Out of Jinan Mansion, Zhu Youzhen and his party went south, and when they passed through Changqing, they looked a little depressed, and when they arrived in Feicheng, it was a sign of desolation.

In Feicheng County, except for beggars in ragged clothes sitting on the streets, it is rare to see pedestrians, let alone vendors hawking along the streets.

Gao Han and Hu Bao have been looking for a long time in Feicheng, not to mention the inn, but there is no place to eat.

After more than half an hour, Gao Han and Hu Bao rode back to the carriage where Zhu Youzhen and several people were parked, Gao Han said to the inside of the carriage: "Son, I have searched all over, not only the inn, but even the place where you can eat is closed, I asked the people in the city, those shops have already fled to other places, and several big families who have not left have been robbed of food by those hungry people, and we may not have an inn to live in today." ”

Zhu Youzhen lifted the sedan curtain and got out of the carriage, and he asked Gao Han: "The big family was robbed?" The government doesn't care? ”

"I can't take care of it, the county government is now gone, and there is no one available for the county magistrate to arrest people."

At this time, Lu Xiangsheng also jumped down from the carriage, walked to the side of several people and said, "When I passed through Feicheng a few days ago, there was still an inn open, but now there is no one?" ”

Hu Bao replied: "The family is gone. ”

After a while, except for Ji Gang who stayed in the carriage to take care of the injured Hu Erbao, Luo Yanghe and Zhang Zhiji also got out of the carriage and surrounded him.

Luo Yangxing complained: "Why are you so slow? The master is dying of hunger. ”

Zhu Youzhen said: "I'm afraid you're going to be hungry all the time, there is not even a place to eat in this county, we not only have to starve, I'm afraid we will have to sleep on the streets." ”

Zhang Zhiji's eyes widened and said, "What kind of broken place is this?" Don't even have a place to eat? ”

Lu Xiangsheng said: "The little grandfather has lived in the prosperous place of the capital for a long time, I don't know the situation in Shandong, after years of natural disasters, the land has long been harvested, and it is not easy for people here to survive, even if there are people who can do a small business earlier, no one will patronize for a long time, and they will be closed." ”

Zhang Zhiji said: "Natural disasters? Didn't we raise more than 300,000 taels of silver at Xingzhi Academy earlier? Isn't it enough to help a Shandong? ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at him, this little grandfather really didn't know the suffering of the world, he said: "Shandong is adjacent to Nanzhili and Jingshi, the people finally have a way to live, the famine in Shanxi and Shanxi is more serious, and the silver should be transferred to Shanxi, although it is more than 300,000 taels of donations, I don't know how much it can fall into the hands of the people in the end." ”

Lu Xiangsheng continued: "Shandong a variety of wheat, in the first half of the year before the flood, the Yellow River burst the embankment, the most severely affected is the Zhangqiu Feicheng area, the planted wheat can harvest two percent of the good, and in the second half of the year there was a plague, from Shandong's West Sanfu to the East Sanfu all suffered, into the winter and encountered a big cold wave, the grain seeds of the household disaster relief were not harvested, and all places opened warehouses to release grain to deal with natural disasters, but in the first half of last year, there was a major drought, followed by a locust plague, this Shandong Mansion has not been peaceful in the past two years, It is good to see beggars on the streets of the county. If you go to the three western prefectures, I am afraid that even the mountains will be gnawed bald, and even the bandits who fell into the grass in the early years will have no food to grab. ”

Zhang Zhiji felt a chill when he heard it, if he said like Lu Xiangsheng, how many people would die in Shandong?

This group of people had plenty of silver, but they had nowhere to spend it, and they had never been in the habit of carrying dry food, so they should have brought more dry food to prepare.

Luo Yangxing said: "It's okay to be hungry, but it's ...... to sleep on the streets."

Zhu Youzhen looked around, a desolate fat city, such a scene, how could Daming not die? He shook his head, will

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Those things that shouldn't be considered by him shook his head, and then said to a few people: "Let's go to the post station to have a look, although we can't reveal our identities, but Lao Luo's waist card of the Jinyi Wei General Banner should be enough, hurry up and get into the carriage, I hope I dare to get to the post station before dark." ”

A few people heard that there should be no need to sleep on the streets, as for eating, you don't have to think about it, you should know, if there is one, don't say it, even if you do, I'm afraid it's a question of whether you can eat enough. The crowd got into the carriage one after another, and Gao Han and Hu Bao led the way towards the nearest post station outside the city.

A group of carriages and horses traveled dozens of miles along the official road, and finally arrived at a post station before dark, which was called Feixiang Station, connecting Feicheng and Tai'an Prefecture.

The outside of this post house is just a fence more than one person high, and the post gate is quite wide, but the wooden gate seems to be blown down by a gust of wind, and the door is just a eaves built with straw, and the Feixiang post here looks like a hermit's meadow.

Gao Han got off the horse first, first lifted the blanket on the door and shook it a few times, and when he saw that there was no reaction, he opened his mouth and shouted inside: "Where is the Yicheng?" ”

After Gao Han finished shouting, he saw a man in a robe limping out of the post station, and when he saw the carriage and horses outside, the man asked, "Who are you?" ”

Gao Han took out the Jinyi Wei General Banner Waist Plate that Luo Yang had given him before and stretched it through the crack in the door.

After the man looked at it, he hurriedly opened the door of the post station and said, "Your Excellency, please come in." ”

Gao Han nodded and said, "Where is Yicheng?" Why don't you let people come out to lead the horses and unload the truck? ”

The man in a robe said: "There is a post man below, if the villain does not call people out, it is really only a villain left here, this is just a small post, there were a few post guards in the early years, and now the post guards here are either starving to death or fleeing." ”

Luo Yang, who had just gotten out of the carriage later, didn't notice it, but when he heard that the post guards were starving to death, he was shocked: "Even the post guards can starve to death, don't you even have anything to eat here?" ”

The post said: "The starving post man is catching up with the worst of the famine, the county lord is still too busy to take care of himself, how can he still care about the life and death of this little post, and then the situation is slightly better, the county government finally allocated some money down, people will not starve to death anymore, but those post guards have almost fled." ”

Luo Yangxing was a little relieved and said: "In this case, you don't need to settle down for the carriage and horses, you can go and prepare some meals for us first." ”

The postman answered, and walked inside.

There is no post man to help, and this matter of leading the horse and unloading the car is naturally done by Gao Han and Hu Bao, but at this time, there is an extra Ji Gang, and the Ji Gang's eyes are quite lively, and he will take a hand if he has nothing to do.

At this time, the sky was dark, only an oil lamp was lit in the post station, it looked quite gray, and after a while, the post man came with a large basin of things, he put the black pottery pot in his hand on the table, and then said: "A few adults, please use it slowly." ”

Several people around the table stared at the clay pot in a daze, Zhang Zhiji reached out and picked up a spoon in the pot and stirred it in the basin a few times, and then he looked at the Yicheng and asked, "What is in this?" Give us something to eat? ”

The post man bowed and said, "Back to the adults, this is bran, which is the dinner prepared for the adults." ”

When Zhang Zhiji heard this, he threw the spoon in his hand into the basin, and said angrily: "Bran? Is that something for people to eat? Will you eat it for me? ”

When the post man heard this, he was stunned for a while, but seeing that the adult who spoke did not look like a fake, he had to reach out and take a bowl from the table, and then put a bowl of bran boiled gruel from the clay pot, and then he took it up and drank the gruel clean in just a few sips, and after eating

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, even stretched out his tongue and licked the bottom of the bowl.

Zhang Zhiji saw that Na Yicheng actually ate a bowl, and he said angrily: "Even if you can eat it, the master can't eat this thing that feeds the pigs, go and change some good things for the master, even if there is no chicken, duck and fish, there will always be rice, right?" Even if there is no rice, there are always white flour steamed buns, right? ”

Hearing this, the post shook his head slowly, and then said, "My lord, forgive me, these things you said are not available here in the villain." ”

Zhang Zhiji pointed at the Yicheng's nose and said angrily: "The county government allocated money to you, and you only used it to buy bran?" ”

The post said: "Back to the adult's words, exactly." ”

Zhang Zhiji looked at this Yicheng with a righteous and righteous expression, neither humble nor arrogant, and was even more angry, and then he wanted to scold again, but Zhu Youzhen stretched out his hand to stop him.

Zhu Youzhen looked at the post and asked, "Is it because the silver allocated by the county government is less or the price of grain has risen?" ”

Yi Cheng said: "The county government has only allocated ten taels of silver for half a year, but now ten taels of silver can't even buy three stones of grain, how can it be used for half a year?" What's more, in this world, except for all the adults, who can afford to eat food? It's good to be alive, even if it's bran, those hungry people often come to snatch it regardless of their lives, the villain's legs and feet, it is because of the protection of these bran was broken, if it weren't for the villain's desperate efforts to protect some hidden, I'm afraid you adults won't even be able to eat these things tonight. ”

After listening to what the Yicheng said, Zhu Youzhen said to him: "Don't stand still, sit down and eat some together." ”

Yi Cheng said: "The villain doesn't dare. ”

Zhang Zhiji listened to Na Yicheng's explanation, and muttered in a dissatisfied voice: "I didn't say it earlier, I said it earlier, why would the master be embarrassed by you." Then he said to the post: "If you want to eat, you can sit down and eat, the master has no appetite, so he won't eat, and my share will be given to you." ”

Luo Yangxing also pushed the bowl in front of him forward and said, "I can't eat it either, you can eat one of mine." ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at the two of them, didn't say much, he picked up the black glazed pottery bowl in front of him, reached out and put a bowl full of bran boiled gruel from the basin, and then brought it to the front.

Before he could eat it, Zhu Youzhen smelled an indescribable smell, not like wheat fragrance, nor stinky smell, there were really no words to describe that taste, and the thought circling in his mind was that this was the taste of pig food.

Zhu Youzhen tried not to smell the smell, he picked up the bowl and took a big sip, because the porridge was very thin, and after swallowing the porridge, there was no taste left in his mouth, but he felt that it was a rough feeling in his throat, and there were still a lot of slag left in his mouth.

What he eats is not a delicacy, how could Zhu Youzhen taste it again, the small pottery bowl, Zhu Youzhen drank the bran porridge in three bites, and after drinking, he drank two bowls in succession, and then licked the bottom of the bowl like the Yicheng.

Before the others even had time to sheng, Zhu Youzhen drank three bowls in a blink of an eye, especially the action of licking the bottom of the bowl, everyone who watched was stunned, and even Zhang Zhiji and Luo Yangxing, who had said that they would not eat before, swallowed their saliva.

That Yicheng looked at Zhu Youzhen and smiled, but didn't speak, he had eaten this bran for a long time, how could he not know what it tasted like, that little boy actually ate three bowls in a row, and he couldn't help but feel respect.

Jinxiu originally ate less, not to mention that the bran porridge on this table was still bran, she didn't want to eat it when she saw that her son-in-law had eaten it, she also picked up the bowl and ate it, but just before she entered it, she couldn't help frowning, although it was not delicious, she also insisted on eating the bran porridge that night, but it was not like Zhu Youzhen who even licked the bottom of the bowl clean, not to mention the bran porridge, even if it was abalone ginseng winged belly fairy porridge, she would not lick the bowl like Zhu Youzhen.

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