Yunxi Town is located on a branch of Kunning Mountain and is a must-pass place for Weizhou Prefecture to enter Beijing.
In the past, residents of the town made a living by growing tea and flowers. Now there are about a hundred families living here.
During the turbulent times, this place failed to become a paradise. People couldn't even get enough food to eat, so who would be willing to spend money to tend to flowers and plants?
The invasion of foreign races and the outbreak of wars. The major families dispersed and fled. Such an elegant industry, without high-end consumers, naturally declined.
When the Xin Dynasty was established, a large amount of wasteland was reclaimed by the court, and the manor given to Qiao Xin by Emperor Wu was located here.
As for whether the farm was now barren or planted with something, she had no idea. She took the opportunity of passing by to take a look and get a feel for it.
The carriage stopped in front of a small teahouse next to the town.
"Madam, we're here."
Shunzi opened the curtain and informed Qiao Xin.
"How far is it from where we want to go?"
"I just found out that our farm is in a place called Xiahe Village. It's about three or four miles away from here."
"Okay, let's eat something first and let the children rest in the town. I'll take a few people over to take a look."
"Madam, madam, don't you want to buy a dog? We have one here." Xu Can ran up excitedly from behind.
Qiao Xin raised her eyebrows, "That's it, didn't you say it was in Beijing?"
Xu Can explained, "The one in the capital is the fighting arena, and this is a breeding farm with a more complete range of species. I only came here once when this place was first established, and I'm not sure if it's still in the same place. Anyway, it's not far away, so let's go for a stroll."
Shunzi suddenly said, "Old lady, you can see that there are obviously more dogs than people on the street! Since we entered the city, we haven't seen any beggars, but we have seen many people walking their dogs."
Qiao Xin looked at the people coming and going, and then she noticed what Shunzi said.
Among the three groups of people who passed by the teahouse, two groups of people were leading dogs, and they were fierce dogs half the height of a person. They would bark at each other if they didn't like them. After walking for a long time, there was not a single child or woman in this small town. Even the meat served to the guests in the teahouse was mostly dog meat.
Could this be another Yulin?
The last time she passed by here, she did not enter the town to stay, but just rode past on horseback without paying attention to these phenomena.
Now it seems that everything is a little unusual. I am afraid that my farm cannot be used as a place to stay for the time being.
"Take good care of the children and don't let them get off the bus. It's only half a day's drive from here to Beijing. Let's take care of them in Beijing first and we can deal with other things later!"
Qiao Xin didn't plan to rest. She instructed the people around her seriously with a firm and resolute look in her eyes.
Xu Can keenly sensed that something was wrong with Qiao Xin, and immediately realized that things might not be that simple. He stopped talking about buying a dog to avoid causing unnecessary trouble.
Qiao Xin asked all the young and strong men in the team to mount their horses and be ready for battle. Children, women and children were all in the carriages. No one was allowed to get off the carriages unless it was absolutely necessary. They passed through the town without stopping for a moment.
Fan clearly felt the changes in the team. The carriage moved much faster and the children were no longer talking and laughing.
"My dear husband, what's wrong? Aren't we almost in Beijing? Why is the old lady so impatient? Shunzi's expression was obviously not right just now."
"Don't worry, the old lady should be in a hurry to see her family, we just need to follow the arrangements. It's just a short distance, so we just do as we are told."
The carriage went on becoming more and more desolate, and Xu Can suddenly pointed to the fork in the road.
"Madam, turn right from this road for more than two miles and you will reach a pond. Then turn left and you will see a large farm. Look at those carriages with iron cages. They are here to buy dogs!"
"Are there many people who play with dogs in the capital?"
Xu Can nodded, "There used to be a lot of them, but in the past two years, there has been a sudden trend, as if if you don't have two of them, you can't go out and meet people. As people started to compare themselves with each other, there were more and more of them.
But my old man never let me participate. I went there once, and when I came back, he beat me so hard that I couldn’t get out of bed for half a month.”
Shunzi didn't quite understand, so he asked, "Why is that? It's not something shameful!"
"The old man didn't say anything, but he doesn't allow us to keep any, and he doesn't allow us to make any dog tags or stone sculptures."
"They even carve dog tags and stone sculptures. Are you raising a dog or raising your ancestors?"
Xu Can sighed and said, "You are right. Some people in Beijing have good tempers. They treat dogs better than their own sons, parents. The dogs of rich families have bitten the children of ordinary people, but they just paid some money. But the child is miserable, his life is over.
Shunzi was stunned, "Isn't this a madman? Old Madam, we have so many young masters and young ladies in our family, what if... Does the prince have many such things?"
"Of course there are many. We can hear about dogs biting people every other day in our restaurant! I have calluses on my ears from hearing so much."
"The government doesn't care?"
"How can we manage it? Most of the people bitten are ordinary people. Who will stand up for them? It's good enough that the government can ask for compensation for them. Your Majesty also tried to manage it a few times in the past, but this happened every few days and it was impossible to manage it. The people below you all have their own family, but they still protect each other. In the end, it dragged on and on and nothing was done."
They don't want to care and are unwilling to care, just because they are not the ones who are bitten. If they themselves were bitten by captive dogs, would these dog protectors still be so indifferent?
Last year, Dajing suffered from floods in the south and snowstorms in the north. Natural disasters continued, and the war on the border continued. The treasury was in a very tight supply of food, but these new and old nobles actually began to disregard human lives.
Oh, they ate too much!
Qiao Xin asked coldly, "You said they feed the dogs meat, where does all the meat come from? There is so much pork, beef and mutton in the capital, can't the people eat it all?"
"Well....."
Xu Can had never really thought about this problem. He subconsciously thought that people who could afford to keep dogs naturally had enough money. Buying meat should not be a problem. But he never thought that the amount of meat was so limited that it could not satisfy people, let alone feed livestock?
Qiao Xin stared at that direction with a distant gaze and pursed her lips.
"Shunzi!"
"What happened to the old lady?"
"The letter to Master Er should have arrived by now!"
"We have arrived a long time ago. The Second Master should have sent someone from the capital to pick us up by now."
"Zhang Hu, once you enter the city, go back directly. Don't stop."
"yes!"
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