At the end of the second year of Qingli, Zhao Zhen held a grand banquet in Bianliang to celebrate the arrival of the new year.

From the morning, the city is bustling with activity.

In Xishuimen Fish Street, when the bangzi rang, Hong Wen walked out of his dilapidated courtyard, he was still dressed in a long shirt, but his clothes were new, and he walked with a limp.

As soon as you go out, you can feel the smell of fish, like soaking in a fish pond.

Across the street are live fish sellers, who serve them in shallow buckets, string them together at intervals with willow leaves, put them in buckets, soak them in clean water, or sell them along the street.

Every morning, tens of thousands of loads of live fish like this are transported into the city at the Shinjeongmon, Seisuimon, and Manshengmon gates on the west side of Tokyo alone. In winter, there are passenger fish transported from the Yellow River and other distant places, called "car fish", and the price per catty is less than 100 yuan.

Seeing Hong Wen come out, the neighbor who sold the fish beckoned and said with a smile: "Master Hong, fresh fish, take two to your wife to replenish her body." ”

Hong Wen is a man with a wife.

In his early years, he came to Bianliang alone to take the test for fame, although he was admitted to the exam, but he did not succeed twice when he was admitted to the Jinshi, and he felt ashamed that it was difficult to face his family, so he did not go home, but stayed in Bianliang, wanting to wait for two years to fight again.

As a result, when he set up a stall on the street to make a living, he offended Liu Kuixi, the leader of the Liangmen West Street Righteous Association, and broke his leg.

But fortunately, there is no endless road, and the Imperial City Division recruits documents, and ordinary readers are reluctant to join. Hong Wen felt that the Imperial City Division had avenged him, and he really needed a livelihood, so he went to the Imperial City Division to try, but he didn't expect to be easily accepted.

Now I have been working in the Imperial City Division for many years, because I joined earlier, I am still a relatively scarce scholar in the division, so I was promoted step by step, and I also passed the assessment, and became a priest from the Nanzhen Fusi from the ninth grade, and now I have done it from the seventh grade.

Although the officials of the Imperial City Division often cannot be transferred and can only move within the department, and in recent years, the Imperial City Division is expanding rapidly, and it is easy to be sent to the local area as the chief official after being promoted, and is disliked and excluded by the local officials.

However, Hong Wen's leg was lame, but he was never transferred out, and his salary and benefits were good, and after the living conditions were good, he took his wife and children to Bianliang and rented a house in the remote Fish Street outside the city.

Hearing the neighbor's words, Hong Wen said with a smile: "Forget it, I bought some chickens and ducks yesterday and went back, and I said that what to do with wasting that money, and saving some money for my children to marry a wife is the right thing." ”

"Look at what you said, send you!"

The neighbor said boldly.

"No, no, there are rules in the department."

Hong Wen hurriedly waved his hand.

In fact, he is now a little powerful, and he will definitely not be able to cover the sky with one hand in Bianliang, but there is probably no problem in bullying and dominating the market on a street.

However, over the years, he has also seen too many colleagues from the beginning of single-mindedness, but later more and more expanded, with power in their hands, from dragon slayers to evil dragons, including some former victims of the Bianliang underworld forces.

They have suffered before, and when they have made a fortune, they give it back to others as if they had been brought upon them by innocent people.

What's more, when they were looked at on the street, they felt offended, so they took them back to the Yamen of the Zhenfu Division to torture them and arbitrarily punish them privately.

So much so that for a period of time, the Imperial Historical Observatory and the Imperial Castle Division frantically attacked the Imperial City Division.

The Zhisi was furious and ordered a strict internal investigation of the Imperial City Division, executing more than 100 people and exiled more than 300 people, which can be regarded as reorganizing and restoring the discipline in the department.

If Hong Wen was broken when he was twenty years old, after his career, he might be psychologically distorted like those colleagues.

But he is almost forty years old, and he has seen too much of the heat and ups and downs of the world, but he can see it openly.

Even if someone on the street looked at his lame leg with strange eyes, Hong Wen had long been used to it, and even nodded and greeted people.

"A few fish are nothing, they are all neighbors, and the New Year is lively."

The neighbor enthusiastically skewered two large grass carp from the gills of the fish with a rope, and walked over to hand them to Hong Wen.

"Heck, it's not easy for people to do business."

Hong Wen couldn't refuse, so he had to take money out of his pocket to pay.

"You're welcome to these two fish."

Neighbors don't want either.

The two of them tugged for a while, and the neighbor was a little tougher than him, and he didn't pay the money, so he turned around and went home to deliver the fish before going out again.

Out of the fish street, it is Wanshengmen inner street, at this time the street can be described as a sea of people.

There were street vendors, people carrying burdens or carts, and people selling medicines, fortune tellers, and books, all wearing hats and belts, and neatly dressed. The incense shop wrapped in incense shouted and sold incense slang songs, and the people who ate snacks raised the boxes and utensils in their hands and shouted loudly.

Merchants dressed in silk and satin walked through the crowd, peasants carrying flat shoulders and wearing slightly thin cotton clothes went into the city to sell vegetables and grain, and there were also street beggars who regulated their positions, not daring to slack off, lest the crowd not tolerate them.

There are many signboards in the streets and alleys, and the sounds of selling, shouting, shouting, and colliding are endless, and the smell of fish, medicine, and food is mixed with the smell of sweat.

Hong Wen crossed the inner street of Wanshengmen, went south for more than 100 steps, and saw that the Shifang Jingyin Temple located in the Shuntian Gate of the outer city was serving fasting rice, and many homeless beggars had to go to find a bowl of somen noodles, he had often eaten before, but he missed it very much.

From the intersection to the south is Hongqiaozi Street, on the right side of the street opened a textile factory the year before, which recruited a lot of female workers, but he knew that these female workers were actually victims of the former Sanssono Cave and Ghost Fan Building.

Many women were abducted and sold as prostitutes, and many were rescued by the Governor, some were afraid to return home, some were nowhere to be found, and even some were disgusted and driven away by their families when they finally found their families.

At first, the Salesian Bureau was set up to support some homeless children and women, but as more people were rescued and the cost increased, it was clear that this was not the way to go.

So Chiji opened a textile factory to make money and feed them.

The spinning machine used is also improved, much stronger than the previous spinning machine, at first it was to spin linen cloth, and then it was spun gauze, in the past two years, due to the inclusion of cotton in Guangzhou, there were more people who planted cotton, and they began to spin cotton.

Moreover, a lot of sheep were imported from Liao and Western Xia, although the ancient sheep were not the white sheep of the West in later generations, and the number of sheep produced was not as much as that of later generations.

However, Western white sheep are also cross-bred from generation to generation, and they have not been producing so much cotton since ancient times.

Therefore, Zhisi set up an animal husbandry department in Shaanxi, specializing in using the relatively deserted grassland in Shaanxi to breed sheep, and guide cross-breeding, and the sheep produced are mostly transported to Bianliang to be processed into cotton clothes, which are warm and comfortable.

Hong Wen continued to walk south for more than half an hour, he limped past the Qumai Bridge, and could see the silk streamers of the Qinglou swaying in the wind, the Oiran dancing his sleeves, and singing "The old man chats about the madness of youth, the left leads the yellow, the right Qingcang, the brocade hat mink Qiu, and the thousand horses roll Pinggang." In order to repay the city, follow the Taishou, shoot the tiger in person, and watch Sun Lang. ”

Not to be outdone, the Red Mansion on the other side responded with a song: "The flowers fade and the red and green apricots are small." When the swallows fly, the green water surrounds. The willows on the branches blow very little. There is no grass at the end of the world. Swing inside the wall, outside the wall. Pedestrians outside the wall, beautiful people laugh inside the wall. The laughter faded into silence. Amorous but ruthlessly annoyed. ”

In recent years, Zhou Shuren, who has seen the head and the end of the dragon, has written many poems, some people say that he is a person from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, called Lu Xun, and a person from Zhoushu area in Zhejiang. Some people also say that his name is Zhou Shuren, the word Lu Xun, born by the West Lake, and has a lot of literary talents.

Anyway, after so many years, the people of Bianliang only heard it, but didn't hear it. Sometimes you can see him in the newspaper to discuss current affairs, and he has written a lot of articles, which can be called brilliant, and often shouts to make the Song people excited, and he is the main battle fighter of the people.

Not far after Taixue, it is the Nancheng Grain Market, where the government stipulates that bulk grain is not sold here, and those who come here to sell are farmers from outside the city, and only charge a little booth fee.

Because the price here is fresh, and it is slightly cheaper than that of Bianliang rice shop, many Bianliang citizens come here to buy.

Hong Wen looked at it, at this time the grain market was crowded, there were farmers with smiling faces on their faces, but there were also farmers with bad faces, some people sighed and shook their heads and said: "The price of grain is low again." But there are also people who laugh and say: "It's a little more than last year's sale".

The agricultural tax in the Song Dynasty was ostensibly 10 draws 1, but in fact it was basically around 3-4 out of 10. At present, a large number of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes have been abolished, and only the basic agricultural tax and the per capita tax have been retained, and the tax rate has been maintained between 10 and 10 to 1.5.

In other words, if a yeoman farmer plants 30 acres of land, 25 acres of grain, and 5 acres of hemp this year, the rice output is 3,470 Song Jin, or 37.5 stones, and the linen cloth output is 500 feet, or 12.5 horses.

In the past, it was necessary to pay more than 10 stone of grain and about four horses of linen cloth to make up for a large number of taxes such as field tax, ding tax, branch transfer, foot money, conversion, and chieftain.

But now you only need to pay 4 stone of grain and 1.5 pieces of cloth to meet the tax needs.

In this way, there is much more property at the disposal of the peasants.

The problem is that the market is like this, when demand exceeds supply, prices will rise, and when there is oversupply, prices will fall.

During the two years from 1038 to 1040 A.D., when the war with the Western Xia and the Liao State was waged, the price of grain in Bianliang soared, and the price of grain could rise to 600 wen and one stone at the peak, so that after the peasants paid the tax, the remaining 20 stone of grain could be sold for 15-18 yuan.

Now that the war is over, and we have been recuperating for two years, the price of grain has fallen below the market price of 350 wen and one stone in normal years, and is only more than 200 wen and one stone.

It looks like a good thing, but if you calculate carefully, even if you cancel the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the grain in your hand can only be sold for less than 10 yuan.

Of course.

That's not how the accounts are calculated.

The peasants also had to eat and drink on their own, and most of the grain could only be used for living expenses, and the surplus grain could be taken out and sold.

So from a practical point of view, the fall in food prices is a good thing.

For example, it turned out that more than 20 stones of grain, a family of five, ate 800 Song Jin of grain a year, and had to pay for firewood, rice, oil, salt, and meat, at least 1,500 Song Jin.

The most that can be sold is 300-500 Song catties, which is about 384 catties to 640 catties in later generations.

If you sell it at a price of 600 wen and one stone, you can get about 2,000-3,000 yuan.

Now the amount of grain available at disposal has increased by more than 6 stones, and the grain that can be sold has the appearance of more than 10 stones, according to the current market price of 260 Wen, which is actually about the same as the income of 600 Wen and one stone, which is also around 3,000 yuan.

But don't forget that if the price of food increases significantly, the price of firewood, rice, oil and salt will also rise, and the cost of living will also become very high.

And the highest price was in the war, from the second half of the first year of Kangding, to the first year of Qingli last year, with the end of the war, the price of grain also tended to stabilize, has dropped from 600 Wen to more than 400 Wen.

Therefore, after the abolition of a large number of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes this year, the peasants' disposable income will naturally be much higher than last year.

For example, last year, grain could only be sold for 1,900 yuan, but this year it can be sold for 2,800 yuan.

The cost of living has also dropped quite a bit.

After removing all the expenses, at the end of the year, you can save a few times and buy something else.

It's just that it's best to maintain it at more than 200 cents and one stone.

If it is even lower, then the peasants' incomes will plummet, and the phrase "grain cheapness hurts the peasants" is not empty talk.

Hong Wen walked through the peasant groups that came and went, selling grain, and walked east for more than ten minutes, and entered the street outside Chongming Gate, and arrived at the Nanzhen Fusi where he was on duty.

Actually, I don't go to work today.

After all, at the end of the year, I took annual leave and had very little time to work.

Recently, however, the government has been carrying out activities to care for the poor, widows, and the disabled.

The Kaifeng Prefecture and the Imperial City Department are responsible for investigating and registering the poor people in Bianliang, and the government funds are allocated by the government to distribute oil, salt, rice, and noodles door-to-door, so they need to work overtime temporarily.

By the time Hong Wen came over, most of the materials in the compound of the Fusi Yamen in Nanzhen, which had been piled up like a hill yesterday, had already been distributed.

But it just so happened that the people from the Meng family firm sent another batch of grain and oil.

The Meng family used to be just a merchant family that sold grain in the middle, but the second son of the family, Meng Chengqi, became a prefect and obtained a certain amount of state-run business, and since then he has risen.

This event is also a batch of materials purchased by the government from various public-private joint venture commercial banks at low prices, and handed over to the Kaifeng Prefecture and the Imperial City Department for distribution.

The clerk of the Imperial City Division registers the goods shipped at the door, and the clerk loads the goods into a car and delivers them to the designated person's house.

When the documents come back, the documents will be registered, and there are a number on the roster, once the governor visits back afterwards and finds that the things have not been delivered to the designated people's homes, then no one can escape.

So everyone was conscientious, the six clerks at the door were working hard to write, and dozens of officials carried the goods on the carriage and horses, and set off according to the home address.

Seeing Hong Wen come to work, a subordinate who registered there early in the morning complained: "The main thing is leisurely, we have been busy all morning." ”

"No way, slow walking."

Hong Wen came to work with a pinch, patted his thigh and laughed at himself, he had a good relationship with his subordinates, and he was as close as a friend.

"The main thing is just in time, I have to go to Gong, quickly help me replace the duty."

Another subordinate beckoned.

Hong Wen walked over and took the brush and began to register, and asked as he wrote, "What's wrong?" ”

The subordinate ran to the toilet and said, "More than 500 stones have been distributed today, and another 1,200 stones have been delivered." ”

The Imperial City Division and the Kaifeng Mansion each perform their duties, and the Nanzhen Fu Division is mainly for the poor people in the southern city, and not only in the city, but also outside the city, and more than 1,000 stones are issued every day.

Counting Beizhen Fusi and Kaifeng Mansion, almost 4,000 stone of grain and hundreds of oil, salt and firewood are sent out every day, totaling more than 1,400 yuan a day.

The funny thing is that Zhao Jun has invested in many overseas trading companies in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and all this money has been put into the internal funds, so that now Zhao Zhen's internal funds have saved more than 20 million yuan, and he gave 100,000 yuan at one time, which is almost enough to be sent to March next year.

That is to say, there are indeed many poor people in Bianliang, and most of them live outside the city, and many people have to go to the city to work in the case of land annexation, and they can't afford the high rent, so they can only build a wooden house outside the city.

These people, as well as the elderly, beggars, and poor people in the city, are the main targets for the distribution of supplies.

Hong Wen sat down and began to register.

After about ten minutes, his subordinates came back and continued to replace him.

Just when Hong Wen thought that he could be a good supervisor of everyone's chief officials, Master Liu, who ran in with sweat outside, shouted: "There is no one else, come and have some people." ”

Hong Wen was puzzled, so he went over and asked, "What's wrong?" ”

"Zhiji asked us to distribute all the lists before the New Year's Eve, how can this be done, everyone is going crazy."

When Master Liu saw Hong Wen, his eyes lit up, and he dragged him over and said, "Let's go, Lao Hong, I'll also come to help." ”

Hong Wen often fished due to his leg disease, and now he had to follow him out with a wry smile.

He couldn't move anything, so he went over to help lift the sack.

After a while, another car was loaded, and he knew how to read, so he took the list to be distributed and slowly left with the car.

The carriage carrying the goods ran fast, and the driver seemed to have learned the skills from Zhao Guangyi, all the way through the bustling street, and went out from the Guangli Gate in the south.

On both sides of the Cai River, a large number of private houses have been built.

This is outside the outer city, and it stands to reason that it should be a wilderness.

But it also feels like a new town.

Wooden houses were built along the river, some of them were brick and tiles, and most of them were ordinary wooden bungalows.

Kaifeng Mansion has also re-planned the outside of the city, and the streets are lined up one after another, although they are not as good as the inside of the city, but at least there is some order.

The carriage stopped at Xinmin Street, saying that it was a street, but in fact it was about a dozen wooden houses along the river, and the children were running around the rammed earth street barefoot, with patches on their bodies, and people with vegetables on their faces came out from time to time, some went to fetch water, some went to work in the city, and some sat on the street corner doing handicraft work.

"Room 13 Zhang's Family"

Hong Wen stepped down from the carriage and limped to a dilapidated wooden house, in front of which an old man was making bamboo weaving products, and he asked, "Is it Zhang Sijia?" ”

The old man raised his head, and it was only at this time that Hong Wen noticed that the old man was skinny, and his pants under his right leg had been cut off in half, and they were empty, and there was a cane on the wooden wall next to him.

"Yes, what are the feet?"

The old man asked.

Hong Wen hurriedly said: "We are here to deliver rice oil from the Imperial City Division, and the official family instructed that rice noodles will be distributed this year." ”

As he spoke, he waved his hand and motioned for the clerk behind him to take something.

The official dragged a sack of grain from the wagon, and another took a small bag of oil and salt, and a large bag of firewood.

Seeing this situation, the old man's originally puzzled face showed joy, and he was grateful: "Thank you, thank you." ”

"Ah Zhong, Ah Zhong."

He shouted a few words, and a child hurried over.

The old man hurriedly said, "Hurry up and make tea for the guests." ”

"No, no, no."

Hong Wen motioned to the clerk to put the things at home, and helped the old man open the sack, and after pouring the rice into the rice jar, he waved his hand a little crampedly and said, "We have to send the next one." ”

At the end, he said: "The New Year has arrived, have a good year." ”

He didn't ask where the old man's family had gone, and the information showed that the old man was a pawn during the Battle of Lanzhou, and he had broken a leg on the battlefield.

His wife died of illness in the early years, and his eldest son did not study well, so he joined some gangs in Bianliang, and he was brave and fierce all day long, and died in a gang conflict.

The second son also died four years ago, in the battle with Western Xia, one daughter-in-law died of illness, the other remarried, and now has only three grandchildren.

Hong Wen found that compared with the old man, he might be lucky.

At least he had a hard time before, but he had read books, and he could still earn some money on the street to go to the hotel to warm a bowl of wine and ask for a plate of broad beans.

After sending this one, I went to the next one non-stop.

The situation of this family is similar to that of the Zhang family, and their fate is naturally different, but they are the same poverty and the same struggle on the verge of starvation.

The head of the household is a woman who is dying, and it turns out that their family also has a little land, but then the man in the family broke his leg, and he had to go to someone to borrow it for medical expenses.

As a result, his leg was raised, but there was a disaster in the county that year, and the grain was not harvested, and the man was forced to sell his land to the landlord, and he was still insolvent, so he could only take his wife to flee overnight to work in Bianliang.

Unexpectedly, a few years ago, he was discovered by the creditor in Bianliang, and brought someone to beat the man to death, leaving only a few wives and children, so the woman had to go to work as a secret prostitute to support her.

barely raised the child, but finally contracted some unspeakable terminal diseases, lying in bed dying, and was on the verge of dying.

Hong Wen didn't even dare to say "The New Year is here, have a good year" this time, but just took another string of money from his arms, put it under the woman's pillow, and quietly withdrew.

When he came out, there was only mixed emotions left on his face.

It is foreseeable that at the end of this year, several children of the family can only cry for this year, and the only fortunate thing is that the eldest son is fifteen years old and can barely support the family.

"The master is kind-hearted, this woman is terminally ill, I'm afraid she won't live too long, even if she gives money, she won't be able to live."

A clerk who saw Hong Wen giving money sighed.

"It's a little bit to be able to help, this is also something that the official family and the prefect want."

Hong Wen also sighed.

The poor in this world cannot be saved.

But just as the boy by the sea saves a fish, this fish cares, and so does that fish.

If they don't save them, then who cares about them?

He turned his head and looked at the dilapidated wooden house, and just whispered, "The New Year is here, have a good year." ”

(End of chapter)