Chapter 128
I heard that some generals on the islands also brought their troops to defect to Li Jiucheng. Recently, people have been coming to Zhenjiang Fort and the nearby settlements in Dongjiang to incite officers and soldiers to follow them to fight in Shandong. These people all bring with them a lot of money. , which made many people red-eyed. They gritted their teeth and followed him with swords and guns. [No pop-up novel website]
Mao Shisan also had his thoughts moved, but it was hard to say whether he would like a young man like himself, who looked like a reed stick. Moreover, Mao Shisan was not sure about crossing the sea to Shandong, a place he was unfamiliar with, to fight with the imperial court. The most critical issue is that no one can guarantee whether there will be anything to eat on the way from here to join the army. If you starve to death on the way, there's no point talking about money.
The matter of surrendering to the army was put aside for the time being, but eating was an urgent matter when I was hungry. It's been snowing these past few days, and he was supposed to stay in the shed and rest as much as possible, but Mao Shisan was so hungry that he couldn't stand it anymore - there was nothing to eat at home.
Mao Shisan had no parents since he was a child. He was adopted by a fellow villager of his father. Two people depend on each other for life. My stepfather had a salary, although it was less than one month a year, and the forts all over Dongjiang Town were in dilapidated condition. The soldiers were not fully clothed and had no food to eat, and they were not much better than the beggars, but he was still a star. The land of Xingui. One stone of rice is not only more expensive than Jiangnan, but also several times or even ten times more expensive than the capital.
A similar situation is the same in border towns. Because embezzling military pay has become the main way to grow, the generals do not like the heavy weight and troublesome cashing of grain, rice and cloth, and require the court to transport silver. For the handling officials, it was more convenient to transport much smaller pieces of silver than large items of grain and cloth.
The influx of large amounts of silver will inevitably cause everything to become more expensive. Therefore, soldiers in various border towns seem to have military pay higher than the national average salary, but local prices are several times or even more than ten times the national average.
The situation in Dongjiang is even worse. Dongjiang not only has many places to eat, but the area under its jurisdiction is also a bitter, cold and barren place. The soldiers could not even farm their own land to feed themselves. Although the generals can earn income by smuggling goods with the Manchus, collecting protection fees from smugglers, digging ginseng, and hunting furs, these incomes have nothing to do with military households and soldiers, but instead increase their burdens - in history, Huanglong was defeated by rebel soldiers The trigger for the beatings and seizures was to drive the hungry and cold soldiers to dig for ginseng.
After Li Jiucheng's rebellion last year, most of the imperial military pay and merchant goods shipped from Dengzhou were blocked, and he was half starved to death. The lives of the soldiers who barely survived became even more difficult, which to a certain extent inspired a large number of Dongjiang soldiers to cross the sea to join the rebellion.
Those who had the strength and dared to take risks ran away, leaving only the old, weak, sick and disabled. Mao Shisan's stepfather was sent on an errand yesterday. At least I have something to eat today, and I might be able to bring back some leftovers when I come back tomorrow. But Mao Shisan was so hungry that he was dizzy and couldn't wait for tomorrow.
He dragged his feeble footsteps to the coast. There was no life on the frozen coast. Not to mention being able to eat what he wants. He felt that he had hallucinated, and a small boat was rowing towards him not far away. His eyes blurred and he fell down, and then he knew nothing.
Mao Shisan felt that there was a ball of fire in front of his eyes, and wanted to open his eyes, but his eyelids were indeed heavy, but he was sure of one thing, that it was quite warm. It is warmer than having a fire at home, and people will feel particularly safe in a warm environment. I don’t know if it’s an hallucination, but I feel like I’m not that hungry anymore, and I desperately want to sleep. He remembered that his stepfather and many people had told him that he must not fall asleep while walking outside in winter, as once he fell asleep he would never wake up again.
However, he really didn't have the strength to open his eyes. He thought that he would just die, so he fell asleep again.
When Mao Shisan woke up, he was already lying in the cabin. It turned out that he was not dead, but was rescued by a group of strange short-haired people on the ship.
There was a young man with short hair and a short coat beside him who was busy. According to him, the "chief" found him fainting at the beach. It was snowing at the time. If it weren't for the chief's kindness, he would have frozen to death on the beach. .
"You have been sleeping all day and all night, and I have fed you sugar water several times." The little brother said, "Otherwise, you would have died long ago. Just drink a bowl of soup."
He said that he had drunk sugar water, but he had no memory at all, but his body was indeed not as weak as before.
"Come and have a bowl of dough." The little brother brought a big bowl, which contained more than half a bowl of steaming dough-like stuff. Mao Shisan hadn't seen decent food for quite some time. Seeing this bowl of mushy paste, his mouth opened and he couldn't even say a word of thanks.
The hot paste in his mouth was real food, and the delicious taste was something he had never tasted before in his life, which made him feel a little relieved. After drinking the paste, he wanted to get up, only to find that it was not that easy. He felt like he was sleeping in a net.
"Eat a bowl first, and I'll give it to you later. You're very hungry, and it's easy to overeat if you eat too much. Don't get out of bed in a hurry, the chief wants to see you after you take a rest."
The young man who took care of him had a very good attitude. It seemed that he was not much different from me in age, but he had an air of competence about him that someone of his age should not have.
"On board the captain's ship, just wait and enjoy the blessings." Finally, the young man gave another mysterious smile. "It's better for everyone to know about it. To be mentally prepared for the situations we will face in the future."
After lunch, Xue Ziliang "interviewed" Mao Shisan. Mao Shisan had never heard of the Kun Thief, but Chief Xue was obviously a senior official on the ship, but he didn't know where he came from. He had seen officials from the Ming Dynasty, but they were not dressed like this. Officials in North Korea were dressed similarly to those from the Ming Dynasty. But what Chief Xue spoke was serious Chinese, and it was quite similar to Liaodong Mandarin. The dress is different from that of Tatars. Besides, there is no Tartar tail on his head. Besides, the Tatars themselves can't even build decent ships, so there's no way they can have such a good ship.
He couldn't figure out where to go. At least he had enough food and clothing on the ship. Not only did he have delicious glutinous rice to satisfy his hunger, but he also had a new set of clothes. Not only did this clothes have no patches, it was close-fitting and warm.
After a few words, he knew that Chief Xue was at least not a bad person. He is very kind and does not put on any official airs. Especially after knowing that he is a military household in Dongjiang Town, he seems quite unfair and has said a lot of things against the court. According to the standards of this time and space, Mao Shisan could only be considered as a freshman in junior high school, and his knowledge was even more pitiful. He wanted to rip his heart out as soon as he was coaxed by Xue Ziliang, an old stick, with a few nice words.
"So your family is the military household of Zhenjiang Fort?"
"Back to the Master: I have been living here with my stepfather since Mao Shuai recovered Zhenjiang Fort. I have never been to other places except Lushun Fort."
"Then tell me, what do the military households in Dongjiang do for a living? I'm afraid they can't survive just on the pay from the court."
"Who says it's not the case? We don't have the salary and money in our hands. We say we are military households, but we don't have much land to cultivate. Besides, it is not easy to grow crops in the land of Liaodong. The weather is very cold. In the early years, we relied on the imperial court. Food is shipped from North Korea, but not much can fall into our hands. On weekdays, we still have to fish and hunt, and dig some wild vegetables, so we can still be half hungry and half full."
"After Mao Shuai was killed by Governor Yuan, some people said that Mao Shuai died unjustly. We don't know whether he was unjust or not, but the days are getting harder and harder day by day. They killed many men one after another. Brother, we are neither servants nor soldiers, and we don’t know what is going on. We just have no money and no food. Even if we have food and salary, we have to rely on the soldiers’ servants. To be honest, the leader, if it hadn’t been for more than two months, we haven’t seen any real food. , the little ones won’t venture out in the winter to look for food.”
"Your place is also close to the Yalu River. I heard that North Korea also hates the Tatars and is a vassal state of North Korea. Why don't you just cross the river to eat in North Korea? At least you can survive for a while."
"I don't know what I know. Although North Korea is also on guard against the Tatars, it is also on guard against us. It's not easy to grow some food in our land. North Korea has already sent a lot of food, weapons and ships to Dongjiang. If we want them again How can they go out? They don’t even have enough to eat. In the past few years, there have been constant conflicts just on the border when hunting and fishing. It’s okay for a large group of people to go out, but if a small one is alone, he will be beaten to death if he encounters North Koreans across the river - ―Besides, we have to guard against the Tatars. If we are caught by the Tatars, we will have to shed our skin even if we don’t die.”
"There seem to be a lot of woods here. Are there any big trees in the woods that can be used to build ships?"
"It's true. When the weather warms up, some people go to the mountains to cut wood, float it along the river to the fort, and then build it into rafts. However, there are too many of these things and they are of no use. Recently, I just heard that more warships are to be built. They cut them down. Quite a lot, but the people in Baozi also secretly caught some." At this point, Mao Shisan lowered his voice, "I heard that they want to build a ship and go to Li Shuai."
"So, Li Jiucheng's prestige in Dongjiang is not low," Xue Ziliang thought that they still didn't know that Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng had been defeated! But this is not surprising. How much information can a child from a military household know in a remote place like Zhenjiang Fort?
"Li Shuai used to be the deputy commander-in-chief of Dongjiang, and his prestige is very high here."
"I heard that Governor Huang is now in charge of Dongjiang Town. He is a very loyal minister. Are the sergeants here willing to rebel against Li Jiucheng?"
"I don't know if Governor Huang is a loyal minister. We just want to have a few good meals - even after Huang Shuai came, we had nothing to eat. Master, you are my great benefactor. If I hadn't told you earlier, ”
"So the military households in Dongjiang still want to eat."
"Who says otherwise? The Tatars are so cruel that they are worse than pigs and dogs in their hands. But the court doesn't want to see us either - everyone says they dislike us for only paying for food and not fighting - the conscience of heaven and earth, our little How much rice can a military household get from the imperial court in a year? Even beggars can't send troops to fight." Mao Shisan actually cried out. (To be continued...)
