The newly appointed Tongpan of Quzhou, Zhang Shu, struggled to enter the mountain from the town at the foot of the mountain. He was a Jinyou year Jinshi, had been an official for nine years, and was an upright person. When he heard that the villagers were having difficulties, he came to inspect them.
"Throughout this journey, people in other places have enjoyed good weather and are actively paying taxes, but a few villages in the mountains are in dire straits. It's not that they don't want to, but the mountains have been hit by a sudden drought this year. The ponds have dried up, and there's been no harvest."
The local security guard who brought Zhang Shu into the mountains explained the situation to him.
Zhang Shu nodded slightly and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He regretted going out in a long robe today. He should have worn short clothes. However, he didn't expect that the village was located in the deep mountains and forests, which was really difficult to climb.
They continued to climb while talking. After passing the narrow mountain road, they could see the first house in the distance against the backdrop of the bamboo forest.
It was an old rammed earth house. Outside, in the fields, an old woman was hunched over, searching for something. Seeing this, Bao Zheng said, "The villagers have no choice but to find some sweet potatoes and potatoes to fill their stomachs."
“Did anyone starve to death?”
Zhang Shu asked immediately.
"That's not the case."
Bao Zheng hurriedly said, "The young and strong men in the village have all gone down the mountain to do odd jobs for others to make a living. They don't consume the food at home and have some left over for food."
Zhang Shu walked into the village. The village was located in the mountains, with uneven fields. For example, there was a valley on one side of the road at the entrance of the village, with three or four layers of terraces below. Each layer had a ridge about two meters high, overgrown with weeds and many trees.
Everywhere you look, you can see many old people and children braving the scorching sun to look for wild vegetables, potatoes, sweet potatoes and other crops near the valley.
They don't eat these things on a normal day, and often grow them to feed livestock. However, if a disaster occurs and the rice harvest fails, people will naturally not despise them.
"Liu Dabao, the judge is here."
Baozheng saw a middle-aged man hoeing in a field not far from the village entrance and shouted to him.
The man heard the sound and turned around. Seeing a group of people, he quickly dropped his hoe and ran over. He bowed and saluted Zhang Shu repeatedly and said, "I, Liu Si, greet the judge."
Although the concept of villages, towns and townships already existed in the Song Dynasty, there were no village heads, town heads or township heads. Instead, baojia, dabao, dubao and baozheng were set up based on households.
Ten households form a bao, headed by a baojia. Every fifty households form a dabao, with a dabao chief appointed. So if a village has only ten jia households, the village chief is the baojia. If there are more than fifty households, the head becomes a dabao.
Fengyuan Village is a large village in the mountains, with over fifty households. It's spread across more than ten hilltops, and within a radius of four or five kilometers, there's a village. Although the villagers are so scattered that it takes a day or two to walk from one end of the village to the other, there's nothing that can be done about it.
After all, the population in the mountainous villages is widely dispersed. Sometimes there are only one or two households on a hill. It is impossible to divide them according to the hills, which is obviously inappropriate.
Dabao Liusi happened to live near the village entrance. He had several plots of land among the terraced fields below, and he was digging sweet potatoes in the fields.
Zhang Shu pulled him aside and asked about the situation.
It turns out that drought and water shortage are common in the mountainous areas of the southeastern hills in summer.
Isn’t there a poem from the Tang Dynasty?
"That year, there was a drought in the south of the Yangtze River, and people in Quzhou ate human flesh."
Even if it is not a year of famine, there may be water at the foot of the mountain, but not necessarily on the mountain.
It takes one or two hours to walk up the mountain road from the small town at the foot of the mountain. The rice fields require so much water that it is almost impossible to carry water in.
Therefore, disasters often occur in the mountains.
This problem was not solved until later times when running water was available, and water could be pumped up the mountain from the river at the foot of the mountain through pipes.
In ancient times, this was an unsolvable problem, and the only way to survive was to rely on the weather. If there was a good chance of rain, the problem could be solved by digging ponds and wells to store water.
But unfortunately, we were unlucky this year. There was no rain in the mountains from April to May, which caused the rice fields to die of drought. We could only pick potatoes to survive.
"This year is considered good. In recent years, the imperial court has promoted sweet potatoes. They don't need much water to grow. There are still a few springs in the mountains. Although we can't use it for farming, it's enough for watering the land and drinking."
Liu Si stood on the ridge of the field, hands on his hips, shaking his head. "It's a pity that there's been no rain at all. The villagers have only enough to eat. I'm afraid they won't be able to pay taxes this year."
"Don't worry about that. The imperial court naturally has a tax exemption policy for disaster-stricken areas. Have you applied for disaster relief grain?"
"It has been reported. The county sent someone to investigate yesterday. They should be here soon."
"Well, I will pay attention to this matter."
Zhang Shu put his hands behind his back and looked out at the water-carrying team in the distance, struggling to carry water up from the bottom of the mountain. However, these people were all over forty or fifty years old, some were even elderly. So he asked, "How many young and strong people are there now?"
Liu Si said, "Our Fengyuan Village is actually the place where people from more than ten nearby mountains live. There are more than 300 villagers, and nearly 100 of them are young and strong."
"Where are they now?"
"I work part-time at the foot of the mountain, helping people harvest rice and earning some food."
"How much per day?"
Zhang Shu asked further.
Liu Si scratched his head and said, "If you don't want money, just give me something to eat."
"Hmm"
Zhang Shu raised his head and looked around.
The mountains are covered with dense forests and shaded by green trees. The scenery is quite nice.
But the air was hot and the village seemed deserted. Villagers were searching for sweet potatoes in the fields, and children and the elderly were digging wild vegetables in the mountains. It seemed as if there was no life, only dead silence.
But even so, it is much better than previous years.
If there had been no disaster relief from the imperial court and no sweet potatoes and potatoes, many people would have died as in the past.
At this moment, even officials like Zhang Shu could not help but feel that the changes in the court in recent years have benefited the people of the world.
Who can do this and prevent people from dying during a drought in the deep mountains and forests?
But this is far from enough.
Zhang Shu walked into the village, along the ridges of the fields, with his hands behind his back, and asked Liu Si about the situation in the village.
There are many mountainous areas in Quzhou. In addition to Fengyuan Village, there are also some other villages in the mountains.
There are no big landlords in the mountains, at most there are a few local rich people. In years of disaster, even the local rich people can hardly protect themselves, so even if they can survive, they can only barely survive at best.
Having a few bites of sweet potatoes and potatoes will not make people starve to death, but if they get sick, they will have to wait for death. This is the current situation of the poorest villages in the Song Dynasty.
"Let's go!"
Zhang Shu took one last look at the deep mountain and said, "Let's go back and think about it carefully. The court should recruit villagers and find a way to build a large reservoir in the mountains to store water. Perhaps in the future, there will be water all year round."
Now is the time when the imperial court is issuing policies on major infrastructure construction across the country, which includes reservoirs. However, reservoirs require cement plants. After the imperial court's new policy in February, the Quzhou government has been preparing cement plants and brick factories in accordance with the above instructions. Perhaps this matter will be resolved.
(End of this chapter)
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