Chapter 234 The World is Different
Mrs. Zhu was cursing and swearing here, and Mrs. Sun was not much better over there. The most annoying thing in her mind was that after entering the city, she couldn't find any clinic where she could get her teeth treated.
Sun was cleaning and cursing at the same time, cursing at everything she saw. Dingxiang and Dingmei were ordered around the house by her, and Ding De was not having a good time either.
Later, Dabao and Erbao came to inform the men of each family to go out and meet to discuss matters. The county town was in urgent need of people and it was time to start dividing the work.
Now that was good, Ding De immediately ran away.
Magistrate Hu was a man who was very careful with his money. He would not allow these people to have a single day of idleness in his city, so he urged everyone to do their work as soon as possible.
After going through all this, Mr. Lu realized that the city was indeed short of people. There were not enough yamen runners in the government office, and there was no one to guard the grain warehouses in the city, and there were also patrollers and cleaners.
Even now, when we heard that General Minyuan's army was about to withdraw to Wo County, we didn't even have a decent and spacious kitchen.
They had to organize more people and set up tents and stoves along the street at the entrance to the city. It was no problem to cook temporarily, and they had to set up more tents. With so many soldiers coming in, everyone could line up in several teams and eat at the same time.
This idea was thought up by Ding Gui and was taken from the food stalls in his previous life.
Magistrate Hu was both happy and troubled. "Having so many stoves has improved efficiency, which is a good thing, but where is all the food going to come from? Isn't this going to drive me to death?"
General Min is fighting for his country, and his words carry great weight in the court. In this difficult and dangerous moment, if the local officials he wants do not provide the help he wants, wouldn't that be clearly seeking death?
Master Lu comforted him: "General Min has his own military rations. When the time comes, we will explain the situation to him. We will provide the manpower and he will provide the food, and that will work."
But Magistrate Hu was still unsure. He didn't dare to reason with General Min. He just hoped that he would take his army to other counties and never come to Wo County.
Later, Zhang Xiu set up the pot, lit the fire, and started cooking.
After registering whether to stay or leave, Village Chief Lai Fu distributed all the food in the village.
Whether they left or stayed, everyone had a share. Everyone used leaves to fetch water and hands to grab a handful of rice. In short, everyone's common property was divided up.
The rest is just a matter of fate.
It is most beneficial for Ding Xiaodie's family to live separately at the moment. They have both water and food, and there are meat and vegetables in the space, so they will not lack food for the time being.
As for whether to distribute the food to the other eleven families, we will have to find the right time after we settle down.
At the moment, Zhang Xiu didn't dare to expose herself too much, so she cooked a full pot of rice, made some cabbage soup, and fried a bowl of cured ham. Fortunately, every family has some dried meat now, so it doesn't matter if the aroma gets out.
The most important thing was the pot of rice. When they were in the team, they almost only drank porridge. In Ding Gui's words, if they hadn't secretly eaten a few sausages, their intestines would have been rusted.
Fortunately, the old woman was sometimes lucid and sometimes confused, and as long as she had something to eat, she was fine. She had no idea where the food came from.
After the meal was ready, Ding Xiaodie went to the street to call her father back and learned that his job was to manage the cooking for General Min's troops.
Along the way, Ding Gui told his daughter, "Looks like we need to invite all the women in the village. Your mother will probably have to go too. Otherwise, what can we, a bunch of men, cook?"
Ding Xiaodie nodded: "This is difficult to do. Look at how few people there are in the city. Besides, we have no choice but to stay."
That night, the family of four had a hearty meal.
Ding Gui wiped the oil off his mouth and went to build a stove with the villagers. Those guys ate little and had little strength, so Ding Gui had to do the work of three of them.
I don’t know when it started, but the originally skinny Ding Gui has slowly become stronger. His sickly physique has disappeared, and now it seems that he has developed a body of visible muscles without realizing it.
Even Miao Dayou was puzzled. "Agui, you made the right decision to flee the famine this time. I see that you are in much better health than before."
Others then looked at him and said, "Yes, it is indeed different from before."
"It seems that Uncle Gui lacked exercise when he was in the village?" Dabao said with a smile.
Everyone laughed jokingly. Ding Gui shook his head and said, "Don't laugh at me. I worked very hard on the farm when I was in Aozigou, okay?"
Just as they were laughing and talking happily, they found that several people suddenly came to the stove they had built, and then more and more people came, until there were no less than ten people.
Everyone looked at them expectantly.
"What's wrong? What do you want to do?" Village chief Lai Fu had no choice but to put down the work at hand and go forward to ask.
The first person who arrived asked, "Excuse me, big brother, are you guys setting up the stove?"
"Yes, what's the matter? We are following the order of the county magistrate to build a stove here."
In order to avoid conflict with the locals, Village Chief Lai Fu emphasized his tone, especially the words "the magistrate's order", which sounded very loud and clear.
After hearing this, the group of people quickly said: "We have no ill intentions."
"Then what are you doing here?"
"We just thought that since there was a stove, there would definitely be food, so we came early to wait, for fear that we would miss the opportunity and not have the food." The man said with a flattering smile, and he wanted to take out the broken bowl hidden in his arms for people to see.
Ding Gui and others were stunned when they heard this, but they quickly came to their senses.
No wonder these people gathered around to watch them. It turned out that they thought the people from Aozigou were going to start cooking.
Seeing more and more people gathered around, Ding Gui had no choice but to shout, "Everyone, listen to my advice and go home quickly! We need to build a stove, but we need to welcome General Minyuan and his troops, so you should all go back. We are cooking military rations. Those soldiers are working hard to guard the border and risking their lives to protect us, so the rice we cook can only be eaten by them. Do you understand?"
This is such a simple truth, isn't it? Soldiers serve the country, nothing else, and making sure they have enough to eat is the most basic principle.
But after Ding Gui finished speaking with an excited look on his face, the group of people surrounding the stove looked numb.
In their eyes, there is no hatred for family and country at all. There is only food and being full, which is more important than anything else.
Well!
Ding Gui was stunned for a moment.
Just as he was about to say a few more words, a few yamen runners suddenly came running over and shouted to drive the group away.
The one who screamed the loudest, cursed and kicked people was actually Miao Wang.
Hey, that bastard Miao Wang was actually assigned to the yamen as a runner. He was wearing an old runner's uniform and looked very proud!
Everyone in the village shook their heads and sighed. The world is different these days. Even old sows climb trees!
(End of this chapter)
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