After dressing as a widow

Lin Zhen, Guan Peng and others stood on the city tower of Lizhou, looking at the people traveling with the merchants, "With these merchants taking care of them all the way, they should have no worries on the road. As for how many people can be attracted to Lizhou?" State, it all depends on their abilities."

"It's a costless business. The more you recruit, the better. Even if it's less, it's not a problem." Guan Peng said.

Lin Zhen nodded: "This is indeed the case. I just wondered what officials from other state capitals would think of us if they knew that we were recruiting under their noses."

Lin Zhen, Guan Peng, and Qualcomm touched their noses at the same time.

Judge Jiang Jing looked at the three of them like this, with their hands covered in fur covers, and thought it was a bit funny.

This is the 15th year since he came to Lizhou. Gu Lin is the third Lizhou magistrate he has ushered in. It seems that he is quite curious about Gu Lin, the Lizhou magistrate. I hope this Lizhou magistrate will stay The time is longer, don't toss and toss and toss yourself away.

This was Kong Zheng's first time traveling abroad, and he left Lizhou where he was born and raised, and went to another place.

He was accompanied by 29 other people. As they got farther and farther away from Lizhou, they found that the snow was getting thinner and less.

And soon, unaccustomed to changing their thick winter clothes, they put on late autumn clothes.

Everyone looked at the place where there was no snow in front of them, and the sun was even out, and they felt extraordinarily novel.

"This place is called Yongzhou, right?" One person looked at the not-so-bustling town and said.

Kong Zheng said: "Yes, the merchants who brought us here said that this is Yongzhou. There was a drought just two years ago here. I don't know if the people here have recovered."

In view of the friendship with Lin Zhen, the merchant did not completely let go as soon as he arrived in Yongzhou. Instead, he sent two people to guide them and let them find him if they had anything to do.

This made Kong Zheng and the others feel relieved, and they spent two days in Yongzhou, a place called Ma'an County. People in Ma'an County are not doing very well, the streets are lifeless, there are few people doing work, and few people selling things, so we're afraid we'll have to go to a village farther away."

Kong Zheng and the others are no strangers to this kind of county town. The former Lizhou prefecture was also like this. The sellers were lifeless, and the people on the road were also lifeless.

In such a place, Kong Zheng felt that they could cut the mess quickly. He pretended to be the manager of the recruitment, and the others pretended to be the workers he recruited from other places, passing through Ma'an County.

At the same time, they released the news that they will continue to recruit workers. First, they will deceive people on the road. When these people arrive in Lizhou and find that Lizhou is good, are they afraid that they will not take the whole family to Lizhou?

As far as the conditions of their state capital are concerned, they are also moved.

Just as he said, Kong Zheng took a few people and pretended to be passing by, begging for saliva at a house not far from Ma'an County.

In the past two years, Yongzhou suffered a severe drought that was rare in a century. The people here are complex, some are the original villagers who came back after the drought, and some are also suffering from other disasters. I heard that Yongzhou resettled refugees and stayed.

But everyone is still having a hard time. Although the imperial court has exempted them from taxes for two years, where do the grains come from, where do the hoes and sickles come from?

The family that Kong Zheng and the others were eyeing was in a crumbling thatched hut among several other houses, and there happened to be a man in his thirties digging a vegetable field in front of the house.

Seeing them coming, they stood vigilantly with their hoes up.

Kong Zheng, the temporary steward, stood at the front, and said to the man, "Brother, we are passing by from another place, can we ask for a bowl of water?"

"I don't want to drink for nothing, just give me three pennies."

Kong Zheng was not taken advantage of, and now that there is no drought, three Wen is more than enough to buy a few bowls of water.

There were still people in the hut, the man told them not to come out in a low voice, looked at Kong Zheng and his party and the three Wen coins in his hand, and agreed: "You wait, I will go inside and pour water for you."

"Okay, thank you big brother, big brother take the copper coins."

The man saw that they were polite and not like treacherous people, so he came over and took the copper coins, nodded and went to pour water into the house.

In the room, the man's wife and two children surrounded him, a little scared.

After experiencing drought and losing their loved ones, they are very wary of others. If it weren't for the three Wen, the man would never agree to give them water.

"My son's father, who are those people, and why are they standing outside our house?"

The man handed the three Wen coins in his hand to his wife: "It's a passerby, begging for a bowl of water."

"Aren't they bad people?"

"It doesn't look like it."

The man's wife held the three Wen coins with a feeling of sympathy.

Looking out quietly from the window, the two twelve or thirteen-year-old children also looked at Kong Zheng and the others.

I only heard voices coming from outside: "When can we go back to Lizhou? If we go one day later, we will be paid seven cents. I'm so anxious!"

"What are you in a hurry for? Manager Kong is not in a hurry. Manager Kong's salary is higher. If he hadn't come to pick us up, it would be so comfortable to eat that oily meal in the factory every day."

Kong Zheng, who deliberately asked them to talk to the boss, heard that he really missed the food in the cement factory, and said with a bit of management style: "There is nothing to say about the food in our factory, this," he gave a thumbs up, " Every day, there are three stir-fried vegetables and one soup, and two meals of sorghum and rice are enough. If you are hungry after eating, you will go for more. Even the factory manager eats the same as us."

The others also swallowed their saliva, and pretended to be the ones entering the factory for the first time: "Can newcomers like me eat food? Do you need money to buy it?"

Kong Zheng said loudly: "Our boss said that this is called worker's meal. Anyone who works there can eat it, and no wages will be deducted."

"Our factory only has one meal here. The gouache workshop, soap workshop, scented soap workshop, and cream workshop in the state capital can even eat in the workshop in the afternoon when they are on the night shift, and they can get an extra six pennies. There are more than 200 articles per month."

They deliberately amplified the sound, not only in the house, but also if the neighbors next to them were at home, they could hear it.

The two children who peeked at them gulped their saliva. Although the autumn harvest has only passed two months, this year's harvest is not good. The family still has to tighten their belts and eat thin meals a day, but the two brothers heard that their father I told my mother that there is still not enough food to harvest next year, and tomorrow I will go back to harvest wild vegetables, a bowl of grain and a pot of wild vegetables.

The two brothers kept their eyes on the very dignified steward, and heard him say with a smile: "Hey, let me tell you, there are many people who want to enter our factory. There are too many people, and we can’t use up all the strong local labor force, and if we keep some people so as not to delay farming, how can we recruit people outside.”

"It's just that there is a meat meal at noon in our factory, and there are many people who want to go."

The two brothers look at me and I look at you. The hands that are pulling the door and window are even stronger than at the beginning.

To be able to eat, have money, and meat, in their eyes, there is nothing better than this.

The woman and the man also heard what Kong Zheng and the others said. The husband and wife looked at each other, their hearts tightened, and they became wary of Kong Zheng and the others.

Maybe these people are really passing by, but there is nothing wrong with having an extra heart.

The man went out with two bowls of water, Kong Zheng took a few sips of water from the bowl, and urged the others: "Drink it up and go, I'm going to see how the others are doing, this time the recruiters haven't been full of worries yet." I'm dead."

"Don't worry about Guanshi Kong, there's nothing you can do if you can't recruit him."

Kong Zheng nodded seriously: "No, if I didn't work there myself, whoever told me that I have food and money, I would have thought it was a lie."

Kong Zheng glanced at the man's face, and inadvertently saw the two teenagers lying by the window listening with their ears up.

The two teenagers were afraid of missing his words, so they put their hands next to their ears.

Kong Zheng thought for a moment, and felt that there was something to be said about this matter. Originally, he planned to go to other villages to see if this method didn't work. In Yongzhou, he couldn't believe that no fish would take the bait.

A few people drank the water and were about to leave. Seeing that the man didn't talk to them, except for Kong Zheng, the others were a little discouraged. When they walked out of the village, Kong Zheng said, "Go slowly."

"what happened?"

Kong Zheng said: "See if the two children from that family can keep up."

"When the child comes, we can't take it away, so it's not a human trafficker."

Kong Zheng explained: "We want to send the child back to make the family believe that we are not bad people. As long as one person believes, many people in this village can follow us."

The life of Kong Zheng's family was the same as that of other families in the village. Faced with the temptation of being able to get wages and a meal, not many people could withstand the temptation.

And after they left, there were some voices from that family.

It was the two sons of the husband and wife who were talking to the man and the woman: "Father, mother, did you hear what the uncles said just now? They are recruiting workers in Lizhou. They have 220 yuan a month and can eat a meal." Food, enough!"

The man sat on the stool and braided the thatch collected from the mountains into braids, preparing to make a straw stool and take it to the county town to sell.

The man said: "Understood, people do other people's work, not our business."

"Father, we can follow along to work. Our family doesn't have enough food this year. We will be hungry after the new year. My brother and I are afraid."

The man stopped weaving the grass, and said: "Those people suddenly came to our village, who knows who they are, and they are so far away from the state, what should I do if something happens on the way."

The boy was anxious: "But our family is not from here, and we also came here as refugees. Where is the difference?"

"Okay, go collect firewood with your brother, don't even think about it." The man didn't want to say more, and drove his two sons to work on the mountain.

The two brothers obviously didn't understand why such a good thing had to be pushed outside, but they still obediently carried the baskets on their backs and went to the mountain to collect firewood.

The woman looked at her husband who was weaving the straw stool, and her two sons who were going to collect firewood on the mountain, sighed and did not speak.

In the past when the times were good, some of the straw stools made by my husband could be sold, but now it is difficult for everyone to fill their stomachs. Who would buy this thing? There are already seven or eight weaved in the house, but they have not been sold. The lawn stool is gone.

But she knew that her husband was holding on to a glimmer of hope, and he would panic even more if he had nothing to do.

During the escape, all the elderly members of the family died, and the youngest daughter of the husband and wife also starved to death. No one was more afraid of the taste of starvation than them.

The woman turned around and put the basket on her shoulders, and went to the river to pick hemp willow leaves, ready to take them back and eat them mixed with grain.

There are quite a few people who think the same as her. There are seven or eight husbands and women standing under the willow tree by the river.

One of them was her neighbor, who saw her coming and asked: "Yang Gui's family, who was that standing outside your house just now? Looking at the strong and strong one, the family may not worry about food?"

"I also heard what they said about work. There are more than 200 coins a month. Did they come to your family Yang Gui to work?"

As soon as the woman opened her mouth, all the women and husbands on the bank of the river looked at Yang Gui's daughter-in-law.

Yang Gui's wife said: "A few passers-by came to ask for a few bowls of water to drink. The child's father and I didn't hear clearly. Those people left soon."

Every household is having a hard time, and they all want to inquire about something good, and then drink a bowl of soup. When Yang Gui's wife said this, they all turned off the fire.

Yang Gui's daughter-in-law picked a basket full of hemp willow leaves and walked towards home with two or three neighbors.

As soon as they walked to the door of the house, her husband Yang Gui came out: "Mother of the child, didn't Da Shuang Er Shuang look for you?!"

"No." Yang Gui's daughter-in-law was full of doubts.

Yang Gui became anxious: "It's broken, something happened to Da Shuang Er Shuang Zhun, maybe they were abducted by those people!"

The basket in Yang Gui's wife's hand fell to the ground, and she hurriedly followed Yang Gui to the entrance of the village.

Although they are not old neighbors who have been with each other for decades, the neighbors still follow up to see if there is anything they can do to help.

Suddenly, when seven or eight people ran to the entrance of the village, they saw several people begging for water walking here with their two sons. Yang Gui and Yang Gui's wife hurried over, pulled the children over, and went Hiding behind his back, he looked at Kong Zheng and the others in surprise.

The two teenagers who ran to find Kong Zheng and the others, but were persuaded by Kong Zheng to come back, hurriedly said to their parents: "Father, mother, it's none of Kong Shu's business. Uncle Kong said that you would be worried if we were like this, so he sent us back.”

Kong Zheng smiled slightly, and said: "Your two children are a bit courageous. They dared to run with us at a young age. Brother, don't blame them. They just want to share your worries with sister-in-law."

Hearing his son's words, Yang Gui and Yang Gui's wife's expressions eased, and they felt a little embarrassed when they heard Kong Zheng's words.

I wronged the wrong person.

Yang Gui looked at Kong Zheng and others who had gone and returned, looked at the darkening sky, and said to Kong Zheng and others: "It's getting late, you can rest at my house for one night before returning to the county."

Kong Zheng looked at the people behind him and nodded, "Thank you, brother."

"It's our husband and wife who should thank the brothers. These two children have also caused trouble for you."

"It's not too much trouble."

Kong Zheng followed Yang Gui's family back to the village. The neighbors who followed to find the child were relieved to see that the child was safe, and then turned their attention to Kong Zheng and the others.

The spirits of those who are full and those who are not full are very different. Seeing Kong Zheng and the others looking strong and strong, someone couldn't help asking: "Brothers, you are from everywhere. We're not the same here."

Kong Zheng smiled and said, "I'm from Lizhou. I went to other places to recruit workers. I happened to pass by Yongzhou. They are my workers."

"It's far away from the state, I heard."

"I heard that it snows there all year round, and there is no way to grow food."

Kong Zheng laughed for a moment, "I, a native of Lizhou, can give us a name for Lizhou. It is true that the winter is longer in our place, and the planting time starts in May, but it will be ripe in August."

People in the village exclaimed: "The time is so short, can the food be cooked?"

"It can be cooked," Kong Zheng said categorically, "We in Xinzhizhou are very capable. We can produce compost and manure. In the past, one mu of land could only produce 200 catties of grain, but now it can produce more than [-] catties."

"Zhizhou's uncle is also very powerful. He has run many workshops. I came here to recruit workers for Zhizhou's uncle."

This time, Yang Gui and Yang Gui's daughter-in-law, including the neighbors in the village, did not say anything to spoil the scenery. If Kong Zheng and the others were bad people, they could have abducted the two children and sold them. Can be sold for some silver.

Yang Gui's eldest son patted his chest and said eagerly: "Uncle Kong, can I do this! I also want to work and earn money."

Kong Zheng touched his head and shook his head: "Our boss said that children under the age of 15 are growing up and cannot do heavy work, otherwise they will not grow taller in the future and will not be in good health. We only accept children over the age of 15."

"And teenage children can only go to the gouache workshop, soap workshop, scented soap workshop, and cream workshop. The work in these workshops can be done by girls and brothers."

Yang Gui's daughter-in-law paused for a moment: "Is there any work that the girl and brother can do?"

Kong Zheng replied: "Yes, 150 Wen a month. If you work over night, you will get [-] Wen more per day. Except for the lunch at noon and the afternoon meal, you will also eat in the workshop."

……

The next day, Kong Zheng and the others were about to leave the village, and they didn't sleep all night. The door of Yang Gui's house was stepped on by people from the village again and again, all of them came to ask about this matter.

After struggling and thinking all night, Yang Gui's family finally decided to go to Lizhou to find a way to survive, and some of them decided last night.

Kong Zheng made a simple registration for these people, telling them that he has not yet recruited all the workers, and he will continue to recruit people. If they intend to go to Lizhou, they can help themselves to publicize and find more people for themselves. There are enough people Immediately set off.

So in the next few days, the surrounding villages knew that there was a steward from Lizhou who wanted to recruit workers.

Except for some who really don't want to move, many people want to go and see it.

However, families like Yang Gui seldom go there, and more people let one or two strong laborers go to see and make a living outside.

After more than half a month, Kong Zheng set foot on the way home with a crowd of more than 400 people.

And in other places, there are many people like Kong Zheng who try their best to take people to Lizhou.