Fox Road Travel Notes

Chen Zican rushed to the door, opened it and shouted: "Man, man, is there anyone alive here?"

Then there was a chaotic bang bang bang bang sound, and almost all the doors were pushed open, and dozens of strong men rushed out, each holding a sword.

Chen Zican was so frightened that he hurriedly closed the door and almost pinched his nose.

Just as he was still in shock, there was a gentle knock on the door.

Someone asked: "Zican, are you awake?"

"What happened just now? We are all our own people outside..."

Chen Zican leaned against the wall and let out a sigh of relief. His legs felt weak. It was Wang Heming.

"Master, why are you not sleeping?"

"Disgusting! I was dreaming of eating roast chicken, and I just gnawed half of the chicken neck, and you scared me away!"

"Well - if I had known earlier, I would have eaten the chicken legs first..."

Kou'er rubbed his eyes and got up, saying in a daze.

Chen Zican opened the door, and Wang Heming and a waiter stood at the door.

"Kou'er, keep sleeping. If you can catch up, the roast chicken hasn't gone far yet..."

Chen Zican made a silent gesture to the two of them, stepped out, and gently closed the door.

Sure enough, the group of sword-wielding men outside were all our own, and they all looked solemn, as if they were facing a formidable enemy.

Chen Zican shook his head and laughed to himself.

In my previous life, I had lived in a peaceful age. I had only seen robbers on TV. I had never experienced such dangerous things in the past few days.

Although he pretended not to care, in the end, he was still too nervous.

Wang Heming pulled him into his room and waved the waiter in.

Chen Zican saw that he was neatly dressed and asked him: "You guys woke up early?"

Wang Heming smiled and nodded.

Chen Zican looked at the two of them suspiciously: "What's going on outside? A hundred ghosts walking at night?"

Wang Heming laughed: "Zi Can, your brain will always think differently from others!"

The waiter Qiqi Ai said with a flattering smile: "Sir, please don't worry."

"Those are hungry people outside the city. They don't make trouble."

"I scared you, I will apologize to you..."

Chen Zican waved his hand: "Hungry people?"

"Where did so many hungry people come from? What are they doing around the inn?"

The waiter quickly explained: "Sir, as soon as I heard your official talk, I knew you came from Beijing."

"You don't know, last winter, there was almost no snow here."

"This spring, there was little rain. Last month, migratory locusts came up and chewed up all the spring seedlings in the fields. Not even the grass and leaves in the fields were left..."

"Don't say that people have nothing to eat. I heard that outside the city, the locusts are so hungry that they are starting to eat people!"

"Qian'er, I heard from Aunt Wang, who was helping with the porridge, that there was a villager who was about to starve to death."

"I had no choice but to drag my son and daughter along with everyone, and follow the official road to beg for food."

"As a result, just outside the city in Wuli Village, we encountered locusts that were so dark that they looked like dark clouds."

"Everyone just wrapped their heads in cloth and ran as fast as they could..."

"Alas! His kid is only five or six years old, and he is so hungry that he can't run away."

"As soon as I fell to the ground, I was immediately covered in the swarms of locusts."

"His mother cried and ran over to fight with all her strength. Soon, she was wrapped into a big black ball by the locusts..."

"His father grabbed his eldest son and kept running without daring to look back."

"The next day, I went back along the road to look for it. It was so miserable, tsk tsk!"

"I heard that under the rags, there are only two white skeletons left!" the man said, shaking his head and sighing.

Chen Zican felt horrified when he heard this.

Last night, when they entered the city after dark, they felt that the county town was in a dilapidated state, with lights everywhere.

When he found the inn, he also noticed that there were many locusts jumping around under the lanterns at the door.

I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, but I didn't expect that the locust plague here would be so serious.

He nodded and asked in a deep voice: "Don't the government provide disaster relief? Why are these victims gathered here?"

The waiter made a sad face: "Sir, the south is not at peace now. We have been using troops for many years, and the court is depleting food and levying wages. The people's life is not easy!"

"In recent years, Zhili's enclosure has become more troublesome."

"How many families have lost the land they have cultivated for generations and are either detained as slaves or become refugees..."

He wanted to say something else, but carefully looked at the faces of Wang Heming and Chen Zican.

He mumbled a bit and just sighed.

"What a tragedy!"

Since the Manchus entered the customs, they began a vigorous and bloody land enclosure movement.

First of all, the capital city, the inner city, was designated for the Eight Banners children to live in, and Han people were not allowed to enter the city.

Later, the ban was slightly relaxed, and it was stipulated that people could enter the city to burn incense and worship Buddha, but they were not allowed to stay in the inner city.

Throughout Zhili to Shandong, the Manchus unscrupulously plundered land, wealth, and population.

He took a large piece of fertile land and a beautiful house as his own, and the original owner was kicked out of the house.

The young men and women were kept as slaves and maidservants, the old, weak, sick and disabled were killed at will and allowed to starve to death.

Because they were too cruel, many slaves resisted and fled, and the Qing court promulgated extremely strict escape laws.

All Han people who took in escaped slaves were put to death.

Not to mention ordinary people, even Geng Zhongming, a notorious and powerful traitor who spent half his life fighting for foreigners, was forced to commit suicide by Dorgon because his generals took in fugitives.

Therefore, during the Shunzhi period, the entire Zhili Shandong Province was filled with mourners, and the people were in dire straits.

It is precisely because of this reason that King Calabash, Guan Xianwu and others were able to gain a foothold in the imperial city, and the Qing court repeatedly suppressed them without success, but instead became more and more powerful.

The Shandong Yuyuan Army and the Nine Mountains King Wang Ju once gathered hundreds of thousands of people, setting fire to the prairie like wildfire, and would rather die than surrender. It is precisely for this reason.

Chen Zican was silent for a while and asked him: "Then, what are they doing around the inn?"

The waiter shook his head: "It's already like this, why else? It's just for stuttering, as long as I can live, I will count it as a day!"

"As for our boss, he is a really good person!"

"He and a few friends raised their own money and sent people to buy grain. They have been giving porridge at the door of this inn every day for more than half a month."

"No, these hungry people who have left their hometowns all know that there is a place to eat and help the old and the young. They gather here every day before dawn, waiting to be given porridge!"

"It's hard to say, and I can't make it in time. I'm really sorry for disturbing the rest of the two guest officers!"

Chen Zican glanced at Wang Heming and saw that his eyes were deep and thoughtful.

It seems that he woke up early, and he has already heard these words from the guy.

Seeing that Chen Zican had no further questions, Wang Heming rewarded the clerk with more than ten large sums of money and sent him away.

After sitting opposite each other for a long time, the two of them sighed at the same time, feeling a little heavy.

Wang Heming knocked on the table: "This government does not provide relief to the victims. How can a few conscientious gentry manage anything?"

Chen Zican closed his eyes: "After all, we can save each one. When the locusts disperse, maybe there is still a way to survive..."

Wang Heming nodded and said with a wry smile: "It's a pity that you and I are empty-handed now, with neither power nor money."

"When I see someone falling into the water, I can only watch from the shore. It feels so uncomfortable!"

Chen Zican also shook his head speechlessly.

He had only heard of such things in rumors.

I remembered those faces in the firelight that were full of death and as thin as skulls.

Those bursts of buzzing sounds were like coming from the depths of hell, and his heart tightened tighter and tighter...

If this situation continues for one more day, I don’t know, there will be a few more hungry bodies in the city, and there will be a few more hungry ghosts underground!

Wang Heming was in low spirits: "Zi Can, are we still going to the Wa Palace today?"

"Go! Why not go? I was just thinking of going outside the city to have a look!"

Chen Zican gritted his teeth and said.