Zhao Xin glanced at Shengsaburo who was sitting there with his head down eating porridge, turned around and whispered a few words to Li Ji before saying to everyone: "Everyone, get up."
Everyone then got up and continued to drink porridge.
Li Ji stood up at this time and said to everyone: "You guys have been hungry for a long time..." He paused, seemingly recalling something: "Yes, malnutrition, that's what adults say. So.
Sir, I want you to drink porridge for the next few days to let your stomach get used to it, and you will have rice balls to eat in the next two days."
Everyone became excited immediately upon hearing this, and many people, including Wan Zao, began to recall the last time they ate rice.
"We use polished rice just to make porridge, and it seems that rice is not much different."
Katsuzaburo thought to himself, even he himself is the same. What he eats on weekdays is brown rice, which is brown rice. As for polished rice, only big businessmen and generals can eat it.
Although the food of samurai in this era was better than that of ordinary people, it was just that. For example, Hosokawa Shigeken, the 540,000-year-old lord of the Kumamoto domain, wrote in his "Higo Hou's Book of Instructions":
"In addition to the three meals, you can have snacks from time to time to nourish your qi. You must not eat alcohol. The soups and vegetables for the three meals should be as prepared by the people who serve them. Eat vegetarian food day and night, one soup and one dish. You can use fish at lunch, etc., which is no more than one soup and two dishes.
.”
The fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, only had two dishes and one soup to eat on weekdays, and he never drank alcohol.
These days, if you have brown rice with boiled tofu, a small fish, and miso soup, it’s a feast.
At this time, he saw Li Ji walking towards him. Katsusaburo put down the porridge bowl and looked at him.
Rikichi walked up to Katsusaburo, squatted down, and asked Katsusaburo: "From your accent, you are not from Mutsu. Where are you from?"
"I am from Omi."
Rikichi looked at Katsuzaburo with wide eyes: "Omi? Why did Omi's samurai come to our Hirosaki?"
"I, I wanted to come here to help with disaster relief..." Katsusaburo was a little embarrassed. He had good intentions and planned to come to help, but in the end he almost starved to death and asked the victims to save him. It was a bit embarrassing.
"The samurai gentlemen only care about themselves, how can they have time to care about us poor people!" Wan Zao said angrily. After hearing this, the seven or eight farmers next to him also agreed very much and cursed one after another, saying that they didn't care whether the people lived or died.
The Tsugaru family.
Katsusaburo could only remain silent.
It is said that since the opening of the Tokugawa shogunate, in order to combat the introduction of "Kieshitan" (Catholicism), a policy of seclusion has been implemented, and there has been very little foreign trade.
Therefore, no matter how hard we try to develop the city, the effect will not be very good under the conditions of the internal cycle of economic isolation. Therefore, the majority of the income that supports the shogunate's annual financial operations still comes from land tax, that is, the annual income collected from the countryside.
tribute.
The prosperity of big cities like Osaka and Edo is based on the hard work and dedication of the vast rural areas.
The rural areas that were plundered and neglected, coupled with the never-easy annual tribute, in the flashy and illusory prosperous age, the farmers were gradually completely hollowed out, so that no matter how hard these farmers worked hard in the fields, they were still very poor.
It is difficult to save even the most basic savings. Once famine strikes, these farmers will immediately fall into desperate situations. The indifference from the shogunate also prevents the hungry people from getting any relief.
Hungry people like Li Ji and Wan Zao suffered severe exploitation and oppression on weekdays, and were angry because they could not get relief when the famine came, but they only saw the situation of themselves and their village. Because they met Zhao Xin
After being rescued, they did not continue to flow in the direction of Edo, so they have not yet seen the more serious scene.
Sugita Genpaku, who was later known as the scholar of Zhuzi in the island country, described in detail what he saw and heard in his book "Hangmigusa": "In the southern part of the Tohoku area, the disasters in places such as Karutsu were particularly serious, and people were injured every day.
A large number of victims abandoned their jobs and fled, and like mushrooms after the rain, they popped up from the countryside one by one. However, what was even more cruel was that there was no food left to help the victims when they fled to other places. Every day, a thousand people arrived
Two thousand people starved to death in the streets and were later dumped in ravines."
Yes, if Zhao Xin goes further south, to the Rikuzen and Sendai areas, he will see a large number of fleeing farmers lying dead in the streets and alleys on the road.
After telling his own situation, Katsuzaburo asked Rikichi his question: "Which noble family does your lord belong to?"
"You will naturally know when the time comes. Our Lord is a god-like figure." Li Ji looked back at Zhao Xin cautiously and praised with pride.
When Shengsaburo came over, Zhao Xin was still thinking about things and didn't notice anyone approaching. A few days later, what he saw and heard along the way made him very emotional. He didn't expect that the hungry people in ancient times looked like this.
To put it metaphorically, it's like a group of zombies.
Not to mention that the more than 30 people he rescued were skinny and skinny. Except for Katsusaburo who had just been rescued, who was wearing an old cotton coat, the others were all in ragged linen clothes; the better ones were wearing straw sandals, and most of them were even wearing straw sandals.
He didn't even have any shoes. He wondered whether he should go back and buy some food, clothes, shoes, and bedding, otherwise these people wouldn't be able to survive this winter.
It is said that he came to Japan in the 18th century to do charity. In fact, his inner purpose is not simple, but also very dark. To put it briefly, this guy is obsessed with the windfall he made last time and plans to continue doing it. He plans to make a living among the refugees.
Recruit a group of henchmen, and then go to Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka together. Let the henchmen act for him to identify the target, and then he will sweep them away.
The problem is that Zhao Xin did not expect the seriousness of the "morning famine". It is no wonder that the Chinese in another time and space care about this, not to mention that there is no such content in middle school history textbooks, and then there are the Japanese.
Love to death!
However, reading "Death by Starvation" is one thing from a book, but seeing it with your own eyes is another matter. Even if Zhao Xin didn't like the Japanese in another time and space, when he and Li Ji rescued them from the pile of dead,
After several refugees who were still breathing, they were also shocked by this apocalyptic and miserable scene. Moreover, saving people was quite a sense of accomplishment. After all, he was somewhat of a practitioner in the medical industry.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! But as he rescues people more and more often, a difficult problem is posed before him. Saving people for a while cannot save the whole life.
Iwakiyama is the hardest hit area, and to the north is Aomori on the seaside; to the south? Now all the victims are running to Sendai and Edo. It can be said that the road to the south is full of victims.
What if you go to the next door to lead Qing and gather a group of people to do it...? Forget it, Zhao Xin doesn't want to shave off his money rat's tail; besides, he doesn't have anything else but money, so he can't do it for the time being.
Since 1641, the only foreign trade port of the island country was Nagasaki. The main reason why the shogunate did this was to prohibit its own people from leaving the island country. Walking from Mutsu to Nagasaki? Oh my god! Let’s forget it.
.
What should I do? Now that everyone is getting more and more help, I might as well leave a few kilograms of food for these people and run away...
Zhao Xin was just starting to think about it, but someone shouted loudly in his ear: "Thank you very much. Without your help, sir, I would be a dead person now."
"Ah." Zhao Xin was startled when his train of thought was interrupted. When he saw it, it was the rescued Katsuzaburo who was kneeling in front of him to express his gratitude. So he quickly helped Katsuzaburo up and said: "Don't worry about it. That's it.
The current situation is not easy for anyone."
Katsusaburo thought Zhao Xin's accent was strange. Liji once told him that Zhao Xin was a noble man, but he didn't think it was the same. Zhao Xin's accent was very similar to the Edo accent, but not quite.
So he plucked up the courage and asked thoughtfully: "Your attire is very unusual. I have traveled throughout the Kanto region and have never seen your hair accessories and clothes like this."
"Oh, you're talking about this..." Zhao Xin touched his head, and he still had short hair. Look at Katsuzaburo opposite, oh, he has Tsukiyo hair. It is said that all men in the island country have to shave like this when they reach adulthood.
"I'm really not from this area. I just heard that the volcano erupted and the famine was serious, so I came here to see what I can do to help."
Not allowing the other party to ask any more questions, Zhao Xin changed the topic and asked: "I heard that you are a samurai from Omi, why are you here?"
Katsusaburo was very embarrassed. He wanted to come here to help people, but he couldn't help him. He almost got himself involved, but ended up being rescued by the victims. His outing to practice and practice seemed to be a failure. Katsuzaburo couldn't help but
Somewhat discouraged.
So there was another crackling narration, and Zhao Xin also learned about Katsuzaburo's situation. He felt that Katsuzaburo had a good heart and it was rare that he could think of helping the victims.
Why not dump these people to Katsusaburo?
Zhao Xin thought of this and said: "Look, the weather is very cold now. Although there is enough food, if there are new people who will be taken in later, my current food will not be enough; besides, you see they are all in ragged clothes.
If you don’t even have a pair of shoes, you’ll get sick from the cold.”
"Yes." Katsusaburo was also very emotional. "Then what can I help you do?"
Zhao Xindao: "You should get familiar with everyone for a few days and understand the situation. Then I will go transport some food, clothes, and shoes. Well... I will be away for about five or ten days, so you can help me manage these.
people."
Shengsaburo lowered his head and thought for a while. He felt that as long as the food was enough, it would not be a big problem, so he readily agreed to Zhao Xin's request.
A few days later, Zhao Xin's refugee team had expanded to 300 people.
This group of people did not stay where they were or go south. Instead, they turned around and headed north, arriving in the woods near Aomori Town.
Zhao Xin explained the matter to Liji and Shengsaburo respectively, and handed over the previously purchased grain to Liji and Shengsaburo for management.
After he finished explaining everything, Zhao Xin turned around and walked deep into the jungle. He said goodbye to you!
After walking about three hundred meters, he found a big tree and looked around for a while. In the blink of an eye, the person had disappeared.
Not far away, Katsuzaburo, who was lying in the bushes and peeking, was already stunned.