Yue Guanchao and Da Ma Jindao sat down in the high-backed chair and said calmly: "Well, go and help your old acquaintance do something!"
When the old man heard his nephew talking like this, a trace of surprise flashed in his sharp eyes: "You know everything~"
"This place is not the place to talk. I'll take you to my yard. We have to have a good chat. It just so happens that I also have to ask you something."
"It's done~"
Yue Guanchao knew that there were too many people in the study room outside his house, so he had no choice but to take his second uncle back to the courtyard where he lived.
When the door of the room closed with a bang, he took a long breath and asked curiously: "Second uncle, are you and Mrs. Zhang an old acquaintance?"
After this incident, Yue Guanchao felt that there was no need to hide the truth from Yue Erpao and Song Siyuan, and did not go behind their backs. Seeing three pairs of bright eyes casting curious glances, Lao Yuetou sighed: "Well, we are not just old acquaintances. She is still your second uncle’s old employer.”
"Old club?"
"Second uncle, you have to explain this carefully. What is going on?"
Yue Guanchao knew that his second uncle had done something to do with hair before he went to Wu Coffin Town. After he came back, he learned that Zhen Shenfeng deliberately set up the trap. He had long wanted to ask his second uncle what grudges he had with Tang Dianrong to entangle them. On these juniors.
"Do you know Dingwu Qihuang?"
Yue Qingshan thought about it several times in his mind. Since his old friend showed up again after so many years, the past events must have been burned out. Since he couldn't hide it anymore, he simply revealed it and said it openly.
"Even though it's been fifty or sixty years, I still shudder when I think about your second uncle. You can't even think about the natural and man-made disasters in that era."
Lao Yuetou picked up the fire seal again, stroked his huanghuali pipe, lit the tobacco and looked into the distance, his frown gradually relaxed, and he recounted his past experiences.
In the first year of Emperor Xu, the power of the Taiping Kingdom was about to be exhausted. The remnants of the Heavenly Kings were completely eliminated. The Westernization Movement was in full swing and was very effective. Emperor Xu, who was only four years old, ascended the throne for the first time. Zuo Gong, who was over sixty years old, was officially ordered to go out to conquer distant frontiers...
This year, the entire empire seemed to give people a renewed and prosperous feeling. However, the calm years on the surface could not stop the undercurrent. Only a few months later, the world suddenly changed - a drought broke out in Zhili, the capital!
Man-made disasters are easy to avoid and natural disasters are ruthless. What the people fear most is the floods and droughts that make them homeless. Once floods and fires invade their homes, they will have to flee with their families.
The previous government originally thought that the drought was only localized in the Gyeonggi region, and only set up porridge shacks and food stalls in the capital area to provide disaster relief. However, they did not expect that the north had long been shrouded in the haze of drought. In just a few months, Lu, Zhongyuan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi-Gansu successively A more severe drought broke out, and then the drought quickly devastated the entire north like a prairie fire.
At this point, this catastrophic disaster that lasted for four years and affected the entire north officially kicked off.
Wherever the drought reaches, locusts will inevitably cause chaos. From the north to the south of Jincheng, locusts are like dark clouds covering the sun and devouring field seedlings. Whenever locusts pass through, the ground will be bare for thousands of miles, and food will be cut off. When people have no food to eat, they will be piled up like mountains of bones.
There is a saying that after a major disaster, there will be a major epidemic. After the locusts pass through, the fermented and rotten corpses of no owners are piled up on the roadside. Too many corpses cannot be buried and burned, which eventually leads to a more serious source of plague. The epidemic begins to run rampant among the victims. .
The disaster here, let alone how many people died and how many livelihoods were ruined, let’s get back to the story and return to Lao Yuetou.
Old Yuetou was not originally called Yue Qingshan. This was the ancestral name he changed after entering the Yue family ancestral hall. His real name was Yu De'an, who was a clerk in the former Jiangning Mansion responsible for transporting official grain and dredging rivers.
This group of people were responsible for official errands and ate official food. They only focused on water transportation. Occasionally they heard the news that people in the north were dying of hunger, and they did not make any comments. They only lamented their good fortune when they gathered together to make fun of them, and they made a fortune. With iron errands, I will be satisfied if I can not panic in the years of disaster and not be hungry in the years of famine.
In his opinion, Jiangning is far away from the capital city and separated by rivers. The drought in the north will not affect the south at all. However, there are no intact eggs under the overturned nest and the world is in turmoil. How can anyone be immune to this situation alone?
After the north could no longer accommodate the refugees, the previous government naturally had to evacuate the victims. As soon as an official document was issued, tens of millions of people in the north began to beg according to the order. They either went north to seek livelihood, or went south to the Jianghuai River to eat.
Jiangning, as a prosperous place in the south, became the destination for disaster victims to go south to eat. For a time, tens of thousands of victims flocked to Jiangning Mansion.
These victims did not originally belong to Jiangning City, and their sudden entry into the city would inevitably cause dissatisfaction among the local people. Unkempt victims could be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys of the city. Their arrival not only made the price of grain and rice several times more expensive, but also took away the work that originally belonged to the people of Jiangning.
The laborers on the water transport to the Haihe River were willing to work only if they had to pay at least ten copper coins a day. When these people came, they only needed five copper coins a day to survive. In the end, they even only needed to eat a meal, and they didn't even need a fortune.
As a result, the owners of the wharf and water transport are all money-loving people. How can these people be willing to hire local people? They wish that the more victims of the disaster, the better, so that they can also make money from the national crisis.
These people who are willing to work hard to survive are considered to be on the right path, and those who are not on the right path pick up broken bowls and become beggars in Jiangning City!
At first, these victims were willing to ask for money and food, but then they became more courageous. Whenever they saw someone dressed in rich clothes, they would go up and beg.
If you don't give it, hey, then we have to do it ourselves!
