On the south side of the earth building, at No. 123 on the fifth floor, Cao Xiu's family lived.
Cao Xiu was originally a cloth seller in Damingfu (Handan) city. Although I don’t make much money, I can still support a family.
The Wanli era was the last setting sun of the Ming Dynasty, and it was also a reflection of the past.
As long as the people are willing to put in the effort to collect a load of firewood and sell it in the city, they can buy back ten kilograms of grains, enough for a family to eat.
But since the Tianqi Dynasty, life has been difficult for ordinary people. It's like an old lady celebrating the New Year, not rushing every year.
Food prices have skyrocketed in the past two years. After the small-time workers spent all their savings, they had no choice but to flee the famine, otherwise the whole family would starve to death.
Cao Xiu took his father, mother, wife and three children with him. Hearing that he could find a way to survive in Zunhua, he fled to Zunhua with several neighbors. The other families all found work in the iron mines. Only Cao Xiu was missing.
Seeing that the whole family had finished eating the food they had brought, Cao Xiu was so anxious that he was anxious.
At this time, the newly established Hexi Guard Thousand Households Office was established, and it was necessary to recruit 3,500 military households. When I heard that I was going to be a military household, my family felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured on them. If I became a military household, even their descendants would be ruined.
But upon hearing this treatment, the family suddenly couldn't walk.
Because the treatment is so good.
Cao Xiu had good endurance and was able to carry heavy loads for long distances. He was trained to carry cloth for the shop. As a result, I was hired after several rounds of screening.
Cao Xiu is thirty years old this year, and his wife is twenty-four years old. They have three children. Their daughter is eight years old, and their two sons are five years old and one is still nursing. There is also a sixteen-year-old girl who is not married. Both of her parents are fifty years old. They are both in poor health and cannot do heavy work. This is his family.
After the Cao family was hired, they were taken away first, and the men and women were given a thorough hot bath, and then all their original clothes were boiled in boiling water. Eliminated lice, bedbugs and other parasites. New clothes were given out.
Then something happened that shocked the family.
They were taken to this huge earth building. They had never seen such a tall building in their lives. It looked extremely eerie and majestic.
Their family and many other military households walked tremblingly into the monster's maw. Now that I have registered as a military household, it is too late to regret it. If you regret it, you will be hanged.
What I didn't expect was to enter this architectural monster. The first thing was to allocate a house, and then the house deed was issued with a big red leather cover, with Mr. Yang's customs seal stamped on it.
Then, all the supplies needed for the family's life were distributed. Suddenly nothing was missing. The family seemed to be in a dream.
Then a teacher came to inform that children under the age of fifteen should go to school, and men and women would be taught separately. Boys would be taught by Professor Xiucai Gong, and girls would be taught by female teachers from Xinghe Academy. Those who do not send their children to school will have their military pay deducted.
The gentleman who just sent away the school, someone from the medical center came to inform again that everyone can enjoy free medical treatment. Everyone is scheduled to arrange a date and take turns to go to the medical center for a physical check-up. Anyone with infectious diseases must be reported and cannot be concealed. Otherwise be beheaded.
Then, the shopkeeper of Xinghe Bank went door to door and settled the accounts with them. Only then did they realize that Master Yang gave them a low-interest loan for this house and all the supplies. From now on, they owed a terrifying amount of money. debt.
The family had no time to rejoice and cried together. It's all over now.
But the next day, the land distribution began. When they learned that no grains would be harvested from the ten acres of paddy fields, they realized that the debt would be paid off in fifteen years. In fact, the burden was not heavy. After all, the paddy fields were subject to drought and floods, and the current food prices It goes up every year, and it may take less than three to five years to pay it off.
But the training that followed was really like hell on earth, it was so painful.
When it came to archery, he couldn't even draw the bow at first, so he was often beaten by the general flag and the small flag.
He was very thin at that time, but the food here was really good. Soldiers ate together, not at home.
Thirty kilograms of cornmeal was given to each person for a month, enough to feed the family. The food he ate every day in the military camp was fried in bright lard.
Each person has a small stainless steel basin full of rice, and it is also covered with a layer of steamed fatty pork. He and the other soldiers wolfed down the food in their mouths. They hadn't eaten meat in several years.
While eating big mouthfuls, I shed tears again and again.
However, soon everyone was reluctant to eat fat meat movies. Because the women, children, and father at home have no meat to eat.
They all hid it and took it home at night for the elderly and children to eat. As a result, he was beaten again by the officer.
The officer made them understand that you must do whatever you are asked to do in the military camp, and you cannot have your own ideas. You must eat all the meat given to you. It is a violation of military law not to eat it.
As for you thinking about your family, then train desperately. As long as the training reaches the standard, you will be rewarded. If you are at the top, there will be more rewards. Only in this way can your parents, wife and children eat meat.
From then on, the rigorous training began. I often stood motionless in line for an hour, and my legs became swollen. Anyone who moves is a stick.
Every day after gymnastics, we have to go to a half-hour literacy class, which is taught by the scholars who teach children. Some soldiers who did not complain during the training were really miserable when they learned to read. Some people did He is a master at work, but forcing him to study is more uncomfortable than killing him.
But there is nothing I can do. If I fail the literacy class, half of the family ration will be deducted. This frightened him. Food cannot be deducted. The whole family relies on food to survive.
What makes him ashamed is that his daughter, who comes home from school every day, takes the initiative to give him extra lessons. His eight-year-old daughter can read faster than he does, and she teaches him how to write under an oil lamp every night. In the end, he finally learned the three hundred words required in the first issue.
The following days became more and more difficult day by day. Every day when he came home, his wife would boil hot water for him and soak his feet. This made him finally feel that these legs were his own, and he often fell asleep while soaking in them.
Every effort is rewarded.
As the days passed, Cao Xiu finally persisted. He shot a hundred arrows every day and no longer got beaten for failing to complete the training.
There is no problem if you shake the big gun, practice the three moves of "blocking, zhanna", and stab three hundred times a day.
In the last month, Master Yang's caravan brought more than 300 slaves. These people were handcuffed and shackled, and they all looked fierce.
The frightened women and children ran away crying.
Then they began to practice using wooden swords to pierce leather armor.
They were beaten all over the floor by the Jian slaves every day, and their shit was just wet. Jiannu completely vented his anger as a prisoner on them.
Even though this was a one-sided fight, they had to grit their teeth and persevere. If you fail to complete the task, you will be beaten with a military stick and even have your family's rations deducted as a fine.
From the beginning, only Jiannu could hit them with a knife stained with white ash, and now they could also leave marks on Jiannu's leather armor.
In the end, everyone was able to persist for more than three quarters of an hour and was able to score fifty marks on Jiannu.
During that time, he would come home with a bruised nose and face every day, and his wife would give him medicine while shedding tears.
Finally, it's all over.
This day came so suddenly. No one was mentally prepared.
Master Yang came and announced that the first training period was completed.
At that moment, he was in a daze and didn't know how he persisted.
How many times have I thought I couldn't survive it?
Unknowingly, not only did he survive, but he also overfulfilled the task.
A ten-pound jar of white wine hung on a rope around his neck, and he carried a pair of pigs into the water on his back. He carried fifteen pounds of fat pork in his left hand, and a whole big pig head marinated in sauce in his right hand. I walked up to the fifth floor in a daze and entered the house, thinking that it was all a dream.
My wife and I took the things away and took them to the kitchen.
He hasn't recovered yet.
It wasn't until my eight-year-old daughter stuffed a piece of fruit candy in her mouth. After the candy melted, the sweetness filled her mouth that she realized what she was doing.
It's all true.
My daughter Cao Ying was awarded a pound of fruit candy by the school because she ranked first in her class in literacy.
Cao Xiu walked into the kitchen and said to his wife: "My family has not eaten pig heads for several years. Today I cut them all off and let them eat freely. There is enough meat in the pig heads."
The dinner was very sumptuous. Cao Xiu and his father drank wine and ate braised pork meat and pork heads, thinking about the upcoming spring plowing and ten acres of paddy fields. His wife and I planned the newly allocated vegetable plot outside the earth building. Here, build a pigsty, raise a few pigs, and raise some chickens, ducks, and geese.
Did the wonderful life begin like this? He was drunk unknowingly.
