Youzhou, Lanyun County, Canglan County

Youzhou is located in the northwest of the empire, the west is an endless desert, the north is a series of mountains and dangerous peaks, the other side of the mountain is the prairie where the Eagle people live, but there is no road between the peaks to walk, so the Eagle people can not invade from Youzhou, and the southeast is bordered by the Zhili region where the Jingshi is located. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info Youzhou is not large in area among the thirteen states of the National Dynasty, there are only five counties, and Lanyun County is one of them, located in the middle of Youzhou.

Canglan County is located in the southernmost part of Lanyun County.

This is a village in Canglan County, and the sun is shining in the sky at this time.

Although there is a lot of farmland in the village, spring in the north is not the busy season for farming, and there are no crops in sight.

Most of the croppers are raking the fields with farm tools, renovating the soil, and handling some weeds. It's just that these crop men are all yellow and thin, their eyes are blank, and they are weak enough to do farm work. But it's not that they're lazy, they're so hungry that they don't have much strength.

The peasant women were even far less pale-complexion than their men, who ate slightly better than the women because of their manual work, and could barely afford to hold hoes, but the peasant women were so hungry that they could barely walk.

Some of the peasant women are burning cow dung, which is easy for the soil to absorb after cooking, and although the cow dung itself does not smell good, it does not smell bad when it is burned after it is dried, and the women do not feel dirty.

Some of the peasant women would pick up some wild vegetables in the fields, wild vegetables were an extremely important source of food for them to fill their stomachs at this time, every household in this village was a tenant farmer of a family surnamed Ye, and almost all of the grain harvested last year was handed over to the landlord as rent, and each of them was only allowed to leave a small bit, and with some wild vegetables dug up in the mountains, they barely survived the whole winter.

Although these farmers handed over all the production of the fields to the Ye landlord's family, because the amount of land rent was too large, every family in the village owed a lot of debt to the landlord surnamed Ye.

Yang Laohan's house is near the edge of the village, his house is a mud house made of mud and straw handed down from his ancestors, the beams of the house are made of wood, and some straw is laid on the beams.

Yang Laohan broke his foot while working in the field two days ago, and he couldn't do farm work for a few days, so he rested at home today.

The old man was skinny and skinny, with deep wrinkles carved on his face, he was sitting on the wooden stake in front of the house at the moment, looking at the blue sky outside, and greeting the female relatives of the Ye steward's family in the village.

At this time, a crisp and beautiful voice came from outside: "Grandpa, I'm back." Hearing this, the old man stopped swearing, and although the men and women of the village never restrained their swearing, he still did not want to let the children hear these unpleasant things.

A little girl who looked to be thirteen or fourteen years old walked in from outside, still holding some wild vegetables in her right hand.

The little girl is very beautiful, her facial features are very reasonable, her big eyes seem to be able to speak, very moving, and her nose is straight. The fly in the ointment was that her body was very thin, her skin showed an unhealthy yellow, her lips were slightly pale, her hair was yellow, and she looked malnourished.

The old man and his granddaughter depend on each other, his granddaughter has always been his treasure, seeing it, the old man's thin old face can't help but show a kind smile, but when he sees the very small number of wild vegetables in the girl's hand, the smile can't help but dim, and sighs: "Tiantian, is there only these today?" ”

Although he knew that there were not many wild vegetables to pick in the field, he was still a little disappointed when he saw that his granddaughter only had so little in her hands.

Of course, he didn't dislike his granddaughter for picking less, but he just felt helpless about this damn world, even wild vegetables, grandparents and grandchildren didn't have much to eat every day.

He remembered that fifty years ago, when he was a child, his family was not a tenant farmer of the Ye landlord's family, and their family had their own land to cultivate, although the government taxes were not low, but the family could barely do it every year.

It's just that since when did his family slowly stop living, and they could only sell their fields to the Ye landlord's family?

Oh, it was caused by that great drought many years ago, and the land was bare for thousands of miles, and the locusts were infested, and there was no grain in the field. In order to survive, his parents cried and sold their ancestral land, and they also owed a lot of debt to the Ye landlord's family.

Then, in order to continue to survive, their family became tenant farmers of the Ye landlord's family, and the rent collected by the Ye landlord's family became heavier and heavier year by year, and almost all the crops collected in the field had to be handed over to the Ye family's Zhuangzi with the Ye steward who came to collect the ancestors, and these crops were becoming more and more insufficient to pay the rent, and the money they owed to the Ye landlord's family was increasing year by year.

By now, this money has become an astronomical amount for an old farmer like him who simply cannot afford to pay it back.

Thinking of Steward Ye's fat face, the old man's heart was disgusted and resentful.

Last year, after the old man's son died of exhaustion from the conscription of the official family, the daughter-in-law of the family was dragged away by Steward Ye in the name of paying off debts.

Although the old man wanted to fight with Steward Ye at that time, every time he thought of his little granddaughter, who was only more than ten years old, he couldn't raise the courage to fight with Steward Ye.

If he dies again, how can her granddaughter live alone!

The girl heard the disappointment in her grandfather's tone, and she was inevitably a little uneasy, and she said softly, "Hmmm", "In the past two days, the wild vegetables in the field have been picking less and less, and this is the last point." ”

The old man gently patted his granddaughter's shoulder: "Good boy, don't blame you, there is still a little brown rice left at home, even if there is a little less wild vegetables, it doesn't matter, our two of us make do with it, and we can barely survive." ”

The girl raised her head and said bravely: "Grandpa, why don't you go into the mountains tomorrow, there are many wild vegetables to pick in the mountains, and Wang Erniu's family next door found many wild vegetables on the mountains." ”

When the old man heard this, not only did he not praise his granddaughter's ability, but his face changed, and he said sharply: "Nonsense! You are not allowed in the mountains, you know? ”

The girl was frightened by the old man's stern look, and responded with some grievances.