Chapter 2 Natural disaster or man-made disaster?
Chapter 2 Natural disaster, man-made disaster?
In the sixth year of Longwu, Wei's house.
There was a sudden commotion in the house, and a small figure ran through the hall and around the pillars. The housekeeper was chasing him closely, shouting: "Slow down, slow down! Little master, little ancestor! If you fall, it will cost me my life, right?"
The boy was Wei Yuan. Although he was only three years old this year, he was born very tall. Children of farmers in the mountains and countryside are generally thin, so he looked taller than many seven or eight-year-old children in the town.
At this time, the main hall was filled with the aroma of food. The running little Wei Yuan seemed to be caught by a fishing line in mid-air and immediately turned in a different direction.
In the main room, the great man Wei and his two wives were sitting at the table, and the food had been set. There were two pottery basins on the table, one with a few pancakes and brown multi-grain steamed buns, and the other with yellow multi-grain porridge. There were four dishes on the table, pickled beans, salted radish, fried shredded radish and a small dish of pickled pheasant.
This was the lunch of the family of the wealthy Wei Dashan in the county.
Little Wei Yuan had been very hungry for a long time. He broke open a steamed bun that was almost bigger than his head, stuffed the chicken into it, and then buried his head in the food. In a blink of an eye, he had finished it all. But one steamed bun was not enough, so he ate two cakes and a bowl of porridge, and then he felt full. After eating, he jumped off the stool, bowed to Wei Dashan and the two ladies, and then went out in a flash.
Wei Dashan and the two ladies basically did not move their chopsticks until little Wei Yuan was full and left the house. The third lady said, "Yuan'er is growing up so fast. Now he eats like an adult, and he knows etiquette, but he doesn't like to talk. If the fourth sister were still here..."
The second lady quickly pulled her sleeve, and the third lady immediately realized and shut up.
Little Wei Yuan outside the house paused for a moment, and then ran to the front yard as if he had heard nothing. The old women, maids and servants he met along the way all gave way to him and saluted, but the servants' whispers from a distance reached Wei Yuan's ears.
"The young master is growing up so fast, and he eats more than adults, but it's a pity that he has no mother."
"Keep your voice down! The master said not to let the young master know about this."
"What's the big deal? Everyone knows that the fourth wife ran away with someone not long after giving birth to the young master? The master only said that the wife was dead, and even set up a grave in a pretentious manner. But who can be hidden from this?"
Little Wei Yuan walked out of the backyard without stopping, and came to the front yard. The front yard was quite noisy, with farmhands, kitchen workers, and servants coming and going.
He walked into an open space in the front yard, where some stone locks, guns and sticks were placed, which was usually where the guards 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 old man."
"Do you think he is the bastard born by the fourth lady and an outsider..."
"Keep your voice down!"
"What are you afraid of? There is no one around, who can hear it?"
Wei Yuan wanted to block out those voices from his mind, but he could hear them clearly. The two guards who were talking secretly were ten feet away. They were far away and spoke softly, so it was impossible for others to hear them under normal circumstances, but Wei Yuan could hear them clearly. In fact, no matter where he stood, Wei Yuan could hear the movements in most of the house.
Wei Yuan remembered that at a certain moment when he was very young, he suddenly heard these voices, and then he heard them more and more, and soon he understood the meaning of most of the words.
The country people are crude, and the servants' private discussions about the master's family are naturally not very pleasant.
Since he could understand it, Wei Yuan became more and more silent. Although he could understand what others said, he didn't understand why they said that.
Wei Yuan came to the stone lock as usual and picked up the ten-jin lock he usually played with. But after just a few lifts, he felt a little itchy in his body. This kind of itch that came from the cracks in his bones could only be relieved when he was running or carrying heavy loads. However, the light stone lock in his hand was not enough to relieve it.
Little Wei Yuan walked to the large stone lock not far away. This stone lock weighed fifty kilograms and was the heaviest stone lock used by the servants for training. Little Wei Yuan grabbed it with both hands and lifted it hard. The stone lock was slightly off the ground.
At this time, Wei Youcai's voice suddenly sounded in the distance: "Put it down, put it down quickly!"
Little Wei Yuan turned his head and saw Wei Dashan jogging all the way over, saying repeatedly: "How dare you move such a big stone lock? What if you hurt your bones? I know you like to play with this, so I asked someone to make a good one for you."
As he said that, Wei Youcai took out a small stone lock made of white marble, which was exquisite and weighed one kilogram.
Little Wei Yuan had no choice but to take the jade lock.
Although this thing had almost no weight in his hand, little Wei Yuan could feel his father's concern. So although he was reluctant, he still left the 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, and the scorching sun was hanging in the sky, casting the light and heat like a stream of fire on the earth.
Wei Youcai let little Wei Yuan go out and play by himself, and called the housekeeper to his side, asking: "Is it the beginning of summer today?"
"Master, it was the beginning of summer yesterday."
The kind-hearted Wei frowned and said, "It's the beginning of summer now? How is the situation in the fields?"
The housekeeper said with a bitter face, "The crops are in the ear stage, but it has rained in the past two months, and they can't survive at all! Now the fields near the mountains have no harvest, and the fields near the Tonghe River are better. But getting water from the river is also a life-threatening job. Two people in the village below have been exhausted to death!"
"Prepare the donkey, go to the village to have a look."
After a while, the kind-hearted Wei took the housekeeper and a servant to the direction of the valley entrance. It is only eight miles from Wei's house to the valley entrance. After the valley entrance is Xiahe Village, which is near the Tonghe River and has the best fields in the county. If it doesn't rain again, Xiahe Village may be the only village in the entire Ye County with a harvest.
When you leave the house, you will see a bright yellow.
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 green, becoming the only green in this world. In fact, if there were no servants guarding it day and night, this big tree would have been bald long ago: in one night, the bark could be peeled off.
Suddenly a gust of wind came, rolling up yellow hazy dust, covering Wei Youcai's face.
Wei Youcai vomited several times before he spit out all the dirt in his mouth. He wiped his face, jumped off the donkey, walked to the fields on both sides of the road, stretched out his hands and dug hard in the fields a few times, and dug out all dry soil. The seedlings on the ridges were all withered.
Wei Youcai supported his knees and stood up with difficulty, and the housekeeper hurried over to support him.
Wei Youcai took a few breaths and asked, "How are the tenants' families doing?"
"Master, it was just a little hot the year before last, but there wasn't much rain last year. The harvest was poor, and the government didn't reduce taxes. Not only did every household eat up all their stored grain, but they all owed us some grain. This year, it looks like there will probably be no harvest, but we don't have much grain left, and I'm afraid people will die..."
Wei Youcai's face was gloomy, and he said, "If we don't provide disaster relief, it will be too late. Any news from the county?"
The housekeeper said, "A few days ago, I went to the county to find Mr. Zhao in the government office. Mr. Zhao said that there was no news of disaster relief yet, and several more taxes will be added this year. The names seem to be infantry tax, barbarian tax and cattle tax."
"What, cattle tax?" Mr. Wei picked his ears.
"Cattle tax." The second housekeeper nodded. He confirmed it with the housekeeper several times at that time.
Wei Youcai was surprised: "Have there been cattle in our county?"
The second housekeeper said, "At least in the past few decades, I haven't heard of cattle."
In fact, it is not just Ye County. Fengyuan County has no cattle since ancient times. This place is adjacent to the mountains in the south, and the land is unique. It is difficult for oxen to survive. Farm work uses a kind of mule that looks like a donkey, but slightly smaller than a donkey. Not to mention Fengyuan County, there are only two or three places in the entire Ji State that have cattle, unlike the northern countries where oxen are everywhere.
"There are no cows, so why collect cattle tax?"
The second housekeeper looked at the face of Mr. Wei and whispered, "Master said that even if there are no cows, it will not prevent the court from collecting cattle tax."
Wei Youcai asked with a serious face, "What's going on?"
"Master Zhao said that the court recently employed a great scholar from the north, who is very famous for his articles. After that person came, he began to reform the law and proposed a method of 'equalizing taxes on people', which is to collect taxes based on the number of people. For every fifty households, even if everyone has a cow, they have to pay cattle tax. It is said that fishermen and boatmen also have to pay cattle tax."
Wei Youcai laughed in anger, "What kind of monsters have crawled out! Can they write articles? Can they do such wicked things by writing articles?"
The housekeeper also said angrily, "Maybe it's because they can write articles that they can be so wicked!"
Wei Youcai cursed a few words and fell silent. After a while, he said, "Go back."
"Not going to Xiahe Village?"
"No. The weather will change soon. Go to the mountains and call back Lao Liu."
The housekeeper was surprised and asked, "Call back Liu Ye?"
"In a year of great disaster, there will definitely be refugees. Without Lao Liu, we will have to flee from famine."
The housekeeper's face changed. He did not dare to ask more questions. He led the donkey and returned to the house under the scorching sun.
Zhao Shiye was well-informed. Within two days, the imperial decree to increase taxes arrived in the county. Ye County was located in a remote area, and the decree arrived the latest. Other places had received the decree half a month earlier. For a time, people were full of resentment everywhere. Naturally, many people saw that they could not survive and began to think about other ways to survive.
In Yongzhou, there have been no good people who are willing to starve to death since ancient times.
This morning, after Xiao Weiyuan had breakfast, he ran to the open space where the servants were training. Just as he ran to the edge of the open space, a pair of big hands suddenly descended from the sky and picked him up like flying in the clouds.
This was a bald man with a face full of flesh and a long scar on the right side of his face. The man held Wei Yuan up and stared at him fiercely with a ferocious look on his face.
Little Wei Yuan looked around and found that his position was much higher than when he was usually held by others. He could see the tops of everyone's heads and was immediately delighted.
The bald man turned Wei Yuan's little face back to face him and asked curiously: "Aren't you afraid of me?"
Little Wei Yuan asked in confusion: "Why should I be afraid of you?"
Although it was the first time they met, Wei Yuan could feel that in this manor, the bald man was the third person who loved him, besides Wei Youcai and the housekeeper. So no matter how the bald man grinned, little Wei Yuan just thought it was fun.
The bald man laughed and said, "Good boy! Let's go find your dad!"
The man hugged Wei Yuan and walked to the corner tower. Wei Youcai changed into a short coat at this time, holding a hunting bow in his hand and trying the string. But Master Wei was obviously not very active. He was so tired that he was out of breath after just two pulls 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, "Sixth Brother, I'm glad you're back!"
The bald old six said, "I have seen a lot of refugees on the way here, all coming from the northeast. The team is already thirty miles away. I'm afraid there are thousands of people, and there are people leading them."
"What's their current situation?"
The bald man said in a deep voice, "I sneaked in at night and saw the leaders cooking meat soup. 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, "Thirty miles away, that means they 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, I brought three capable brothers this time, ten leather armors, and three good strong bows. The refugees are not walking fast, as long as we avoid the large group, it won't be difficult to break out of the way. Brother, are you fleeing or defending?"
When refugees cross the border, no grass will grow, this sentence is not a joke. The hoes in the hands of refugees can be used to hoe the land, but also to hoe people. There are only a few dozen people in Wei's house, but they have to face thousands of refugees. Once the house is destroyed, it will be a family extinction.
But no one wants to leave their hometown and become a refugee unless it is absolutely necessary.
Wei Youcai's narrow eyes narrowed into a slit, and after a long time he said, "Guard!"
Bald Lao Liu was refreshed and grinned, "Okay!"
In the remaining two days, everyone in the manor worked hard, raised the wall by half a foot, and set up brackets at the weak points.
During these two days, wherever Wei Youcai went, he would carry little Wei Yuan. Little Wei Yuan watched the big man take out leather armor and a strong bow from the leather bucket, and watched the servants pick up weapons and put on leather armor. Then on the morning of the third day, little Wei Yuan had a full meal with everyone.
Not long after dawn, rolling dust could be seen at the end of the road, and there were countless shadows in it. Seeing this scene, several servants on the wall trembled.
Wei Youcai had already changed into a tight suit, and at this time, holding Wei Yuan, he went up to the corner tower slowly, ordered people to put the armchair on the top, and sat down holding Wei Yuan. The housekeeper and the bald man were already standing on the corner tower. They were all startled when they saw Wei Youcai carrying Wei Yuan up. The bald man asked, "Brother, it's not appropriate to bring a child up here, right? What if..."
Wei Youcai waved his hand and said, "It's okay! Yuan'er is easy to deal with and now he understands everything. It's better for him to see blood earlier."
The housekeeper said, "Master, it's not appropriate for you to be here!"
Wei Youcai said, "Don't worry about me. If the refugees break into my house, I will die wherever I hide. So I will sit here today and watch how they break into my house and eat my meat!"
As he spoke, the refugee group was approaching. The refugees were all ragged and pale, but their faces were full of ferocity. Some of them carried hoes, some held pitchforks, and many of them had large dark stains on their bodies, which were obviously dried blood.
There were also some women in the team, all of them were naked. Some young women were tied together with ropes, with almost no cloth on their bodies.
Seeing the Wei family mansion in front of them, the refugees' eyes suddenly lit up green. There were a few people in local clothes in the front, pointing at the mansion.
The housekeeper was sharp-eyed and saw the faces of those people clearly. He immediately jumped up and cursed: "Isn't that Hu San? The bastard, if we hadn't given him life-saving food last year, would he be alive today?"
The housekeeper's curse was useless. The refugees over there saw the mansion from afar and could no longer bear it. They didn't care about the distance and started to rush in like a beehive.
The refugees shouted noisily, and only the sound of killing could be heard from afar. 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 and hear every word clearly.
"There are food and women in there! Kill them, brothers!"
"We are almost starving to death, but they are having fun in there!"
"Kill all the rich people!!"
Seeing the refugees swarming in like wild beasts. Wei Yuan suddenly turned around and asked, "Why are they trying to kill us?"
Wei Youcai said gently, "Watch first, and you'll know when you see it."
It didn't take long for the refugees to rush outside the wall and start howling as they climbed up. The wall of the Wei residence was only ten feet high, and a strong person could reach the top of the wall with a single leap. A weak person could barely climb up with the help of people around him. The servants of the Wei family stood on the wall. They were afraid at first, but at the critical moment of life and death, they all became ruthless. They screamed and raised their knives to slash at the hands and heads that climbed up the wall. For a moment, blood splattered and fingers and palms flew everywhere.
There were too many refugees, and the refugees behind couldn't squeeze to the front, so they picked up stones from the ground and smashed them on the wall. In a blink of an eye, several servants were hit and their heads were bleeding, and some fell off the wall. However, those who fell down gritted their teeth and climbed up the wall again, not even bothering to wipe the blood off their heads. Everyone knew that once the wall was broken, the result would be worse than being hacked to pieces.
The corner tower of the Wei residence was three feet high, and the three men brought back by the bald Lao Liu were holding bows and shooting arrows one after another. These three men had obviously practiced archery, and their shots were fast and fierce. The housekeeper also stood on the corner tower, with several flags of various colors placed at his feet. He waved the flags from time to time, dispatched the servants, observed the target, and shouted from time to time: "The tall man in black clothes over there is probably the leader, shoot him!"
Under the guidance of the housekeeper, the three archers shot down seven or eight fierce refugees in a blink of an eye. However, everyone was blood-thirsty at this time, and they still rushed to the house desperately, stepping on the corpses and broken limbs of their companions and climbing up.
Under the dispatch of the housekeeper, dozens of servants and strong women in the Wei residence supported each other, and they barely withstood the attack of the refugees and defended the wall. The bald man patrolled back and forth, went to resist wherever there was danger, and chopped down the refugees who rushed to the wall several times.
Wei Yuan sat in Wei Youcai's arms, watching arrows pierce through people's bodies and then plunge into the ground with blood rain; watching the servants beside him tremble all over, screaming and throwing stones at them; watching a refugee with an arrow in his stomach rolling on the ground screaming, desperately grabbing the corner of a companion's trousers, but the man thought he was in the way, so he chopped his head with a sickle, and then continued to rush to the mansion without even looking.
The hot smell of blood mixed with dust surged up in waves. A servant on the courtyard wall couldn't help it, holding the parapet and vomiting wildly, but in the blink of an eye, he was hit on the head by a stone, and in a trance, he was pulled out of the wall by the refugees, and then torn and bitten, and in the blink of an eye, he was bloody and screaming continuously.
On the corner tower, Wei Youcai sat calmly, as if what he saw was not a tragic fight, but just a few children fighting randomly. Little Wei Yuan leaned on him, as if he was leaning on an immovable mountain.
The two sides fought for a meal in a blink of an eye. The servants were already panting and wounded, and gradually there were loopholes in the defense line. A group of refugees finally rushed to the top of the wall and climbed up to the corner tower. There was a melee on the corner tower!
A strong refugee kicked the housekeeper away and rushed towards Wei Youcai with a grin. Wei Youcai was not panicked at all, and stood up and drew his sword. However, he was pampered and slow in his movements. He was kicked down in the chest just after he raised his sword. The man raised the hatchet and was about to chop Wei Youcai's head!
Seeing that the hatchet was about to fall, little Wei Yuan's mind suddenly went blank. He grabbed a short spear on the ground and stabbed it into the refugee's abdomen!
The man saw that Wei Yuan was a child and didn't care at all. He didn't expect that this spear was particularly heavy. He was shocked and angry. He kicked little Wei Yuan away and then pulled out the short spear with force. A stream of blood immediately spurted out of his wound and drenched little Wei Yuan.
All the strength in the man's body suddenly flowed away like water, his feet went limp, and he fell to the ground.
Little Wei Yuan suddenly rushed up, grabbed the short spear and pulled it back. The strong refugee felt a power in his hand that did not belong to the child at all, and the short spear was taken away in
an instant. Little Wei Yuan stepped out with the spear again, and stabbed it into the refugee's chest.
The refugee felt pain, holding the spear with one hand and wrestling with little Wei Yuan, and groping for the hatchet with the other hand, ready to chop Wei Yuan's head. Little Wei Yuan didn't even look at the hatchet above his head, but just gathered all his strength and pushed the short spear into the refugee's heart little by little.
The refugee suddenly saw Wei Yuan's eyes, his pupils were bottomless, as if hiding another world. The little face was full of calmness, as if he was not killing anyone, but just doing an ordinary little thing. Looking at Wei Yuan's face, the refugee felt an inexplicable chill in his heart. At this moment, he let out his last breath, and the short spear sank deeply into his heart with a puff.
At this time, the housekeeper and the others finally chopped down all the refugees on the corner tower, and then threw the bodies out of the corner tower one by one. The refugee group was in chaos and their morale was dampened.
Seeing that the refugees' morale was frustrated, the housekeeper immediately picked up a red flag and threw it hard towards the center of the refugees.
The bald man who was fighting on the wall had his eyes lit up and grinned: "It's finally time! Brothers, follow me to kill!"
He jumped down from the wall, knocked away several refugees when he landed, and went straight to the direction where the red flag fell. Five more servants in leather armor appeared in the courtyard. They did not participate in the previous wall defense and had been recuperating. They also jumped down from the wall and followed the bald man to kill towards the center of the refugees.
The bald man roared, and a strong blood-red light suddenly emerged around him, like a blood-red torch! He slashed forward with his sword, and three refugees were immediately cut into two pieces. Then he swung his sword back again, 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 team of elite soldiers into an empty space. In a blink of an eye, he killed hundreds of refugees and rushed to the center of the formation . The
refugees' morale finally collapsed. It was a crushing defeat. In a blink of an eye, all the refugees scattered.
The housekeeper finally breathed a sigh of relief and immediately collapsed to the ground, muttering: "Fortunately, they are all a mob."
After he breathed a sigh of relief, the housekeeper felt a sharp pain in his body. It turned out that someone had slashed his back at some point.
In a short fight, there were hundreds of refugee bodies outside the Wei family mansion, and many people had broken hands and feet. They were not dead for a while, and could only lie on the ground and scream. Many of the servants on the courtyard wall were ordinary farmers. They had never seen such a scene. Some leaned against the wall and vomited, and some cried and laughed.
Wei Youcai climbed up, hugged little Wei Yuan in his arms, and checked if he was injured. Only when he saw that little Wei Yuan had no wounds and the blood was from the enemy did he breathe a sigh of relief, his face pale with shock.
Wei Youcai patted his chest, and then wiped the blood off little Wei Yuan's face with his sleeve.
Little Wei Yuan raised his little face and asked again: "Why do they want to kill us?"
Wei Youcai stood up while holding him, walked to the corner tower, 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 not enough, so they have to eat us to survive. If we are too hungry to survive, we have to go to other places to find food, and 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 humans. Whether they are hungry or not, they are going to eat us."
"These are going to eat us directly." Wei Youcai waved his hand to the north again and said: "Far away in these directions, there are many big cities. Those people living in the center of the big cities actually eat people, but they don't eat them directly and are more polite. But when it comes to eating people, they eat the most."
Little Wei Yuan seemed to understand what he heard.
Wei Youcai smiled, pointed to the sky and said, "If we were standing there, we might see something different. But from where we are now..."
"...This is a world of cannibalism."
Little Wei Yuan frowned, thinking hard, and frowned, "Why do we have to eat people? People are not delicious."
Wei Youcai stretched out his hand and said, "Because there is only so much land, it can't feed all these people. Whether they are eaten, killed, or starved to death, a group of people will die. When enough people die, things will be quiet."
(End of this chapter)