Qin Feng stood in front of a wheat field, reached out to pick a piece of wheat ears, rubbed it in his hand, and the wheat grains fell off, lying one by one in his palm. He pinched his two fingers and pinched the wheat grains, and couldn't help but shake his head. This wheat field looked golden and beautiful, but there were no patina at all. Six or seven of the ten were shrunk. Although it was not a dead harvest this year, it was certain that the harvest was a bad harvest. The food he had won was not enough for the family to feed.

The horse leopard pulled out a short sword, squatted down and inserted it into the soil until there was no handle. When it was pulled out, it saw that only the tip of the sword was stained with some moist soil.

"This season is over." Ma Baozi spread his hands. Compared with the two in front of him, he obviously had to know more about these things.

This is Yingzhou, which is even farther away from Cenzhou, which has the worst drought. This is already like this. You can imagine how Cenzhou has become now.

Throwing away the grate in his hand, Qin Feng looked up and in the distance, a small village appeared in his sight, "Go, go where to take a look!"

"Your Majesty, the population in Yingzhou is really rare. We have been in Yingzhou for three days, and we haven't seen any densely populated places yet." Ma Baozi said strangely. "I heard that the Qin people were very capable of having children. They were very crowded and fearless. They have always used their lives to exchange for victory in the war."

After hearing this, Qin Feng smiled bitterly. Of course, he knew very well about this, because he was dealing with such Qin people in the Luoying Mountains back then, with no clothes and even his weapons being ragged, but he could burst out with amazing combat power during battle.

A considerable number of these Qin soldiers came from poor areas like Yingzhou and Cenzhou. Originally, there were indeed many people in these places. The poorer they became, the poorer they became. This was a vicious circle.

Now Yingzhou has fallen to such a sparsely populated area, which is inseparable from some policies of the Ming Dynasty. For example, Ma Xiangnan, Changyang County and Ben Kuan, all of them have engaged in human trafficking. They hired some brave merchants to go deep into Qin and brought those Qin people who could not live through various methods to sell them to all parts of the Ming Dynasty. Those with the most skilled skills are the most expensive, followed by the young and strong women and children. These local county magistrates are also willing to pay for money, but they are much cheaper because these county magistrates are very clear that these elderly, weak women and children may have no labor force, but they are the best chains of these young and strong people. One by one, they are the most happy to be sold to the Ming Dynasty, because this means that they can better control the fierce Qin people.

Many county governors in the Ming Dynasty were extremely lacking due to war and the rampant plunder of Qi. This was a very serious choice for many county governors of the Ming Dynasty at that time. The Ming Dynasty court naturally knew it, but could only make deaf and dumb, because although this method was not good to say, it could strengthen the strength of the Ming Dynasty and weaken the strength of the Western Qin, which was still the enemy at that time.

Because most of the bravest soldiers of Qin came from these poor areas, you can't expect the courage to give up everything and fight like those in the wealthier places in Yong County.

This kind of small-scale trafficking at the beginning, and later it turned into a large-scale escape. Until the Western Qin Dynasty was destroyed by the Ming Dynasty, the trend of escape to the Ming Dynasty had not stopped. But at this time, the Ming Dynasty court naturally could no longer allow this situation and strictly prohibited all regions from absorbing refugees from these places.

However, for people, yearning for a better life is naturally an instinct. Even if such escape is no longer allowed, many people still take risks to exile to Mingdi. In the end, the newly appointed Ming officials had to send people to block the route of escape.

At this point, places like Yingzhou and Cenzhou, which were originally very crowded, became a sparsely populated place after experiencing the death of war and exile. They were completely deserted.

Qin Feng could only smile bitterly at this situation. Sometimes, the policies that seemed extremely wise at that time became a disadvantage immediately after changing the time and background. But the bitter fruit could only be swallowed by the Ming Dynasty itself, and only later took over Yingzhou and Cenzhou and other places, the Ming officials in places like Cenzhou found a way to solve it.

"It's also a blessing that there are few people now. If there are too many people, this drought will suffer greater losses and the situation will be even more uncontrollable." Qin Feng's tone is naturally still very hard. "Let's go, go to the village to have a sip of water and get some food."

The three people are dressed now, Qin Feng is the son of Yiguijie. Ma Baozi can naturally play the role of bodyguard. Eunuch Le disguised and modified it a little, with some beards on his chin, and he looked like an old servant. As long as he didn't speak, he couldn't see anything unusual. Of course, in such a remote place, even if he spoke, he was afraid that these villagers would not be able to tell that he was actually a eunuch. Have you ever seen eunuchs look like in these places?

When I stepped into the village, I unexpectedly found that the people in the whole village seemed to be gathering together, gathering in a place and didn't know what they were doing. After three people who were obviously not locals came in, they immediately attracted the attention of these people. An old man with a crutch walked over tremblingly.

"Brother-in-law!" Qin Feng bowed with his fists: "It's disturbing."

"The guests came from and where they were going?" The old man saw that the three of them were dressed differently than ordinary people. He bent down and bowed and asked.

"The three of us are from Yongjun and want to visit friends in Cenzhou. When we pass by, we are trapped and exhausted. We want to come to the village to ask for a bowl of water and get some food. I wonder if it will be convenient?" Qin Feng said.

"Why do you want to go to Cenzhou at this time?" The father-in-law frowned, "You three are traveling all the way, and you are not familiar with the place. Now you are in this situation again. Are you not afraid of being robbed halfway? You are so brave."

Qin Feng smiled and said, "Brother-in-law, I heard that it is very safe now, not as chaotic as in the past few years. Isn't it ruled by the Ming Dynasty? Are there many thieves?"

"There weren't there in the past two years. At that time, the Ming people who came here were very powerful. They killed and captured the bandits, which was very peaceful. But the situation this year is different. Many people can't eat. If this person is evil, what can't be done? You guys really want to meet the evil people and kill them quietly. Who knows where you are?" The father-in-law shook his head and said.

Qin Feng laughed horrified: "I am a bodyguard, and ordinary bandits don't see it." He pointed at the horse leopard, who also cooperated to straighten his chest.

The father-in-law shook his head, disagreed. The outsiders really didn't know the depth. They turned around and shouted a few words. An old woman came over. The father-in-law whispered a few instructions. The old woman turned around and left. After a while, she brought a plate with a few black buns in it.

"Brother-in-law, can you give me some more water?" Qin Feng looked at the black buns with almost most of their bran in his hands, and was a little embarrassed. It was really difficult to swallow it.

"The water will have to wait for a while. The only well in the village has no longer flowed out of water. We are digging down. It has been two days since we dug it, and it is almost time to come out of water." The father-in-law pointed to the crowd gathering on the other side.

As he was speaking, the crowd gathered there suddenly burst into loud cheers, and my father-in-law was excited, "It seems that he was out of water."

The father-in-law turned around and got into the crowd. When he came back, he held a bucket in his hand. He smiled and put it in front of the three of them, and handed it over a scoop. "He saw that it was finally watered."

Holding the scoop and looking at the half bucket of yellow mud soup-like water in the bucket, Qin Feng was stunned for a while. Finally, he scooped half a bucket of scoop and drank it. The feeling seemed to have returned to some scenes in the brutal war back then.

While chewing the steamed buns, Qin Feng asked, "The drought here is so serious, isn't anyone in charge of the government?"

"Someone is in charge." The father-in-law smiled and said, "It seems that the current government is much better than before. A few days ago, there were also officials from the government who came to tell us that the harvest this year was not good, and taxes would definitely be exempted. The eldest master of the county has reported to the court. I heard that the emperor is extremely wise and there is definitely no problem. I can still live my life now. I don't have to pay taxes this year, and the new court does not have to perform labor service. Although there are some difficulties now, I can still get through it."

"The government just left this sentence? Didn't you think of other ways to help you overcome the current predicament?" Qin Feng asked afterwards.

"Look at what your guest said, there are still many things in the government. It is great if you don't receive taxes or exploit the people. Moreover, the disaster here is not very serious. The county master in the county visited our village a few days ago and looked at it. It was very kind. Now he is organizing people to dig wells and get water in places where the disaster is more severe. The old man has lived for decades. He has never seen the county magistrate who rolled up his sleeves and picked up soil and drilled wells with his subordinates!"

"So this is pretty good." Qin Feng said with a smile.

"It's very good. I also told us not to worry. Although our places have suffered disasters today, there is a bumper harvest in Yongdu and Hulao. After the autumn harvest is over, the food for disaster relief will definitely come. What we have to do now is to find water. So, we dug the well deeper, and God, maybe when will we have a rain? Do you think? Then you will be alive."

"You're right!" Qin Feng nodded with emotion.

The people in the village came over to stand by the well with buckets, and another old man sent this kind of yellow mud soup-like water in an orderly manner, smiling one by one.

Ordinary people, if you still have hope of living, you are the most docile person.
Chapter completed!