More than ten days had passed since the locust plague, and with the county magistrate's comfort, the people's emotions gradually stabilized from their initial panic.
However, there was still no news about opening the granaries to release grain. Instead, another major event happened.
An earthquake occurred in the north of Prince Changding's fiefdom, affecting two counties and causing heavy casualties.
The successive disasters made the people panic even more. They ran to the county town again to ask the county magistrate to open the granaries and release grain. Finally, the bailiffs killed several people who were leading the riot and the matter was barely suppressed.
But the resentment in the hearts of the people has grown to a new level, taking root and sprouting in their hearts.
After waiting for such a long time, many people realized that the court might not open the granaries to release grain at all, and began to go to grain stores to buy grain.
But now the price of food changes every day. Brown rice, which used to cost only a dozen cents per pound, now costs thirty cents.
In order to survive, many people bought grain no matter how high the price was, but there were also people who struggled to hold on, thinking that the court would definitely not ignore them.
The news of soaring food prices spread to the surrounding villages and towns, and naturally everyone in Shenjia Village knew about it.
The grain in the town has become more expensive, and there are still some families who have harvested their grain in advance!
They set their sights on those families who collected their grain in advance.
They didn't dare to target the village head's family, and his family had only collected half of the grain. After much deliberation, they finally set their sights on Shen Yu'an's family.
"Mr. Shen's family didn't have to pay taxes in previous years, and this year they harvested grain from these acres of land. How could his family members finish eating all that grain? In my opinion, we are all fellow villagers, so he should help us a little." said Lin Erdan, who was standing under a big tree at the entrance of the village.
There are two major householders in Shenjia Village, the Shen and Lin families. However, the Lin family moved here later, and some people with other surnames also moved here later.
When people around him heard him say this, they knew that he probably hadn't heard about what happened at the Shen family yesterday, otherwise how could he dare to come up with such an idea.
Someone immediately said to him, "The boys from Mr. Shen's family are not easy to mess with. Yesterday, Zhao's family came to ask for some food, but they were beaten away. The girl from the Shen family is also very powerful. She kicked the person away."
"Everyone in our village knows that Zhao had severed ties with her natal family a long time ago. But we have been fellow villagers for decades. We can't just not give them a little face." Lin Erdan didn't take his words to heart. Besides, since there were so many people going, how could his family dare not take out food?
Some people thought that what Lin Erdan said made sense. Anyway, Shen Xiucai's family had more food than they could eat, so what was wrong in giving some to them?
The few of them hit it off and decided to go to the Shen family to force them to hand over the grain.
A huge group of people walked towards the Shen family, attracting many people along the way to follow and watch.
It has been so many days and every household is running out of food. If Mr. Shen's family gave them all the food, they should at least give some to those who meet them.
So more and more people gathered, and when they arrived at the gate of Shen's house, the number of people had reached nearly a hundred.
When they just passed by the village chief's house, Shen's wife found out about the situation. She told Shen about it and said, "They only care about their own lives and don't let everyone collect the food. They deserve to be robbed of their food."
When she said this, she had already forgotten that they had confiscated the grain because they were unwilling to believe.
Shen Li was sitting with his legs crossed and glanced out, but he didn't say anything.
There were several loud bangs, and the door of the Shen family was shaking. Shen Yu'an stood up and opened the door, and saw a huge crowd of people blocking the door.
In the past two days, Shen Yu'an took several men from the Shen family to the mountains to catch a lot of prey, and planned to smoke and store them.
When she opened the door, she was holding the kitchen knife she had just used to cut meat.
"What's the matter?" Shen Yu'an glanced coldly at the crowd outside, but he had already guessed what they were here for.
The person knocking on the door saw the shiny kitchen knife in Shen Yu'an's hand, and thought of how she kicked someone away yesterday. He was so scared that he took two steps back and said hesitantly, "Lin...Lin Erdan said he wanted to see you for something."
After saying that, he stepped aside, revealing Lin Erdan behind him.
"What do you want?" Shen Yu'an asked the man with triangular eyes who looked shorter than her.
Lin Erdan raised his head and said proudly, "Where is your man? You let a woman speak out. I'm here to discuss the food issue with your father."
As he said this, he raised his head and was about to enter from Shen Yu'an's side.
Shen Yu'an's face darkened, and he raised the kitchen knife in his hand and placed it across his neck.
Feeling the cold touch on his neck, Lin Erdan stopped in fear and swallowed carefully.
He took a half step back, and Shen Yu'an's hand stretched forward. The sharp blade cut his skin, and tiny drops of blood rolled down his neck.
Lin Erdan was so frightened that he dared not move, but his body kept shaking like a sieve.
"We can talk it over, let's talk it over. Put the knife down first." Lin Erdan had a sad face and regretted standing in the front and taking the lead. He should have fanned the flames in the crowd. By then, they would not be able to defeat so many people.
Shen Yu'an glanced at the blade pressed against Lin Erdan's skin with disdain. He would have to wash the knife carefully later, otherwise it would be unusable.
She took back the knife and saw Lin Erdan trying to run back into the crowd, so she helped him and kicked him out.
"Why, are you all here to see us for the same thing as him?" Shen Yu'an glanced at the crowd one by one.
The person she was staring at felt a chill on his neck, and quickly shook his head and took a few steps back towards the crowd.
There were still quite a few people standing there. Although they were scared, they also wondered what the Shen family could do to so many of them.
A middle-aged man in the crowd with a flattering smile on his face said, "It's been so long since the locust plague, and everyone's family is in a bit of a financial crisis. Can you guys help out a little?"
He didn't dare to treat Shen Yu'an as any other woman in the family. The Shen family doted on this girl, and she herself was very powerful.
"It seems that everyone has forgotten what I said." Shen Yu'an said casually.
After she reminded them of this, many people remembered what she had said at the beginning: If you can't borrow grain at that time, don't say that our family doesn't respect the friendship of our fellow villagers.
Some people looked embarrassed. At that time, no one knew that a locust plague would really happen.
But some people felt that the Shen family was not doing a good thing. A woman with drooping eyes in the crowd said, "We are all people who make a living from the soil. How can we understand those words? If Mr. Shen had said a few more words, we would have listened to him."
"Yes, I think you just can't stand to see your fellow villagers doing well, so you hide half and the other half. Now everyone is going to starve, and your family has to take out the food and share it with us." The speaker was Ma, who was at odds with the Shen family.
Shen Yu'an sneered, and the others who came out of the yard were also surprised to hear this. How could he be so shameless!
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