Chronicle of the Disaster Years of Guangxu: Adobe Courtyard

In the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu's reign, there was not a drop of rain in autumn, and all the millet in the fields withered and turned into withered grass. The county government officials came with the land security guards to collect the grain, saying that this year they would have to "pay in silver", and not even a grain of grain could be redeemed. The locust plague passed through the country, covering the sky and blocking out the sun. The few remaining corn stalks were gnawed down to bare stalks. In order to pay the tax, I sold my fattest pig, but it was not enough; I also stripped wood from the fence and sold it in the town, but it was still not enough. The landlord called Laoshuan and said he could borrow money, but the interest rate was "donkey rolling". Mancun looked at the crying and hungry girl in Xiulian's arms and gritted his teeth and made a pledge. The plague on the road to escape famine, the guards catching young men, the flood after the Yellow River burst its banks - the fence of the adobe courtyard fell down, the beams leaked...