Marry the wildest man in the village

181-190

Chapter 181 The imperial court simply arrested people

for doing corvee service. At this moment, Doctor Fang's attention was all on his daughter, and he didn't care to listen carefully to Liang Ping's words.

Her daughter has been married for so long, and there has been no movement in her belly. Liang An is not anxious, but Fang Mengli is anxious. She desperately wants a child, but she has never been able to conceive.

If you want to get pregnant, you have to take care of your body. You can't eat many things. Her daughter is a greedy person. Doctor Fang was afraid that she would eat something she shouldn't, so he kept watching her.

Liang Ping breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this.

Liang Manman and Lu Tingyuan didn't take this matter to heart, they both thought it was just Liang Ping's playfulness.

It's the twelfth lunar month of winter and the weather is freezing, but it can't stop everyone's enthusiasm. The arrival of the New Year has also added a bit of joy to the mountains.

Unlike before, everything has been available in the mountains in the past two years. Pigs, cattle and sheep are running all over the mountains and fields, large tracts of crop fields, and abundant vegetables in the vegetable gardens. You can live a safe and abundant New Year.

Smoked bacon, sausages and fish are hung everywhere on tree branches in the mountains, and some are dripping with oil, making people salivate.

There seems to be a lot of snow this year. Usually in the south, there are two or three snowfalls in a winter and they melt quickly, but this year there were five or six snowfalls, and they were all so heavy that they even reached the lower legs.

Looking at the abnormal weather, Liang Manman was a little worried, hoping that nothing would happen again.

It has been snowing heavily for several days, and people who are too cold don't want to go out. Fortunately, there is a coal stove, and the house is as warm as spring.

The New Year's supplies have been distributed in advance. There are many people, so the leader of each group comes first to collect them, including rice, flour, salt, sugar, meat, eggs, cloth, etc.

These things are usually distributed once every three months, but the number is doubled during the Chinese New Year, just to let everyone have a safe, prosperous and good year.

Time always flies by very fast, and it's New Year's Eve in the blink of an eye. In the past few years, Liang Manman has never touched the sun, but this year, she wants to cook a New Year's Eve dinner with her own family.

She cooked, Liang Ping killed fish and chopped meat, Liang An and Fang Mengli washed and selected vegetables, and Lu Tingyuan lit the fire.

There are casseroles on several coal stoves for stewing ribs and chicken soup, and large pots are used for cooking.

The family divided the work, and after two hours of busy work, the sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner was served.

Roast chicken, roast leg of lamb, roast suckling pig, stewed pig trotters with soybeans, stir-fried bacon with garlic sprouts, stir-fried sausage with garlic moss, bacon pieces, etc. After not cooking for a long time, Liang Manman felt a little rusty.

Fortunately, it didn't turn over, and it still tastes the same as before.

While Liang Ping was devouring the food, he said, "Sister, after eating so much food, your cooking is still the most delicious!"

"If it's delicious, just eat more. When you get married in the future, you may not like the food I cook." "

As soon as Liang Manman said this, he felt like he was acting like an old woman.

Then he said: "But it's up to you. You can't be careless about getting married. You have to follow your heart."

Liang Ping gnawed on the chicken wings and nodded crazily, "My sister is still good to me!"

After the New Year, Xiao Ling'er is four years old, and Liang Manman is about to be twenty-one. It seems that he has reached this age without doing anything. Thinking of this, Liang Manman still feels a little sad.

But looking at my daughter next to me as she innocently immerses herself in cooking, I feel that my current life is very satisfying.

...

They lived a warm and prosperous new year, but the world outside was different.

Since the beginning of winter, there has been heavy snowfall in the north, and the price of charcoal has also been soaring. The people of the Dashun Dynasty have been poor and weak in the past few years, and now many people can barely eat enough. Where can they have money to buy charcoal?

This winter is destined to be a difficult winter. Many weak people have not been able to survive this cold winter...

Not only that, because the emperor was building a new palace, he also taxed a large number of people to work. While the people were bearing high taxes, , but also to do corvee service.

When spring plowing came, all the strong laborers went to do corvee labor, and the farm work in the fields was left to the old, weak, sick and disabled at home, and the amount of grain sown was greatly reduced.

However, the imperial court was still carrying out large-scale construction projects. At first, it only required strong men between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five to serve as corvees. Later, this age range was expanded to those between fourteen and forty years old.

There is no subsidy or income for corvee service. It is completely free labor and it is compulsory. The food in the camp is also extremely poor. A bowl of thin white porridge and a black-faced steamed bun the size of a fist are not enough for these people who are building walls with stones. For the people who do heavy work, where can they get enough to eat?

If you dare to slack off when you are working, the whip has no discernment! When slapped on the body, the skin and flesh are immediately torn apart!

Lack of sleep time, inability to eat a full stomach, coupled with heavy physical work and occasional whipping, many men died as a result!

The dead people will be thrown directly into the pit, and the missing labor force will continue to arrest people.

Later, as long as a man could walk, he was taken away to do corvee labor. Now, no matter whether he is a man or a woman, as long as he is not lying in bed and cannot get up, he is required to do corvée labor!

The increasingly stringent and perverted policies have forced many people to leave their homes.

Those who were captured and sent to serve as corvees will not return together. If they do not escape, the lives of their entire families will be at stake!

Now is the winter wheat harvesting period in the south. Many people have harvested wheat overnight, thinking of taking the opportunity to take shelter in the mountains with the grain.

However, the government issued new tax policies at this time.

In previous years, taxes were levied in the fall, but this year it was levied twice, once in the spring and autumn.

Therefore, these people who originally thought of hiding after harvesting wheat, now even have no food!

Taxes were paid on grain according to the population, but the labor force in the family was captured to do corvee labor. The production was already reduced and there was not enough food to eat. For those with a large population, the grain collected was not even enough to pay taxes.

After working so hard, you didn't even get a grain of food, and instead you owed a lot of debt to the government? !

The people's livelihood was miserable, but no one had the courage to confront the government. Those who tried to resist lost their lives!

Many refugees have begun to leave their homes, but it is not a natural disaster now. If there is a natural disaster, they will run to other cities, or even the capital. Maybe the court will provide disaster relief and porridge.

Now it is a man-made disaster, and it is the same for the entire Dashun Dynasty!

A large number of refugees began to run into the mountains. Hiding in the mountains could avoid being arrested by the government, and they could also rely on the mountains to eat and dig some wild vegetables and game in the mountains.

At least there is a glimmer of hope to survive.

...

and the beams in the mountains are full of them, and all the winter wheat has been harvested, dried and put in cellars. By hiding in the mountains, they can avoid being taxed by the government and being arrested for corvee service.

Now all over the mountains and fields, you can see corns as tall as a person. These corns can only be harvested in the autumn, and there are also many sweet potatoes and potatoes.

In short, they are not short of food.

That afternoon, the scorching sun hung high in the sky. Liang Manman and Lu Tingyuan were taking their little Ling'er to enjoy the coolness of the pool at the foot of the mountain.

Lu Bing hurriedly ran over to report: "Master, madam, a group of people are coming to us."

Lu Tingyuan's face darkened, "Who are they?"

"They are all old, weak, women and children, there are quite a few of them, they seem to be traveling together. Come."

The mountain they were in was the largest and tallest mountain within a hundred miles. If a fire had not burned away the vegetation a few years ago, it could be said to be a deep mountain and old forest.

And those refugees can also think that since they want to hide, they must hide in the mountains so that they will not be found.

As a result, refugees from hundreds of miles around began to come to this mountain.

Although this mountain range covers an area of ​​several thousand acres, many places have rugged rocks or are very steep, making them unsuitable for human habitation.

The place where they live now was originally the best location. The terrain is relatively flat, surrounded by mountains, with a valley in the middle, close to water sources, and the nearby slopes are gentle and suitable for growing food.