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Chapter 625 It¡¯s hard to survive

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    In late spring in March, the grass grows and orioles fly.

    Huang Mingyuan and his party embarked on the journey back north.  Compared with the rush and sadness when I went north the year before last, this time, although it was the second time I went on this journey, the feeling in my heart was completely different.  At this time, on the Guanbei Road, although the wind and sand were thousands of miles away and sparsely populated, the road faced the sky and went straight to the Yinshan Mountains. The vastness was yet heroic, and Huang Mingyuan's mood was also very leisurely.

    After leaving Jingzhao, you are also leaving the Guanzhong Plain.  Further north into Fuzhou is the Loess Plateau with thousands of ravines. Although soil erosion was not as severe at this time as in later generations, the land in northern Shaanxi has been a poor place since ancient times, which is very different from the rich Guanzhong.

    This time going north, Huang Mingyuan walked easily because he was not in a hurry.  Everywhere he goes, he likes to study the customs, folk customs and topography of the place. If he fights there in the future, he will not be blinded.

    " Compared with Guanzhong, the people in Guanbei are really miserable.  Since the Han Dynasty, when collecting Cuo Gao tax, all counties have to pay three stones of Cuo and two stones of Gao in an area according to the law. However, in Shangjun and Daijun, the land is bad, and two stones of Cuo and two stones of Gao are collected in an area.

    ¡° Places like this often require financial support from the state, and the only way this place can repay the country is to provide high-quality soldiers to the central government.

    In northern Shaanxi, the climate and environment are harsh, but there are also people who are good at fighting in the poor mountains and rivers.  The Guanbei area is also close to the Hu territory. It has always been a mixture of Han and Hu people, and the people are very strong. Many people have made a living by fighting for generations.

    ??Perhaps people at the time could not imagine that every household here wears mourning all the year round. It was my father who died in battle and his son inherited it. Every time during the Qingming Festival, the whole city would cry. People often call the cities in Guanbei ghost towns.

    ¡°Perhaps the land in northern Shaanxi is too barren, so many people here don¡¯t like farming. They can¡¯t feed a family of old and young just by digging the grain in the ground.  Therefore, the men here have only two choices to beg for work, either becoming soldiers or herding sheep.

    Huang Mingyuan went north along the way, and it was the Qingming Festival, so wherever he passed, he could hear the cries of Yin Yin, which was miserable and frightening.

    On this day, we arrived at the ferry in Rulin County (now Yuhebao, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province) and wanted to cross the Sheyan River (now Wuding River) north.

    Rulin County is said to be a county, but in fact it is no better than a larger market.

    Seeing that there were few boats at the ferry, Huang Mingyuan stopped on the south bank of the river and waited to cross the river.  At this time, the river was thawing, and the river was full of ice floes. Without a good old boatman to guide the way, the river was really difficult to navigate.

    Huang Qing arranged for people to go to the south bank to find the boatman, while Huang Mingyuan came to a tea stall by the river and chatted with the old woman selling tea.

    It is said to be a tea stall, just to make some tea foam, and to find a place for people coming and going to rest and quench their thirst.

    The old woman looked to be almost seventy. She was scared out of her wits when she saw Huang Mingyuan and his group were using knives and guns. However, later she saw that Huang Mingyuan not only did not act violently, but also gave her money, she was pleasantly surprised and became bolder.  .

    "Grandma is so old, why is she still selling tea?"

    The old woman looked at Huang Mingyuan with cloudy eyes, how could this official kid be so young?  Huang Mingyuan whispered softly, and the old woman became bolder, and then said: "Master, old woman, I have to rely on this tea stall to support my little great-grandson. I dare not not come out and sell tea."

    Huang Mingyuan then asked: "Who else is in grandma's family?"

    The old woman thought hard and realized that all her former relatives seemed to be long ago.

    "Old woman, I married into my husband's family when I was fifteen years old. My husband died in the battle in the north when I was twenty-five years old. All three sons were drafted to fight against Qi State, and none of them came back in the end. I also have two grandsons, ten  Many years ago, the eldest grandson went to fight against the Hu people and died. Later, the second grandson went to fight against Chen Guo and died in the battle. Now my only great-grandson and I depend on each other. He is thirteen years old this year. Now he goes to Zhang Lichang in the town.  I went home to learn how to be a soldier."

    The whole family died on the battlefield, but the old woman spoke very calmly, as if she was talking to someone else.  She had lived for almost seventy years, and had seen so many life, death, and death that she was numb.

    Huang Mingyuan¡¯s heart is very heavy. Although he knew the harm that war can do to a family in the past, he can only feel this heavy pain when facing the family members of the deceased.

    Huang Mingyuan felt a little heavy in his heart. He didn't understand why the old woman's family only had one great-grandson left, so why should he be sent to serve as a soldier?

    "Grandma, can't you let your great-grandson stay at home to take care of you in old age? Why do you have to let him serve as a soldier?"

    The old woman was stunned for a moment, unable to answer.

    Aren¡¯t the men here born to be soldiers?  As for why she had to be a soldier, she had never thought about it.

    After coming here for a long time, the old woman asked doubtfully: "Master, don't you?"How do soldiers live?  "

    Huang Mingyuan didn¡¯t know how to answer her, and he couldn¡¯t give these poor people a clear path.

    Huang Mingyuan thought for a while and finally said: "I see there are many people herding sheep here? Can't you herd sheep here?"

    "My lord, our family once had sheep. When the old man and his son were in the army, the family could afford to buy lambs. But the old woman's second grandson has been dead for ten years, so how can we still have money to buy sheep?"

    Indeed, although Yang Zizi doesn¡¯t have much money to spend in the North, it¡¯s not something a family like the old woman can afford.  I just saw that the old woman had raised sheep before, so she shouldn't be so poor.

    "Grandma, didn't you raise sheep before, and you didn't buy two acres of land with the income? At least your grandson and grandson can barely make ends meet."

    The old woman was surprised, what land should I buy?

    "My lord, my family has enough money to teach military skills to my son and grandson, and buy weapons. How can I have spare money to buy land? The village head Zhang needs two hundred big bucks a year."

    The old woman had a pained look on her face, but she was very proud when she said it.

    Huang Mingyuan thought for a while, and then realized that this expression was similar to that of later generations of parents buying books and enrolling their children in tutoring classes.

    Huang Mingyuan's eyes couldn't stop getting wet.  The men here seem to be destined to fight. They earn money from fighting to buy sheep, earn money from herding sheep, and then train the next generation to fight. Then the cycle continues from generation to generation, endlessly.

    But it¡¯s always like this, the people in the North are going to die.

    Are you trying to persuade them not to join the army?  Government recruitment and survival crises forced them to join the army.

    Huang Mingyuan asked the old woman the last question: "Grandma, if it were possible, would you give up joining the army and live an ordinary life?"

    The old woman was stunned.

    "No more war? But if there is no war, the family will have no money to buy sheep."

    The tears in Huang Mingyuan's eyes did not stop after all.

    He silently walked to the Wuding River alone, looking at the turbid Yellow River water and sighing.

    "I vowed to sweep away the Xiongnu regardless of my own safety, and five thousand mink brocades were lost to Hu Chen.

    "The poor bones by the Wuding River are like those in a spring boudoir's dream."  "

    This is not the ignorance of the old woman, nor the ignorance of the people here. This is the tragedy of society and the tragedy of an era.

    Huang Mingyuan¡¯s heart has never been more determined than now, at least to let these people live in peace and stability.  (Remember the website address: www.hlnovel.com
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