Before leaving, Huang lent 10 taels of silver to each of Da Hu and Er Hu's families, with IOUs written on it. Huang always believed in keeping clear accounts even between close brothers.

It wasn't that she necessarily wanted her brothers to pay her back; she simply didn't want to indulge her sister-in-law's entitled attitude.

Brothers are blood relatives, but a brother's wife is not.

Even though her grandson didn't come to remind her, Erhu obediently bought the grain.

If they had come two days later, that woman's family might have had to sell some more grain.

Kindness cannot save a suicidal ghost.

Huang's maternal home is not far from Zhao's Village; it's about a 15-minute walk away.

They left quickly and returned quickly; the elderly couple had barely arrived home when the village chief sent someone to summon them.

Zhao Jinfa's house was filled with the village's leaders.

"Cousin, what happened?" Zhao Qianci asked.

"Please, have a seat. My eldest nephew works as an accountant in town. He came back this morning and said that a lot of refugees have come to our Lingnan Prefecture."

Most of them came from Hunan, Jiangxi, and Ezhou, where the drought is much more severe than here.

What I'm afraid of now is that if there are too many refugees, trouble is likely to break out.

Our Zhao family also fled famine back then; it's not impossible for refugees to become bandits.

I called everyone here today mainly to talk about a few things.

One option was to rush to buy food before others could react, buying as much as possible.

Furthermore, the strong young men in the village go out together and cannot act alone.

Secondly, our village needs to organize a patrol team, with each household contributing at least two men.

Third, apart from the able-bodied young men who went to buy grain, no one else in Zhao Family Village was allowed to leave the village, and outsiders were not allowed to enter.

Fourth, regardless of whether they are married out or married into the family and are seeking refuge with relatives, they will not be accepted.

Although it's a bit ruthless, once we open the door, even our Zhao Family Village might not be able to survive. You can't judge a book by its cover.

It's about these few things. More than 30 years ago, our whole clan was able to flee from the north to this Lingnan Prefecture, but where can we flee to now?

Going north, it's even drier than here. Going east or west, there's no way back. It's similar to here, or maybe even worse.

Therefore, they could only hold their ground.

Children, please stop going up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables. If any family is truly short of food and drink and wants to go up the mountain, it must be organized by the village.

When the women in the house go out, the little children have to stay at home.

In times of famine, children are the easiest targets for bad people.

Go home and explain the situation clearly to your wives. Whether it's a boy or a girl, they are the ones who will carry on our family line.

Upon hearing this, everyone's expressions turned grim. Those members of the Zhao clan who had experienced the famine more than thirty years ago could better understand the village chief's thoughts.

They were just teenagers back then, and many of their relatives starved to death before they were finally saved.

The room was eerily quiet, with the faint sound of weeping escaping through the air.

No one should laugh at anyone else. Back then, let alone several family members starving to death...

Many people were separated from their families or had their relatives injured or killed by large groups of refugees on their way to escape famine, and their eyes were red with tears.

Just as the atmosphere was somber, the gate to the village chief's house was pushed open again.

The person who came was none other than Zhao Jinhua, the grandson of my second great-uncle.

He is 45 years old this year and looks very refined and handsome. He is also the only scholar in Zhao Family Village.

After passing the imperial examination and becoming a scholar, he felt it would be difficult to advance further, so he used his connections with a classmate to find a job as a clerk in the county government.

He suddenly rushed back today and went straight to the village chief's house, which was quite unusual.

"Uncle Golden Hair, something terrible has happened. A large number of refugees have appeared in the neighboring county."

The village needs to prepare quickly, either by hiding things or finding a safe place to hide.

I also heard from the refugees that besides the drought causing crop failure, they're also suffering from a locust plague. Uncle Golden Hair, we need to prepare early.

Seeing that Zhao Jinhua was speaking haltingly, she must have been very tired.

"Jinhua, sit down, have some water, and calm down before we talk."

We were just discussing how to deal with these things when you came back. Take a breather and tell us what's going on outside.

Zhao Jinhua told him everything she knew, and also subtly hinted at some things that were inconvenient to say.

Escorted by a group of burly men, Zhao Jinhua returned to the county town.

When asked why it was men who escorted her, Zhao Jinhua explained that she was too frail and could only ride back on horseback by sheer courage.

Now that the matter was settled, my courage had dissipated. Considering my own circumstances, it was still more prudent to accept the villagers' good intentions.

Although her second uncle's family really wanted Zhao Jinhua to stay in Zhao Family Village, she couldn't just give up her job at the yamen, so she had to go back to continue working there.

Everyone says that having connections in government offices makes things easier. If Zhao Jinhua hadn't come back to tip us off, and if the village chief's son hadn't come back to inform us, who would know what was going on outside?

We will leave aside the details of how things were arranged in Zhao Family Village for now.

Just take those guys who kidnapped Zhao Qingyan and her granddaughter on the street earlier; they had their legs broken and were tied up and thrown on the roadside.

They finally encountered a group of people and thought they were saved, but instead they were dragged into the yamen like a dead dog.

The thieves were still shouting that they were innocent, but the man in black swept a glare at them and said, "Your faces have words written on them."

Because the person who sent the person had a distinguished background, Magistrate Qiu Daqian attached great importance to him.

After some interrogation, these robbers confessed to everything they had done.

He also revealed that Triangle Eyes had once contacted bandits in the mountains, intending to enter the city and rob grain.

Magistrate Qiu quickly reported the matter to his superiors to suppress the bandits. The presence of this passing group emboldened him to act arrogantly.

The Lingnan Prefecture also dispatched troops quickly, and they quelled the bandits overnight, achieving a great victory.

This inadvertently saved the villages under the jurisdiction of Qingyang County from an undeserved disaster.

When Grandpa Zhao returned home and mentioned this to Madam Huang, after clarifying the location and the number of people, Madam Huang was quite surprised and clapped her hands in surprise.

"Old man, it's really true that nothing is more coincidental than a story."

If this hadn't been mentioned, I would have forgotten that those people caught up with me and my daughter that day in a horse-drawn carriage.

After tying them up, the horse was also tied to the back of our mule cart.

Before entering the village, the horse was tied up on the mountain.

I don't know if it was eaten by wild animals or discovered by someone else; I have to go up the mountain to check.

She ran outside quickly, calling out, "My darling, my darling, where are you?"

Hearing her grandmother's voice, Zhao Qingyan quickly came out of the room. "Grandma, what's wrong?"

Upon seeing her granddaughter, Madam Huang quickly and quietly asked about the horse. Zhao Qingyan slapped her forehead.

"I forgot about the milk too. I'll go up the mountain to check now. We can't bring the horse back for now, so I'll take it to the valley."

"And bring the sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese with you as well."

Huang pondered for a moment,

"Alright, go ahead then. Do you want to bring your cousins ​​along and have them help you tidy up the place and build a coop for the chickens, ducks, and geese?"