The Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas are the estuary of the Yangtze River, and its origin is located on the southwest side of Geladandong Peak in the Tanggula Mountains on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the "Roof of the World", passing through Hunan, Hubei and other places.
Going westward by land was too time-consuming and expensive, so the water route became the only option.
The development of waterways created trackers. The so-called "trackers" refer to those who make a living by pulling fiber ropes.
Hundreds of boats compete for water on the river. Coal, timber, agricultural and sideline products and daily necessities are all transported in and out by boats. Trackers play a key role.
The two watched the trackers bending their bodies, carrying stiff ropes on their backs, and limping forward.
I once heard someone say that many trackers don't wear clothes when they are stretching. In warm seasons such as late spring, summer, and early autumn, they are mostly naked. Even when facing older girls, they are calm and composed, as the two of them see now.
The two brothers and sisters really came into contact with the trackers. Their naked bodies, exposed to the wind and sun all day long, had dark and rough skin. Their calloused hands, which were pulling the ropes all day long, were very thin from hard work. body.
"Brother, it's so dirty! It stinks again!"
Han Yishi did not stop.
Although Zhen Yinglian looked at Han Yishi's footsteps with a look of reluctance, she still followed Han Yishi.
"Brother, how many years have you been doing this?" As he spoke, he took out the dry food he brought and gave it to the tracker who was resting, and sat down on the ground.
"The noble man has offended me. I don't deserve to be called a noble man like that. My name is Fourth Brother. I am 19 years old and have been in the industry for 4 or 5 years."
"Ah! I'm only 19 years old now!" This made Zhen Yinglian unbelievable. The tracker looked 4.5 years old, and then he apologized quickly.
The three of them chatted while eating dry food. Seeing that the two of them were so interested, the tracker said a few more words.
The tracker boy is from a commoner family by the river. Now he happens to be a tracker to earn a living when he has free time.
My family is a tenant farmer, and I work with people from the same village to earn some money to support the family.
Because I don’t have my own land, but I am already married with two children, and I want to make more money.
The fourth brother smiled when he talked about his family, showing his teeth that were not very white.
"Fourth brother, how do you farm?" Zhen Yinglian asked curiously.
"Farming is very hard, and you have to pay land rent and royal grain..."
"Fourth brother, tell me!"
…
At night, in order to irrigate crops, men need to stay up all night looking at the water in the canals, until their eyes are red and bloodshot. It is often already dawn when the water is put in, and women can only be left to do the work during the day.
During the day, women are required to do the weeding, fertilizing, and pest control work in the fields.
The hard work of the two couples resulted in the growth of crops, and the green crops clothed the earth with green clothes; the wind blew by, sweeping in from afar like waves; the wind blew away, and disappeared like waves towards the sky. trace.
It’s good to see this scene. I can’t help but sigh at the magnificence and hardworking farmers.
It's a pity that this is the case. The farmer still cannot feed his family and only eats porridge all year round.
The wife has to go out to find wild vegetables every day, so that she can barely feed herself with this porridge; the husband has to go out to find work to maintain his life.
After you have a child, not to mention eating more as you grow, you will be more stressed.
As a young man, I live in poverty is not only a proverb, but also a personal experience.
Only during the Chinese New Year can we have some dry rice and two pieces of meat.
This is still part of it, like the canals that need to be repaired, the land that needs to be cultivated, sowing, harvesting, transporting, drying...
"It's so hard! There's so much work to do!"
"So that your noble lord will know that after we pay the land rent, there won't be much of the royal grain left, and the petty officials will also take some millet from it."
"But the grain collector pushed the top of the grain to the ground in the grain bucket, saying it was loss."
The fourth brother nodded and said yes, yes, without anger, happiness, or sadness.
"I want to keep the seeds for next year and plan for farming in the next season. I don't dare to eat more. Even if there is nothing to eat, I can't eat the seeds." Looking at the scene of busy traffic, the tracker who had been silent for a long time spoke.
Her previous life experience made it impossible for her to imagine such a life. The world should not be like this, but the world is like this, and she can't figure out why it is like this.
If the year is good, we can eat more dry food. Although we can eat more dry food, the grain cannot be sold at a good price; if the year is bad, after paying the land rent, there will be little left of the imperial grain, and the remaining grain needs to be found. The landlord or a neighbor who is doing better can borrow some rice or money.
Canglin knows etiquette well. It turns out that Zhen Yinglian just thought that these lowly people were rude and filthy without clothes and were not worthy of being with us.
After listening to what Fourth Brother said, maybe it is just the life of the upper class, or it may evolve into keeping warm and lusting after lust. The richer and more powerful people are, the greater the damage to society will be, and the world will be more unfair.
The upper class then arrogantly said to the farmers, "You don't understand the country. You are lazy and stupid. That's why you are so mean. You are filthy to begin with. You have always been a lower class person. You are a born lower class person."
In other words, the food I (the person in power) grabbed was my ability (robber?).
…
"Is corvee heavy?" Han Yishi didn't know how to speak anymore, so he could only ask this sentence dryly.
"Thank you for your concern, sir. The work is as usual."
Corvee is unpaid labor that rulers force civilians to perform, including labor service and military service; bring your own food and grass. There is no wages, and if you die, you will die. If you are kind enough, dig a hole, otherwise it will be food for wild dogs.
Those with money could pay people to do corvee work on their behalf, which turned into a heavy burden that the bottom class had to bear.
Going up the river, the boarding horn sounded, bidding farewell to the trackers, and boarding the boat, Zhen Yinglian was in a very low mood.
Han Yishi saw Zhen Yinglian's thoughts and told her the story of the Three Kingdoms:
Liu Bei's entry into Sichuan and the battle of Wu and Shu at Yiling can be seen as marching along the Yangtze River.
However, this waterway is risky. It must pass through the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. At that time, the Three Gorges had not been developed, so it was very difficult to travel through the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. The only way was to rely on trackers to pull boats and slowly go upstream.
Zhuge Liang led his army westward to Chengdu, while Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei marched westward along the Yangtze River to capture Badong and occupy Jiangzhou. Zhuge Liang sent Zhao Yun to attack Jiangyang (today's Luzhou, Sichuan) and Zhang Fei to pacify Brazil and Deyang.
Liu Bei entered Shu and fully displayed his image as a hero in troubled times.
And he also relied on Yizhou's fertile land and superior military geographical location to achieve his empire in troubled times.
Complete the gorgeous transformation from a hawker selling mats to a king.
It is the route we are taking now. If we are not very powerful, we will also be big names in the future.
When it prospers, the people suffer; when it dies, the people suffer.
