Bashan.
The mountains and forests are lush and green.
I saw a hunched old man walking carefully on the mountain road with a bamboo stick in his hand.
It just rained and the road became even harder to go.
The thorns along the road have always been cruel to the poor. Every time they take a few steps forward, they will be beaten by them. The old man walked very cautiously and his pace was slow. After walking for a while, he found a stone to sit down and gasped.
The dense forest is gloomy and the sun is blocked.
Suddenly, birds emerged in the distance, and the roars of unknown beasts could be heard in a vague way, which was frightening.
But there was not much fear on the face of this old man.
He calmly took out the dry cakes from his arms, started eating slowly, finished the food, and rushed to the road again.
As he continued to move up, the mountain road gradually became wider, and the trees were no longer as dense as before. They were obviously cut down and the road seemed to have been dealt with. The old man was moving forward, and suddenly a few people poked their heads out of the bushes not far away.
The young man took the lead. Seeing this old man, he suddenly felt a look of surprise on his face.
"San uncle!"
The old man finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw him.
The young men hurried forward, and the young man asked, "Why are you here? This mountain road is so difficult to walk,
this....."
"Okay, take me there first!"
The young man didn't say much, and directly carried the old man on his back, and several people quickly disappeared into the bushes.
The scenes on both sides kept jumping, and the trees and weeds were constantly moving backwards. The group walked a long way.
After walking through a simple fence, I finally arrived at a camp.
This camp is quite simple, with the houses built temporarily. There are basically no women and children. Most of them are males. Some are dealing with the corpses of wild animals, and some are taking a nap and resting. There are quite a few people. In this camp, there are more than a hundred males. Looking at the empty huts in the distance, there should be many who have never been here.
The old man was carried here and immediately shocked everyone. The young people stood up and came to greet him.
The old man talked to them one by one, and soon, the old man's son learned the news and hurried back.
The old man's son is tall, with thick hands and dark skin. The father and son gather together. Everyone found a flat ground to let the old man sit down.
"How is the situation in my hometown?"
"Is the East Thief a good robbery?"
There are many problems for everyone.
These people in the mountains all came from a big town at the foot of the mountain. During the war between Han and Zhou, local officials of Zhou began to carry out the final plunder and sent people to various places to recruit strong men. The people living at the foot of the mountain became a little impatient and accidentally had an intimate exchange with the officials who came to recruit forcibly, exchanged fists and kicks with each other, and then hid in the mountains.
As for women, children, the elderly and the weak, on the one hand, they are not in the ranks of recruitment, and on the other hand, it is difficult for the elderly and the weak to survive in the mountains and forests, so they stay in their hometown.
Therefore, when they saw the elderly from their hometown, they were so excited.
The old man calmly told them about the situation in the village.
"The situation in the village is very good, so don't worry."
"After the Han army occupied the city, they sent several officials to manage the affairs. The young man was a young man, who was not very old.
But it is quite reliable to do things. There is no forced collection of money and food, nor is there any inquiries about your whereabouts."
"Li Sanlang, who had previously repaired the pass in Qiantouzhai, and the others were sent back. They said that after the civilians over there were taken over, they were sent back soon, and the new court would not launch a military service."
"What?? Not going to be shaken?"
Everyone was in an uproar and started to discuss.
It can be seen that everyone is not very convinced of this. The old man stroked his beard and said slowly: "I don't know if he sends it back or not. Anyway, he has stopped all the people who should go back. Even those who went to war have been released."
"It is said that I want to teach the fields..."
Everyone was in an uproar again, and many people had begun to have some shadows on the equal-field system.
Logically speaking, this is a very friendly system to the people, because officials colluded with local powers and nobles, and turned it into a harsh policy that everyone feared.
The old man explained: "Real teaching, I didn't see anything wrong with the teaching of the fields in the village."
"What else?"
"There is nothing else. I have taught the fields and checked the households. From time to time, officials will preach the law. Apart from that, there will be nothing else. Everyone will do their own things."
Everyone looked at the old man's son together.
The old man is a very famous blacksmith. His son also takes forging as a career. He is good at fighting and has some reputation in the countryside. So after going up the mountain, everyone regards him as the leader.
The strong man hesitated for a moment, "The father came this time...:::,
"I want to persuade you to go down the mountain."
"Those who went to fight against Han with weapons were not dealt with and were released home. What are you?
And I heard from the senior official that the laws of the Han Dynasty were different from those of the Zhou Dynasty. If the deceased returned home, they could be resettled. The new emperor ascended the throne and saved the dead who fled everywhere.::
2
"Father, I'm afraid they won't obey the law, and when we get up the mountain, we'll be retaliated."
The leader said seriously with a tense face: "Isn't it the same seven years ago? It was said that it was to pardon the dead, but the people in the mountains were arrested and questioned for crimes, and went to serve as border servants, and never came back..."
The old man nodded, "You are right, but it has been a long time since the Han army came in."
"Many dead people from the next towns have returned. I asked, but no one has arrested them."
"I think this new government is still different. If it is to be arrested, it will be arrested long ago. Why wait until now? Besides, the whereabouts of yours have not been asked. I don't think it's going to be cheated...\n..\n.\n"
The old man said, "Every household has been assigned a lot of land, but the village is full of old and weak, and there are no males to farm. I just feel a pity."
"How about this...If anyone wants to go down the mountain, follow me now and see the situation first."
You have been away from your hometown for a long time, and the family is separated from each other, so it is not easy for you to live here.:::
In fact, this is a very cruel proposal, which is to use some people as experimental subjects to see if they will die.
However, for poor people, it is not easy to survive, so they always have to make some cruel choices, especially in troubled times, whether to drown the youngest son who is unable to survive, or to exchange food with others, whether to eat their own household body first or to pick up the household body outside...::. In contrast, this choice is not so cruel.
After a long discussion, more than 30 people decided to follow the old man down the mountain to see the situation.
They soon set out on their way home.
The road down the mountain is easier to walk than when they were up the mountain, but there was no joy on their faces of being about to go home, and everyone was uneasy and did not know what they were about to face.
When I walked to the bottom of the mountain, it was already dark.
They had to rest on the spot and returned to their hometown at noon the next day.
This is an ordinary countryside, with weeds on both sides of the road. If you open it and look, you can see broken skulls.
The farmland in the distance was abandoned, and several burnt ruins were waiting for these people who returned home.
Someone found their traces.
Then, screams and crying came out, and those who had lost contact with their beloved, their father, and their son for a long time rushed over.
Some people found their relatives and cried in embrace each other. Some people looked around blankly, but they could not see the familiar figures.
The father-in-law told them to go back first, but only took his nephew with him and asked him to lead him to the township office.
Although this township is no longer worthy of its name, it is still a township after all. According to local standards, local governments have set up corresponding official positions here.
All people have more than 500 people to build townships, two townships are built for more than 3,000 people to build for more than 5,000 people to build for more than 4 townships.
There is only one miser in the village, and there are less than a thousand people, and there is only one person who manages calligraphy history.
The person who came out to question was an ordinary scattered official. The old farmer said in fear that he went into the mountains to collect herbs, found the dead in the village, and brought them down.
"I heard the officials say that the government pardoned the dead, so I asked them to come back. These people were very happy to learn that,
They all came back with me. They were all farmers in the village and never caused trouble in the past because the government forced them too quickly...
,
"Uh-huh."
The san's head nodded helplessly.
This scattered official is a local.
Officials can be sent from the east, but officials have no choice. Officials do not belong to the court, officials belong to the local government, officials have the right to deal with them, and they are all recruited from the local government.
From Qin to the present, the recruitment method of officials has undergone many changes, and now there are three ways.
The first one is the simplest, sign.
The local government lacks officials, so it is directly recruited local people who can read and write to serve as officials. This is similar to the military service and cannot be refused. You must go there. If you don’t go there, you will be asked to be punished.
The second type is inheritance. Generally speaking, the position of an official can be inherited. If the father dies, the son will be replaced.
This is still the habit of serving. When the people who served die, their relatives will continue to do it.
The third type is the exam. The earliest official examination was recorded during the Warring States Period. Some officials with power were still relatively thoughts. If they had ideas, they could take the exam. If they passed the official examination, they could become the official examination. It is reported that Liu Bang's pavilion chief was obtained through the third method.
Like this scattered official, who was born as a local, but was just a scattered official. He obviously took the first path. He was conscripted as an official because of his recognition of his words. His status was low and he basically had no power. He was doing some errand-running work.
However, the treatment is OK, it is much easier than the job of the zodiac, and for ordinary people, they have status.
The scattered official heard the old man say a lot, and was quite helpless, "Brother Xu, I really don't know why I told you."
"It would be fine to say these words to those foreign officials, but you can tell me."
"Don't I know the people in the mountains?"
The old man's expression changed and he hurriedly reminded: "You can't betray the villagers!"
"throat.....
,
The san official pulled them aside and said seriously: "Brother-in-law, think about it carefully. Can the officials not know about this?"
"They just didn't say it, just waiting for them to come down by themselves!"
"Now they are just hunting on the mountain, picking something, and being self-sufficient, and the officials don't say much,
But think about it, if there is more than 200 people on the mountain, as long as there is one person who has a Suinian, go to rob a passerby and go down the mountain to steal something...\n. Then this is not a dead person, this is a group of thieves!"
"A group of thieves of two hundred people, the officers in the city dreamed that they could make contributions! Can they be idle?"
"So what if you stay in the mountains?"
"Do you know who they are in the military camp outside the city? They are all old soldiers who kill without blinking.
Do you think people can’t catch people if they hide in the mountains?”
The sanshu sighed and looked at the young man again.
"In theory, I shouldn't have made these words clear, but we are fellow countrymen. You watched me grow up, and I don't want to deceive you."
"If the court wants to kill people, it doesn't need to spend such energy at all. It only needs one order. The soldiers inside and outside the city are looking forward to military merits. Once the order arrives, they will enter the mountain immediately and no one will survive."
"Look at the rest of the world, it has been more than two months since the deceased went down the mountain, but some people have been arrested and killed?"
"Don't pretend anymore. Send someone to call down the people in the mountains."
The scattered official said a few words and reminded him: "There are those who have returned, please come to me as soon as possible to report,
You also need to re-enter the household registration...
After the scattered official finished speaking, he didn't wait for the father-in-law to say anything and saw the guests off.
The old man walked out of here with the young men who accompanied him, his expression still a little confused.
He looked at the two left and right, "What do you think?"
"What I said makes sense...... Now that the emperor has ascended the throne and pardoned the dead, if he hesitates, will he not be saved? He will be dealt with directly as a group of thieves?"
"Um."
The old man hesitated for a while and said, "Let me do this, I can't walk the mountain road anymore. This time you go over and tell Acong and them the truth about what happened here, so let them all come down...::"
After a few days like this, the old man came to report again with people.
The scattered officials brought him to the front of the history of writing books.
The old man told the other party sincerely that he had brought back all the people he could contact on the mountain.
There are more than 100 people in total, hoping to get pardoned.
Naturally, I didn’t say much about the history of calligraphy, and gave guarantees, and asked the scattered officials to help these people relocate as soon as possible.
The old man thanked him again and again before leaving.
After he left, San Li looked angry.
"These people are simply unaware of the good list!"
"Last time I told them clearly, but I came to deceive them. There were more than 200 people on the mountain, but I lied that there were only one hundred people. I brought back half of them, and the rest were still on the mountain!"
He first cursed a few words, then looked at the history of calligraphy, "Prince, the countryside and village men do not know etiquette. In the past, the government often used fraud and did not convince others, so they caused the people to be traitorous. Otherwise, I would go to them and talk to them, so they would not dare to hide it anymore..."
The Book History looked at the young man and couldn't help laughing.
"Don't be afraid."
"I didn't want to arrest these people and ask for guilt."
The san official was a little embarrassed and smiled a few times, "I know the righteousness of the people...\n.\n
"There is no need to interfere too much. The past official service was capricious, and it is understandable that they were afraid of it.
Now the court is frivolous and resting with the people, they will come down sooner or later. No hindrance, let’s do our own chores well, don’t worry, but you can also remind you to hide in the mountains and have a day to come, but if you engage in a looting business, no one can save them..."
"only!!"
A large number of laborers came back from the village, but the situation changed a lot.
The granted arable land has increased, and men carried farm tools to the arable land. Women, children, elderly and weak have relied on each other, and the whole village has some vitality, and more people have come and gone.
I don’t know who cleared the weeds on both sides of the road, but the elderly local leaders led the young and strong people in the tribe to clean up the ruins that blocked the road.
Although the clan-based rural society with blood ties has many flaws, it also has some stability. Without anyone interfering, it can even replace the functions of the official uniforms and perform self-sustainment and self-recovery, which are both beneficial and disadvantageous.
In the post-war recovery, the benefits are reflected, such as the weak and the weak can get some relief, the poor who have no strong labor can get some help, and the clan leaders can lead the rest to carry out some small-scale construction activities.
After more than a month, the strong laborers in the mountains finally walked out of the mountains and returned home.
The size of the township has decreased a lot compared to before, but the land has been cultivated again, and pedestrians have appeared on the path, and vitality has emerged from these inconspicuous small places and then spread around.
The qualified young people in the village went to the school room with money, and those with ambition and courage were preparing to be full-time soldiers. The melon farmers and fruit farmers pushed their carts to the county town to sell.
Even without interference, the various places were still repaired in an orderly manner. Because of the war, a large number of unowned land was discovered, and many tenants, dead people, slaves, etc. were restored to their freedom, and the annexation issue returned to its original appearance.
The brand new empire lay leisurely on the land, breathing slowly, waiting for the wounds on its body to get scarred little by little before recovering.
Chapter completed!