Chapter 3026: No Pie in the Sky (Updated on July 16)
The two were having dinner. When Zhou Man saw them, the first thing he asked was, "Have you eaten?"
The adults stood there somewhat stiffly, but the four children standing in the front shook their heads very honestly. Because they were thin, their eyes looked particularly big. One little girl raised her head and looked at Zhou Man with her round eyes, which almost took up half of her face.
Zhou Man reached out and took her hand, then turned and walked in. "Then let's eat first."
Bai Shan also stepped aside to let them in, and called Zhao Ming, "Come in and have something to eat."
Zhao Ming, who wanted to come to Xibing to ask for some soap because the county government didn't have any, said:
He didn't want to alarm the county magistrate and Lord Zhou!
Zhao Ming followed him in silently.
May was stunned for a while when she saw this group of people who looked even dirtier than beggars, then she quickly turned around and went to the kitchen to get some warm water for them to wash their faces and hands.
The servants in the yard became busy.
Zhou Man stopped her and said, "Ask the kitchen to cook the rice into porridge. Add a little more water and cook it until it's softer."
May glanced at them and felt a little confused. With so many people, she would probably have to prepare meals for everyone, right?
"What do you and your wife want to eat?"
"Let's eat porridge too. Go ahead and boil some water if you have any. It'll be quick."
There was no boiling water, but there was hot water. Mrs. He simply scooped everyone's rice into a big pot, added hot water and started cooking.
After they washed their faces and hands, Zhou Man took their pulses and cooked the porridge.
Mrs. He poured the porridge directly into a wooden barrel and brought it over. Even Zhu Sanlang, who had eaten full meals for two days, couldn't help swallowing when he saw the hot porridge, let alone others.
Sister He brought the wooden barrel over and, seeing that they were all sitting in the yard, she placed it under the porch and turned around, saying, "Let me get the bowls, chopsticks, and side dishes."
"No, no, we have bowls."
More than ten people immediately took out their bowls from their arms and bags. Some were wooden bowls, while others had chipped porcelain bowls. If this wasn't the county magistrate's house, they would have dispersed and divided the food.
But because this was the county magistrate's home, they didn't dare.
Bai Shan glanced at the bowls in their hands and felt that the warm water and medicated soap they had just used for washing should not be wasted, so he insisted, "Wait a moment."
Then he asked Mrs. He and the others to go downstairs to get the bowls, chopsticks and side dishes.
Fortunately, there were still a lot of servants in the Bai family. After a while, they brought various things from the kitchen and set up the dining table outside.
Wu Yue served them some porridge, and when she saw them about to drink it, she quickly stopped them, saying, "Be careful, it will burn your mouth."
Zhou Man's eyelids twitched, and he quickly said, "It's too hot and will burn your mouth and esophagus. If your esophagus is burned, you won't be able to eat anything you want."
After hearing this, a few people who didn't mind being burned didn't dare to pour the liquid into their mouths and could only sip it in small sips.
Zhou Man breathed a sigh of relief, and after they had all had theirs, he also took his bowl and went forward to line up to get a bowl.
Looking at Bai Shan, who also received a bowl of porridge and squatted on the steps to drink it like them, Zhao Ming was speechless for a long time.
Isn’t County Magistrate Bai too skilled?
The bucket of porridge was finished, and He's wife brought out another bucket and put it aside. The refugees saw the commotion and then quickened their pace to drink the porridge. Then Wu Yue and Jiu Lan also brought up a bucket...
The refugees slowed down their movements.
In order to make them drink more slowly, Zhou Man asked them to eat some snacks while Bai Shan talked to them, "Where are you from?"
There was a new group of refugees in the county town. Although their number was not large, Bai Shan had already learned about it from the yamen runners patrolling the streets.
However, after he sent yamen runners to persuade them to register at the yamen without success, he stopped forcing them. He probably guessed that they were just waiting and watching.
He didn't want to force anyone, so as not to leave a bad impression on the people coming later. Now that people have finally arrived, he naturally has a lot of questions to ask.
They said, "We came from Luzhou."
Zhao Ming thought about it but couldn't figure out where Luzhou was. Bai Shan asked, "Why are you wandering around?"
"I have no land, and I can't pay the taxes required by the court, so I left."
Bai Shan raised an eyebrow, "Is there no land left?"
Then two of them said embarrassedly: "We still have two acres of land, but the land is not good and there is no harvest. It is better not to plant it."
Bai Shan nodded slightly, "Why did you lose your land?"
The reasons vary, but the root cause is similar. Five years ago, Luzhou was hit by a drought...
"It wasn't a serious drought, but we were just unlucky that year. Then it finally rained, and for some reason, there were so many black insects on the rice ears. At first glance, the whole field was covered with those black insects. There weren't many husks on the rice ears, but the insects had bent the rice ears and gnawed a lot of the leaves."
"I tried everything: using fire to drive the rice, plucking it with my hands, but after a month of hard work, the rice husks were still empty. There was no harvest, and I had to pay taxes and survive, so I had to borrow money and grain from others. I thought I could pay it back by tightening my belt for a few years, but the harvest the following year was also mediocre. After paying the taxes, there was only enough left for the family to eat, and I couldn't pay it back at all."
"Mr. Zhao doesn't want to lend us money on credit anymore and wants us to pay him back immediately. We have no choice but to sell our land or mortgage it to him."
Bai Shan was solemn. "The imperial court has decreed that unless there is mourning or illness, the permanent land cannot be sold."
Permanent land cannot be bought or sold unless there is a death in the family and a funeral is needed, or a patient is in urgent need of medical treatment. It can only be sold after obtaining approval documents from the county government.
Bai Shan paused after he finished speaking, and obviously thought of the key point. If they wanted to sell these things, someone would naturally get them ready.
Sure enough, several people said, "This is very easy. Mr. Zhao just needs to tell the chief clerk in the county government office, and he can sell as much land as he wants."
They all felt that Mr. Zhao was a good man, but they were unlucky and had encountered a disaster year.
Bai Shan paused, but didn't say anything bad about Mr. Zhao. He just asked, "Didn't the county government provide relief back then?"
“The drought isn’t very severe.”
Are insect plagues also considered natural disasters?
However, Bai Shan opened his mouth and skipped the topic, asking, "Are you going to settle in Beihai County?"
Everyone was a little hesitant and couldn't help but look at Zhu Sanlang.
At this time, Zhu Sanlang was very confident in Beihai County and County Magistrate Bai, especially since County Magistrate Bai was squatting face to face with them, eating porridge with a bowl in hand. Which county magistrate could do this?
Therefore, he nodded fiercely, knelt on the ground and said: "As long as the master is willing to take us in, we will not refuse even if our lives depend on it."
Bai Shan put down the bowl, helped the man up and said, "It's not that serious. You can think about it for a while. The county also wants to observe you."
He said, "If you settle down here, the county will give you enough land to live on, build you a house, and exempt you from taxes for two years, but this is not unconditional."
Everyone felt relieved when they heard that he had the conditions. Otherwise, how could he have such good conditions?
They have been wandering outside for four years, all the way from Luzhou to here, and they have long known one thing: there is no free lunch in the world.
There was a power outage today and my laptop is almost out of power, so good night, hahahaha
(End of this chapter)
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