She didn't know what was going on, so she was busy straightening her clothes, and sure enough, she went out with her son in her arms.

As soon as he opened the door, he saw that the village was standing in the middle of the hall with his daughter-in-law, nodding and bowing, and there were four people standing behind him, two of whom were dressed in official uniforms, and the other two were dressed as soldiers.

Li Xiuniang's heart tightened, and she hurriedly hugged her son into her arms again.

Li Zheng said to the two officials in official uniforms: "This is the Zheng family, this family originally had a man, but he went to the city a month ago, and he didn't want to get sick, and now there are only daughters-in-law and widows left in the family, and a child, and the children are not yet 100 ......days old."

The official nodded, and only asked Aunt Tian and Li Xiuniang a lot of questions, such as the geometry of the family's land, how big the residence is, what kind of livestock they have, who their family name is, how many people they have, how many people in the family, how old they are, etc., one by one.

Li Xiuniang saw the official errand, although she didn't know what this was for, but she didn't dare not answer, after answering, she took people around the house, and gave a list of the fields and properties, and looked at the chicken pen where there was only one chicken left.

One of the officials asked, "Is what you two just said true?" ”

Aunt Tian and Li Xiuniang glanced at each other, and said, "Indeed." ”

The other official turned to the other and asked, "Is what the two of them said true?" ”

He bowed down and said, "Indeed." ”

The official said: "If what you say tonight is false, the state will be convicted, do you know?" ”

The three of them all said, "It's true." ”

The officer turned to look at the officers and soldiers who were traveling with him.

Only then did Li Xiuniang find that the soldier was carrying a big wooden box behind his back, and the box was full of thin labels one by one.

The official took two signs, took a pen, wrote many words on them, and after writing them, copied them again in a thick booklet.

Another official watched from the side, and when he finished writing, he confirmed it with Aunt Tian, Li Xiuniang, and Li Zheng, and read what he had written—it turned out that they had filled in their residences, names, rankings, properties, etc., all on the wooden card, and asked them to press their handprints on the booklet, and then said: "There is an order from the Yamen in the state, this time it is to measure the number of loans, because there are no men in your family, only women and children and children under the age of five, so you will give one adult one liter of brown rice per day, half a liter of brown rice for children, and five liters of money per day for the other child." to buy something else. ”

As he spoke, he gave the token to Aunt Tian, held another token, and hung it on the wall outside the door, and said again: "At this time, paste this calendar card on the wall outside your door, if there is any fraud in the voice, once someone sues you, you and everyone will be punished." ”

Then he said: "If you see that the rest of the people in the village are also cheating, you can generally come to the yamen to report the head, and you can tell one household, and you will get ten times." ”

Li Xiu was only stunned for a moment, but he could already see a strong man outside coming in with a bag of rice on his back and putting it on the ground, and another soldier counted one hundred and fifty wen from the box behind him, and put the copper coin on the stool beside him.

The official said, "Just wait and order." ”

Li Xiuniang held her son in her hand, and saw that her mother-in-law had already stepped forward and squatted on the ground and began to light the copper coins.

The crowd didn't respond much, and when the errand was completed, they were about to go out, but they were carefully stopped by Aunt Tian and asked one of the officials: "Official, my son is now in the epidemic camp, and there has been no news for more than a month, I don't know how to see him?" ”

The official didn't show much face, but said: "You are not allowed to enter and leave the epidemic camp at will, you can enter and go at least seven days, and you can only come out when you see that there is no abnormality." ”

Aunt Tian asked again, "Then can I get in?" ”

The official replied, "Except for the caretaker, you are not allowed to enter." ”

Aunt Tian asked how to be the caretaker.

The official was really taken aback when he saw her behaving like this, and said, "Do you know what the epidemic camp is like?" It's full of sick people, you're already old, if there's anything wrong......"

Aunt Tian said: "I was afraid that there would be no one to take the children at home, and my daughter-in-law would have no food to eat, but now that I have this grain and rice, I am not afraid of starvation, and it doesn't matter if I go to the city-I am all old and immortal, what are I afraid of?" ”

The official didn't dare to respond, but said, "I'll help you ask someone, and I'll answer you at that time." ”

Li Xiuniang heard her mother-in-law's question, and she also knew what the other party meant-left and right wanted to look at her husband, afraid that people would suffer inside.

She didn't dare to interject, and she didn't want to stop her, and when everyone left, she asked in a low voice: "Mother, you still don't want to go, the epidemic is not a joke, there are only these people in the village, and there are seven or eight people who are sick......

Aunt Tian shook her head and said: "You only raise my grandson at home, I have already inquired, go to the epidemic camp as a nurse, and I will have two hangs of money in a month, as well as food and shelter - where to find such good things, if you talk about epidemics, I have lived so old, half of my feet have stepped into the coffin, where are you afraid of these, death will die, I can get some money, I can also buy you and my grandson some food, look at his thin face!" ”

He said: "Don't say it, I have my own opinions." ”

Early the next morning, she packed her baggage, packed two rotten clothes, went to Lizheng's house to find the messenger from Nazhou, asked clearly, and went to Yongzhou City.

When Aunt Tian arrived in the city, she asked for a place, and sure enough, she found a stall on the street, and there were few people in front of her, only three or four old people in their fifties and sixties talking around the people guarding the stall.

She stepped forward to listen, and sure enough, they were all dedicated to being caretakers, so she laughed and said, "Official, I want to go into the epidemic camp as a caretaker, but what are the taboos?" ”

The man who was watching the stall saw that he was an old man, and he did not think it was very strange, but after asking only a few questions, he put a few people in front of the stall in a row, and asked them if they had anything else to do, and then he beckoned a soldier and assigned the soldier to take everyone to the epidemic camp.

Aunt Tian followed the people for half an hour, and soon went out from the east gate, and walked out of the big five miles, and saw a huge camp, with a high wall built outside the camp, and there were soldiers guarding it.

When they entered the camp, a woman in her forties greeted her, counted the number of people, and then said her own name, and then led everyone inside.

Aunt Tian listened to each other's words while looking around, and after a while, she found that the rooms in this camp were not built very well, and there was a smell of medicine everywhere.

She had only gone this way, and she had already met three teams of soldiers patrolling, and on another occasion someone had a cart pushing it, stopped outside each room, scooped the medicine out of the medicine barrel on the cart, and brought it to each house.