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Volume 1 Sleepy Shoals 001¡¾First Year of Chongzhen¡¿

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    "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 life of the common people 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 immune.

    In the first year of Tianqi, 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 the capital 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 mixed 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 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 in his hand and carefully poked at his son's anus.

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

    "Come on, come on." Zhao Chen said with tears, her son's anus had been poked and 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.

    Even the grass roots, you have to be lucky to dig them up. The family members are all swollen from malnutrition.

    The condition of his family is not bad, it's just swollen.  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 brightly.

    Zhao Shilang was dressed in a shabby cotton garment, looked up at the starry sky, and murmured to himself: "The brilliant Ming Dynasty, the mountains and rivers are eclipsed, 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 the Zhao family is Confucian registration (like business registration, it is a branch of civil registration).

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

    However, 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 still borrow money from your tribe and friends, but who can bear 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, some officials 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. Every day, hundreds of people were given porridge for a show, and the little relief funds had long been embezzled.

    Suddenly, a group of fresh clothes and angry horses came, and the leader shouted: "My lord accepts adopted daughters, who are over 12 years old and under 16 years old, and those with good looks are worth half a meter!"

    Hungry people with daughters came forward to inquire one after another, and then took their daughters to jump into the dry and shallow canal to wash their faces.

    At the age of fourteen, Zhao Zhenlan 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: "It's dead anyway, if you sell your daughter to a rich family, you can live as a maid."

    Mrs. Zhao Chen sighed: "Lan'er, this is not a rich man, he is 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"

    &nbspHe asked his wife to take a bag of rice, and protected her daughter and ran away in panic.

    "ah!"

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

    However, it was seen 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 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 Qi, enough is enough, the little girl is also killed? The important thing is 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 corpse.  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.

    I don't know if it's cooked or not, Zhao Zhenfang couldn't bear it anymore, she sobbed with tears, swallowed her saliva, and took the earthen pot out of the fire with her hands.

    "ah!"

    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 did not respond.

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

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

    Gradually, I became tired from crying and lost 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! ?
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