In Shijiazhai in Huolu Town, Zuozhou, Guangxi, this morning, before dawn, Shi Laohan woke up his two sons, and the three of them went out in the dark. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Shi Laohan's name is Shi Fugui, he is 52 years old this year, and there are nine people in his family.

The eldest son, Shi Youliang, is thirty-one years old, has married a wife, and has four children ranging from ten to three years old; The second son, Shi Youbu, is also twenty-three, because his family is poor, and he has not yet started a family.

In addition, there is Shi Laohan's mother-in-law, Shi Huang's.

But that's all changed!

In December last year, Shi Laohan heard from the second son of the rich man's house in Zuozhou that a Guangxi holy soldier drove away the Manchu government in Zuozhou and occupied the city of Zuozhou.

Shi Laohan heard that there was a war in the state city, so he hurriedly asked his two sons not to go out, stayed at home and waited for seven acres of paddy fields, ten acres of dry land, and then rented five acres of paddy fields from the neighboring village Huang Lao, plus the two taels of silver that Shi Youbu earned as a helper in the state city in the past few years, but he could barely make ends meet.

However, half a month has passed, and Shijiazhai, which is more than 40 miles away from the state capital, has not changed anything, and Shi Laohan is relieved. As soon as the New Year was over, he sent his second son Shi Youbu to continue to help in the state capital, after all, the family's annual food was already a little insufficient, and it was even more difficult to survive the next year if there were more people to eat.

Unexpectedly, Shi Youbu had only been out for two or three months, and suddenly came back from the state city. It is said that the new governor of Zuozhou has announced that starting from April, all towns and villages in Zuozhou will implement the newly revised "Shengguo Tianmu System."

Shi Youbu called Shi Laohan and Shi Youliang together and carefully explained what was going on with this "Holy Country Tianmu System".

After listening to the second son's vague explanation, Shi Laohan was overjoyed to learn that the Shi family could not only pay less grain tax, but also rent the public rental land in Huolu Town! But he didn't believe it and decided to go to the state city to see it for himself.

So, the next day, the father and son rushed to Longzhou Prefecture, at the gate of the state yamen, there was a yamen scribe explaining the "Shengguo Tianmu System" posted on the wall, and a large group of people like them were watching, through interrogation, Shi Laohan finally completely understood the benefits of this new policy.

He couldn't believe that such a good thing could happen to him!

According to the new policy formulated by this holy king, more than half of the dry land of their Shi family was newly opened up the wasteland the year before last, and no grain tax was collected for three years. Moreover, according to the situation of their Shi family, they belong to a normal small field household, and they only need to pay less than 8 buckets of grain tax to the town every year. Compared with the actual handover to the Manchu government last year, it was handed over 5 buckets less.

The five acres of paddy fields rented from Mr. Huang's family in the neighboring village originally had to pay 40 percent of the total harvest, but now according to the regulations, they only need to pay no more than 3 percent of the rent. If Master Huang overcollects, Lord Zhizhou will confiscate his family's paddy fields.

In this way, the Shi family can pay a total of 2 to 3 stones less grain this year, and with more than these two or three stones of grain, the family does not have to eat two meals of wild vegetable porridge and rice every day, and they are dizzy from hunger.

Shi Laohan returned to Shijiazhai with his two sons happily and told the good news to the people of the village.

The whole village was immersed in joy.

On the same day, Shi Laohan agreed that his second son Shi Youbu would no longer go to the state city to help, and stay by his side to farm together. Thinking of two years of hard work, accumulating some food, buying some dowry, and marrying the second son, the family will be harmonious and beautiful, and happiness will be boundless.

Zuozhou has been experiencing drought since the end of last year, and there is a shortage of water in the fields. Next, Shi Laohan led his two sons to serve the seedlings in the field more diligently, leaving early and returning late every day to carry water from the Zuojiang River a few miles away, watering the seedlings in the field, although they were busy and exhausted, but they were happy in their hearts.

Watching the seedlings grow taller and taller, thick green and thick, I suddenly felt full of strength.

Moreover, Shi Laohan looked at the green seedlings growing gratifyingly, and thought happily in his heart, there will be a good harvest this year, maybe, in less than two years, the second child will be able to marry a relative, and the old family may be able to buy another grandson.

Shi Laohan told his mother-in-law Shi Huang his thoughts, and the two of them were happy in the bed for a long time, and Shi Huang, who had always been frail and sickly, had an aging body and regained some of the passion of his youth.

At this moment, a sudden locust plague shattered Shi Fugui's dream!

I don't know when it began, swarms of flying locusts came from the southwest. At the beginning, it was still a few batches a day, and when the seedlings in the field were about to pull the core, dozens of batches flew from Shijiazhai a day.

The whole Shijiazhai began to panic. Zuozhou has not had a locust plague for three years.

The last time there was a locust plague, it was still 30 years after Daoguang, and the locust plague was not very serious. But I thought that after the locust plague, Emperor Daoguang died.

As a result, it was rumored throughout the countryside of Zuozhou that this locust plague was a natural disaster, and it was a warning and punishment from God to the world. Those locusts are messengers sent by heaven, and they cannot be hunted down, otherwise they will fight against heaven.

Moreover, these locusts are all naturally generated, the essence of heaven and earth, suddenly appearing, it must be something that violates the harmony of heaven and earth in the world, if it is not changed, there will be a greater disaster.

After a few more days, the locusts did not just cross the border. News came from the city of Zuozhou that many villages in Chongshan County, neighboring Zuozhou, had been invaded by locusts, and the seedlings in the fields had been snatched up.

On this day, Shi Laohan's family was working in the fields, and suddenly the sky was dark. Shi Laohan looked up, but it was a large swarm of locusts in the distance, and even half of the sky was blocked, and he couldn't help but be shocked.

Not long after, the swarm of locusts did not fly over Shijiazhai as before, but fell, and happened to land in the ground, including Shijia's rice field.

The people of Shijiazhai were afraid of angering the heavens, so they didn't dare to step forward and drive away. The two brothers of the Shi family wanted to go forward to drive away the locusts, but they were stopped by Shi Laohan, and he called the two of them, like other Shijiazhai people, to go home to hide.

Suddenly, in less than two hours, there was not a single grass left in the entire field.

The locusts flew to the nearby dry land and mountain forests, and the leaves of the dry land and sweet potatoes, and the young leaves of the small trees on the mountain forest were all swept away.

The next day, the locusts finally left, but left behind eggs and droppings, and the crowd did not notice.

The so-called flying locusts enter the country, not a single inch of grass remains, and where they fly, they cover the sky and the sun, and beyond what they fall, the crops become dead branches, which is the case.

After the locust left, Shi Laohan saw a stump in the field, only then did he come to his heart, sat on the ridge of the field, and cried loudly, far away, Shi Youliang and Shi Youbu The two brothers hid behind and watched their old father's sad situation, and also wept for each other.

A few days later, the price of the grain stores in the town suddenly rose, and the original price of less than 2 taels of silver per stone of rice has now become 3 coins and 6 taels per bucket, which is converted into 3.6 taels of one stone, and one stone is not sold, but only sold in buckets.

Shi Fugui's family reduced the original two meals of wild vegetable soup in the morning and wild vegetable mixed rice porridge in the afternoon to wild vegetable soup in the morning and wild vegetable porridge in the afternoon, saving a handful of brown rice for the whole family every day. But the rice stored is getting smaller and smaller, and it can't last for two months.

Originally, a month and a half later, it was the time for the new valley to pick up, but now, all the locusts are gnawing, and if they can't catch it, the whole family will starve to death.

So, the whole family went to the mountains to dig wild vegetables and pick leaves, but even the slightly tender green leaves were eaten by the locusts, and all that was left in the mountains and forests was some old leaves that turned yellow and blue, or slightly more tender wild vegetable roots hidden in the soil.

Even these, it is the people of the entire Shijiazhai who are robbing around.

Shi Youbu rushed to the city to continue to help at the old man's house, but unexpectedly, he was also rejected and said that his family had suffered a disaster and he would no longer ask for helpers.

At this time, the four children of the Shi family are hungry and crying every day.

In desperation, Shi Fugui went to buy grain with the two taels of silver saved by Shi Youbu's helpers, only to find that the two taels of silver could only buy three buckets of rice.

Shi Fugui was reluctant, but thinking that the four children in the family were so hungry that they couldn't stand up, he gritted his teeth and bought rice. But how long can three buckets of rice last?

In order to leave the rice for the children to eat, Shi Huang and his daughter-in-law only chewed some leaves and bark every day to satisfy their hunger, and the saved rice soup was given to the four children to eat.

Within a few days, Shi Huang, who was already in weak health, fell to the ground when he was cooking wild vegetable soup, never woke up, and starved to death like this.

He didn't have the heart to do any funeral, so Shi Fugui hastily buried Shi Huang's family in the back mountain.

The next day, before dawn, he called his two sons, and the three of them went out in the dark to the distant mountains, trying to catch some snakes and rats to satisfy their hunger. More than ten miles of land near Shijiazhai have been turned over, and snakes and rats have long been extinct, not to mention other wild animals. (To be continued.) )