I

"In the summer of the first year of Chongzhen, there was a drought in Jifu, and thousands of miles of red land." - "History of Ming Dynasty Five Elements".

...

These days, the people's life is not easy.

Since the last year of Wanli, in less than 20 years, floods, droughts and locust disasters have occurred frequently, and the people of Shengdou have suffered unspeakably.

Even the most benevolent place in the capital is not spared.

In the first year of Apocalypse, the new emperor ascended the throne, and locusts filled the sky in Gyeonggi.

In the first year of Chongzhen, the new emperor ascended the throne, and Gyeonggi was thousands of miles away.

In the cracked and barren fields, a group of hungry people are wandering, lifeless like walking dead.

Grass seedlings have withered long ago, weeds can no longer live, the bark has been stripped clean, and if you want to eat clods, you have to find water to swallow them.

Zhao Shilang and his whole family mingled among the fleeing teams, staggering forward in a daze.

Last year, my mother died of illness.

This year, the eldest son died of illness and starvation.

Just a few days ago, the family was blessed by the heavens and found a large piece of foxtail by the river.

Cook porridge with grass seeds, save some to eat, and eat it for two days.

The whole family cherishes the second son, Zhao Han, and eats the most grass seed porridge, but because of this bad thing, Zhao Han hasn't pooped for several days. Grass seeds are hardened in the abdomen, unable to be pulled out, just waiting to die.

In the evening, the whole family slept in the wilderness.

Zhao Shilang took his eldest daughter, Zhao Zhenlan, to pick up weeds and dead branches nearby to make a fire. His wife, Zhao Chenshi, and his second daughter, Zhao Zhenfang, continued to help his son Zhao Han excrete.

"Han'er, use more strength!" Zhao Chen held a branch and carefully poked at his son's anus.

Zhao Han took off his trousers and squatted on the ground, grasping the dead grass with both hands, exerting all his strength, and crying, "Mom, the baby can't be pulled out."

"Soon, soon." Zhao Chen said with tears, his son's anus was already bleeding.

After a long while, Zhao Han only heard a cry of pain, and then fainted directly on the spot.

Zhao Chen said happily: "Hey, he's out, hey, he's out!"

The whole family had no food left, so they could only cook some half-dead grass roots and drink them with hot water to satisfy their hunger.

It is the grass roots, which can only be dug with good luck, and the family members are all swollen from malnutrition.

The condition of his house is not bad, just edema. Some hungry people have been hungry for too long, not only the fat is exhausted, but even the muscles have shrunk, and the skin and bones look like mummies.

At night, the stars are shining.

Zhao Shilang was dressed in a shabby cotton garment, looked up at the starry sky, and muttered to himself: "The brilliant Ming Dynasty, the mountains and rivers fade away, the demon atmosphere is full of demons, and the country will not be a country. What can I do for it? What can I do for it!"

Zhao Shilang is indeed a Confucian scholar, and his ancestors have been Confucian scholars for generations, because the household registration of Zhao's family is Confucian (just like business registration, it is a branch of civil registration).

More than ten years ago, Zhao's family was fairly well off.

But he spent a lot of money on imperial examinations, and his family business has long since declined. In recent years, there have been successive natural disasters. Last year, Zhao's mother was seriously ill and borrowed usury to treat her illness. In the end, the people were gone, and the debts could not be repaid, so they had to sell the land to pay off the debts.

At the beginning, you can borrow money from your clansmen and friends, but who can stand it after a long time? In the eyes of relatives and friends, Zhao Shilang is like a plague god, and everyone can't avoid it.

Another day later, the fleeing team came to Tianjin, facing the city wall across the canal.

By the riverside, officials and gentry set up porridge sheds to help the people, and Zhao Shilang's family lined up to wait for porridge.

However, when there were only hundreds of people serving porridge, a small official shouted: "Today's porridge is exhausted, come back tomorrow."

Near the porridge shed, there was a loud cry, and some hungry people came forward to pester them, and were beaten to death by the officials.

Thousands of miles away in the northern Zhili, more than 100,000 hungry people gathered in Beijing and Tongzhou.

Even if the imperial court wanted to provide relief to the people, it would not be Tianjin's turn. The porridge was given to hundreds of people every day just for show, and the little relief funds had long been embezzled.

Suddenly, a group of fresh clothes came on angry horses, and the leader shouted: "My master accepts adopted daughters, who are over twelve years old and under sixteen years old, and those with good looks are worth half a meter!"

The hungry people with daughters stepped forward to inquire, and then took their daughters to jump into the dry and shallow canal to wash their faces.

Zhao Zhenlan, who was fourteen years old, said to her parents: "Father, mother, sell your daughter. Save some food, half a bucket of rice can last for several days."

Zhao Shilang and Zhao Chenshi buried their heads in silence.

Zhao Zhenlan squeezed out a smile: "Anyway, it's death. If you sell your daughter to a rich family, you can live as a maid."

Mrs. Zhao Chen sighed, "Lan'er, what kind of rich man is this? He's clearly a tooth dealer who buys and sells women."

Zhao Shilang gritted his teeth and said: "My Zhao family has been innocent for generations, but the whole family starved to death..."

"Father, the eldest brother is gone, and the second brother cannot die. The Zhao family still wants him to pass on incense," Zhao Zhenlan pleaded, "Father, mother, you should leave a way for my daughter to survive, and my daughter doesn't want to starve to death."

Zhao Shilang turned his head to look at Zhao Han. His son was in a coma and had a high fever. If he didn't eat, he would definitely die.

After being speechless for a long time, Zhao Shilang turned around and looked at the sky, closed his eyes and shed two lines of dirty tears, and waved: "Go."

With tears in her eyes, Zhao Chen took her daughter's hand and said in a crying voice, "Lan'er, mother will wash and wash for you."

The youngest daughter, Zhao Zhenfang, who is only six years old, watched all this silently, seeming to understand everything, but also seemed to understand nothing.

The North Canal was too dry for boating, so the mother and daughter slipped into the river carefully, and the river water washed Zhao Zhenlan's face, delicate and lovely, but her cheeks were slightly sunken.

But I heard the toothbrush growl: "I won't accept it, I won't accept it, the adopted daughter has been collected."

Mrs. Zhao Chen suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, and finally did not have to sell her daughter, but thinking about the lack of food for the whole family, she immediately fell into grief and distress.

Zhao Zhenlan stepped forward and said to the dentist, "I can read."

Hearing this, the tooth dealer immediately turned around, stared at Zhao Zhenlan for a while, nodded and said, "She's really a beauty."

Zhao Zhenlan said again: "My father is a scholar, and someone in my ancestors was an official."

"It's still from a scholarly family." The dentist cheered up.

Zhao Zhenlan said, "I'm worth three buckets of rice."

"Hey, three buckets of rice? These days, even Miss Officials are worth one bucket at most." The clerk threw out two bags of rice, both of which were small bags that could hold half a bucket. One bag of rice weighed about five or six catties. .

Zhao Zhenlan didn't bargain any more, she untied the rope that tied the bag, revealing the yellow-brown old rice, and said to her mother with a smile: "Mother, my daughter is gone, you and Daddy have to take care."

"Lan'er, you have to take care too." Zhao Chenshi said while wiping away tears.

The dentists left with the girl, and Mrs. Zhao Chen dragged two bags of rice to see her husband.

Six-year-old Zhao Zhenfang realized what she was doing and cried, "Sister, sister, I want a sister!"

With Qi Rong on her face, Zhao Chen comforted her little daughter and said, "Fang'er, don't cry, my sister has gone to live a good life, and my sister has gone to live a good life."

"I want my sister, I want my sister!" Zhao Zhenfang was still crying.

Zhao Shilang looked at the two bags of rice on the ground, and then at the crying little daughter. He couldn't help feeling sad, and squatted on the ground sobbing bitterly.

Suddenly, Mrs. Zhao Chen pulled out a rusted kitchen knife and roared viciously like an old hen guarding her cubs: "What are you going to do? Get out, get out!"

But a group of hungry people, coveting their two bags of rice, are stalking them.

Other hungry people who sell their girls for rice, if they have no family to protect them, are often surrounded by hungry people nearby. When you are really hungry, you can even eat people, not to mention killing people and grabbing rice.

Zhao Shilang ignored his grief, picked up his walking stick, and tried to save the family's life-saving food.

"Da da, da da da..."

There was a sound of hoofbeats, from far to near, all the riders were armed.

More than 20,000 hungry people stood there in a daze, and the horse team rushed to them quickly. One of them frowned and asked, "Didn't you say that you want to give out porridge today?"

No one answered.

The man got off his horse, grabbed a hungry man and asked, "Where is the gruel?"

The hungry people replied in horror: "It's over."

"Damn it, it's not even noon yet, how could it be over? You're fooling a ghost!" The man was furious.

Another horse rider said: "Brother, let's not take a trip in vain to see if there is any oil on Kuhaha's body."

These guys are horse bandits. When they heard that porridge was being given out outside Tianjin, they immediately rode to grab food.

They didn't dare to enter Tianjin City, but they had the guts to grab food outside the city. Anyway, the soldiers stationed in Tianjin were also poor soldiers.

"What's the taste?"

"Someone is cooking porridge over there!"

Several horse bandits rushed over upon hearing the words, and snatched the food that the hungry people had obtained by selling their daughters. The hungry people wanted to resist, but were hacked to death by the horse bandits one after another.

Another horse bandit shouted: "Whoever still has food, hand it over!"

"Run!"

Blood was seen on the murder, and the hungry people nearby fled in panic.

Those who are far away don't know what happened, anyway, it's right to run away together. In less than a moment, fear spread rapidly, and more than 20,000 hungry people fled in a panic.

Horse bandits stare at people with bags on their bodies, no matter what is in them, they will grab them first anyway.

Zhao Shilang carried his comatose and feverish son on his back, picked up a bag of rice himself, asked his wife to take a bag of rice, and protected his daughter and ran away in panic.

"what!"

His wife's screams came from behind him, and Zhao Shilang hurriedly turned his head to look.

But he saw that Mrs. Zhao Chen had been stabbed and fell to the ground, and the food was also robbed by the horse bandits. His eyes were tearing apart, he put down his son, his eyes were red and he said: "Evil thief, I will fight with you!"

Zhao Chen yelled in pain: "The head of the family, leave me alone, run away, run away!"

Two legs can't run with four legs, Zhao Shilang knew it was inevitable, he grabbed the stick and rushed back: "Evil thief, take your life!"

The horse bandit sneered and kicked Zhao Shilang down.

Zhao Shilang struggled to get up, the horse bandit slashed down with a knife, and then made a few more stabs as if to vent his anger, Zhao Shilang fell into a pool of blood and did not move.

"Daddy, Daddy!"

Zhao Zhenfang rushed over and shook her father's body vigorously.

"It's very noisy." The horse bandit raised his knife and wanted to chop.

Another horse bandit stopped him and said, "Old Seven, that's enough, the little girl is also killed? It's important to grab things."

The horse bandit then withdrew his knife, grabbed two bags of rice, tied them to the horse and continued to kill and rob.

In a blink of an eye, more than 20,000 hungry people fled, leaving only hundreds of corpses.

Some were killed by horse bandits, and more died of trampling on each other. There are also some hungry people who are dying of hunger and really have no strength to escape, so they just lie there and wait to starve to death.

In the north of Tianjin City, there is a temporary wooden bridge.

The officers and soldiers guarding the bridge witnessed all this, but no one came to rescue them.

Not only that, but they raised their swords and killed any hungry people who tried to cross the bridge. No matter the hungry people or the horse bandits, it is a big problem for Tianjin!

Zhao Zhenfang's voice was hoarse from crying, but her parents still didn't respond. She knew that her father and mother were asleep. A month ago, her elder brother also fell asleep and did not wake up.

The little girl panicked from hunger and stood there blankly.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Zhenfang walked towards the nearby corpses. There was a fire that hadn't been extinguished, there was porridge in the broken earthen pot, and some rice grains were scattered on the ground.

Carefully plan the blood-stained rice grains into the crock. Following her mother's example, Zhao Zhenfang collected water from a few earthen pots, knelt there and waited for the porridge to be cooked.

She didn't know if it was cooked or not, Zhao Zhenfang couldn't bear it anymore, she sobbed with tears, swallowed, and lifted the earthen pot out of the fire with her hands.

"what!"

The little girl's hands were scalded with blisters, but she reluctantly threw away the crock pot, but carefully placed it on the ground.

Then, she stood there in a daze, turned around and looked at her parents, and stood there stupidly until the porridge was cold.

Suddenly, Zhao Zhenfang picked up the earthen pot, came to her parents, shook her father's body and said, "Daddy, don't sleep. Get up and drink porridge, you won't be hungry after drinking porridge."

Father didn't respond.

She went to shake her mother's body again: "Mother, drink porridge, and you won't be hungry after drinking porridge. Mother, get up and drink porridge... woo woo, wah wah wah..."

A great wave of fear came over me, and the little girl began to cry.

Gradually, I was tired from crying and had no strength.

"Water, water, I'm so thirsty..."

The little girl turned her head to look, but it was Zhao Han who was struggling to speak. She wiped away her tears and rushed over happily: "Second brother, second brother, get up and drink porridge!"