Chapter 341 Selecting members of the outbound team to go to Chenzhou
Master Jiang said again, "It's right to let Xiangxi and the other four stay there to guard. After seeing how the people sent here treat Mrs. Lai, we can also prepare in advance how to deal with the people sent by Song Shu."
Zhou Yan asked loudly, "Dad, do you mean those people will come after families like ours?"
After asking, I remembered that Huo Bing was not at home.
If Huo Bing was at home, the servants of the Song family would come and talk to Huo Bing directly. Whether it succeeded or not would be a matter between the two of them. Now that Huo Bing is out, they have to go back to report. Wouldn't the whole village have to inquire about it?
Maybe we have to check the confession to see if there are any loopholes!
Xie Qingshan had more and worse thoughts. He said thankfully, "It might be a good thing that Huo Bing is away. You think about what Lai Po said, that Master Song relied on the Yue family to get to the top, and then had an affair with his wife's maid, and then ruined the Yue family and didn't want his wife and children anymore.
Did he come to Huo Bing out of love for his daughter? And how could he agree to Huo Bing going to look for her biological mother and grandparents? Who knows what other troubles will arise then! "
Jiang Ying and Li Xiulan nodded in agreement in horror.
really!
Li Xiulan patted her chest in fear and sighed, "Fortunately, Master Song only has Ah Bing."
If he had one more child, Bing probably wouldn’t have survived.
Zhou Yan snorted coldly: "Maybe it's because Ah Bing's mother is so blessed that he can have one child. Otherwise, why can't the other concubines in his harem give birth to children?"
If he had continued to be with Ah Bing's biological mother, he might have had both a son and a daughter long ago, but he had to cheat on her with other children.
I don't know what happened to Ah Bing's mother and her family. Could they have survived the harsh conditions of exile? How many of them could have survived?
Shen Qing thought that from a scientific point of view, Song Shu should have weak sperm, and Huo Qinglin had a good physique since he was a child because of martial arts, so she got pregnant with an extremely low probability.
Song Shu's character was not high to begin with, and he even had an affair with a maid. As a result, neither of them got pregnant, but he thought it was Huo Qinglin's fault, and blamed him for not being able to have a son. He cruelly brought down his father-in-law's family, just in time for promotion and wealth to kick out his wife!
His first wife took away the little girl he didn't love or care about, just to make room for other children. But more than ten years later, he found that there was no need to make room at all.
Shen Qing wanted to laugh, but tried hard to hold it back.
Alas, if this man had just done his duty and stayed with his wife, he might have had many children long ago.
His official position might be lower than it is now, or even higher. I don't know what he is trying to achieve by going through all this trouble...
Mr. Jiang listened to the younger generation talking and thought of what Shen Qing had said when he came here: it would take at least seven or eight days for someone from the capital to arrive, or at most two days. After a moment's thought, he said to Xie Qingshan, "Qingshan, you guys should get ready. It's best to load the goods today and set off early tomorrow morning!"
The outbound team was led by Xie Qingshan, who had experience in escorting convoys, and the most important skill for an escort was knowing the way.
Jiang Ying, Zhou Yan, and Li Xiulan looked at their father in surprise, "So urgent?"
Mr. Jiang nodded and said, "Well, the character of the people sent by Mr. Song is unknown. It's not good to keep too much goods in the village. I'd rather send them out as soon as possible and turn them into silver so that I can feel at ease."
The three of them thought so too.
Since October last year, dozens of people have been making brushes, and the cheapest one costs more than 100 coins. With so many of them stored in the warehouse, not to mention other livelihoods, what if one offends someone by not paying attention when speaking, and they find a reason to confiscate the goods?
As the old saying goes, the people should not fight against the officials. Even if they were sent as servants, they represented Master Song! The servants of the high officials in the capital, the county magistrate of Jincheng would probably feel neglected even if they flattered them. In that case, whatever they said would be the final word.
"Yes, the sooner it is shipped out, the better."
"Dad, should we take all the inventory from our sugar mill? If those people come, wouldn't it be better to stop working?"
"Stop working. Don't show off your wealth. We have several businesses, so it's always better to be cautious."
Mr. Song may not look down upon the livelihood of their village, but the people who came were servants. How could Mr. Song know that they were taking advantage of his power to secretly eat up their livelihood?
Even if they knew, would they care?
It is better to have less trouble than more, so it is better to be cautious.
Shen Qing felt that everyone's sense of crisis was stronger than hers!
She had only just started it, and they had already thought of the follow-up.
Very good, she doesn't need to remind me repeatedly.
The next step is to discuss the members of the outbound team.
The first trip was in winter, and all the men were selected.
Xie Qingshan led the team, and Jiang Xiangbei and Jiang Xiangnan were responsible for negotiating business.
The team is mainly composed of married people with children, and only one unmarried brother is selected to go.
So each of the three Lei families selected one. There were many married people with children in the village, so a total of twenty-five were selected.
Every family in Xu Lin's group had children, and each had several children, so thirty-two people were selected.
Including Xie Qingshan and the other two, there were a total of sixty people in the outbound team.
They are strong men equipped with warm bedding, cotton-padded jackets, sufficient food, and swords and crossbows. When they encounter disaster victims and refugees who are hungry and cold, they will not necessarily lose even if there are more than a hundred of them!
Not to mention those evil people on the road who are greedy for money. Although they are bad, they are not blind. They know to pick on the weak instead of biting the hard stones.
That afternoon, all the families in the village went out to knead the dough, make steamed buns, make steamed rolls, make pancakes, fry the noodles and rice. There were only two or three men from each family, and since they would be away for at most ten days, they cooked together. With so many people, it took them an afternoon and half an evening to finish the meal.
Shen Qing distributed the food and each family prepared food for their men who were away from home.
The women were extremely excited. They were paid for their work, and the food their masters gave them was mostly refined rice and flour! There were only a few coarse grains, enough to fill them up with food every meal!
There are also pork and lard scraps, with the lard scraps being the most. Chop them up and add them to green onions to make pancakes. They are fragrant, crispy and oily. When you are out and about, just light a fire on the road and let it sit for a while to warm up.
Fried noodles and fried rice are eaten when you are on the road. You can't make a fire, so you just grab a handful and put it in your mouth and drink a few sips of water to wash it down your stomach. It's not as delicious as when washed down with hot water, but as long as it fills your stomach, why bother with that?
When I was fleeing last year, it was common for me to pick up any edible wild vegetables and weeds on the roadside and stuff them directly into my mouth without even washing them. Later on, I even had to be frugal with my wild vegetables. Now, having fried rice and fried noodles with added salt or sugar is something I can’t even imagine!
The men were preparing fodder to feed the newly bought donkeys, and also checking various necessities such as machetes and oilcloths.
Shen Qing was not too worried about food.
This trip is to Chenzhou, about five or six months' journey, so only the third and fourth children in the family will go. There must be plenty of food in Chenzhou, so if you don't bring enough food, you can replenish it there.
Chenzhou is located further north of Jinzhou and is the largest transit city to the north. The area further north is vast and fewer merchants go there. The profits are huge, but their manpower is limited, and it is not good to make the selling journey too long.
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