute, and his family can only use clay to make steamed buns.

Xiang Lao Liu snorted, and walked into the leaky room with a little trembling.

In the empty room, the lady lay on a pile of straw, holding her son with a loving face.

Xiang Lao Liu said a word to give me a hug and forcibly snatched the child from the mother's hand.

"Xiang Lao Liu! Let go of my child! ”

The lady has just given birth to a child not long ago, and her body is relatively weak, and the family can't eat, let alone eat some nourishing things.

wanted to snatch the child, but fell to the ground, crying miserably.

Xiang Lao Liu's wife was blind, but her ears were not deaf, and when she heard her daughter-in-law's cry, she knew what her son was going to do.

The old lady picked up the crutch beside her and stood up tremblingly: "Sixth, put down the child, this is the only incense of the Xiang family." ”

Xiang Lao Liu hugged the child regardless of it, walked out of the door, stood under the old locust tree at the door, and slowly raised his arms.

Xiang Lao Liu had seen a lot of this kind of thing in the past near the West Tile Factory, but he didn't expect that one day he would do the same.

Infanticide.

Xiang Lao Liu looked up at his son, who thought that his father was playing with him, and his immature little face showed an innocent smile.

Looking at his son's innocent and lovely smiling face, Xiang Lao Liu couldn't hold back any longer, and tears immediately fell: "Son, don't blame Dad." ”

"It's because my father has no ability, he can't earn money to feed this family, and if the price of food doesn't rise, our family can barely feed four people."

"Now that the price of food has risen again, if Dad doesn't do this, your mother will starve to death."

The man in the iron tower, who had never shed tears, said more, the more tears flowed out, and he sobbed like a little daughter-in-law.

Tiger poison does not eat children, who wants to kill their own son.

But this is the way of the world, and it has been like this for many years.

As long as there is a disaster year, the price of grain will definitely rise sharply, and the bureaucrats and gentry will loot a large amount of silver.

The common people at the bottom either kill infants, or the elderly commit suicide, and some even cannibalism.

Xiang Lao Liu slowly closed his tearful eyes, and raised his trembling arms above his head.

"That man! Quickly put down the child. ”

Zhu Shun took a group of students from Beijing Normal University to take a practical class, and just saw a scene that made people's eyes crack.

An arrow rushed over, and the splitter snatched the child from Xiang Laoliu's hand.

This is not a coincidence.

Before saving the children in Xiang Laoliu's hands, Zhu Shun took his students to the richest capital in the world to save seven white-haired old men who had hanged themselves and three babies who were about to be killed.

There is only one reason, the price of grain sold by the bureaucratic gentry has risen.

It went up by three cents.

Zhu Shun rescued the baby, saw a blind old woman come out, handed the baby into the old woman's hands, and gave her a tael of silver: "The Song family grain store at the corner of the street sells a kind of potato flour today." ”

"Six cents of silver for a bucket, and one stone for only six coins of silver."

After saying this, Zhu Shun continued to take this group of students who usually don't worry about food and clothing to walk in this poor West Tile Factory.

Xiang Lao Liu, a tower-like man, looked at the back of Zhu Shun leaving in a daze, and only one sentence echoed in his mind.

Six cents of silver.

When Zhu Shun and the students disappeared into the alley, Xiang Lao Liu rushed out of the alley like crazy.

Sure enough, there is a newly opened Song family grain store at the corner of the street.

Xiang Lao Liu, with his burly physique of nine feet tall, squeezed in from the crowd and handed over a broken piece of silver.

A small Song family grain store, the store is only more than a zhang wide, but there are more than a dozen cousins busy.

There is no way, there are too many poor people pouring over.

One of the cousins took Xiang Lao Liu's broken silver and put it on an iron plate on a small scale, which was exactly six dollars of silver.

The cousin took another bite and confirmed that it was real silver, not fake silver with tin water, and directly carried a bag of potato flour to him.

Xiang Lao Liu hurriedly opened the hemp leather pocket and tasted it.

It's really floury, and it's a little sweet.

Xiang Lao Liu carefully tied the opening of the hemp leather bag and carried it to the crowded street, just like other ordinary people kneeling here.

Kneeling on the ground, he knocked his head three times.

Zhu Shun took the students around the alley and saw too many shocking scenes.

Gray-haired old men hanged themselves, killed infants, and cut off their own flesh for their parents, wives and children to eat.

In this circle, I saw at least 30 families, and their families were ruined.

In short, it's like entering another world.

All because the grain has risen by three cents.

Three cents of silver is not enough for students to buy a set of pen, ink, paper, and inkstone.

Out of the alley.

I saw many people kneeling in the street and kowtowing.

This is not one person or two people, but a group of people kneeling on the street, kowtowing to the Song family's grain store.

This scene shocked the students of Beijing Normal University even more.

Zhu Shun said earnestly: "This is the change of the industrial revolution to a society. ”

"Only with the continuous progress of this society can more people have enough food and clothing."

"You think these ordinary people are willing to let their fathers and mothers hang themselves, and they are willing to kill their own children."

"There is no way for them, if they don't die, the rest of them won't be able to live."

"Don't underestimate the price of a potato flour, but it can make I don't know how many people can live a stable life."

The students Zhu Shun brought today are a total of thirty people, and they are also all the students of Beijing Normal University.

It won't be long before I will be the teacher of the twenty-seven county schools.

Zhu Shun used a practical lesson to tell them the importance of the first industrial revolution to the Ming Dynasty.

Strengthen the students' inner beliefs.

After all.

Revolution is not a dinner party, it is bloodshed.

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