Chapter 434 It’s already the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, why are there still people without food? (Please book, please vote)
In the autumn of the fourth year of the Jiayin calendar year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the autumn harvest was almost here. However, the Yongzhou prefecture in Hunan, which was the first to divide the fields and was supposed to be joyful, was filled with signs of decline and depression everywhere.
Everything looks like eggplants beaten by frost.
Outside Shuangpai Town, a group of farmers looked like wood carvings and clay sculptures, staring straight at the cracked land so dry that you could insert your fingers into it, and the half-dead rice in the field, with their heads hanging down.
It turned red and I wanted to cry. My tears were almost evaporated in this severe drought. What I muttered in my mouth was not only filled with despair, but also full of doubts about the Father, Emperor Hao.
"It's over, it's over, there hasn't been a drop of rain since July, and the rice in our fields has almost turned into withered grass. What should we do?"
"What else can we do? We pray to God for rain. Is it possible that we can even pull God down and water it?"
"But I have been praying for almost a month. I heard that after His Highness Nan Wang came back from Tianjing, he set up a posture in Hengyang Prince's Mansion to pray for rain. First he chanted to Heavenly Father, but there was no response; then he turned to Brother Tian to pray for rain.
No matter how hard you beg, hey, it’s still useless; in the end, I even begged the Holy Mother, but it’s a pity that it’s useless!”
"How can we do this? The rain can't come, and the autumn harvest is almost here. The rice in the fields has been dry for two months. If we irrigate the fields, we might be able to get some harvest, but what we have on hand
, it’s all dry land, as dry as our fate!”
"How much grain can be harvested from irrigating the ground? After paying the share of the harvested grain to His Highness the Southern King, how much money can we still make? We can't even fill the gap between our teeth!"
As soon as the matter of receiving the king's food was mentioned, a layer of misery, sorrow, and hidden things immediately appeared on everyone's dark, thin, and drained faces.
The fear was like seeing a ghost.
"Yang Laobai, the head of Huangyang Village and the vice-president of the Shuangpai Town Farmers' Association, is not a fuel-saving lamp! When he worked as a tenant for Huang Shiba in his early years, he was the most troublesome and rented frequently.
After stalling and refusing to pay, he was caught by Mr. Huang from Etang Town, dragged to the ancestral hall and beaten to a pulp, and his butt was beaten to a pulp, but he remained silent, like the Liangshan hero.
He seemed so tough! Later, when the Taiping Army came to Shuangpai Town, he and a bunch of like-minded second-rate guys picked up the guy and smashed it into Mr. Huang's mansion in Shuangpai Town. The battle was even scarier than when the Nian Beast entered the village. And later on
, I don’t know what kind of bullshit luck I had, I participated in the lecturer’s class, and when I returned to Shuangpai Town, I started to divide the land. The method was so dark that I couldn’t even see my fingers!”
"Earlier, like us, he was so poor that he couldn't even afford a warm meal. The two of them went to Lingling and Daozhou to beg for food, like a gang of beggars. Now it's good, the salted fish has turned around, but it's not like that
He doesn't recognize anyone, and when he collects the king's food, he is even more ruthless than the King of Hell. Compared with him, Huang Shiba is considered a great virtuous person."
"Nowadays, all the heads in every town and village have the same moral character. Each one is more vicious than the other when it comes to putting away the royal grain. There is no room for negotiation at all. Anyone who dares to default on even a small amount of arrears will be beaten up and even dragged away.
Working hard to pay off debts is much more cruel than Mr. Huang in the past. At most, Mr. Huang could just scold him and give him a beating, but he would just let it go. It would be better for them to just punish him to death!"
Speaking of Yang Laobai, the head of Huangyang Village, everyone shook their heads and sighed, like a quail beaten by frost. This Yang Laobai was originally a poor man from Huangyang Village near Shuangpai Town. He had no brute strength to farm? He
Wherever he planted the land, grass grew more prosperously than rice. He didn’t understand what it meant to be diligent and thrifty. The few acres of thin farmland passed down to him by his ancestors were all gone within a few years. In the end, he had no choice but to rent a house.
After a few years of farming in Shuangpai Town, Huang Shiren, the 18th-century master, succeeded in transforming himself from a poor tenant farmer into a starving candidate with a lot of debt and who couldn't even become a tenant farmer.
After he successfully entered the death process of "from begging for food to gradually starving to death" and ran to Etang Town to beg for food, hey, the Taiping Army came and really saved him.
Then, Yang Laobai, who returned to Huangyang Village from Etang Town, suddenly woke up as if he had been opened up to the Ren and Du lines. He took several fellow sufferers and ran to Shuangpai Town to rebel against Mr. Huang Shijie and Huang Master.
Da Zhai killed him, and when he returned to Huangyang Village from Shuangpai Town, he was already a Taiping Army soldier wearing a red robe and red scarf.
Later, Yang Laobai did not leave Yongzhou with the large army, but became the village chief in his hometown. By collecting the king's grain and leading the people to go out to help the Nanwang in the war, he also won the vice-chairman of the Shuangpai Town Farmers' Association.
I have been working part-time for a long time, and now I feel windy when I walk.
When everyone was talking to each other and getting very angry, hey, two figures were walking slowly on the field path. Look at the red robe and red scarf, they were very conspicuous. The one walking in front had eyes.
When I stared, I saw a large group of farmers gathering together to chat.
He dropped all his work and shouted at the top of his lungs: "The higher-ups have told you to dig wells to get water to fight the drought, so why are you still lazing around here? If you continue like this, the rice will turn into withered grass.
How can I hand over the king's food and drink the northwest wind?"
The person who came was none other than Yang Laobai, the village chief of Huangyang Village and the vice-president of the Shuangpai Town Farmers' Association. Following him was his cousin Yang San. In Huangyang Village, they were the "only ones."
"Two" is currently on active duty in the township Taiping Army and is busy with things at hand. Yang San is also the captain of the village militia.
The two brothers were in charge of more than a dozen militiamen surnamed Yang. They were equipped with swords, spears, shotguns and other weapons, which were second to none in Huangyang Village. All matters in the village were basically under their control.
The farmers who were chatting together at the head of the field suddenly saw the two of them and subconsciously shrank their necks back, like frightened quails. No one dared to raise their eyes and look directly at them.
But how could Yang Laobai easily let go of these farmers who were "not doing their jobs properly"? He strode to a farmer squatting on the ground. The farmer's face was sallow and his eyes were dull, like an eggplant beaten by frost. Yang Laobai said nothing.
Said, he raised his foot and gave him a flying kick, and kept muttering: "Huang Shiba, you are a bastard, dishonest
Work hard, why are you fooling around here? You are trying to confuse people with your lies, right? Look at you, you didn’t even turn in last year’s royal grain, even if the villagers were kind enough to help you, no one can save you this year.
You lazy guy. If you can't pay the food again, believe it or not, I will pack up your whole family and send them to Yongzhou Mansion to work as hard labor in building the city wall. It will be easier for your family than yours!"
This Huang Shiba, whose name is Shiren, is Huang Shijie's cousin. He used to be a landlord in Huangyang Village. However, he is not a bully. He is quite decent and popular on weekdays, so Huangyang Village changes its future.
It didn't embarrass him too much, it just divided his family's land and wealth, causing him to fall from the clouds and become an ordinary farmer.
But he was not born to be a farmer. The past two years have been miserable. The first two years were good, and everyone just got the land, so they were full of energy. Most of the farmers in the village had a surplus of food. Look at him.
I used to be a "Huang Dashan" after all. I couldn't bear to see his family hungry, so I stretched out my hand to give him a hand.
But who could have expected that in this unlucky year, everyone would be like a Bodhisattva when crossing the river - they themselves could not protect themselves...
"Wow!" Huang Shiba thought about the fact that the whole family was about to be so hungry that his chest was pressed against his back. His heart felt like being scratched by a cat's paws, and he was in pain. This grievance came to his head, and he burst into tears and runny nose.
They all came down and cried so loudly that the whole world was shaken.
Next to Huang Shiba, squatting was a young man about the same age as him. He also looked like an unruly master with no formal appearance. He was also a street kid, but he was not as strong as an ox like Yang Laobai.
But he is as dark and thin as a firewood stick
It seems like this. This man's surname is Ding, and his given name is Ding Fei. He is a distant relative of Huang Shibaba. He used to help the old Huang family to manage the labor and keep accounts, and his life was pretty good. Who would have thought that Huang Yang
Once the village changes, he also
Afterwards, he became extremely unlucky and became a farmer. However, this Ding Fei's character was not bad and he was very righteous! Seeing Huang Shiba being bullied, he suddenly stood up, blocked Huang Shiba behind him, and rushed towards Mr. Yang.
Bai shouted: "I said Village Chief Yang,
Don't go too far! Huang Shiba didn't kill you back then, right? Besides, now that the world is like the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, how can you still let people starve? King Nan has spoken out and wants to have land.
Farm together and eat together!"
When Yang Laobai heard this, he twitched the corner of his mouth and sneered. His voice was so cold that it would make ice fall on his face: "Huh, we still have fields to farm with, and we have food to eat together? How long ago did this happen! The surname is Ding.
, you’d better take a look at yourself first! Didn’t you shamelessly ask someone to borrow the Wang Liang last year? What will you do this year? What will you hand over?"
"What? Do you still have to pay the king grain this year?" Ding Fei's eyes were as wide as copper bells, with disbelief written all over his face, "It's been so dry this year that we can even see sparks. How can Prince Nan still have the heart to ask us to pay grain?"
When Yang Laobai heard this, his face turned as dark as the bottom of a pot, and he gritted his teeth and said: "The Southern King's order has been issued, and the king's rations have been halved, not even a penny less! This is army ration, for the march to Guangdong.
Brothers, who dares not to pay for their food?"
Please...you...collect 6...9...books...!
Hengyang, Nanwang Mansion, Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother Hall.
At this time, Nan Wang Feng Yunshan was kneeling in front of the tablets of Heavenly Father, Heavenly Brother, and Holy Mother with a gloomy face, sighing!
Although he issued an order to "halve the grain levy", it is not that he does not care about the people. On the contrary, he still cares about the farmers under his rule. Since returning from Tianjing, he has been leading the states under the jurisdiction of the Nanwang Palace.
I don’t know how many times I prayed to Heavenly Father, Heavenly Brothers, Brothers and the Holy Mother to pray for rain to fight the drought. But it didn’t rain that day!
By the way, this drought is not just affecting the area under the jurisdiction of Nanwangfu, but the whole of Huguang. It hasn’t rained much since July. It’s a serious drought!
Huguang is also the main grain-producing area in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The drought in Huguang means that the entire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's job is a little unstable.
Chapter completed!