"Master Xu, thank you for your hospitality these days. Brother Kexian and I want to visit the local celebrity Li Qing. We came here to say goodbye. Wan Wang allows you."
"Master, we have no other intentions. We just want to be quiet and restless. We want to take a walk around and visit more celebrities and people with lofty ideals."
That morning, in front of Xu Yuan, Qian Chengzhi and Sun Lin said goodbye.
In fact, what they most want to return to is their hometown of Tongcheng, but Xinghua County is hundreds of miles away from Tongcheng. It will take at least a month to go back in such cold weather. In case of heavy snow and road closures, they freeze to death.
There is a possibility of starving to death on the road.
I had no choice but to stay in Xinghua County and wait until spring began before going back.
Xujiazhuang could not wait any longer, but there were many celebrities and scholars in Xinghua County, especially Li Qing, a local celebrity. After Li Chunfang, the first minister of the Jiajing Dynasty, his great-grandfather Li Maocai became the crown prince's Taibao, and the Minister of Rites; his grandfather Li Sicheng was the Minister of Rites of the Tianqi Dynasty, so he could
It is said to be the home of generations.
Visiting such an aristocratic family, meeting celebrities like Li Qing, and discussing poetry and articles together are something that Qian Chengzhi and Sun Lin, two young people in their twenties, are very much worth looking forward to.
"Okay, you go."
Xu Yuan nodded and did not stop him. Not only did he give each person a hundred silver dollars as a gift, but he also sent two village guards to escort him. There was really nothing wrong with the etiquette.
Only Fang Yizhi sighed a few times, feeling a little helpless and lonely, but firmly believed that his choice was correct, and the two of them would join in sooner or later.
…
The time has entered November.
The weather is getting colder and colder, snowfall has become more frequent, roads are difficult to travel, and the temperature has dropped to more than ten degrees below zero.
Since the biogas produced by the biogas digester is limited, it cannot meet the heating needs of all facilities. It can only be barely enough for residential buildings, and a lot of coal must be burned. Therefore, except for the brick kiln factory and the iron workshop, all the workshops have stopped.
Entering the state of winter rest.
Taking advantage of this rare free period, Xu Yuan promulgated the "Fat Raising Order", which allowed the pig farms to slaughter a lot of fat pigs, and gave each of Xujiazhuang's 11 collective estates and more than 100,000 residents a bonus.
They bought five kilograms of pork, twenty kilograms of rice and noodles, and thirty chicken and duck eggs, and asked them to finish them within sixty days, while reducing labor intensity and supplementing adequate nutrition.
That is to say, you should take advantage of this time to "build fat". It doesn't matter if you eat fat.
Just get enough rest.
As long as you accumulate enough energy.
Villagers will be able to work and work better in the coming spring and create more wealth and value. This is also a concrete manifestation of "valuing people as treasure".
Fang Yizhi, who joined Xujiazhuang, also had things to do. For example, as a staff member, he and Xu Yuan discussed the future development direction of Xujiazhuang, studied civilian literature that could be easily promoted in an all-round way, and studied the establishment of a mathematical, physical, and chemical knowledge system.
Fang Yizhi has a strong learning ability and is a top-notch academic mind. The few useful things Xu Yuan had left in his belly were almost all returned to the teacher after graduating from college. Fang Yizhi soon took away almost all of them.
I had no choice but to throw the mathematics, physics and chemistry textbooks from junior and senior high schools to him while studying.
In order to avoid being disturbed by Fang Yizhi every day, Xu Yuan also arranged a job for him on the grounds of "unity of knowledge and action".
That is to say, a reception center was established to take in the hungry refugees who fled.
Or take some people to visit surrounding villages and towns, and give fifty pounds of potatoes or sweet potatoes to those extremely poor families, and some old clothes to keep them warm (old clothes are plentiful in modern society, Xu Yuan brought hundreds of tons here
, 500 yuan per ton), used to win over the hearts and minds of the surrounding people.
Of course Fang Yizhi is willing to do this kind of good deeds, and may even wish for them.
He rushed around with dozens of assistants and devoted himself to it with great enthusiasm.
In just half a month, we took in more than 4,000 hungry refugees, ordered the execution of more than 20 criminals, visited more than 300 extremely poor families, and sent potatoes (sweet potatoes) to each family.
A bag with several pieces of old clothes has produced quite outstanding results.
During this process, Fang Yizhi's practical ability was greatly tempered. He became aware of the sufferings of the people at the bottom and saw the bad qualities of some people, but more importantly, he was filled with emotion and emotion.
He could not forget a refugee woman named Rou Niang with two children. In order to keep her children alive, she knelt down in front of Fang Yizhi and was willing to sell herself as a slave and work as a cow or horse for him. She could even do anything.
Asking for help to save her two children.
Fang Yizhi naturally asked someone to take in this family of three. As a result, Rou Niang became a maid serving him, and there were two more little kids calling him "daddy", which made him dumbfounded.
He went to surrounding villages and towns to help the poor. In a village called Dongzhuang Village, he saw a family of nine who only had five pieces of clothing and three pairs of pants. They could only huddle on the kang to keep each other warm. There was not much food left at home.
, they were all frozen and dying, Fang Yizhi quickly ordered the rescue, and put on the old clothes he brought, and also gave them a hundred kilograms of potatoes and sweet potatoes, which finally saved the family's life.
"Thank you so much, my benefactor! Thank you so much, my benefactor!"
"Dare you ask about my benefactor's name? If conditions permit, I would like to honor my benefactor for the rest of my life!"
"Without my benefactor, my whole family would be dead!"
The nine members of this family all knelt on the ground and kowtowed. The head of the household even bled from his forehead. He kept crying and complained that he was useless.
Seeing this scene, Fang Yizhi also cried and comforted them repeatedly, telling them that if they really couldn't survive, they could go to Xujiazhuang.
The above two stories are not special cases, they happen everywhere!
Fang Yizhi witnessed and experienced hundreds of incidents every day, and cried several times every day.
bitter.
The people of Ming Dynasty suffered so much!
This is still a relatively prosperous Jiangnan area, and the people are in such hardship. How should the people in other places live?
In short, he feels that the burden on his shoulders is getting heavier and heavier. Although he has the title of "Bodhisattva Master" among some hungry people, it is not enough. What he has done is far from enough!
…
December.
The cold winter of the twelfth lunar month.
Except for a few hundred members of Xujiazhuang's village guards who continue to be on duty, most of the village guards are on vacation.
I took a month's long annual leave.
The snow on the road is quite thick, making walking very difficult. Only a dozen sled tractors from Xujiazhuang can be used in this season, but they will not be used casually because the price of diesel is not low.
However, in order to go back to his hometown in Xizhang Village, Dashi Township, Baoying County for the New Year, Zhang Fugui, the leader of the village protection team, gritted his teeth and took out 30 yuan of silver dollars, rented a snow tractor, and asked the tractor to take him back to his hometown.
In fact, as a good runner, it's not that Zhang Fugui can't walk home, he can also walk fast in the snow.
It's just that there are too many things he wants to take home.
Five pounds of toffee.
Thirty pounds of pork.
One chicken, duck and goose each.
Ten pounds of salted fish.
Twenty cans.
One hundred kilograms of rice and noodles.
Ten sets of new clothes.
Some other items.
They were all New Year's goods that he wanted to take home, and they totaled more than two hundred kilograms.
A small part of so many things were saved by his usual frugality, and most of them were bought with salary. Adding the cost of renting a tractor, he spent all his salary without leaving any money.
But the owner of the farm is right, the money you spend is money, and the food you eat is food. You don’t have to be too frugal. Maintaining a good body is equivalent to saving money.
In the rumbling voice.
The sled tractor started and moved at a speed of more than 20 miles per hour. We would arrive in the afternoon.
…
at the same time.
In Xizhang Village, Dashi Township, Baoying County, in the east of the village, in a built two-entry house, a teenage girl is making a dress. With her ingenuity, she has made a pair of pieces on the silk cloth.
Very nice mandarin duck.
But she was absent-minded and glanced at the door from time to time, feeling very uneasy inside.
Her name is Tong Xiuer. She is sixteen years old this year. Her parents have married her into the Zhang family in Xizhang Village. She has accepted the bride price and married in advance. All she has to do is wait for her husband to come back and then arrange a banquet.
It's just that she hasn't met her husband yet, so she doesn't know what he is like. Will he be cruel to her? She only knows that he works as a servant in Xujiazhuang, Xinghua County, with a very high monthly salary, and what he does is licking blood from the edge of a knife.
of life.
Once, the husband whom I had never met wrote back and said that he went to the battlefield, beat three guardsmen to death with a wooden stick, took a reward of 60 silver dollars, and sent it all back home.
Knock three to death with a wooden stick?
Tong Xiuer was startled! An image of a macho man with a fleshy face and fierce eyes appeared in his head. He might have a few scars. He was holding a particularly thick wooden stick and could knock several of her to death in one go. She immediately remembered her parents' instructions.
: When you arrive at your husband's house, you must be docile and obedient, work more, talk less, and give birth to a son as soon as possible, so that you can gain a firm foothold in your husband's house.
Tong Xiuer firmly remembered these instructions. After arriving at the Zhang family, she rushed to work every day and was filial to her parents-in-law. Her four sisters-in-law did not dare to offend her, even if they often bullied her.
Calculate the time.
Her husband should be back in the next two days.
I wonder what he will do to me? Will he beat himself often? If I am more obedient and well-behaved, can I survive?
In short, as if she was waiting for the judgment of fate, Tong Xiuer felt very uneasy.
Rumble~
A loud noise came from far to near.
The earthquake shook the ground and snow fell, causing commotion throughout the village.
Until a mechanical monster puffing out smoke drove into the village and went straight to the door of the Zhang family's new house.
When Tong Xiuer walked to the entrance of the courtyard, she just glanced at the mechanical monster and was frightened out of her mind. What kind of monster was this? Why did it come towards her?
She immediately closed the door and hid in the house.
"Mom, dad, sister, I'm back!"
The former Zhang Damao, now Zhang Fugui, jumped off the sled tractor and announced his arrival with a loud voice. The villagers who were hiding around and observing calmed down.
"My son is finally back!"
The adoptive father and mother came forward to greet him excitedly, with tears streaming down their faces.
"Brother! Brother!"
The four younger sisters also surrounded Zhang Fugui, chattering and cheering.
"He is my husband?"
Tong Xiuer walked out of the house cautiously, and when she saw this young man who was neither fat nor thin, rather strong and handsome, with a wheat-colored and healthy complexion, she couldn't help but be very surprised and a little unbelievable.
Zhang Fugui naturally noticed her presence. Seeing that she looked timid and weak, like a frightened little rabbit, Zhang Fugui, who was not particularly interested in this fiancée at first, actually developed a strong caring heart and became very protective.