Lu Hua just came out of the fields, still carrying farm tools in his hands.
He was wearing a pair of coarse cloth, covered in sweat, and wore worn-out shoes full of mud on his feet. His whole body was tanned and tanned. He was in his twenties, and his face was wrinkled with worry.
"If the harvest is only 60% of previous years, wouldn't there be enough food in the village this year? Will someone starve to death?"
Zhao Xirui asked quickly.
"Madam, you are worrying too much. Enough is definitely enough. We are not like gold thieves who charge taxes to death, and there are so many extra rations. Our taxes are not that high, and there are no extra rations. Even if the land harvest is less than last year's At 60%, farmers can still have enough to eat.”
Lu Hua smiled, then put on a sad look and said, "It's just not an option to continue like this. Without men in the village, the farm work will not be completed and the land will not be plowed, so it will be abandoned and weeds will grow.
Once it is abandoned, the fertility of the land will decrease. If you want to restore it to the point where it can grow food, more work will be wasted. Therefore, the land must be cultivated, whether it is used to grow food or not, it must be plowed.
But plowing the land also requires manpower, and it takes time. You can't borrow people from other villages to help every year when doing farm work. People will have opinions over time. Moreover, the lack of manpower is not just for our village. I will I'm afraid that when the farm work gets busy, we won't even be able to borrow money from anyone. "
As soon as he talked about this matter, Lu Hua's face became sad and he sighed again and again.
Su Yonglin nodded at the side and said: "Yes, many people have already written to the General Affairs Bureau about this matter. Yanyun is currently very short of labor. Basically four out of ten villages are short of manpower. They borrow labor from each other during busy farming periods. This cannot continue. .”
"Then what can be done?"
Zhao Xirui immediately looked over and asked.
Su Yonglin nodded.
"Of course there is a way. Ask the army if there are any who are willing to go back to work as farmers, and if there are any who are willing to marry other people's widows to live a living. If there are any, we will make statistics. When the time comes, let the farmers' association organize it, have a blind date, and then the marriage will be decided. Then there will be labor in the village.”
"Can this still happen?"
Zhao Xirui was stunned.
"In extraordinary times, extraordinary measures are taken. If we don't do this, at least 30% of Yanyun's land will be abandoned. This is unbearable."
Su Yonglin sighed: "In order to conquer us, the gold thieves conquered all the men in many places. They went south and killed people along the way. This village is not too miserable. The worst one is that all the strong men in the village died, including the old men." There are only a few left, the oldest boy is only seven years old, and a whole village of orphans and widowers don’t know how to survive.”
Zhao Xirui swallowed, feeling like she had opened the door to a cruel new world.
Lu Hua also sighed repeatedly.
"Indeed, compared with Dongpan Village, our village is quite good. At least twenty people have returned. Unlike Dongpan Village, where one hundred and thirty people went out, not even a few corpses came back. A whole The village widow and the fatherless child.
I know the instructor there, his name is Yang Tianhe. Less than a month after going to Dongpan Village, he has already married a widow in the village. He said that he will stay there for the rest of his life. It is really pitiful for orphans and widowers. . "
"how so……"
Zhao Xirui felt unbelievable about this.
Su Yonglin walked to Zhao Xirui and hugged Zhao Xirui.
"This is the suffering of the people. Even though there are only these four words, every word is soaked in blood."
Zhao Xirui trembled all over, raised his head and looked at Su Yonglin in surprise.
Su Yonglin's expression remained calm, without any change.
Zhao Xirui knew how to write the four words "people's suffering", but she didn't know what the real situation behind these four words was, and she didn't know how to write it to really convey that feeling.
So she continued to follow Su Yonglin and Lu Hua into the village, and saw low and dilapidated houses, villagers in shabby clothes, women and children carrying farm tools, and people working hard in the fields.
What you see is shocking poverty and dilapidation.
She didn't dare to go into those houses at all. She felt that her body was instinctively rejecting the dark, damp and gloomy houses. Let alone walking in, she felt uncomfortable even just looking at them.
And under the scorching sun, she didn't dare to think about how dirty her body would be, how wet her hair would be, and how miserable she would be if she went to the ground once.
The women, girls and children were all barefoot. Because of the hot weather, some women even rolled up their trouser legs and sleeves, exposing body skin that other ladies would never expose without scruples, just like men.
Seeing this scene, Zhao Xirui suddenly understood why Su Yonglin said that scholars no longer treat these farmers as human beings.
She, who is pampered and elegant, and her sallow complexion, who works hard, are indeed from the same world at first glance.
She is fair and beautiful, with delicate skin, a pair of moist eyes that seem to be able to speak, and a charming smile.
And her skin was yellow and black, full of wrinkles, her hands and feet were big, and her words and deeds were so rough that she couldn't look straight at her.
Are they the same kind of person?
Is the difference between people really that big?
Zhao Xirui was stunned on the spot.
"This is their living condition. No, this is their living condition after we come here. Before we came here, there was no smile on their faces."
Su Yonglin pointed to the scene of a couple in the field laughing and bending down to mow the grass: "They used to be unable to laugh. They were just sad all day long. They were weighed down by a heavy load and couldn't straighten their waists. It was no different than now. no the same."
Zhao Xirui, who was in shock and contemplation, noticed that in addition to the shocking poverty, these farmers would have a smile on their faces from time to time.
Life is so difficult and hard, why do they still have smiles on their faces?
"Why can they laugh now?"
Zhao Xirui raised his head and looked at Su Yonglin.
"Because there is hope, I wrote in the manuscript that they were not born poor. Even if they were not rich, they would not be unable to eat. It was because the upper class collected too many taxes and they were exploited to the death. Damn, they are so poor.
But we are different. We collect very little taxes, and we will not force them to do corvee labor. They can keep most of the food they produce, so they can not only have enough food, but also have food in storage.
If they have stored grain, they can exchange it for money. If they exchange it for money, they can have savings. With savings, they can buy goods that they could not afford in the past and improve their lives. If they work harder and produce more food, they can get more. of savings.
If farmers are more diligent and frugal, and without excessive exploitation, they can accumulate wealth bit by bit, replace dilapidated houses with big ones, replace tattered clothes with decent clothes, and be able to afford shoes and hoods. , can afford more farm tools and cattle, they know it, so they are laughing. "
Su Yonglin looked at Zhao Xirui and held her hand: "The old court gave them no hope and exploited everything from them. They had no hope, only numbness, so they couldn't laugh no matter what.
What I have to do is to stop them from being exploited. I can’t make them produce more food for the time being, but I won’t take away more. I can make them increase their savings and let them have more food. Surplus food and money give them hope.
So when they are tired, they will calculate how much grain they can harvest this year. After paying taxes and saving seeds, how much grain can be left, how much money can be exchanged, and how much savings can be saved.
With these savings, you can buy some meat that you couldn't eat in the past, you can pull some pieces of cloth for your children or buy yourself new clothes, you can replace old farm tools with new ones, you can buy a thicker quilt, Thinking like this, they can laugh. "
Zhao Xirui looked at Su Yonglin for a long time, then moved his eyes away and looked at the farmers who were working hard but still smiling in the fields.
Su Yonglin stood beside her and spoke slowly.
“In fact, what they need is not much, they just have enough food and clothing, some money left over, they can see meat a few times throughout the year, and they can wear new clothes, but the previous court could not even allow them this.
But it shouldn’t be difficult now. I will help them realize these requirements, and from now on, the days will only get better and better. One day, they will be like us, no longer different. "
A hot summer wind blew by, making Zhao Xirui feel that his heart seemed to become hot.
