At the end of the second year of Wanli, the bottom peasants of the Ming Empire finally felt some changes that were different from the past.
Starting from the second half of the year, in the countryside of Dengzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province, many things that Huo Laoshuan had never seen began to appear at the market every seven days.
Thick and heavy glass candlesticks, iron oil lamps, etc., are things that no one would buy if they had spare money. Huo Laoshuan once saw several vendors selling them with all their strength and shouting, and then picked them away dejectedly amidst his sneers.
.
But some things that must be bought, such as salt, have really dropped in price. Coarse salt, which used to cost 19 cents per catty, will actually cost only 16 cents per catty starting from the second half of this year, and the sand in it is less than half.
It's quite gratifying.
My own head has been worn down to less than a finger. If someone else digs the ground once, I have to dig twice, so I have to buy this thing.
What surprised Huo Laoshuan was that the new head was not the half-baked and rotten stuff sold in the past. The two-finger-wide part of the front part of the head shone coldly, as if it were covered with steel.
Huo Laoshuan squatted on the ground, lowered his head and touched his new head, feeling a little confused. He pushed the black felt hat on his head with his hand, wiped his face full of grooves from his forehead, and asked the vendor:
: "Is this steel?"
The vendor who came to the market was carrying two baskets of farm tools, adding up to 156 kilograms. He was sitting on the pole panting, and the heat was rising from his head in the winter. He listened to Huo Shuan's question, but did not answer for now. He took it from his back.
He took a big gourd, opened the red cloth-wrapped wooden stopper, and drank water.
After he had regained his breath, the dealer smiled and said: "Huo Laoshuan, I am the old man in this episode. To be honest with you, I really don't know if this is steel. But -"
The hawker first took out a finger-thick stick from a thick cane tied to the side of the basket and placed it on a flat stone on the ground. Then he took out a handful of sticks, held the iron ring on the top of the stick, and placed it on the ground.
Plan the top hard.
"Look, there are two paragraphs at once!"
Huo Laoshuan first gasped as if he had a toothache, then he snatched the head from the dealer's hand and said distressedly: "...Don't chip your tooth!" He touched it with his rough big hands, and it seemed like
It's like touching your own mother-in-law when you were young.
The hawker smiled and said: "You haven't even bought it yet, and you touched it?" Seeing Huo Laoshuan checking the sun, he added: "If it breaks a little, I will give it to you!"
Huo Laoshuan checked it several times, thought in his mind, raised his eyes and asked loudly: How much does this head cost?
The dealer smiled and said: "Is it more expensive than before? Forty coins. If you don't have copper coins, you can give me rice, wheat, or beans."
After Huo Laoshuan heard this, the strips of meat on his cheeks popped out. He gritted his teeth and cursed: "You donkey, you are eight cents more expensive than last year. How much more expensive are you talking about?"
The hawker picked up the two broken pieces of rattan and said to Huo Laoshuan: "The one from the past? Can you break this one without splintering its teeth? If you can push two or three of these pieces together, how much will you save!"
Huo Laoshuan was at a loss for words, then pointed to the shovel in the basket and said, "How much does this cost?" The hawker replied, "This one is made of the same material as the head. Thirty-eight cents."
After hearing this, Huo Laoshuan's eyes were about to spit out fire, as if he wanted to kill him. The hawker was frightened when he saw it and said: "Uncle Laoshuan, you and I often come and go, can you just give me seventy-five cents for these two things?"
I don’t earn anything from you.”
...
After some intense haggling and asking two villagers to come over for evaluation, Huo Laoshuan finally bought these two farm tools from the vendor for seventy cents.
Then he wandered around the market and bought a bristle board hat for his youngest son for six cents.
Due to the increase in the price of pig bristles on the market, this hat was a penny more expensive than before. Huo Laoshuan almost got into a fight with the hat seller again. He was scolded by Huo, an old man from the same village: "You are selling pig skins and bristles this spring. Why don't you sell more?"
Why don't you talk about the money? What are you talking about now?" Huo Laoshuan then stopped.
On the way home, several people's faces were flushed by the cold wind. Huo Da gossiped: "I heard from Master Ji that the imperial court conquered the Northeast? The territory is too big, and the land is black and oily? No one is planting it.
.”
Huo Laoshuan heard this and sneered: "There is still good land that no one is planting? I don't know where this is made up. I don't believe it."
A young boy from the same village named Huo Lin had just returned from Linqing as a part-time worker. Hearing Huo Laoshuan's disbelief, he answered: "Brother, this is true. Linqing is in a commotion. I heard that the emperor is going down.
According to the decree, as long as these lowly registered happy households are willing to go and farm, not only will they be given land for free, but they will also be deregistered and transferred to farmers. No matter who they are, they will not have to pay a cent of the imperial grain for the first five years."
After Huo Da and Huo Laoshuan heard this, the flames of jealousy burned their hearts to ashes. They cursed one after another: "Is there such a truth in the world?! Such a lowly family, whose descendants will not be able to study. The imperial court is white.
Give the land for planting? Still don’t pay the royal grain?”
Huo Lin was startled when he saw smoke coming from the noses of some old men, as if they were going to beat him. He stammered: "Maybe... maybe I'm a lackey."
After hearing this, these people all breathed a sigh of relief. They first laughed at him, then cursed him a few times, and then dispersed at the entrance of the village.
...
However, beyond Huo Laoshuan's expectations, what Huo Lin heard in Linqing was actually true. With the advent of the New Year, the county police officers went to the countryside to supervise classes and brought news, which confirmed the
at this point.
The villagers in Huojia Village spent a year of neither fatness nor thinness in the restlessness. They ate for a few days the fine grains that they were reluctant to eat on weekdays, and gained some fat and water in their stomachs.
On the ninth day of the first lunar month, Mrs. Huo of my family called everyone in the village named Huo to gather in the ancestral hall. He also called Wang Peng, the only literate person in the village with a foreign surname.
Wang Peng first read the notice copied from the county government office. No one in the ancestral hall could understand it. Then Wang Peng translated it again in dialect and explained clearly the imperial policy of developing the Northeast.
Everyone was breathing heavily when they heard that more than a hundred families from the imperial court went to the Northeast to compete in horse racing and enclosure. There were so many people talking in the ancestral hall that it was soon difficult to hear what everyone was shouting about.
The seventy-year-old old man paused the handle of the shovel in his hand. Seeing that it had no effect, he shouted twice at the top of his lungs, but it still didn't work. Huo Lin, who was standing next to Huo Taigong, saw this and shouted, "Everyone."
Shut up, don’t talk, and listen to the old lady!”
After roaring, the ancestral hall fell silent. But then the soles of his father's shoes reached the top of his head. Huolin had to kneel down and kowtow to the elders to apologize. One of the uncles who was held in his grandfather's arms also fell to the ground and suffered.
Hollin's gift.
Old Madam Huo has a strong body. In addition to missing a few teeth, he can still work in the fields, doing most of the labor. Seeing that everyone was quiet, Old Madam Huo pointed to the genealogy on the wall of the ancestral hall and the family tree below.
Hundreds of tablets say: "Our family with the surname Huo originally had its roots in Shaanxi. Later, our ancestors couldn't survive, so they came to Shandong with a begging bowl."
After spitting on the ground, Old Madam Huo said again: "I heard from my dead father that we have been in Huojia Village for 1670 years, and there were only five brothers when we came here." He pointed.
The tablet said: "Look, the genealogy is memorized. The ancestors on this tablet are all buried here. How many people do we have now?"
He said to Huo Laoshuan: "You are a donkey who married a mother-in-law who can give birth to children. Now you have seven children! It's so stupid that even one girl is still alive! It's so stupid. It's a pity that our Huo family doesn't have scholars. There is one who can count."
One, fighting is good, studying is like a dead mother! In this world, if the clan cannot produce scholars, there will be no land!"
Looking around the room full of people surnamed Huo, the old lady said fairly: "Everyone we have now counts, who has land? They all farm the land for Mr. Wang's family and do the work! Now the court has promised -" Wang Peng saw that he was stuck.
, took the word and said: "Constitution."
The old man nodded approvingly and continued: "The imperial court agreed to a charter and gave land in the northeast. I think it's good. The emperor's favor is so great! I discussed it with the elders in the clan and let's move our family there! The imperial court said that if there are a hundred people, we will run away.
Enclosure - grass, how big would it be if you ride a horse for a day?"
"It's not better for us to farm our own land than to pay rent. I called you here today just to discuss this matter. Let's talk about it - well, come one by one, don't call me blindly."
Wang Peng listened at the side, his heart pounding and screaming. The Huo family has moved, and his distant branch, Mr. Wang's family, is in trouble!