Chapter 18: The Refugees Disappear
Yan Xuanyu thought that the "morning market" created by Xie Luxing and others was very good. After the roads in the capital were repaired and widened, they were much easier to walk on, and the streets looked a lot cleaner. There was a large population in the capital and surrounding areas, so road construction was needed, but it was not necessary further out.
There were also morning markets. Yan Xuanyu had originally thought that this was as worthy of promotion as road construction, as establishing a morning market represented government support for private trade. Like many dynasties in Yan Xuanyu's world, the Great Zhou dynasty prioritized agriculture over commerce, imposing numerous restrictions on merchants. For example, merchants were forbidden from wearing silk and satin outside, and were barred from participating in the imperial examinations.
Directly changing the policies of the Great Zhou would only cause chaos and spark conflicts between the nobles and the common people, so Yan Xuanyu originally wanted to open a morning market to create a gap, and then slowly change the situation of the merchants and allow the business of the Great Zhou to develop.
While changing the situation of merchants, merchants must be made to pay something. Otherwise, after seeing that business only brings benefits, agricultural development will be suppressed. Finally, when the time is right, restrictions on merchants will be lifted, and the government will control business to achieve a peaceful transition.
This idea was great, but unfortunately Yan Xuanyu had just written it down and before he had even made a concrete plan, he was defeated by the current situation of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
To run a morning market, you first need goods! Now, except for developed places like the capital where aristocrats gather, and some fertile and relatively developed areas, most people can't even get enough to eat.
Yan Xuanyu had to put the matter aside for the time being.
Now he actually has many ideas in his mind about how to change the Great Zhou, and for each idea he can immediately write down the specific methods to implement them. Unfortunately, he is constrained in every way by the current actual situation.
These things cannot be rushed. The fields in Zhuangzi and nearby villages have just been planted. The yield can only be seen during the harvest in August or September, and then it can be promoted nationwide.
Yan Xuanyu sat in Chengtian Hall, drew a timeline on paper, and began to sort out what he needed to do.
This year marks the beginning of Yan Xuanyu's ascension to the throne, and it is also the year of the imperial examination. The imperial examination, which was not held in March, was postponed to October this year after consultation among all officials.
After some calculations, it will take until next year for Yan Xuanyu to get some of his things on track.
Because of the issue of building roads and improving drainage facilities in the capital, Su An was recommended to the emperor by Xie Luxing. Su An was promoted from a minor official of Jingzhao Yin to an eighth-rank official, but he did not have a specific official position for a long time.
Although he was only an eighth-rank official, he was appointed by the emperor himself and attracted much attention from all sides.
...
Recently, more soldiers and officers have been patrolling the streets of the capital and surrounding areas, and they have begun to arrest refugees running around in the streets and outside the city, including adults and children.
The common people were very panicked when they saw that the number of refugees huddled at the entrance of the alley and in the abandoned houses was decreasing. They didn't know what the officials were doing, but they were relieved when they saw that the officials just came out more often than usual and didn't even look at them.
...
Suiyang City, government office.
It was afternoon, and a man in a blue official uniform and a black hat was sitting lazily on a chair.
"Sir, I heard from a few people at the entrance of the alley that there are a bunch of little beggars who have just arrived in the abandoned house over there." An officer ran over excitedly and whispered in the ear of the officer in charge of this team of officers and soldiers.
The originally lazy official immediately became alert after hearing this: "Where is it?"
"Just..." The soldier opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, he was kicked, "Ouch!"
After kicking the officer, the officer stood up, straightened his clothes, and said angrily, "Why don't you lead the way?"
The officer nodded and said, "Yes, yes."
The capital city issued an order to all places to gather up the refugees in and around the city and send them away, and someone would come to take over. Originally, the people in the government were prepared to delay the imperial edict from the capital city as before, and their efficiency was extremely low.
But this time it was different. The prefect said that we could get some silver for every truckload of refugees sent over, but the officials who received them would carefully verify the identities of the refugees to confirm that they were not captured to claim the silver.
As a result, the number of refugees in each city decreased visibly.
...
Ergouzi forgot who was the first person to call him Ergouzi. He has been called Ergouzi since he could remember.
It seems that the name his parents gave him was not Ergouzi, but his memory of his parents had long been vague, just like his vague memory of where he came from.
He only remembered that there was a disaster in the village that year, and he followed the villagers to flee the famine. He didn't know how long they fled or where they fled to. Until there were fewer and fewer villagers around him, in his vague memory, they were crowded in a dilapidated temple - which was full of refugees and beggars. It was snowing heavily outside. Ergouzi was frozen all over and almost unconscious. He fell asleep in a daze. The next day, he found that many people had died in the dilapidated temple. Ergouzi crawled into the pile of dead bodies and spent the coldest days.
In the end, Ergouzi didn't know what happened and there was no one around him. He kept walking north, not knowing what to do. When he was lucky, he could survive on people's charity. At other times, he would dig grass roots from the soil, pick bark from trees and stuff it into his mouth, and go to the city to pick up vegetable leaves that had been almost trampled into mud. No one talked to him, and when he was not very hungry, he would lie down and sleep.
I almost died several times, but I survived every time.
Ergouzi is lucky. He is lucky to be alive until now, even though his memories are only of painful hunger, cold, pain and numbness.
He was in a daze, as if only retaining the instinct to live.
He is a refugee, a beggar, and a scoundrel.
...
Suiyang City, early morning.
There are many food vendors on this street in the center of Suiyang City. In the early morning, accompanied by the hot steam, there are vendors selling buns, wontons, and sesame cakes. As soon as you walk in, you can smell all kinds of fragrance.
The government office of Suiyang City is not far from here, so there are few disturbances nearby, and the vendors here are mostly acquainted with the officers and soldiers in the government office - the officers and soldiers often come here to eat a bun, drink a bowl of wontons, and then go to the government office.
"Hey! How dare this thief come out?!" a man shouted.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw a figure disappearing quickly. The officers and soldiers nearby picked up their swords and tried to chase after the figure, but it was completely futile.
It turned out that Zhang Da, the bun seller, had just finished making his first batch of buns when one was stolen right under his nose.
"Why can't I burn this thief to death..." Zhang Da sighed, as if he had thought of something, and suddenly stopped complaining, "Give him a bun."
A passerby buying buns nearby offered comfort: "The officials have been catching thieves lately, so I'm sure this thief won't be able to run around for many more days."
"Oh!" Zhang Da had no choice but to say.
After this little episode, the crowd who had stretched their necks to watch the fun went back to their business. Zhang Da spat at the thief a few times, then went about making and selling buns with swift hands and feet.
Ergouzi's hands were burned and blistered, but he held your two buns tightly and ran all the way to the place where he had been sleeping for the past few days before stopping.
The two buns in his hands had been squeezed into pieces, with the vegetable fillings squeezed out. He stuffed the hot buns into his mouth and swallowed them back into his stomach without feeling any pain. He hadn't eaten for many days, and the buns didn't bring him a sense of fullness, but rather a colic caused by eating suddenly.
"Bang---"
The gate of the abandoned house made a loud noise and was kicked open from the outside. The beggars stood up in panic. They usually went in and out through the small hole next to it. The person who came in through the gate must not be one of them.
Suddenly, a group of soldiers came running in and arrested them! The beggar who tried to escape was kicked to the ground.
"Shut up! Say another word and I'll kill you!" The leading officer drew the sword at his waist.
The beggars squatted on the ground trembling, allowing the officers and soldiers to drag them out.
They were pushed into a dirty wooden cart, which even contained the incontinent excrement of people who had ridden in the cart before.
For a moment, the beggars in the car let out a chaotic wailing and crying sound.
Er Gouzi put his ear to the wooden board and heard someone talking outside the car -
"Sir, we are from Suiyang City, and we have sent a few beggars from the city. Would you like to take a look?"
"That silver..."
Then there was another bumpy ride, and they seemed to be taken away by other people, but this time the wooden cart moved much slower, making it less uncomfortable for the beggars squeezed in the cart.
Ergouzi and the others were taken to a spacious and bright place, then washed like animals and had coarse linen clothes stuffed into their hands.
"Come and tell us your names!" shouted a man sitting at a wooden table.
The beggars stood there timidly.
The man sitting at the wooden table turned around and said helplessly to the people around him: "This happens several times a day..."
He kept complaining and repeated it several times, and finally a beggar slowly came forward.
Ergouzi was the last one standing among the beggars.
"Can you talk?" the man asked.
Er Gouzi just looked at him.
The man repeated, "Can you speak?"
He spoke as if to a person.
Then Er Gouzi slowly opened his mouth and uttered a hoarse voice: "Er Gouzi... My name is Er Gouzi."
After being asked their names, they were divided into different places.
Someone looked at Er Gouzi back and forth and said, "He looks like he's about twelve or thirteen years old. Should he be sent to Master Su?"
Another person said, "Let him work for a few days and see if he's any good, then send him to Lord Su."
After they finished talking, they took Ergouzi to a stone mill.
Ergouzi knew that he was going to do the work himself, so he quickly reached out to push the millstone, turned it around with great difficulty, and after he finished pushing it, he lowered his head and dared not speak.
The man added, "Newcomers are like this. They'll be fine after a few meals."
After they left, Ergouzi looked around anxiously. He found that there were several stone mills here. Although no one was staring at them with a whip, the people in front of each stone mill were grinding the mill seriously.
The man closest to Er Gouzi was also wearing coarse linen clothes. One of his sleeves was empty, so he could only push the mill with one hand. Seeing Er Gouzi standing there in a daze, he kindly reminded him, "Hurry up and work, you'll be eating soon."
All they had to do was grind the wheat into fine flour over and over again.
At noon, Ergouzi no longer thought about running away because he had the first steaming hot rice porridge in his life and a steamed bun was stuffed in his hand.
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