The winter temperature south of the Yangtze River is not very low, at most hovering around freezing, but the water vapor in the south is heavier, so the winter here is not as dry and cold as in the north, but it is a damp cold, which makes people feel more uncomfortable.

This is the Jianzhou in the northwest of Fuzhou, this Jianzhou is not the Jianzhou in the northeast of the later generations, but in the territory of Fujian Province in the later generations, in which the two words Fujian are separated, Fu refers to Fuzhou, and Jianzhou refers to Jianzhou. However, during the Tang Dynasty, Fuzhou was the leading big city, and textiles, port trade, etc., were ranked first in the country.

Compared with Fuzhou, Jianzhou is not very famous, the only one to take the shot, there is only one tea, the famous dragon and phoenix group tea in later generations, is produced here, but unfortunately the tea of Jianzhou began to be famous in the middle and Tang Dynasty, to the Song Dynasty to become a tribute tea, reached a peak, and in the Zhenguan period, Jianzhou is still just a place that not many people pay attention to.

Fujian is mountainous, Jianzhou is no exception, here is a group of mountains in the southeast of Jianzhou, the mountains are densely forested, but because of winter, most of the trees in the mountains and forests have become bare, and the grass has lost its former green, which looks very sluggish.

In this mountain forest, on a winding sheep intestine path, a small team of more than a dozen people is struggling to advance along this path. These dozen or so people are all young men of seventeen or eighteen years old, although the clothes they are wearing are a little shabby, but they all look very good, and each of them is pushing a wheelbarrow, and there are some big bags and small bags on the car, and I don't know what is inside?

The men said as they walked, and the chubby young man in the group was among them. was complaining to the dark and thin young man in front of him: "Brother Shi, the New Year is coming up in a month." At this time, the owners of various factories are raising their wages, and we will work for another month. Then this month's salary is higher than the previous two months, but you have to go home all of us, isn't it a waste? ”

Walking at the front of the line, the black and thin young man called Brother Shi by the fat man seemed to be their head. And Shi said angrily after hearing the fat man's complaints: "What do you know about Dunzi, the New Year is indeed a good opportunity to make money, but at this time, the government is also strict, for fear that there will be some chaos during the New Year. Do you still need me to talk about the consequences? ”

As soon as Brother Shi's words fell, he immediately attracted the loud echo of other people, among whom followed closely behind the pier, a long thin and small, with a head full of yellow hair, and a guy who looked like a monkey also opened his mouth and smiled: "It's better for Brother Shi to say, we are all fugitives, and we don't have a household registration in the government, in case we are found." Don't say a word, I will immediately rush to the boat and send him back to his hometown, counting our father and mother fled here from Songzhou, and they haven't been back for more than ten years. There is no house and no land in my hometown, so let's go back and let us drink the northwest wind! ”

Hearing the other party's words, Brother Shi at the front glanced back in surprise. He said with some surprise: "Monkey, I didn't expect you to learn a lot of things this time." It's all a set of things. ”

Hearing Brother Shi's joke, the monkey was a little embarrassed. The young people in the back also laughed and began to talk about what they had gained this time. With the voices of these young people, the mountain road finally became a little more vibrant, and even the temperature seemed to rise a little.

Brother Shi in front did not participate in the discussion of his partners, but looked up at the mountain road, calculated how much time it would take to get home, and then began to think about his thoughts without saying a word.

Shi Shi and these partners behind him are from a small village called Luoshi Village, but this village is a little special, not that Luoshi Village is very remote and needs to climb a few mountain beams to get there, but that the villagers in Luoshi Village are a little special, this is because they are all fugitives, that is, those who live in Datang but do not have Datang household registration.

The composition of the fugitives is very complicated, most of them are hiding in the mountains and forests because of the war, there are few contacts with the outside world, and some people are fugitives because they are unwilling to pay taxes, so they take the initiative to run away and become fugitives, and some are passive fugitives because of historical reasons.

For example, these people like Shishi, their parents fled to the south in order to escape the war in the Central Plains, and finally settled near Jianzhou, which is considered to be a war fugitive, while Shishi these people were born after settling here, and they have already regarded this place as their home, but according to the regulations of the imperial court, all fugitives will be sent back to their hometowns immediately after they are discovered, which is naturally unwilling for these people in Shi.

In fact, the life of these fugitives is not very good, they have no household registration, and they can not get the land issued by the government, in order to live, they have to go into the mountains to reclaim the wasteland, plus they are afraid of being discovered by the government, so the places where the fugitives live are generally very remote, and even very dangerous, if you are not careful, you may be attacked by wild beasts or something, and the grain production of the wasteland is not high, they can only eat the grain for more than half a year a year, and the rest of the time they have to go to the mountains to hunt or dig wild vegetables for a living.

In addition, because the fugitives try not to have contact with outsiders in order to escape from the government, and they live in poverty, they are very scarce of various items for daily life, such as the most basic salt, they can only exchange things with some illegal salt dealers, and often have to pay several times the price, which can be said to be a great loss.

But even so, these fugitives still do not return to their original places, after all, although their life here is not very good, at least they do not starve to death, and occasionally catch some game, and exchange it for a few pieces of salt. And if they were allowed to return to their hometowns, they would not have a place to live, and they would not know whether the government would give them land, so they did not dare to take this risk, so between staying and going back, they chose the former.

Shi thought of the hard days in the village before, and also sighed long, he was followed by brothers who grew up with him, but except for the pier, almost all of them were very thin, all because they were hungry all year round. As for Dunzi, it is because his father is an experienced old hunter who can often hunt a lot of prey, and in addition to a few sisters and sisters in the family, he is the only son, so whatever delicious food in the family is eaten by Dunzi first, and he only eats such a fat man. I remember that when he was a child, he and his other brothers were not less envious of the fat man who could eat meat often.

However, the previous hard days have passed, since a few years ago, His Royal Highness King Qi in the Tang Dynasty rose up industry and commerce, all over the country is built a lot of factories and workshops, although Jianzhou is located in the south, but because it is very close to the big port in Fuzhou, plus it is rich in tea, so there are many businessmen here to invest in the construction of factories, in addition to the production of various types of tea, there are textile, food and other factories, and now it has become one of the supply bases of Fuzhou sea trade.

It is precisely because of this that Jianzhou City and the surrounding towns are recruiting people everywhere, and even many factories that are really short of people are forced to find a way to buy many slaves to work. In this case, many fugitives also fled from the mountains to towns and cities, and into factories to work.

However, compared with the normal people, these fugitives have to suffer a great loss, because they do not have a household registration, so they are often oppressed by the factory owners, and the wages they are paid much lower than other workers, sometimes even less than half of the normal workers, and they must also be careful to live in the towns, not to be caught by the government, otherwise they will be sent back to their hometowns, which is what all fugitives fear the most.

Stone they are located in the village is very remote, and they know less about the outside world, and even in the first half of this year, they only heard a sister from the village who married into another fugitive village talk about the recruitment of workers in Jianzhou, and according to the sister, her man and some young men in the village worked in a factory in Jianzhou City, and they could get hundreds of literary wages every month, although it was much less than ordinary workers, but so much money was exchanged for food, cloth and other things, which was enough for their family to eat.

For the news brought by this married sister, the young people of the stone were very moved after hearing it, but unfortunately their parents all held the old concept, for fear of being discovered by the government after going out, so they all opposed the plan to work outside the stone.

In the face of this situation, the stone is usually the most assertive person has become the backbone of the pier and the monkey, and finally they discussed it and finally decided to run out secretly, and then went to work in a small town outside Jianzhou City, first to work as a coolie for a businessman, carrying a big bag for a month, and finally after touching the way, he entered a tea factory in the town and did an apprenticeship for a month, which was officially put on the job, and it was only four months of formal work.

Originally, there was no salary for apprenticeship, but now there is a shortage of people everywhere, so now even apprentices have some salary, although it is not much, but it is enough for one person to eat. Moreover, in the four months that they officially started working on the stone, everyone did a good job, and they calculated the salary according to the amount, and they got as much as they worked, so in the end, they each saved more than two times for the stone.

Don't underestimate these two pieces of money, you must know that a bucket of rice in Datang is only four or five yuan, and the price of salt has fallen in recent years, and each catty of salt is a few yuan, so if you calculate it, two copper dollars are enough for their family to spend for a year.

It is precisely with these wages that they have the confidence to go home, and it is useless for them to ask for money in the mountains, so when they come back, they all exchange the money for meat, rice, oil, salt and other necessities of life. (To be continued.) )