Chapter 0106: The Most Bitter One Is Still a Farmer...

"Father~"

"Father."

Hearing a childish call behind him, Zhang Yiji couldn't help but stop for a moment.

As soon as he turned around, he saw a short figure less than four feet tall, piercing Zhang Aiji's body.

Seeing his young grandson raise his head and first-class snot under his nose, Zhang Aiji's face suddenly warmed, and he squatted down with a smile.

The palms of his hands trembled slightly to wipe away the snot for his young grandson, and Zhang Aiji touched the little baby's head with love.

"But tired? Hungry? ”

"Still thirsty?"

The leader stopped, and the people of Zhangjiazhai also stopped one after another, put down the grain bags on their shoulders, and rested for a while.

But when he saw Zhang Weiyang hearing his grandfather Zhang Yaoji's words, he only lowered his head a little embarrassedly, rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, and then turned his head and raised his hand to the straight road behind him.

Raising his head and looking along Zhang Weiyang's arm, Zhang Yiji couldn't help but slowly straighten up and look at the huge team of people.

As far as Zhang Yi could see, at the beginning of that team, there were dozens of powerful guards with slightly fierce eyebrows to open the way!

Then, there are two cars, one large and one small.

The smaller one, drawn by four slightly thin old horses of different colours, walked ahead; The larger one was followed by four oxen with their horns cut off.

At first glance, it was a horse-drawn carriage, an ox cart, and dozens of guards.

If you look closely, you can see that about two miles away, there is an array of hundreds of soldiers, hanging far behind!

"Horses?!"

With a slightly surprised mutter, Zhang Yiji's face took on a little solemnity.

- In today's Guanzhong, horses are definitely a rarity!

It is rumored that even the prime minister of the dynasty, Marquis Xiao He, had to take an ox cart to the court when he was in the court!

What's more, the four-horse carriage is a treatment that only princes and kings can enjoy!

"Could it be that the princes of the clan entered the court?"

Just as he was thinking about it, Liu Ying had already trotted forward to the crowd and bowed his hand to Zhang Aiji.

"Boy, I would like to bow to my husband!"

Seeing this, the old and weak, women and children in Zhangjiazhai couldn't help but raise their heads one after another, looking at the young man with clear eyebrows, decent clothes, and even some aristocratic demeanor.

After a while, the villagers of Zhangjiazhai quietly let go to both sides of the straight road, making a passage about a zhang wide between Liu Ying and Zhang Aiji.

I saw Zhang Aiji step forward with doubts on his face, and arched his hand a little tentatively: "Dare to ask······"

Without waiting for Zhang Aiji to clench his fists with both hands, Liu Ying had already jumped forward, and hurriedly stepped forward to help Zhang Aiji with his arm, and between his eyebrows, a touch of deference immediately swelled up.

"The old man is like this, the kid is not as young as the crown, he really doesn't dare to be such a big gift······"

As she spoke, Liu Ying did not forget to move slightly to Zhang Aiji's side, completely looking like a nephew serving the elders in the family in her later life.

Seeing Liu Ying's behavior, Zhang Aiji recalled the rumors from Chang'an some time ago.

"The prince is benevolent and treats the old man like a ······ of his relatives"

Thinking to himself, Zhang Yaoji turned his head sideways with hesitation, and looked at Liu Ying's gaze with a little scrutiny.

saw Liu Ying nodding with a smile on her face, her hand still on Zhang Aiji's big arm, raised her head, and looked at Lu Shizhi, who had followed.

"Please also ask my uncle to pull the cart and pull the horse."

After that, Liu Ying turned her head sideways with a smile again, and looked at Zhang Aiji with a warm and pleasant expression.

"The old man has received the rod, and when he is old and old, how can he still work for a long distance?"

Seeing Liu Ying's gentle smile, Zhang Aiji thought about it in every possible way, but finally nodded slowly, let his arm be supported by Liu Ying, and walked in the direction of the carriage······

·

After a while, the people of Zhangjiazhai, who were originally walking slowly on the straight road, merged with Liu Ying and Lu Shi and walked on the straight road together.

Zhang Yiji, the patriarch of the Zhang family, was respectfully invited by Liu Ying to get into his carriage, but Liu Ying did not get on the car, only followed the left side of the carriage, and sat in the same car from time to time.

Behind him, on Lu Shizhi's ox cart, it was also occupied by three or two old men who were close to the age of sixtieth and whose snorts were obviously a little heavy.

Like Liu Ying, walking beside his ox cart on foot, watching Liu Ying and Zhang Aiji talking, and from time to time there was a cheerful chuckle, Lu Shizhi couldn't help but nod secretly.

"Although I am still young, I know how to respect the elderly······"

"Hey!"

"It still hasn't changed······"

Thinking like this, Lu Shizhi lowered his head with joy on his face and enjoyed this precious leisure time.

However, at the front of the line, the old and young sat in the car, and the group was outside the car, and the conversation was not very pleasant.

"I have heard for a long time that the prince is generous and benevolent, but I don't know ······ rumor"

Listening to Zhang Aiji's tentative inquiry, Liu Ying only lowered her head and smiled, which should be a tacit acquiescence.

"The boy was just born in the heavenly family, and he just got a little bit of his father's benevolence, righteousness, love for the people, and benevolence to the world."

"The old man doesn't have to be too cautious, the right to be a kid and a grandchild in the family is ······"

Feeling Liu Ying's tone, the cordiality and easy-going like a spring breeze, and the strength of Zhang Yiji's temperament, the strength of not being angry and arrogant, most of them dissipated in an instant.

was thinking about how to speak, and saw Liu Yingwen smiling and tilting her head.

"The old man is too old, when he is at home to live for the rest of his life, and enjoy the blessings of his children and grandchildren?"

As she spoke, Liu Ying didn't forget to turn her head a little and looked at the hundred or so old and weak women and children who were following behind her.

"This autumn's harvest is over, how can the old man still take the old and weak in the township, carry his bags, grain and rice to travel?"

"Where do you want to go on this trip?"

Speaking of this, Liu Ying's face quietly swelled with a trace of worry.

"But this year's autumn harvest, the acres of land are not rich in grain, so what is the difficulty of the old man?"

Hearing Liu Ying's words, Zhang Ying couldn't help but raise his head slightly, and when he saw Liu Ying's eyebrows, the looming anxiety and worry finally nodded slightly in his heart.

"After all, it's Your Majesty's blood······"

"In the heart of the nest, I still remember our Qianshou!"

Thinking like this, Zhang Yiji looked at Liu Ying's gaze, and couldn't help but be more gentle.

"Temple ······"

As soon as he opened his mouth tentatively, seeing that Liu Ying's face was slightly stagnant, he looked behind him with a stiff smile, Zhang Aiji thought for a moment, and finally had to nod with a smile.

"Childe?"

Seeing Liu Ying nodding his head noncommittally, Zhang Yiji adjusted his sitting posture, and there was a little sadness between his eyebrows.

"Although it is not to the land that the son said, but this year's autumn harvest, there is indeed very little grain······"

As he spoke, Zhang Yiji couldn't help but sigh and shook his head again.

"In the fifth year of the Han Dynasty, the old man retired from the army, returned to Weibei, and was given the title of not changing by His Majesty, 200 acres of fertile land."

"At that age, the old man's family had 200 acres of land and more than 700 stones of corn!"

"The old grandchildren are eleven years old, and they are all able to eat more than a year old, but they are only twelve or three years old, but they are more than six feet long!"

"But as the years go by, the grain from the fields becomes scarcer·······

Speaking of this, Zhang Aiji's expression couldn't help but feel a little sad.

"First of all, in the eighth year of the Han Dynasty, Guanzhong was slightly dry, and there was no water for irrigation, and the grain per mu was less than two stones!"

"And last year, although there is no drought, but the old Zhangjiazhai is located, far away from the Zhengguo Canal; When the water flows to Zhangjiazhai, there is not much ······ left."

"At this age, the old and decrepit have no choice but to drive the young and strong in the township, and carry the bucket to Weishui, but it is only a drop in the bucket; There are more than 370 peasant households in Zhangjiazhai, with nearly 40,000 mu of land, and the grain is less than 60,000 stone ······"

"This grain is 60,000 stones, and its agricultural tax is 4,000 stones, and then sold to the grain merchants; By the end of next year, the money from the sale of grain will probably be less than 30,000 stone ······."

As he spoke, Zhang Aiji's eyes when he looked at Liu Ying were already filled with tears.

"It must be known that there are 374 households in Zhangjiazhai, with more than 2,600 people······"

"Thirty thousand stones of grain and rice, divided and eaten, people are only more than ten stones; Even if you eat half full with coarse grains and dregs, it is only for August and September·····"

"In the remaining three months and May, I am afraid that children are crying violently, there is no one to say, and every family is hungry and lying on the couch, and they dare not go out for a little ··········"

Listening to Zhang Aiji's description, even if he expected the grain production in Guanzhong to decrease and the people would not have enough to eat, Liu Ying only felt that there was a muffled sound in his heart that was smashed down by a stone hammer.

- 30,000 stone of grain, more than 2,600 people to eat, is it enough?

Liu Ying knows very well in her heart: In the Han Dynasty, the criterion for judging 'whether you can't eat or not' is two stones of rice and grain per capita per capita!

By this standard, an adult citizen, male or female, who does not consume twenty-four stone of food in a year, can be called a 'poor family without food' in the report of the local government······.1

In Zhang's mouth, the average annual intake of grain and rice per person in Zhangjiazhai is likely to be a little more than ten stones.

This means: if you only eat pure millet and eat every ton, then the income of the people of Zhangjiazhai for a year of hard work is only enough to eat for a hundred years!

In just a moment, Liu Ying's heart swelled with an inexplicable and solemn sense of mission.

- Zheng Guoqu, it must be repaired!

——Next year, the year after tomorrow at the latest, we must let the people of Guanzhong get rid of this dilemma of 'farming for a year, but not enough food for a year'!

Liu Yingzheng was pondering, and Zhang Yiji also turned his head with guilt, touched the little head lying in his arms and quietly fell asleep.

Zhang Weiyang, the youngest grandson of Zhang Aiji, is only eight years old this year, but he still looks thin like a four or five-year-old child.

Looking at Zhang Weiyang's obviously bulging collarbone and faintly sunken cheeks, Zhang Yiji only blinked miserably, but he didn't dare to raise his hand to wipe the tears from the corners of his eyes.

In just a moment, at the front of Liu Ying's carriage and horses, whether it was in the carriage where Zhang Aiji was or outside the carriage where Liu Ying was, the atmosphere was extremely depressing.

I don't know how long it took, but in the end, Zhang Aiji waited for a moment to swallow more and whispered, breaking the immersion······

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