When they returned from the river, Aunt Zhang was tending to the small vegetable patch in the small courtyard.

Xiao Yunjiao approached Aunt Zhang with great interest and watched her put the goose-yellow beans into the neat ridges of the plow.

"Aunt Zhang, what are you planting?"

She had never seen the grains when they were raw.

Aunt Zhang's work in her hands is non-stop, "Plant some soybeans, it will be clear immediately, and now it's best to plant beans." ”

"What's the matter?" Xiao Yunjiao stretched out his hand and grabbed a handful of the bamboo basket placed on the ridge, and threw it into the ridge like Aunt Zhang.

"Oh girl, you're not in good health, but you can't do this." Aunt Zhang saw her bending over to help and hurriedly helped the person up, "You are so thin, you have to raise it!" ”

As he spoke, he dragged Xiao Yunjiao to the edge of the vegetable patch, and moved a small wooden stool for her to sit on.

The small wooden stool is just as high as it is, Xiao Yunjiao sits in a regular manner, with his hands on his knees, and the whole person listens to Aunt Zhang obediently and skillfully.

"There is enough rain around Qingming, and it is easy to plant anything at this time. In fact, not only soybeans, peas, red beans, pumpkins and winter melons are easy to grow, or people say that before and after the Qingming Festival, plant melons and beans! ”

Aunt Zhang said as she put beans in the field, a small piece of land, and half of it was planted in a while.

Xiao Yunjiao was curious, "What are you going to plant the other half?" ”

"Plant some sweet potatoes." Aunt Zhang patted the soil on her hands, "That thing is full and easy to store, and every family in our family has to plant a little bit and prepare it." ”

As he spoke, he sighed: "Thanks to His Majesty teaching us the ability to grow sweet potatoes twenty years ago, there has never been a famine in these years." ”

Xiao Yunjiao knew that many years ago, when his grandfather was on the throne, there had been no rain for nearly two years after the flood in the south. At that time, the victims fled north one after another, and tens of thousands of people died of starvation and disease along the way.

However, these are all seen in the history books, and they are different from those that have been experienced.

She asked, "Were you still young at the time of the famine?" ”

"No, I was thirteen years old." Aunt Zhang hugged a basket of corn, sat beside Xiao Yunjiao, peeled it, and talked to her about the past.

"At that time, my family was also wealthy, and I remember that my father and mother could make us yellow flour steamed buns at the beginning, but it slowly turned into noodle soup, and then I could only drink thin noodle soup and wild vegetables later. In the end, I couldn't even dig up wild vegetables. ”

"The people in the village all ran to the county seat for refuge, and began to rely on the soup kitchen in the yamen to live, and when the county seat was empty, they went to the state capital, but there were fewer and fewer people on the road. My brother was only seven years old at the time, and he had no food or drink, and he had an illness, and he was gone. We thought that although my brother was gone, we still had to let him return to his roots, and we couldn't lie down with the ownerless corpses on the side of the road for wild dogs to gnaw, so we took him back ......"

"Fortunately, it was a cold winter at that time, and when I got home, my brother didn't stink. I don't know if my younger brother blessed our family, we came back, and the relief food from the imperial court also returned, so we survived the famine. ”

Xiao Yunjiao didn't know how to comfort Aunt Zhang, it was the first time she had this feeling that she couldn't say anything, so she could only wipe her tears with the handkerchief in her sleeve.

Aunt Zhang glanced at her and sniffed, "Let the girl see the joke, that's all in the past, and now the old woman will be fifty years old, and she is getting better and better every year." ”

"Did there ever be a flood in our village later?" Xiao Yunjiao asked.

Aunt Zhang nodded, "Yes, it's just that the imperial court has been repairing rivers from time to time since decades ago, repairing rivers, dams, and diversion canals...... But the impact is not too big, plus every family has learned to grow sweet potatoes and corn, even if we don't have much land, we still can't starve to death. ”

"When I went out, I heard that the levee collapsed a few days ago, will it have any impact?" Xiao Yunjiao quietly led the topic to the riverbank.

Aunt Zhang waved her hand, "Our embankment itself is useless, and it is nothing if it collapses, it is just foolish from above." ”

"Why is that?"

"The river next to our village used to be flooded, but more than ten years ago, a lot of open channels and culverts were dug so that when there was a big flood, it would flow down and not harm the crops. Who knew that two years ago, the officers and soldiers from above said that they would build a dam to prevent flooding, and they also recruited a lot of laborers to work! Many people went because they had money and food, and because they did a good job, after the dam was built, they were introduced to work in the county and state, and many families moved away for this move. ”

There was too much information in these words, Xiao Yunjiao thought about it for a long time before he had some clues, no wonder they dared to use inferior materials to repair the embankment, it turned out to be because of this.

However, the heavens are not beautiful, and a heavy snow has completely washed away their plot.

"Didn't your family build the dam at that time?" Xiao Yunjiao said again.

She saw that there were few young and middle-aged people in the village, but Uncle Zhang said that his two sons were collecting medicine in the mountains.

Aunt Zhang smiled, "When I was in charge, I broke my arm when I went to the mountains to collect medicine, and my two sons were filial, so they took turns to serve at home." That's when my eldest son dug up ginseng in the mountains! It's also a good thing not to build a dam. ”

Xiao Yunjiao also smiled, "Good people have good rewards." ”

She chatted with Aunt Zhang for a while, and didn't go back to the house to find Shen Yuzhou until Aunt Zhang was about to prepare dinner.

As soon as Xiao Yunjiao entered the door, Shen Yuzhou saw that the expression on her face was a little strange, and she couldn't walk very well, so he was so frightened that he hurriedly stepped forward to help her and asked, "What's wrong with you?" What's uncomfortable? ”

Feeling the stinging pain in his leg getting heavier and heavier, Xiao Yunjiao's face became even stranger, and he frowned and said, "My leg ...... It was numb and painful, and I don't know what's wrong. ”

Shen Yuzhou helped her to the edge of the kang and asked her to sit down, but Xiao Yunjiao looked embarrassed as soon as she was next to the kang, and slowly helped her to stand up.

Shen Yuzhou's brows furrowed more and more, "I'll call someone to find a doctor." ”

"Don't!" Xiao Yunjiao hurriedly called him to stop.

Her...... It was as painful and numb as my legs, and I couldn't sit there at all.

Shen Yuzhou panicked, "Where does my leg hurt?" Did you get bitten by a bug? ”

There is no need for the capital in the village, maybe a bug will run out of the village, she has just been sitting in the yard for so long, what if she is bitten.

Xiao Yunjiao shook his head, "I was fine when I was chatting with Aunt Zhang just now, but when I walked to the door of the house, it began to sting, starting from the soles of my feet and spreading upwards, and it hurt even more when I just touched the side of the bed....... I don't seem to feel much now. ”

When Shen Yuzhou heard her say this, he suddenly thought of something, "You try to slap it and see?" ”

Xiao Yunjiao was half incredulous, stretched out his hand and made a fist and knocked it twice on his right leg, and his face was suddenly wonderful.

"No, it's numb and painful when you touch it."

Looking at her crumpled little face, Shen Yuzhou slowly put his heart into his stomach.

"It'll be fine in a while." He said firmly: "You have been sitting in a low place for a long time, and the blood in your legs is blocked." ”

Commonly known as - leg numbness.

She has never sat on this low stool, and she has never experienced leg numbness to be so flustered, and he didn't expect it for a while, and he was startled.

Shen Yuzhou helped her to stretch her legs, half-lying against the wall, and sat at her feet to massage her through her clothes.

At first, Xiao Yunjiao's painful tears were about to fall, and within half an hour, the painful and numb feeling really disappeared.

After the tingling and tingling sensation that originally occupied all her senses faded, Shen Yuzhou's hand pressing on her leg was particularly conspicuous.

His palms were wide and powerful, his fingers were slender, and one hand almost wrapped her calf in the palm of his hand. At this moment, he lowered his head and focused on helping her massage each meridian with just the right amount of strength, and her blue skirt had some messy folds under his touch, just like her messy mood at the moment.

It feels so weird. Involuntarily, Xiao Yunjiao retracted his legs.

"Pain?" Shen Yuzhou sensed her movements and looked up and asked.

When he raised his eyes, he felt that there was something wrong with their posture at the moment.

Xiao Yunjiao, who was half-leaning against the wall, had a slightly red face, and his eyes were still wet because of some pain. She bit her lower lip slightly, her eyes wandering, and she turned her face sideways to look at him, while he was holding her calf and asking her if it hurt......

Shen Yuzhou let go of her legs in a bit of a hurry and sat upright, "It's almost over, you can move a little more." ”

Xiao Yunjiao didn't look at him, let out a "hmm", and sat on the edge of the kang with him.

The people in the village are not very particular, except for a few stools in the hall, and there are only beds in the bedrooms to sit on.

She remembered the news she had just gotten from chatting with Aunt Zhang, and broke the silence.

"Who proposed the construction of the Gushui Village embankment at that time?" Xiao Yunjiao didn't know much about it.

Shen Yuzhou cleaned up his messy thoughts, thought for a while, and said, "It was handed over by Cui Fenglang, and the excerpt written by Wu Song, the prefect of Yunzhou." ”

"I just chatted with Aunt Zhang and learned that this ancient water village has not been flooded much for a long time, and the ditches that were repaired a few years ago are enough to drain into the fields and will not cause disasters. Not only that, but I thought about it again, maybe it was because of this embankment that the snowmelt from the mountains upstream would accumulate at the embankment, causing the snowmelt to wash away the embankment. Xiao Yunjiao analyzed.

"It seems that these are not waterproof dikes, but their money bags to make money." Shen Yuzhou thought for a while, and said to Xiao Yunjiao: "Tonight, I will fly pigeons to the cronies who take the waterway, and ask them to send a good person to check the prefect of Yunzhou directly, and the rest of the people will go directly to Qingyuan County to settle down, and wait for the evidence of Wu Song's dealings with the rest of the people to attack again." ”

Xiao Yunjiao sighed, "It's just that I don't know how many such money bags there are in Yunzhou besides Gushui Village." ”

"Tomorrow, when Uncle Zhang's sons come back, let's buy medicinal herbs and leave, and the rest of the matter doesn't need to be solved here."

The aroma of food wafted outside the window, and Xiao Yunjiao said again: "Leave them more money when you leave, right?" Aunt Zhang killed chickens for us all of a sudden, and they were not rich. ”

Shen Yuzhou smiled and nodded, "Okay." ”

The height of the temple is worried about the people, that is, the current Xiao Yunjiao. He believed that with such an eldest princess supporting His Majesty, Dongsheng would become stronger and stronger, and eventually become what they hoped in their hearts.