"Brother Ji'er! You go to the imperial store to buy ten catties of rice, but there is not enough rice at home! ”

"Huh!"

In the cold winter of Layue, when all households were preparing for the New Year, a small courtyard in the south of the Yangtze River in Shangguanqiao Town, the Yangzhou capital of Nanzhili, sounded the voice of a woman.

An eleven or twelve-year-old boy who heard the rumor walked out of the ear room and came to the kitchen door.

The woman in the Bijia skirt took out four ten-wen Heavenly Apocalypse Tongbao from her arms: "Be optimistic about the price of rice, if it rises, then buy as much as you can." ”

"Okay." When the young man heard this, he took the copper coin, and then walked out of the small courtyard.

Walking in the alley less than four feet wide, the young man let out a mouthful of white mist and rubbed his hands.

He looked around, and then realized that before he knew it, the white walls of the people around him had faded, but the white walls of his house had been painted before the winter, which looked out of place with the surroundings.

Shangguanqiao Town, like most towns in the south of the Yangtze River, is a street because of the river, presenting a simple, bright and quiet style, which is a typical style of "small bridges, flowing water, and people" in the south of the Yangtze River.

Compared with other towns, Shangguanqiao Town has only developed for more than 200 years, but even so, it still completely preserves the style and pattern of the original water town.

The town bridges and streets are connected, houses are built along the river, the green shadow is swaying, and the river spans several stone bridges that were formed in the Hongwu period.

Under the stone bridge in the cold winter moon, the canopy boats loaded with goods slide back and forth, and there are many laborers waiting for work on both banks.

These laborers are looking forward to a ship that will stop recruiting workers so that they can work to earn money and support their families.

Walking on the bridge, the pedestrians on the bridge are wearing cotton clothes and capes, the woman wears a small felt hat, and the man is either a square scarf or an ordinary square scarf.

On both sides of the river, although it is a cold winter, there are still many women who hammer clothes.

They chatted with each other about the women's house, and some of the men sitting in the gazebo roasting wine were talking and laughing loudly.

Pedestrians are in a hurry, and there are still some ragged people squatting at the entrance of the stone bridge, placing a pottery bowl in front of them, expecting passers-by to give a charity or two.

The young man also wanted to see these beggars, after all, in his memory, six years after the apocalypse, there were very few people begging along the streets in the town.

Just before he could look at it for a few more seconds, three officials dressed in strong suits, wearing official scarves and swords at their waists came in the distance.

"Go, go, go! There is a rule in the "Da Ming Law" that you can't beg on the street! I'm going to eat and go to the county's hospice! ”

A servant yelled viciously at the dozen or so beggars squatting under the bridge, and the group of beggars tightened their clothes, and one of them wore a disheveled head, and pleaded:

"Official, give me a way to live, let's find a job here, and if we have money, we will naturally leave, this is really not going to survive......"

"If you can't survive, you can migrate! There is an official errand of the Migration Department at the entrance of the town, so I honestly took the food stamps and went to the south, don't disturb the lives of the people in the town! ”

The official was about to draw his sword, but this action startled the beggars, and they all got up weakly and walked out of the town.

The surrounding residents were no longer surprised by this, but after the officials drove the beggars away, some people could not help complaining:

"This year's drought in the south of the Yangtze River has exempted the imperial court for one year, and other places have been exempted for three years."

"Who can survive like this? Don't we all have to be forced to move south......"

"I heard that it was the decree of the king of Qi, I really don't know why the king of Qi is so fickle, obviously ......"

"Okay, okay, let's go, don't talk about it."

Around the young man, some Confucian scholars shook their heads and sighed and walked away, after hearing this, the young man was also very puzzled, but he still took the forty yuan in his arms and walked to the only imperial store in the town.

[Those who migrate to Luchuan, Jiugang, Nanzhou, and Jiaozhi will receive six stone of large rations every year, three stones of small mouth, three acres of cooked land, seventeen acres of raw land, and one cow for men. 】

When he came to the entrance of the imperial store, the young man saw a wooden sign hanging on the roof of the imperial store.

With just one glance, he withdrew his gaze and put his gaze on the imperial shop.

The imperial shop in Shangguanqiao Town, like most imperial shops, is filled with rice, wheat flour and meat, coal, sauce, vinegar and tea, as well as white cloth, silk, pen and ink, oil and salt, and so on.

In the most conspicuous place in the Imperial Store, a bicycle and tricycle are placed there, and the wooden sign below reads the price of two taels and three taels of silver, which is staggering.

The young man looked at it with longing for a long time, and then walked to the grain cabinet lonely.

【Four Wen One Pound】

"Fortunately, the price has not increased...... "Relieved, the young man took care of himself and beat ten catties of rice, and then weighed it with his own scale, and after making sure that there was no problem, he weighed it with the official scale.

"Ten pounds of rice." Holding the official scale and the rice in the cloth bag, the young man walked to the counter, and the staff of the imperial store at the counter also weighed the rice when he saw this, and replied after making sure that there was no problem: "Forty Wen." ”

"Give ......" handed out four pieces of ten pieces of the Apocalypse Tongbao, and the young man walked out to the door of the imperial store with rice.

It was only when he reached the door that he saw a long line of people at the entrance of the town.

"Who are those people? What are you waiting in line? The young man asked the employee in the imperial store, and the employee also looked down at a copy and responded without raising his head:

"They are all villagers in the north who have suffered from drought, and they can't find a job to do, and they have eaten the rice and noodles on their bodies, and they can't be beggars, so they can only migrate."

"Uprooted...... ......The employee shook his head, and the young man could only look at the villagers at the entrance of the town, and then walked home with rice in his arms.

On the way back, there are green bricks and green tiles, thin streams, and quaint stone arch bridges.

The gurgling water, the graceful arch bridge, and the unique architecture of Jiangnan all constitute a beautiful picture.

Although it is only a small town, when the young man walks in the alley paved with bluestone in the ancient town, he feels the quietness of the ancient town in the south of the Yangtze River day after day, calmly and calmly, and his heart will always be a little calm.

He walked back to his alley, and after knocking on the door, his mother opened it.

"How?"

"The price has not increased, it is still four pounds of rice, and here is ten pounds."

The conversation between the mother and the son was sparse and normal, and after the woman took the rice, the young man also walked into the courtyard.

When she got home and closed the door, the woman walked to the kitchen with Mi in her arms, and muttered:

"The price of this rice is rising higher and higher, and now it is still four Wen, and I don't know if it will rise to five or six Wen in the future."

"Probably not." The young man sat on the stone bench in the patio and watched his mother busy in the kitchen.

"How not? Don't you know, in the first year of Taichang, the price of rice could rise to eight wen a catty at that time, and many people starved to death in Huaibei. ”

"That is, long live the succession to the throne later, and the king of Qi will be in charge, otherwise your mother and I may not be able to live now."

The woman lit the fire and cooked, and the smoke rose down the chimney, while the young man went back to the study and took out a tea stove and put it on the stone table, and added a few pieces of coal to make tea.

"Today I went out and saw many beggars, and I heard that they were all suffering from drought and had no work to do, and the government did not let them beg, but asked them to move to the south."

The young man held a copy of "Yanshan Arithmetic", and while reading it, he chatted with his mother.

When his mother heard this, she responded with a bit of fun: "It's good to go to the south, if it weren't for your father becoming the official of the ninth grade, we would have left early." ”

Speaking of her husband, the woman also sighed: "Alas...... For the sake of twelve taels, he went to Fengyang Mansion on an errand, I don't know how long he can come back after saving a few days off this year. ”

"Daddy seems to be promoted next year, right? This promotion is from the nine rank officials. The young man chatted while reading a book.

"Yes, promotion, I just don't know where to go up." The woman answered, but smiled again: "Promotion is not of much use, it will be three or two years more." ”

"This official has to be boiled, your father said that if you stay up to the ninth grade official, his annual salary will be fifty taels, and if the imperial court does not open an official school in Nanzhili, he will send you to the capital to study."

"I don't want to go to the capital, I just want to accompany my mother in Yangzhou." The young man turned the page and looked up in response.

The woman didn't say anything, but the smile on her face couldn't be hidden.

"Tuk-tuk—"

"Han Lee! Han Shuren asked someone to send you a letter! ”

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and Han Li, who was cooking in the kitchen, heard it and quickly wiped his hands, but the Han family boy had already gotten up and walked to the door.

"Yo, it's actually Brother Ji'er, you open the door, this is your letter."

Outside the door, a messenger on a tricycle was a little surprised when he saw the Han boy, but quickly smiled and took out the letter sent by Han's father.

"Thank you, Uncle Liu, do you want to come in and have a cup of tea? Kid just cooked. The Han family boy took the letter, and turned sideways to signal Liu Xincha to please, but Liu Xincha waved his hand:

"There are still many letters today, so I won't keep them, and when your father comes back, I'll come to the door to bother."

"Gone!" After that, Liu Xincha rode a tricycle and left the door of the Han family, and the Han family boy watched him go away, turned around and returned to the courtyard, closed the door and opened the letter.

"What was written?" Han Li walked to the kitchen door, looking at the Han family boy with some expectation in his eyes, and he also opened the letter.

【My Son's Achievements ......】

Han Ji opened the letter and read the content of the letter written by Han's father word by word, in general, this is a family letter.

Han's father explained that he would return around the twentieth day of the lunar month, and he would arrive at home about the twenty-second day of the lunar month, this time he saved up for 21 days of vacation, and the holiday was only collected on the tenth day of the first month, and it is estimated that he can live until the seventh day of the first month.

In addition to these, Han's father mainly explained some of the news he heard from his colleagues.

For example, the imperial court will open the official school of Nanzhili within five years, and they don't have to save money to go to the capital.

The second is that his official position was promoted ahead of schedule, and he was transferred to Zhenjiang Prefecture, which is relatively close to Yangzhou, and served as the general secretary of Danyang County, Zhenjiang Prefecture (the position of collecting taxes).

After saying this, Han's father asked Han Li how he was doing, and asked Han Ji not to be angry with Han Li, be obedient, read more books, and strive for Enke to be selected and become an official in the future.

"Your father is too, he will be back in a few days, and he will send someone to deliver the letter."

Han Li said complaining words in his mouth, but the smile on his face could not be hidden, obviously he was very satisfied with the good news brought by Father Han.

As for Han Ji, after reading the letter, he asked his mother: "How far is Danyang County from us?" ”

"One hundred and twenty or thirty miles, I heard your father say that it is a very prosperous place." Han Li is not a good girl, and she can't afford to read a girl's school, so she is less literate, and she was basically taught by Han's father after he married her.

In her cognition, Shangguanqiao Town is already very prosperous, she has never walked out of Shangguanqiao Town, like most people in this era, a town may be the most prosperous place they have ever been.

"Tuk Tuk ......"

"Brother Ji'er!"

Suddenly, there was another knock on the door, and a childish voice sounded, and Han Ji immediately got up when he heard it.

He walked quickly to the back of the door, pulled the bolt open, and appeared in front of him a young man dressed in a blanket and carrying a bag, as if he was going to go far away.

"He Qi?" Seeing that it was his friend, Han Ji relaxed his vigilance: "You are ......"

Looking at the bags on He Qi's back, Han Ji had a bad premonition in his heart, and He Qi, who was standing at the door, was a little frustrated: "My father is going to take us to Luzon, and I'm here to say goodbye to you." ”

"To Luzon?!" Han Ji's voice couldn't help but rise, after all, He Qi was his playmate since childhood.

"Who's going to Luzon?" Hearing that someone was going to Luzon, Han Li also walked out.

"He's a boy, you're going to Luzon?" Looking at the familiar face, Han Li also raised his voice.

"Hmm...... My father is going to take us to Luzon, and the fields in the town have been sold, and I am here to say goodbye. ”

He Qi explained, and Han Ji couldn't help but be worried when he heard this: "How could you go so far away?" ”

"I heard that there is an official school in Luzon, and everyone is given three acres of mature fields and seventeen acres of raw fields, and there are many people in my family, so my father thinks it is cost-effective to go to Luzon." He Qi explained.

The situation of his family, Han Ji and Han Li both know that there were originally six people in the family, but the family only had three acres of thin fields, and they could only rely on his father and his grandfather to do some odd jobs to survive.

In the ninth year of the Apocalypse, Li Juren in the imperial court town did not know what eucalyptus had committed, and was divided into fields by the imperial court, so the He family was given six acres of land, but the nine acres of land still could not support the six people in the family.

Originally, he could barely support himself by doing odd jobs, but since the drought this year, many people from the countryside have gone to the town to work, and the money his family can earn while working is getting less and less.

In addition, his grandfather is already fifty-nine this year, and it is not a way to work all the time, so migration is the fastest way for a family like them to become rich.

According to the rules of imperial court immigration, their family of six can get 18 acres of mature land, 1002 acres of raw land, plus two ploughing cows.

Not to mention the raw land that needs to be cultivated, these eighteen acres of mature land alone can make his family no longer go to work and cultivate at home with peace of mind.

"Let's go first, just have a meal." Han Li felt a little embarrassed, but He Qi shook his head:

"We're leaving in a quarter of an hour, and I'm here to say goodbye to Brother Ji'er."

"Walking so tightly?" Han Ji was a little frustrated, and He Qi was also helpless: "My father said that it was too late, and the ripe fields in Luzon would be robbed, and then I would have to go further south." ”

"To go to Luzon, it will take at least twenty-five or six days, and after I go, I will almost be able to farm, and after planting the land, my father and my grandfather will start a birthplace, and I can also study official school."

"Do you have enough food at home until the autumn harvest? If it's not enough, my aunt will add some for you. Han Li's heart is still relatively kind, and he is worried that He Qi's family will go to such a far place, and there will not be enough food to eat.

"That's enough, the emperor spent ninety stone food stamps to buy my family's land." Speaking of food, He Qi smiled.

"Ninety stones? Isn't that just more than six taels of silver per acre? Han Li felt that it was a little little, but Han Ji reacted quickly.

"In the end, this field is different from ordinary fields, this is the land of the official family, but it is just distributed to the people to plant, and only taxes are collected, and it is good to be able to produce so much."

"Yes......" He Qi nodded again and again when he heard this: "If it weren't for the imperial court to divide the fields, our family might have to leave at the beginning of the year." ”

"I don't know if I will come back after this trip." Han Li is also very fond of this kid who often comes to play with her son, and now she is a little reluctant to suddenly separate.

"I'll come back to Brother Ji when I have a chance." He Qi said solemnly to Han Ji, and then he looked at the sky, and then he was reluctant:

"I'm leaving, I wish my aunt and Brother Ji a New Year in advance."

"New Year's ......" Han Ji returned a salute, and when he looked up again, He Qi had already left.

He walked out of the door and looked at He Qi who was walking out of the alley, He Qi also turned back three times in one step, and the two young men were very reluctant, but everyone knew that this kind of thing was not something they could call the shots.

In the end, He Qi disappeared at the entrance of the alley, and Han Li, who was standing behind Han Ji, couldn't help but sigh:

"I don't know how many people will be driven away from this drought, but seven or eight families have been relocated in this town since the beginning of spring."

"If it weren't for your father working as a scribe in the Yamen, I'm afraid our family would have to move out."

In the twelfth year since the Apocalypse, Shangguanqiao Town has moved many people, and Han Ji has never felt it.

It wasn't until now that his playmate He Qi left that he realized the impact of the drought.

As my mother said, if it weren't for my father's dinner in the yamen and sending home the monthly income every month, I'm afraid their family would end up without enough to eat.

Han Ji turned around and went home, and by the time he got the deadbolt, Han Li had already put all the food on the stone table on the patio.

A scrambled egg with tomatoes, a bowl of half-sized stewed chicken, a bowl of greens, and a bucket of rice weighing only one or two catties were the most solemn lunches of the day.

It's such a lunch, and many families can't eat food, and they have to eat twelve or three wen for one meal.

That is to say, Han's father eats in the yamen, and in addition to his own use every month, he can also send back seven or eight hundred texts, otherwise the Han family's mother and son will not be able to eat such meals.

Han Ji went to He Qi's house, nine years before the Apocalypse, He Qi's family basically only had three or four catties of rice for dinner, plus a pot of vegetarian vegetables for lunch.

Even if they entertain guests, they will only add a pound of rice, and then add an extra plate of leek eggs, which is already their most handy meal, even they can't eat enough, only on the New Day and the winter solstice, they can eat a full meal, stained with meat.

Even if the land was divided nine years after the Apocalypse, the He family could only eat meat occasionally by doing odd jobs, but the food was enough.

"The price of rice has risen this year, and I haven't been able to save any money, and I'm afraid that the new clothes will be gone."

At the dinner table, Han Li said embarrassedly to Han Ji, after all, in her opinion, Han Ji is also the pillar of the Han family in the future, and she is sensible, so she naturally feels guilty.

"It's okay mother, the new clothes at the beginning of the year are quite comfortable to wear, so you don't need to change them." Han Ji seemed to be unable to eat because of He Qi's departure, and ate very slowly.

Seeing this, Han Li couldn't help but sigh: "This He family is also unlucky, and it hasn't been long since the good life has passed, and they have to leave their hometown." ”

"Hmm......" Han Ji responded, and then asked: "Mother, it seems that our family's life has only gotten better in the ninth year of the Apocalypse, right?" ”

"That's not ......" Han Li shook his head and explained: "In the early years, the family only had five acres of paddy fields left by your grandfather, and your father was a scholar who couldn't farm, so he could only rent it to others and collect sixty percent of the field rent. ”

"When the year is good, I can receive more than 900 catties of rice, and when the year is bad, I can also receive more than 700 catties."

"Plus your father polishes people's pens and writes couplets, and there is no shortage of rice at home."

"There are only three people in our family, so in the ninth year of the Apocalypse, we didn't get much land, so we divided one acre, and rented it to others for farming."

"Although you can't eat meat on weekdays, it's no problem to eat a full meal, and if you live a good life, your father will have to be admitted to Enke in the second year and become a scrivener."

"Your father became a scribe, so our family can have one meal of meat to eat every day."

Saying that, Han Li sandwiched the only chicken leg to Han Ji, Han Ji looked at the chicken leg in the bowl and couldn't help sighing: "I don't know how Brother Qi and they will live when they go to the south." ”

"That's naturally better than being in Nanzhili." Han Li was afraid that Han Ji would not understand, so he specially explained to him:

"There are not many families like ours who have six acres of paddy fields and your father as an official at home, and it is already good to earn sixteen or seven taels of silver a year."

Han Li whispered suddenly, and compared the neighbors around the family: "The Li family and the Zhang family are both seven or eight people, but there are only eleven or twelve taels a year." ”

"That's it?" Han Ji couldn't believe it, it seemed that because he was used to hearing about his father's salary, he didn't know much about other people's income.

"This is not bad, it's almost like the He family, although the old man He and the He family will go to work, but their families are watered and watered, and they can harvest less than 2,000 catties of rice a year, just enough to eat."

"On weekdays, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea all cost silver, and the two of them can receive work for half of the day, and they can earn five taels of silver a year, and they will already burn high incense."

Speaking of which, Han Li and Han Ji had already eaten almost enough, Han Li took the bowl quickly, and the two of them ate the food.

She walked back to the kitchen with the bowl, and Han Ji also cleaned up her things, carried the remaining bowl quickly, and followed Han Li to the kitchen.

Han Li turned his back to Han Ji and sighed:

"Your mother and me, in this life, I expect your father to be a nine-grade official."

"If he can have fifty taels a year, our whole family will not have to worry about it in this life, and we can't eat meat at once, you can also marry a wife and have children, let me be a mother-in-law earlier."

Eating meat at a time is already Han Li's biggest expectation for life.

Listening to his words, Han Ji thought of the situation of He Qi's family eating, as well as the situation at the bridgehead when buying rice in the morning.

Thinking like this, he couldn't help but look down at the bowl of chicken soup that still had more than half of it.

This bowl of chicken soup that they can't finish drinking is probably the meat that the group of people haven't tasted for months......

Thinking of this, Han Ji put the bowl in the kitchen, looked up and said seriously to Han Li, who was working with his back to him: "Mother, don't worry, I will definitely be a nine-rank official when I grow up, so that you can enjoy it." ”

"Huh...... Okay, my mother is waiting for you. Han Li smiled happily, and then the mother and son also began to wash the dishes.

It's just that compared to the fireworks in their kitchens, the row of ragged people at the entrance of Shangguanqiao Town, waiting to move to the south, is particularly dark......