Rebirth: Overthrow Song Dynasty

Zheyueru grew up under the education of three obediences and four virtues, and she never rejected Zhao Chen's words!

At the same time, Zheyueru is very curious about Zhao Chen's master Wang Chongyang! She had heard of Wang Chongyang's name, and knew that it was Wang Chongyang who saved Zhao Chen's life back then! Moreover, Wang Chongyang is quite famous in Hanzhong area, and others have rumored that he is a genius doctor! She also wants to meet this miracle doctor!

Speechless all night, Zhao Chen came down from Dasan Pass early the next morning and headed towards Hanzhong!

This time Zhao Chen only brought a dozen guards, including Zhe Yueru, Wang Shu, Kang An and others followed him!

The snow on the mountain has not yet melted, and the scenery is extremely beautiful!

Zhao Chen was in a very good mood at the moment, they stopped in the mountain, and it took them two days to come down from the mountain!

After arriving at the foot of the mountain, it was already slightly dark, and everyone found a village around them, and planned to spend the night in this village.

When the people in the village saw their group coming, they all had expressions of surprise on their faces. This time Zhao Chen can be regarded as traveling in a low service, so no one recognized Zhao Chen's identity. They just think that people like Zhao Chen dress up richly. Although Zhao Chen himself is young, he gives people a sense of superiority, as if he often gives orders. As for Zhe Yueru, he is extremely beautiful. They had never seen such a beautiful young man, Wang Shu, Kang Wang and others were extraordinary, and the villagers immediately knew that these people were extraordinary.

"Your Majesty, I have sent someone to find out where the biggest family is here, let's go to the biggest family here!" Wang Shu said.

"No need, just find a family nearby to live in!" Zhao Chen shook his head and said.

At that moment, Zhao Chen strode towards a courtyard in front of him. The courtyard was very dilapidated, more than half of the courtyard wall had collapsed and was blocked by tree branches, and the courtyard gate was also very dilapidated.

Zhao Chen knocked on the door, it opened, and an old man with gray hair appeared in front of Zhao Chen.

"I don't know why the officials came here?" The old man didn't dare to neglect, he hurriedly bowed and said.

"When I came down from the mountain, it was already dark, and there was no place to stay. If I want to stay here for the night, I wonder what the old man would like?" Zhao Chen said with a smile.

"This...the old man's house only has two broken rooms, I'm afraid it can't accommodate so many people." The old man was stunned and said.

"Only three or five people live in the old man's house, and the others go to stay around." Zhao Chen said with a smile.

He spoke softly. Originally, the old man was still a little uneasy, but now he was relieved, with a smile on his face, and said: "If that's the case, please come in, my lord!"

Zhao Chen nodded, and he took Wang Shu, Kang An, and Zhe Yueru into the courtyard. After arriving here, he realized that it was even more dilapidated. The two houses are all earthen houses, with walls made of earth on the bottom and wood and thatch on the top, without any bricks or tiles. In ancient times, bricks and tiles were only used by wealthy families, and ordinary people had no money to use bricks and tiles.

"Old man, my son has walked for a day and is a little tired now. Do you have food here?" Wang Shu said as they entered a room.

"This..." A troubled expression appeared on the old man's face.

His house was bare, and there was almost no rice in the rice jar. It would be very difficult to entertain Zhao Chen and others.

"Here is some silver, you can buy some food here!" Wang Shu took out a large piece of silver and said.

"Okay, my lord and everyone are waiting!" The old man took the silver and said with a smile.

At this moment, the old man had already left, leaving only Zhao Chen and others in the room.

Zhao Chen looked at the room curiously. Since he came to this era, this is the first time he has really entered the homes of ordinary people!

"The weather is so cold now, is there no stove in this room?" Zhao Chen asked.

"Your Majesty, there is a fire pit here, I'm going to light it!" Wang Shu said.

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

He stood up and walked around the room for a while, looking around! In his opinion, there is nothing valuable in this room, and there are no candles here, only oil lamps, and the oil lamps are very small, as if afraid of wasting oil! In the end he found the rice vat, there was only a thin layer of rice at the bottom, and the rice was already a bit bad, Zhao Chen couldn't help being stunned!

"Your Majesty, the life of the common people is hard, and it is very difficult for us to see such a scene in the court!" Wang Shu said.

Zhao Chen nodded slightly.

Zheyueru also looked around in surprise, she is a daughter who can only be asked for, she was born rich, has she ever seen such a scene?

After a while, Zhe Yueru gritted his teeth and said: "Your Majesty, my lords, this place is really poor, I wonder if people can live here?"

Kang An is not surprised, his family's life was also very hard back then, not even as good as this one! It's just that he became rich later, and he hasn't been in such a poor family for a long time!

*** ***

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

The cold wind was still blowing outside, the old man lit a fire, brought the table over, and put these things on the table! This table is also very shabby, it looks black and dirty! Zhao Chen, Zhe Yueru, Wang Shu, Kang An and others all showed a trace of discomfort on their faces.

"My lord, my family is poor, please take care of me!" the old man said with some fear.

"We also want to thank you for entertaining us!" Zhao Chen said with a smile.

Everyone was indeed a little hungry, and they started eating there at the moment! Zhao Chen didn't pay much attention to food, what they ate in the barracks was not as good as these! Zheyueru stayed in Dasanguan for a long time, and he ate the military food every day, and he got used to it now, and started to eat it lightly.

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

"These things are expensive, so old...don't dare to eat them." The old man hesitated for a moment and said.

"Hey, sit down quickly!" Zhao Chen said.

The old man hesitated for a while, but sat down anyway. At that moment, Zhao Chen put a steamed bun in his hand, he didn't eat meat, he just gnawed on the steamed bun, and he gnawed down a steamed bun in two or three.

"It seems that the old man is very hungry too! Eat again!" Zhao Chen laughed.

He handed over another steamed bun, and the old man started eating again.

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

The old man hesitated for a moment, took a bowl for himself, poured half a bowl of wine into the bowl, and started to drink.

It was already dark outside, and the cold wind was howling, but the room was full of joy.

"Old man, are you alone here? Do you have any sons or daughters?" Zhao Chen was already full, and he asked while sipping wine.

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

"Starved to death?" Zhao Chen was taken aback.

Zheyueru next to him also showed a shocked expression on his face! Wang Shu and Kang An's expressions changed slightly, but they soon returned to normal.

"Yeah, I'm starving to death! In winter, the food at home was almost gone, and my youngest son got typhoid fever, sick and hungry, and died within a few days!" the old man sighed.

He was obviously very sad, his eyes were wet at the moment, so he hurriedly turned his head to wipe away his tears, and he turned his head after a while.

"Is there anyone in the Great Song Dynasty who will starve to death?" Zhe Yueru said in disbelief.

"Miss, judging by your attire, you must be from a wealthy family! How do you know what kind of life we ​​ordinary people live? How do you know how much suffering the common people have suffered?" the old man said.

"I'm sorry, I made a slip of the tongue!" Zhe Yueru hurriedly said.

"How many acres of land does the old man have?" Zhao Chen asked at the moment.

"I don't have any land in my family. I rented the land from the old official Liu! Now most people in the village rent the land from the old official Liu! There are ten acres in total, and they are busy working on the ten acres every year. In the end, I still can't survive!" The old man began to drink heavily at this moment, and said.

"Can't you live on ten acres of land? Is the yield of this land really so low?" Zhao Chen said in disbelief.

"My lord, the output of this land is not low, but 80% of the annual harvest must be handed over to Mr. Liu! Sometimes when the season is bad, you have to borrow money from Mr. Liu. Half of the 20% of the income that belongs to us must be repaid to usury! Even now, we still owe old officials Liu a lot of silver!" said the old man.

"This old rich man Liu is too dark, right?" Zhao Chen said.

"Who is not like this among the richest people in the world?" The old man shook his head and said.

The old man brought up the sad matter, and kept pouring wine into his mouth. After a while, he seemed to be drunk, and he leaned against the wall and started snoring.

"Wang Shu, Kang An, you have been among the people for many years, have you seen such a thing? Have you seen such a cruel rich man?" Zhao Chen said.

He didn't ask Zheyueru, Zheyueru is a rich lady, it is absolutely impossible to know these things!

"Your Majesty, such things happen everywhere! All the land in the world is in the hands of the rich, and ordinary people rent land. Almost all the land rents are 70% to 80%, and some even reach 90%! The people in the world suffer a lot! " Wang Shu said.

"Tell me a good story about folk affairs!" Zhao Chen said.

Now Wang Shu started talking carefully, and Zhao Chen became more and more disturbed the more he listened! His brows were tightly wrinkled!

It turns out that the Song Dynasty was rich. In modern society, people often say that the Song Dynasty was the wealthiest dynasty in ancient China, but the gap between the rich and the poor in the Song Dynasty was unprecedented in history! Farmers who account for more than 90% of the country do not have their own land, and all the land is in the hands of landlords, officials or temples! Almost all farmers are tenant farmers, which never happened in the Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and Qing Dynasty. In other dynasties, only some farmers were tenant farmers, and many farmers still had their own land! The reason why the Ming and Qing Dynasties later said that the Song Dynasty was "poverty and weak", this "poor" refers to the poverty of ordinary farmers! The poverty of farmers in the Song Dynasty was an unprecedented phenomenon in history!

Because of poverty, the Song Dynasty was also the dynasty with the most peasant uprisings! From the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty to the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, there were 433 peasant uprisings recorded in historical materials. The larger ones included Wang Xiaobo's and Li Shun's uprisings, Song Jiang's uprisings, Fang La's uprisings, etc.! In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty in history, the Kingdom of Jin eyed the Song Dynasty covetously, but even under such circumstances, the Zhong Xiang and Yang Mo uprisings still occurred! Generally speaking, when the threat of foreign races is greater, the interior is relatively calm. This is the reason why some ruling classes of later generations often create border disputes in order to divert domestic conflicts! It stands to reason that the Jurchens are about to subjugate the country and exterminate the Han people. Under such circumstances, how could there be an uprising among the Han people? But in the Song Dynasty, this just happened! It's not that those peasants don't know the threat of the Jurchens, but they can't live anymore and must resist the rulers of the Song Dynasty!

"The life of the common people is so difficult! I think the main reason is that the landlords exploit too much! They want to take away 80 to 90% of the income of an acre of land. How do the tenant farmers live? Wang Shu, I want to reduce the rent. Do you think it is okay?" After a while, Zhao Chen said suddenly.