Zhao Xin glanced at Shengsaburo who was sitting there with his head down eating porridge, turned around and whispered a few words to Li Ji before saying to everyone: "Everyone, get up."
Everyone then stood up and continued to drink porridge.
Li Ji stood up at this time and said to everyone: "You guys have been hungry for a long time..." He paused and seemed to be recalling something: "Yes, malnutrition, that's what the adults said. So. Sir, I want you to drink porridge for the next few days to let your stomach get used to it, and you will have rice balls to eat in two days."
Everyone became excited immediately upon hearing this, and many people, including Wan Zao, began to recall the last time they ate rice.
"We use polished rice just to make porridge, and it seems that rice is not much different."
Katsuzaburo thought to himself that even he himself was the same. What he usually ate was genmai, which is brown rice. As for polished rice, only big businessmen and generals can eat it.
Although samurai food in this era was better than that of ordinary people, that was all. For example, Shigeken Hosokawa, the lord of the Kumamoto domain with a height of 540,000, wrote in his "Higo Hou's Book of Instructions":
"In addition to three meals, you can have snacks from time to time to nourish your qi. Do not eat alcohol. The three meals of soup and vegetables should be as prepared by the person serving the meal. Eat vegetarian food day and night, one soup and one dish. Fish can be used at lunch, which is no more than one soup and two dishes. .”
The fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, only had two dishes and one soup to eat on weekdays, and he never drank alcohol.
These days, brown rice with boiled tofu, a small fish, and miso soup is a great meal.
At this time, he saw Li Ji walking towards him. Katsusaburo put down the porridge bowl and looked at him.
Liji walked up to Katsusaburo, squatted down, and asked Katsusaburo: "From your accent, you are not from Mutsu. Where are you from?"
"I am from Omi."
Rikichi looked at Katsuzaburo with wide eyes and continued to ask: "Omi? Why did Omi's samurai come to our Hirosaki?"
"I, I want to come here to help with disaster relief..." Katsusaburo was a little embarrassed. He had good intentions and wanted to help, but he almost starved to death and was rescued by the victims. It's a bit embarrassing.
"The samurai gentlemen only care about themselves and have no time to care about poor people like us!" Wan Zao said angrily. After hearing this, the seven or eight farmers nearby also agreed very much, and they all cursed the Tsugaru family for not caring about the lives of their people.
But Katsusaburo could only remain silent.
It is said that since the opening of the Tokugawa shogunate, in order to combat the introduction of "Kieshitan" (Catholicism), a policy of seclusion has been implemented, and there has been very little foreign trade.
Therefore, no matter how hard we try to develop the city, the effect we can achieve is not very good under the conditions of the internal cycle of economic isolation. Therefore, the bulk of the revenue that supports the shogunate's annual financial operations still comes from land tax, that is, the annual tribute collected from the countryside.
The prosperity of big cities like Osaka and Edo is based on the hard work and dedication of the vast rural areas.
The plundered and neglected countryside, coupled with the never-easy annual tribute, in the flashy and illusory prosperous age, the farmers were gradually and completely hollowed out, so that no matter how hard these farmers worked in the fields, they were still very poor. It is difficult to save even the most basic savings. Once famine strikes, these farmers immediately fall into dire straits. The indifference from the shogunate also prevented the hungry people from getting any relief.
Hungry people like Liji and Wanzao suffered from severe exploitation and oppression on weekdays, and were angry because they did not receive relief when the famine came, but they only saw the situation of themselves and their village. Because they met Zhao Xin's rescue, they did not continue to flow in the direction of Edo, so they had not seen the more serious scene yet.
Sugita Genpaku, who was later known as the scholar of Zhuzi in the island country, described in detail what he saw and heard in his book "Hangmigusa": "The disasters in the southern part of the Tohoku area, Karutsu and other places are particularly serious, and there are disasters every day. A large number of victims abandoned their jobs and fled, and like mushrooms after the rain, they popped up in the countryside one by one. However, what is even more cruel is that there was no food left to help the victims when they fled to other places. Every day, one thousand to two thousand Thousands of people starved to death in the streets and were later dumped in ravines.”
Yes, if Zhao Xin goes further south and reaches the Rikuzen and Sendai areas, he will see a large number of fleeing farmers lying dead in the streets and alleys on the road.
After telling his own situation, Katsuzaburo asked Liji his question: "Which noble family does your lord belong to?"
"You will naturally know when the time comes. Our Lord is a god-like figure." Li Ji looked back at Zhao Xin carefully and praised with pride.
When Shengsaburo came over, Zhao Xin was still thinking about something and didn't notice anyone approaching. A few days passed, and what he saw and heard along the way made him very emotional. I didn’t expect that the hungry people in ancient times looked like this. To use a metaphor, it's like a group of zombies.
Not to mention that the more than 30 people he rescued were skinny and skinny. Except for Katsuzaburo who had just been rescued, who was wearing an old cotton coat, the others were all in ragged linen clothes; the better ones were wearing straw sandals, and most of them were wearing ragged linen clothes. Not even shoes, all barefoot.
Zhao Xin is wondering whether to go back again. He felt that the amount of food was enough, and he had to buy some clothes, shoes, and bedding, otherwise these people would not survive this winter.
It is said that Zhao Xin always feels like playing a game now. The strangers in front of him seem to be NPCs in the game; except for Liji and his wife, he actually doesn't care much about the life and death of other people.
However, there will always be a voice in Zhao Xin's heart that this is not the right thing to do. Saving a life is better than making a living...
In addition, the most difficult thing for him is how to arrange these people in the future?
Mount Iwaki is the hardest hit area, and to the north is Aomori on the seaside; to the south? Now all the disaster victims are running towards Sendai and Edo. It can be said that the road to the south is full of disaster victims.
What if you call a group of people to go next door and lead them to do three things and four things...?
Forget it, I don’t want anything except money, and I can’t get it for the time being.
Since 1641, the only foreign trade port of the island country was Nagasaki. The main purpose of the shogunate's action was to prohibit islanders from leaving the island.
Walking from Mutsu to Nagasaki? Oh my God! forget it.
What to do? Now that everyone is getting more and more help, I might as well leave a few kilograms of food for these people and run away...
Zhao Xin was just starting to think about it, but someone shouted in his ear: "Thank you very much. Without your rescue, I would be a dead person now."
"Ah." Zhao Xin was startled when his thoughts were interrupted. When he saw it, it was Katsuzaburo who was rescued and was kneeling in front of him to express his gratitude. So he quickly helped Katsusaburo up and said, "Don't worry about it. Times like this are not easy for anyone."
Shengsaburo thought Zhao Xin’s accent was strange. Li Ji once told him that Zhao Xin was a noble man, but he didn't think so. Zhao Xin's accent is very much like an Edo accent, but not quite.
So he plucked up the courage and asked thoughtfully: "Your attire is very unusual. I have traveled throughout the lands of Guandong and have never seen your hair accessories and clothes like this."
"Oh, you said this..." Zhao Xin touched his head. He still had short hair. Look at Katsuzaburo opposite, oh, he has a Tsukiyo head. It is said that all men in the island country have to shave like this when they reach adulthood.
"I'm really not from here. I just heard that the volcano erupted and the famine was serious, so I came here to see what I can do to help."
Not allowing the other party to ask any more questions, Zhao Xin changed the topic and asked: "I heard that you are a samurai from Omi, why are you here?"
Katsusaburo was very embarrassed. He wanted to come here to help people, but he couldn't help him with anything. He almost got himself involved, but in the end, he was rescued by the victims. His outing for training seemed to be a failure, and Katsuzaburo couldn't help but feel a little discouraged.
So there was another crackling narration, and Zhao Xin also learned about Katsusaburo's situation. He felt that Katsusaburo had a good heart, and it was rare that he could think of helping the victims.
Why not dump these people to Katsusaburo?
Zhao Xin thought of this and said: "You see the weather is very cold now. Although there is enough food, if there are new people to be taken in later, my current food is not enough; besides, you see they are all in ragged clothes. If you don’t even have a pair of shoes, you’ll get sick from the cold.”
"Yes." Katsusaburo was also very emotional. "So how can I assist you?"
Zhao Xindao: "You first get to know everyone for a few days and get to know the situation. Then I'm going to transport some food, clothes, and shoes. Well... I'll be away for about five or ten days, so you can help me manage these. people."
Shengsaburo lowered his head and thought for a while. He felt that as long as the food was enough, it would not be a big problem, so he readily agreed to Zhao Xin's request.
A few days later, Zhao Xin's refugee team had expanded to 300 people.
This group of people did not stay where they were or go south. Instead, they turned around and headed north, arriving in the woods near Aomori Town.
Zhao Xin explained the matter to Liji and Shengsaburo respectively, and handed over the previously purchased grain to Liji and Shengsaburo for management.
After he finished explaining everything, Zhao Xin turned around and walked deeper into the dense forest. My heart says goodbye to you!
After walking almost three hundred meters, he found a big tree, looked around for a while, then took out the jade pendant, and in the blink of an eye the person disappeared.
Not far away, Katsuzaburo, who was lying in the bushes and peeking, was already stunned.
