Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1770, Mountain People

Fengxian County at the southern foot of the Qinling Mountains in northern Huguang Province, the entire Fengxian County is almost in the Qinling Mountains. The Qinling Mountains stretch from east to west, with undulating, majestic and steep mountains and rivers, and countless branch mountain ranges derived from them.

The traffic here is extremely inconvenient, and the news is very blocked. It stands to reason that no one should live here, but on the contrary, it is precisely because the traffic here is extremely inconvenient, relatively very closed, like a paradise, uncontested, Therefore, since ancient times, it has also become the best choice for people to escape wars and famines.

Drill into the steep mountains, settle down in the mountains, and live a life like a paradise, even the government can't control these places.

Open up some fields in the mountains and forests. You don’t need to pay taxes to the government to farm the land. You have the ability to hunt. When you need it, you can jump on some mountain goods and go out of the mountains to exchange for the daily necessities you need. It’s isolated from the world here. In the world, I live a life that countless people envy.

In a sense, this kind of Xanadu is one of the most sought-after lives of the ancient people. They have their own fields and mountains, do not need to pay taxes, do not need to serve corvee, and are carefree. And rest, don't mention how comfortable it is to live a small life.

In contrast, the common people in the plains do not have their own fields or mountains. They plant some land. They are exhausted and have little food left to fill their stomachs. They also serve corvees. Human life is like a mustard. When a famine strikes, people starve to death, change their children and eat, etc.

But those who hide in these steep mountains and rivers, they can be carefree, at least they don't have to worry about what to eat. In the mountains and rivers, some fields are cultivated, and the food they grow is their own. Although the yield may not be high, at least it is enough to eat.

There is also my own mountain forest, and I can also go hunting. All kinds of mountain and wild flavors are always indispensable.

It is precisely because of the closed environment brought about by the precipitousness of the mountain villages that a large number of people in the past dynasties continued to migrate to these mountainous areas and became mountain people.

The mountain people live by the mountains, and live a peaceful and peaceful life in the mountains. With the passage of time, the number of mountain people has gradually increased, and small mountain villages have been formed dotted in the mountains. among.

Shangping Village is such a village. It is located on the halfway up a mountain with hundreds of meters high peaks. The only way to communicate with the outside world is a narrow and winding path. People who are not familiar with the road, you don't even have the courage to go in.

The village is not big, with dozens of households and hundreds of people, but even these dozens of households are not all gathered together, because the mountains here are steep, and the slightly flat and open areas are used to build terraced fields, and it is difficult to build houses. It can only be built in barren and narrow places.

And it is obviously impossible to gather together in such a place like a plain, so dozens of households are scattered scattered on the mountainside, and there is only one slightly open place where more than a dozen households gather.

At this time, the adults in Shangping Village are working in the fields, and the children are playing carefree. Although they are free from the oppression of officials, they do not have to pay taxes and serve corvee. and many more.

But it also makes their lives relatively more difficult.

Here, the fields are very scarce, and it is extremely difficult to open up a terraced field, and the land here is not fertile, and the harvest is very limited.

In addition, the transportation between here and the outside world is extremely inconvenient, the supplies are scarce, and life is not really as relaxed and comfortable as in a paradise. Tiredness is still the norm, and only hardworking people can survive here.

"Ouch~ there are still people living in this damn place, I really broke my legs."

Ge Ming, the official officer, looked at the mountain village in front of him and couldn't help but take a deep breath. This mountain road is simply not for people to walk, it is too tiring.

It's fine if it's extremely steep, but the twists and turns are acceptable. The key is that the mountain road is next to the Baizhang Mountain Stream. If you accidentally fall down, you won't know how to die.

It has been a full three hours of walking this way, and only then did he reach the first village. Thinking about going to every village in the entire mountainous area, Ge Ming wanted to die.

"Brother Ge, let's take a break first, I really can't stand it anymore."

Tao Ping sat down on the big rock beside him, took off his boots, his feet were already covered with blisters, he can be regarded as a person who has been honed in the army, and the training was very hard before, but this kind of Mountain road, I am really afraid of walking once.

"Take a break, take a rest~"

Ge Ming nodded, then took out the tin kettle to drink water, and then looked at the steep mountainous area in front of him, surrounded by clouds and mist, dense ups and downs, a gust of mountain wind blowing away layers of clouds and mist, revealing small villages in the mountains, but Soon there was another mountain mist and clouds covering everything.

The scenery is stunning!

But the road here is really too difficult to walk.

After resting for a while, Ge Ming and Tao Ping continued to move forward. It took another half an hour to reach Shangping Village, which seemed to be a very close mountain village.

The arrival of the two also caused a commotion in this peaceful small mountain village. This place is isolated from the outside world. Usually, no one comes here throughout the year. Even if there are, it is other mountain people in the surrounding area.

Ge Ming and Tao Ping are dressed in official uniforms, so they are not mountain people at first glance, which naturally makes the villagers of Shangping Village very nervous, fearing that the government sent them to collect taxes or make them do corvee or something.

The children looked at the two of them curiously. There were very few outsiders here. Whenever an outsider came, everyone couldn't help but come over and take a look.

As for the adults, they put down their work one after another and gathered over.

"You two officials, what are you doing here?"

The elderly old man Chen from Shangping Village looked at the two officials in front of him, and warmly greeted them to sit down and asked them to make tea, while also ordering to inform the villagers in the village.

"Old man, we are here this time mainly to promote the new policy of our imperial court to you."

Ge Ming looked at the mountain people in front of him. Although these mountain people are not yellow and thin, their clothes are relatively tattered. Looking at the houses here, they are all brick and wood houses, and there are even a lot of thatched houses. Many of the surrounding wall courtyards are surrounded by stones.

It can be seen that the life here is not really a paradise, but it is still very poor and poor.

Inconvenient transportation and scarce fields have fundamentally determined the success of this place. Although they will not starve to death, do not have to serve corvee, pay taxes, etc., it is impossible for people here to live a prosperous life.

Especially as the population increases and the fields become less and less, people become poorer and poorer. They can only continue to migrate to more mountainous and steeper places, and have been migrating to deep mountains and old forests.

Looking at the village in front of me, it is obvious that it has lagged behind the outside world.

The current Ming Dynasty is extremely prosperous and prosperous, and even the living standards of ordinary rural people or ordinary people have been greatly improved.

In rural areas, houses and so on have often been completely refurbished, and people’s income has also increased greatly. While food and clothing are abundant, new-style primary schools and middle schools have been slowly opened to remote areas, and children can still go to school. up.

But the mountainous village in front of me is still simple and poor, and because it is too closed to the outside world, even crops such as sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes have not been brought here, which is really unbelievable.

You must know that the government of the Ming Dynasty, in order to promote these high-yield crops, has vigorously promoted these high-yield crops in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, and basically planted them all over the north and south of the Ming Dynasty.

But here, more than ten years have passed, and there are still no shadows of these high-yielding crops. They seem to be completely out of touch with this era of rapid development, and they still look like decades, or even hundreds of years ago. , nothing progresses and changes.

"The court's new policy?"

As soon as many villagers heard this, they immediately became nervous, for fear that the government would impose taxes on them and perform corvee service.

After all, their ancestors hid in the deep mountains and old forests because they were afraid of these things, and lived an isolated life.

"Yes~"

"Now, our Ming Dynasty has acquired a large piece of land on the European side. These lands are very vast, and they are all fertile black land and wide plains."

"In order to consolidate the development of these border areas, the imperial court also formulated a preferential immigration policy. As long as they are willing to immigrate to the Black Earth Province, each person can get 200 acres of land, 20 taels of silver for relocation, a horse, a cow, Five sheep, and the imperial court will provide you with unified housing."

"If the whole family is willing to immigrate there, the imperial court will reward an additional 20 taels of silver as a settlement fee. In addition, the imperial court will pay for all expenses, board and lodging along the way when the immigrants go to the Black Earth Province."

Ge Ming took out a document that had been stamped by the government, and also publicized the latest immigration policy of the imperial court to all the mountain people in front of him.

These mountain people in front of them are actually refugees now, and they don't have Ming's ID cards. The imperial court now needs to emigrate, and it also wants to move these mountain people out of the mountainous area and move them to the black soil province.

The mountainous areas here are actually not suitable for human survival, and it is difficult to develop and progress here.

(End of this chapter)