Splendid peasant girl busy farming

4325 - The beggar from the East China Sea
"Even if it's delicacies from mountains and seas, ginseng and bird's nests are in front of me, I don't even bother to look at them." Yang Ruoqing joked.

Luo Fengtang also laughed. , "Me too, this meal is really satisfying!"

Xu Mang said: "We are alive, what is the purpose of making money so hard? Isn't it just eating!"

"Eat well, eat well, everything else is empty!"

In the afternoon, the two children left their jobs and ran out to play. I don’t know where they went to play. Anyway, the adults don’t interfere with this. It’s rare to get together during Chinese New Year, as long as they are happy.

Xu Mang's daughter-in-law stoked the flames in the two braziers in the main room, and gave one to the two men, but neither of them wanted it, so Xu Mang's wife and Yang Ruoqing guarded one.

It's warm and really comfortable.

Xu Mang and Luo Fengtang were talking, and as soon as they talked, the topic changed to those interesting things in Wanghai County.

"By the way, there have been a lot of beggars popping up out of nowhere in Wanghai County recently. These beggars speak with foreign accents, and some of them even drag their families along. This reminds me of that year." Xu Mang said.

"What year? Was it the time when the great benevolent people in Huguang County adopted little beggars and vagrants?" Luo Fengtang asked.

Xu Mang nodded.

Luo Fengtang looked at Yang Ruoqing.

Yang Ruoqing looked at Xu Mang, and said, "Brother Xu, since when did this situation start? Were there many beggars in Wanghai County before?"

Xu Mang said: "Probably since the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, there used to be beggars in Wanghai County, but not too many, and now there are more and more beggars, with families, old, weak, sick and disabled."

"I asked some of them, where do you think they came from?"

"Where did you come from?" Yang Ruoqing asked curiously.

"To the east, near Tianhai County!" Xu Mang said.

"Where did they come from?" Yang Ruoqing was surprised, and then she looked at Luo Fengtang: "The ones we met with brother Xu are not from the same group, right?"

Luo Fengtang shook his head, "Not sure."

Yang Ruoqing looked away and continued to ask Xu Mang: "Brother Xu, what kind of people are you asking about? Did you bring any children, little girl?"

Xu Mang shook his head: "I'm asking about an old couple without children."

"Why, you also met a beggar coming from the east?" Xu Mang asked again.

Yang Ruoqing nodded, "Yes, what we met was a mother and daughter. They said they came here as a family. When I asked why, the mother said that there was a famine over there and they didn't have enough to eat."

"But what the old couple on my side said was not because of the famine!" Xu Mang said.

"What is that?" Yang Ruoqing asked.

Xu Mang glanced at Luo Fengtang with a look of embarrassment on his face.

"Brother Xu, you can just say what you want, we don't care about that between brothers!" Luo Fengtang said.

Xu Mang continued: "I asked them why they left their homes to beg here at such an advanced age? Don't they have any children to support them?"

"They said that in the past two years in Tianhai County, all kinds of exorbitant taxes have been increasing day by day. The output of the field, the harvest of the workshop, and the operation of the shop all have to pay taxes. The tax rate is high and there are many names,"

"Even later, when a family wants to marry a daughter-in-law, the government has to draw a certain amount of wedding money from it, so that many men in the village dare not marry a wife when they reach the marriageable age."

"Then the local yamen came up with a new regulation. Those who have reached the marriageable age and have not married will be fined!"

"The common people complained and dared not speak out. Many people were really forced to sell their daughters to make a living. Those who dragged their families away from their hometowns were all because they couldn't live in the local area! "

After listening to Xu Mang's words, Luo Fengtang's face darkened.

"My army of protecting the country has been stationed near Tianhai County for more than two years, yet they don't even know that the people under Tianhai County are being exploited in this way? I am really blind and deaf!" he said in a deep voice. , Every word reveals shock and anger, as well as self-blame for myself.

Yang Ruoqing said: "You can't say that, it's not your responsibility."

"Your garrison is stationed in the mountains and forests dozens of miles outside Tianhai County, by the Tongtian River. Your troops are all practicing in the mountains and forests. The management is completely militarized. It is completely isolated from the world, and you manage the army. Strictly guarded, the subordinates have never disturbed the people!"

"The exorbitant taxes are managed and controlled by the governor of Tianhai County and other local officials. When such a thing happens, the responsibility should also be found on them. The duty of your military is to defend the country and fight against the enemy. And the rebels, if you, the great general who protects the country, have to worry about such trivial matters as managing the region, then why does the imperial court hold scientific examinations to select talents?" Yang Ruoqing comforted Luo Fengtang in a low voice.

"Sister and sister Qing'er are right, Feng Tang, this matter is not your fault, it is the fault of the local officials of Tianhai County!" Xu Mang also said immediately.

Luo Fengtang said: "Brother Xu, Qing'er, there are some things you don't understand, and this matter has nothing to do with me."

"How do you say that?" Xu Mang asked again.

Luo Fengtang said: "During the two years or so that our National Defense Army has been stationed in Tianhai County, half of the food and supplies for the entire army were directly allocated by the imperial court, and the other half were drawn from the station."

"So, the people of Tianhai County are living in the heat of the water. All kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes make them breathless. They are forced to go to other places to beg for a living. Our national defense army can't escape the responsibility!"

Hearing Luo Fengtang's words, both Xu Mang and Yang Ruoqing were surprised.

Xu Mang said: "Soldiers and horses have not moved, food and grass go first, the reason why our Daqi can have today's peaceful and prosperous world, the people can live in peace and contentment, and don't have to guard against the baptism of war, the reason is that you soldiers and soldiers guard their homes and resist foreign enemy."

"If it weren't for you to fight and fight with your life, you can live and work in peace and contentment? Therefore, it is only right and proper for the people to pay taxes to support the soldiers. If you pay, you will be rewarded. You can't let the soldiers bring their own dry food from home. Go to battle?"

"Brother Xu, of course what you said is reasonable, but right now, there is one thing that worries me." Yang Ruoqing said, brushing aside the words.

"What are you worried about?" Xu Mang asked.

Luo Fengtang also looked up at Yang Ruoqing, waiting for her next words.

Yang Ruoqing went on to say: "It's obvious that the local local officials have set up tricks to oppress and exploit the common people under clever pretexts, making their lives miserable. In the end, the blame may be pushed on the National Defense Army and on Tang Yazi. It's not good!"

Xu Mang's complexion also darkened, and he said: "Qing'er's brothers and sisters are right to be worried, it is true, when the time comes, they will search for the people's fat and people's ointment, and claim to the public that they are to raise food and grass for the national defense army. The blame must all be on Fengtang, this is not good!"

(End of this chapter)