Wei Mingyan said that this time he bought not only good wine and good food, but also the roast whole lamb and roast suckling pig.
In today's world, the rich are still the same as before, and even live a little more extravagantly than before because of the war and rising prices.
The poor are different.
Ninety-nine out of 100 common people today cannot eat meat, let alone make new clothes.
In this day and age, men are everything in the family. Because of the conscription, it is okay for a family to have several men. If there is only one, the wife who stays at home will have a hard time if she loses the mainstay.
If there is another child, it is common to be hungry when the time comes, half a child eats a poor father, but in this era, no matter how old a child is, he can eat a poor family.
There are no children on this mountain, only a group of bandits who have not been paid for more than two years, especially since they are all tall and strong, and the top of them can eat.
As soon as the roast lamb was on the rack, dozens of men wanted to rush up drooling.
When all the fine wine was poured into the bowls, the eyes of these people were about to glow green.
Sitting there, Wei Mingyan looked at their hungry eyes and gulped their saliva, but they didn't dare to go up to eat without orders, and looked at Mo Da beside him strangely, "Why did you become like this? It's a mountain."
"Look at the group of bandits in Pingwagang, their lives are much better than yours. The people outside have passed on that you are eating children, but in the end you can't even eat meat."
Mo Da was also salivating from greed, but his eyes widened immediately when he heard his words, "Who spread bad words about us? ah."
Maybe it was the smell of meat that stimulated him, or maybe it was the smell of fine wine that made Mo Da a little excited. As he spoke, his eyes turned red, "At the beginning when the village recruited soldiers, the higher-ups reported too many people in order to get more money. More than half, each family used to only use one male, and the rest can stay to support the family, but because of this, no matter whether they are seventy, eighty or fourteen years old, every male in every household has been arrested go out."
Wei Mingyan understood as soon as he heard it.
They should be talking about the conscription in the first year. At that time, the emperor didn't want to pay a penny. The old officials who hadn't died at that time knelt in the hall and prayed, saying that at least they should leave a way for the common people to survive.
The emperor was impatient, so he had to order money to be allocated from the treasury, and the man's family would get a consistent amount of money.
There is usually not much money at all, but if you accumulate it together, it is a lot of money.
At that time, many corrupt officials would withhold the money, and those with a little conscience would distribute some of it to the common people, and those without conscience would withhold it all, and what Mo Da said was the kind with a broken heart.
In order to get more money, what should I do if the original population of 100 is reported as 200, and one family is not enough? Then grab them all.
This incident caused many families to be destroyed, especially many old men in their 60s and 70s were also taken away, most of them died on the road alone.
The old official at that time knew about this incident and wanted the emperor to investigate thoroughly, but he was slapped in the face by the memorial.
The king he assisted said indifferently, "It was Shang Shu and you insisted on compensating the people, but now something happened, isn't it all because of Shang Shu?"
That night, the old official who wanted to help the king to protect the country and the country died because of a panic attack. He had just passed away, and his son who was still in the court was humiliated for a reason. The old official's son was just like his father. He is also firm and iron-boned, and he refuses to bow his head at all.
The next day, he was trampled to death by a crazy horse on the street.
From then on, the old officials who were the late emperor's confidantes and devoted themselves to defending the country either resigned to force disasters, or died in various unimaginable ways. Now, there is no good official in the court.
"Our village was originally the largest village in the vicinity, but because of this incident, almost all the males in the village were brought out except for the milk dolls."
"At that time, before reaching the boundary, the old people in the village were almost dead, and then the younger ones also left. Later, the yamen guards who escorted us wanted to select some handsome teenagers to sell, and their elders resisted and were beaten to death. , that young man strangled those two yamen servants to death that night."
Surrounded by the fire, everyone was eating meat and drinking wine. They should be in a good mood, but except for the crackling sound of sparks, no one spoke.
Even Hou Er, who has always been more escaped, listened to Mo Da in silence, "The death of the yamen servant, no matter whether we did it or not, is a capital offense. The boy killed himself and committed suicide. Our brothers After discussing going back to pick up the family members, even if they are desperate, it is better than keeping them at home without a man to suffer."
Wei Mingyan glanced at the silent people around, Hou Er raised his neck and took a sip of wine, his eyes were already red under the firelight.
He said affirmatively, "You haven't received anyone."
"right."
Mo Da said in a hoarse voice, "We didn't know until we went back that a group of robbers came to the village just after we left that night."
"There is no man in the village, the women have no strength, and the children can only cry and scream. The robbers robbed all the property and killed all the adults."
Wei Mingyan was also silent. These men were all about thirty years old. Seven years ago, at this age, it was impossible for them not to have a family.
"I'm lucky. The mother-in-law in the family got sick and passed away just after giving birth to her daughter. She didn't suffer from this hardship, but among us brothers, which one of us doesn't have a daughter-in-law..."
Mo Da's voice was trembling, "When we went back, there was a bloody smell everywhere, the ground was full of people, and the government didn't take care of collecting the corpses at all, so we had to identify them one by one, because they were deserters, and even the burial could only be done quietly .”
"At that time, those adults had been dead for many days. With the corpse poison, we buried them for a few days, and people died one after another. In the end, we were the only ones left."
No one drank or ate meat anymore, and there was a sad atmosphere in the air. Wei Mingyan even heard someone sobbing softly.
"Where's the child?"
He suddenly asked, "Those adults were killed, what about the children?"
This time it was Hou Er who opened his mouth. He shook his head and said in a hoarse voice, "No one knows, no one is left behind for adults, no one is alive or dead for children, and the older teenagers are with us. under the age of eight."
"I originally... had a pair of dragon and phoenix twins."
He took a sip of wine with red eyes, and the red eyes just seemed to be drunk, "My sister's name is Ya'er, and my brother died before he got a name."
"Her mother can't eat enough, she doesn't cry when she's hungry, she sleeps obediently, the two of us finally treated her as a baby, and she was only seven years old when I left, and I still I thought, if only I could earn some money when I was a soldier, and I can make a dowry for my girl when I come back."
"You can wait for me to go back..."
Hou Er shook even more violently while holding the bowl full of wine, "Her mother was hacked to death with a knife, and she was stabbed in the chest. When I went, she was face down, full of maggots..."
Wei Mingyan's eyes moved, and he turned his head to look at Hou Er who was trying to hold back his tears, "You said, a stab in the chest?"
Hou Er nodded, unable to say a word, he drank the wine in the bowl, his head drooped to hide his tears.
"Seven years ago, when the army was first recruited, the knives we wear now were not seen by the common people at all."
Mo Da was hiding his tears, when he suddenly heard this sentence, he suddenly raised his head and looked at him, "What do you mean?"
"Seven years ago, the state of Jin hadn't opened up the channel with the Xiongnu. Even robbers didn't have swords to use. Most of them used bamboo sticks. If it was really a robber wearing a knife, it would be all right to rob a robber. A village without one is of any benefit to them."
"What's more, even if there are no men in the village, there are still a lot of women left, plus some children who are already sensible. If robbers enter the village and amidst the chaos, one or two fish who slip through the net will escape."
Wei Mingyan knocked on the wine jar in front of him, "How could all the adults be killed and not a single child left?"
"Unless they were completely unprepared, and it could even be said that they stood together in cooperation, allowing those people to be killed one by one smoothly."
Mo Da's expression became confused, "Brother, what do you mean? Although the people in our village are timid and fearful, it is impossible for them to stand up and be killed."
"What's more, there are children... Even if they can't escape by themselves, they will try their best to let the children escape."
"It's because those people lied to them."
Hou Er slowly raised his head, his eyes were red like a ghost, he looked at Wei Mingyan, and said word by word, "It's the government."
"Only the government can make these children fearful and obedient."
"Only the government can wear a sword and let the people in the village stand obediently in one place."
Wei Mingyan looked at him without saying a word.
Mo Da looked at his brother in a panic, "Hou Er, what are you talking about? Why did the government kill people in our village? No, didn't you mean robbers?"
"Brother!"
Hou Er suddenly turned his head to look at him, "Are you still unwilling to believe it?"
"So many people have been reported in our village, and we won't get a penny of the money that was handed out."
"We are cowardly, we are timid, and we don't think about what to do to these officials, but what about them? Do they think so too?"
"Take away all the men in the village, leaving only women and children who are helpless."
Hou Er's voice was almost squeezed out between his teeth. He said, "After we left, those officials came. The officers and soldiers brought knives. Maybe they told our relatives that they would give them the money for conscription. Let them bring their children to collect the money."
"Of course they didn't dare not listen to the government's words, and they thought they were really rich, so they led the children and stood together, waiting to get our money for selling themselves."
"Then… "
"do not talk!!!"
Mo Da trembled all over, and stood up with red eyes, "Why did they do this? We didn't intend to tell this matter, we didn't want to report..."
"Because of the child."
Wei Mingyan also stood up, and looked at him quietly, "At that time, there were wars everywhere, chaos everywhere, and people were scarce. What was lacking was not workers, but slaves."
"These kids are a lot of money for whatever it's being used for."
"They took away you men, grown-ups, women who would reveal these two things, children who don't understand anything, and dare not say anything after a little training, kill three birds with one stone ,Good deal."
Mo Da almost collapsed, "No, no, we, we have always been obedient..."
"We followed the officers and soldiers obediently and asked our children to wait at home. Even though we knew we would not be able to come back, we did not dare to resist..."
"Those two officers and soldiers were not killed by us..."
"Brother, don't you understand?"
Hou Er also stood up, looked at him with a pair of blood red eyes, and slammed the wine jar on the table to the ground.
"They don't want us to live!!!"
"It doesn't matter if we listen or not, or if we have done something wrong!! They don't want us to live, so we can't live!!!"
"It's the emperor!! Don't let us live at all!!"
"We are like cows and horses!! We are obedient!! It is useless at all!!"
Wei Mingyan dropped the wine in his hand: "Rebel!"
"He won't let us live, so we won't let him live either!"