"Mom, I'm hungry."
"Mom, I'm hungry too."
When the woman opened the lid of her wooden pot, three children were already gathered around the stove, a half-year-old boy and two little girls.
The young man glanced at the four multigrain pancakes mixed with most of the bran in the pot, swallowed secretly, and his stomach growled twice, but he did not reach out his hand. The two little ones, regardless of whether it was hot or cold, took the pancakes that had just come out of the pan and put them in their hands, blowing on them and stuffing them into their mouths.
The woman grabbed one and handed it to the boy and said, "This is for you." The boy broke off half of it, and handed back the other half, saying, "Mom, this half is for you, and the rest is for dad."
After saying that, he took out another skinny dead mouse from his arms, handed it to his mother and said: "Mom, I caught this in the field. This beast was too hungry to run away, so I grabbed it." ”
The woman's eyes were red, and she took a piece of her son's filial piety and took it to the chopping board to wash it off. At this time, there was a noise in the yard, and a shout was heard: "Is Mr. Tian here?"
The woman looked out of the wooden window in front of the stove, curled her lips, wiped her hands on her apron, and replied: "Why did the second brother have time to come here?" After saying that, she went out with a smile on her face. Make a laugh.
The man surnamed Gou who entered the courtyard had a square face, big ears, and a shiny face. Seeing the woman coming out, he put a smile on his face and bowed his hands: "Sister-in-law, Gou Er is polite. Is Brother Tian at home?"
Sister-in-law Tian returned the gift and said with a smile: "I went out to borrow food, but I haven't come back yet."
Gou Er said with a smile: "Sister-in-law, can you still find grain in Tongmayi County now? Where can I borrow it? I still want to go."
Mrs. Tian shook her head and said nothing. Gou Er took a step closer and said, "Sister-in-law, please give me some advice. Now that you have three little ones to feed, can you still survive? The Wang family has taken a fancy to that piece of river beach land, so let me let it go."
Sister-in-law Tian shook her head and smiled bitterly: "I am my aunt, you'd better tell your elder brother about this important matter."
After hearing this, Gou Er shook his head and said: "Who in our house doesn't know that the elder sister-in-law is the head of the family! Isn't the elder brother listening to you? Even though you are a woman, you still have an arm that can run a horse, and every spit and nail!"
Mrs. Tian just shook her head after hearing this. Gou Er bent over and whispered: "Sister-in-law, listen to my advice. I just came from Mr. Wang's house, and he said he would give you 20 acres of land for free. In exchange for 60 acres of land on Dongshan, and another Give your family three hundred catties of wheat and one hundred catties of sorghum!"
"With these four hundred kilograms of grain, we can survive the famine years and slowly save for the remaining days. Now that there is no grain, how can your family survive this year?"
A look of perseverance suddenly appeared on Mrs. Tian's thin face, and she straightened her back and said, "I also plan to take the land deeds with me to escape the famine! If I can survive the winter, will there still be a drought next year? By then, the land at my house will be as big as the land on the mountain. One hundred acres!”
After hearing this, Gou Er's face drooped and he sneered: "Master Wang said, there is no food in Shanxi right now - where can you escape to?"
After speaking, he looked the woman up and down and said disdainfully: "My sister-in-law used to be so strong, but now she has only a handful of bones. Do you think you can get out of Mayi County?"
Mrs. Tian's expression turned ugly after hearing this, and the courtyard fell into silence for a while. Gou Er licked his lips and wanted to persuade him again. He heard someone outside the low wall of the yard say: "Gou Er, what are you doing at my house?"
Gou Er turned around to look, hurriedly bent down and said with his hands in his hands: "Brother is back. I have nothing to do, I just came from Squire Wang's house——"
Before he could finish his words, the owner of the Tian family who walked to the gate interrupted and said, "Don't say any more! I won't sell the land even if I starve to death! The ancestors are buried there. Who can sell the land left by the ancestors?" Let’s go!”
After hearing these decisive words, Gou Er swallowed his saliva, cupped his hands and left the Tian family. The woman looked at her man and saw that his hands were empty, and the fire of hope in her eyes flickered and then went out.
Seeing that his father was sweating profusely after leaving, the boy at home handed him a water ladle patched with thick string, and the man drank the water in the ladle in one gulp.
After taking a deep breath, he said to Sister-in-law Tian: "We are on our way!"
After hearing this, Mrs. Tian's face suddenly lit up and she asked, "What's the way?"
The man said: "I heard from my uncle's sixth brother that porridge is made in the county! Let's pack our luggage and go to the county town. Sixth brother said that the emperor's imperial envoy was watching. When the grain officer cooked the porridge, the imperial envoy put it in the pot. If the chopstick falls over, kill his head!"
After hearing this, Sister Tian glanced at her children, and said with a wry smile: "Can the court take care of us until next autumn? There was a drought last year, and all the grain reserves were used up. There is nothing left at home."
The man said: "Take it one step at a time! Eat porridge to survive first! Look at my baby's belly. It can't be pulled out after eating bran. It's so swollen! Are your legs and feet swollen? If you continue to endure it, we and the earth will not be able to survive!" "
Brother Tian's words made sense, and Sister-in-law Tian, who loved her family, could only shed tears and turned the last bit of old grain in the house into solid food. The family embarked on a journey to survive, carrying quilts and reed mats on their backs.
For thousands of years, generations of ancestors on this land have been reincarnated like this. They face the loess, endure the pain, and only seek the humble pleasure of fullness. When faced with natural or man-made disasters, they do not complain about others, but only think about struggling to survive.
...
In June of the thirteenth year of Wanli, Zhang Siwei had confirmed that most of his hometown had suffered a severe drought that had not been seen in decades.
Guangling, Naoxian and Shuoping counties are among the top three worst affected by drought in Shanxi. It is a typical drought in spring and summer, with no rain falling for more than 100 days. The land is bare for thousands of miles, and there are no wild trees. The governor of Shanxi Province Yu Zhao Shang reported: "There was no snow last winter, and no rain fell until May this year. The wheat fields were all finished, and Rao Ji's family could only live hand to mouth. Some people died in the morning and in the evening. It turns into ravines and scatters in all directions, which is impossible to control, and it is nothing more than this since the famine years have come."
Starting from the beginning of June, the Shanxi government has begun to provide porridge and grain in an all-round way, and urgently requested the court to allocate grain relief.
Although the drought in North Zhili has eased and the harvest will not be wiped out, a large-scale production reduction is inevitable. In addition, Shanxi's harvest was almost completely eliminated, which shocked both the government and the public.
Memorials and letters about the disaster in Shanxi came like a flake, and Zhang Siwei was no longer in a good mood to reach the top of the civil service. There is only one thought in his mind every day, transporting food!
There is plenty of food. Soybeans and sorghum in the Northeast are filling the treasury, and there is enough rice in the Zhili and Huguang regions in South China to support three years of famine. However, Shanxi had already released grain due to the drought last year, but it is difficult to support it at this time. If we want to avoid a civil uprising, we can only transport the grain in quickly.
Zhu Yijun has already issued an order to remove Hou Yuzhao from his post and investigate the case - the grain was released last year, but this guy did not try his best to replenish the warehouse, which finally led to a huge disaster. In Nao County, where the disaster was most severe, there had been a tragedy of "smearing corpses and cutting their flesh and eating them." This news made the face of Zhu Yijun, a time traveler, swollen, and made him even more angry.
The Three Jin Dynasties have been easy to defend and difficult to attack since ancient times. They are located on a plateau with basins in the middle. It is surrounded by mountains and rivers, with Taihang in the east and Luliang in the west. There are only a few roads connecting it with the Central Plains and the capital.
Due to a severe drought, the Shanxi section of the Yellow River has almost stopped flowing, making it difficult for large ships to sail. Relying on small boats to transport grain is not enough. What's more, the grain unloaded from Mengjin Ferry still needs to be transported to the disaster area through Taihangxing and Chiguanxing.
On one side are the mountains of grain outside the province, and on the other side are the hungry people inside the province who are waiting for food. Not to mention the sour and refreshing taste of the emperor and officials. Zhu Yijun held a court meeting and allocated millions of internal funds to induce businessmen and people from various places to transport grain to Shanxi.
The grain tax exemption is also appropriate, but it was waived last year, and the surplus grain left for the people had been used up by the turn of the summer - Sister Tian's family is a typical example. Fortunately, there has been some success in promoting sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn and other crops in recent years, otherwise the fields would have been starved to death this spring.
For a time, both the government and the public were devastated by the Shanxi disaster. The emperor sighed in the inner palace every day, worrying about how to transport grain to the Jin Dynasty. Zhang Siwei was already weak, so he was forced to work while he was sick. Within half a month, blisters appeared on his mouth.
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