Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

The weather this year is really weird.

At the beginning of February, it was already the time when all things were in turmoil, but a heavy snowfall that was rare in a century fell in Xiangyang.But in July and August, the heat becomes unbearable, extremely hot, and confusing.

It's already September, and the summer heat has not completely dissipated, but I don't know if this year will be a mild winter - there is probably no hope.

As soon as the sun sets, a market in the countryside of Xiangyang County becomes busy.

Officials who had not appeared for a long time were dispatched one after another to purchase supplies.

They needed so much that they almost emptied out all the melons, fruits, vegetables, poultry, eggs, wine and water in the market.

The people who came to buy were dissatisfied, but they did not dare to make mistakes.

The market only opens once every half a month, and everyone comes here from all over the world, isn't it just to buy something?You bought all the food and drink, what should everyone do?
"I don't want to be so cruel. The holy cavalry has arrived in Xiangyang. There are tens of thousands of people, and the food and drink every day is not a small amount. I'm offended." A certain recorder who personally led the team said loudly.

When everyone heard this, they all lamented, seeing that it was still early, and planned to go a long way to another market to try their luck.

In the vegetable patch across the river, Yang Laoshi was pouring manure water on the vegetables while silently listening to the discussion.

He knew the people who went to the market.They are from Hebei, mainly craftsmen, and work for a four-wheeled carriage workshop run by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Xiangyang.Those who don’t farm usually rely on buying food.The market is held once every two weeks, and those who are not short of money will come to buy some dried meat, poultry eggs, dried fruit, rice wine, etc. They did not expect to be preempted by the government this time, so they are naturally very dissatisfied.

"Hebei barbarian!" Yang Laoshi spat.

He is from Huazhou in Kansai, and he should be regarded as the first batch of immigrants in Xiangyang.

Thinking back to the time when Zhe Linggong defeated the Zhao family and his son, and extended his power to the east of Shannan Province, Xiang, Ying, and Fuzhou were the first batch to receive immigrants.As for the source of immigrants, it is naturally Kansai.

Yang Laoshi came here with his father. As for how many years he has been here, he can no longer remember. 20 years?Or 30 years?
After shaking his head, he gave up on the issue.He couldn't even figure out his own age, so it was better not to think about these troublesome issues.

"Crash!" With a slight exertion on his wrist, the excrement floated away and disappeared into the vegetable patch, leaving only a disgusting smell, but Yang Laoshi was used to it and couldn't smell it anymore.

After working for half an hour, he held a manure spoon and looked at the green vegetable patch with a sense of accomplishment.

It should be the last harvest of this year.After a few autumn rains, you can pick them up and sell them in the market.

"Yang Laoshi, you are pouring goods into the garden!" A burly man on the other side of the river scolded: "How can I collect your vegetables after pouring dung water?"

"Zhang Lushi." Yang Laoshi bowed and said with a silly smile, "This dish will take a while."

Zhang Lushi glanced at the vegetable patch and sighed: "In fact, you can pick it. But you poured dung water on it, and I don't dare to feed it to the warriors."

"The saint has arrived in Xiangyang?" Yang Laoshi asked.

The Holy Emperor's inspection of Xiangyang is probably the most sensational news in the past month.The news spread throughout the country, even farm laborers like Yang Laoshi heard about it.

"Here we come." Zhang Lushi said, "It's a pity that I'm not qualified to come close. There are two people from your village who can meet the saint and maybe get some rewards."

"There is green smoke coming out of the ancestral graves." Yang Laoshi said with envy.

"Our ancestral tombs are all in Huazhou. I'm afraid they are gone long ago." Zhang Lushi said a "cold joke."

Yang Laoshi grinned stupidly.

No matter what other people said, he didn't care much about it.After his death, his father was buried on the land behind the village. From now on, this will be the ancestral grave of the Yang family in Xiangyang.As for his hometown in Huazhou, his memory has been blurry. The only thing he remembers is the big elm tree at the end of the village where he and his friends played when he was a child.

It's a pity that one of the seven or eight children who played together under the big elm tree went to the army, and there is no news of it. Even if he is still alive, he will probably never see him again; In Xiangyang, one of them was Yang Laoshi, and the other partner had died of illness during the land reclamation process.

The remaining playmates are probably still in their hometown in Huazhou.From now on, we are far apart, and occasionally when I think back, a faint melancholy will surge up in my heart.

But no matter what, his life is pretty good now.The farm work was also very heavy. I had to work under the stars and the moon, and I was so tired that I fell asleep without thinking about anything else.

My hometown is a memory that is so far away that it cannot be traced back.

His four children grew up in Xiangyang. In their memories, there are no ancestral graves or big elm trees, only the plants and trees of their new home. Xiangyang is their hometown.

"Come and collect the vegetables next month, they will be gone this month." Yang Laoshi put away the manure scoop and said.

"The saint will leave next month." Zhang Lushi sighed.

He and Yang Laoshi were both from Zheng County and from the same township.His father had been a native Tutuan man and had made meritorious service in the war against the Xuanwu Army. He himself had a wide circle of friends, was well-versed in people, and was even literate, so he found a job as an official in the county.

In just two generations, a small class difference has emerged, but they started from the same point when they first immigrated.Maybe, this is life.

Of course, as a former fellow countryman, there is a sense of kinship, and the relationship is always much closer than that of people from other villages or even from other counties. The same Kansai immigrants, those from the same state and those from Huazhou, of course, have different degrees of closeness.

"What a pity." Yang Laoshi also sighed and said, "I vaguely remember that when I was a child, my family only had a few acres of land, and every time there was no harvest, I would eat leaves, wild vegetables, and mulberries. Now I can still eat enough to raise four children. It’s all the work of saints.”

Zhang Lushi nodded.There is no need to say this.The family moved from the narrow and densely populated Huazhou to the vast and sparsely populated Xiangyang. Of course, they could get more land.In fact, the newly moved people can still get a lot of land, but they need to open up wasteland themselves.Unlike the first batch of 30 to [-] years ago, due to war damage, there was a large amount of ready-made land that could be distributed.

Opening up wasteland is really not a good thing.

Some people died inexplicably while driving, and no one knew what disease they had, so they could only be attributed to acclimatization.

But it won't work if you don't open up wasteland.People cannot live in the wilderness. Only by transforming swamps and woods into farmland can we gain the basis for survival.

Overall it's actually a good thing.

There is no future in Washington.All the land that can be allocated in the local area has been divided, and even the officials who have taken office do not have many positions to allocate land, which shows the tension of land.

Xiangyang is better. As long as the wasteland is transformed and the city takes root, it will have an inheritance that can be passed down to future generations.

Zhang Lushi remembered the "Zhizhi" that his youngest son was reading. The population and land mentioned in the book were really on point, so much so that he couldn't help but read it.

After reading it, I was bragging and chatting with my colleagues in the yamen. When I mentioned this matter, everyone thought it was true.

Most of my colleagues are also descendants of Kansai immigrants, and now they have occupied a high position in Xiangyang and even the entire six prefectures of Xiang, Ying, Fu, Tang, Deng, Sui, and even because of various advantages including population, they have gradually overwhelmed Aboriginal people become local leaders.

Most people have a very high opinion of today, no less than their parents.And this feeling of gratitude may last for one or two generations before it slowly disappears.

The saint is truly No. 1 among the ancients and the present.

After sighing silently, Zhang Lushi waved his hand towards Yang Laoshi and said, "Since I have nothing to eat, I won't chat with you anymore."

After saying that, he left the river bank with his entourage and hurried to another place.

Yang Laoshi threw the dung spoon into the wooden bucket, then walked to the field edge, picked up a pole, picked up the two empty dung buckets, and walked back home.

The sun gradually rises, shining on the river like a jade belt.

Beside the peaceful small village, birds are flying and smoke is curling up.

A corner of the house was exposed among the green trees.

The children spoke with Kansai accents, playing and chasing each other.

Unknowingly, the southern states of Zhili Province, headed by Xiangyang, have become a pleasant place due to decades of hard work by immigrants.

******
Shao Shude had just received dozens of representatives from Xiangyang County.

Because of his special care, half of the people selected were very old first-generation immigrants, and half were second-generation immigrants born in Xiangyang.

When Shao Shude talked to them in his local accent, many people burst into tears. Although the young people did not have such deep feelings, they were also sentimental.

The attachment to my hometown seems to be engraved in my bones.

When you are young, you work hard and earn a living, and this emotion can be deeply suppressed.But when I get older, once I have some free time, I start to look for those memories that have long been blurred, and regard them as treasures, and take them out from the bottom of my heart from time to time to remember them.

Shao Shude knew that his immigration policy was unpopular and disgusted at least some people.

But after talking to these people and understanding their living conditions, he was very pleased.

As long as those who moved out did not die halfway or during the process of clearing wasteland, they would eventually reap a lot of fruits, and their resentment towards the court would disappear.As for the second generation born locally, they are even more grateful after learning about the situation in their hometown from their parents - cultivating a few acres of land and cultivating dozens of acres are obviously two different lives.

The rising political power in Kansai generally only accepts Chang'an as its capital. If it had to choose another one, it would be Luoyang.It was once regarded as an extension of Kansai's power and the easternmost capital acceptable to Kansai people.

After the Great Xia established its capital in Luoyang, it formulated a strict Kanto "colonial" plan, that is, to take advantage of the huge damage caused by the two animals, Huang Chao and Qin Zongquan, to emigrate first, and move Meng, Huai, Luo, Ru, Zheng, and Xiangyang to the south. Fill it up and make it an extension of Kansai's power to defend Luoyang, the divine capital.

After immigrating for 30 years, the results have been remarkable.

Shao Shude is also very satisfied with this result.

Xiangyang, as the hinterland of southern Beijing, needs such a group of "insiders" to deter forces in Hedong, Hebei and even the south.

Don't call him narrow-minded, that's just the way it is in this day and age.

People in Youzhou also think that Khitan people are more reliable than Jin people, and the phenomenon of regional division is far more serious than later generations. After all, more than [-]% of people are illiterate, and many people still don't know the name of the country, the name of the year, and who the emperor is.

He was relieved that Xiangyang was like this.

On September [-]th, the Double Ninth Festival, the whole army gathered.

On the third day after the festival, Shengjia left Xiangyang and went to Dengzhou.Xiangcheng Caoqu is his next stop.