Liu Dadezhuang on the shore of Hongze Lake, a circumference of 400 meters and 8 feet wide, has been presented to people. The outer edge of the city is preparing to dig a circle of trenches that are ten feet wide and eight feet deep. The ditch is injected with lake water introduced from Tawau. There are sharpened wooden piles at the bottom of the trenches. It has not yet been completed, but the future looks can be seen.

The scale of Wang Quan's team has expanded to more than 2,600 people, including more than 1,400 young and strong. These people are refugees who came to ask for food after hearing the news. After Wang Quan and his six friends identified the refugees who came to surrender, they would not refuse anyone as long as they were not thieves and spies.

The firewood was high, and the Tucheng was built soon. However, the number of people also brought serious problems of insufficient food.

Around the Tucheng under construction, young and strong men, women, children, elderly and weak sweated heavily, waved hoes, iron chisels, carried baskets, pushed carts, and worked hard. Tucheng quickly increased at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the camp in the center of Tucheng, eight bonfires were lit, and more than a dozen old women were adding firewood to the bonfire. A steaming iron pot was erected on the bonfire, and there were porridge mixed with wild vegetables, small fish and a little grains. The porridge was naturally as thin as clear soup, but for those refugees, it was much better to drink such a bowl of porridge than to eat tree bark, eat Guanyin soil or even human flesh, at least they would not starve to death.

With too many people and the conditions are very difficult, I can only live a life of silence. It would be great if I could not starve to death. The refugees were moved by Wang Quan, who was dressed in brocade clothes and silk, and also followed everyone to eat bitter vegetables, drink porridge, and lead the team to work in person.

In fact, the refugees didn't know that Wang Quan was actually a person who had suffered hardships since childhood. When he was a child, his family could not survive anymore and was forced to go out to the west to be a shepherd slave for the Tumotes. The war between the Mongols eventually turned Wang Quan into an orphan, and it was Li Guodong's father who took him in. He grew up in the mountain village of horse bandits since childhood and grew up in the bitter and cold place outside the border. The horse bandits outside the border were also hungry and full.

But because Wang Quan was smart and able to do things, he was attracted by Li Guodong and chose him to be the shopkeeper of Dadewang. With the help of funds provided by Li Guodong, Wang Quan started to make a comeback. It was because of the poor and knew that the people were suffering that he generously contributed his efforts to these refugees.

"The boss is really great. We are not close to him for no reason, but he helps us like this." An old woman added a bundle of firewood to the bonfire and said.

"Aunt Six, this prince is really a living Bodhisattva. We wandered all the way, and the powerful men on the way were afraid of us refugees, but the prince took us in. Tell me, it is useful for Mr. Wang to take in young and middle-aged people. Even the old ladies have taken in us. What is he trying to do?" said another old woman.

"I saw this prince. He is a great figure. His Bodhisattva heart may not seek anything, but only seek to do good. Alas, I believe that good people will be rewarded."

"Will good people be rewarded?" Another old woman next to her smiled bitterly, "Do you still believe this? A disaster came from heaven, and many people starved to death? I heard that Shanxi and Shaanxi were even more miserable. The people rebelled, and the officers and soldiers suppressed and killed many people."

"Henan is not much better, it's a thousand miles away. Among us, how many people have escaped from Henan."

"You are strange, why didn't the prince take everyone to Jiangnan with you? I heard that Jiangnan has not suffered any disaster. If you go to Jiangnan, you can live a good life if you find something to do."

"Go to Jiangnan?" The man named Liu Aunt snorted coldly, "The officers and soldiers were stuck in the ferry, and the refugees couldn't even get through the Yangtze River! If they forced themselves to break through, they might be chopped off as thieves!"

"Jiangbei has encountered a severe drought that is rare in a thousand years, bandits and locust plagues, and war disasters will follow. If it weren't for not being able to survive, who would have left his hometown?"

While talking, the refugees finished their work and came back in groups of three or five, sitting by the campfire and starting to have a meal.

The young refugee Zhang Yong sat down, picked up a bowl of porridge, didn't even take the chopsticks, and drank it all over his back. He had been doing his whole morning work, and there was no filling in his stomach, but he had no complaints.

Zhang Yong was originally a refugee in Henan. His family had several acres of thin land from generation to generation. During the Tianqi period of Wanli, his family was not hungry every year, and at the end of the year, there was still a little surplus in his family. However, since the first year of Chongzhen, everything has changed. First, there was a drought that was rare in a thousand years, and then locusts came. Even if he worked hard to deal with natural disasters, the crops were less than half of the previous years. But the government did not even reduce tax reductions and exemptions, but instead had to pay more Liao pay.

In the year of disaster, with additional Liao pay, Zhang Yong and his family had to borrow usury and borrowed two stones of grain to make a living. The promise was to return it in one year, with interest of five cents and three stones in one year.

The following year was another year of disaster. After the harvested grain was paid tax, the family had not even a grain of rice left. The loanees came to collect debts. Moreover, the borrowed two stones of sorghum, and the ones to be returned were three stones of white rice and white flour!

It is said that the person who lends money loans is very tough in the background. It is said that Zhang Yong can afford to offend such a person with the younger brother of a princess in Prince Fu's mansion? Their family had to sell their daughter to pay off their debts. But in the year of disaster, a living person could only sell food for less than a stone!

He couldn't afford to pay the loan shark and had no grain at home, so Zhang Yong had to take his parents, wife and children to escape from the land left by his ancestors for generations. Since he had not only no income from farming, he also had to owe money, which fool would still be willing to farm?

"The world is unfair! The Fu Palace has thousands of hectares of fertile land. Why does the court not collect their taxes but exploit us ordinary people?" Every time Zhang Yong thinks of this, he roars in his heart.

Shortly after Zhang Yong's family embarked on the road to escape, their parents, wife and children starved to death. He watched his son, who was under one year old, die in his arms, but he was powerless.

Just when Zhang Yong was hungry and was about to be eaten by someone, he was rescued by Wang Quan.

Now that we are here, although we have to do heavy physical work and cannot eat enough, we will at least not starve to death. Wang Quan often tells them that if the difficulties are temporary, as long as we contact our caravan, food will be delivered soon. Now the things that young and strong people have to do is protect themselves, save their lives first, build a city of earth, repel the bandits, and farm nearby. When the caravan arrives and have enough strength, Wang Quan will naturally lead everyone to suppress bandits nearby.
Chapter completed!