Spring is supposed to be a scene of revival and vitality, but some areas of the Northwest are full of loess, and cracks can be seen on the ground.
Before the drought came, people who had been working in the fields for a long time had already seen the signs of changes in the weather.
People who have been working with the land for a long time may not be literate, but that doesn't mean they don't understand some common sense, such as the rain in the four seasons of the year and how much snow falls in the winter, they can probably judge what kind of agricultural scenery will be in the coming year.
During the winter season, there is only a light snow in the northwest, and the scene of the Ruixue mega year is gone.
At the beginning of spring, people have been looking forward to a continuous rainy season, but only a few places have a few days of moderate or light rain, and in some places there is not even a drop of rain, and they realize that it is bad.
"The riverbed has bottomed out" "No snow, no snow melts the wet land."
"If it doesn't rain, the river is going to dry up."
"What should I do?"
Liao Village, most of the people are surnamed Liao, the surname Liao in the village migrated from Shu to Xiliang, and according to legend, he is still a descendant of Liao Hua, the general of Shu, but no one can come up with strong evidence.
Liao Village, located at the foot of the mountain, has 37 households with a total of 167 people, and they belong to the jurisdiction of Rile County, which in turn belongs to Zhangye County.
Zhangye County was established in the Western Han Dynasty and is one of the four counties in Hexi.
The jurisdiction of Zhangye County was originally the land of the Xiongnu Kun Evil King, and the eastern part of Jiuquan County was placed in Zhangye County in 111 BC in the sixth year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
Take the meaning of "Zhang Guo's arm to pass through the Western Regions".
For a long time, the population of Zhangye County is not much, the past dynasties are the frontier of the country, although it is located in the only place leading to the Western Regions, but it has not been taken seriously, the service will not be lacking, and the government will not forget how much tax should be paid, but it is not an exaggeration to say that grandma does not love uncle and does not hurt, and the country has never had their share when there is anything good.
Not only Zhangye County, there are too many similar areas, all of which usually have no sense of existence, and bear the obligations of the state in obscurity, and it is difficult to get the responsibilities of the government after something happens.
Liao Fang looked at the cracked land with a sad expression.
His family has more than 100 acres of land, located in a flat area at the foot of the mountain.
There is a stream not far away, the ancestors dug a small canal to divert water, and Liao Fang has been very careful to maintain the canal, but this year the stream has dried up, and the canal cannot lead water at all.
There is no water to irrigate the land, God does not rain, the farmland will naturally be dry if it loses water, and then there is an abnormal scorching sun in spring, why is the land not boring and cracking There is more than one Liao Fang standing at the head of the field, and the area is the farmland area, knowing that the land in the field has withered to the point that it cannot be cultivated, but the owner of the farmland will still come to see it every day, and then squat on the edge of the ridge with a sad face one after another.
It's spring, it's supposed to be busy, weeding the weeds, turning the whole up, just waiting for the day to start pregnant seedlings, and then take a family of people who can work to the field to plant seedlings.
Today, although the signs of drought have been discovered, and the government has repeatedly sent people to the countryside to make announcements, the people who should be pregnant with seedlings are still pregnant.
It's not that they don't believe the government's announcement, and they don't think that there is something wrong with their eyes, but everyone has a "just in case" mentality.
When it is time to plant seedlings, the seedlings at home are growing day by day and water consumption, and the expected rain does not fall, no one has to laugh at who is stupid, they are all dumbfounded, and the despair in their hearts is accumulating more and more.
"The one who went upstream is back" "How" "The brooks are all withered, and the rivers that connect them are withered" "What can I do then?"
They were originally lucky, thinking that the upstream village had cut off the water source, but this has happened in the past, and the young people of every household are ready to fight for water again.
This time, there is no village to intercept the water, even the rivers and streams are all dry, and they just don't know who to fight with.
"It's all over" "It's over, it's really over" The stream has dried up, the river has dried up, but there are still wells in the village, and even the water level is very deep.
The old people in the village wept and said that they couldn't, and those who understood the matter also objected, saying that the water only had to go to a very deep place to get water, and that it was slow to refill the water after fetching water, and that if the wells were dried up, people would not be able to live.
"It's not just our village, it's like this in several nearby villages."
"The villagers in several villages have been discussing, but I don't know if they can discuss a countermeasure."
Liao Fang looked up at the scorching sun, the sunlight above his head was naturally very dazzling, his eyes were stimulated to lose sight after looking at it for a while, and tears would flow uncontrollably.
A gong sound came from the village, which was the signal to gather the whole village.
Liaojia Village was full of 167 people, and it didn't take long for all of them to gather in the small square of the village.
The village chief, Liao Yu, stood on a high place cushioned by a wooden shelf, as he usually did at the party.
This time, there was also a man from the government in a soap suit standing beside him, holding a roll of yellow paper in his hand.
"Gentlemen, young and old, calm down."
Liao Yu's words were still very effective, and the sparse voice stopped, that is, everyone saw that it was not him, it was the person wearing a soap suit beside him.
He saluted the person in the soap suit and was avoided, and said directly without hesitation: "This big guy is no stranger, he is an official in the county."
He brought the county notice. ” Huang Yi is not an official, he is a small official in the county, there is no specific official title, he belongs to the list of inspectors of the harmless Qin system, and what he does is to walk the township to teach the law and post notices.
"The gentlemen and women of Liao Village, Huang won't say anything more."
Huang Yi was looked at by a face full of anxiety, suspecting that no matter how much nonsense he talked about, he caused a riot, so he directly spread out the notice and read it three times, and then had to pick out a brief emphasis: "Today, we will be exempt from taxes for three years, and we will no longer pay taxes this year, next year, and the year after tomorrow."
In the township, the conscription is non-stop, and the food and drink are all from the government.
Those who do not go out of conscription can go to the county to recruit workers. ” In a year of disaster, no one has produced anything, and if they have to pay taxes, the moderate people should sell their sons and daughters, and they will have to sell their land, even themselves.
If the people were more violent, they should arm themselves, and it would be better to call friends and roar in the mountains and forests, and it is not impossible to occupy the countryside or attack the county town and turn into a rebellion.
When encountering a disaster year, the government usually exempts the tax, not how merciful the government is, in fact, the tax cannot be collected at all, and then the people are forced to rebel against the unlucky local government, and the county magistrate or county magistrate who is not stupid will ask the county, and the county can only beg the center, otherwise the people will not survive and rebel, and then it should be regarded as whose fault It is not easy to ask the center for tax exemption, it is to ask the center to send someone to inspect the site, how to get the officials who come down to inspect and let the report of the facts is a hurdle, usually it is not easy to get the officials who come down to investigate, even if they can get the inspection officials, it will take a long time to get the tax exemption official document from the center.
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When the rule of officials is strict, the officials who come down to inspect may not dare to be greedy, but if they are not attentive, they will inevitably be stumbled.
He didn't dare to hide the truth, but he could keep delaying it until it was really impossible to delay it, and he didn't know how long it would take for the center to deal with it.
If the officials of the state are rotten, the officials who come down to inspect will never leave if they are not greedy enough, and even if they leave, they may not really take money to do things, or they should be responsible.
The center of the state will not easily exempt a certain area from taxes, but it is not that the center is not human, but the local government can always find ways to ask for tax exemption, and the center really agrees to tax exemption, but the local people are still paying taxes, but the taxes go to the private pockets of local officials.
The local government will inevitably cover up or shirk the situation to the central government, and the local people will think that the officials who run the country are all bad, and the high-level people who cannot really see the situation at the grassroots level will be blamed.
"Huang Guanshang."
Liao Fang was waiting to enter the link where he could be questioned, and immediately asked for instructions, and only after getting permission did he ask: "The official can bring a list of conscripts."
There are 167 people in Liao Village, and nearly 50 men are over 16 years old and under 35 years old.
They are all people who have served in forced labor, and naturally they know that their service is not overdue, and there is no subsidy, and people can use the public house when they go to eat and drink.
Although the period of conscription must be completed, people are also allowed to serve beyond the time limit, which is regarded as an alternative kind of part-time work, and it is more reasonable that they can directly buy food or cloth from relevant institutions after receiving wages.
In general, the people under the rule of the Han Dynasty were not as afraid of conscription as before, and they would be at risk because of the different scenes or events in which they worked, and when they died, they could get a pension that was not available in previous dynasties, and they were willing to extend the period of conscription, and they were usually able to bring something home, resulting in the common people having a passion for conscription that previous dynasties did not have.
"Of course, there is."
Huang Yi didn't ink, he put away the yellow paper notice that was rolled up again, and when he had to go to the earthen wall next to him to post it, he took out a wooden document from his arms and began to read his name, and after the roll call, he looked at the disappointed expression below, and shouted: "Except for the seven people who should serve in the conscription, the rest of the people don't have to be disappointed."
Today, I am worried about the people in the county, and this year I specially passed down the order, not only the young men can go to the county government to recruit workers, but also the old and young women and children can also go. ” Liao Fang was not on the list of conscripts, and in his disappointment, he had already made up his mind to go to the county government to recruit workers, or his family did not have much food reserves, and the fields were dry and cracked and could not be farmed, so staying at home was purely waiting for death.
What he didn't expect was that not only could he go, but the government also accepted the old and weak, women and children.
"Today's mercy" Liao Yu is the village head, in fact, it is also an official establishment, and he can receive a salary from the county every year.
He didn't just say good things because he had a salary: "In the past years of natural disasters, no one would take care of us.
It's different now, he'll care about us, but we all have to listen well, if the masters of which family don't seek to survive in the disaster year, they will starve to death and kill themselves, and their parents, wives and children will be hungry."
Many heads of families, including Liao Fang, were thinking that they themselves must be going to the county to recruit workers.
Whether the whole family goes depends on the structure of the family members, and the elderly or young children who are too old to move in the family basically feel that they should go.
If there are elderly people and young children in the family who are unable to work, it is natural that the daughter-in-law should stay and take the children who can work with her.
There are people like Huang Yi in each village who convey official notices, and it is clear that those who cannot wait at home to die in the disaster year will naturally have to respond, and before the date of calling for conscription, the people who should serve the conscription will not wait, and they are heading for the county.
In addition, those who want to recruit workers, they don't even need to wait, and even have to leave early, otherwise they are afraid that they will not have their own share.
Rilecheng County has been hundreds of years old, but because it is in the northwest frontier is really not very prosperous, the county has full northwest characteristics, the city wall is yellow, the ground is yellow, except for the roof is also yellow, even in the drought year, it is rare to see green.
Knowing that the year of the disaster is coming, people with normal brains will not wait for death, and all the townships and miles converge to the county seat, and the number of people in the city who originally lived only about 2,000 people increased rapidly, but it made the city seem extremely lively, and that kind of excitement was a dull one.
"Brother."
Liao Fang is Chinese New Year's Eve two years old today, his parents have died, he has a daughter-in-law and a thirteen-year-old child, and the whole family has come to the county.
The person he called his brother was a subordinate of the county lieutenant, and the two were originally comrades: "My brother said that the number of recruits is only 500."
The person who is called brother is called Daniel Zhang, who is just an ordinary soldier, but it is a serious establishment in the county, not the kind of county soldier system that serves as a soldier.
He and Liao Fang originally belonged to the Zhang Liang Army, and he was a chief in the Zhang Liang Army, and Liao Fang used to be a soldier in his Shili.
After Zhang's Liangguo was destroyed by the Han State, the regular army of Zhang's Liangguo was once reorganized by three out of ten, some were supplemented to various standing armies, and more were distributed to counties across the country, Liao Fang was one of the abolished, and Daniel Zhang was lucky to be assigned to the original Zhang's Liangguo territory, and more coincidentally, in the county where Liao Fang was located.
"There are more than 1,000 households in the county, and there are nearly 4,500 people, and taking one out of nine is already a benevolent move."
Daniel Zhang said words of conscience, he saw Liao Fang's face with expectation, knew what the reason was, hesitated again and again but said: "The big man talks about the law in everything, and if he doesn't say that his brother is a pawn, even the county captain is difficult to place." ” Liao Fang immediately showed a disappointed expression, and asked what kind of recruitment method the recruiter was, and how he had more hope of being selected.
"It's no secret anymore, the Han is about to re-enter the Western Regions, and the county's recruitment of workers is to recruit some military supplies."
Daniel Zhang still looked left and right before saying, "Five hundred goes to the old and weak and women, and the inconvenient give priority." ” Taking care of the groups that should be taken care of, the Han Kingdom continued to carry forward the virtue of this Zhuxia characteristic, but Liao Fang immediately became even more sad, and his family was not insignificant.
"In addition to conscription and recruitment, there is another way to survive."
Daniel Zhang couldn't see Liao Fang's depressed appearance that he was about to cry, and said mysteriously: "Recently, a comrade has settled in, and I heard that he wants to follow the example of southern Xinjiang. ” Liao Fang didn't know so much, so he was stunned and hurriedly asked
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