This year was not a good year, with widespread drought in the western part of Shandong, Henan, Beizhili and parts of Jiangnan. Although it did not lead to the interruption of the autumn grain harvest, the harvest was not as good as in the past, but even so, when the number of people in the land was small, there was no scene of people being displaced and a large number of displaced people.

In the past two years, under the enslavement of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the people of Shaanxi who were overwhelmed often chose to live in exile, although in the counties bordering Shaanxi, there are all the Jimin houses set up by the government to help the refugees who fled from Shaanxi, but there are always many refugees because the paths when fleeing from Shaanxi are different, naturally not everyone can go to the Jimin, I don't know how many people are displaced in various places.

However, for some people, this is also a good time to help the world and preach to tie the knot, although this year's harvest is not as good as last year's, but it is still much better than previous years. Because of this, not only refugees but also ordinary beggars can benefit from it.

After leaving Baoding, all the way south, when coming to the Yellow River, although it is only just in October, it rained sleet on this day, the rain and snow came early in the winter of these years, although the people have long been prepared, the family has already prepared firewood or briquettes, although the briquettes have become more and more practical in the past two years, but it will always take some time to replace firewood.

Under the eaves of the two rows of houses on Jishang Street, there were beggars huddled in a ball of cold, all of them staring at the left and right, waiting for a kind person to give porridge.

From autumn to winter, the weather is naturally extremely cold, the wind blowing from the north is wrapped in drizzle and snow, sometimes tight and slow rippling on the street, this town naturally can not be compared with the provincial capital, the capital city, there is no "street correction" street, extremely narrow, in fact, even in Baoding, the correction and widening of the street, but only a few lines, most of the street at most only zhang wide. The streets of this city are only six or seven feet wide, and pedestrians leading a horse can even occupy half of the street, although he is wearing an oilcloth raincoat, but Zhao Guobin is already soaked.

"Master, let's go to the side and avoid the rain first."

"Done."

Seeing that the servant's lips were already blue, Yao Husheng nodded in response.

The two then went into a small wine shop on the street to ask for a bowl of hot wine, and drank slowly with two dishes of food, after the hot wine was down, Zhao Guobin quickly warmed up, and occasionally he would cast his eyes on the beggars on the side of the road. His brow furrowed at times.

At the beginning of the world, according to reason, homeless people and beggars should be the least time, after all, there are few people in the land, as long as they are willing, they will naturally not worry about eating and drinking. But why are there so many beggars?

Zhao Guobin, who was sitting on the side of the shop, saw a beggar cowering on the side of the road, this beggar was in the prime of life, why was he willing to be a beggar? The man sensed that someone was looking at him, and immediately squeezed out a pitiful smile that was pleasing to three points and seven points, but when he saw his appearance, he shrank his head and did not dare to speak.

"Wuzi, bring me two buns."

Zhao Guobin instructed the servant who was eating buns at the adjacent table.

"Give one to the man, and the other here."

"Take it, my lord will reward you."

"Thank you, sir, you are really a kind man with great mercy and compassion......"

The beggar took the bun and immediately kowtowed vigorously to thank him, and after he ate the bun in a big gulp, Zhao Guobin asked.

"Are the buns delicious?"

"Delicious, delicious ......"

The beggar, who was eating the bun, replied in vague words.

"There's also a meat bun here, do you want it?"

Meat buns!

When the beggar heard this, his eyes lit up.

"Yes, yes, sir, you are ......"

Before he could say his kind words, he saw the good man's face change.

"I can't get used to hearing these words, as long as you answer me truthfully, not only this bun ......"

He took out a silver dollar coupon from his wallet, which was a silver dollar coupon of one or two silver.

"These two silver tickets are also yours."

Silver, buns!

Faced with such a temptation, of course, the beggar did not refuse, and he immediately nodded in response.

"How old are you?"

“32。”

"It's the prime of life, why are you begging for food."

"Back to my lord, there is a drought in this house, there is really no way, if you don't come out to ask for food, then you will starve to death......"

When he replied like this, the beggar saw that the man's eyes were getting stronger and stronger, and he stared at him deadly, and the voice of the man naturally became smaller and smaller, and at last he was speechless.

"Yes, yes......"

After hesitating, the man said.

"It, in fact, I also know that this is not a glorious thing to ask for food, no, it's not that there is little land at home, four brothers, less than thirty acres of land, to deal with, it is enough to live, this autumn harvest is not good, so I thought about coming out to beg for food. I can always save some ...... at home."

There are many people in the family and there is little land.

The man's answer made Zhao Guobin's brows jump, he has seen a lot of this kind of thing in the past two years, and the new dynasty is different from the old one.

The whole world is not the king's land.

This is the truth of the ages, but the truth is the truth, but according to the rules of hundreds of years, the wasteland has always been owned by the wasteland, and the government is also happy to let the people open up the wasteland by themselves, and then collect the land endowment.

But the new dynasty is different, although the new dynasty is the Ming Dynasty, but many laws are Xi from Jiangbei, Jiangbei is the implementation of "official mountains and seas", the world's mountains, forests, rivers and rivers are all royal land, so the "ownerless wasteland" is by no means ownerless, but belongs to the emperor, belongs to the government, so the people naturally can not be reclaimed at will.

It stands to reason that when the new dynasty was first founded, it was supposed to recruit displaced people, reclaim wasteland, and pay taxes. But now the Ming Dynasty is doing the opposite, instead of recruiting back the displaced people, but filling all the wasteland into the government, and formulating a law "Those who reclaim the wasteland without authorization, the land has no officials, and they go to the Northeast or the South Seas." In the past two years, there have been no more than 100,000 exiled people.

In this way, there is a lot of official land in the hands of the local government, but the amount of private land of the people is fixed. There are only three ways for the people to get land, one is to become a soldier to get Xuntian, but Xuntian is also divided into 369 and so on, unless it is disabled or martyr's pension placement in the mainland, if other Xuntian applies for the mainland, it shall not exceed 30 acres, if it is the Northeast or Nanyang, it is often more than 100 acres. The second is to take the initiative to immigrate to the Northeast or the South Seas, and you can get 50 acres of resettlement land, as for the third, that is, others are willing to transfer the land or wait for the government to sell the land, but the probability of both is very small.

Because of this, the land in the Guannai is getting more and more expensive, and many farmers with little land have become more and more nervous in the past, and because of this, many officials have written to the imperial court, hoping to sell official land, but on the issue of selling official land, the imperial court has a very resolute attitude - it can be rented but not sold.

"Since there is little land at home, why don't you rent official land?"

"Master, the official field has to pay forty percent of the rent, and one rent is ten years, if it weren't for the bad year this year, I wouldn't have to come out, isn't it ......"

Although the beggar did not say anything. But Zhao Guobin immediately saw the thoughts in this person's heart - he was not afraid of paying forty percent of the rent of the official land, but he did not want to be burdened, he would rather come out to beg than farm at home, these beggars ......

Looking at the beggars on the street, although their appearance seems extremely pitiful, but Zhao Guobin does not have the slightest sympathy, among them, there are many strong men in the prime of life, if they are willing, even if they do not go to the Northeast or Nanyang, even if they rent official fields locally, they can also have no worries about food and clothing, but what about them?

If it is old and weak, it is natural to be sympathetic.

But...... How can such a strong man in the prime of life deserve sympathy for such begging?

At this moment, the door of a house opposite the liquor store "creaked" open, and I saw a little girl of eleven or twelve years old coming out with a wooden barrel, she seemed to be there to look at something. After looking around, she looked at an old woman huddled in the doorway, hesitated, and asked.

"Auntie. Look at your face, you must be hungry, do you have a bowl? Which...... This is the potato that my mother brought it, just out of the pot, it's still hot, let's warm you up......"

The old woman put a broken bowl on the steps, and said no more, and the girl silently took two fist-sized potatoes from the bucket and put them into the old woman's bowl.

"Good man!"

"Bodhisattva bless your whole family......"

The girl's act of giving alms immediately alarmed the beggars around her, and they all gathered around. All kinds of broken bowls were raised, and their mouths were all there chanting Bodhi blessings and good people.

And Zhao Guobin, who was sitting there, just watched attentively, he saw the girl's face was embarrassed, as if he didn't expect that there would be so many people, and it took a while to take out potatoes from the bucket, and each person gave one, even so, it was not enough for people to share. Of course, those who were divided were grateful, but those who did not were scolded and said ugly words, and the girl who was scolded went home without saying a word with an empty bucket.

Looking at those scolding beggars, Zhao Guobin's brows twisted, and he felt unhappy in his heart. In the past two years, this kind of potatoes from Jiangbei, because it only takes 60 days from planting to harvesting, if enough fertilizer is applied, an acre of land is more than 2,000 catties, it is very common, so there are more and more people planting in the north and south of the river, if these beggars, even if they only rent an acre of official land, plant an acre of potatoes, even if the fertilizer is insufficient, they can also harvest more than a thousand catties, and how can they be like now, starving here?

It's all habitual!

A trace of anger flashed between Zhao Guobin's eyebrows, and when he looked at those beggars, his face became more and more ugly.

"It's pitiful, but it's even more hateful!"

Listening to the scolding of the beggars who had not received alms, Zhao Guobin secretly thought about it in his heart, his brows became tighter and tighter, and the servants on the side saw it and persuaded softly.

"Uncle, don't you know, when this Chengping was peaceful, how many of these beggars were really in trouble? You see, the more peaceful and prosperous the world, the more beggars there are. ”

The servant who is over fifty years old is obviously more knowledgeable than Zhao Guobin, and when he saw the unhappy face of the uncle, he naturally wanted to persuade him.

"The more peaceful and prosperous this world, the more beggars there are?"

Zhao Guobin was surprised for a while, and then said as if he had figured it out.

Is it because every family has food that they are willing to give alms? Since there are people who are willing to give alms, then naturally there are lazy idlers who are willing to eat this meal with a cheeky face? ”

"Uncle, in a peaceful and prosperous world, if it is a good family who comes out, if it is not a disaster, who will go out to ask for food? Take what the newspaper said, the refugees in Shaanxi, they can't go to Kaifeng, on the boundary of Luoyang, as soon as they settle down here, they rent official land over there, and who wants to be a beggar? ”

The words of the domestic servant made Zhao Guobin nod slightly, although he had not had much contact with beggars, but at least this truth was true, no one wanted to be a beggar, but now what difficulties can force them to this point?

Even the penniless refugees who fled from Shaanxi rented official land, and the government not only provided grain, seeds, and even farm tools, cattle and horses. Of course, in the end, they need to pay it back, but it can also make them worry about food and clothing. This is true for refugees as well as for ordinary people, and the local government that owns a large amount of government land wants to rent out the land, and only in this way can it obtain land rent that far exceeds the land endowment.

Why don't these people rent?

Not just because I'm too lazy, but also because ...... Thinking of the girl before, thinking of the words of those beggars who were insincere "good people", Zhao Guobin seemed to know why there were more than a dozen beggars even in this small set.

The reason for this could not be simpler - there are too many good people!

In the peaceful years, no one is short of a few mouthfuls of food, and they are willing to exchange for other people's "blessings" in this way.

If you have that spare money, why don't you donate it in the "Holy Temple" and use it as a "Nursing Home", "Drain Garden" and "Huimin Pharmacy"? The "Nursing Home" is a welfare home responsible for taking in the widows and orphans in the city, as for the "Leaky Garden" is the cemetery, which buries the deceased for free, and the Huimin Pharmacy, which can see a doctor and receive medicines for free, all follow the old system of the Ming Dynasty.

If they have the heart to do good, why don't they do good there, but to help these lazy people? Because the nursing home only supports the weak, widows and orphans, and does not listen to the virtuous, because they want to change the "good people". And the most hateful thing is these beggars, they take advantage of the kindness of others, what they want is to get something for nothing, even ...... Thinking of a case of "harvesting and cutting" that he had seen in the newspaper, Zhao Guobin's face was full of anger.

Maybe these beggars in front of them have never done anything like "harvesting and cutting", but those evil beggars are precisely from these people.

Suddenly, Zhao Guobin looked back at the old servant at home and said.

"Uncle Liang, when you were in trouble in the past, did you ever ask for food?"

Of course I want to have a meal, listening to the old man's question, Lao Liangtou couldn't help but sigh.

"Master, in fact, there are poor people among these beggars, but more of them are hateful people!"