The rain comes at the beginning of spring, so get up early and go to bed late.
For a person like Liang Chuan who was industrious and indifferent to grains, he suddenly felt that when he got up to chop firewood one day, the quiet He Lu suddenly became lively. People picked up plows and drove the snails to the fields, carrying hoes, rakes and manure on their shoulders. Every household began to clean up its own one-third of an acre of land. The temperature in the air has risen slightly, the sky is getting brighter and earlier, and the temperature is slowly rising. The busy spring plowing season on the earth has finally begun. If we miss this best season, we may have to suffer from the northwest wind again this year.
Zheng Ruoying's brows were furrowed, and she was so worried that she didn't even think about food or tea. The tenant farmers at home were busy clearing the paddy fields and occupied all the farm tools and cattle. Not to mention that they had to use part of it to serve the family's sugar cane fields. There were not even a few extra tenant farmers.
She used her coquettish skills to pester Zheng Yiqian again, hoping that Zheng Yiqian would be soft-hearted and come forward to help him carve out a few cows and tenant farmers to help reclaim the dry land. Zheng Yiqian remembered that he had been beaten severely by his wife because of his confusion a few days ago. Now he couldn't even touch the bed for several days and could only sleep in the living room. How dare he be soft-hearted.
Besides, this spring plowing plan is the foundation of the family. If the spring plowing is delayed, the family will not be able to harvest food for the autumn harvest. Now most of the family's business still relies on autumn crops. If the tenants cannot harvest food, what will they use to pay taxes and rent?
Lao Cai had watched this eldest lady grow up since he was a child, and he knew in his heart that she had been very interested in growing sugar cane recently, but it happened to be the busy season of spring plowing, and it was difficult to find cattle. Lao Cai realized that he felt sorry for this girl, so he came up with an idea for her. He would go to the market to see if anyone was selling cattle, and recruit them to see if there were any idle farmers. Last year, many people fled from the north. If you run away from home, you should be able to find it depending on your luck.
The only thing she needed was money. Zheng Ruoying originally wanted to place her hopes on her father, Zheng Yiqian, but Zheng Yiqian refused to help her no matter what. She was cruel and took out all the private money she had saved over the years. .
In the fifth year of Xianping reign of Zhenzong, Li Jiqian, the head of the Li clan in the northwest, was plotted by Tubo and died of serious injuries. After Li Deming succeeded to the throne, he tried his best to expand. In the third year of Tianxi reign of Zhenzong, Huaiyuan Town was selected as the capital and changed to Xingzhou, which is now The Xingqing Mansion in the Song Dynasty still claimed vassalage from the Song and Liao Dynasties, but its ambitions were well known to everyone.
At this moment, the Liao Kingdom in the north was no longer a serious concern. Instead, the northwest was treacherous, and the Li family invaded the Song Dynasty from time to time. The northwest was originally a place of peace for the people, but the Li family's military disasters kept the people in dire straits. In this dynasty, Li Yuanhao succeeded to the throne of Xia. The situation in the northwest was changing. The Li family was extremely ambitious. Inland migration.
Restoring the land and relocating it has been the most fundamental belief in the hearts of the people for thousands of years. If the land where their ancestors lived had not been the last resort, these simple people would not have thought of changing it. But wars are unpredictable, and there will be a war every three days. Let alone agricultural production, even lives will be lost. Fortunately, the household registration management in this dynasty was relatively loose, and the restrictions on personal life were not as crazy as in the Ming Dynasty, so it was possible to move the whole family.
The land in the north has long been saturated, and the only place that can accommodate these refugees is Jiangnan. Large areas of land in the south are still primitive and undeveloped.
A large number of refugees crossed the Yangtze River. At this time, the south of the Yangtze River was not as good as the north of the Yangtze River. The north of the Yangtze River has been an important agricultural land since ancient times. The development of the south has not yet been fully developed, and the impression of southern barbarians is still deeply engraved in the hearts of the people. A large number of refugees headed towards Jiangsu, Huaihe and Zhejiang, and stopped moving forward when they arrived here. However, a small number of people saw far ahead and would rather give up the great prosperity of Jiangnan and continue to move south. They believed that although they would become poorer as they went south, they would be able to stay away from the war. Disaster, it doesn't matter if your generation has suffered. If you can give your descendants peace of mind for several generations and no longer have to suffer the hardships of your own generation, that is the most important thing.
People are still here, so suffering is nothing.
Fan Dianyuan was dragging a wooden carriage, which was already crumbling after traveling thousands of miles. Sitting in the carriage were his young daughter and his wife. The faces of the three of them were relatively clean, but they smelled very strong. They hadn't been there for a long time They couldn't remember clearly after taking a bath. Their hair was messy and yellow, stained with some broken grass stems and leaves, and they looked like beggars. They were walking on Fengshan, the only thoroughfare between north and south, and others were afraid to avoid them. Behind him there were about a dozen people like him.
They all escaped from Shaanxi together. Li Yuanhao went out with force and occupied many prefectures and counties such as Xia, Yin, Sui, You, Jing, Ling, Hui, Sheng, etc. The area covered Shaanxi. This unforgiving place was sandwiched between the Li family , Zhao Song and the Khitan people suffered from successive wars. Not to mention food, even grass roots and tree bark were eaten, so they only had to eat people.
Fan Dianyuan, like others, had no choice but to take his family to the south to make a living. At the beginning, there were hundreds of families like this coming out of Shaanxi. Some went to Sichuan, and some went to Jingxiang. Along the way, there were fewer and fewer people in the team.
Fan Dianyuan did not lose his head when he saw the rich people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, because he knew that the fertile land here could not accommodate them, and his descendants could only work as tenant farmers and domestic slaves for the local landlords. Where would there be land for them? He persuaded the team People here gritted their teeth and walked south, entering Fujian Road. There is a large area of mountain forest land that has not yet been developed. They will be tenant farmers for the locals for two years. By then, they will be familiar with the place and look for abandoned land. There will definitely be some. Their shelter. Only a few people in the fleeing team from northern Shaanxi believed his words and continued southward after passing Jianzhou Prefecture.
In order to come to Fujian, when Taizu decided to establish a kingdom, the Shuchuan war broke out and the two lakes were conquered. Only Fujian and Yue surrendered. Here, there have been no wars like other places for hundreds of years. Looking at the entire continent In the Song Dynasty, there has been peace here for a long time, but for these refugees, what they fear most is war, and what they long for most is such a peaceful place.
They could no longer go further south, and they saw that a large area of land here was abandoned. It was not that crops had not yet been planted, but that it was full of weeds, rocks, and no one had cultivated it for many years.
This place is their end.
Lao Cai took Zheng Ruoying with him. Cai Gang was driving a carriage to buy cattle at the market in Fengshan. The family didn't even have enough tenant farmers. Zheng Ruoying took the opportunity to see if there were any idle laborers to recruit some to cultivate sugar cane fields. Lao Cai told him not to use it if he was a local. If the locals don't even bother to cultivate their own land now, then why would they recruit such people? Do you want to eat dry food?
Normally, the cattle in this season are like treasures. Every household provides them with good grass and good feed. They are afraid that they will get sick and be unable to go to the fields and miss the farming season, let alone sell the cattle for money. But Zheng Ruoying's luck is really good. There are several farmers who plan to sell their scalpers. They go to Suzhou and Hangzhou to have a look. If the fields continue like this, there is really no one to live in. The government taxes are too tight, so I want to go there. Let’s work hard on the north side and see if we can turn around. Taking advantage of this busy spring season when cattle are needed for farming, come to the market to see if you can get a good price.
Two families had five cows. Zheng Ruoying saw this opportunity and was willing to miss it, so she negotiated the price with the two families on the street. Unexpectedly, when they were negotiating the price, an unkempt little boy suddenly ran out of the roadside. His clothes were in tatters in the winter. The little boy grabbed the hem of Zheng Ruoying's skirt. Zheng Ruoying was a yellow-flowered girl. She was so frightened that her beauty turned pale. After a closer look, she realized that she was not a thief, but a little boy.
This little boy was probably hungry, and he had never seen such a beautiful young lady from a wealthy family. Without realizing it, he suddenly walked over and grabbed Zheng Ruoying's skirt and said, "Sister Fairy." ,Hungry.."
When the little boy's parents saw this scene, they were frightened out of their wits. They didn't know the price of that glorious silk dress, but they knew that even if they sold the whole family to a kiln, they wouldn't be able to get that much. Use the money to compensate others.
As soon as Cai Gang, the servant, saw that this little kid was so ignorant and dared to act wild with his people in broad daylight, he immediately showed a loyal and protective attitude, rushed forward, pulled the little boy away, and pushed him to He stood on the ground, raised the riding whip in his hand, and said angrily: "Where did you come from, you bastard, dare to be so rude to our young lady, it will blind your dog eyes, my little family's skirt is worth a few thousand dollars, it's dirty." Can you afford to pay for the damage?" After saying this, he whipped the tall riding crop towards the child.
There was a sound of "Pa!", and a deep red blood mark immediately appeared on the little boy's face, which was originally blue from hunger. Because of the pain of eating, and being threatened by Cai Gang like this, the little boy got up from the ground and sat down. He wiped his tears on the ground and started crying. Cai Gang smelled the hand that he had just touched the little boy, and a disgusting smell hit his forehead.
Zheng Ruoying was very disgusted with Cai Gang's behavior of pretending to be powerful and taking advantage of others. When she saw that Cai Gang was about to slap the little boy a second time, she immediately stopped him and said: "Stop it! Stop it!"
The little boy's parents knelt down in front of Zheng Ruoying and his group with a bang, and kowtowed in front of Zheng Ruoying with tears and runny noses, saying: "The female Bodhisattva is so compassionate, poor baby, the baby is starving. , please stop hitting, the baby is still young, please let the baby go."
Cai Gang looked at these two ignorant parents and wanted to teach them a lesson. Zheng Ruoying couldn't bear it anymore and was about to have a fit. Lao Cai's thick and majestic voice spoke up: "Didn't you hear me tell you to stop? You When did you become so presumptuous?"
Cai Gang looked at these beggar-looking people angrily, swung his horsewhip to the side, and the whip whipped out a whip on the ground, and said: "You guys are lucky this time! My lady won't care about you. , otherwise I will send you to heaven!"
Zheng Ruoying knelt down and helped the little boy up, checked the whip marks on his body, and said distressedly: "Be good, don't cry, don't cry, sister will buy you meat buns to eat." Zheng Ruoying told Cai Gang to buy them A few meat buns, Cai Gang saw that his young lady wanted to buy food for these stinky beggars, and said anxiously: "Miss..." Lao Cai said from behind: "Go quickly, you don't have to follow me next time We came out together.”
