Mrs. Ma poured the rice into the pot and ate some of it, but she couldn't help but sigh. She said to Ms. Zhou, "We only have half a bucket of water left, and we can still cook for two days."
In these two days, I can only eat one meal a day. If I eat two meals a day, this little water will be enough for tomorrow.
If you cook dry rice, it will use less water than cooking porridge, but it will use more grain! If you want to feed the whole family even half a bowl, it will cost a lot of grain.
In short, everything is really difficult.
"The beating I gave the third child yesterday was a light one!" Ma couldn't help but be angry.
Yesterday, I used almost half a bucket of water to cook the soup! What a troublemaker! They just hide at home and laze around instead of doing any work, and they can't save their mouths.
Just because they were hiding at home and being lazy while everyone else went out, they took advantage of the opportunity and made all the food!
I never thought about it! Who knew they could do such a thing!
Ma was so angry that when she came back yesterday and saw the third family being beaten, she didn't try to persuade her mother like Zhou did. She even wished that her mother would beat them to death, killing them all and saving three people's food rations.
Zhou was also angry, but her mother-in-law was her aunt, so she knew what she was thinking. No matter how angry she was with the third child, he was still her son. For Liu Lang's sake, she wouldn't really do anything to them.
Therefore, she persuaded her to let her step down, otherwise, if she was really beaten to death, her mother would also become ill.
Seeing that her sister-in-law was still complaining, she quickly looked outside and hurriedly advised: "Okay, sister-in-law, don't talk about this. The third child has earned five kilograms of this grain!" It's still rice, which is completely enough.
That's some corn.
"You said that the third child really changed his gender after being beaten? He dared to rush forward in this fight, but it turns out that he has always been on the side. It is better to count on Si Ya than to count on him, and there are many people scolding each other.
"Ms. Ma muttered, but she didn't complain about it anymore. She stirred the pot with a spoon and smelled the aroma of rice coming out. She quickly stepped away because she was afraid that her saliva would fall into the pot.
So he simply sat down and leaned under the stove, smelling the fragrance and chatting with Mr. Zhou, "What do you think we should do on this day? My father and I went back to my parents' house to borrow food, but I
My parents' family was requisitioned for grain again two days ago. There were cries in the village. Even my parents' family can't bring in much food. I heard that the next time the grain is collected, it will be our county's turn again.
!”
Mrs. Zhou opened her mouth wide and said bitterly for a long time: "You can't just use one piece of wool to harvest this wool! It's been so difficult for us in Yunzhou this year, but our grains are still being levied again and again. This is not giving people a way to survive."
ah!"
At this time, Mrs. Xu in the upper room was also scolding, "We, the people of Yunzhou, have had no harvest this year. We are seeing people starving to death. These officials don't even mention providing food for disaster relief to keep us going."
It’s just this year, and they still ask us to pay food. How can we make sense in this? This inhumane court, I tell you, it’s better to just ask the patron king to be beaten to the palace!"
Old Man Xu glanced at her. If it had been in the past, he would have stopped her and told her not to say anything about beheading her.
But now, he doesn't stop him at all. The world is going into chaos, so who is afraid?
To be honest, it would be better to ask the patron king to rebel and succeed.
At least, the patron king is a hero in the hearts of the people in the world. Once he becomes the emperor, he will definitely not care about the life and death of the people.
And the current emperor...
Hey, don’t mention it!
Old Man Xu only needs to think of the floods in Yuzhou next door a few years ago, and the refugees flocking to their state capital in droves. It was really miserable to witness.
As for the landowner Wang and his family, there are currently several long-term maidservants. Aren’t they the victims who escaped from the disaster and were forced to sell themselves into slavery?
There was a flood in May, and in July the refugees flocked to surrounding towns to rely on the porridge shacks of wealthy households for help. Many people died, including those who died of illness, heat, starvation, and cold.
But the imperial court had just entered winter, and it was only as an afterthought that relief grains were sent.
I heard someone said that at that time the emperor was busy taking refuge in the palace to escape the summer heat, and then he was busy going for autumn hunting.
Looking at it this way, Yunzhou suffered a severe drought last year and this year, and everyone has not had anything to eat. How can the imperial court care about their life and death?
Those who no longer have food are just poor people like them.
At least they have to wait until they have nothing to eat and are so hungry that they have no choice but to flee with their families to other state capitals, starving tens of thousands of people to death, then the disaster relief food will be slowly distributed.
Those who can wait are lucky.
So, who can you rely on?
They can only rely on themselves!
Old man Xu felt bitter in his heart, and there was a circle of firecrackers in his mouth. Even after drinking the fragrant rice porridge, he still felt extremely bitter.
As a patriarch, what he carries on his shoulders is the lives of his children and grandchildren!
After finishing half the bowl of porridge slowly, Old Man Xu finally made up his mind.
The fire was burning, and now I didn’t even bother to go back to sleep. I wasn’t in a hurry to put away the dishes and chopsticks. I took advantage of the whole family being at the table to talk about important things.
Old Man Xu looked at the whole family and said slowly: "This world is going to be in chaos.
The patron king rebelled in Anzhou at the beginning of the year. Now he has captured Ningzhou. When he sees that he has captured Jiangzhou, he will attack our Yunzhou. When the time comes, let alone food, he may also recruit soldiers.
Moreover, there is no harvest from the fields this year, but the grain tax will be paid soon. If there is no grain at all, how can we pay it? Can we use money to offset it?
But our family's money has been used to buy water a long time ago, and now the water is useless. Even if we have money to buy it, we can't buy it.
Another point is that the next food requisition will be our county’s turn again. We are burdened with so many things that we really can’t even breathe!
In addition, people in our area have begun to snatch food and kill people. Chaos is about to break out, and we can't wait for the higher-ups to come to collect food and recruit soldiers.
I estimate that in half a month at most, many people will start to flee famine. People on both sides are fleeing famine. Why not take advantage of now, before the grain collection comes, the troubles haven't come, and the taxes haven't been confiscated. Let's be the first to do so.
Escape!"
Old Man Xu said, paused, and gave everyone a time to accept the buffer. After a while, he continued: "I want to be the first to leave now. If our land can be sold, let's see if the house can be sold."
It doesn’t matter if we can’t, the money from selling the land is enough for us to survive halfway and escape to Qingzhou to find your sister-in-law.”
That's right, Old Man Xu has a cousin who is ten years younger than him. She is his brother-in-law's only child. She married to Qingzhou. Although she has not come back for so many years, she has always been in contact. That aunt often gives Old Man Xu
Bringing things back, she married well.
Old Man Xu was able to make this determination because when they left here, they had relatives to rely on, instead of being far away in a foreign country, unfamiliar with the place, and having a smeared eye.
Old Man Xu fled here with his family when he was a child, so compared to some people who may be reluctant to leave their hometown easily, this is just the place where he has lived for decades, not his hometown. He may be reluctant to leave, but he must leave.