Chapter 580 Quan Sans journey back to his hometown (1)
The third secret line of the island country was secretly laid by Zhao Xin two years ago by Li Ji. It’s not that he had any conspiracy, but a stool with two legs can never stand, and only three legs can be stable. Liu Zheng is a well-known person in the island country.
Yes, Pingtai is dark, but his darkness is limited, so Zhao Xin asked Li Ji to arrange a third wave of people.
There are only a dozen or so secret agents in this group, and they are not affiliated with Liu Zheng. There are Koka ninjas sent by the shogunate to lurk in the past, who surrendered to the security police because they were inspired; there are samurai from the Aoba camp who have expired their service terms.
He later returned to the Sendai Domain and openly served the Date family. In fact, he was secretly naturalized in Beihai Town. The other was a poor man who joined the Northern Navy and became a small businessman after returning.
On the morning of four days after Zhao Xin issued the order, five motorboats carrying more than 2,000 island workers sailed into the dock of Ishinomaki Port. Those island farmers who go to work in Beihai Town basically come back at this time of year.
These ships are only the second batch, and there will be a third and fourth batch later.
You must know that in winter in the outer Northeast, the temperature is often minus 30 to 40 degrees Celsius, and most projects have to be stopped. Instead of letting these workers huddle in the fields and suffer, it is better to let them go back to their hometowns to see their families.
Beihai Town does not treat these people badly. As long as they are willing to endure hardship, even if their salary is stripped by the Beihai Office and the feudal lord, they can always save more than a dozen Beihai silver dollars. One Beihai dollar is equivalent to four days,
A dozen coins equals four or fifty taels of bean plate silver, which is already a great deal for the peasant families of the island country!
Due to the "Frugality Order" promulgated by Matsudaira Sadanobu, the leader of the shogunate, and the "Abandonment Order" promulgated the year before last, which caused widespread bankruptcies of Zacha merchants, causing prices in the island country to rise, workers generally arrive at Whale Port in advance.
Buy good grain, cloth, tobacco and other items, so as not to be exploited by the acting officials after returning to your hometown with a lot of money. For Beihai Town, this is like rotting in the pot.
A large number of returnees disembarked from Ishinomaki Port. For a time, the flow of people in various taverns and shops in the town increased significantly. People wearing felt hats and dark blue upper and lower labor cotton uniforms could be seen everywhere on the streets. This also made Ishinomaki popular before the Spring Festival.
The town is becoming more and more lively.
Quan San and his companions, who were also wearing work clothes, walked into a paper umbrella store called "Xiao Gong" after getting off the boat. After exchanging the secret code with the boss, they handed an envelope to the boss. Then, the two of them
I changed my clothes in the backyard of the store, and when I walked out on the street again, I was no different from an ordinary island citizen.
This mission of transmitting information was completed. Next, General Quan San and his companions made an appointment to meet back in ten days, and then parted ways, planning to return to their hometown for a visit.
It has been five years since Quan San left the island country. He was beaten by bullies and was left with half his life. If he hadn't encountered the Thor, even his bones and dregs would have been eaten by the fish. After arriving in Beihai Town, he spent a lot of time in the hospital.
It took several months before he could go to work. Because he could not read and was alone, he first worked as a road construction worker for more than a year, and then went to work in the oil mine on Kuye Island for a year before he was naturalized and changed his name.
As "quanbaocai".
Because he always wanted to return to his hometown for revenge, Quan Bao naturally signed up to be a soldier after naturalization; the Northern Navy dared to beat up even the Edo Shogunate and Satsuma Domain, so in his mind this was the most powerful backer.
However, as soon as the recruit training was over, he was sent to garrison Heilongjiang City, where he stayed for two full years. When the Northern Navy Intelligence Bureau was established to select personnel, Quan Baocai was already a squad leader. After being selected inexplicably
, he went through another half year of intense training, and in the blink of an eye, it was already the end of 1791.
Quan Baocai's hometown is Udo Village in Nakamura Domain's Biyoye County, which is under the rule of the Soma family of the Tokugawa shogunate. During the Tianmei famine, more than 10,000 people in Nakamura Domain starved to death, making it one of the hardest-hit areas.
It's not far from Ishinomaki Town to Udo Village. It's only over 200 miles by land. It's actually faster to take a sea boat. However, Quanbao just asked a group of people on the pier and the fastest boat won't leave until the day after tomorrow.
He didn't want to wait for a minute, so he found a random restaurant in the town to fill his stomach, bought a few rice balls, and then set out on the road carrying a heavy baggage.
In the Edo period, due to restrictions on the movement of people, civilians were not eligible to ride horses. The ban was not lifted until the Meiji period. Moreover, in these years, except for the samurai delivering urgent reports, other horse riders must have followers to lead their horses.
, you must not hold the reins yourself, otherwise it would be rude.
In addition, in the Edo period, horse rentals were calculated based on mileage, which was very expensive and ordinary samurai could not afford to rent them. On average, one mile was charged two hundred fen, and fifty miles was one stone meter, which was almost the same as taxis in island countries in another time and space.
Although civilians were restricted from running around, living people would not suffocate to death, and sneaking people around the checkpoints became a business. So Quanbao spent fifty coins and sneaked into the Soma clan from the Sendai clan.
The closer he got to his hometown, the more Quan Baocai's heart beat violently. How his parents had been doing these past years and whether Abin was still there all worried him in every possible way.
He has already thought about it. No matter what, he must take his parents back to Beihai Town this time. If A Bin can find her, that would be even better! Although A Bin may have become a prostitute, he will not dislike her. He wants to
Abin was redeemed and brought back to Beihai Town to hold a glorious wedding.
As for the brothel owner and the village bully Hu Sanmo... Quan Bao decided to settle the score with him, and the pistol hidden in his waist was not for nothing!
Three days later at noon, when Quan Bao saw the boundary monument of Niudu Village, he thought he was finally home! He came to the Buddhist niche opposite the boundary monument and said with emotion to the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva statue inside: "I'm back!"
He wiped off the dust on the head of the stone statue with his sleeves, clasped his hands together in a salute, and then strode quickly towards his home.
Niudu Village is still the same as before. The villagers' houses are low and dilapidated, and the straw on the roofs rustles in the north wind. On the not-so-wide roads, the unmelted snow is mixed with mud, and the
It was often stepped on and crushed, and it became like a big mud pond.
What surprised Quan Baocai was that there was not a single soul on the street, and there was no sound coming from the houses on the roadside. It was deserted and there was no atmosphere of celebrating the New Year. You must know that in the Edo period, starting from the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, families
Every family must clean their house and clean the shrine. If they have money or not, they will hang a door pine tree at the door, hoping that the "New Year God" will stop for a while when passing by and bless their home.
When he was about to reach home, he saw an old man standing on an upside-down wooden barrel under a crooked tree on the roadside, tremblingly putting his head into the noose hanging on the tree.
Quan Bao was shocked and hurried forward. Just as the old man kicked the barrel down, he grabbed the other man's legs.
The old man was also startled. His neck had just been strangled by the rope, but he hadn't felt any pain yet. Suddenly, he felt light and was lifted up. Then he stood on the ground. When he turned around and looked back carefully, he felt that
The strong man in front of me looked familiar, but I couldn't remember who it was for the moment.
Although Quan Baocai had been away from home for many years, the scenery of his hometown was engraved in his heart. He looked at the old man in front of him with wrinkles on his face and ragged clothes, and he quickly recognized him. Then he asked with concern
: "Dad Yuzuo, what are you doing?!"
Seeing that the other party actually recognized him, Yosaku wiped the corners of his eyes with his dirty sleeves and carefully looked at the strong man in front of him. Suddenly his eyes widened and he said in surprise: "Quan San? You're not dead?! You're still alive."
!”
"I'm standing in front of you. What's wrong with you? What's wrong with you? My house is right in front. Let's go home and talk."
Yosaku lowered his head, twitched his lips twice, and cried with a grin: "Quan San, your parents are gone... I can't live anymore! Woo woo woo."
"What!" Quan Bao's head buzzed, he staggered a few steps, stretched out his hand to hold Yusaku's shoulder, and asked loudly: "Why not? Please explain it clearly to me!"
"They took Agui away and said they would make her a prostitute to pay off her debts. I am just a granddaughter, how can I live without her..."
Quan Bao interrupted the old man's cry and said urgently: "Dad Yuzuo, tell me quickly! What happened to my parents?!"
"That year, the whole village thought you were dead, and I followed your parents to the beach to find the body for several days. In the second year, your family couldn't pay the rent, and the owner of the Kiso house forced you to repay the debt. Your father
In a fit of rage, he hanged himself. Later, they took away everything they could from your house, saying they wanted to pay off debts, and your mother also fell ill. Two days later, people from the village went to see her, but she was gone...
.Your house collapsed due to snow last year. Without anyone to live in it, the house deteriorated quickly..."
Quan Bao's eyes were about to burst when he heard this, and he asked, "Where is he buried?!"
"On the hill to the west, our village..."
"Dad Yuzuo, go home and wait for me! I can help you if you need anything!"
Before Yu Zuo could finish speaking, Quan Baocai quickly ran to the west. Yu Zuo looked blankly at the other person's retreating back, looked up at the rope hanging on the tree, hesitated for a moment, and then picked it up.
The wooden barrel swayed towards his home.
About an hour later, Yuzuo, who was sitting by the fireplace, heard footsteps coming from outside. He got up and went out to see that it was Quan San who had returned. His eyes were red and swollen, and his body and headscarf were stained with blood.
Full of dirt and weeds.
When Quan Baocai sat down in front of the hearth and took off his turban, Yosaku looked at the other person's short hair, which was about an inch long, and said in surprise: "Quan San, have you become a monk?"
After a while, Quan Bao shook his head slightly and said in a voice that became hoarse after crying: "Dad, what's going on in the village? You just told me about Agui. She is fourteen this year, right?
"
Yosaku lamented, and then told the other party what happened. Quan Bao's face turned green after hearing this. This was almost the same as when he was beaten.
During the famine in the morning, one-third of the people in Niudu Village died, and Yusaku's family was left with only his granddaughter Agui to depend on. The old man was reluctant to let his granddaughter work as a servant, so he took her to farm at home.
Most of the farmers in these days were sharecroppers. After harvesting grain every year, they had to hand over almost half of the harvest to the landlord, and the family relied on the remaining grain to survive.
Yu Zuo rented five acres of land from the landlord. With good harvests in the past two years, he could get up to sixteen bags of rice, seven and a half bags of which were used as rented grain, and the remaining rice was used by the grandfather and grandson for a year.
Farmers in island countries cannot afford rice, so they usually go to the "Mi Wenwu" to replace it with wheat or millet, and then add radish leaves, soybean leaves and mountain vegetables to barely fill their stomachs.
The problem is that in addition to eating, you also have to eat salt and exchange for some daily necessities. If the harvest fails, the rent will be indispensable. After all, the landlord has to pay the annual tribute to the feudal lord. In this way, the landlord
Or it may become inevitable for usurers to borrow money.
As soon as the twelfth lunar month enters every year, it’s time for the harvest feast of loan sharks. Faced with compounding interest rates and debts that will never be repaid, tenants can only beg to use the next year’s harvest to repay the debts, or they can only let beautiful girls
Go be a prostitute; when will you pay off the loan shark before you can return to good deeds?
Having said that, the vast majority of people are not finished yet. You must know that in addition to what has been accumulated before, there will be new loans. What's more, becoming a prostitute will catch you with all kinds of diseases, even your family will hate it, and you can only end up miserable.
of death...
The north wind roared outside, and the dry branches crackled in the hearth inside the house. Yosaku wiped his tears and choked: "The harvest of my five acres of land was not good last year, but the boss of Kisoya said he would not pay back the money.
If that didn't work, they took Agui away and said they would let her work in a brothel to pay off her debts."
Quan Bao's heart suddenly moved, and he immediately asked: "Dad, is Abin... okay?"
"Abin?" Yosaku sighed and said, "I heard that she is already the number one in the brothel and has become a cash cow for Tora San."
"Tiger Three!" Quan Baocai clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.
When Yu Zuo saw it, he quickly advised: "Quan San, Hu San and Hu are numerous, and they have seven or eight thugs under them. You don't want to touch an egg with a stone!"
Quan Bao nodded after hearing this. He was no longer the stupid young man he used to be. It was easy to just rush in and kill people, but if he alerted the government, he would cause a lot of trouble if he tried to take Abin to Ishinomaki Port; he
My identity is a secret and cannot be exposed easily. It is better to find out the situation clearly before taking action.
"Dad, how much do you owe Kisoya?"
"I fell ill the year before last, and Agui borrowed two taels from the doctor to buy medicine... Now including interest, the total is eight taels and thirty-seven cents."
Quan Bao then opened the bag next to him, took out a roe deer skin money bag, took out a few pieces of bean plate silver exchanged in Ishinomaki Town, handed it to Yusaku and said: "Here are ten taels, you go and redeem Agui."
come back."
Yosaku stared at the blackened silver in the other's hand in disbelief, and said excitedly: "Quan San, you are getting rich!"
"I went to Beihai Town to work in the past few years and earned some money. I originally wanted to honor my parents..."
"Beihai Town? I think I heard someone say that." Yu Zuo took the money and said with a smile through tears: "You can stay at my house tonight! I will let Agui cook the food later, and I will buy some wine, so you can have a good drink at night!"