C176

Chapter 176 - People's Lives

Zheyue Ru grew up under the teachings of the Three Virtue and Four Virtue. She did not reject Zhao Chen's words!

At the same time, Zheyue Ru was extremely curious about her master! She had heard of Wang Chongyang's name before, and knew that Wang Chongyang had saved his life back then! Furthermore, Wang Chongyang is also quite famous in the Middle Han Area area. She also wanted to meet this genius doctor!

The next morning, Zhao Chen came down from Dazhang Pass and headed towards Middle Han Area!

This time, Zhao Chen only brought a dozen or so guards with him, including Zheyue Ru, Wang Shu, Kang An and others, to follow him!

The snow on the mountain had yet to melt. The scenery was exceptionally beautiful!

Zhao Chen was in an extremely good mood. They stopped in the middle of the mountain, and it took them two days to get down!

It was already dark by the time they reached the foot of the mountain. They found a village nearby and prepared to spend the night there.

When the villagers saw them arrive, they were shocked. Zhao Chen could be considered to be out on a tour, so no one recognized Zhao Chen's identity. Although Zhao Chen himself was young, he still gave off a feeling of superiority, as if he was the one giving orders frequently. As for Zheyue Ru, he was exceptionally beautiful, many people had never seen such a beautiful young man, and Wang Shu, Emperor Kang and the others were also extraordinary. The villagers immediately knew that these people were of extraordinary status.

"Your Majesty, I've already sent someone to find out where the biggest family is. Let's go to the biggest family!" Wang Shu said.

"There's no need. I'll just find a random house to stay for the night!" Zhao Chen shook his head and said.

Immediately, Zhao Chen strode towards a courtyard in front of him. This courtyard was extremely dilapidated, half of the the courtyard's walls had collapsed, supported by tree branches, and the door was also extremely dilapidated.

Zhao Chen knocked on the door and it opened. A white-haired old man appeared in front of Zhao Chen.

"May I know the purpose of your visit?" The elder did not dare to be negligent and hurriedly bowed.

"When I came down from the mountain, the sky was already dark. There was no place to stay, so I wanted to stay for the night. I wonder what you think?" Zhao Chen laughed.

"This... There are only two broken rooms in this old one's house, I'm afraid there won't be so many people living here. " The old man was stunned as he said.

"Only three or five people live in the old man's house while the rest of the people stay nearby." Zhao Chen laughed.

His words were gentle and caused the old man to feel apprehensive. However, at this moment, he relaxed and revealed a smile, "Since that's the case, please come in young master!"

Zhao Chen nodded as he brought Wang Shu, Kang An and Zheyue Ru into the courtyard. After arriving here, he realized that this place was even more dilapidated. Both rooms were made of mud. The walls were made of mud, while the top was covered with wood and straw. There wasn't a single piece of brick in the room. In ancient times, bricks and tiles were something that only wealthy families could use. Ordinary people did not have the money to use bricks and tiles.

"Old man, my young master has been walking for an entire day and is now a bit tired. Do you have anything to eat?" Everyone entered a room, Wang Shu said.

"This …" The old man's face revealed an awkward expression.

His family was ruined, the rice vat was almost empty, it would be extremely difficult to entertain Zhao Chen and the others.

"There's some silver here, go and buy some food!" Wang Shu took out a large chunk of silver and said.

"Alright, Young Master and everyone wait!" The old man received the silver and smiled.

The old man had already left, and Zhao Chen was the only one left in the room.

Zhao Chen curiously sized up the room. Ever since he came to this era, this was the first time he had truly entered a normal person's house!

"Is there no stove in this room when the weather is so cold?" Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, there's a fire pit here. I'll start a fire!" Wang Shu said.

"No need! "I'm just curious, the life here is too tough!" Zhao Chen said.

He stood up and walked around the room for a while before looking around! As far as he was concerned, there was nothing of value in this room. There were no candles here either, only oil lamps. Furthermore, these oil lamps were lit very small, as if they were afraid of wasting oil! In the end, he still found the rice jar. Here, there was only a thin layer of rice at the bottom, and those rice were already bad, Zhao Chen could not help but be startled!

"Your Majesty, the people have a difficult life. It would be very difficult for us to see such a scene in the imperial court!" Wang Shu said.

Zheyue Ru was also surprised. She was Zhe Keqiu's daughter, born rich, when had she ever seen such a scene?

After a while, Zheyue Ru clenched her teeth and said: "Your Majesty, my lord, this place is really poor. I wonder if anyone can live here?"

Kang An was not surprised, his family life was very difficult, it was even worse than this house! It was just that after he got rich, he did not enter such a poor family for a long time!

After a while, the old man returned with a large piece of beef in his hand, as well as dozens of steamed buns and a jug of wine!

The cold wind was still blowing outside and the old man started a fire. He brought the table over and placed the items on it! This table was also very old. It was jet-black in color and appeared somewhat dirty! Zhao Chen, Zheyue Ru, Wang Shu, Kang An and the others all revealed a trace of uneasiness on their faces.

"Young master, your family is poor, please take more responsibility!" The old man said somewhat fearfully.

"We still need to thank you for entertaining us!" Zhao Chen laughed.

Everyone was indeed a little hungry. At this moment, they began to eat their fill! Regarding eating and other food, Zhao Chen was not too particular about it. The things they eat in the army camp were not as good as these! After staying in Dazhang Pass for a long time, Zheyue Ru had eaten military food everyday. After getting used to it, she started to eat gently.

"Old man, why don't you sit down and eat together?" After a while, Zhao Chen couldn't help but ask when he saw the old man still standing at the side.

"These things are expensive, old me … "I don't dare to eat them." The old man hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Hey, sit down!" Zhao Chen said.

The old man hesitated for a moment before he sat down. After that, Zhao Chen placed a steamed bun into his hand. He did not eat the meat, but continued to chew on it.

"It seems like this old man is also very hungry!" Eat again! " Zhao Chen laughed.

He handed over another steamed bun and the old man started to eat again.

"Elder, have a sip of wine!" Zhao Chen laughed.

The old man hesitated for a moment before taking a bowl for himself. He poured half a bowl of wine into the bowl and began to drink.

It was already dark outside. The cold wind was howling, but the atmosphere in the room was blissful.

"Old man, are you the only one here? Do you still have sons and daughters? " Zhao Chen had already eaten his fill, and at the same time, he drank his wine and asked a question.

"The older student has two sons. The eldest son went to his father-in-law's house and hasn't come back yet!" My little son couldn't bear it in the winter, so he starved to death! " The old man said.

"Starved to death?" Zhao Chen was shocked.

Zheyue Ru also revealed a shocked expression! On the other hand, the expressions of Wang Shu and Kang An changed slightly, but they quickly returned to normal.

"Yes, I'm starving!" In the winter, my family is almost out of food. My youngest son suffered from typhoid fever, was sick and hungry, and died within a few days! " The old man sighed.

His eyes were moist, and he hurriedly turned his head to wipe away his tears. Only after a long time did he turn his head around.

"Is there actually anyone in the Song Dynasty that would starve to death?" Zheyue Ru said in disbelief.

"Young lady, from your dressing, you must have come from a wealthy family! How do you know what life is for us civilians? "How do you know how much suffering the people suffer?" The old man said.

"I'm sorry, I was wrong!" Zheyue Ru anxiously said.

"How many acres does the old man's house have?" Zhao Chen asked.

"This old man's family doesn't have any land, what I'm renting is the land of Old Man Liu!" Currently, most of the villagers were renting Old Liu's land! There are a total of ten acres of land. Every year, I have been busy working on these ten acres of land, but in the end, I still could not live on! " At this moment, the old man began gulping his wine.

"Can't even live on 10 mu of land? "Is the production of this land really that low?" Zhao Chen said in disbelief.

"Young master, the yield of this land is not low, but 80% of the annual harvest must be given to Old Man Liu! Sometimes, when the year is bad, we still need to borrow money from the senior officials. This loan sharks interest, and half of our annual income is also usury! Even now, we still owe Old Sir Liu a lot of silver! " The old man said.

"This old miser Liu is too evil, isn't he?" Zhao Chen said.

"Which rich person in the world is not like this?" The old man shook his head.

The old man raised his sorrows and kept pouring wine into his mouth. After a while, he seemed to have gotten drunk and started snoring as he leaned against the wall.

"Wang Shu, Kang An, you have been in the public for many years, have you ever seen something like this? Have you ever seen such a ruthless person? " Zhao Chen said.

He did not question Zheyue Ru, as a young miss of a rich family, it was impossible for her to know of these things!

"Your Majesty, this kind of thing happens everywhere! The land under the heavens was owned by rich people. Ordinary citizens were renting land, and almost all of the land rents were 70% to 80%. Some were even renting up to 90%! The people of this world have suffered a lot! " Wang Shu said.

"Tell me about the matters of the people!" Zhao Chen said.

Wang Shu started to explain in detail. The more he listened, the more uneasy he became! He frowned!

Originally, the Song Dynasty was rich. In the modern society, people often said that the Song Dynasty was the richest dynasty in ancient China. However, the gap between the rich and poor in the Song Dynasty was unprecedented in history! More than 90% of the country's farmers do not own land, all land is in the hands of landlords, officials or temples! Almost all farmers were tenants, which had never appeared in the Han, Tang Dynasty, Ming, or Qing Dynasty dynasties. The rest of the dynasties only had a portion of farmers, many farmers still had their own land! Later on, the Ming and Qing dynasties called the Song Dynasty "poor and frail", which meant the poverty of ordinary peasants! The poverty of the peasants in Song Dynasty was an unprecedented phenomenon!

Because of poverty, Song Dynasty was also the one with the most peasant uprisings! From the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty to the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, there were 433 peasant uprisings recorded in historical records. The larger scale uprisings included Wang Bo, Li Shun, Song River uprising, Fang La uprising and so on! In the history of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Jinguo was always eyeing the Song Dynasty covetously, but even in such a situation, Zhong Xiang, Yang Me, had still rebelled! Generally speaking, when outsiders were a threat, the internal world was relatively calm. Later generations of ruling classes, in order to divert internal conflicts, often created border disputes! Logically speaking, the Nvzhen was about to exterminate the Chinese. Under such circumstances, how could there be an internal rebellion? But in the Song Dynasty, this happened! It was not that the farmers did not know of the threat of the Nvzhen, but they could not live any longer and had to resist the ruler of the Song Dynasty!

"Life is so hard!" In my opinion, the main reason is because the landlords exploit too much! They actually wanted to take away eighty to ninety percent of the income of an acre of land. Wang Shu, I want to reduce the rent, do you think that is possible? " After a while, Zhao Chen suddenly said.