With the implementation of the new policy, Zuo Zhan was in a good mood, and on the second day of the second month of February, he took Li Xingbang and Yu Dingbian to the suburbs to travel and hunt. According to folk traditions, this day is a good day for the dragon to raise its head, and every household will fry peanuts and jelly beans to worship the sea dragon king, thanking him for not hesitating to offend the heavens to bring nectar to the world.

At this time, the ice and snow began to melt, everything recovered, and Zuo Zhan couldn't help but shout a few times as he looked at the vibrant heaven and earth. Li Xingbang saw that the little emperor was very interested, and took the opportunity to say:

"Saint, today is a big day for the dragon to raise its head, and the palace is still ready to congratulate the saint."

Zuo Zhan was most annoyed by this kind of formalism, and replied with a disdainful face:

"You send someone to inform the chief manager of the king, and let him be in charge of the hospitality!" I will spend the night in the suburbs today, and I will set up a decoration, so as not to let the tiger athletes disturb the local people. ”

After speaking, he rode his horse and whipped and galloped on the country road, at this time, the remnant sun was obliquely shining, and the smoke could be seen everywhere, which seemed to be a beautiful picture in this world.

By the time Zuo Zhan and his party approached the village, it was getting late, and they saw a thatched hut lit with a light the size of a soybean, and a gate woven of cotton strips leaning weakly against the ruins. Zuo Zhan pushed the door in, and an old man inside was spinning thread with his body bent over, and the dilapidated machine creaked. There was almost no furniture in the house, and a half-bowl of black noodle soup was placed on a wooden pier like dinner.

Hearing the movement, the old man was taken aback, looked up and saw her temples white, her eyes cloudy, and the vicissitudes of the years were engraved on her face word for word. This scene reminded Zuo Zhan of the difficulty of his mother lighting a kerosene lamp to sew patches and collect the soles of her shoes when she was a child, and her eyes were moist in an instant, and she asked softly:

"Old man, excuse me, I'm going to Jingshi to go to relatives, it's dark and the road is slippery and I don't dare to go any further, can I spend the night in the courtyard?"

The old woman stood up with a little difficulty, first patted the dust on her body, and then said:

"Poor doll, you have to go out to do things at such a young age, so sit down and rest first."

After speaking, he let Zuo Zhan go to a grass mound, and then pulled the soft firewood behind the door to prepare to boil water, Zuo Zhan hurriedly supported the old woman and said:

"Old man, don't be busy, just be willing to let us take shelter from the wind in the yard."

When the old woman heard this, she hurriedly held Zuo Zhan with two dry and cold hands, and said with a kind face:

"Baby, how can you sleep in the patio on such a cold day, don't freeze your bones and let your father and mother worry. Don't worry, I'll live alone in this house, and you can all sleep in the house. ”

Seeing that the old woman cared so much about herself, and her words were so kind, she had already regarded her as her own relative in her heart, and asked with concern:

"Then it's better to be respectful than to obey your fate, but where will your family come back and live?"

When the old woman heard this, she was silent, and her eyes were filled with tears, and she sighed for a while and said:

"They are all blessed."

Zuo Zhan looked puzzled but didn't want to ask any further, looking at the bowl of black rice paste on the wooden mound, it is estimated that this is the staple food of the old man in winter, but it is pitiful that she has to struggle to live at such an old age.

At this time, Li Xingbang had already brought wood to make a fire to keep warm, and put sumptuous delicacies on the stone slab, the taste of the food made the gluttonous worms in Zuo Zhan's stomach squirm, so he pulled the old man to eat together. The old woman couldn't give in, so she had to sit at the stone table next to Zuo Zhan. Zuo Zhan picked up the bowl of black rice paste and tasted it, thinking that the pig might not be eaten, but he praised it, causing the old woman to smile, and the dull indoor atmosphere suddenly became relaxed.

The old woman said that this was the first time in her life to eat such a sumptuous dish, the first time to make so much firewood for warmth, the first time to cover the silk and satin bedding, the first time to have a noble person so politely talk to her, and slowly told a lot of bitter past.

It turned out that the old man was widowed in his early years, pulling his four sons alone, in the nineteenth year of Wanli, the eldest and second died in Ningxia, and the third died in Salhu in Liaodong in the first year of the Apocalypse. Last year, the youngest son was infected with the plague, and he had no money to get medicine so he could only lie on the kang and wait for death, and in the end she was the only one left alive.

After the old woman finished speaking, she just shook her head and sighed, that kind of despair and helplessness made Zuo Zhan's heart like a charcoal fire. He understands very well that if it is really as the old woman said, then someone has deducted military salaries, this is a very serious corruption case, the impact is very bad, directly leads to the life of the martyrs' families, and shakes the confidence of the people to join the army and make meritorious contributions.

Thinking of this, Zuo Zhan stood up and said kindly:

"Old man, you are a great mother who has raised four good sons for the imperial court. Now I am deeply ashamed in front of you, and I did not know that there was such a difficult life in the world. From now on, I will be your god, and I will take you over when I return to Beijing and settle down. ”

After speaking, Zuo Zhan knelt in front of the old woman and snuggled his head in her arms, he felt that he had no face to face this old woman. Three sons died in the war and did not receive a pension, and the last son waited for death in agony, which was a cruel thing for an old man who was about to die. The more Zuo Zhan thought about it, the more bitter he felt, and he whimpered unconsciously, Li Xingbang and Yu Dingbian heard it clearly, and hurriedly entered the house and knelt behind Zuo Zhan.

When the old woman saw a room full of people kneeling in front of her, she was a little flustered, knowing that Zuo Zhan must be the son of a big family, she hurriedly supported Zuo Zhan's arms and said:

"Good baby, this can't be helped, how can I, a blind old woman, afford such a big gift."

Zuo Zhan sat on the edge of the kang, held the old woman's hand and said:

"Godmother, the three brothers died on the battlefield in order to defend the country, and they deserve to be compensated by the imperial court, and the difference in the pool also indirectly caused the fourth brother to be captured by the plague and took his life, which has a lot to do with me. It's a pity that I don't have the ability to bring the dead back to life, so I can only take you to the palace to support you first, and then seek justice for my brothers and severely punish those corrupt officials. ”

The golden rooster dawns, the morning dawns, and the heavens and the earth slowly brighten in the misty light. Zuo Zhan waited for the old woman to wake up, simply packed up the salute and drove to Beijing with her in a sedan chair. Since only Li Xingbang and Yu Dingbian knew about this matter, the ministers were still discussing the little emperor's outing when they were in the early fifth day, and several imperial histories wrote to impeach other.

Zuo Zhan knew that these people were for his own good, after all, a large number of Mongolian herdsmen were placed in the Guan, and there was an influx of displaced people from all over the suburbs, so it was very dangerous to spend the night outside with only a dozen guards. Moreover, the second day of the second month of February is a big day, and the country has finally regained its vitality, and as the emperor, he should personally sacrifice to the heavens to appease the common people.

For this reason, he made a self-examination very seriously, and everyone was surprised how the little emperor changed his sex, and he listened to Zuo Zhan ask while hesitating:

"I went out on a safari a few days ago, and I was very emotional about what I saw and heard. Seeing that spring ploughing is approaching, what is the progress of cash-for-work in various places? ”

At this time, the new policy had been implemented, and Fang Congzhe, as the first assistant of the cabinet, was very pleased. Since he entered the cabinet and participated in politics in the forty-third year of Wanli, he has been admonishing to open a warehouse for relief, tax exemption and levy, and fill the vacant officials, but Emperor Shenzong has always been humble and resolutely unchangeable in the face of his criticism, so he can only sigh with admiration. Now that the new policy is more comprehensive and thorough than his ideas, he is of course happy to do so, and when he heard the little emperor ask about the progress, he immediately stepped forward and replied:

"Since the implementation of the new policy by the imperial court, all prefectures and counties have organized displaced people to return to their hometowns, re-measure land, reclaim wasteland, and build water conservancy and roads. Xu Guangqi's improved farm tools and cattle and sheep outside the customs have also been distributed to various places one after another, and seedlings will be sown and raised when spring ploughing comes, and it is believed that there will be a good harvest of summer grain this year. ”

At this time, Zuo Zhan really wanted to take this group of moths in fine clothes and food to see the life of the people in the suburbs, especially that night, which he would never forget. Maybe Zhu Yuanzhang treated officials with this kind of mentality back then, only by experiencing the pain of the poor can he do something that can help them, and he will hate those who exploit and bully them. The so-called "strong and weak" is just the way to survive in troubled times, and any change needs to be forced by the hegemony of the Legalists.

Zuo Zhan heard that Fang Congzhe, a mason, had begun to do practical things, and he was secretly relieved, and continued to ask:

"Has this year's victims survived the winter and have the relief materials been distributed to them?"

Disaster relief has always been handled by the Ministry of Households, and Yang Lian, the secretary of the Ministry of Households, once personally went to Shandong to preside over disaster relief, so he stepped forward and replied:

"If you go back to the Holy Place, the household department has allocated a large amount of grain and cotton cloth to the disaster area, as long as the victims who participate in the cash-for-work relief can receive relief, on the one hand, it has resettled the local people, and on the other hand, it has also saved the expenses of the imperial court."

Speaking of Shandong, the hometown of Confucius and Mencius and the state of etiquette, the folk customs are simple and honest, and the reputation has been praised by people everywhere from ancient times to the present. This time, Yang Lian went to Shandong as a messenger, not only to supervise the disaster relief work, but also to secretly inspect the simple officials to promote and reuse, and achieved very good results. It's just that because the time is too hasty, the southwest region of Lu has not yet taken into account, I heard that Xu Hongru secretly instigated the White Lotus Sect to rebel, and the imperial court has sent Zhao Yan as the governor of Shandong to suppress it, and there is no news for a while.

Zuo Guangdou's work in Gansu is also progressing very smoothly, thanks to Zuo Zhan's allocation of a large amount of internal bank. Zuo Zhan patiently listened to the work reports of the two messengers, verbally praised their work achievements, and then motioned to Wang An to carry the old woman into the main hall, and said:

"All of you love to be dusty, painstaking, and very relieved. Today I would like to introduce you to an old man, a benefactor I met in a disaster-stricken village on the outskirts of the country, and I heard that she had three sons who had sacrificed their lives for the country, and the youngest son had also died of the epidemic.

According to what you said, she can't participate in the cash-for-work and can't receive relief from the imperial court, but as a martyr's family, can she go to the county government to receive a bereavement pension on a monthly basis? But her youngest son got the plague but had no money for medicine, so he had to lie in bed and wait to die. Now that this old woman has to spin some cotton thread day and night in exchange for inferior rations in order to live, who can explain to me what is going on? ”

Everyone turned around and saw Wang Anzheng slowly walking to Danqi with an old woman in his arms, thinking to themselves how the little emperor could find such a ragged old woman, it was simply an insult to the prestige of the court. Hearing the emperor's question, I realized that this was a deliberate slap in the face, didn't they say that the disaster relief work was going well, and people found problems in the suburbs, and there was no need to say much about the other places.