In the fourth year of the Apocalypse, in autumn and August, there were heavy winds and rains in Lulong, Qian'an, Yutian and other places in Beijing, and many people froze to death. Yang Lian, who was presiding over the rent reduction in Beijing, was immediately appointed by the emperor as a disaster relief envoy to go to the disaster relief.

Yang Lian made a rough investigation and found that it was mainly farmers in Lulong, Yutian and other places who froze to death, while only thirteen old people in Qian'an were frozen to death, while more than 700 people froze to death in the other two counties. He asked the Qian'an County Order very suspiciously.

The Qian'an county order is still the county order Liu Zhongzheng when the Qian'an New District was built, his performance in the past two years is excellent, and the officials want to move him up, but he strongly opposes it, thinking that Qian'an has been promoted from the lower county to the upper county, and he is already equivalent to being promoted, and he wants to work here for three years, and then leave after doing things satisfactorily. The Ministry of Officials has always been more tolerant of officials with good performance, so they obeyed his wishes.

Liu Zhongzheng said to Yang Lian proudly: "Lord Qincha, we have frozen to death in Qian'an, a total of thirteen old people have froze to death, you also know, whether the old man froze to death or not, in fact, it is not easy to say, maybe Shouyuan has arrived?" None of the others have the problem of frost damage, mainly in two aspects, one is that our diet is good, everyone is rich now, and the eggs are willing to eat, and occasionally cut a few catties of meat, and the body is naturally good when eating well. Second, the agricultural cooperatives collected the chickens, ducks and goose feathers of the farmers and made a kind of cotton clothing called down jackets, which had a better cold-proof effect than cotton clothes. These two aspects are the reasons why we are better than Lulong and their side. ”

Yang Lian didn't believe that there were clothes that were warmer than cotton clothes, Liu Zhongzheng asked people to bring a down jacket and said: "Lord Qincha, please see, this is a children's down jacket, the cooperative said that the production capacity is insufficient, so the first is to make children's down jackets, and the children in our county can wear warmer than adults." ”

Yang Lian carefully looked at the down jacket, touched the inside, and after a while, took out his hand and said: "It's really good, it's really amazing that useless bird feathers can be used like this on weekdays." ”

Liu Zhongzheng arched his hand to the west and said: "I heard that it was a method proposed by the emperor, and after this thing is popularized, there will be no cold in the world." The emperor really deserves to be a saint. ”

Yang Lian asked again: "Do you need grain relief after the disaster in your county?" ”

Liu Zhongzheng immediately put on a sad look and said: "Of course you need to put grain, such a big wind and rain, even people are frozen to death, not to mention the crops, this year's poor harvest has become a foregone conclusion, as for whether you can receive one or two percent, it is really hard to say." ”

Yang Lian reprimanded: "You don't talk nonsense, Ben Qincha has seen it in the field, of course the harvest will be damaged, but there is no problem with harvesting six or seven percent." And you usually have food in your house, so let me tell you first, if you have more relief food, I will also join you. It will be issued according to the actual disaster situation, and the roster should be made, and each grain must also have an account to check. If there is something you don't need to distribute, don't blame me when the black yarn falls, there are a lot of people from Jinyiwei. ”

Liu Zhongzheng saw that Yang Lian saw through it, so he had to put away his sadness and said: "Lord Qincha, please rest assured, although I love the people like a son, I will never send more relief food." ”

Yang Lian sighed and said: "Actually, there is no way, although you have suffered a disaster, but your foundation is stronger than other counties, Lu Long, Yutian They froze to death at once, and the harvest will only be worse than yours in the future, maybe you have to transfer grain from here." If all the places are like you, why would this little wind and rain make such a big fuss? ”

When Yang Lian arrived in Lulong County, the scene he saw was not the same as that of Qian'an. When he arrived in the hardest-hit mountain village, nearly 30 percent of his family was holding funerals, and a sad atmosphere filled the air. The accompanying Lulong County Commander said: "A total of 30 people in Shanxing Village froze to death, mainly the elderly, and two children. ”

Yang Lian asked, "Is there a lot of wind and rain here?" ”

Lulong County ordered: "It will not be bigger than other places, mainly because the villagers here are relatively poor, and the preparation of cold clothes is insufficient, and the villagers who are weak are easy to freeze to death." Another family lit a fire to keep warm, which set the house on fire and burned two people to death. ”

Yang Lian said: "I can understand the lack of clothes, but here is close to the mountains, at least there is no shortage of firewood and grass, why not fetch more firewood to keep warm?" ”

Lulong County ordered: "On weekdays, the villagers are busy, even the children have to help the family with farming, there is not much firewood, as long as it is enough to cook on weekdays, for a while the wind and rain come, it is too late to collect firewood, and the wet firewood can not be used, so it is ......"

Yang Lian sighed, he saw that every family in Qian'an New District has a big firewood house, which is full of straw and firewood, all of which are picked by farmers there in the mountains during the slack time, each family in Qian'an New District has more fields than in this Shanxing Village, but two or three of them share a cow, and the entire village of Shanxing Village has three cows, and they are all the only landlord's family, no wonder they don't even have the time to cut firewood.

However, Yang Lian always felt that something was wrong, because everyone had nothing to do in winter, and no one went to fetch more firewood, just enough to cook on weekdays, which also shows that they did not take into account the possibility of sudden cold on weekdays, and from another side it also shows that they have no plan for their lives on weekdays, and they have to get by, and the reason for all this is that they can't see the hope of life.

And the most important thing in front of him now is the issue of rent reduction. In the north, forty percent of the land rent has been basically realized, but now that it has suffered a disaster, it is necessary to reduce the rent on this basis, so that the land rent may be reduced to thirty percent or even less than thirty percent, and the resentment that the landlords have accumulated for a long time suddenly explodes.

Originally, the landlord collected forty percent of the rent, according to weekdays, it was already very good, and after paying the tax, there were still three or four buckets left in one acre of land. But there is a liao salary, nine cents of silver per acre of land, which has been collected since the forty-sixth year of Wanli. And when it came to the Apocalypse Dynasty, not only was it collected, but it was also stipulated that it was not allowed to be owed. Nine cents of silver is actually only nine copper coins, but because of the short period of collection, the landlords are very unhappy, because the money is also paid by the landlord. Although it was not much, the landlords always felt that the money should also be given to the tenants who rented the land.

Because of the strong policy of the imperial court, peasants from all over the country were constantly moved to Taiwan and other places to reclaim famine, resulting in a shortage of tenants in some areas, so that the landlords had to agree to a 40% rent reduction. Originally, the heart was already extremely unhappy, and at this time the tenants suffered a disaster, and the court wanted to put the loss of the disaster on the landlord's head, which made the landlord's new hatred and old hatred come to his heart together, and the dissatisfaction with the rent reduction and the salary broke out together, and most of the landlords directly said: "We have obeyed the will of the imperial court to reduce the rent, and now the disaster is not only the tenants, we are also affected, and the rent reduction is unacceptable." ”