Juntian University Chronicle

Gongsun Qian has sent an urgent letter to Juntian City about the situation in Yanzhou, but now that Juntian army is going to Tianshu to fight Dongpu, the military strength is tense, and it is estimated that there will be no troops to take care of Yanzhou at the moment.At the moment, it is still necessary to figure out a way to deal with it.

Sitting withered in the mansion for half a day, Gongsun Qian had no clue and felt depressed, so he simply said to the outside: "Zichen, prepare your horse!"

"Where is the young master going?" Zichen asked Gongsunqian's steed.

"You follow me out for a walk." Gongsun Qian didn't have a clear purpose, he just wanted to go out to relax and stretch his mind.

Tianxuan is located in the southwest, it is near the end of the year, but the trees are only full of yellow leaves, and the climate is getting cooler, but it does not mean that the winter in the north is bleak.

Gongsun Qian and Zichen rode slowly on horseback. Along the way, they saw all kinds of hills and barren slopes. The exposed land was light red, which was not suitable for crop growth. It was sparsely populated and depressed for thousands of miles.

Gongsun Qian had something on his mind, so he thought about it while walking, and forgot the time for a while.The two of them walked for half a day, and they were exhausted. Gongsun Qian remembered that there was a village not far from here recorded in the state annals he saw earlier, so he said to Zichen, "Go ahead and see if there is a village in front of you?"

Zichen rode away in response to the sound, and turned back after a while, smiling back to Gongsunqian and saying, "Master, there is indeed a village of about ten families in front."

"Okay," Gongsun Qian raised his whip, "Then let's go buy some water."

Gongsun Qian followed Zichen into the village and jumped off his horse. It was time for dinner, but there were no wisps of cooking smoke in the village.

Zichen stood still in front of a thatched hut, and raised his hand to knock on the door. After knocking for a long time, a trembling old man came to open the door. Seeing that the two were well-dressed and extraordinary, he half-closed the door and looked at it in fear. to them.

Zichen took a step forward and said, "Hey, my master and servant were delayed on the way and missed dinner, and I still want to beg for a drink here. Please make it easier for me." After finishing speaking, he took out a few copper coins Are you going to pass it to the youngest?

The youngest hesitated for a while, then said: "You two gentlemen, the old slave's house is simple and simple, if you don't mind, please come in."

The two of them followed the youngest into the house, only to see a dimly lit oil lamp in the house, which can be described as a barren house.

The old man poured water for them, and went into the kitchen again, cruelly, took out the last bit of brown rice in the vat and put it into the pot, and went to the backyard to pull out a few vegetables.

Gongsun Qian took two bowls of porridge from the youngest. He saw that the porridge was mixed with rice and vegetables. After he tasted it, he thought that there was no salt and the taste was bland.

The master and the servant were also hungry, regardless of the taste, they quickly finished the hot porridge, only to find that the youngest hadn't eaten anything.

"Have you already eaten?" Gongsun Qian asked.

The youngest looked at their bowls, licked his dry lips, shook his head and said, "This old slave doesn't need to eat late."

Gongsun Qian paused in his heart, and asked again: "Is there not enough rice at home?"

The old man nodded and said again: "This old slave is getting old and can't eat much, so just eat whatever you want to satisfy your hunger, so as not to waste food."

Zichen was not full, so he ran to the kitchen to add food, but found that both the stove and the rice tank were empty, and he couldn't help being embarrassed, so he came out and said to Gongsunqian, "Master, are we afraid that we will treat this youngest child?" The last bit of food in the family has been eaten."

The Gongsun family is a family that has been passed down for several generations, and Zichen is the son of the family. He has been with Gongsun Qian since he was a child, and grew up in a heap of wealth. When he saw such a poor family, he was secretly surprised and at a loss. Looking at Gongsun Qian.

Gongsun Qian sighed, and said: "Zichen, can you give this man some more silver, so that he can buy some rice."

The old man waved his hands hurriedly when he heard the words, his old face was full of panic, "No way, the nobleman gave you copper coins to buy more than a dozen bowls of this kind of porridge, how can this old slave take the nobleman's silver again?"

Gongsun Qian motioned Zichen to help him to sit down, and comforted him in a warm voice: "Don't be afraid, old man. I am the governor of the state capital. I went out for an inspection today and forgot the time. I was cold and hungry just now, so I came to disturb you. I want to thank you for this bowl of vegetable porridge, which relieved the urgent needs of the two of us, so don’t refuse the money, it’s cold in winter, take it and buy more rice for storage.”

When the youngest heard that he was the governor of the state capital, he was busy kowtowing to him, and took the money gratefully.

"By the way, what about the rest of your family? Why haven't you come back yet?" Gongsun Qian asked again.

"Back to your lord," the youngest wiped away her tears and said, "The old slave's husband died early. The elder son died of famine a few years ago, and the younger son married to another county two years ago. Now there is only the old slave in the family. I am a slave, but luckily the youngest son's husband's family is generous, and donates money from time to time to barely get by."

Zichen stood aside, feeling so pitiful for the youngest, and secretly put some money in his kitchen.

Gongsun Qian asked, "I don't know where Li is living in the village?"

The youngest said hurriedly: "Your Excellency wants to see Li Zheng, this old slave can bring you there."

Fortunately, there was this old lady leading the way, otherwise the village would be dark at night and it would be difficult to see things, so it would be really hard to find.

It wasn't until Lizheng's house that Gongsun Qian found out that Lizheng's residence was not much better than that of the old man's house, it was just a few more rough furniture.

After Lizheng knew his identity, he hurriedly asked Fulang to pour tea for him, held it in front of him, and said with some shame: "My lord, there is no good tea in such a poor country, so my lord will make do with it."

Gongsun Qian looked at the tea bowl, it was full of tea leaves, but it was the best tea in Li Zheng's house, so he took the tea bowl and put it aside, and asked Li Zheng to sit down and talk.

He is about 60 years old here. He thinks he has been working for many years, his face is full of weather and frost, and his back is bent.

"Although Yanzhou is remote, no matter where you are, you always have to find some way to live. Why is everyone's life so difficult?" Gongsun Qian asked straight to the point.Before he came, he had heard that Yanzhou was poor, but he never expected to see it with his own eyes, and it was even more difficult than he imagined.

"My lord doesn't know something." Li Zheng sighed and said, "Thinking about a few decades ago, our Yanzhou was the hometown of the Yaoguang Kingdom. Although it wasn't rich at that time, the mountains here were rich in moso bamboo, and the people in the state relied on it. Moso bamboo can also be mixed with food and clothing."

"Moso bamboo?" Gongsun Qian was a little puzzled. He came to Yanzhou and made a rough inspection, but he didn't see any moso bamboo on this mountain.

"It happened more than 30 years ago, and now all the people in Yanzhou who can leave have moved away, and not many old, weak, sick and disabled can live to this day, and the juniors don't know what happened back then." Li Zheng said with emotion .

"Since that's the case, what happened later, so that now you can't even see a single bamboo?" Gongsun Qian asked.

"I remember that when the first emperor attacked Tianxuan, Yaoguang was affected by the flames of war, and all the kings and officials retreated to Yanzhou." Recalling the past, Li Zheng's cloudy eyes lit up with some light.

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