After leaving several factories on the outskirts of Shenyang, Zhou Billy led Lu Xiangsheng to the grassroots squadron in the suburbs. Now that the autumn harvest has ended, the farmers of the various grassroots detachments are preparing for wintering.

Including repairing houses, storing green fodder, building livestock greenhouses, storing autumn vegetables, pickling sauerkraut kimchi for wintering, making soybean paste, collecting firewood, filling winter coats, etc., anyway, before the first snowfall, ordinary farmers in eastern Liaoning are not idle.

At this time, the farmers' markets near the various detachments were also extremely busy. Although the Central Bank of the Far East has issued banknotes, the circulation of banknotes and coins in the bazaars of the vast rural areas is still not comparable to that in the urban areas.

Because of the practice of guaranteeing production to households in rural areas, peasants' enthusiasm for growing grain has been greatly enhanced, and at the same time, they have also engaged in some sideline work in their leisure time. For example, raise some chickens, ducks and other poultry, collect a few eggs every day, and the family is reluctant to eat and save them to go to the market to exchange some oil, salt, sauce and vinegar or something.

In addition to growing some vegetables in the small yard of the family to meet the needs of the family table, the rest will also be taken to the market to exchange for some things that the family needs.

There are also skillful baskets and baskets made of straw, tailors can make some insoles, cloth shoes, embroidered purses, sachets, and make some refreshing pickles and pickles.

Traditional farmers prefer to barter for cash, and they generally get cash by selling some extra grain to get some cash when they pay for grain.

When farmers have cash in their hands, they will hide it in a secret place at home, and rarely take it out to spend it, so that they can use it as the family's money to cross the river. Then it is to buy some New Year's goods during the Spring Festival, add a few new clothes to the children, and get some couplets and firecrackers.

Nowadays, the farmers' markets in eastern Liaoning have formed a large scale, and the situation of cash transactions with paper money and coins is also increasing year by year, but it is undeniable that although the peasants' lives are better, they can only be fed and clothed, and they are far from being rich.

Fortunately, most of the farmers who came to Liaodong were from displaced people, and they were extremely satisfied with their current life, and in their opinion, it was already the greatest happiness to be able to fill their stomachs.

When they were in the Ming Dynasty, even if it was a good year, the family could only be half-full, and in the month of spring, they might have to go hungry for a few days.

Zhou Billy and Lu Xiangsheng were strolling around in the densely populated farmers' market, and in the face of such a lively market, Lu Xiangsheng was also secretly speechless, but he didn't expect that there would be such a scene in the countryside of the Far East.

In the bazaar, farmers shuttled back and forth with their burdens, and farmers shouted loudly there with stalls. From time to time, you can see two farmers bartering with each other, and the two sides quarrel there in order to fight for a small profit.

"Mr. Zhou, I didn't expect the people in the Far East to have a good life. But I listen to their accents, how can most of them be from the mountainous area. ”

"This is not surprising, they are all displaced people in the Shanxi region in recent years, and many large families have starved to death on the way to escape the famine, and most of them survived by eating dead human flesh. Now they have been resettled in various parts of Liaodong by the Far East, and they have been given land and houses, and now their lives are quite passable. ”

Lu Xiangsheng's eyes froze, and he said in a deep voice: "You mean...... They were all exiles of the Ming Dynasty......"

"That's right, either where did these people come from in Liaodong, most of the millions of Liao people were killed by the Jurchen Tartars. In addition to these displaced people in the mountainous and Shaanxi regions, there are also many displaced people from Henan, Shandong, Ningxia and the north and south. ”

Listening to Zhou Bili's words, Lu Xiangsheng took a deep breath and said with a straight face: "You Far East accepted the canonization of the Ming Dynasty and is a vassal country of the Ming Dynasty, how can you capture and plunder civilians at will in the Ming Dynasty." ”

Zhou Billy smiled and said: "If we don't take them to Liaodong, can the Ming Dynasty help them." They will either be thieves or starve to death in the Ming Dynasty, how can they have any way to live, and when they come to our Far East, they can at least live and work in peace and contentment. ”

"You...... Then they are also subjects of the Ming Dynasty......"

Zhou Billy smiled coldly, and then teased: "Lord Lu, what do you mean...... They are the subjects of the Ming Dynasty, and even if they die, they will die in the Ming Dynasty. ”

When he said this, he calmed down his emotions for a while, and then said heavily: "Lord Lu has suppressed the thieves, and he must have seen the tragic situation of the homeless. I would like to ask Master Lu, has Da Ming ever given even one relief in the face of such a large number of displaced people? I've been to the mountainous area, and I've seen the tragic situation in the disaster area with my own eyes, and I've only seen it in books before, but that time I saw what it means to have corpses all over the field and bones like pythons. ”

Lu Xiangsheng was a little angry by Zhou Billy's words, but before Zhou Billy could speak, he continued: "Daming Kufu is empty, but which of the gentry and heroes everywhere is not rich and full of surplus grain. Not only did they open warehouses for relief, but they also maliciously stockpiled grain and speculated grain prices to sky-high prices, so as to make huge profits.

The catastrophe and epidemic are like the sky has fallen for the people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty, but for the landlord Haoqiang, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collect money, and they collude with the government officials to frantically annex land. After the catastrophe, the disaster area was ten rooms and nine empty, and the corpses of the victims were everywhere, but it fattened the gentry and officials in various places.

Now the Ming Dynasty thieves are everywhere, and there are fires everywhere, and it is not that the homeless people are forced to have no way to live, so they are willing to follow the thieves. Does Lord Lu know how many displaced people we shipped out of the Far East from Daming? Since the seventh year of Chongzhen, the Far East has been receiving displaced people from all over the northern part of the Ming Dynasty, and now it has settled millions in Liaodong and the outer northeast.

Who are they, they are our flesh and blood compatriots of the same culture, and they have the blood of our Han family sons and daughters. Since the Ming court doesn't care, then we are in charge of the Far East, and the gentry everywhere wish they would all starve to death, so we will give them a bite to eat. Although we can't save everyone, we can save one by one, can we still watch them starve to death?

If these people hadn't been rescued from the sea of suffering by our Far East, they would still be either starving to death or being thieves in the Ming Dynasty. In order to settle these displaced people, we in the Far East smashed pots and sold iron, almost emptying our families. In the past few years, the Far East has been living with its stomach, but fortunately, after surviving the first few years, we organized everyone to open up the wasteland in Liaodong and the Outer Northeast, and finally survived the sea of suffering, which is what Lord Lu sees today. ”

Billy Zhou's words were like a steel knife, and they stabbed Lu Xiangsheng's heart fiercely. The other party's words made him unable to refute, he was also from the landlord class in Jiangnan, his grandfather was a county magistrate, his father was Xiucai, and he also belonged to a member of the Ming gentry class.

Although the Lu family is quite gentle with the tenant farmers below, there is no evil behavior in the fish and meat village. But he knew very well what those gentry classes, landlords and officials in various parts of the Ming Dynasty were like.

Now the Daming Mansion Treasury is about to run out of mice, but the bureaucrats and gentry in various parts of the Daimyo do not pay grain taxes, once any family comes out of the house, there will be 10,000 acres of fertile land in an instant, and a large number of farmers will compete to hand over the land and be willing to be the domestic slaves of this master.

The Ming Dynasty strengthened the nine-border military town, and also exterminated the thieves in various places, but the imperial court had no money, so it could only come up with "Liao salary", "suppression salary", and "training salary", but this huge burden was all passed on to the poor peasant households at the bottom by the gentry groups in various places.

Even so, the three salaries were collected, and after the upper and lower greed for ink, there was not much left in the end. The situation in Daming is still getting worse day by day.

Nowadays, the north of the Ming Dynasty is full of disasters and famines, and the displaced people are everywhere, but the south is a scene of extremely prosperous commerce. Every year, overseas silver flows into the Ming Dynasty, but the imperial court can't even collect taxes.

Now the Ming Dynasty court party contention and mutual attack, officials and officials in various places are corrupt, and the military generals in the border towns are even more greedy for life and afraid of death, and they can't fight, but they are all good at doing business.

Lu Xiangsheng sighed heavily on his face, then turned around and left the farmer's market. At this time, his heart was very sad and indignant, with empty ambitions and enthusiasm, but he couldn't show what he wanted in his heart.

Especially in the past few days when he came to Liaodong, he deeply realized the strength of the Far East. What worries him even more is that compared to the twilight of the Ming Dynasty, the Far East is full of positive vitality.

They slowly walked out of the farmer's market and walked side by side on the country road. Neither of them had the intention of speaking, so they walked slowly, and at this time the sky had already darkened, and in a village not far away, every house was smoking.

"Lord Lu, let's have a light meal at the farmer's house tonight." Lu Xiangsheng didn't speak, just nodded, and then he followed Zhou Billy into the village.

They came to a courtyard at the head of the village, where the dogs saw the living and began to bark loudly. Billy Zhou shouted into the yard, "Is there anyone?" ”

A seven or eight-year-old bear child with a muddy face ran out of the house, saw Zhou Billy and Lu Xiangsheng, and turned around and fled into the house in fright. After a while, a stout man in his thirties came out of the house.

Zhou Billy hurriedly smiled and said: "Brother, we came from Liaoyang, it's dark now, I want to spend the night at your house, don't worry, we will pay for food and accommodation." ”

The stout peasant man grinned, then stepped forward to open the courtyard door, and said angrily: "What kind of money, do you think we countrymen have lost money, haha...... In...... Come in......"

He welcomed the two into the courtyard, turned around and shouted, "In the house, we have a guest......

A young woman hurriedly ran out, followed by the bear child, and he was also leading a four or five-year-old girl in his hand, both of them hid behind the woman, carefully watching Zhou Billy and Lu Xiangsheng. (To be continued.) )