I want to ruin the country

The woman said,

"Sir, please sit down. I'll go light the fire!"

Yining Road,

"Auntie, please steam the dry food in the basket so I can have a taste!"

The woman waved her hands hurriedly.

"You are a noble, how can you eat such coarse food? The head of the household will be back soon and buy some noodles so I can make you some pancakes!"

With that, the woman went out.

Yining looked around the room and found it very simple. Apart from a brick bed on the south side, there was a broken eight-immortal table and two broken armchairs against the north wall.

There were several quilts stacked on one end of the kang. It was hard to tell what color they were, and they were all covered with patches.

Think about the palace and then look at the ordinary people's homes, there is a world of difference!

He glanced at Du Shoutian and said,

"The rich have wine and meat, but the poor are freezing to death on the streets!"

Du Shoutian was speechless!

After a while, the old man came back.

"Mother, I've bought the rice and flour. Please cook!"

"The woman asked,

"How much did you buy?"

"I bought a liter of rice, a liter of noodles, and a pound of eggs!"

Yining came out from the inner room and asked,

"Why don't you buy more?"

The old man said,

"I won't sell any more than I want, and it's too much trouble if I don't have enough!"

Yining Road,

"Why don't you sell the extra ones? There are so many people in your family."

The old man said,

"Wheat costs seventy-eight copper coins per stone, but we are not so lucky as to eat rice or flour!

Mr. Liu said that rice and flour are rare commodities, and he didn't have much. I persuaded him to sell these, and even paid 50% more than the market price!

Du Shoutian cursed,

"hateful!"

Yining wondered, is food so expensive?

I have the impression that during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods, a stone of rice cost only five or six hundred coins. How come it is many times more expensive now?

He looked at Du Shoutian,

“Is food so expensive now?”

Du Shoutian shook his head.

"I don't quite understand!"

When Yifang Guo saw Yining's expression, he knew that the emperor was angry. He was so scared that he stood beside him with his head lowered and his eyes fixed on the emperor.

The woman cooked the porridge first and asked the girl, who was about fourteen or fifteen years old, to light the fire while he was busy kneading the dough and making pancakes.

Yining chatted with the old man. The old man's surname was Liu, so the village was called Liujia Village, and there was no other surname.

He had five children. His eldest son got married and his daughter-in-law gave him a grandson. His son and daughter-in-law lived in the west room.

The couple and their four other children lived in the east room.

My family has five mu of thin land. The harvest was poor last year, and we ran out of food just after the Chinese New Year.

Yining asked again,

“How many rich people are there in your village?”

Old man Liu said,

"He's the only one with some money, and there are two other small wealthy families, each with 180 acres of land, cars, and cattle. They're much worse off!"

"Are they rich? What kind of people are they?"

Old man Liu said,

"It is said that there is a man with 18,000 silver coins, a bad temper, and he usually doesn't talk to mortals!"

Du Shoutian asked,

"why?"

"No one can be in a good mood, otherwise how can we collect rent and interest?"

Yining asked again,

"Is there any wealthy person nearby?"

"Yes, there's a 'Qianqingzhang' in Pingxi Prefecture to the north. He's a really wealthy man, and his family is very rich!"

Du Shoutian Road,

"What does 'Qianqingzhang' mean?"

"The rich man's surname is Zhang. He owns over a thousand hectares of land. Everyone calls him Qianqing Zhang behind his back."

"What is his reputation?"

Old man Liu took a puff of his cigarette and said,

"What kind of reputation can I talk about? I've done so many immoral things. People are cursing me behind my back. My ancestors' graves are about to smoke!"

His wife interrupted,

"I heard that many people were forced to death!"

Old man Liu glared.

"What are you talking about?"

Du Shoutian Road,

"Is there another murder?"

Old man Liu sighed and said,

"Hey! His family has been passed down for five or six generations, and each generation is more immoral than the last. Otherwise, how could they have so much money?"

Yining Road,

"Is the whole family a bad person?"

Old man Liu said,

"I heard his youngest son is not a bad person and he even advised them to do less evil!"

"Why?"

"This child was born to a concubine, and his mother is also from a poor family!"

Yining understood and asked again,

"Uncle, I have no ill intentions. I just want to ask if you got those dry rations by begging!"

Old man Liu said,

“There is nothing to be ashamed of now, and I am not afraid of being laughed at by the young master. Many families in our village have gone to beg for food!

Yesterday, my second daughter and third son went out for more than 20 miles to beg for a few steamed buns, and they were hungry last night!

After dinner today, they have to go out, otherwise, there will be nothing to do!"

Yining and Du Shoutian looked at each other, and Yining asked,

"Why did you run so far away? Why did you just two kids go out?"

Old man Liu said,

"When the adults go there, they won't give anything. They only give a piece of steamed bread to the children out of pity. No one's family is rich!"

"What are you doing?"

"Digging wild vegetables and collecting manure are essential ways to stay busy!"

As they were talking, the aroma of pancakes wafted in from the outer room.

After a while, the meal was ready. Yining took a look and found that there was a lot of porridge. Half a pot was cooked and there were no wild vegetables in the porridge.

The big pancakes are baked on the west stove. There are only four of them, and one liter of flour can only make this many.

After making the pancakes, the woman also fried a bowl of eggs.

The old man said,

"I also bought the eggs from Mr. Liu's house. They were only three cents each!"

Old man Liu put a small dining table on the kang and asked Yining and Du Shoutian to sit on it.

Yining was not used to sitting on the kang, so he had no choice but to force himself to sit down cross-legged.

Du Shoutian was used to it and sat upright.

Yi Guofang and Old Man Liu sat on the edge of the kang, one on each side.

Yining already had a poor appetite, and seeing the people living like this made him feel even worse.

He only drank a bowl of porridge, begged for a piece of steamed bread mixed with wild vegetables, broke off a piece and put it in his mouth to chew.

Only then did I realize that the steamed bread was not only mixed with wild vegetables, but also with bran, which made it extremely difficult to swallow.

Old Man Liu kept urging them to eat eggs, but Yining thought of the eager looks of the children outside and didn't eat a single bite of the eggs.

Du Shoutian ate a piece of pancake and asked for a piece of steamed bread. He frowned as soon as he took a bite.

When Yi Guofang saw the emperor and Du Shoutian eating steamed buns, he didn't dare to eat the pancakes anymore. He followed their example and picked up a piece of steamed bun to chew on. After taking a bite of the steamed bun, he immediately grimaced. It was so damn disgusting, tasted like chewing wax!

After they finished their meal, there was a lot of pancakes left over and more than half a bowl of eggs.

Old man Liu moved the table down and put it on the ground in the outer room, and then the family started to eat.

The children couldn't hold back when they saw the pancakes. As soon as they started eating, their little mouths were immediately filled with them. Yining wanted to cry when she saw it.

Yi Guofang glanced at the emperor and wondered how the emperor had no temper when he saw the poor.

Not only does he speak softly and with a pleasant expression, his eyes are also red and he always looks like he's about to cry. What's wrong with the emperor?

After dinner, Yining said goodbye to Liu Laohan,

"Uncle, I heard that the imperial court will soon open its granaries to provide relief. You will be able to have enough to eat in the future!"

Old man Liu said,

"Thanks to your kind words, every year there is no grain release, how much of it will actually reach the people?"