Destiny Only Han

Hengshan County.

It was originally the fiefdom of Huainan Wang Yingbu. Later, Yingbo rebelled and died, and the Hengshan County he controlled was deprived together with his title.

After that, Hengshan County was granted to Liu Hui, changing from the original county system to a vassal state.

But with the passage of time, the population of Hengshan Kingdom multiplied. According to Han law, the total population of a county generally does not exceed [-] households. Therefore, a large county was divided into a large county and a small county. Called the county magistrate, while the latter is called the county magistrate.

However, as the population re-immigrates, the small county will gradually become a large county, and then be divided into two counties again like a cell division.

There are no large-scale wars today, and the baby boomers in the early Han Dynasty did not die on the battlefield after they grew up. Naturally, they followed the life trajectory set by their parents, married wives and had children, left their original families, and formed new families.

The feudal kingdoms of the kings in the early Han Dynasty were actually not land, but population.

For example, the 73 counties in Qi State to which Liu Fei was entrusted refer more to the population controlled by the 73 'county' level units.

Of course, Liu Fei doesn't have 73 counties now...

And just like Qi State, which was torn apart by the newly divided counties and counties, Hengshan State was also divided into two, like a cell division, into Hengshan State controlled by Liu Hui, and Hengshan County controlled by the Central Committee of Han State.

The soon-to-be-built Jiangshui Bridge is located in Hengshan County, which is controlled by the Han Dynasty.

It was getting dark, and the bells of the construction site on both sides of the river also sounded. Hundreds of groups of workers left the construction site with very tired bodies, but they were talking and laughing, and their faces were full of hope for the future. Yearn for.

The bridge is about to close.

The important thing is that this is almost half a year earlier than the originally scheduled construction period!
This also means that each of them can get a huge bonus, at least worth the bonus of three months' wages!
They leave their hometowns, and they don't see their wives, children, and children for a whole year, just to make money.

Make a lot of money!
Now that you can make a lot of money just by looking at it, who would not be happy?
But they plan to keep this kind of happiness, and keep it until a month later, when they really see the money, they will be happy again!
Therefore, their happiness at the moment is only because they smell the smell.

The smell of stew.

To be precise, it is the taste of meat such as braised pork head meat and large intestines in sauce!

Nowadays, many people in the northern part of the Han Dynasty still maintain the custom inherited from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, eating only clean meat and not eating offal (intestines, tripe) and other offal that are difficult to handle.

Therefore, the Royal Roads and Bridges Administration, which supervised the work, used idle cold chain trucks to collect and transport the "scrap" that was almost discarded when people's homes slaughtered pigs and sheep around the Chinese New Year, and transported them to the construction site, and then cleaned them with river water that is completely free here. , it became a delicacy on the construction site...

Next to the construction site, the smell of stew wafts along with the smell of roasted wheat over charcoal fire.

Well, it's biscuits.

The biscuits as big as an adult's face are paired with a whole catty of pork head meat that melts in the mouth, and a bowl of steaming offal soup is free, sprinkled with green onion, coriander, and chili oil. These migrant workers are full of happiness.

However, this kind of happiness is somewhat incomplete, and only half a catty of homemade "burning knives" made by farmers can be considered complete after the meal.

One cup of hot mouth, like swallowing a ball of fire in the throat; two cups of sweat, instantly sweating, sweeping away the exhaustion of the day; three cups of wine with gold stars in the eyes, making people look in a trance, and the shadow of relatives appeared in front of them... …

Well, the high probability is methanol poisoning.

But this is not important, after all, talking about toxicity regardless of dosage is playing hooligans!
Therefore, this kind of eating and drinking every night in a trance is the little luck of this group of migrant workers.

If the bridge is completed on time and gets the due wages and rewards, Xiao Que Xing will be even more perfect!
....................................

About a hundred miles to the west of the Jiangshui Bridge, the river flowing out of the Three Gorges gradually slowed down after passing through the misty Yunmeng Lake. Therefore, a ferry was built here, and the local people spontaneously bought boats for traveling from south to north. To the merchants to provide ferry services.

Of course, there is a fee.

Two miles to the north of the ferry, beside a winding creek, there suddenly appeared a gathering of chickens and dogs.

Shijie Village. (Note 1)

Because the people in the plain area lack natural barriers, the village houses are concentrated in one place, and the settlements are separated from the fields by a dock wall, which is called "li". Fence or enclosure.

Due to the overpopulation, the homesteads within the inner wall are not enough in the current Han State. The important thing is that the Han State has inherited and carried forward the Qin State's "li and pavilion" system, and its economy has developed very well, so banditry Almost uncommon.

Therefore, many people choose to build houses outside the inner wall. There are walls but no walls, so there is a special name of "village (village)".

Of course, the reason why this is Shijie Village instead of Shijieli is more because it is only close to the Yangtze River, and there will be floods in nine out of ten years, and the inner wall built with a lot of money will be flooded in minutes The most important thing is that the inner wall is useless, so it is better not to build it at all. Anyway, every family has a boat, and when there is a flood, move the valuables at home to the boat to avoid losses.

After all, cement concrete houses are better than adobe houses because they don't worry about being damaged by big water.

It was getting late, and the men who had been boatmen for a day dragged their exhausted bodies home, but when they saw their children running towards them, and the woman wearing an apron standing by the chai gate, they couldn't help smiling. It seems that I am not so tired anymore.

The man casually threw the ten-jin heavy fish he was carrying to the children running around around them. It was caught by them during the day when they were on a boat, and it was the family's dinner.

After a while, the aroma of big fish stewed in an iron pot wafted in the courtyards of nearly a hundred households in Shijie Village.

In a family at the west end of the village, the head of the household, Ruan Zhong, sat silently in the courtyard, while his eldest daughter squatted on the ground, carefully pouring a large bowl of bright yellow cornmeal into the basin, adding water to knead the flour.

This is a way of eating that came from the north of the empire. When stewing fish in an iron pot, put a little cornmeal pancake on the side of the pot, and use the heat of the stewed fish and charcoal fire to steam the cornmeal pancake, so that the main food and side dishes are cooked in one pot. Saves both time and fuel.

Well, the reason why water towns eat cornmeal is simple.

Cheap.

They use their own rice and merchants from the north to replace corn. One catty of rice can be exchanged for more than one catty of corn. This means that if two hundred catties of rice are exchanged, one more month's ration of an adult man can be exchanged. !
This is the life of ordinary people, and every penny must be spent carefully.

Ruan Zhong looked at the four younger sons running around in the yard, as if they were never tired, and the two daughters who were fanning the fire by the stove, and couldn't help sighing softly.

A half-child eats a poor old man.

The important thing is that a little girl of this age does not eat much less than a little boy!

But if it's just for eating, then he doesn't worry.

After all, it is close to Yunmeng Daze, and it is almost possible to throw two stones into the water to float a few big fish weighing ten catties. Lack of carbohydrates leads to 'rabbit syndrome' affliction.

The upgrading of agricultural technology has made food very cheap. Although farmers with only small plots of land cannot make a fortune by selling food, as long as the farmers operate properly and the weather is good, no one has enough food for three to five years. Are you stockpiling food?
Therefore, Ruan Zhong's distress lies in the dowry for these three daughters and the bride price for the four sons...

The important thing is that there is another one in his wife's stomach...

This is undoubtedly the last straw that crushes this hardworking and capable middle-aged man.

After dinner, Ruan Zhong glanced at his wife who was cleaning up the dishes, and said in a low voice, "Take the children to bed first, and I'll go to Mr. Chao's house in the village..."

The woman didn't ask too much, after all, Mr. Chao belonged to the royal family of the former dynasty, and belonged to the most prestigious existence in their village!
Of course, her man is no worse than Mr. Chao!
Well, the so-called former dynasty refers to Zhou.

King Zhou Jing wanted to make his youngest son 'Chao' the crown prince, but he died of illness before that. After his death, the princes fought, and finally under the intervention of Jin State, 'Ju' succeeded to the throne as King Zhou Jing, while 'Chao' was He ran to the state of Chu, and his descendants took "Chao" as their surname.

Chao is the phonetic character of Chao in ancient times, which is analogous to Yue and Yue, so Chao's family is Chao's.

A moment later, when Ruan Zhong arrived at the home of 'Mr. Chao', twenty or thirty men had already gathered under the dim candlelight.

These people are all Ruan Zhong's acquaintances, and they are all companions who punted at the pier during the day.

Seeing the prestigious Ruan Zhong coming, Chao's eldest son known as 'Mr. Chao' immediately breathed a sigh of relief and smiled all over his face: "Brother Ruan, sit next to me!"

Ruan Zhong sat down and said without thinking: "I did it!"

Chao eldest son nodded, with a fierce look in his eyes:
"It's not that we are born bad breeds, it's really the government forcing the people to rebel! His court is building a bridge on the river, has he considered us and others who need to ferry people to live?"

"The merchants have all passed the bridge. What can I wait for the boatman to support my family?"

"Not to mention, have you paid off your boat loan?"

"If you don't take the ferry, how can you pay back the money?"

Ruan Zhong shook his head: "Mr. Chao, just tell us what we should do!"

Chao Changzi took out a stick as thick as a teacup from the wooden box behind him and put it on the table: "Use this to blow up that broken bridge!"

It was a stick of dynamite, with the words Royal South County Copper Record Mountain printed on it...

Note 1: Shijie Village not only exists in Shandong, but also in Guangdong and Shanxi. I checked ()

ps: According to Encyclopedia, the tradition of eating 'offal' in Shanxi originated in the Yuan Dynasty, and the habit of Jincheng people who eat 'leftovers' every day seems to be influenced by the Henan people who fled there during the Republic of China.

To be precise, it is the influence of Jiaozuo people...

Well, it is another legend that people from Jincheng supported half of the Yuzhu instant noodle factory... (End of this chapter)