175 Unexpected

Ping An went home and asked his father, "Master asked if you need to prepare some food. If you do, do it as soon as possible."

Wan Changsheng was puzzled: "Why do we need to prepare? The weather here is pretty good. There hasn't been any heavy rain, but there has been some light rain every few days. We have never been short of water.

Ping An, you forgot that our family had already prepared two years' worth of food in the cellar a few months ago. I specially prepared some more, enough for four or five people to eat for two years. Your uncle and I still eat lunch outside. "

Ping An didn't know how to evaluate his father. Sometimes he was very smart, but sometimes he was very stupid.

"Dad, what I mean is, shouldn't we stock up more? If the grain price goes up, we can still sell some."

Wan Changsheng couldn't help but smile when he saw his son's big eyes staring at him: "It's really a famine, isn't it good for us to buy low and sell high?"

Ping An looked at him and said, "Five people can only eat 100 catties a month, which means 1,200 catties a year, and 2,400 catties in two years. I know you must eat half rice and half broken rice, and at an average of 10 cents a catty, it's only 25 taels of silver.

Dad, you can prepare another 10,000 catties, half of which is rice and half is broken rice. One hundred taels of silver will be enough. You can also prepare some lard, salt and other things. It's just food, and the rest doesn't matter."

Wan Changsheng took a deep breath and said, "Ping An, our family bought six mu of land before, and your mother spent a lot of the remaining money on giving birth this time. I later bought some ginseng slices, and now there are only twenty taels left."

Ping An frowned, "Dad, I have to ask you about your account. I gave Mom more than 300 taels several times before. Did you spend it all?"

"No, no, Ping An, how can Dad and Mom spend your money? We saved it all."

"Dad, you have to listen to me this time. Buy a few hundred kilograms every time you go home, a total of one hundred taels of silver. I am the son of this family, and what I bring home is for use. There will be no shortage of food next year or the year after, so we can sell it again. At worst, we can sell it to Baicaotang."

"Okay, Dad will use your silver."

"Dad, prepare some daily necessities like lard, and find a way to send a message to my uncle and his family, asking them to buy some as well. But don't alarm anyone. If you disturb the people, you will go to jail."

"No hurry, let me think about it. It's not easy to take it this far, so I can only take it to Daqiang and bring it to the village. Maybe others will know about it soon."

This peace has no objection.

Actually, there is no need to worry about my maternal grandfather's family. I wrote a letter to my eldest cousin and told him not to exaggerate too much. What I really want to say is that it is okay to just say something vague in the village. My eldest uncle is a very smart man and he will naturally know what is going on.

What really makes Dad depressed is Uncle Wan. That aunt is not a smart person, but Dad has a deep brotherly love.

"Ping An, it's not difficult to bring a letter to your grandfather's house, but it's troublesome to bring a letter to your uncle's house."

really.

"Dad, don't even think about giving that aunt a penny. She won't believe it even if there's no water shortage now. Why don't you ask your cousin Daqiang to buy a thousand kilograms of broken rice in the county town, only eight ounces, so stockpile it first.

We can't give it to them now, otherwise my aunt-in-law will sell it directly and give it to them when they are short of food. With this thousand kilograms of food as a subsidy, it will be almost enough.

My mother just gave birth to my sister, so I'd like to tell my grandfather about the good news as well. What do you think?"

Wan Changsheng nodded, this was fine. As a younger brother, he should do it for the sake of his parents. What would a family of six do if they had no food?

Even though his brother had treated him badly in the past, how could he care so much when they were born from the same mother? Moreover, both his parents were gone.

The children are pretty good, unlike their eldest sister-in-law, which is why he couldn't bear it.

As for telling the good news to my father-in-law's family, it's impossible for me to go back now, so I'll just mention it in the letter and forget about telling my eldest brother's family.

Sun Hongyu also supported Changsheng's stockpiling of food. People have to open their mouths to eat every day. They will be hungry if they don't eat for a day. So he should also stock up more dried vegetables.

Wan Changsheng quickly agreed.

Sun Hongyu handed over a silver note worth fifty taels.

"Uncle, what are you doing? I have it. Ping An gave me a lot of it before, but I haven't touched it."

Sun Hongyu rolled his eyes at him and said, "I didn't take much. I have a good income in the medical hall now, and I get a lot of bonuses. I basically don't need to save money. Take it. Ping An can use it, but I can't use mine. Or do you not treat me as a family member?"

In the end, Wan Changsheng still accepted the silver note.

In the following days, he and Uncle Sun came back every day to buy a thousand kilograms of grain, and they took turns to go to the grain shop. In just half a month, the two cellars were full of more than twelve thousand kilograms of grain. Now they didn't have to worry anymore.

A lot of lard and dried vegetables were also stockpiled. Mei Niang, who was taking care of the child in the room, didn't know about this from beginning to end. No one wanted to let a woman who had just given birth, who was not even a month old, worry about these things.

Besides, the drought may not be severe, we just need to be prepared.

In Baicao Hall, Sun Sicheng received a letter from his father.

Both the Zheng family and the military found the Sun family, hoping that the Sun family would not sell out their medicinal materials as much as possible in the next two years. The price could be negotiated, and the Sun family would definitely not suffer any loss, but the military camp could not be short of medicinal materials.

People on both sides hoped that he would sign and agree. He agreed but did not sign it because everyone knew that he was not the head of the family now and that his eldest son was the head.

His father is good at pushing.

But we really can't just sign blindly. If there are too many people in charge, how can we do things? If that happens, he will really quit, and even my father can't do that.

It is July now and the sun is scorching outside. Little Awu refuses to leave the house unless it is necessary. Fortunately, the child's day is fully scheduled.

He would never spoil his children in this regard, he just used more ice.

Look at what his little apprentice told him this morning. He knew how to make ice in summer, which was not found in medical books. The old Taoist must have told him about it the other day.

If it happened to other six or seven-year-old children, they would have forgotten it. But Ping'an's memory is so amazing that he may not understand it, but he will never forget it.

Making ice? Maybe we should stop doing that for now?

Now that the Great Zhou has just enjoyed a few years of prosperity, God has begun to be unfaithful again, and foreign tribes want to rob again. At this time, making ice will not bring high profits, and it will also hurt people's eyes.

The loss outweighs the gain.

"My Lord, why did you come to me for this letter?"

Ming Wanli came over in a hurry. He had just brought Wang Chun and Xiaoliu out of the valley a few days ago. The situation outside was not good, and it was not the time for him to stay comfortably in the Medicine Valley.

Sun Sicheng took the letter and saw the word "urgent" written on it.

After opening the letter, he was stunned. After a while, he handed the letter to Wanli and said, "Take a good look at it. I was really worried."

If we were worried before, it was nothing more than a reduction in the production of medicinal materials, but this year it’s still okay, and we will be able to harvest a large batch in August or September.

He prepared enough water and food, and gave up the agreement, so he could be said to be free of any pressure.

But when he saw the letter, his heart suddenly tightened.

"My Lord, we have always been worried about the border town, but we didn't expect something to happen in the southwest, and it was two or three small tribes that were causing trouble at the same time."

Sun Sicheng sighed: "There shouldn't be many disasters in the southwest, right? Why did they suddenly go crazy and massacre a small village on my border? This is a real provocation."

"But the war in the southwest is more difficult than in the north. There are many tropical forests there, and the poisonous mosquitoes in the summer are unbearable. The small tribes there are also good at using poison."

"Wanli, you reminded me well. Send someone to tell Master Qin and the others to make more medicine for this purpose and more medicine for injuries. Wanli, have a good talk with Fang Xiao and contact Fang Ming, He Jin and the others. Collect as many medicinal materials as possible, and quickly."