In the sixth year of Longwu, Wei Zhai.
Suddenly there was a roar in the house, and a small figure ran very fast through the hall and around the pillars. The housekeeper was chasing after him, constantly shouting: "Slow down, slow down! Young master, young ancestor! If you fall,
If I fall, won't it kill me?"
The boy is Wei Yuan. Although he has just turned three this year, he is extremely tall. Children from farmers in the mountainous countryside are generally thin, so he already looks taller than many seven or eight-year-old children in the town.
At this time, the aroma of food wafted out of the main hall. The running little Weiyuan seemed to be caught by a fishing line and immediately turned around.
In the main room, the Great Master Wei and the two wives were sitting at the table. The food had been set. There were two pottery basins on the table. One contained several cooking cakes and brown multi-grain steamed buns, and the other contained yellow multi-grain porridge. Table
Four dishes were placed on it, namely pickled beans, salted radish, fried shredded radish and a small plate of pickled pheasant.
This is the lunch served by Wei Dashan, a wealthy family in the county.
Xiao Weiyuan was already very hungry. He broke open a steamed bun that was almost bigger than his head, stuffed it with chicken, and then ate hard. In a blink of an eye, he ate everything. One steamed bun was not enough, so he ate again.
Two pieces of cake and a bowl of porridge were enough. After eating, he jumped off the stool, saluted Mr. Wei and the two ladies, and went out quickly.
Mr. Wei and the two ladies basically didn't use their chopsticks, and they didn't start eating until little Wei Yuan had finished eating and left the house. The third lady said: "Yuan'er really grows up fast. Now he has the same appetite as an adult, and he also understands etiquette. That's it."
She doesn't like to talk. If the fourth sister was still here..."
The second lady quickly pulled her sleeve, and the third lady immediately realized and shut up.
Little Weiyuan outside the house stopped for a moment, and then ran to the front yard as if he hadn't heard anything. The old ladies, maids and servants he met along the way all avoided him and saluted when they saw him, but farther away,
The quiet discussions among the servants reached Wei Yuan's ears one by one.
"The young master grows up really fast and eats more than adults. It's a pity that he lost his mother."
"Keep your voice down! The master said not to let the young master know about this."
"What's the point? Who doesn't know that the Fourth Madam ran away with the young master not long after she gave birth? The Master only said that the Madam was dead, and even pretended to build a grave. But who can hide this?"
Xiao Weiyuan kept walking, walked out of the back house, and came to the front yard. The front yard was quite noisy, with long-term workers, kitchen workers, and servants going back and forth.
He walked into an open space in the front yard. There were some stone lock guns and sticks on the open space. It was usually the place where the nursing staff practiced. As soon as he entered the open space, he heard whispers again.
"The young master is good-looking, but he doesn't look like the master."
"Tell me, could it be the bastard born to the fourth lady and an outsider..."
"Keep your voice down!"
"What are you afraid of? No one is around, who will hear you?"
Wei Yuan wanted to put those voices out of his mind, but he could hear them clearly no matter what. The people who were secretly talking were two guards who were ten feet away. They were far apart and they spoke softly. It was really impossible under normal circumstances.
It was heard by others, but Wei Yuan heard it clearly. In fact, no matter where he stood, Wei Yuan could hear most of the movement in the house.
In Wei Yuan's memory, at a certain moment when he was very young, he suddenly heard these sounds, and then he listened more and more, and it didn't take long for him to understand the meaning of most of the words.
The countryside is rough and vulgar, and the servants' private discussions about the master's family are naturally not pleasant to hear.
Since he could understand, Wei Yuan has become more and more silent. Although he can understand what others are saying, he doesn't understand why they say what they say.
Wei Yuan came to the stone lock as usual and picked up the ten-pound lock that he usually played with. But after only lifting it a few times, he felt a little itchy in his body. This kind of itching that came out of the bones could only be caused by running or running.
It gets better when you bear a heavy load, but the light stone lock in your hand is no longer enough to relieve you.
Xiao Weiyuan walked to the large stone lock not far away. This square stone lock weighed fifty kilograms and was usually the heaviest stone lock used by the servants for training. Xiao Weiyuan grabbed it with both hands and lifted it hard, and the stone lock had already moved away slightly.
land.
At this moment, Wei Youcai's voice suddenly sounded in the distance: "Put it down, put it down quickly!"
Xiao Weiyuan turned around and saw Wei Dashanren running over, saying repeatedly: "How dare you touch such a big stone lock? What if you hurt your muscles and bones? I know you like to play with this, so I asked someone to give you a shot.
OK."
With that said, Wei Youcai took out a small stone lock made of white marble. It was exquisite and delicate, weighing a pound.
Xiao Weiyuan reluctantly took the jade lock.
Although this thing had almost no weight in his hand, Xiao Weiyuan could feel his father's concern. So although he was reluctant, he left the square stone lock and pretended to play with the small jade lock.
Wei Youcai wiped Wei Yuan's sweat again. After all this trouble, he himself was sweating. He squinted his eyes and looked up at the sky. There were no clouds in the sky. The scorching sun hung in the sky, making it look like flowing fire.
Light and heat are thrown onto the earth.
Wei Youcai asked Wei Yuan to play by himself, then called the housekeeper to his side and asked, "Is it the beginning of summer today?"
"Master, yesterday was the beginning of summer."
Wei Dashanren frowned and said, "It's the beginning of summer? How is the situation in the fields?"
The housekeeper made a sad face and said: "It's the right time for the crops to bear ears, but there has been a rain in the past two months, and it's impossible to survive! Now the fields near the mountains have lost their harvest, and the fields next to the river are fine.
Some. Just getting water from the river is a life-threatening job, and two people in the village below have already died from exhaustion!"
"Prepare the donkey and go to the village to have a look."
After a while, Wei Dashan took the housekeeper and a servant and headed towards the mouth of the valley. There are only eight miles of land from Wei's house to the mouth of the valley. Beyond the mouth of the valley is Xiahe Village, which faces the Tong River and has the best fields in the county. If
If it doesn't rain, Xiahe Village will probably be the only village in Ye County that has a harvest.
When you leave the house, you will see a bright yellow color.
The fields are yellow, the roads are yellow, the trees are yellow, the mountains are yellow, and even the wind is yellow.
Looking around, only the old tree behind the Wei family yard is still lush and lush, becoming the only green in this area. In fact, if it were not guarded by the servants day and night, this big tree would have been bald long ago:
In one night, the bark can be peeled off.
Suddenly, a gust of wind came, whipping up yellow dust and blurring Wei Youcai's face.
Wei Youcai vomited several times before vomiting all the dirt out of his mouth. He wiped his face, jumped off the donkey, walked to the fields on both sides of the road, reached out and dug hard in the field a few times, and dug out
The soil was all dry, and the seedlings on the ridges had all withered.
Wei Youcai braced his knees and stood up with difficulty. The housekeeper quickly came over to support him.
Wei Youcai took a few breaths and asked, "How are the conditions at the tenants' homes?"
"Master, it was just a little hotter the year before last, but there wasn't much rain last year. The harvest in the fields was poor, and the court didn't reduce taxes. Not only did every household eat up all the grain they had in stock, but they also owed us some grain to some extent. Let's see this year.
If this happens, the harvest will most likely be lost, but our family doesn’t have much food in stock, and I’m afraid people will die..."
Wei Youcai looked gloomy and said, "If we don't provide disaster relief, it will be too late. Is there any news from the county?"
The housekeeper said: "A few days ago, I went to the county to find Master Zhao in the Yamen. The Master said that there was no news about disaster relief, and there will be a few more taxes this year. The name seems to be some kind of Bujia tax, which is a levy.
tax and cattle tax.”
"What, cattle tax?" Wei Dashanren picked his ears.
"Bull tax." The second steward nodded. He had confirmed it with the master several times.
Wei Youcai was surprised: "Has there ever been a cow in our county?"
The second housekeeper said: "At least in the past few decades, I have never heard of cattle."
In fact, not only Ye County, but Fengyuan County has not had cattle since ancient times. This place is adjacent to the mountains in the south and has a unique climate. It is difficult for cattle to survive. Farm work uses a kind of donkey-like, but slightly smaller than donkey mules. Not to mention Fengyuan County,
In the entire Kingdom of Ji, there are only twenty-three out of ten places with cattle, unlike the northern countries where cattle are everywhere.
“If we don’t have cattle, why should we levy cattle tax?”
The second steward looked at Wei Dashan's face and whispered: "Master said that even if there are no cattle, it will not prevent the court from collecting cattle tax."
Wei Youcai asked solemnly: "What's going on?"
"Master Zhao said that the imperial court recently appointed a great Confucian from the north who was very famous for his writings. After he came, he began to reform and proposed a method of 'equal taxation into ding', which is to collect taxes on a per-capita basis. Every fifty
Even if you own a cow, you have to pay the cow tax. It is said that fishermen and boatmen also have to pay the cow tax."
Wei Youcaiqi laughed back: "What kind of monsters and monsters have crawled out! Can you write articles? How can you do such an immoral thing if you know how to write articles?"
The housekeeper also said angrily: "Maybe it's because I can write articles that I can be so wicked!"
Wei Youcai cursed a few times and then fell silent. After a while, he said, "Go back."
"Aren't you going to Xiahe Village?"
"I won't go. The weather will change soon. You go to the mountains and call Lao Liu back."
The housekeeper was surprised and asked: "You want to call Mr. Liu back?"
"In the year of great disaster, there will definitely be refugees. Without Lao Liu, we would have to flee."
The butler's expression changed and he didn't dare to ask any more questions. He led the donkey back to the house under the burning sun.
As expected, Mr. Zhao's information was well informed. Within two days, the imperial decree to increase taxes arrived in the county. Ye County is located in a remote area, so the decree was the last to arrive. In other places, the decree arrived half a month earlier. People everywhere were filled with resentment.
, naturally many people began to think about other ways to survive when they saw that they could not survive.
In Yongzhou, since ancient times, there have been no good people willing to starve to death.
Early that morning, after having breakfast, Xiao Weiyuan ran towards the open space where his servants were practicing. Just as he reached the edge of the open space, a pair of big hands suddenly descended from the sky and picked him up like a cloud.
This was a bald man with a sinewy face, and a long scar on the right side of his face. The man held up Wei Yuan and stared at him fiercely, with a ferocious face.
Xiao Weiyuan looked around and found that his position was much higher than when he was held by others. All he could see was the tops of everyone's heads, and he was immediately happy.
The bald man turned Wei Yuan's little face back to face him and asked strangely: "Aren't you afraid of me?"
Xiao Weiyuan asked doubtfully: "Why should I be afraid of you?"
Although it was their first meeting, Wei Yuan could feel that in this manor, besides Wei Youcai and the housekeeper, the bald man was the third person who loved him. So no matter how the bald man grinned, Wei Yuan could only
Find it fun.
The bald man laughed loudly and said, "Good boy! Let's go find your father!"
The big man carried Wei Yuan and walked to the corner tower. Wei Youcai changed into short clothes at this time and was trying out the string of a hunting bow in his hand. However, Mr. Wei was obviously not working hard and was tired after not pulling twice.
I was out of breath and had to put it down.
The bald man walked up to Wei Youcai and said, "Brother, I'm back!"
Wei Youcai raised his head and looked at the big man who was a head taller than him, and then looked at Wei Yuan who was sitting quietly in the big man's arms. Finally, there was a smile on his tired face, and he said: "Old Liu, come back."
That’s good!”
Bald Old Liu said: "I have seen many refugees on the way here, all coming from the northeast. The group has already arrived thirty miles away. There are probably thousands of people, and there is someone leading the group."
"What's their current situation?"
The bald man said solemnly: "I went in at night, and the leading men were cooking broth. The meat doesn't taste right, I'm afraid it's human flesh."
Wei Youcai said calmly: "When people are hungry, they will eat anything. It's not surprising."
He thought for a moment and said: "It's thirty miles away, and we will be here the day after tomorrow. Thousands of people can come to our remote place. It seems that there are no people in those counties in the northeast."
The big man said: "Brother, this time I brought three capable brothers, ten leather armors, and three strong bows. The refugees don't move fast. As long as we avoid the group, it's not difficult to break out of the way. Brother,
Flee or defend?"
It is no joke that when refugees cross the border, not even a blade of grass will grow. The hoe in the hands of the refugees can be used to hoe the ground or to hoe people. There are only a few dozen people in the Wei house, but there are thousands of refugees to face. Once
A ruined house means a desolate household.
But no one wants to leave their hometown and become a refugee unless absolutely necessary.
Wei Youcai's slender eyes narrowed into slits, and he said for a long time: "Shou!"
The bald old six perked up and said with a ferocious smile, "Okay!"
In the only two days left, everyone in the village courtyard worked with all their strength, raising the courtyard wall by another half a foot and putting up supports at the weak points.
In the past two days, wherever Wei Youcai went, he would hug little Weiyuan. Little Weiyuan watched the big man take out the leather armor and strong bow from the leather bucket, and watched the servants pick up weapons and put on leather armor. Then on the second
Three days in the morning, Xiao Weiyuan had a full meal with everyone.
Not long after daybreak, you could already see billowing dust at the end of the road, and there were countless people inside. Seeing this scene, several servants on the courtyard wall had their legs trembling.
Wei Youcai had already put on his smart clothes. At this time, he hugged Wei Yuan and walked up to the turret without haste. He ordered someone to put the imperial chair on the top and sat down with Wei Yuan in his arms. The butler and the bald man were already in the turret.
Standing on the top, everyone was startled when they saw Wei Youcai carrying Wei Yuan up. The bald man asked: "Brother, is it not suitable to bring a child up? What if..."
Wei Youcai waved his hand and said, "It doesn't matter! Yuan'er saved the trouble earlier. He understands everything now. It's better to let him see blood sooner."
The butler said: "Master, you are not suitable here either!"
Wei Youcai laughed and said, "You don't have to worry about me. If the refugees break down my house, I will die wherever I hide. So today I am sitting here to see how they break down my house and eat my flesh!"
"
As they were talking, the refugee brigade was approaching. The refugees were all in ragged clothes and looked pretty, but their faces were all fierce. Some of them were carrying hoes and some were holding pitchforks. Many of them had large dark stains on their bodies.
I know it is dried blood.
There were also some women in the team, all of whom were half-clothed. There were also some young women who were tied up in a string with ropes, barely wearing a piece of cloth on their bodies.
Seeing the Wei family mansion in front of them, the refugees' eyes suddenly lit up with green light. Among the people at the front were a few people dressed in local clothes, pointing at the mansion.
The butler had sharp eyes and saw the faces of those people clearly. He immediately jumped to his feet and cursed: "Isn't that Hu San? You son of a bitch. If we hadn't given him life-saving food last year, would he be alive today?"
The housekeeper's scolding was useless. The refugees over there saw the mansion from a distance. They couldn't bear it any longer. They didn't care about the distance and started rushing towards the house.
The shouts of the refugees were noisy, and only the sound of killing could be heard in the distance. But Wei Yuan could hear every word clearly. Even if dozens of people shouted at the same time, Wei Yuan could distinguish them one by one.
, every sentence can be heard clearly.
"There's food and women inside! Brothers, kill them!"
"We are starving to death, but they are happy inside!"
"Kill the big ones!!"
Seeing the refugees swarming in like wild beasts, Wei Yuan suddenly turned his head and asked, "Why do they want to kill us?"
Wei Youcai said gently: "Look at it first, and you will know after reading it."
In a short time, the refugees rushed outside the wall and started to climb up with howls. The wall of the guard house was only one foot high, and a stronger person could reach the top of the wall with a single leap. The less strong person relied on the support of the people around him to lift it up.
He could barely climb up. The servants of the Wei family stood on the wall. They were scared at first, but at the moment of life and death, they became violent. They screamed and raised their knives to fiercely attack the hand that climbed up the wall.
The head that came out was chopped off, blood sprayed out, and fingers and palms flew everywhere.
There were so many refugees that the refugees at the back couldn't squeeze in front, so they picked up stones from the ground and threw them on the wall. In a blink of an eye, several servants were hit with bloody heads, and some fell from the wall. However,
The person who fell down gritted his teeth and climbed up the wall again, not even bothering to wipe the blood from his head. Everyone knew that once the wall was broken, the result would be worse than being quartered with knives.
The turret of Wei's house is three feet high, and three men brought back by the bald old man are holding bows and shooting arrows. These three people have obviously practiced archery, and they can shoot fast and hard. The housekeeper is also standing on the turret, at his feet
There were several flags of various colors placed, and they waved the flags from time to time. While dispatching the servants, they observed the target, and shouted from time to time: "The tall guy over there in black clothes is probably the leader, shoot him!"
Under the guidance of the housekeeper, the three archers shot down seven or eight tough refugees in the blink of an eye. However, everyone was red-eyed at this moment and still rushed to the house desperately, stepping on the corpses and severed limbs of their companions and climbing up.
.
Under the control of the housekeeper, dozens of servants and healthy women in the guard house supported each other, and they were able to withstand the attack of the refugees and hold on to the wall. The bald man patrolled back and forth, going to resist wherever there was danger, and several times he knocked down the refugees who rushed up the wall.
Cut it down.
Wei Yuan sat in Wei Youcai's arms, watching quietly as sharp arrows penetrated people's bodies and then plunged into the ground with rain of blood; he watched the servant next to him trembling all over, screaming and lifting stones.
Smashing it down; I also watched a refugee with an arrow in his stomach rolling to the ground and screaming, desperately holding on to the corner of a companion's trousers, but the man thought he was in the way, hit him in the head with a sickle, and then continued without looking.
Rush to the mansion.
The hot bloody smell mixed with dust came up in waves. A servant on the courtyard wall couldn't help it. He hugged the wall and vomited wildly, but in the blink of an eye, he was hit by a stone on his head and was pulled to pieces by the refugees in a daze.
He was thrown out of the wall and was torn and bitten. In the blink of an eye, his flesh and blood were mutilated, and he screamed continuously.
On the turret, Wei Youcai sat calmly, as if there was not a brutal fight in front of him, but a few children playing randomly. Little Wei Yuan leaned on him as if he were leaning on an immovable mountain.
The two sides fought for a meal in the blink of an eye. The servants were all panting and injured, and gradually there were holes in the defense line. A group of refugees finally swarmed up the wall and climbed onto the turret. A melee broke out on the turret!
A muscular refugee kicked away the housekeeper and rushed towards Wei Youcai with a grin. Wei Youcai didn't panic at all and stood up to draw his sword. However, he was usually pampered and his movements were slow. As soon as he raised the sword, he was kicked down in the chest. Then
Anyone who raises a hatchet will chop off Wei Youcai's head!
Seeing that the hatchet was about to fall, Xiao Weiyuan's heart suddenly went blank. He grabbed a short spear on the ground and stabbed it into the stomach of the refugee!
The man saw that Wei Yuan was a child and didn't care at all. He didn't expect that the spear was particularly heavy. He was frightened and angry, kicked Wei Yuan away, and then pulled out the short spear with force. His wound was immediately injured
A stream of blood spurted out and covered Xiao Weiyuan's body.
All the strength in the man's body suddenly drained away like water, his feet softened, and he sat down on the ground.
Little Weiyuan suddenly rushed up, grabbed the short spear and snatched it back. The strong refugee felt a force that did not belong to the child in his hand, and the short spear was snatched away in one move.
Xiao Weiyuan stepped out again and pierced the refugee's chest with his spear.
The refugee was in pain. He held the spear body with one hand and struggled with Xiao Weiyuan. With the other hand, he groped for the hatchet and was about to chop it on Wei Yuan's head. Little Weiyuan didn't even look at the hatchet above his head and just drummed.
With all his strength, he pushed the short spear into the refugee's heart bit by bit.
The refugee suddenly saw Wei Yuan's eyes. The pupils were bottomless, as if they were hiding another world. His little face was full of calm, as if he was not killing someone, but just doing something ordinary. Looking at Wei Yuan's face, the refugee
There was an inexplicable chill in his heart. At this moment, he let out his last breath, and the sound of the short spear went deep into his heart.
At this time, the housekeeper and the rest of the people finally chopped down all the refugees on the turret, and then threw the bodies out one by one. The refugee brigade suddenly became confused and their momentum was reduced.
Seeing that the morale of the refugees was frustrated, the housekeeper immediately picked up a red flag and threw it towards the center of the refugees.
The eyes of the bald man fighting on the wall lit up and he said with a ferocious smile: "It's finally time! Brothers, fight with me!"
He jumped down from the wall, knocking several refugees away when he landed, and went straight to the direction where the red flag fell. Five servants wearing leather armor appeared in the house. They actually did not participate in the previous wall defense and had been raising their children.
Recharging their energy, they also jumped off the wall and followed the bald man towards the center of the refugees.
The bald man roared, and a rich bloody light appeared around him, like a bloody torch! He slashed forward, and the three refugees were cut into two pieces. Then he slashed back, and seven or eight refugees around him were cut in half!
After a bloody light appeared on his body, the bald man's moves were extremely powerful. He led this elite team into a deserted place, killing hundreds of refugees in the blink of an eye, and rushed to the center of the formation.
The morale of the refugees finally collapsed, and they were defeated like a mountain. In the blink of an eye, all the refugees dispersed.
The housekeeper finally breathed a sigh of relief and immediately slumped to the ground, muttering: "Fortunately, they are all just a mob."
As soon as he relaxed, the housekeeper felt severe pain in his body. It turned out that someone had slashed his back at some point.
In just a short period of fighting, there were hundreds of corpses of refugees outside the Wei family's mansion, and many people had their hands and feet cut off. They were not dead for a while, they could only lie on the ground and scream. Many of the servants on the courtyard wall were originally
Even ordinary farmers have never seen such scenes. Some were holding on to the wall and vomiting, and some were crying and laughing.
Wei Youcai got up, held Xiao Weiyuan in his arms, and checked whether he was injured. It was not until he saw that there were no wounds on Xiao Weiyuan's body, and that the blood was the enemy's, that he took a deep breath and his face turned pale.
Turned pale with shock.
Wei Youcai patted his heart, and then wiped the blood on Xiao Weiyuan's face with his sleeve.
Xiao Weiyuan raised his face and asked again: "Why do they want to kill us?"
Wei Youcai stood up with him in his arms, walked to the turret, pointed to the northeast, and said: "They were originally the same people as us, but now they are too hungry, so they want to eat our food. But the food is gone."
There is not enough, so we have to eat to survive. If we are too hungry to survive and have to look for food elsewhere, we will become like them."
Wei Youcai pointed to the southwest again and said: "Over there, outside these mountains, there are many people who don't look like us. Let's just say they are human. Whether they are hungry or not, it depends on whether they are hungry or not.
Eat ours.”
"These are going to eat us directly." Wei Youcai waved his hand to the north again and said: "There are many big cities far away in these directions. The people living in the middle of the big cities actually eat people, but they are not
It would be more polite to eat directly. But when it comes to cannibalism, they eat the most."
Xiao Weiyuan seemed to understand.
Wei Youcai smiled, pointed to the sky, and said, "If we stood there, we might see something different. But from where we are now..."
"...This is a cannibalistic world."
Xiao Weiyuan frowned, thinking hard, and frowned: "Why do you want to eat people? People don't taste good."
Wei Youcai stretched out his hand and said, "Because there is only so much land, we can't feed these people. Whether we eat, kill, or starve to death, a group of people will have to die. When enough people die, we can stop."
Chapter completed!