Chapter 12: Villages Preparing to Escape Famine
Zhou Yunshu and her companions were lucky enough to find a village before nightfall.
Zhou Yunshu lifted the curtain of the carriage and looked at the children who were holding hands and shouting as they ran back to the village because of the arrival of a strange mule cart, and asked Chunque to drive forward.
As soon as it arrived at the village entrance, the mule cart was stopped by a group of people.
"Who are you and what are you doing in our village?" The person asking the question was a square-faced, dark-skinned man.
Zhou Yunshu lifted the carriage curtain, looked at the man and said with a smile: "Brother, we are going to Tongcheng to visit relatives, and we would like to stay in your village for one night."
The square-faced man relaxed his guard when he saw that Zhou Yunshu was reasonable and well-mannered, and spoke in an elegant manner like a scholar.
"You came at the right time. If you had come a day later, half of our village might have been empty."
Zhou Yunshu looked up in surprise. She got off the mule cart and looked at the square-faced man in front of her and asked, "Did something happen?"
"It's all because of the drought!"
The square-faced man didn't want to talk too much with a stranger, so he just said, "You can stay overnight, but we're not lending it to you for free."
Zhou Yunshu nodded, "We know this."
Seeing that Zhou Yunshu was quite sensible, the square-faced man said, "My family is going to flee the famine tomorrow, and we just happened to have a few rooms cleared out. We can give you one."
"Thank you, brother."
Just as the square-faced man in front of him said, the whole village was very lively, mostly due to the noise and farewells caused by packing.
Not everyone is willing to leave their hometown, especially the elderly, who would rather die at home than continue to travel.
The square-faced man's home was at the entrance of the village. When he brought Zhou Yunshu and his group home, he attracted a lot of attention from the neighbors. Of course, the most attention came from his own family.
"Second brother, who is this?" A man who looked to be in his twenties looked curiously at the mule cart in front of him and Zhou Yunshu who was following his second brother.
This man's temperament is even more graceful than the scholar he met in the county town. He must have achieved great achievements.
"Come and stay overnight. My sister and her friends have already cleaned up their room. Let the guests stay in that room."
After Du Lao Er finished speaking, Du Lao San immediately shouted towards the main house: "Little sister, little sister!"
"Stop yelling!" A round-faced girl of fourteen or fifteen ran out of the room upon hearing her brother's voice, and said fiercely: "You're yelling at me, Third Brother!"
As she was about to finish her words, she saw that her brother was not the only one in the yard, and her face turned red as she looked at Zhou Yunshu with a smile on her face.
She thought they were the only ones at home!
"What do you want me to do?" The little girl's voice suddenly became much shyer.
"Show the guests to your room. They are staying at home today."
"good!"
At this time, the Du family heard the noise outside and came out of the room. When Li Jialan and Fang Huiwen took the children down from the mule cart, they nodded to the Du family members who were looking at them curiously.
The old man smoking a pipe in the main room looked at Zhou Yunshu and her group who had gone to the room and said, "This family is quite important. I'll call the second son in and ask him some questions."
"good."
The younger sister of the Du family's room was the first room in the west wing. Three steps inside was the earthen kang, on which only a thick straw mat remained.
The Du family's younger sister said a little embarrassedly, "Because we are going to flee the famine tomorrow, so our things have been almost packed. If you are not used to it, I will go get you two more mattresses."
Zhou Yunshu smiled and said, "No, but maybe you need to help us make room for another room."
She and Chunque are now men, so wouldn't it be exposed if they slept with the women in the family?
"Okay, I'll go ask my eldest brother."
After the younger sister of the Du family left, Zhou Yunshu looked at the three little rascals who were secretly clinging to the window, took two pieces of osmanthus cake from the remaining cakes, broke them in half, and waved to them.
By the time the younger sister of the Du family came over with her sister-in-law after cleaning up the room, Fang Huiwen had already gotten all the information about the Du family from the three little kids.
Old Man Du has three sons and one daughter.
The eldest Du married Ms. Yang and had two sons and one daughter. The eldest son is thirteen years old, the youngest son is ten years old, and the daughter is seven years old. The second Du was a bodyguard. He married Ms. Wang and had two sons, one eleven years old and the other six years old. The third Du was still in school. He married Ms. Li and had only one daughter, who was four years old this year.
The Du family is a well-off family in the village. They own 30 acres of dry land and 20 acres of paddy fields. They can not only earn enough food for the whole family throughout the year, but also sell a lot of it.
Of course, this was in previous years. The harvest in the past two years has been bad, and the harvest from fifty acres of land is less than one-third of that in previous years.
Old Man Du is a very far-sighted man. He has not sold any grain in the past two years.
Seeing that there was almost no harvest this year and no one knew how long the drought would last, he decided that instead of waiting to die here, he would take his whole family and flee the famine.
It was at this time that Zhou Yunshu and her group arrived at Dujia Village.
"There is a children's room next door, and the little brother can live there." The speaker was Boss Du's wife, Yang.
"Thank you. I wonder who is the head of your family?"
After finally finding a decent place to stay, Zhou Yunshu wanted to get some hot food for the group.
"It's my mother-in-law."
"Then please help me, sister-in-law. I want to buy some food."
Zhou Yunshu didn't ask for much. She bought 30 kilograms of white flour and 20 kilograms of corn flour from the Du family. She also bought 15 eggs, a handful of vermicelli, two cabbages and a piece of bacon.
These meals plus the night's accommodation cost a total of one or two or three coins of silver.
Chunque made dinner, which included egg dumpling soup, corn tortillas, cabbage, bacon and vermicelli stew, and a bowl of chicken soup with only a few pieces of meat sent by the Du family.
There was a small incident while cooking. Chunque felt that the millstone was in the way, so she picked it up and moved it to the wall, which scared the Du family.
This seemingly casual action was done intentionally by Zhou Yunshu at Chunque's request. She wanted to let this family know that although there were more women and children in their group, they were not without the ability to protect themselves.
Zhou Yunshu and others did not touch the chicken soup sent by the Du family. During the meal, Fang Huiwen briefly explained the situation of the Du family to Zhou Yunshu and others.
Speaking of which, the Dujia Village's decision to flee famine had a lot to do with the family they stayed with.
Because of years of drought, people in Dujia Village had actually thought about fleeing famine a long time ago, but escaping famine is not so easy. Unless they really can't survive, no one is willing to leave their hometown.
The people of Dujia Village are now willing to flee famine for two reasons.
One of the reasons was that a small village not far from them was robbed by bandits. Dujia Village was spared because it was a large village, but knowing that there were bandits around them, they were panicked even though they had a large number of people.
Another reason was that this time when Du Laoer came back from escorting the goods, he also brought back the people who had escorted with him.
The people who were escorting the caravan with Du Laoer could not survive in their hometown, so they planned to flee south with their families.
As for why they didn’t run to the capital, of course it was because they came from the capital.
There were too many refugees heading towards the capital, and they would be driven back before they even got close to the capital.
Not to mention the severe drought around the capital. If they can't enter the capital, won't they just be waiting to die if they stay outside?
Instead of this, it’s better to go to the south. I heard that the weather in the south is good and rice can be planted twice a year, so you won’t starve to death.
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