Chapter 4 All savings and assets in the family
Jiang Xiangdong quickly went out to call a doctor, his steps were very fast.
Shen Qing said to Huo Bing and Xiaohua, the only two people left in the room, "You two should go back to the room first and wait for the doctor to come and see us."
She had to conserve her energy until the food arrived, and she really didn't have the energy to say or do anything else.
"Okay, mother-in-law, you have a good rest." Huo Bing took Xiaohua and walked towards his room, looking back every few steps. There was confusion and reluctance in his eyes, but the previous distrust was gone.
Shen Qing waved his hand.
After a while, the boiled eggs were served. They had no sugar and were salty.
Shen Qing thought that if she had brown sugar and vegetable oil, she could fry a few oily poached eggs, pour in boiling water, and then scoop in two or three spoonfuls of brown sugar and simmer over low heat until the flavor is absorbed. This would be extremely nourishing for women in confinement.
Unfortunately, salt is a precious commodity these days, and sugar is even more precious than salt. Families like theirs have to be frugal with salt, let alone buy brown sugar.
Shen Qing took a bite, and the delicate and silky taste in the mouth was completely different from the paste mixed with corn cobs. It was the ultimate delicacy for a hungry body!
It’s so delicious!
In the past, she only used chicken eggs to fry, even for fried eggs. She always felt that duck eggs were not as fresh and smooth as chicken eggs, and they even had a faint fishy smell. But today, she actually felt that the boiled eggs made with duck eggs were very delicious.
Yes, there are duck eggs in the bowl.
Xingcheng has many water bodies with abundant snails, various water plants and other aquatic organisms. When ducks are driven out in the morning, they are mostly full when they come back in the evening, so there is no need to spend extra time and effort to feed them. Therefore, many households raise ducks.
When there are too many ducks, not only the ducks themselves are worthless, but also the duck eggs. Chicken eggs are fresher and smoother than duck eggs. Two chicken eggs can be exchanged for three duck eggs. Therefore, even if every family is willing to eat one or two duck eggs, they will never eat chicken eggs.
All the chicken eggs were stored, and most of the duck eggs were also saved, and then exchanged for salt and various daily necessities when going to the city or the market.
Shen Qing was already very satisfied to have duck eggs to eat.
She finished one in a few bites, then quickly ate the other one. Finally, she drank up all the soup in the large earthenware bowl. She seemed to have finally come back to life!
My body, which had been almost exhausted from hunger, gradually regained its strength.
After sitting on the edge of the bed for a while, Shen Qing took a breath and began to check all his assets.
According to her memory in the dream, she first moved to the innermost side of the bed, turned up the heavy gray and black quilt, took out a small cloth bag, and poured it all onto the bed.
I counted it carefully twice, eleven pieces of silver and three hundred and twenty-seven copper coins.
Shen Qing didn't know how much the broken silver was worth, but she knew how to look at the size. The eleven pieces of broken silver were not big and their sizes were almost the same. Considering the family's financial situation, she guessed that each piece should be about one or two taels.
This means that the largest asset of the entire family now is only these eleven taels plus three hundred and twenty-seven copper coins!
In ancient times, salt was controlled by the imperial court and was an important source of revenue for the national treasury. A pound of salt cost seventy or eighty wen, and a person would need about two or three pounds of salt in a whole year.
Their whole family spends at least one or two taels of silver on salt every year!
Eleven taels of savings is really too little. No wonder they had no ability to resist risks while fleeing after the flood.
Money was worthless when fleeing, but the cities we passed by later were not flooded, and they had everything we needed for food and daily necessities, which we could buy with silver.
The most important thing is that after finding a suitable place to live, which of building a house, reclaiming land, and food does not require money?
Thinking of the flood, Shen Qing's mind immediately emerged with the tragic scenes she had seen. She hurriedly got out of bed and walked towards the sacks piled in the corner.
There were three sacks, two of which were bulging, and one was half collapsed.
She first opened the half-collapsed sack, which contained ground corn flour. The yellow flour was mixed with white and brown particles. She guessed that the porridge she had eaten at the beginning of the day was made with it.
Shen Qing frowned. If corn cobs were ground into powder for human consumption, then wouldn't the other two sacks be filled with unshelled corn?
It is only March now, and the wheat will not be harvested until early May. How can this little bit of food be enough to sustain the whole family until the wheat harvest?
March and April are the time when there is a shortage of food, so no wonder people are reluctant to throw away corn cobs and grind them up and mix them with other foods.
Shen Qing still untied the ropes of the two sacks. One of them contained unshelled corn, just as she had guessed; the other one caught her eye first and was a cloth bag.
"Huh?"
Shen Qing opened the cloth bag and found that it was white flour. He tried it and found that the weight was about five or six pounds. It was not much, but it was a fine grain and a valuable commodity. No wonder it had to be stored separately in a cloth bag.
But these five or six pounds of white flour are only enough for a family to eat for one meal. If you add more vegetables and wild vegetables to make porridge, it will barely be enough for a day.
There is no money, no meat, no oil, and little salt. Even coarse grains and vegetables cannot be eaten freely. When the floods come in June and July, how will we have the strength to escape the famine?
On the road to escape famine, not only do they have to face long journeys and lack of food and clothing, but they also have to face disaster victims who may come to rob them at any time. They have to be careful when traveling during the day, and they cannot really sleep peacefully at night. In such a situation, even a strong person can be exhausted to the point of being skin and bones!
It would be good if only one out of ten was left, but often there would be not a single one left in each family.
The flood will hit in two or three months. With only eleven taels of silver in savings and three sacks of grain, this family is so poor that they don't even have the capital to start a business.
The more Shen Qing looked at it, the colder he felt.
She turned to look at the chicken and duck eggs behind the door.
There were two wicker baskets behind the door. There were only a few chicken eggs in them, probably about ten. There were obviously more duck eggs in the basket, probably more than forty.
Shen Qing thought of making salted duck eggs, and then thought of salt, which cost seventy or eighty cents per pound.
The cost of duck eggs is not high, but salt is not cheap. However, if there is no one selling salted duck eggs in the city, even if the price is not high and the profit is low, at least there is a profit;
The only fear is that someone in the city is already selling salted duck eggs. If that happens, no one will try them and the competition will be fierce. If they can't be sold, they'll be a waste of money. This family can't afford the financial hardship.
After harvesting wheat in May, corn is usually planted quickly and harvested at the end of September. People are reluctant to eat the wheat and mostly sell it. The money earned is used for living and the rest is saved. Corn is the food supply for the whole family for a year.
But if there is a flood in June, corn will definitely not be harvested, and wheat cannot be sold as staple food. Even if it is sold, it will have to be used to buy coarse grains, and there will be very little left.
The biggest money-making project of the year is gone.
There are only two or three months left.
Shen Qing looked at the sky outside and felt worried.
I’ll worry about the things far away later, and take care of the things nearby first - and tell my sons to implement the "more work, more pay" policy from now on.
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