Chapter 1208 Zhao Family
Qingzhou, Shi County.
This place is close to Tianjue Pass. It was occupied by Huang Tianjun several years ago. However, as Huang Tianjun swept across the world and almost overthrew the great unity, Huang Tianjun's control over this place continued to decline, and even existed in name only for a time, and was hollowed out by the local tyrants. It was not until Huang Tianjun was defeated in succession and the main force returned to Qingzhou that it regained its ruling power.
The blank period of several years, coupled with the killing of countless tyrants by Huang Tianjun, has allowed this place to recuperate. Although there are constant wars now, it is far away from the main battlefield, so it has not been affected here.
In a corner of Shi County, there is a blacksmith shop. The owner of the shop is a strong middle-aged man. There are no apprentices in the shop, only a girl helping out. At first glance, it seems to be a father and daughter. Apart from that, there is no trace of the hostess.
This era is turbulent, with countless deaths of fathers, mothers, wives, and sons.
However, the girl is not as thin as a withered grass. She is not only ruddy, but also has a little baby fat. It can be seen that the family's life is not bad.
In turbulent times, growing meat is a luxury.
"Dad, I heard this morning that the Taoist army was defeated in the southern wilderness. My brother went to the war with the army. I'm afraid..."
The girl added firewood to the burning red stove while pulling the bellows with great effort. After several times of wanting to speak but stopping, she finally couldn't help but whispered, her voice was as small as a mosquito.
"Don't think too much. Your brother is the disciple of the great virtuous teacher. He will be blessed by the Yellow Heaven. Nothing will happen."
Because he has been close to the fire for many years, the middle-aged man with dark red skin frowned with a bit of reprimand.
But even he himself probably didn't believe it very much, so he didn't seem to have much confidence.
A few years ago, Huang Tian's army swept the world. At that time, everyone believed that Huang Tian had descended to the world and was invincible. But now, Huang Tian's army is retreating step by step, and even those mysterious Taoists have died one after another.
The disciples of the Great Sage and Good Master sound noble, but in fact, the Great Sage and Good Master teaches everyone. There are countless disciples, but most of them are useless. Even if they have learned the Taoism, they can't cultivate anything. Only a very small number of elites are entrusted with important tasks.
As for this father and daughter, the father's name is Zhao Sheng. Because he was born prematurely and was very thin, he took the word "sheng" in the hope that he could survive. Later, although there was no nutritional supplement, Zhao Sheng still survived tenaciously.
It's just that there were many children in the family at that time, so when he was eight years old, he was sent out to work as a blacksmith apprentice in a big shop in the city.
This line of work is too hard and tiring, especially for apprentices, being exhausted or beaten to death is commonplace, so let alone city dwellers, even village dwellers, unless they really can't survive, will not be willing to let their children do this.
However, Zhao Sheng survived with difficulty and learned some skills. When he was sixteen, he even got a wife.
The wife was not very pretty, but before the family fell into poverty, it was considered a scholarly family. It was just because the family fell into poverty that the woman saw the ups and downs of the world, and seeing that Zhao Sheng was hardworking and handsome, she married him.
Later, with the help of his father-in-law's family, he directly had his own small shop. He was not rich, but his life was not bad.
A year after marriage, he had a son, and his wife named him Cheng, hoping that the child could achieve success. Two years later, he had a daughter, named Xiang, hoping that the child could be more smart.
If nothing unexpected happened, the family would live in harmony and happiness, and their life would be very good compared to most people of this era.
But as early as when Zhao Sheng was still an apprentice, the signs of troubled times had already appeared.
When Zhao Cheng was five years old, the world was completely in chaos.
First, there was a severe drought in many places, and then there was a flood in many places.
The court provided disaster relief, but less than one percent of the money and grain allocated could actually reach the hands of the victims.
In a major disaster, except for the common people, everyone made a lot of money.
As for food, the powerful people naturally had food, but it was impossible to distribute it to the victims. Instead, they took advantage of it to raise the price of food so that the victims could sell their land at a low price, or even sell themselves directly into slavery.
In this case, after selling everything that could be sold, they could only flee...
Their family was also affected. On the way to escape, in order to save a bite of food for the children, his wife starved to death.
Later, the rebel armies in various places rose and fell, but they were all small-scale. No matter whether it was the nobles above or the landlords below, they did not think that the rebel army would become a big deal.
Because there have been too many similar things over the years, and even many times, in order not to bear the crime of failing to provide disaster relief, the superiors would directly label the victims as traitors and strangle them with the army.
As long as the victims are gone, there will be no disaster. As for the population, it is like grass. After cutting one crop, there will be another crop. Even if you kill all the people in a state, you can grow back in a dozen years at most.
But who would have thought that this time it did not go as the adults wished. A man named Huang Tiandao appeared. He took the victims, broke open the city gate, opened the granaries of the court and the powerful, and distributed the food to everyone.
Many people realized at that time that there was enough food, but they simply did not want to give it. Even if they burned it, they could not give it to the victims.
Then, the snowball rolled bigger and bigger, until finally, the whole world rebelled.
Zhao Sheng's family was dragged to many places. After settling down a little, problems arose. In the early years, when the Huang Tianjun was constantly victorious, everyone had food to eat, it was just a matter of more or less, and they would not starve to death.
But when the Huang Tianjun fell into exhaustion, the food distributed became less and less. If you want more food, or even land and shops, you have to join the army and make meritorious deeds...
Zhao Sheng originally planned to go by himself. He knew how to forge iron, and it was not difficult to be a blacksmith who repaired weapons in the army.
In the early years, the Huang Tianjun won victory after victory, and all weapons were directly robbed, and there was no shortage of blacksmiths, but now there is a shortage.
But if he went, there would be no one to take care of the children.
In a famine, relatives were either washed away or simply died directly, and the children were still young. In addition, the situation was turbulent, and it was impossible to drag someone to take care of them.
In this situation, Zhao Cheng, who was twelve years old at the time, ran out directly and joined the army.
At the age of twelve, in an era when people can get married and have children at the age of fourteen, joining the army is not a rare thing. But there is no doubt that compared with adults, the situation of half-grown children in the military camp is more difficult.