After the carriage drove onto the concrete road, its speed suddenly accelerated a lot.
Finally, before the sky turned dark, we arrived at the main village of Xujiazhuang.
…
I learned that Fang Yizhi was visiting again.
Xu Yuan was very happy. He immediately put down the things at hand and went out to greet him in person.
"My dear brother, you are still here in such a cold weather. You are most welcome. You are most welcome."
Xu Yuan stepped forward, patted Fang Yizhi on the shoulder, greeted him warmly, looked him up and down and said, "I haven't seen you for more than half a year. Brother Xian, you seem to have lost a lot of weight."
"Brother Xu, I went to the capital a few months ago. What I saw, heard, and observed along the way is really hard to describe in words, and I was deeply moved!"
Seeing Xu Yuan, Fang Yizhi couldn't restrain his desire to talk and began to sigh.
"Come into the house and say, go in first, it's cold outside, I'll wait in the house to talk, and we'll talk while eating hot pot."
Xu Yuan asked the maid to go to the kitchen to give instructions. He would have beef hot pot in the evening and prepare more side dishes. He wanted to entertain some friends.
Speaking of friends, the two young men who came with Fang Yizhi were only about twenty years old. One was handsome and tall and thin;
Yuan asked about their identities.
"This is Qian Chengzhi, also known as Huanguang. He is my classmate and good friend. We have been studying together since childhood and we have a very good relationship. He is the best confidant who knows me best. Cheng's brother is learned and talented. He is good at poetry and prose, but his talent is not mine.
Under the secret, Brother Cheng is one year younger than me, so Brother Xu can just call him Brother Cheng."
"This is Sun Lin, named Kexian. He is twenty years old this year. His family has been a military attache for generations and he has been a classmate for many years. He is good at literature and martial arts, knows the art of war and military affairs, is good at riding and shooting, always thinks of serving the country, and has a flying career in the countryside.
He is named "General", he is a generous man, and he is also my brother-in-law. Brother Xu can just call him Kexian."
Fang Yizhi made an introduction.
As for Xu Yuan, Qian Chengzhi, and Sun Lin, the famous and extremely wealthy owners of the Xu family, of course they had heard of them for a long time. Although they could not be said to have much respect, such a well-known figure was right in front of them, and they were
Fang Yizhi had been brainwashing the publicity for a long time. Naturally, he did not dare to be arrogant. They all bowed their hands and said, "Qian Chengzhi (Sun Lin) has met Master Xu."
"No need to be polite."
Xu Yuan returned the gift with his hand, and then introduced himself a little, becoming acquainted with these two people.
Actually.
If Xu Yuan knows enough about the history of the late Ming Dynasty, or goes back to modern society to check computer information, he will find that these two friends of Fang Yizhi are also people who have left their names in history books.
Qian Chengzhi's resume was mediocre and he did not make any achievements worth mentioning. However, he was loyal to the Ming Dynasty throughout his life. Even when the Qing Dynasty regained control of the country, he became a monk and lived in seclusion.
Sun Lin joined the rebel army after the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Although he knew that his strength was insufficient, he resolutely resisted the Qing soldiers. In the end, he died heroically in battle with his concubine in Pucheng. He can be regarded as a hero.
Coupled with Fang Yizhi himself, it can be seen that the circle of friends around him are quite good people, and there are very few people with poor character.
…
Enter Tianshu Courtyard.
Sitting at the dining table in the reception hall.
While eating hot hotpot, I listened to what Fang Yizhi had experienced on his way to the capital.
"The situation around the capital city that suffered from the military disaster was extremely miserable. Countless people were killed and injured, countless grain and livestock were robbed, and whole villages were massacred and plundered. The damage caused by the Tatar bandits in the Later Jin Dynasty was so tragic that it is impossible to describe it. If you don't want to find a way to eliminate it,
With these beasts, our country, the Ming Dynasty, is in danger."
"But the damage caused by the Tartars was only one of them. On the way to the capital, I saw many hungry people who had fled from the mountains and Shaanxi. They were all as skinny as wood, their eyes were dim, they moved around like wandering souls, and they thought about everything they saw.
If I take a bite, I may die on the road at any time. I wanted to throw some food to help them, but my companion stopped me and said that as long as I threw a piece of bread, all the food would be snatched by the hungry people, and the hungry people who heard the news would drown us.
They even kill us to eat meat. The hungrier we are, the more unscrupulous we are. Helping them is harming ourselves. The wise thing to do is not to help them with anything, and we can’t even let them see us while we are eating.”
"So many hungry people are the fault of Gao Yingxiang, Wang Jiayin and other bandits. If we don't punish these bandits, the people will be trapped by them. Even if there is no natural disaster, the people will not be able to farm with peace of mind. They can only flee their hometown and live in poverty."
As a refugee, I don’t know how many times I will starve to death and freeze to death.”
"There are also King Qin's troops in various parts of the imperial court. They are afraid of the enemy like tigers and cannot drive away and defeat the Tatars. Instead, they ravage and plunder the people, killing good people many times and taking credit for their merits. Many of the massacres were not done by the Tatars, but by them.
, It won’t work to ask them to fight the Tartars, but they are capable of causing harm to the people. If we don’t find a way to rectify these bandit-like armies, the people will definitely suffer more.”
"When we arrived in the capital, although it was known as the best place in the world, there were at least hundreds of thousands of refugees and hungry people crowding the streets. However, the imperial court could not come up with money for relief. All the officials and merchants except a few were kind-hearted.
In the porridge shed, most of the officials did not think about how to save people. Instead, they bought and sold people, especially women and girls with distinctive looks. Some were bought to be maids, some were bought to be concubines, and even more
Most of them are sold into brothels and become prostitutes. There are so many natural and man-made disasters, and all the noble officials do not think about saving the people, but instead add insult to injury. It is extremely shameless and despicable!"
"I really couldn't bear it. I brought 300,000 taels of silver into Beijing, and I thought about whether I could give up helping Mr. Mu Zhai to recover and use the money to save the hungry people first. Although the money can't save everyone, 100,000 taels of silver can't save everyone.
The people can be saved, I just need to help them survive until the summer harvest. However, Qian Muzhai's staff stopped me from doing this, saying that I was a scholar and could only use money to help Mr. Muzhai recover.
Saving all the people in the world and rescuing hundreds of thousands of hungry people is no longer a problem, but does Qian Muzhai really have such ability?"
"The 300,000 taels of silver were finally spent, and more than fifty ministers of the court and central government were bribed. All of them accepted the money, and there was no one who refused to accept it. Only those who thought the money given was too little, and none who thought it was too much, including those few
An upright official with a good reputation, as well as those upright officials, they all accepted money and agreed to help speak good words."
"But in the end, our goal failed. Either His Majesty was not happy, or he was afraid of offending his chief minister Zhou Yanru. As a result, a full 300,000 taels of silver were spent, but there were not many people who could help. Finally, Qian Muzhai returned.
The attempt failed, leaving only the Minister of Rites in Nanjing as the capital."
"Brother Xu, is our Ming Dynasty about to end? With my own eyes, I have seen that the Tartars are brutal, the bandits are raging, the imperial army is mixed, and there is no ability to prevent the situation from deteriorating. The court is corrupt, and the officials are numb and greedy.
, has no love for the people at all, and only knows how to indulge in fighting for power and profit. During this trip to the capital, I did not see any bright scenes, only the signs of the collapse of the building and the end of the dynasty."
"My secret desire is to serve the country by Kuangjun, but in this dark world and the miserable sight of the people, I can only feel helpless and helpless. I, a mere scholar, can't even save one or two hungry people. How can I help Kuangjun?"
Serve the country?”
"Brother Xu, tell me, can this Daming be saved?"
After taking a sip of low-alcohol rice wine, I picked up a piece of tripe with chopsticks and put it into my mouth. I was choked by the spicy taste and coughed repeatedly, with tears streaming down my face. Fang Yizhi, a young man who was still full of enthusiasm, had a bitter look on his face, and said
to express his confusion, pain and confusion.
He really can't find any direction or solution himself. Even if he proposes some solutions that look good, he will be immediately stopped or even scolded by the people around him.
He could only come to Xujiazhuang with full of pain and doubts, hoping to get a feasible solution from Brother Xu to solve all the problems he saw.