Qiming 1158

Chapter 537 Her heart seems to be getting hot too

Lu Hua just came out of the field with farm implements in his hands.

He was wearing a coarse cloth bunt, sweat stains all over his body, and worn out shoes full of mud on his feet. His whole body was tanned yellow and black. He was in his 20s, and his face was full of wrinkles.

"If the harvest is only [-]% of what it was in previous years, isn't there enough food in the village this year? Will anyone starve to death?"

Zhao Xirui asked quickly.

"Madam has been thinking too much, enough is definitely enough, we are not like gold thieves, collecting taxes to death, and there are so many extras, our taxes are not that high, and we have not increased our taxes, even if the land harvest is less than last year's [-]%, farmers can also have enough to eat.”

Lu Hua smiled, then put on a sad face again, and said, "It's just that this is not the way to go, there are no men in the village, the farm work can't be done, and the land will be abandoned and weeds will grow.

Once it is abandoned, the fertility of the land will decline. If you want to restore it to the point where you can grow food, you need to waste more effort. Therefore, the land must be cultivated, and whether or not to grow food, the land must be turned over.

But manpower is needed to turn the land, and it takes time. It is impossible to borrow people from other villages to help each year when doing farm work. After a long time, people will have opinions. Moreover, the lack of manpower is not only our village, but I will. I'm afraid that when the farm work gets busy, we won't be able to borrow people. "

As soon as he mentioned this matter, Lu Hua was full of sadness and sighed.

Su Yonglin nodded and said, "Yes, many people have written to the General Affairs Bureau about this matter, Yanyun is very short of labor right now, basically four out of ten villages are short of labor, and they borrow labor from each other when the farming is busy. ."

"Is there any way?"

Zhao Xirui immediately looked over and asked.

Su Yonglin nodded.

"Of course there is a way. Ask the army if anyone is willing to go back to be a farmer, and if anyone is willing to marry someone else's widow to live. If there is, let the peasant association organize it, make a blind date, and decide the marriage. By then, there will be labor in the village.”

"Can it still be like this?"

Zhao Xirui was stunned.

"In extraordinary times, practice extraordinary methods. If you don't do this, at least [-]% of Yanyun's land will be abandoned, which is unbearable."

Su Yonglin sighed: "In order to conquer us, the golden thief has forcibly confiscated all the males in many places, all the way to the south, all the way to the dead, this village is not too miserable, the worst one, the whole village's strong men are dead, and the old men are all dead. There are only a few left, the eldest boy is only seven years old, and there are orphans and widows in the whole village, and they don’t know how to live.”

Zhao Xirui swallowed, feeling that she had opened the door to a cruel new world.

Lu Hua also sighed again and again on the side.

"Indeed, compared with that Dongpan Village, our village is pretty good. At least 20 people have come back, unlike Dongpan Village, where 130 people went out, but only a few corpses were returned. The whole village has widows and A child without a father.

I know the instructor there. His name is Yang Tianhe. He went to Dongpan Village for less than a month. He has already married a widow in the village. . "

"how so……"

Zhao Xirui couldn't believe it.

Su Yonglin walked to Zhao Xirui's side and hugged Zhao Xirui.

"This is the suffering of the people. Don't look at these four words. Every word is soaked in blood."

Zhao Xirui shuddered, raised her head and looked at Su Yonglin in surprise.

Su Yonglin's expression remained calm and did not change at all.

Zhao Xirui knew how to write the four characters of folk suffering, but she didn't know what the real situation was behind these four characters, and she didn't know how to write it so that she could really write that taste.

So she continued to follow Su Yonglin and Lu Hua to the village, and saw low and dilapidated houses, villagers in shabby clothes, women and children carrying farm implements, and people working hard in the fields.

What you can see is astonishing poverty and dilapidation.

She didn't dare to enter those houses at all, she felt that her body was repulsing the dark, damp and dark houses instinctively, not to mention going in, she felt uncomfortable just looking at them.

And under the scorching sun, she didn't even dare to think about how dirty her body would be if she went to the ground once, how her hair would be wet, and how she would be so embarrassed.

Those women and girls are all barefoot. Because of the hot weather, some women even rolled up their trouser legs and sleeves, exposing the body and skin that the ladies would never expose, just like men.

Seeing this scene, Zhao Xirui suddenly understood why Su Yonglin said that scholars did not treat these farmers as adults.

She is pampered and graceful, and she is thin and hard-working, she is not a world person at first glance.

Her skin is fair and beautiful, her skin is delicate, her eyes are moist and moist, as if she can speak, and her frown and smile are all amorous.

And her skin is yellow and black, full of wrinkles, big hands and big feet, and her words and deeds are rough and can't look directly.

Are they the same kind of person?
Are people really that different?

Zhao Xirui was stunned on the spot.

"This is their living condition, no, it is the living condition after we came here. Before we came here, there was no smile on their faces."

Su Yonglin pointed to the picture of a couple in the field laughing and bending over to mow the grass: "They used to be unable to laugh, and they were only worried all day long, with a heavy weight on their bodies, and their waists couldn't straighten up. Different."

Zhao Xirui, who was in shock and contemplation, noticed that in addition to the amazing poverty, there would be a smile on the faces of these farmers from time to time.

Life is so hard, so hard, why do they still have smiles on their faces?
"Why are they laughing now?"

Zhao Xirui looked up at Su Yonglin.

"Because there is hope, I wrote in the manuscript that they are not born poor, even if they are not rich, they will not even be able to eat. It is because the upper class collects too much tax and they are exploited. net, they are so poor.

We are different. We collect very little tax, and we will not force them to do corvée labor. They can keep most of the food they produce, so they can not only feed their stomachs, but also save food.

If you have food, you can exchange it for money, and if you get money, you can have savings. With savings, you can buy commodities that you couldn’t afford in the past, and you can improve your life. If they are more industrious and produce more food, they can get more. 's savings.

Farmers are more diligent and thrifty, and without excessive exploitation, they can accumulate wealth little by little, and change their dilapidated houses into big ones, and their tattered clothes into decent clothes, and they can afford shoes and hoods. , can afford more farm implements and cattle, they know, so they are laughing. "

Su Yonglin looked at Zhao Xirui and held her hand: "The old imperial court in the past did not give them hope and exploited everything from them. They have no hope, only numbness, so they can't laugh no matter what.

And what I want to do is to stop them from being exploited. I can't make them produce more food for the time being, but I won't take more, I can make them increase their savings and let them have Surplus grain, surplus money, give them hope.

Therefore, when they are tired, they will calculate how much grain they can lay down this year. After paying the taxes and saving the seeds, how much grain can be left, how much money can be exchanged, and how much savings can be saved.

With these savings, you can buy some meat that you couldn’t eat in the past, you can pull a few pieces of cloth for your children or change yourself into new clothes, you can replace the old farm tools with new ones, and you can buy a thicker bedding. Thinking like this, they can laugh. "

Zhao Xirui looked at Su Yonglin for a long time, then turned her eyes away and looked at the farmers who worked hard but still smiled in this field.

Su Yonglin stood beside her and spoke slowly.

"They don't really need much, just enough to eat and clothe, to save money, to see meat and fish several times a year, and to change into new clothes, but the imperial court in the past couldn't even promise them that.

But it should not be difficult now, I will help them realize these requirements, and from now on, the days will only get better and better, and one day, they will be the same as us, no different. "

A scorching summer wind blew past, making Zhao Xirui feel as if her heart had become hot.

(End of this chapter)