Chapter 542 [Black Soil]

Weekend, Peking.

Chen Dexin made breakfast, and shouted to the back room: "Xiao Jue, Xiao Yan, get up and eat soon!"

"Here we come!" A girl's confused voice came from the bedroom.

Ma Yuzao came downstairs in a gown and opened his mailbox. In addition to the few newspapers I usually subscribe to, there are also two letters and a thick magazine.

He first looked at the letters carefully, one was written by his old friend Qian Xuantong, and the other was addressed to his daughter Ma Jue.

"It's unreasonable, what a nonsense!" Ma Yuzao was so angry that he cursed directly.

Judging from the return address of the second letter, it was obvious that it was sent from the campus of Peking University. Then this letter is easy to guess, it must be a love letter sent by a Peking University student to his daughter.

Ma Yuzao's current nickname is "Father-in-Law of Peking University". I don't know how many male students call him this quietly. Even some teachers in the school often use the title of "father-in-law" to joke with Ma Yuzao.

Those little bastards, messing around at school is enough to be annoying, but now they dare to send a love letter to his home, which makes Ma Yuzao so angry that his lungs are about to explode.

Back in the living room, his wife Chen Dexin had already put breakfast on the table, and the two daughters had finished washing and were waiting for dinner.

Ma Yuzao still has basic self-cultivation, he will not open his daughter's letters privately, let alone throw them away quietly. He handed over the letter and said, "Xiaojue, yours."

"Oh, thank you dad." Ma Jue opened the letter without any hassle.

Ma Yan quickly came over to watch the excitement: "Sister, let me see!"

Ma Jue unfolded the letter paper, read it and commented: "The writing style is not bad, it's a lyrical prose, but it's a pity that it's too showy."

Ma Jue has maintained correspondence with Zhou Hexuan and Lu Xun all year round, and her literary vision is frighteningly high, so she naturally despises ordinary articles. Moreover, she is no longer the girl who pursued gorgeous writing style. Her style of writing was gradually influenced by Zhou Hexuan and Lu Xun.

"It's well written, this boy is very talented." Ma Yan commented.

Ma Jue smiled and said, "If you like it, take it."

Ma Yan curled her lips and said, "I don't want your love letters, I have received many of them myself."

"Ahem," Ma Yuzao coughed, "Eat!"

The sisters quickly fell silent.

Ma Yuzao picked up the newspaper and read the news while drinking porridge and eating fried dough sticks.

Ma Jue picked up the magazine on the table, and said curiously: "Hey, this magazine is so thick, and the name is also very strange."

Ma Yan suddenly pointed to the cover and exclaimed: "Sister, look quickly, there is a guide title on the cover, Mr. Zhou's new work "Black Soil" is officially serialized!"

Hearing this, Ma Jue quickly turned to the catalog page, and then quickly went straight to "Black Soil" according to the page number. I saw the words below the title: "This is a story that took place in the black land of Northeast China. The whole story has five parts: Breaking through the Guandong, the Russo-Japanese War, the 1911 Revolution, the May 4th Revolution, and September 18th."

Seeing this, Ma Jue thought it was a historical novel. As a result, after reading part of the text, she realized that it was a folk story.

The magazine "Fei Gong" is a monthly magazine, and the number of pages in each issue is very thick, because the serialized "Black Soil" alone has as many as 25,000 words.

Ma Jue even forgot to eat breakfast, completely immersed in the story, finished reading the opening 20,000 words of "Black Soil" in one breath, and then felt extremely heavy.

Because the tone of the story is too dark, there was a great famine in Shandong at the beginning. The Qing government's high-profile allocation of food for disaster relief resulted in corruption at all levels from the central government to the local government, and the relief food went into the pockets of corrupt officials and businessmen.

Not only that, the landlords and gentry also united with unscrupulous businessmen, took the opportunity to raise the price of rice, and forced the common people to sell their sons and daughters, houses and land. A tragic natural disaster has turned into an even uglier man-made disaster, and the suffering of the people has become a gluttonous feast for corrupt officials, landlords and businessmen.

The hard-earned money saved by ordinary people can only buy a little food. Landowners and gentry took the opportunity to occupy the land that our ancestors worked hard for generations, and the whole Shandong has become a hell on earth.

What ruined Ma Yu's views even more was that the bottom-level people, as victims, also exposed all kinds of ugliness in human nature.

For example, the Zhong family, who is the protagonist, brutally murdered the two neighbors, the Ma family brothers, on the way to the Guandong for dozens of copper coins and three catties of millet.

The subsequent gold rush of the Zhong family was also full of blood and cruelty. They were first oppressed by the mine owner and the foreman, and shed bitter blood and tears, but once they got a chance to resist, they immediately joined forces with the gold diggers to kill the mine owner. The Zhong family turned from the exploited to the exploiters. What's more, they got worse and became more brutal than the previous mine owners, frequently beating gold diggers to maiming to death.

The content of this serialization ends with the orphan and widow of the Ma family who was rescued by the leader of the horse bandit and became his wife and adopted son.

"call!"

Ma Jue let out a long breath, as if he wanted to vent out all the depression in his heart. She is very much looking forward to the next plot, maybe the horse bandit will do justice for the sky and kill the Zhong family to avenge the Ma brothers. Or maybe the surviving youngest son of the Ma family is the protagonist, who grows up to become a hero.

Fortunately, this story is not all dark, and there are some shining points of humanity. For example, a supporting character chose to commit suicide after getting sick in order to save food for his wife and children; another example was a mine accident, where a worker resolutely sacrificed himself to save his friend; The land became rich little by little.

What Ma Jue saw was the state of the world in the late Qing Dynasty, a picture scroll of blood and tears of the poor at the bottom trying to survive.

"Father, read this novel quickly, Mr. Zhou's new work." Ma Jue handed the magazine to his father.

Ma Yuzao took it and read it carefully. His life experience is far richer than that of his daughter, so he naturally thought more and deeper when reading novels. Many storylines are like sharp knives piercing the heart. After reading the serial content, Ma Yuzao said with emotion: "Zhou Mingcheng is going to write a masterpiece handed down from generation to generation."

"Black Soil" not only tells the stories of three families, but also intersperses countless historical backgrounds and supporting characters from all walks of life. These events and characters are written vividly, making people feel as if they were in Shandong and Northeast China in the 1850s, as if those stories really happened.

In fact, the stories of those little people written by Zhou Hexuan are all derived from reality. He wrote 200,000 to 300,000 characters of various true stories through many inquiries, inquiries, and records of the exiled people in the Northeast.

This time, it only serialized 25,000 words. The story has not yet fully unfolded, and the Guan family didn't have time to appear on the stage, which is enough to shock people.

Hot tears, sweat and blood watered the black soil under people's feet, and staged a series of joys and sorrows, grievances and entanglements.