New Shun 1730

In the 12th year of Taixing, 1731 AD, it arrived as promised.

Southwest of Wendeng, Pingdu Prefecture.

In the fifth year of Chongzhen in the previous dynasty, Kong Youde rebelled in Dengzhou and massacred Pingdu; in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the Qing Dynasty entered Shandong and robbed and slaughtered Pingdu...

Decades have passed, and the people who survived that year have sprouted, and the people who moved from other places have taken root here. The dead and ownerless land has been redistributed. There have also been a few years of famine in between, but it is better than the hellish days of war in the late Ming Dynasty.

Just after the New Year, there is still no snow. Many experienced old farmers look at the wheat fields that have grown prematurely in the winter of last year, and they have already figured it out.

Smart people don't tell anyone. When they are sure that their family's grain reserves can't last until autumn, they sell the land while the land price is still high and slip away.

More and more people know how to count, and the price of grain is getting higher and higher, and more and more people know how to count.

As soon as the green turns green, the wild vegetables, elm leaves, and tender willow leaves in the field have been stripped.

Everyone knows that they can eat elm money if they wait a little longer, but many people know that they may not be able to wait, so they save as much food as possible.

They also know that a tree will die without bark, and it will not grow leaves after it dies, so the elm bark that can be eaten may be stripped away.

Everyone feels that if they think that they can eat leaves for a long time without stripping the bark, and others do not want to strip the bark directly, then they will lose money.

By the beginning of April, it had not rained yet, and the bark had been stripped clean.

More people began to sell land and prepare to flee the famine.

The land price dropped from three taels per mu at the beginning to two taels per mu before it rained in April. When a hot and dry wind blew in mid-April, the land was directly cut in half and exchanged for a few buckets of grain.

The wheat was ripe in May, but it dried up before it was ripe, and there was no harvest at all.

Some people who fled from the famine in the west have already come here. It is said that Feicheng, Jinan Prefecture, and Mount Tai are also in great famine. There are so many dead people in Feicheng that there is no one to carry the bodies.

The governor of Pingdu Prefecture knew that things were going to go wrong, so he put down his official airs and personally begged the people not to flee from the famine.

If everyone fled, the population would decrease greatly, and taxes could not be collected, and the evaluation would be extremely bad.

Now those who fled from the famine were all self-cultivating farmers, who sold their land to survive the famine. If these people fled, how could they collect taxes next year? It was difficult to collect taxes from large households, and the best to collect taxes were still self-cultivating farmers. If they fled from the famine, how could this be allowed?

It was said that the court would definitely provide relief and disaster relief, but the people who fled from the famine knelt down and cried to the governor: "Even if we can only provide seven or eight buckets of relief, what will happen after we finish eating? Please, sir, give us a way out."

The governor begged the people to stay with tears, and the people also begged the governor with tears to give them a way out.

Even if they were given a way out, there was nowhere to go.

Feicheng, Jinan, and Zibo all began to experience large-scale crop failures.

The people fleeing famine were like headless flies, not knowing where to go. They only knew to follow the crowd and go wherever people went.

Those who had land sold their land and saved money to flee famine.

Those who had no land had long been out of food. They had to rely on wild vegetables and leaves to survive the lean season, but this year they had eaten all the bark early.

In May, the wheat harvest failed, and there was nothing to eat. Where could they flee?

The first people to flee famine were still self-employed farmers, who could at least exchange some silver and survive to a place where famine was not severe.

Those who fled famine later had nowhere to go. Fleeing famine meant death, and staying at home meant death.

Changping Warehouse began to provide disaster relief and sell affordable grain, but there was not much grain in the warehouse.

The grain released every day was not much, and there was not much grain left in the warehouse. Each person was limited to purchase a daily quota to try to keep the price as affordable as possible, one penny of silver for one bushel.

However, Changping Warehouse was in the prefecture and county, so what about the nearby villages?

Pingdu Prefecture, Renzhao.

Eighteen-year-old Zhang Dadun lay on the wooden board, gasping for breath.

His mother, who was lying next to him, was swollen all over, and her legs had begun to fester. Green-headed flies were buzzing around the yellow water flowing out of the swollen wounds on her legs.

Zhang Dadun wanted to reach out and wave his hands, but his mother said in a weak voice that was about to die: "Big brother, save your energy."

His younger brother Erdun had a big belly from hunger, like a bean sprout, curled up on the ground to bask in the sun, and only hated why he was not a bean sprout, and he could be full by basking in the sun.

There was a stench of corpses outside the door, and from time to time there was a loud bang, and I didn't know whose dead body exploded.

I heard it a lot these days, and I think this sound is quite nice, at least there is some movement, knowing that I am still alive.

The dog was long gone, eaten up. The tree was stripped of its bark and dried to death, and the cicadas were too lazy to call. The explosion of this corpse was just a firecracker for its own funeral.

It didn't rain in May, and the summer crops dried up soon after. Now it's June, and it finally rained a few days ago, but it was too late.

Zhang Dadun has eight brothers and sisters, five of whom didn't live to the age of six, and a younger brother just starved to death a few days ago. His father also starved to death, and now there are only three people left in the family.

There was a sound of footsteps outside the door, and Zhang Dadun was too lazy to turn over to see who it was, saving as much energy as possible.

"Auntie, my father is gone. Brother Dadun, my father is dead, my sister and I can't lift him, you and Erdun help lift him."

A young man who was so weak that he needed to stand against the wall shouted into the house. Although he was shouting, he was not as loud as a normal person talking.

Zhang Dadun's mother gave a weak hum and said: "Dadun, Erdun, go and go to Third Uncle Xen's house. You can't let it stink in the house. There is still some bran noodles in the vat, shake it off. , Huzi and Dani will have lunch there, and Huzi didn’t even mention making a meal when he came..."

Even though he was so hungry, he still thought about the most basic etiquette. He always thought that if his nephew came, even a leaf would be regarded as a treat.

Zhang Dadun held on to the wall, stood up with all his strength, and moved to the tank. The bottom had already reached the bottom.

After digging for a long time, I got half a bowl of bran, and we went to the third uncle's house with the bowl in hand.

The man on the mat was already hard.

There was also a ten-year-old girl whose legs were swollen and round. She didn't cry. When her cousins ​​arrived, she tried her best to smile next to her father's body.

Zhang Dadun put the half bowl of bran on the stove.

"Dani, first go get some leaves, mix this bran with it, and steam some dumplings. Otherwise, four people won't be able to lift it."

"Why."

The little girl staggered outside and came back after more than an hour, holding a handful of messy grass. On top were a few shepherd's purses, like a crown.

Using the mucilage from these vegetable leaves, the half bowl of bran was rolled into ten egg-sized dumplings. Four people ate eight of them and left two of them stuffed with shepherd's purse for Zhang Dadun's mother.

After eating this meal, he seemed to have some strength. He walked up to the dead man who was already erect, rolled up the mat, and found a rope to tie it up.

The seven-foot-tall man was so hungry that he only had less than a hundred kilograms left after he died. However, the four people carried him out of the house staggeringly.

When I arrived outside the village, I didn't have the energy to dig a hole, so I dug out some soil and filled it on the mat. He knelt down and kowtowed again. As soon as he kowtowed, the strength he had to stand up suddenly disappeared. The four of them didn't stand up for a long time, just breathing hard.

Zhang Dadun touched the two nests in his arms, thinking that his mother was still hungry at home, he grabbed an old vine next to him and stood up.

Dong dong dong...

Just as he stood up, a burst of gongs and drums came from the village, accompanied by shouts with local accents.

"Recruiting! Recruiting! Is there anyone alive in the village? Recruiting, recruiting! Eat the royal food! Those who can breathe and walk, come to the entrance of the village! Priority will be given to those who are dead at home."

Dong dong dong...

The sound of drums and gongs was so noisy. When Zhang Dadun heard the word "grain", his legs suddenly felt strong, but he couldn't care less about the sentence "Everyone in the family should give priority to death."

Thinking about joining the army, how can I support my brother and my mother without stuttering for a month? With the strength born in my heart, I moved home step by step.

"Mother! Mother! We are recruiting troops. We will starve to death."

After shouting twice, there was no response. When I looked around the room again, I saw flies all over the room.

Zhang Dadun knelt on the ground with a bang and tried his best to blow away the flies all over his body without crying.

He just silently took out a nest, broke half of it and stuffed it into his mother's mouth.

He kowtowed three times to his dead mother and asked just one question.

"Mom, why don't you hold on a little longer?"

"Mom, I'm going to serve as a soldier first and eat my rations. I'll be here to carry you later."

After saying that, he kowtowed again, trying in vain to fight away the pile of blowflies for the last time, and then turned around and left the house without waiting for the flies to fall again.

When he arrived at his third uncle's house, his cousin Zhang Hu shook his head without waiting for him to speak.

"Brother Dadun, go ahead. I won't go. If I go, my sister will be finished."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Dadun called his younger brother over, put the half nest into the hands of his second brother and cousin, and pulled Zhang Hu out.

"That's Er Dun's sister too. Let's go to serve as soldiers and leave them at home. We'll go there to eat some food first, and when we have the strength, we'll come back and bury my mother."

Dead people are already a very common thing. Since they directly say buried, they are already dead.

The two wandered to the entrance of the village and saw dozens of strong men holding guns and several large pots, cooking porridge there.

Zhang Dadun didn't have much knowledge, but he knew that a soldier would have to be sixteen or seventeen. However, behind him, there were seven- or eight-year-old children squatting on the ground drinking porridge, and even a girl.

A possibility suddenly came to mind. Could it be that they were recruiting soldiers and prostitutes, or that the madams were also following these military masters? It would be nice if I could give him some food when he left as a soldier. Giving it to his second brother and cousin might help him survive.

If you don't provide food...then just be a ni, they say you laugh at the poor but don't laugh at the prostitutes. Even if you are a prostitute, if you die in the future, at least you are alive now, right?

Thinking of this, I told my cousin.

However, as soon as he finished speaking, his cousin, who was so hungry that he was shaking when he walked, suddenly got the strength from nowhere and slapped him in the face.

"What a beep!"

Zhang Dadun was already so hungry that when he slapped him, his vision suddenly went dark. He subconsciously grabbed his cousin's neck, hugged him and threw them to the ground.

The two of them were so hungry that they didn't even have the energy to roll around. The two soldiers lifted them apart like chickens and cursed: "What are you doing? Come here to fight? It seems you are not hungry after all." , this still has the energy to fight!”

After they separated, a young man wearing a strange military uniform with tassels on the shoulders came over. Without asking about the reason for the fight, he first asked Zhang Dadun: "What's your name?"

"Zhang Dadun."

"How old are you?"

"eighteen."

"Who else is at home?"

Subconsciously touching the slap on his face, smelling the aroma of rice cooking next to him, he hesitated a little and said: "There are two younger brothers and a younger sister. The others are all starved to death."

Zhang Hu, who was standing by, heard this and shouted: "Fuck you, you only have one younger brother, where is the younger sister? General, General, don't listen to his nonsense, he only has one younger brother."