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My Author: Wang Zijun

Copywriter:

Back in the late Ming Dynasty, he became a slave.

This emperor, beggars can do it, built slaves can do it, rogues can do it, but domestic slaves can't do it?

Worldview

Time backgroud

During the reign of Chongzhen at the end of Ming Dynasty, the world suffered from famine, countless refugees starved to death for thousands of miles, and peasant uprisings broke out everywhere.The Chongzhen imperial court sent troops to suppress everywhere to no avail, so they sent more eunuchs to supervise the army. This move intensified the contradictions.

In order to feed the army, the imperial court levied violently in various places, and the increase in taxes led to a vicious circle. Various national problems caused by land snowballed like snowballs.

Countless people with lofty ideals want to change the destiny of the country, but suffer from having no way to serve the country.

There are many talented people in the court who tried to change to save the declining Ming Dynasty, but the Emperor Chongzhen was suspicious and indecisive in employing people, which caused many loyal people to be dusty, helpless to deal with national problems, and confined to party struggles.

As a result, the Ming Dynasty inevitably came to an end.

Sleepy Shoals Volume [-]

Chapter 001 [The First Year of Chongzhen]

"In the summer of the first year of Chongzhen, Ji was in a drought, and the land was red for thousands of miles." - "History of the Ming Dynasty, Five Elements".

……

This year, the life of the people is not easy.

Since the last year of Wanli, in less than 20 years, floods, droughts and locust disasters have occurred frequently, and the people of Shengdou have suffered unspeakably.

It is the first good place in the capital, and it will not be spared.

In the first year of Apocalypse, the new emperor ascended the throne, and locusts in Gyeonggi filled the sky.

In the first year of Chongzhen, the new emperor ascended the throne, and Gyeonggi was red for thousands of miles.

In the cracked and barren fields, a group of hungry people is wandering, lifeless like walking dead.

The seedlings have long since been withered, the weeds are no longer alive, the bark has been cleaned, and if you want to eat the clods, you have to find water to swallow.

Zhao Shilang took the whole family and staggered forward in a daze among the fugitives.

Last year, my mother died of illness.

This year, the eldest son died of starvation.

Just a few days ago, the family was favored by the sky and found a large piece of foxtail by the river.

Make porridge with grass seeds, save some to eat, and consume it in two days.

The whole family cherished their second son, Zhao Han, who ate the most grass-seed porridge, but because of this, Zhao Han didn't poop for several days.The grass seeds are hardened in the abdomen and cannot be pulled out, just waiting to die.

In the evening, the whole family sleeps in the wilderness.

Zhao Shilang took his eldest daughter, Zhao Zhenlan, to a nearby area to pick up grass and dead branches to make a fire.His wife, Zhao Chen, and their second daughter, Zhao Zhenfang, continued to help their son Zhao Han to excrete.

"Han'er, use some more strength!" Zhao Chen held a branch and carefully poked at his son's anus.

Zhao Han took off his trousers and squatted on the ground, clutching the dry grass with both hands, exerting all his strength, and crying, "Mother, the baby can't be pulled out."

"It's coming, it's coming." Zhao Chen said with tears, his son's anus had been poked and bleeding.

After a long while, Zhao Han cried out in pain, and then fainted on the spot.

Zhao Chenshi said happily: "Cha came out, pup came out!"

The whole family has no food left, so they can only cook some half-dry grass roots and drink it with hot water to satisfy their hunger.

Even the grass roots are dug up with good luck, and the whole family is swollen due to malnutrition.

The condition of his house is not bad, just swollen.Some of the starving people have been starved for so long that not only have they run out of fat, but their muscles have shrunk, and they are skinny like mummified corpses.

At night, the stars are shining.

Zhao Shilang was wearing a tattered gray cloth, looked up at the starry sky, and muttered to himself: "Huanghuang Daming, the mountains and rivers are eclipsed, the demonic atmosphere is full, and the country will not be a country. What can I do for my Confucian scholars? What can I do for it!"

Zhao Shilang was indeed a Confucian scholar, and his ancestors were all Confucian scholars, because the household registration of the Zhao family was a Confucian one (like the business registration, it was a branch of the civil registration).

More than ten years ago, the Zhao family's family was fairly well-off.

But he spent a lot of imperial examinations, and his family business had already declined.In recent years, there have been successive natural disasters. Last year, Zhao's mother became seriously ill and took advantage of usury loans to treat her illness.In the end, the person was gone, and the debt could not be repaid, so the land could only be sold to offset the debt.

At the beginning, you can still borrow money from your family and friends, but who can stand it after a long time?In the eyes of relatives and friends, Zhao Shilang is like the god of plague, and everyone can't avoid it.

Another day, the fugitive team came to Tianjin, across the canal and the city wall.

By the river, officials and gentry set up porridge sheds to help the people, and Zhao Shilang's family lined up to wait for porridge.

However, there were only a few hundred people serving porridge, and a small official shouted: "Today's porridge is exhausted, and tomorrow will come again."

Near the porridge shed, there was a loud cry, and some hungry people came forward to entangle them, and they were beaten to death by the soap officials.

North Zhili is thousands of miles away, and more than [-] hungry people gather in Beijing and Tongzhou.

Even if the imperial court wanted to provide relief to the common people, it would not be in Tianjin's turn. Hundreds of people served porridge every day as a pretense, and the only small amount of relief funds had long been embezzled.

Suddenly, a group of fresh clothes came on angry horses, and the leader shouted: "My master accepts adopted daughters, who are over 12 years old and under 16 years old, and those with good looks are worth half a meter!"

Hungry people with daughters came forward to ask questions, and then took their daughters to jump into the shallow canal to wash their faces.

Fourteen-year-old Zhao Zhenlan said to her parents, "Father, mother, sell your daughter. Save some food, half a buck of rice can last for several days."

Both Zhao Shilang and Zhao Chen were silent.

Zhao Zhenlan squeezed out a smile: "Hanging and vertical is death. If you sell your daughter to a big family, you can live even as a maid."

Zhao Chen sighed: "Lan'er, what kind of big family is this? It's clearly a gangster who buys and sells women."

Zhao Shilang gritted his teeth and said, "My Zhao family has been innocent for generations, but the whole family starved to death..."

"Father, the eldest brother is gone, the second brother can't die, the Zhao family wants him to pass on incense," Zhao Zhenlan pleaded, "Father, mother, you should leave a way for your daughter to survive, and she doesn't want to starve to death."

Zhao Shilang turned his head to look at Zhao Han. His son was in a coma and had a high fever. If he didn't eat, he would die.

After being speechless for a long time, Zhao Shilang turned to look at the sky, closed his eyes and shed two lines of turbid tears, and waved: "Go."

Zhao Chen took her daughter's hand with tears in her eyes, and said with a weeping voice, "Laner, mother is grooming for you."

The youngest daughter, Zhao Zhenfang, who is only six years old, watched all this silently, as if she understood everything, and seemed to understand nothing.

The North Canal was too dry to sail, so the mother and daughter carefully slid into the river, and the water washed Zhao Zhenlan's face.

However, he heard Ya Ji roar: "No more, no more, the righteous daughter has already been collected."

Zhao Chen suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, and finally didn't have to sell his daughter, but when he thought about the family's lack of food, he immediately fell into grief and distress.

Zhao Zhenlan stepped forward and said to the fangs, "I know how to read."

Hearing the words, the head of the fangs immediately turned around, stared at Zhao Zhenlan for a while, nodded and said, "It's also a beautiful embryo."

Zhao Zhenlan added: "My father is a scholar, and my ancestors were officials."

"It's still a scholarly family." Ya Ru was delighted.

Zhao Zhenlan said, "I'm worth three buckets of rice."

"Hey, three buckets of rice? This year, even Miss Guan Huan is worth one bucket at most." Yazui threw out two bags of rice, both small bags that could hold half a bucket, and a bag of rice could weigh about five or six pounds. .

Zhao Zhenlan didn't bargain anymore. She untied the rope of the bag, revealing the old yellow-brown rice, squeezed out a smile and said to her mother, "Mother, my daughter is gone, you and Daddy should take care."

"Lan'er, you should also take care." Zhao Chen said while wiping away tears.

The fangs left with the girl, and Zhao Chen dragged two bags of rice to see her husband.

The six-year-old Zhao Zhenfang realized something and cried, "Sister, elder sister, I want elder sister!"

With a look on his face, Zhao Chen comforted his little daughter and said, "Fang'er don't cry, my sister has had a good life, and my sister has had a good life."

"I want my sister, I want my sister!" Zhao Zhenfang was still crying.

Zhao Shilang looked at the two bags of rice on the ground, and then looked at the crying little daughter. He couldn't help feeling sad, and crouched on the ground sobbing bitterly.

Suddenly, Mrs. Zhao Chen pulled out a rusted kitchen knife and yelled fiercely like an old hen protecting her cubs, "What are you doing? Get out, get out!"

But it was a group of hungry people, coveting their two bags of rice, and they were looking around.

Other hungry people who sell women for rice, if they do not have the protection of their hometown party, are often surrounded by nearby hungry people.When I get really hungry, I even eat people, not to mention killing people and grabbing rice.

Zhao Shilang didn't care about his grief, so he picked up the stick that was on his way, and tried to save the family's life-saving food.

"Da da, da da da..."

There was a sound of hooves, from far to near, all the riders were carrying weapons.

More than 2 hungry people stood there in a daze, and the horse team rushed there quickly.One of them frowned and asked, "Didn't you say that you want to give out porridge today?"

No one answered.

The man got off his horse, grabbed a starving man and asked, "Where is the porridge cook?"

The hungry people replied in horror: "It's over."

"Damn it, it's not even noon, how could it be finished? What a fool!" The man was furious.

Another horse rider said: "Brother, we can't run for nothing to see if Kuhaha still has oil and water on his body."

These guys are horse bandits. When they heard that they wanted to cook porridge outside Tianjin, they immediately ran to grab the food on horseback.

They did not dare to enter the city of Tianjin, but they had the courage to grab food outside the city. Anyway, the soldiers stationed in Tianjin were cowards.

"What is the taste?"

"Someone is cooking porridge over there!"

Several horse bandits rushed over after hearing the words and stole the food from the hungry people who sold the women.The hungry people wanted to resist, but were hacked to death by horse bandits.

Another horse bandit shouted: "Whoever has food, hand it over!"

"Run!"

The murders saw blood, and the nearby hungry people fled in panic.

Those who are far away don't know what happened, anyway, it's right to run away together.In less than a moment, fear spread rapidly, and more than 2 hungry people fled in a panic.

Horse bandits focus on people with bags on their bodies, no matter what is in them, they'll grab them first anyway.

Zhao Shilang carried his comatose and feverish son on his back, picked up a bag of rice himself, asked his wife to take a bag of rice, and ran away in panic while protecting his daughter.

"what!"

The screams of his wife came from behind, and Zhao Shilang hurriedly looked back.

However, he saw that the Zhao Chen family had fallen to the ground with a knife, and the food was also taken away by the horse bandits.His eyes were splitting, he put down his son, his eyes were red, and he said: "Evil thief, I will fight with you!"

Zhao Chen cries reluctantly: "Master, leave me alone, run away, run away!"

He couldn't run on four legs on two legs. Zhao Shilang knew that he would be spared.

The horse bandit sneered and kicked Zhao Shilang down.

Zhao Shilang struggled to get up, the horse bandit slashed down, and then made a few more blows as if venting his anger, Zhao Shilang fell in a pool of blood and stopped moving.

"Daddy, Daddy!"

Zhao Zhenfang rushed over and shook her father's body vigorously.

"It's very noisy." The horse bandit raised his sword and wanted to chop.

Another horse bandit stopped and said, "Seventh, enough, kill the little girl too? It's important to grab something."

Only then did the horse bandit withdraw his knife, grab two bags of rice, and tie it to the horse's body to continue killing people.

In a blink of an eye, more than 2 hungry people fled, leaving only hundreds of corpses.

Some were killed by horse bandits, and more were killed by trampling on each other.There are also some hungry people, who are dying of hunger and have no energy to escape, and just lie on the spot and wait to starve to death.

In the north of Tianjin, there is a temporary wooden bridge.