Chapter 55
"To motivate more people, coercion and inducement are not a long-term solution. So when distributing food, you can add a condition: if one more person goes to dig the road, there will be an extra portion of food."
County Magistrate Lin immediately took Ruan Mian to the granary.
Before she left, she gave Cuizhu and her family some simple instructions, but the others didn't know where she had gone and were all grumbling.
"This little bastard doesn't know what to do again!"
"Sir, can't we just leave? Did Ruan Mian and the magistrate leave to get food?"
The officers were annoyed by their short-sightedness and lashed them with whips until they were silent: "There's no way out, where are we going?! Can you fly?"
Ruan Mian arrived at the granary and took a look around, and found that it was indeed empty.
I learned from the county magistrate that Taoqiu County had suffered a disaster more than a month ago. At that time, it was not considered so serious, so he only informed the magistrate of Ji County.
There are several counties in the Jixian area that are in the same situation as Taoqiu County. The Jixian area has no time to take care of them and can only mobilize the reserve food in its own city first.
Later, Ji County also suffered a disaster. They were unable to take care of themselves and could not allocate any extra food, so they could only report to the capital.
Now the food is still on the way, but they are blocked.
Ruan Mian thought that just distributing grain was far from enough, so she said to the county magistrate.
"Sir, the disaster has lasted for several days, and I'm sure many people have caught a cold. If we don't intervene in time, they will surely die. How about you find a few doctors in the city to work with me tomorrow for a free consultation, and give every household some prescriptions to fight the cold. I still have plenty of medicinal herbs, and we'll also need fuel for heating..."
"Madam Ruan, you are very thoughtful. I have already ordered the clearing of some passages leading to the mountains for fuel. The people can go up the mountain to chop firewood. The firewood in the city will be the main source."
"This won't lead to cohesion. I think it's better to do it like digging a road. Every bundle of firewood you can chop can be exchanged for a certain amount of food. You can then collect the firewood and distribute it according to demand, ensuring that every household has firewood for heating."
As for food, she moved a lot from Ding Cheng’s granary last time!
Even if she gave away the food and wages belonging to Pan Chen and the others, she still had a lot of relief food, enough to sustain Taoqiu County for a while.
As for the officials, Ruan Mian also informed them after returning.
Now they have no other choice. If they want to leave, they can only wait until the road is dug.
Anyway, these refugees were sent there to work as laborers, and now they have nothing to do, so they might as well invite them to work with the local people, digging roads and clearing snow.
The originally lifeless county town suddenly became lively the next morning because of the grain distribution.
For those few grains of food, let alone digging a road, there are people who would even kill people!
So they just dug a road and rushed to the landslide site with their tools.
Ruan Mian was providing free medical consultations with the doctor at the city gate. While they were busy, the people who had returned from the farm were also busy.
No delicious food was prepared in the past two days because she was afraid of causing too much trouble. Zhang was worried that her grandson and daughter-in-law would not have enough to eat, so she asked someone to secretly cook a few eggs for the mother and son to eat.
Rui Ge'er played with Lin Ge'er, a boy of the same age, for a few days and kindly shared one of his eggs with him.
This scene happened to be seen by Ruan Jiao.
Ruan Jiao frowned, squatted in front of Rui Ge'er, stared at the other egg in his hand, and spoke with a smile.
"Brother Rui, why don't you call me aunt?"
When Rui Ge'er saw Ruan Jiao, he put away his eggs without hesitation, took a few steps back, and frowned.
"What kind of aunt are you? I only have Aunt Qing and Aunt Mian."
Hearing this, Ruan Jiao's face changed immediately.
"Brother Rui, I held you in my arms when you were a child. Have you forgotten Aunt Jiao so quickly?"
"Come, be obedient and let Aunt Jiao see what your eggs look like."
Unexpectedly, Brother Lin pushed her from behind, grabbed Brother Rui's hand and shouted, "Don't give it to her! She just wants to eat your eggs! How shameless of her to fight with a child for food!"
Ruan Jiao was so angry that her face turned pale. She grabbed Lin Ge and was about to scold him, but Lin Ge suddenly burst into tears: "Mom, Mom, come and save me!"
Ruan Jiao immediately let him go.
Rui Ge'er was very loyal. He grabbed a snowball and threw it hard on Ruan Jiao's face, then pulled Lin Ge'er away.
But she was so angry that her face turned purple!
It's bad enough that a few bitches bully her, but when did even a brat like this get the upper hand over her?
She was furious just thinking about it, but she didn't dare to offend Wang openly, and Rui Ge'er also had the powerful Ruan Mian.
She will definitely not let these people have an easy time!
Just wait!
The scene of the two children playing with Ruan Jiao was seen by Nanny Zhang who was beside Wang, and she couldn't help but tell Wang a joke.
Wang couldn't help but laugh at the children's cleverness. "Madam Ruan has never had good intentions. After Madam Jiao Chen passed away, she's been trying every possible way to curry favor with the Madam and the others. Everyone knows what Sima Zhao is up to. Be careful of her."
"Madam Zhang, isn't Grandma Zhou making shoes for Lin'er? Ask her to make an extra pair of thick ones and give one to Rui'er as well. They don't have any ill will towards us."
Now that so many days have passed, Wang has figured out what kind of person Ruan Mian is.
Even after arriving at Wu Heng, life was not peaceful, as he might need her help in the future.
Nanny Zhang saw the situation clearly and hurried to tell Grandma Zhou about it.
That night, Grandma Zhou bought an extra pair of shoes.
Ruan Jiao paced back and forth and saw a pair of shoes that were obviously not Lin Ge'er's size.
She immediately asked Grandma Zhou, who simply said, "These are the shoes that the lady asked me to prepare for Rui Ge'er."
She didn't tell the reason, knowing that Ruan Jiao and Ruan Mian had a bad relationship.
Ruan Jiao didn't say anything on the surface, but her eyes were already fixed on the pair of shoes.
If this goes on, Wang and Ruan Mian will become friends. Then she will be caught in the middle. Wouldn't she be targeted by these two people together?
She stared at the shoes thoughtfully, found an excuse to get Zhou Po away, and started fiddling with the shoes.
…
The next day, some people went to work, and Ruan Mian and his friends prepared some hot buns early.
Just as she was about to leave, Aunt Zhang came over with shoes: "Madam Ruan, Madam Chen, these are the shoes our wife prepared for Rui'er. Our Lin'er also has a pair. They were all made by Grandma Zhou herself. They are very warm."
"My wife also said that she is very grateful for Ruan Niang's care along the way. We hope you can accept this little gift from us."
Upon hearing this, Chen quickly took it and thanked her: "Madam Zhang, we appreciate Madam's kindness. Please thank your Madam for me. I will definitely let Rui Ge wear these shoes."
Nanny Zhang smiled slightly, turned around and prepared to leave.
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