Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

406 Chapter 1
Yiling Mountains.

The dense forest with no roads was trampled on a road. Thousands of miners built simple shacks with trees and hay in this inaccessible and beast-infested mountain area, and placed children and old people there. The young and strong sweated profusely in the mine. Sweeping pickaxes and shovels dug desperately, and even used iron picks to punch holes in the rocks, stuffed gunpowder bought from Nanyang, and then detonated, blasting rocks like rain.When the stone rain stops, women and children will happily walk over, rummage through the pile of rocks, pick out good ores and put them into rattan baskets.The conditions are harsh, this kind of work is very hard and full of dangers, and accidents of one kind or another will happen every now and then, but they are still full of energy.

What they are mining is a newly discovered treasure in the Yiling Mountains, phosphate ore.

Phosphate mines are not uncommon in the Yiling Mountains. Many mines are even open-pit, but people have never known what they can be used for. It can neither be used as fuel nor processed into exquisite ornaments. It is just a pile of hard stones. , no one cares.It wasn't until the genius Xiao Yang Shuai in Nanyang used sulfuric acid to dissolve the phosphate rock, turning these smelly and hard stones into powder, that everyone knew that this thing can be used as fertilizer, and it is an excellent fertilizer .But knowing it is one thing, and knowing how to use it is another. At present, only people in Nanyang know how to make phosphate fertilizer, and they know that it is useless to use it as fertilizer.However, with the gradual implementation of a series of far-reaching reforms in Nanyang, the demand for phosphate fertilizers has been rising, and more people are mining phosphate rocks in Yiling Mountain.

Most of the people who went into the mountains to mine phosphate rock were bankrupt local farmers, or refugees who fled from Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and other places.The conditions in Hubei are much stronger than those in the north and northwest. The famous province of thousands of lakes is not like Shaanxi. Even the wormwood and bark on the mountains have been eaten up, and they can only eat stones to satisfy their hunger.Of course, don’t expect Huguang to be as open-minded as Nanyang to accept them. Huguang is a large agricultural province, and the industry has not yet sprouted. They don’t have such conditions. When they see the refugees coming like locusts crossing the border, their first reaction is to drive them away. , The farther the better, just kidding, the local land annexation is so serious, so many people have no land to plant, and if there are millions of refugees, will they still survive?No one was willing to accept them, so these refugees had to hide in inaccessible mountainous areas, occupying the Jingxiang area, living by hunting and gathering wild vegetables and fruits, and spending time hard.In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Hongzhi made some efforts to solve the problem of refugees in the Jingxiang area, and ordered the local officials in Huguang to distribute seeds and farm tools to the refugees who were willing to join the Huguang household registration and help them open up wasteland. If they are, they will be given some travel expenses to allow them to return to their hometown or to make a living in other places.During this period, the number of refugees in Jingxiang decreased greatly, and the public security in Jingxiang area also improved greatly. It is not unreasonable to say that Hongzhi is the king of Zhongxing.But after Hongzhi's death, this good momentum came to an abrupt end, and the refugee problem became more and more serious, especially during the Wanli Dynasty, when it became more and more acute.By the time of the Chongzhen Dynasty, the number of Jingxiang refugees had far exceeded one million. These refugees had no land and were often killed by officers and soldiers. The older ones murdered and robbed houses, and the Jingxiang mountain area became a bandit den, making people daunting.The people who mine here are all honest people, they don’t have the courage to kill people and sell goods. Besides, if you are lucky, you can earn hundreds of yuan by digging mines for a day, and you can buy thirty or forty catties of potato noodles or miscellaneous grains from Nanyang. It's enough for a big man to eat for a month, and they don't need to engage in the business of licking blood with a knife.

While working in full swing, there was a commotion from down the mountain, and the person in charge of purchasing came back.Everyone stopped what they were doing, and surrounded them with a huff, looking eagerly at Sun Xiucai, who was in charge of purchasing, with longing in his eyes.Sun Xiucai is the most educated person among their more than 1000 people. He can write and calculate, and can make clear decisions. Taking the fleet to Nanyang will bring back a little surprise for everyone, either excellent steel tools, durable fabrics, or a few cans of candies that make the doll so happy that they can’t sleep, of course, the most pleasing The amazing thing is that he can always sell ore at the best price and buy grain at the lowest price. If he sells the same amount of ore, he always brings back more things than others.This scholar also likes this kind of work. No matter when he leaves or comes back, he always smiles. After putting the materials into the warehouse, he looks mysterious and conjures up some gadgets to make the children cheer. This is the happiest time for these refugees.

But this time, Sun Xiucai's complexion was very ugly, and the food he brought back was much less than usual.

The foreman Peng Zhuang saw that the grain was only two-thirds of the usual, and asked in surprise, "What's the matter? Mr. Xiucai, has the price of grain in Nanyang increased?"

Everyone looked terrified. The food price increase was what they were most afraid of. In the past three years, the food price in Nanyang had not risen, but fell steadily. It was the food purchased from Nanyang that they survived year after year. In [-], if the price of food in Nanyang also increased, they would not be able to survive.

Sun Xiucai said: "The price of grain in Nanyang has not increased, on the contrary, it has dropped. At the end of the year, new potato noodles are on the market, and grain merchants have dropped by [-]% in order to get rid of old goods."

Like Sun Xiucai, Orion Father An, who was as prestigious as Sun Xiucai, asked: "The price of food has dropped, why do you buy less food?"

Sun Xiucai gritted his teeth and said: "There are three more tax cards on the Han River, which were set up by King Xiang. If you pass through one tax card, you need to charge [-] Wen for a shipment of goods, and you have to collect it twice, and you can't lose a penny!"

Peng Zhuang was angry: "Adding tax cards, are they trying to force us to death!" There are already many tax cards on the increasingly busy waterway of the Han River, and the miners worked hard for a month to mine, at least Half of the income is fed these tax cards, and now there are three more, it is simply impossible to live!

Sun Xiucai sank down on the ground and sighed: "If this continues, I'm afraid we won't be able to pay taxes for selling a whole load of ore!"

Father An said angrily: "That bastard King Xiang, this is trying to pick our skin off!"

Peng Zhuang said helplessly: "Forget it, let's cook and eat first... It's Chinese New Year today, let's be happy, and we can talk about it after the Chinese New Year." Several young people were called to put the hard-won grain into storage. Spend some potato noodles and let a group of women take them to make a delicious meal for everyone.I don’t dare to think about dumplings. I can only make flatbread with noodles. After the flatbread is baked, sprinkle some pickled wild onions on it. It can be regarded as improving everyone’s life.

While the women were baking pancakes, a group of children were still surrounding Sun Xiucai, looking at him eagerly, hoping that he could conjure up some snacks, small toys, and the like as usual.Sun Xiucai fumbled in his sleeve for a long time, finally found a small bag, opened it, it was a golden sugar plate.The children immediately jumped up and cheered loudly. Sun Xiucai smiled and brought a knife and a hammer, put the knife on the sugar plate and hit it with the hammer, and then cut off a small piece and distributed it to the thinnest child.He cut the candy as small as possible, but it was still not enough. How could it be divided among so many children?The child who was not assigned was drooling, looked pitifully at the little friend who was enjoying the delicious food, and kept begging: "Let me have a bite, okay? Let me bite a little?" The little friend couldn't hold back his constant begging, and became cruel , carefully biting the small piece of candy, biting off a small half and handing it over: "I can only give you so much, and I will only give you this little..."

Sun Xiucai took out some colorful threads and tied them into beautiful bows for several girls.He picked up these threads at the door of a garment factory. The garment factory has more than 300 employees. Every day, a large number of rags, threads and other things are taken out and placed at the door of the factory. Who needs it? If so, go get it.Therefore, every time we go to the factory for cleaning, there will always be a lot of people gathering at the factory gate. Those scraps of cloth are picked up and sewed and pieced together. If you add up, you can make a set of clothes.This time Sun Xiucai and the others were unlucky. They arrived late and did not pick up any pieces of cloth, but only some threads. Even so, this was a great surprise for the little girl who loves beauty.Sun Xiucai stroked the smiling children's heads, his eyes were a little moist, and his expression was bitter: "Children, you were born in the wrong place..." Thinking of those little butterflies with red faces and beautiful new clothes playing in the streets The Nanyang children who were playing, and looking at these sallow and skinny children, who always had a vegetable look to them, and a brightly colored thread could make them happy for a long time, he felt very sad.

He was sighing, Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang!The alarm bell rang suddenly, and the person in charge of the sentry shouted: "There is a situation! The officers and soldiers are coming! The officers and soldiers are coming!"

Shouts of panic echoed in the mining area, and the entire mining area immediately exploded. The miners who were digging picked up shovels and picks, and the healthy women who were cooking picked up kitchen knives and hatchets. The pole rushed towards the entrance of the mining area like a gust of wind.The children were still at a loss, but the old man yelled at them and dragged these little ones who didn't know the dangers of the world back to the shack, not allowing them to go out... The entire mining area was full of panic and uneasiness, as if a tiger had broken in.

In fact, in the eyes of these poor refugees, officers and soldiers are more terrifying than tigers.No matter how fierce the tiger is, it only kills one or two people at a time, but these officers and soldiers may kill them all, and use their heads to claim credit and reward!
(End of this chapter)