But he said that Li You took a boat out of the county town and headed northeast. Along the way, he saw only shallow rivers and dry canals. The low-lying areas were better, but in some high-lying areas, the villagers gathered in groups, old, young, women, and children.
Watering the fields carried by hand and shoulder, everyone looked sad and frowned, but not a single smile was seen for a long time.
This is a completely different world from the prosperity and hustle and bustle of the county town. Li You couldn't help but lamented that the same severe drought was completely different outside the city. Does Jiangnan already have a dual society in this era? Such is the sentiment of the people in the countryside.
, no wonder people are killed because of fighting with weapons to pray for rain.
When the waterway reached the last two miles, the water was too shallow to sail, so Li You and his men had to walk ashore.
Most of Zhujiaji's households are farmers, and their affluence is much lower than that of Xishui Town. Many of the people living in Zhujiaji are huts with earthen walls. The brick-walled building of Uncle Li You's house is very eye-catching. His uncle has a family at home.
He has more than a hundred acres of land, employs a dozen long-term workers, and earns about a hundred taels of silver a year. He just lives in leisurely life, and after becoming the clan leader, he also handles some trivial matters in the clan.
When he arrived at his uncle's house, he led his men through the door. However, he saw his cousins at home coming to the front yard to greet him. Li You was shocked. He had never been treated like this before. He held his hands and said, "You can kill me, little brother. What can I do?"
Worth it."
Leaving his men to drink tea in the front hall, Li You went into the backyard again. His uncle Zhu Zhifang was smiling and playing chess with the old teacher hired by his family. This uncle was over fifty, but he took good care of himself and his face was still shiny.
When he saw Li You, he waved and said: "My good nephew, you are very promising now. I knew you were extraordinary back then, but others still didn't believe it."
Li You quickly stepped forward and saluted his uncle, then stood up and said with a smile: "Uncle is really good at joking. I remember when you complained that my mother only gave birth to sons, leaving my cousins with no ready-made wives."
Zhu Fang glared and said, "That kid is talking nonsense! It was clearly your father who first complained that my family would not have a daughter, so you two brothers had no advantage." After saying this, he regretted and said, "What a pity! Looking at your future prospects, uncle, I
I also feel very regretful that I couldn’t give birth to a daughter and that I was taking advantage of other people’s families.”
After the uncle and nephew finished their greetings, the old man next to him also stopped playing chess, but stood up to greet Li You. From his reserved appearance, he looked like an old boy with no fame and honor, just eating a few bowls of rice from the Zhu family.
After the meeting, Li You asked: "What's the fight with weapons?"
Zhu Zhifang replied: "There has been no rain for a long time. We, the people of Zhujiazhuang, carried out our local land gods and patrolled the territory to pray for rain. The unruly people of Dachunzhuang thought that we had infringed on their land and gathered the surrounding villagers to fight."
This matter is actually very simple. Although Zhujiaji and Dachunzhuang are close neighbors, they are only separated by a dirt road, and the two villages are bounded by this road. Although they are close, the two villages do not worship the same land god.
In my mind, the two villages belong to the jurisdiction of different land gods.
That day, Zhujiaji was carrying the earth god on a parade. After crossing the dirt road that served as the boundary, the villagers of Dachunzhuang saw it and felt insulted. They summoned the surrounding villagers who worshiped another earth god like them, and the Zhujiaji villagers.
A big fight.
Li You was speechless. What kind of bad thing is this? It was just that the land statue here crossed a line in the minds of the villagers, which led to a large-scale fight. Before coming here, he thought it was a fight between two sides fighting for water. This is different from what he heard in his previous life.
What's the difference between a joke about fighting a lawsuit for several years for a few centimeters of homestead land?
Stupid.
Li You was too lazy to ask about this matter in detail, so he asked again: "Whose family the life was taken from?"
Zhu Zhifang sighed and said: "It's a man named Zhu Zhili here. There are only two mother and daughter left in the family. Poor, pitiful. This man is too honest. He rushes to the front during the fight, but he is beaten by the group if he is not careful.
died."
This name sounded so familiar. Li You thought about it for more than twenty chapters. Wasn't he the person whose daughter was favored by the Yan family manager last month?
At this time, I heard someone shouting from the front: "Uncle Zhu! There is going to be a fight at the entrance of the village again!"
After hearing this, Li You led his men and hurried towards the entrance of the village, accompanied by his uncle. Sure enough, he saw two groups of villagers, each with dozens of people confronting each other, but fortunately they did not take action.
After receiving Li You's order, a government official stepped forward and stood in the middle and shouted: "The county government official is here, you must not act rashly!"
When the villagers of Zhujiaji saw that the two groups of people were accompanied by the clan leader, they were all happy. A few of them even recognized that the clan leader was the nephew of the clan leader. But the other party couldn't help but feel a little nervous.
The timid ones have already shrunk back.
Li You was also in trouble. He thought that the fight was over and he was just here to wrap things up. Unexpectedly, he ran into a tense situation. If he didn't want to be stabbed in the spine, Zhu Jiaji would definitely take sides, but if he provoked Da Chun
The villagers are angry and causing trouble, which is also a troublesome matter.
But he saw someone coming from the direction of Dachunzhuang. He saluted in front of Li You and said, "My surname is Fang. I am the steward assigned to Dachunzhuang by Yanfu in the city. The unruly people in my office have caused trouble for you. It's my fault." He said.
I don’t know Li You, so I just call him sir, but I have some guesses in my heart, so I’m going to fawn over him first.
The surname is Fang? The steward of the Yan family? Li You knew in his heart that this was the steward Fang who instigated Fan Wu to frame him. He was driven to this village for some reason. No wonder I couldn't find you, so you came to the door. Now
Li You said with a half-smile but not a smile: "The people of your village are so numerous that I dare not reprimand them. I bother the manager to lecture them."
The government officials on both sides were puzzled as to what kind of medicine Li You was selling in his gourd.
Manager Fang walked up to the crowd of villagers in Dachunzhuang. The entire Dachunzhuang was full of tenants of the Yan family. How could he be afraid of these villagers? He scolded: "You unscrupulous people! You don't take care of the fields. You only know how to fight. It's clear."
It's all just lazing around, and it's getting questioned by the official, so it's time to break up!"
In fact, what Manager Fang said was true. The God of the Land had nothing to do with him as an outsider. However, these farmers were fighting and fighting, which affected the farm work in the fields. This was what he was most concerned about.
It's already very miserable to be sent to the village to be the head of a village. It would be even worse if the income turned in was even less, and I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to do anything as a steward.
Li You was secretly happy when he saw that Manager Fang had really reprimanded the tenants. He walked to Manager Fang and said, "It's not like they were making trouble out of nothing. After all, the land lords had a conflict with each other. It's excusable."
Manager Fang made a sound of "poof" and said disdainfully: "Idiots from the countryside, what kind of land lord, they are just like a bird."
Li You took a peek at the tenants of Dachunzhuang. They all looked angry and dared not speak out. Feeling that the time had come, he pressed Manager Fang's shoulders on the spot and said to his subordinates: "Get this guy for me!" Someone took it out.
Manager Fang was tied up with a rope, and his mouth was also blocked to prevent him from shouting randomly.
This time it was really a pleasure for both sides. The Zhujiaji villagers thought that they were indeed one of their own, so they immediately took down the other party's manager. As soon as the Dachunzhuang villagers were angry, someone came forward to relieve their anger, which was secretly satisfying, not to mention this place.
The stewards were not allowed to see the stewards when they were in the village. Those stewards who did nothing had nothing to do with them. If they were caught, they would be arrested. They would just replace the stewards of the Yan family.
Li You held up his hands to the crowds on both sides and said: "Fathers, please give me some face and stop fighting. During this severe drought, we should focus on living and food rations. Shouldn't we continue to fight and leave our fields to wait for starvation in the coming year? From now on.
Grandpa Tu, please be careful and don’t cross the boundary again.”
The villagers who could fight for the land god were actually quite honest in another sense. Both parties felt that Li Gongcha from the county gave them face, so they naturally wanted to give Li Gongcha face, so they broke up.
