The husband's son-in-law

Li Zhouzhou came out with 3000 taels, and the Yan family was tight on money, but last year the rice grain distributed by the court did not sell much, and it was also thanks to Yan’s elders digging in the fields, they are used to hoarding more grain, and he has a large family and is rigorous. The letter said that it will not be sold for the time being, but will be kept until the end of the year.

Now there is still food for the family to eat, and there are seven bags of rice left, which is seven hundred catties.

The Zheng family sells medicinal materials, so it is naturally impossible to go to Ping'an Town. It will be spring next year. The Zheng family is in the business of medicinal materials in medical clinics. , Now I have contacted the medicinal materials dealer in Beijing. The medicinal materials are bought, but they don't charge a high price. It is almost the same as in the past, and it is already convenient.

Li Zhouzhou took the money to buy cotton cloth and came back, plus what he had stockpiled at home before, so he spread out the two rooms in the west wing. Yan's mother, Yan's grandmother, Lan's mother, Xiaoshu, Zhang's mother, and Tang Rou was pregnant. It's not good to keep the maid to serve the big and small, it's not good to toss and run back and forth, it's not good if it's cold and slippery, it's good if you want it.

Everyone went to Li's yard and began to sew clothes and quilts.

Cotton cloth is limited, so Li Zhouzhou thought that he would not need to sew too thick, as long as it could withstand the winter.Grandma Yan nodded and said, "It's colder when it's colder. It's reasonable to save more lives. When I was in the village, it was cold in winter. I knew how thick I was wearing..."

It's not freezing to death, it's just colder.

They all lived through hard times, and they all know the truth. Take the willow tree as an example. When he was a child, he wore clothes that were patched on top of each other. The cotton is several years old, so when he gets cold, he works more and runs around more.

Now it’s all about surviving. It’s impossible to wear thick and thick clothes that make your palms sweat.

"Madam is kind-hearted, the life of these refugees and disaster victims is tenacious, and they can survive if they hang on their breath." Mother Lan said.Her family also carried it here, just like the grass in the field, no matter what the heavens do, as long as they don't die, they can live well.

Aozi is also a short type, so how to do it conveniently.

Later, Mama Lan called her own daughter to help, and so did Fang Liu. His wife and sister-in-law also came over, and he was also a victim of the flood. Mother took them all the way to Beijing, but a few died on the way.

When he arrived in Beijing, his father and mother passed away with a sigh of relief. They were gone, and he and his younger brother became orphans. They survived these years and took root. They know the hardships of being a refugee best.As soon as his brother heard from him that the wife of the mansion had bought cotton cloth to make jackets for the refugees, there was a shortage of manpower, and it was all the parents and wives of the official who made them themselves, so they came over immediately.

When the clothes, rice grains, charcoal, and medicinal materials are ready, the men from the three families, Liu Shuli and Zhou Zhou, will follow along. They are brothers, tall and strong, so they can help.

I pulled several carts of supplies, and covered them with oiled paper, for fear that it would get wet when it snowed.

When I went outside the city, I asked the gate guards, who were impatient at first, but when they heard that the three of them were officials who were going to rescue the victims outside the city, they pointed out the way in a good voice, "...the victims of the disasters are not allowed to stay outside the city gate now. , before there were kind-hearted people like the three masters who gave things away, not to mention the things were robbed and emptied, and even hurt the maids in the mansion. Those victims made a mess, trampled three to death, and beat each other The four of them are all gathered together now, and it’s only a two-mile walk to the west, and the fifth prince dispatched troops to watch, and it’s much better now.”

Unlike before, there was a dense blackness outside the city gate. Those victims said they were pitiful. They smelled something, and they swarmed up like hungry wolves. They were all hungry and skinny, but they were strong and not afraid of death. If you grab it, you dare to stuff raw rice into your mouth.

I ate raw rice, and several of them didn't survive the night.

There are also those who got something, some people saw it, sneaked in at night, and did some shady activities. Every day when the city gate was opened, there were more than a dozen corpses. Stabbed.

It's a mess, there is no household registration and identity record, and I don't know who's name is who died, so I just dragged it to a mass grave and buried it-now it's snowing and freezing. As long as it is covered by snow, we will talk about it later.

People die every day, but there are more and more victims outside the city.

Fortunately, the Fifth Prince had seconded soldiers, otherwise the designation outside the city would have become more chaotic.

Gu Zhao and the others drove to the victim's place, and from a distance, they could see an empty and barren field filled with darkness. Soldiers were building thatched huts. Those victims slept outside at night, and some built a simple structure with thatched wood. In the triangular shed, some people find a place to sleep in the leeward, anyway, they can walk all the way, so they have the experience of keeping out the cold.

When these people saw their things, they obviously hadn't arrived yet. The distance of a hundred meters, the victims in the front rushed over. Those people were all as thin as firewood, dressed in rags, wrapped as tightly as possible, and the clothes on their bodies They are not in the same place, and some of them are not known where to pick them up, and several pieces are put together to wear together.

Willow was startled, he had never seen such a scene.

Yan Jinxin blocked Xiaoshu behind him, and Liushu regained his senses a little bit better, "It's better than I thought——" He couldn't say what he wanted.

Scarier than expected.

Although Gu Zhaosheng is an orphan in modern times, he can eat enough, clothe himself warmly and go to school. In the past, there were also disasters, earthquakes and floods. He saw in the news that the national government actively rescued and donated money from various places. donated money.

But now, the people at the bottom of the small-scale peasant economy are facing natural disasters. From the book, it is better to face the impact and fear directly than to listen to others.

... Now that he is still destined to live outside Beijing, Gu Zhao dare not think about what will happen to the people of Ningxi Prefecture.

These people are less human, primitive survival instincts.

Fortunately, the five carts that Gu Zhao and his men brought were all tall and big men, and they were a bit intimidating. Those refugees rushed up, not daring to go forward to grab them—there were soldiers not far behind.

They all wailed: "Masters, please do me a favor, I'm so hungry."

"Master, help, help, my son can't live anymore."

Some ragged mothers begged with cold-faced blue-faced children in their arms.

They drove all the way, and these people followed them all the way, looking at them with hunger, thirst, pleading and painful eyes, it was not difficult to soften their hearts, but several people noticed that these people had fierce eyes when they looked at the supplies in the car.

If you can’t post it now, it will be a mess.

The first batch of people who can rush over are experienced people who know that people from the city will come to rescue the disaster. If you look closely, it is not difficult to find that these people are thin, hungry and cold, but they are in good spirits and run fast.

When we arrived at the disaster-stricken area, there were soldiers watching and helping.

When a few people arrived at the place, the captain knew that it was the official who came to rescue the disaster in person, so he pointed to the two soldiers to look over, and said: "My lords, it's not that I speak badly. Don't be fooled."

Speaking of which, there was a sticky boy who just followed them all the way not far away, his eyes were bright and cruel, but when the captain looked over, he ran away and found a place to shrink up.

In an open space, firewood was set up to cook porridge in an iron pot.The buns are already steamed.

When the victims saw it, they all gathered around the fire to keep warm while waiting for relief. There were soldiers watching, and they all behaved well, except that they wailed occasionally, saying that they were hungry or cold.

Gu Zhao saw that there were thousands of people, and asked the team leader, there are still refugees coming here every day, and the increase is dozens or even hundreds every day. Now it is too late to build a house, so they can only build thatched huts. Have to wait on the way.

When the porridge was ready, smelling the aroma, without calling, the victims came over, because they knew that the officials and soldiers were there, so they didn't dare to jump in the line, and they all lined up.

The boy with the hemp stick was originally guarding nearby. When the porridge was ready, he moved forward. He was scolded by the captain and asked to roll to the back and line up. Look, go back.

The captain saw Mr. Gu watching and said, "It's not that I was cruel to him. The three adults don't know. This child came from the same place as a disaster victim and slept in the same shed. A man was stoned to death."

"You saw him kill?" Gu Zhao asked.

The captain shook his head, "I heard from my subordinates in the morning that more than a dozen people slept under a thatched hut, and they all said they couldn't see clearly or remember. There was a thin shadow at night, making a loud bang. It was too dark to see."

"Later, everyone in that shed hid and appointed him to do it."

Gu Zhao didn't say anything, just glanced at the person behind in line, and that person looked at them again, his dirty hair couldn't cover his face with a bit of childishness, but his eyes were bright with hatred, not like It was from the eyes of a child.For a moment he couldn't tell the difference between good and bad.

"This place gives out porridge and steamed buns, and the team over there gives out cotton clothes." Li Zhouzhou said.

As soon as Li Zhouzhou finished speaking, people from the back of the line jumped up, and among them was the half-grown child with a stick. The captain got angry when he saw it, pointed and scolded, and told him to go to the back.

"Why! You are here for disaster relief. I am a disaster victim. Why can't I get it?"

"Okay, you still dare to talk back to me." The captain casually drew the wooden stick and was stopped by Yan Jinxin first.

Gu Zhao heard that the child's voice hadn't changed. He was probably twelve or thirteen years old. Seeing that he was as thin as his chest, but the exposed bones were also thin, so he first said to the captain: "Captain calm down, I know You have worked hard and worked hard to build a house for disaster relief in the freezing weather. Although it is hard work, it is also a credit. When the disaster is over, the Fifth Prince will appoint an order."

The team leader led the team to work day and night for more than ten days, moving corpses and building houses, and taking care of these victims. The victims kept coming, and the houses were built day and night, but they were not enough to live in. The scolding, I was already on fire in my heart, now listening to Mr. Gu's soft words, the fire is gone.

"My lord, you don't know. Although I shouted loudly, but the fifth prince has an order, we don't dare to hurt the lives of these victims. When I first arrived to take over, I saw that they were also pitiful. They bought rice and food out of their own pockets. But there are too many people who can’t be saved, and there are some rude and cheap people who pretended to be pitiful and begged for mercy to you, and turned around to bully those incompetent old and weak women and children.”

The captain was also deceived and hated the hooligans among the victims.

Once the disaster arrives, people have already lost their humanity along the way.

"How old are you?" Gu Zhao asked.

The stick kid said stiffly, "Fifteen."

Gu Zhaoxin is a ghost, he doesn't sound like a primary school student when he hears it, he doesn't ask his age, but asks: "The captain suspects that you killed the fellow hut, did you do it?"

"No." The stick kid said in one go.

Captain: "You didn't kill them, can those people avoid you?"

"It's none of my business that they are afraid of me? No one said when those old and weak roads robbed me of food. If I didn't stand up, I would have died on the road!" The stick boy said bitterly: "I'm not miserable, I'll live It’s time to starve and freeze! I insist on living.”

Gu Zhao: "...Go get the cotton coat if you haven't killed anyone. It's your turn. After you get it, go get the food."

This time, the boy was stunned, his face was still full of hatred and contorted, he didn't know what expression to make for a moment, he didn't speak, and went straight to get the cotton coat.

Cotton clothes are distributed quickly, and quilts can be wrapped in single person, but later I heard from the captain that it is better not to distribute quilts, because people will rob and steal them when they fall asleep at night, and some people will freeze to death, so it is better to use cotton clothes —Although it will also be robbed.

"...Now we can only arrange the old and the weak, women and children together, put those horizontal ones together, and send troops to look at these horizontal ones. As long as no one is killed, it's fine. Now it's out of control." The captain said.

If there are more and more disaster victims in the future, the designation will become more chaotic, and there will be no way to stop people from dying.

It was posted quickly in one day, and there are still some things left in the house, so I will check it out in a few days.

The firewood and iron pans are left here. Now that it is snowing, boil some snow water to drink and keep warm. The rest of the rice, steamed buns, cotton clothes and quilts are distributed cleanly.

When I came here, the carts were full, and when I went back, it was empty, and I felt the same in my heart. When I came, I felt that saving people came, and I felt at ease. I did a good deed. When I got to eat, I saw too many miserable and pitiful scenes, and my heart was empty and panicked.

Li Zhouzhou sighed.

Gu Zhaoge held Zhou Zhou's hand and comforted him, "Don't be discouraged. Let's save as long as we can, fight a protracted war, and come when we have time."

"Brother Zhao is right, take your time and do your best." Zheng Hui wanted to sigh from the bottom of his heart after speaking.

I can't get enough to eat, so where can I find firewood to boil and drink medicine?After thinking about it in his mind, he couldn't help but make some ointment pills for typhoid and frostbite at home, and it would be more convenient to bring them over.

Yan Yanxin: "At the end of the new year, if the imperial court distributes rice, my family will take half of it."

"as well."

The two nodded.

The more I talked about those empty panics in my heart, the more I settled down.

As soon as you enter the gate of the capital, you will feel like a different world. The stalls, juggling restaurants and inns welcome the delivery, the bright carriages, horses and sedan chairs on the road, food and drink, delicious food, and freshly baked meat buns. bustling scene.

The disaster does not conflict with the life of the people in Beijing, nor does it conflict with the luxurious life of the dignitaries above.

As it was before, it remains the same now.If you are soft-hearted and have no shortage of money, let the housekeeper do it, go outside for disaster relief for a few days, or chant sutras in front of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to pray for peace, this is considered intentional.

Most of the upper class have no empathy for the refugees and disaster victims.

At the end of the new year, the carbon and rice grains of the Beijing officials will be delivered correctly, and there will be no shortage of officials if there is anything missing. Gu Zhaosheng has become an official, and this year he takes a lot of things. They are all divided, unlike last year when the Eighth Prince sent them These chicken, duck and mutton.

The eighth prince can't even come out of the mansion now.

Sigh.

Gu Zhao sometimes felt very magical. It was his second year in Beijing, and the time was flying so fast that it was not as solid and real as life in prefectures and counties.

As usual, he wrote a letter for the caravan to send back. Li Zhouzhou gave Li Guangzong's daughter Jiuyue a long-life lock, a small silver plate slightly larger than a copper plate, and the name of Jiuyue was on the sign, because The third room of the Gu family also got a boy, Gu Yang, and wrote a letter to report it. Li Zhouzhou was a little hesitant, "...do you want to give Gu Yang a longevity lock too? Guangzong's daughter has one, and when I take it back, I can tell it to spread the word." .”

"No, if I marry into Li's family, I will pour water into Li's family." The joke is all jokes. After finishing speaking, Gu Zhao took Zhou Zhou's hand and said, "You are branding Jiuyue to give Jiuyue some weight. It’s a good thing not to let the second uncle and the second aunt look down on the girl Jiuyue too much, Gu Yang was born a boy, without this brand, my third uncle would not treat the youngest son harshly.”

"Whether there is a brand is the icing on the cake for Gu Yang."

"It's not as good as this. I'll write a letter back. In the future, if Li and Gu's family gives birth to a girl, our family will give a silver medal for longevity."

Li Zhouzhou wondered if the Gu family would be slapped in the face, saying that they were not sincere in giving the gift. Gu Zhao thought it was good after he finished speaking, so he took the paper and wrote it again. He really said: If the Li and Gu families get a girl Then send the longevity lock.

Be happy with me.Li Zhouzhou saw that his husband was in high spirits, so he didn't stop him. He didn't care what the villagers whispered about them behind their backs.

"...By the way, add brother too." Gu Zhaozhong took a piece of paper and added it.

Li Zhouzhou smiled, already thinking that the two families would definitely say after reading the letter: Li Zhouzhou gave birth to a brother, and now they are still using this to give birth to a brother.

Leave them alone!

"My husband will be muttered as wicked."

"Let's have it if it's lacking." It doesn't matter if these patriarchal men mean to their daughters or brothers' virtues.

There were also two volumes of "Two Exams in Three Years" sent back together.

In the end, Gu Zhao said in the letter that the weather is changing rapidly, there are snowstorms in some places, and the grain harvest in the village is good. Don't sell them all, and every household has some reserves.

It looks like a war is coming.

The three families rescued them several times later, and they went there whenever they rested. Li Zhouzhou took everyone to warm up by the fire in the house, chatting and making padded jackets, and when the minister took a rest, he took things to help the victims.

Later, there were too many victims, and there were waves of them.Fortunately, at the beginning, the team leader said that there were no more disaster victims in the past few days, so there should be 460 and [-] victims now.

As for so many people in Ningxi Prefecture, no one knows what is going on now.I just hope that the people who stayed in Ningxi Prefecture and haven't come here can live through this winter safely, and everything will be fine when the weather is warmer in the new year.

The disaster victims who stayed outside Beijing spent the winter here, and if they survived, there is a high probability that they will migrate back.

Gu Zhao heard what Fang Liu said, "... At that time, not to mention the house in my hometown, the whole village was flooded, the ground was full of water, and I fled to Beijing. I was afraid that I would not be able to survive. Why would I want to go back? ? Besides, all my family members are dead, the land is gone, the house is gone, so I don’t know where to go, but where to go back.”

Without family members, it seems that there is no root, and there is no melancholy about leaving the homeland.

Are struggling how to survive.

"I sold myself. If all the family members who came with me would definitely want to go back, I would not be able to live in the original village when I went back. I would open up wasteland, open up fields and build houses. Except for the seeds, I would rely on myself for the rest. Just ran to farm for the landlord, and it was hard work for a few years."

The land rented by the landlord, the harvest of one mu of land, the eighth master, the second tenant, whoever asked you to rent it for free without paying a penny, is really just a living after working all year round.

"These are the words for later, now..." I can say it after I can survive.Fang Liu didn't finish his sentence. If it wasn't too difficult back then, who would want to sell himself as a slave.He is 13 years old, and his younger brother is eight years old.

Not being a slave is starving to death in the wilderness.

It's snowing heavily in Beijing.

Li Da saw heavy snow falling in the yard. He couldn't say that the snow was good this year, but the harvest in the next year would be good. He sighed when he saw the heavy snow, and then swung the broom to clean it up.

"Father won't sweep anymore, don't be cold, go into the house and have a rest and have a drink of broth." Gu Zhao told father not to sweep.

Mother Lan stewed mutton soup, which is the way people in Beijing eat. White radish hobs and mutton are stewed. The big pieces of meat are connected to the bones. Even eating and drinking, it makes the whole body warm.

Li Da took off his hat under the eaves, and brushed off the snow on his hat. It took only a while for the snow to accumulate. He went into the room and hung his hat on his waistcoat. On the table, there was a pot sitting on the gurgling clay stove. .

"Taking advantage of the heat, the weather will cool off after a while." Gu Zhao served soup for his father.

Fu Bao was sitting on the baby chair, Li Zhouzhou fed Fu Bao a small bowl of mutton soup, Fu Bao took a sip of the soup, and he gnawed with a small bean paste bun in his hand, Dad took a sip, and he took a sip.

Lunch is a pot of mutton soup, baked pancakes and bean paste buns, and a plate of cold shredded radish. The mutton is too hot and tonic. Eat shredded radish to neutralize it. There is a plate of handmade thin noodles next to it. After eating, drink the first pot After the mutton soup, there was still mutton soup made by Lan Mama in the copper pot, and the next noodles were boiled in the pot, with some cabbage.

It's hot to eat like this, otherwise even if the stove is lit in the main room and Fubao is fed, it will be cold when the adults eat it, especially the mutton soup is easy to be greasy.

"Yesterday, the dental office manager came and said that there are too many people, so I asked if I want it?" Li Zhouzhou said to his father and husband.It's cheaper than before.

Gu Zhaoneng thought about it, there were many people in Yaxing, and they were all disaster victims from outside. If they were not pushed to a dead end, as Fang Liu said, who would sell themselves to be slaves.

"You choose, let's see and buy it." Li Da had no objection, it was life-saving at the moment when someone came back after buying it.

Gu Zhao said: "After two days, I will take a rest and watch at home together."

They have also provided disaster relief five times. Later, when the brothers and teachers found out, they even spent money to do their best.The imperial court distributed rice grains, and the three families each donated half. The teacher and senior brother bought firewood and charcoal fire, and Zhou Zhou spent half of his business money in the past few months to buy cotton fabrics to make jackets.

At the end of the new year, the disaster-stricken areas are also strictly controlled. The last time I sent things there, I saw that the houses were built. The young and strong victims moved things and built houses by themselves. I heard that rations were distributed. Cooking porridge and cooking seems to be orderly.

In addition to the initial hectic and inexperienced, the fifth prince is now coping with it.

These few times of disaster relief, Gu Zhao could see that some people before the suffering lost their humanity and lived on their instincts. He didn't say anything, after all, he was not up to that point, and he couldn't guarantee what would happen to him when he was in a desperate situation. His family bought someone back to work and look after the children.

That character has to be dependable.

Two days later, Gu Zhao is that Xiu Mu started his annual leave.The tooth shop sent people over.

It’s not for nothing that the Yaren took in these victims. Today’s Yamen is a semi-official institution with a name and records in the Yamen. There are too many refugees outside the city. The fifth prince asked those who wanted to sell themselves, and picked them first. People sent people to the major dental shops in Beijing, and then sent people to various mansions, so that a group of young children were digested.

No one wants old and middle-aged people.

The dental office goes through the formalities, first registers the slavery of the prostitute, then sells the prostitute to the master's house, and gives it together with the deed of prostitution. After that, he will become the buyer's domestic slave, and he will be punished and punished - the family in the open Slaves are not allowed to be killed.

However, there are too many infernal methods in Gaomen, and I really want to rectify them. Those who accidentally fell into the water, fell ill, and went away in a hurry. Anyway, a house slave died, and there was no yamen to ask carefully how he died. Is it fair to return it to the house slave?

Anyway, human life is worthless.

Dental dealers take a commission, sell one, and get money.

In the past, when the Li family recruited people, they gave away five. They said that only two people would be bought, and they were all uneven.But now that Gu Zhao is on vacation, around noon in the morning, around ten or eleven o'clock, Ya Xingren came to the door, and brought thirty people behind him.

Here's what's left.

There are thirty people left.

There are many boys, few girls, and a few middle-aged people, both male and female.

Ya Renrang was waiting in the yard, and it was still snowing. These people washed their thin clothes, and some of them were familiar with the coats sewn by Li Zhouzhou.

"Let's line up in the corridor and wait." Li Zhouzhou said.

Just stop standing in the yard.

Yaren smiled happily and said, "Madam is kind-hearted. I don't thank Madam."

These people have been taught the rules, but they are also sparse.Li Zhouzhou didn't care about this, he went into the room and asked his husband to come out to see people, the tooth man lowered his head and gnawed his teeth and showed a little chuckle, there are still no rules in this Li family, where the master comes out to see people, it's better to let him The servants went to the corridor to avoid the snow, so as not to suffer from the cold or the cold.

Tsk, it's a kind host family, although it's a small family, it's definitely not as good as a big family's high branch, but it's lucky to be bought without being harsh.

The stove was lit in the main room, the door was hung with a curtain, Fu Bao was playing inside, the dining table was moved to a corner, and the place was wide open, allowing Fu Bao to push a small cart around. Li Da looked at Fu Bao and said to the two: " You two make it up."

Gu Zhao was wearing bunts, he didn't bother to change clothes, so he put on a cloak and went out.

The entire corridor of the two side rooms was full of people.

After living in Dali for so many years, Gu Zhao thought that he was used to this being a feudal dynasty, and he would inevitably be beheaded and ransacked when he became an official. He was also worried about the Eighth Prince's revision of books before, but after the snowstorm came out, looking at these Living people, like goods, are waiting to be bought, and they will be happy that someone will survive if they buy it and have a place to stay.

The world is hard, and it will only get harder in the future.