Chapter 119 Seventy Percent
Mrs. Wang had a diarrheal illness and made a lot of noises in the toilet before coming out. She returned to the Lu family, sat down and drank a bowl of water, which indicated that she had recovered. As they were busy preparing for the New Year, she knew her daughter was busy making a living outside, so she didn't sit there for long. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law left with the basket.
Mrs. Lu sent the person out of the courtyard gate, watched the person walk away, and turned to walk towards the west wing.
The door lock was still hanging, and a corner of the window paper had been carefully and neatly opened along the edge with a fingernail. When it was put down, it looked normal, but a piece could be lifted up with a finger, enough to see the situation in the room clearly.
She snorted, turned around and went into the kitchen to get busy. Everyone in the family would go to Chen Lie's courtyard in the middle of the night, so she had to prepare three days of dry food and was busy.
Ten miles outside the village, they finally left the village. There was no one on the mountain road. The eldest daughter-in-law of the Wang family could no longer contain her excitement: "Mom, do you know? Chun Niang is still hiding something. The grain of the Lu family is piled up on the shelves, filling up the whole room. There are at least more than forty bags! More than forty bags!"
Mrs. Wang almost cried out in surprise: "More than forty bags?"
"Yes, many of them are the big bags used by the county grain store to store grain. One bag is one dan! Some are slightly smaller bags. They should be the grain and beans harvested by the family. The Lu family must have at least 36 or 37 dan of grain, right?"
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law looked at each other and silently counted the population of the Lu family: "Wouldn't this be enough to feed them for three years?"
This is based on a normal diet. If there is a disaster, who will eat normally? Wouldn't we have to eat frugally? It's OK if we don't starve to death. We can survive four or five years, right?
"The Lu family doesn't have that much wealth, right? Even if their own grain accounts for a small part, there is still more than half. How much has the grain price increased? Can they afford so much grain?"
They didn't believe that they bought the food early. The Lu family bought their own grain and sent a letter to their family right after that. At that time, the sale was restricted. Even the beans had skyrocketed in price when their family members went a few days late. The amount that could be bought in a day was not much. The prices of grain and beans kept going up. As time went by, they became more and more expensive. How much money could be used to buy dozens of bags of grain to store at home?
"I don't know, Chun Niang is really blessed."
After the eldest daughter-in-law of the Wang family secretly saw how much grain the Lu family had stored, she became completely jealous and became more determined to win over the Lu family. If the world really fell into chaos, the Lu family must be made to follow their Wang family. She must not let the Feng family take over both people and grain.
The Wang family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had such an idea in mind, but they didn't know that they had arrived at Shili Village in the morning, while Feng's Dalang and Feng's Erlang also appeared in the village in the afternoon.
The Feng brothers carried a backpack on their backs. They did not enter the village from the entrance, but came down from the mountain behind the Lu family. Although they took a shortcut, they were still seen by several neighbors of the Lu family. They exclaimed in surprise, "Oh, isn't this Liu Niang's brother? Are you here to visit your relatives today as well?"
also?
The two brothers felt a little surprised, and then they heard from the neighbor that someone from the Wang family had also come to visit.
Feng Dalang and Feng Erlang said "oh" and smiled without saying anything. After a few pleasantries, they went to Lu's house.
After entering the yard, they first asked loudly if their aunt was there. After hearing the sound, Mrs. Lu came out of the kitchen, and then the two brothers walked in with a smile.
Mrs. Lu pulled him into the main room affectionately: "Come in and have a drink of water. How are you today?"
Feng Dalang was still at the door of the main hall. He put down the backpack behind him, removed the things covering it, and took out a tightly tied pheasant from it. He whispered, "You have learned very well. My second brother and I have learned how to go into the forest to get some food. My parents have always asked me to thank you. Thank you, brother Shen. Today, I caught three pheasants. I gave one to brother Shen and one to you as a dish."
When Mrs. Lu saw the pheasant, her eyes lit up: "Did you two catch it yourselves?"
Feng Dalang smiled and nodded, and put the chicken outside the main hall for his in-laws, and whispered, "We don't want to drink the water. There are refugees in the county recently, and the family is also nervous. We have to take our cousins to practice the slingshots when we go back. Aunt in-laws, Brother Shen said that he has taught us everything we have learned. From now on, it will all depend on us to explore and practice. We should rarely come here for a while."
Mrs. Lu knew that although they only said they were going to prevent refugees and didn't say what, there were elderly people in her in-laws' family who had lived through the war and they must have thought of finding a way out. When she heard what they said, she immediately prepared food. She couldn't afford fine grains, so she stockpiled a lot of beans when they were cheap. She was afraid they would find a place to hide these things.
She nodded: "Okay, go ahead and get busy. Be careful. Please also tell your parents and grandparents to take good care of themselves."
"Hey, take care of yourself too. When my sister comes back from the county, please tell her not to worry about the family. Your family has helped us a lot."
Mrs. Lu's eyes were a little hot, and she nodded: "Okay, okay."
The two brothers delivered the pheasant to Mrs. Lu, said goodbye and left. This time, Mrs. Lu walked all the way to the outside of the yard.
The same situation actually applies to the Shi family and the Zhou family. Chen Lie has not been idle at all in the village in the past ten days. In addition to teaching the children of the five families, he has privately discussed with several other families and has also taken one or two young men selected from their reliable relatives. He did not teach them anything else but hunting and some self-defense skills to prevent refugees.
Several families went to deliver the letter, and were told not to spread the word. Everyone took the mountain road and met directly in the mountains. The time and place of learning with the five families' children were also completely staggered. In the end, one family got a small bottle of the life-saving stuff, and they all kept it carefully and did not mention it among their family members. The refugees were surrounding the gate of the county town, and this thing was actually a trump card at the critical moment.
…
In Qiyang County, Dongfulou, Manager Xu who had returned to his hometown in Shezhou also came back.
After returning to his hometown, Shopkeeper Xu did not look relaxed. Shezhou is the provincial capital, and the news that can be heard in Shezhou is much more than that in a remote small county like Qiyang. Moreover, the owner of Dongfulou is actually from Shezhou, and the owner's connections are more extensive than those of Shopkeeper Xu.
Therefore, this time when he returned, his expression became even more serious.
Chef Yu and the accountant naturally came over to inquire about the news. Shopkeeper Xu did not hide anything and told everyone everything he knew. Everyone looked a little solemn. It was not that there were no rebels in the past. The founding of the country was not long ago, and the territory was recovered little by little year by year. It was normal that every few years there would always be someone who rebelled in one or two places.
But there has never been such a large number of people rebelling.
The accountant and Shopkeeper Xu were old partners, so the accountant couldn't help but ask Shopkeeper Xu if he had any plans for the family.
Shopkeeper Xu nodded and said, "I don't know what will happen next. The boss said it's hard to tell how long the situation in the north will last, and whether the imperial court can suppress it. I can't make any other plans, so I rented a yard on a street behind the Wang family's mansion and settled my family there. I asked the boss shamelessly, asking him to let my wife, children and parents go to his house to seek shelter if the chaos really comes to our side."
The owner of Dongfulou is surnamed Wang, and the accountant of the Wang family mansion knows about it. Of course, he also knows that it is not that Manager Xu does not rent on the same street as the Wang family mansion, but that there are only a few households on the street where the Wang family mansion is located, and they are all properties of the Wang family. They are all large mansions covering a large area, and there is nowhere to rent even if you want to.
The owner of Dongfulou has some background, at least in Shezhou. The dynasty has long banned the keeping of retainers, but there are capable members of the gentry and commoners who have been employed as writers and tenants under the guise of Ding. I dare not say how powerful they are, but they should be able to protect the Wang family mansion at a critical moment.
The accountant was quite envious, thinking that only an old shopkeeper like Xu, who had followed his boss for more than ten years, had such dignity.
After talking about foreign affairs, he asked about the restaurant's affairs. Manager Xu glanced at the menu of the restaurant and found that a lot of items were missing. Upon closer inspection, he found that tofu, dried bean curd, and vegetarian tripe were all gone.
"Mrs. Sang and the others are not supplying the goods anymore?"
The accountant nodded, "There is no way to provide it. There are at least 200 refugees outside the county gate. The county government has repeatedly sent people to set aside a remote mountain area for them to settle down, but in this cold winter, they are reluctant to give them anything except a household registration. They have no food, no shelter, no farm tools, no grain, and they dare not even say that they are exempt from taxes. How can they settle down if they don't have anything they want?"
Shopkeeper Xu frowned so hard that a fly could be pinched to death: "How could this be? What good is there in having refugees surround the county? Isn't the county magistrate nervous?"
The accountant shook his head, seeing that no one was around, and said to Shopkeeper Xu, "We are arguing with the wealthy households in the county. They said that the disaster report has been submitted, but the official document has not yet come down, so we dare not open the warehouse privately, and ask the wealthy households in the county to provide grain and money."
Having said this, there is no need for the accountant to say anything more.
The rich families, the money and food of the rich families are not blown by the wind. If they are willing to set up a porridge stall and give out some porridge, they are already very kind-hearted. Most of them are probably taking the refugees from outside the county as fat meat. If they want to survive, they can just become slaves.
Of course there are people who are willing to be slaves, but they are only a minority. They have already escaped all the way without selling themselves, and the way to survival is right in front of them. How many people are willing to be slaves?
The three parties were in a stalemate here.
Shopkeeper Xu was speechless. It was impossible to supply goods in this situation. It was ok to go in and out of the county without bringing money or food. But if they brought money and food, they would not be safe unless they traveled with dozens of people.
Speaking of Sang Luo, the accountant naturally mentioned the day when Sang Luo and Shen Lie came to the county and brought back eight wolf skins and one black bear skin. Shopkeeper Xu was also stunned when he heard this and asked Chef Yu: "Did they also hunt these in the past?"
Chef Yu shook his head: "Not really. In the past, we only caught pheasants and rabbits."
Shopkeeper Xu wondered how Chen Lie and his companions got back to Huainan Road. They had to cross mountains and ridges and go around half of the territory of the Dagan Dynasty.
"He's a capable man."
It's good to have abilities, only with abilities can you survive.
…
Chen Lie and Sang Luo didn't know that Manager Xu from the county had mentioned them. His family had gotten a lot of pheasants recently, some caught by Chen Lie, and some sent here by the children of several families who had learned how to cook after Chen Lie had done so. Thinking that they would have to retreat to the mountains someday, Sang Luo couldn't bear to eat them all, so she made some cured chicken.
Shili Village was extremely quiet after nightfall. After all the families in the village had gone to bed, Chen Lie waited outside the yard. There was a rustling noise in the dark night, followed by three bird calls. Chen Lie responded, and soon figures appeared at the foot of the mountain. Seventeen people were carrying empty loads and had been hiding in the woods nearby for who knows how long, without even daring to light torches.
There were no lights in the main yard of the Shen family's house. Figures quickly went in, and then the door to the backyard was closed.
Chen Dashan and his men put the baskets in the backyard as if they were familiar with the place, and then went straight to the main house of the Shen family. The main house of the Shen family had now been emptied of all the things, and in order to make it convenient for everyone to sleep on the floor at night, even the bamboo racks had been moved to the backyard a few days ago.
Several families who stayed behind had already prepared food and were waiting here. It was now placed on the table in the main house. It was New Year's Eve, so the meals were sumptuous.
As soon as everyone came in, Sang Luo's room was so crowded that there was no place to stand. Mrs. Chen and a few others hurriedly left to make room.
The group of people only ate some dry food on the road today. They were already starving, and when they saw a table full of delicious food, they didn't even bother to wash their hands and just picked up the bowls and started eating.
Mrs. Chen whispered at the door: "Don't eat too hastily, eat slowly."
The five main grain-carrying families had a special New Year this year.
After everyone had eaten, Sang Luo and Shen Lie spread out the mat on the floor and sat on it to talk about business.
From the 14th to the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, they worked without rest every day and made three trips in total. There were 20 people in the first trip, and three people were left to watch the grain in each of the next two trips. Seventeen people carried the grain. Of course, the smallest Tiezhu could only be regarded as a handyman.
The men were stronger and could carry two stones of grain in one trip by gritting their teeth. The women picked up small bags of grain from each household and carried one and a half stones or one stone in one trip. After three trips, they managed to carry more than eighty stones of grain.
It can be said that now, except for the Lu family, which has not transported a bag of grain, the Shen family's grain was the first to be moved out because they had to make room for everyone to live. The Shi family and the Chen family have small populations and relatively less grain, and now there is not much left. Only the Zhou family has more grain stored and has not been transported because of its large population and good financial situation.
Chen Dashan had always been in charge, so he said to Shen Lie, "With one more trip, our four families will be able to move everything except the food and rations, and we will still have some spare capacity. Each family can take a look tonight to see if there are any other important things they need to take, such as salt, and can carry them first. It will be New Year's Eve in a few days after this trip, so we can carry the bags and other things on our backs and pretend to return to the village from the county, and carry the next trip on the second day of the first lunar month."
This was already agreed upon. In the first leg, everyone would work together to transport 70% of the grain, and the remaining 30% would be carried by the Lu family alone to the first grain storage point.
In fact, the remaining 30%, apart from the one or two stone of food rations left by each family, was almost the Lu family's grain reserves.
Mrs. Lu's eyes lit up when she heard this. Finally, starting from the second day of the first lunar month, their family's grain could be transferred! Although it was much slower than if everyone else carried the grain together, Mrs. Lu couldn't help but feel excited.
Sang Luo also smiled a little, thought for a moment, and said, "It's just right. You all came back a few days before the New Year. Let's go to the county together to prepare for the New Year. If you have extra money, please keep some for emergencies. For the rest, I suggest you prepare some more salt or medicine."
Thinking that the medicinal herbs from the Lu and Shi families had not been purchased yet, he said, "If we don't have enough money, see if there is anything that is not good to take away. If it is necessary, we can pawn it. When the chaos really comes, once we leave, the houses in the village and the things in the houses will not belong to us. We can exchange more supplies, and salt can be stored for many years if it is properly stored. I don't know what will happen to the national destiny, but we have come to this point, why not prepare for the worst? In the past, if the turmoil of dynasties develops to the point of changing dynasties, it will not happen overnight. We'd better be prepared to live in seclusion in the mountains for a few years."
Everyone took these words to heart.
A few years.
Old man Chen nodded, "That's true. It's good luck to have a few years of peace. We have to listen to A'Luo on this matter. Think about it carefully. If we have to stay in the mountains for a few years, what do we need? Let's buy everything at once. It won't be a big deal to buy it while preparing for the New Year. Besides, we can only gather young and strong people in these few days to go to the county."
Everyone nodded, and each family gathered together to discuss, but the room was so small that everyone could hear what was said, and each family gave each other suggestions from time to time.
At the end, Shi Erlang's wife pulled her sister-in-law Gan to the backyard to gossip. What she was talking about was that her brothers and Gan's younger brother had learned archery from Chen Lie for some time.
"To be safe, I'm teaching you how to use a slingshot, but it's not difficult to switch to a bow and arrow. I've also given you the medicine. Your second brother asked me to tell you to be at ease."
Gan wiped her eyes and nodded: "Okay, okay."
In the same situation, Mrs. Lu and Feng Liuniang, the wife of Zhoucun, privately told their daughters-in-law that some were going to the bathhouse to relieve themselves, and some were going to the kitchen to wash dishes. They had different excuses, but they all avoided Wang Chunniang.
After the serious matters were discussed, the food and dry rations to be picked up for the next day were also prepared. It was time for those who had been walking in the mountains for more than ten days to lie down and rest, so Mrs. Chen and the others said goodbye and left.
On the way, Granny Chen whispered to Granny Lu: "They will be back in a few days, so you must take good care of Chunniang."
Wang Chunniang was clear about the details of the first leg.
Mother Lu patted Mother Wang and said with a smile, "Don't worry. This time I will tie her up and gag her. Then I will lock the door. She won't be able to go out. Even if her mother comes to hang around before the New Year, I won't be able to call her. I will explain the reason to the children. This concerns the life and death of the whole family. They all know what to do. Let Shuanzhu and Tiezhu keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't make any noise. I will never cause any trouble to you guys again."
She didn't dare to trust Wang Chunniang anymore. No matter if she still made stupid mistakes or how she guaranteed it, she would never give her any chance.
Shi Erlang's wife, who was walking with him, breathed a sigh of relief and praised in a low voice: "Aunt, you are really a wise person. With your words, I can spend the New Year with peace of mind."
Mrs. Chen laughed. Shi Erlang's wife was good in every way except that she was outspoken. Well, her outspokenness made her very likable here.
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