"Dong, dong, dong!" The gongs and drums of the village meeting began to beat. It must be the village head discussing this matter with everyone. After all, no matter how much of a jerk Lin Rui had been before, what was about to happen was related to the lives of his children and grandchildren, and he could not afford to be careless.

However, given that Lin Rui's credibility was too low, the crowd was in an uproar as soon as the village head Lin Pingmao mentioned this matter.

Aunt Li was the first to disagree: "Uncle, does that kid Lin Rui tell the truth? He just said one word and we're going to pack up and leave our hometown. If we leave our ancestral land, we'll be like those refugees. We won't want our fields or crops anymore. We'll just starve!"

Other villagers also complained and echoed: "Yes, Li Zheng, I don't believe it, I won't leave. What are the refugees afraid of? There are still government officials here. We are half under the rule of the emperor. They are throwing their lives away!"

The villagers of Linjia Village were talking among themselves. Lin Pingmao slammed his cane on the ground, making a loud thud: "Silence!"

Lin Pingmao, the village chief and head of the village, was so majestic that everyone's voices suddenly quieted down.

Lin Pingmao cleared his throat and recounted the events of Lin Zicheng's Yue family. His vivid description of the tragic scene successfully swayed everyone's minds. They looked at each other, seemingly hesitant about whether to leave.

However, those who wanted to stay always had various reasons: "Uncle, that village is two hills away from us, they may not be able to find us, and the government will not let refugees roam around and commit crimes without any mercy."

"Village Chief, don't be fooled by Lin Rui. Even if I tell you everything today, I won't believe a single word he says."

Lin Pingmao wanted to say something, but his son Lin Changtai held his hand, shook his head with a serious face, and signaled him not to waste time.

Lin Changtai said loudly, "Fellow villagers, my family has decided to leave. We have 20 mu of good paddy fields and reclaimed wasteland left, and we'd like to sell them at a discount. Rice, flour, coarse grains, millet, and beans can all be exchanged. The paddy fields are 5 taels per mu, and the wasteland is 2 taels per mu."

The crowd erupted in a furor, the discussion even more heated than when Lin Pingmao had previously mobilized the villagers to leave. Since ancient times, land has been the people's root; the annual harvest directly determines their quality of life. The village head's paddy fields would have cost at least a dozen taels of silver on the market, yet now they were selling them directly, not even at half price, and they didn't care whether you exchanged them for grain or silver.

"Village chief, are you telling the truth?" Everyone's eyes turned to Lin Pingmao, who made the final decision.

Lin Pingmao nodded and said, "Yes, our family is preparing to leave, and we are planning to sell our paddy fields and wasteland. Fellow villagers, if you need anything, you can discuss it with us."

"What about the grain in the paddy fields? Should it be yours or..." This season's rice is not yet fully ripe, but if the village chief insists on taking it away, it can be worth dozens of kilograms. Although they are also greedy for the millet that has not been harvested, such good fields and rice are still waiting for the owner, the village chief, to make the final decision.

Since he had decided to leave, Lin Pingmao decided to cut the Gordian knot and sell the assets that he could not take away in the shortest possible time in exchange for food and other supplies on the road to escape the famine.

"It's yours!" Lin Pingmao made the decision.

"Okay, village chief, I want an acre of paddy field, the one next to the Qing River."

"Village chief, I want two acres. I'll exchange it for grain!"

After saying this, Lin Pingmao and his two sons returned home and began to pack up their things. Their family only had an ox cart, but they had more things that they couldn't give away than Lin Rui's family. In the end, Lin Changshou and Lin Changtai exchanged two wheelbarrows with the villagers who came to exchange paddy fields.

The two daughters-in-law had gloomy faces and were extremely angry at the ridiculous decision made by their father-in-law and husbands. Their family was once one of the richest families in Linjia Village, but now they had to give up such a huge family business and go out to escape the famine. They really didn't know what their husbands were thinking.

Although they were angry, they packed up quickly. The two sisters-in-law worked together to cook all the rice and flour in the house that could be used as cooked food. They also slaughtered and marinated the chickens and ducks in the yard to eat on the road.

The two sons were helping their grandfather and father sort out the rice and flour that they had brought to exchange for the land. Although five taels of silver was not a lot, it was a lot of food that could be exchanged for in the village. Soon the food piled up into a small mountain.

Chen Mei gritted her teeth in anger: "Lin Rui is really causing trouble for others!"

Sister-in-law Chen Zhi kept moving her hands: "Everyone said so, but it happened that only our man was deceived."

Lin Rui and his two cousins ​​also welcomed their fellow villagers at this time and talked about the fields.

Lin Rui didn't react when it was first mentioned, but then he slapped his head and thought, "Right, as a farmer, how can you not have fields?" It's just that the crops in the fields are not fully ripe yet. If this chaotic world reappears in half a month, there will be enough time to harvest this batch of grain and take it away.

But now there is no time, so I might as well follow the example of the village chief's family and sell it for two taels of silver. The only difference is that he doesn't accept silver, only grain.

Lin Rui's family had no paddy fields, only wasteland that they had reclaimed with great effort. The previous paddy fields were sold out because of the huge gambling debts owed by the original owner, and even the wasteland was exchanged for a lot of sweet potatoes and corns.

Feng Zhenniang made all the half pork brought back into jars of oil-canned meat, which made it easier to preserve the food and also provided oil and water for people to replenish on the road.

Chicken and duck eggs, if properly stored, would last a long time without spoiling. My eldest sister-in-law, Mrs. Lu, found a small piece of wood and wrapped it in a leftover diaper to prevent it from breaking. The chicken, duck, and fish were all salted, and the sweet potatoes and soybeans were loaded directly into sacks and loaded onto the oxcart.

The two ox carts looked big, but even if Lin Rui used the space reasonably, they would still be filled to the brim. This was in ancient times when supplies were scarce. If it were in modern times, he would have to use a four-wheel drive vehicle to pull them. No wonder the modern and ancient novels I read before would give the protagonist a space golden finger. Otherwise, there would be no fun at all, just like him now.

If he were the protagonist of a novel, and there was such a useless house with a limited time limit, which could be taken but not put away, the readers would probably have run away long ago. How sad!

"Dad, Mom!" The eldest sister and Zhao Qing were pushing a cart and carrying a basket respectively. One of the baskets contained their daughter Niuniu.

This reminded Lin Rui of a sentence: he was carrying the pot on his back, holding the child in his hand, and the land under his feet was China.

Because Zhao Qing was a hunter, his family had the most furs and bacon, but not much food. Lin Susu gave away so much of what she had that it filled up an entire wheelbarrow.

In fact, if it weren't for Lin Rui, the Lin family would not be able to survive for long even if they fled the famine. The family was so poor that they had to tighten their belts even in peacetime, let alone during this time of fleeing famine.

When he returned home, he saw that the Lin family members all had sallow complexions and thin bodies, and it was obvious that they were not getting enough nutrition. These scenes are almost unseen in modern times, but were everywhere in ancient times.