Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 4 Katsu Saburo ([-])
Zhao Xin glanced at Katsu Saburo, who was sitting beside him and lowered his head to eat porridge. He turned around and lowered his head and whispered a few words to Li Ji before saying to everyone, "Get up."

Then everyone got up and continued to drink porridge.

Li Ji stood up at this time and said to the crowd: "You guys have been hungry for a long time..." He paused, seemingly recalling something: "Yes, malnutrition, that's what the adults said. So The adults asked you to drink porridge for the first few days to let your stomach get used to it, and there will be rice balls to eat in two days."

Everyone was immediately excited when they heard it, and many people, including Wan Zao, began to recall the last time they ate rice.

"I just use polished rice for porridge. It seems that rice is not much worse."

Katsu Saburo thought to himself, even himself, he usually eats brown rice, which is brown rice.As for the polished rice, it is only eaten by big merchants and generals.

Although the samurai eats better than ordinary people in this era, it is the same.For example, Shigegen Hosokawa, the lord of the Kumamoto domain with a stone height of 54, wrote in his book "The Admonition of the Marquis of Higo":
"Besides the three meals, you can have a little snack from time to time to keep your energy up. Don't drink alcohol. Three meals of soup, as prepared by the staff in the kitchen, eat vegetarian food every day, one soup and one dish, and fish for lunch, but it's no more than one soup and two dishes. ."

The five-generation general Tokugawa Tsunayoshi usually eats only two dishes and one soup, and he does not drink a drop of alcohol.

This year, there is brown rice, boiled tofu, a small fish, and miso soup, and that's a big meal.

At this time, I saw Likichi walking towards him, and Katsu Saburo put down the porridge bowl and looked at him.

Rikichi walked to Katsu Saburo, squatted down, and asked Katsu Saburo, "According to your accent, you are not from Mutsu. Where did you come from?"

"Below are people from Omi."

Rikichi stared at Katsuzaburō with wide eyes: "Omi? What did the samurai from Omi come to us in Hirosaki?"

"I, I want to come here to help with disaster relief..." Katsu Saburo was a little embarrassed.A kind-hearted plan to help, but he almost starved to death, and let the victims be rescued.Kind of embarrassing.

"Master warriors only care about themselves, how can they care about us poor people!" Wan Zao said angrily.The seven or eight farmers next to him heard this and agreed, and they all cursed at the Tsugaru family who didn't care about the life or death of their subjects.

And Sheng Saburo could only be silent.

It is said that since the opening of the Tokugawa shogunate, in order to resist the introduction of "Cizhidan" (Catholicism), the policy of closing the country has been implemented, and there is very little foreign trade.

Therefore, even if we work hard to develop the city, under the condition of the internal cycle of economic seclusion, the effect that can be achieved is not very good.Therefore, the majority of the income that supported the shogunate's annual financial operation still came from the land tax, that is, the annual tribute received from the countryside.

The prosperity of the big cities such as Osaka and Edo was built on the blood and sweat of the vast countryside.

The plundered and neglected villages, coupled with the lack of easy annual tribute, under the flashy and illusory prosperity, the peasants are gradually being completely hollowed out, so that no matter how hard these peasants work hard in the fields, they are also very happy. It is difficult to save even the most basic savings.Once the famine came, these farmers immediately fell into desperation.The indifference from the shogunate also left the hungry people without any relief.

Li Ji and Wan Zao, the starving people, were severely exploited and oppressed on weekdays, and they were angry because they could not get relief when the famine came, but they only saw the situation of themselves and their villages.Due to Zhao Xin's rescue, they did not continue to flow in the direction of Edo, so they have not seen a more serious scene.

Sugita Genbaku, who was later known as the scholar of Zhuzi in the island country, described in detail what he saw and heard in his book "Host Seed Grass": "The disasters in the southern part of the Northeast area, Qingjin and other places are particularly serious, and there are daily disasters. A large number of disaster victims abandoned their jobs and fled the famine, and like mushrooms after the rain, they emerged from the countryside one by one. However, what is more cruel is that there is no surplus food to relieve the victims when they fled to other places. Every day there are 2000 to [-] People were starved to death in the streets and then dumped in ravines."

Yes, if Zhao Xin went further south to Luqian and Sendai, he would see a large number of refugee peasants on the road.

After telling about his situation, Katsuzaburō asked Likichi his own question: "Which family's noble is your lord?"

"You will naturally know then. Our lord, that is a figure like a god." Li Ji looked back at Zhao Xin cautiously, exclaiming proudly.

When Sheng Saburo came over, Zhao Xin was still thinking about things and didn't notice anyone approaching.A few days later, what he saw and heard along the way made him very emotional.Unexpectedly, the hungry people in ancient times looked like this.To make an analogy, it is like a group of zombies.

Let’s just say that the more than 30 people he rescued were as skinny as a stick. Except for Katsusaburo who was just rescued, he was wearing old cotton clothes, and the others were all in sackcloth; No shoes, all bare feet.

Zhao Xin is wondering whether to go back again.He felt that the amount of food was enough, and he had to buy some clothes, shoes, and bedding, otherwise these people would not survive this winter.

It is said that Zhao Xin always has a feeling of playing games now. These strangers seem to be NPCs in the game; except for Liji and his wife, he doesn't really care about the lives and deaths of others.

However, there will always be a voice in Zhao Xin's heart, this is not right, saving a life is better than making a living.
In addition, the most difficult thing for him is how to arrange these people in the future?

Mount Iwaki is the hardest hit area. To the north is Aomori by the sea; to the south?Now all the disaster victims are running to Sendai and Edo. It can be said that the road to the south is full of disaster victims.

If you go to the next door with Qing and gather a group of people to do three, four, and one...?
Forget it, Zhao Xin doesn't want to shave a money rat's tail; and now he doesn't want anything but money, so he can't do it for the time being.

After [-], Nagasaki was the only foreign trade port left in the island nation.The main reason why the shogunate did this was to prohibit its own people from leaving the island country.

From Mutsu to Nagasaki?Omg!just forget it.

What exactly?Now the whole child is getting more and more busy, just leave a few thousand catties of food for these people, and get away by yourself...

Zhao Xinzheng began to scatter his thoughts crookedly, but someone in his ear said loudly: "Thank you very much. Without your rescue, Sir, I would be dead now."

"Ah." Zhao Xin, who was interrupted, was startled.When he saw it, it was the rescued Katsuzaburō who was kneeling in front of him to express his gratitude.So he quickly helped Katsu Saburo and said, "Don't worry about it. In such a time, it is not easy for anyone."

Katsu Saburo thought Zhao Xin's accent was strange.Li Ji once told him that Zhao Xin was a noble person, but he didn't think so.Zhao Xin's accent resembles an Edo accent, but not quite.

So he gathered up his courage and asked carefully, "Your attire is very unusual. I have traveled to the Kanto region and have never seen your hair accessories and clothes like this."

"Oh, you said this..." Zhao Xin touched his head, still with short hair in the Mao-inch style.Look at Katsu Saburo on the opposite side, oh, he is the head of the moon, and it is said that the men of the island country have to shave like this when they are adults.

"I'm really not from here. I just heard that the volcano erupted and the famine was serious, so I came here to see how I could help."

Not allowing the other party to ask more questions, Zhao Xin changed his words and asked, "I heard that you are a samurai from Omi, why did you come here?"

Katsu Saburo was very embarrassed. He wanted to come here to help people, but he didn't help anything. He almost put himself in, and he was rescued by the victims.Katsu Saburo couldn't help but feel a little discouraged because it seemed that his own training abroad this time was a failure.

So it was another crackling narration, and Zhao Xin also understood the situation of Katsu Saburo. He felt that Katsu Saburo was not bad, and it was rare that he could think of helping the victims.

Why don't you dump these people to Katsu Saburo?

Zhao Xin thought of this and said: "Look, the weather is very cold now, although there is enough food to eat, but there will be new people who will be taken in later, I still don't have enough food at this point; Without even a pair of shoes, it would freeze and get sick."

"Yeah." Katsu Saburo was also very emotional. "Then what can I help you with?"

Zhao Xindao: "Familiarize yourself with everyone for a few days to understand the situation. Then I will go to transport some food, clothes and shoes. Well... I will be away for about five or ten days, so you can help me manage this. people."

Sheng Saburo lowered his head and thought for a while, he felt that as long as there was enough food to eat, there would be no problem, and he readily agreed to Zhao Xin's request.

A few days later, Zhao Xin's refugee team had expanded to 300 people.

The group of them did not stay in place or head south again, but turned their heads and headed north all the way to the woods near Aomori Town.

Zhao Xin finished explaining things to Likichi and Katsuzaburō respectively, and handed over the previously purchased food to Likichi and Katsuzaburō to manage.

After explaining everything, Zhao Xin turned around and walked into the depths of the jungle.Say goodbye to you!

After walking about 300 meters away, he found a big tree, looked around for a while, and the person disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Not far away, Katsu Saburo, who was peeking from the bushes, was already dumbfounded.

(End of this chapter)