Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 58

Song Qingshu feels a bit like [-] now.

That year he picked up a wild cat, and after raising it for two months, the cat also ran away. One morning when he opened the door, he saw the cat leading a litter of eleven kittens and taking an adulterer lazy. Laying down in front of him triumphantly.

But this time the situation was even worse. Just as he bared his teeth with his scarred face, the six No. 70 beggars all knelt down, kowtowed and yelled everything, Song Qingshu with a strong Shaanxi accent The heads are a bit bigger, but everyone has the same central idea.

Please keep me!
"I can wash dishes, accept me!"

"I eat less than a mouse and dry more than a mule!"

"I am also willing to be a slave and servant, and be loyal to the Elder Master!"

Hearing the commotion, the neighbors in the neighborhood poked their heads out to watch the excitement, and pointed at the side. In this era of opening a store, word of mouth is the most important thing. How decent is it to be surrounded by messy beggars? Who wants to come to eat?Scarface was startled and angry, and the scar on his tough face seemed to come alive like an earthworm, twitching, pointing at Qiaoer's nose and roaring: "You did a good job!"

But Qiao'er, who was kneeling at the front, didn't say a word, just kowtowed her head low, and even grabbed Xiaobao who wanted to run away.Can't talk about Qiao'er, Scarface pointed at a large group of beggars with a knife and roared angrily: "Get out of here, my shopkeeper's boss brother is Zhang Huye, the head catcher! If you don't get out, I'll let you all eat!" Go to prison!"

Scarface's heroic style is really like a tiger. The people who climbed out of the corpse mountain and the sea of ​​blood gave people a different feeling when they were angry. The beggar under Scarface's eyelids in the front felt like he was being targeted by a carnivore. Their backs were hairy, but these beggars seemed to be determined after eating the weights, allowing Song Qingshu and Scarface to yell and say nothing.

The stalemate lasted for more than half a point, the sun was getting higher and higher, and it was almost time for breakfast, if customers saw it, how much would it affect the image?It was too late to call Zhang Xianzhong, and a large group of policemen came to the door early in the morning, which also affected the reputation. The reputation of these official dogs is worse than that of beggars!Being forced to the point where there was nothing he could do, Song Qingshu let out a very sad roar.

"They are all willing to be my slaves, right? Yes, I will accept them all!"

A group of beggars immediately showed unbelievable joy, but before they were overjoyed, Song Qingshu yelled angrily: "Now listen to my first order from the master, go back to the shack where you are staying and wait for the letter. Don't speak, don't come out again!"

As soon as this remark came out, all Hanako became stupid again.

The service industry is not easy to do, it is hard and tiring, and you have to suffer from people's faces. Some restaurants in Song Qingshu's later generations recruited three to four thousand waiters a month, which is more than the salary of sitting in an office, but young people still don't want to go!But this year is not compared to the peaceful years, people are starving to death, it is heaven to have a bite to eat, although Song Qingshu's small shop is a little tired, but the food is not bad, listening to Qiaoer who went back with a bag of rice He said that almost all the beggars are moved. Although it is aggrieved to be a slave to others, who cares about these things in the face of death?Give up freedom rather than die, not just anyone can do it!
And at this time, the beggars in Xi'an City are no longer as good as Zhu Cunbiao's. The more powerful beggars have all become thugs, local ruffians, or they will be arrested or leave Xi'an City, and the rest are honest people like them. Far away, what is even more unfortunate is that Zhu Cunbiao's crimes have been borne by them. The owners of various small shops who have been blackmailed, and the businessmen hate them to the bone. bite.

These days, the beggars are starved to death, and the wounds infected by dogs bite. There are more than 20 people who have been beaten to death. The road of begging is no longer feasible. Only then did he desperately go to the door of Song Qingshu's house, begging to be a servant, in order to beg for food.

But now, Song Qingshu's words put them in a dilemma. Who knows if this guy is lying to them?One by one hesitated, kneeling on the ground and rolling, or staying.Seeing the dumb looks of these beggars, Song Qingshu yelled angrily again.

"Why? You didn't listen to my master's first order?"

"Anyway, the store can't run here. At worst, we'll come back tomorrow, or today, everyone go back first!" Qiao'er finally opened her mouth, discussing with Lion Head in a low voice.

The lion head was very scheming, Gudu knocked his head on the ground, and didn't communicate with the people behind him, he was the first to yell, "Listen to the master!" "The first one scattered, and suddenly understood that this was to leave for the future master. After making a good impression, the other few Hanakos hurriedly kowtowed and yelled, and left first. Seeing that the leaders had all left, the silly beggars behind also lost their courage, and kowtowed in groups, what? They didn't dare to say anything and they also followed suit.

I didn't expect Lion Head to play this trick, and I was stunned. A large group of beggars had already dispersed, leaving Qiaoer and Xiaobao behind. They lowered their heads and wanted to leave quickly, but Song Qingshu was behind him at this time With a cold snort: "You two stay!"

Little Treasure also knew how much trouble he had caused, and wanted to run after his legs were weak, but at this moment, Qiaoer bit his lip, dragged him to the corner of his clothes to prevent him from running, and dragged him into the store with Song Qingshu Come.

Scarface was so angry that he wanted to find a whip and give these two daring thieves a good lesson, but Song Qingshu reached out to stop him. Although his attitude was not very good, he reluctantly didn't scold others. The two trembling little thieves went to the back kitchen to clean up well, then changed their clothes and came back to work.

The five people stepped up their work, and it can be said that the morning preparations were almost done before the guests came to the door. Song Qingshu was still baking bread and cakes in the back, and Caiwei was already waiting at the door with a smile on her face. A scholar came to the door, and a sweet welcome sounded.

…………

This morning, there were no other moths. Occasionally, one or two beggars could be seen anxiously looking around, other than that, the beggars did not organize to block the door again, and although Qiaoer and Xiaobao were also together With an absent-minded look, at least nothing major went wrong.

The bustle lasted until around one o'clock in the afternoon, and the yamen became busy again. Song Qingshu's small shop was also able to breathe a sigh of relief. Caiwei was very tired, so Song Qingshu quickly took two pieces of cake and coaxed her to take a nap upstairs. After a while, when he was going downstairs, the store door was already closed by Scarface.

With hands full of grinning grins, he kept rubbing a whip, cursing Qiaoer and Xiaobao to the corner with his scarred face, Xiaobao was so frightened that he cried and screamed, holding on to the wall and wishing to fly out, Qiaoer, the little girl The thief didn't say a word and protected his younger brother behind him. Although he was extremely afraid, he didn't say a word.

"What's going on?" Song Qingshu couldn't help frowning, and hurried over.Without looking back, afraid that the two thieves would run away again, Scarface laughed and said.

"You idiot, when you became smarter, you cheated the group of beggars away in the morning, and let the two little sluts work for half a day. Now it's all right, at least two hours can be free, and now you have cleaned up for two hours. A traitor who betrayed his master, he just bundled it with hemp rope and sold it! I will find Zhang Huanghu later, and bring those beggars together, mother, and block my door!"

I really don't know why Scarface and his gang are so fond of being human traffickers, Song Qingshu really reached out and grabbed his arm helplessly.

"You put down the whip first!"

"Now you still want to protect these two people who eat inside and outside?" Scarface was really angry this time, and he turned around and roared at Song Qingshu angrily.

There is no way to communicate with this guy, Song Qingshu simply turned his head and raised his neck: "Caiwei!!!"

It's true that one thing is one thing, Scarface is capable, and he is not afraid of anything, like a monkey grandson, but he couldn't stand Caiwei's big watery eyes, so he trembled angrily and gave Song Qingshu a look. The anger threw the whip to the ground, and ran to squat under the tree.

"Come here!"

Song Qingshu didn't pay attention to him, walked to the broken table in the courtyard and sat down, waved to the two thieves again, the little boy Xiaobao was too shivering to come over, Qiaoer also hesitated After a long while, he dragged Xiao Bao over and timidly stood opposite Song Qingshu, not daring to sit down.

"Let's talk? Did I short you for food? Or did I send you clothes? I gave you a chance to let you go. You are really good enough. You stole my things even if you ran away! Letter Don't you believe that we will settle the old and new accounts together and throw you into the prison?"

Song Qingshu was really angry, who wouldn't be angry if he was bitten back?If it wasn't for the fact that he really didn't want to see Scarface's proud face the day before yesterday, Song Qingshu would have chased after him. Seeing his angry appearance, Xiaobao actually plopped down on his knees and said Song Qingshu's unbelievable words.

"Master, I told you that I don't want to run away, but it was my sister who dragged me away! It was her, she suggested stealing your things, if you want to sell you, sell her? Don't sell me!"

"Hmph!" The scarred face under the tree gave another sneer with disdain, Qiaoer trembled violently, and lowered his head without any rebuttal, Song Qingshu also shook his head helplessly, looking at Qiaoer's red eye circles, shaking his head Once, he was really worthless for this little girl. She stole a piece of meat back and gave it to this kid to eat. In the end, when it was necessary, he didn't even maintain it. Instead, he beat her up.

Finally, his tone softened a little, and Song Qingshu asked helplessly: "Tell me, what is your relationship with those beggars? Why did you steal rice for them and bring them to block Lao Tzu's door?"

With difficulty, she opened her mouth, and after a while, Qiaoer replied hesitantly.

"They are, folks!"

…………

It's a bloody and old-fashioned story. Her parents died early, and Qiao'er was an orphan who was struggling to survive on the help of fellow villagers. Later, the dog county magistrate came to force taxes, and the whole village couldn't live anymore. She pulled Ding Xiaobao, the only male in their family, also joined the ranks of fleeing famine.However, although Qiaoer's story is old-fashioned, it is a microcosm of the entire north of the Ming Dynasty!In the scholar's pen, there is a light sentence that starvation is everywhere, and bones are everywhere.How can this helpless end times be described by these two sentences?

There are about 80 NO.40 people in a village, and there are only about 70 people who fled into Xi'an City. In addition to some honest beggars who have no way out, there are six NO.50 people who blocked Song Qingshu's way in the morning. There are men, women, and children, but the youngest is thirteen or fourteen years old, and the oldest is only over [-]. Those who are too old or too weak have long been eliminated on the way to escape from famine.

They are beggars, but most of these people are poor landless farmers in the fierce land annexation. It is precisely because they fled together. Although they may not have been taken care of, it is enough to hold their own hands when they fall down once or twice. Qiao'er, a silly girl, took great risks to steal rice for her fellow countrymen.

"You are really crazy!"

Moving a table, watching Song Qingshu spread out his pen and ink, as if he wanted to register names one by one, Scarface shook his head in annoyance, patted the table and shouted helplessly...

(End of this chapter)