"How many servants of the Wu family are left?" Xia Jing looked at the green brick and gray tile wall in front of her.
The Wu family was afraid that rain would corrode the fence, so they laid tiles on the fence. This design was very practical but cost money and materials.
If this Wu family is the same Wu family who is queuing up to receive food, it would be a bit excessive.
It is too much to live in a luxurious house but compete for food with a group of ordinary people who are on the verge of starvation.
Ye Fei did not turn over the book again this time and said directly: "It seems that there are still about ten people left!"
Xia Jing nodded: "I think the Wu family has a lot of land outside the county. In this case, it is a bit unreasonable that the family is still short of food."
Ye Fei glanced at the Wu family's house and said, "Perhaps the Wu family queued up to receive food to let the world know that the Wu family has also run out of ammunition and food."
Xia Jing looked back at Ye Fei with a slight surprise, and chuckled: "Perhaps the Wu family is just as you guessed, they just want to announce to the world that they have no food."
Ye Fei smiled. This was just a casual guess. He wasn't sure whether it was accurate or not.
Xia Jing passed by the Wu family's gate. Everyone thought she would continue walking forward, but she just walked to the small alley next to the Wu family's house. She walked along the alley.
The Wu family residence occupies a very large area. The front wall is about two miles long, and the side wall is even longer. It takes at least three miles to reach the end.
If you go around the Wu family courtyard wall, it is equivalent to walking ten miles. This distance is nothing to Xia Jing, but she is really shocked.
The Wu family is just a country squire and landlord, and the house at home is so exaggerated. So what will happen to the powerful tycoons in other places who have a little power?
Going around to the front door again, Xia Jing asked Ye Fei to knock on the door.
Maybe the Wu family really dismissed their former slaves. Ye Fei knocked on the door for a quarter of an hour before slowly opening it. When the slave who came to open the door heard about the Queen's visit, he didn't dare to inform the master first. He was so frightened that he opened the door immediately, dumbfounded.
He invited Xia Jing and his entourage into the house.
The scenery outside the house is completely different from that inside. It’s not that there are many gardens inside the house, but that the inside of the house is like a maze. There are no trees or flowers. If it’s summer, the only green you can see is probably the flowers placed in each yard.
I have a big water tank with water lilies in it, but now the leaves have dried up.
The houses in the house are arranged in an orderly manner. The passages connecting the courtyards are paved with bluestone slabs. Even the drip ditch on the eaves is paved with bluestone blocks. When you look up, it is white even if the snow is removed.
It's blue-grey.
Following the servant as he walked into the house, Ye Fei looked around for a while and had to speak out his doubts, "Master, have you noticed that the layout of the houses here are almost the same, even the big water in the yard?"
The tanks are all in the same location.”
If an outsider breaks in at night and thinks they've encountered a ghost breaking into the wall, the way around the yard will be the same, no different from a maze.
Xia Jing raised the corners of her lips slightly, "The person who designed this house is quite interesting!"
The servant who was leading the way listened to them talking about the house as if there was no one else around, and his mouth twitched slightly. He wanted to tell them that even if outsiders came in during the day, it would be difficult to get out of this house without someone to guide them.
.
Coincidentally, the servant led Xia Jing and others into the lobby of the front yard. Several men in charge of the family were sitting in the lobby to discuss matters. When they saw the servant barging in without warning, they suddenly became angry, but they didn't wait for them.
When I heard it, I was frightened by the servant's words.
"The eldest master, the second master, the third master, and the queen are here!"
As soon as he said these words, the servant suddenly felt relaxed all over. He was walking in front of the Queen to lead the way, and the pressure was not ordinary.
Several gentlemen of the Wu family were shocked at first, and then thought it was impossible. What was the current situation of the Wu family? They were just ordinary country squires. How could the Queen come to their house despite her humble status?
But before they could recover, Xia Jing appeared at the entrance of the lobby with her personal guards. The two last guards stood directly on both sides of the door and took over the security of the lobby.
The Wu family members have never met the queen, but he knows that except for the real queen, who in the world dares to call herself a queen blatantly?
If so, I'm afraid the birthday boy will hang himself - seeking death!
At this moment, people had entered the lobby. Regardless of whether they were true or false, they did not dare to sit in a grand place, so they hurriedly stood up to greet him.
"The common people have seen the Queen, Queen Jin'an!"
Xia Jing kept walking past them and sat directly at the top of the lobby.
"No need to be polite, everyone, please get up." She said, looking at the men of the Wu family, "I was passing by today and I took the liberty of coming to the door to disturb you. I hope you can forgive me!"
"Your Majesty, you are too worried. The Wu family only expects you to come to me because of the smoke coming out of their ancestral graves. Why would you bother me?"
Xia Jing glanced at the old man with a smile, "It's good that you didn't bother me, otherwise I'll feel really bad."
The elder's mouth twitched. If you always feel sorry for yourself, you won't rush in so aggressively that they think you have committed some serious crime!
Xia Jing didn't care about the elder's inner thoughts, because in their position, the thoughts of the people below didn't matter. As long as they made their purpose of coming here clear, that was the business.
So she explained: "I just saw a few of your Wu family members queuing up to receive relief food at the Yamen Gate. At that time, I thought I was dazzled."
Speaking of this matter, several men in the Wu family were so embarrassed that they asked the women to go out to beg for food while they themselves hid at home. This was really detrimental to their masculinity, and they all felt a little embarrassed.
"Seeing how this happened, my wife is worried about it. The family has been really damaged by the disasters in the past few years. Now there is really not much food left in the family. That's why the female relatives of the family want to line up to get some.
Improve the food supply at home."
The eldest man’s brow almost turned into a knot. He still relied on relief grains to improve his family’s food supply, which shows how miserable his life was.
Xia Jing looked at several men in the Wu family and saw that they had the same expressions on their faces. She couldn't help but sneered in her heart, and asked with some disbelief on her face: "Your family has countless fertile fields, but there is really no surplus food left? We have to rely on relief."
To the point where food can save lives?”
After confirming again, the Wu brothers still shook their heads.
On behalf of the two brothers of the Wu family, the elder once again cried out: "I don't dare to lie to you. Originally, we did save a lot of food at home, just to prevent disasters. But since the rebels occupied the county, our Wu family's food has basically been destroyed."
They looted everything, and the remaining food was almost consumed during this period. There is really no food at home."
Xia Jing frowned, with a sad face, and said with regret: "I thought that your Wu family had stored food and wanted to borrow some to help the people, but now it seems that my trip was in vain."
"The Wu family is duty-bound to rush to the front to help the victims. We should have started to provide large amounts of food and grass long ago. But, we really don't have any food left these days!" The eldest man of the Wu family looked embarrassed.
"What a pity." Xia Jing glanced at Ye Fei and sighed deeply.
Xia Jing failed to borrow food from the Wu family, so she had a bad start and left disappointed.
After seeing off the special guest, the men of the Wu family looked at each other. They couldn't understand the purpose of Xia Jing's coming here. Is she really just here to borrow food?
If it's not just about borrowing food, then what is their ultimate goal to get from them?
"Brother, why do I think it's not easy for the queen to come here? Isn't she hiding some bad tricks behind her?"
The second master of the Wu family felt that it was a bit strange that Xia Jing was deceived by them so easily.
The third master of the Wu family also felt that Xia Jing left too happily, and he felt uneasy in his heart. Especially when he saw the eldest brother's frown, his heart skipped a beat. What could really go wrong?
The eldest son of the Wu family looked at everyone with an enigmatic look, and said with a snort: "The queen came to our Wu family just for food. You don't know what the county is like now?"
In short, I guess she won’t give up so soon. You should be prepared. Don’t say what you need to say and don’t ask what you need to ask. No matter who comes to borrow food, we will just say, no food!”
Master Wu and Master Wu both nodded in agreement. They had no food left!
Xia Jing left the Wu family and was greeted by Li Chengmu, "What did the Wu family say?"
"What else can I say? There is no food!"
"Really no food?" Li Chengmu didn't believe in evil.
Xia Jing rolled her eyes at him and said, "Let's go. If there is food or not, let the people below check and find out."
In fact, after walking around the Wu family just now, Xia Jing has already explored the Wu family through her mental power. Under the ground across the east and west courtyards, there are two large storage rooms. One of them contains treasures, which should be the number of the Wu family.
Wealth accumulated over generations.
And the other basement is full of food.
And the Wu family still competes with ordinary people for a ration of food, which shows that the character of the Wu family is really not that good. In one word, they are rich and unkind!
Li Chengmu nodded: "I'll have someone check it out right now."
Along the way, Xia Jing discovered that there were grains piled in several basements. This showed that the county town was not without food, and the people hid it to ensure their own food supply.
When a group of them walked to the entrance of the vegetable market, they happened to see the head of the thief falling to the ground. The soaring blood made Li Chengmu feel a little psychological shadow about this.
After the execution, the people in the city were shocked. The vegetable market was quiet, but the gate of the county government office became the busiest place in the city.
The people who had received the food were grinning from ear to ear, while those who had not yet received the food were looking forward to it.
Xia Jing did not join in the fun this time. After lunch, she took a nap and stayed in the backyard of the county government office with no intention of going out.
Late at night, Xia Jing once again put on her night clothes and climbed over the wall and went out.
This time she jumped straight to the Wu family's house, found the storage room in the basement, took advantage of the fact that no one was cleaning up the food inside, and then left without staying much.
After putting all the harvested grain in an abandoned yard, Xia Jing returned to the backyard of the county government office without a care in the world, turned down on the bed and fell asleep.
The next day, she looked at Li Chengmu who was having breakfast with her and said, "Xiaowu, later you will take people to a house in the north of the city, specifically located at Huhua Lane. You will know when you go there.
There is only one side entrance in the alley. According to reliable information, this is a granary hidden by the Wu family in the slums. You should quickly bring people to transport the food back!"
Li Chengmu paused while biting the bun and asked in surprise: "Does the Wu family really have a place to hide food outside?"
Xia Jing looked at the white clouds on the horizon in a good mood, "I can't say whether it is the Wu family's granary, but one thing I can be sure of is that we won't have to worry about food in the next few months."
After hearing this, Li Chengmu didn't feel like eating anymore. He finished his meal in a hurry. After taking a short rest, he heard someone talking in the yard. If he listened carefully, it seemed that the person was asking him.
"Mother, someone should be looking for me. I'm going out."
"Well, be careful on the road!" Xia Jing warned, "If anyone asks you about this food, just say you don't know. I arranged the specific things."
Li Chengmu nodded. Of course, transporting grain was a big event. Being able to transport piles of grain from the cellar at one time really shocked the whole city!
All the forces in the county have received the news. In addition to being upset, everyone is annoyed. How could there be so much food hidden in a broken yard? If they had known earlier, why would they have gone to such trouble to collect food? They could just go to this broken yard to transport it.
.
Among them, the Wu family was the worst offender. The courtyard was not far away from their Wu family, only two streets away.
But Xia Jing didn't bring anything with her when she came, and she drifted away when she returned, but she took the Wu family's luck with her.
How else to explain that Xia Jing came to their place and found a large granary when she returned?
If Xia Jing had not come to visit their house, their family would have discovered the food in the dilapidated yard.
"Brother, do you know who owns that abandoned courtyard?"
The eldest man of the Wu family looked at his two younger brothers and consoled him: "Now that the matter is over, let's just accept the fact. In fact, someone lived in that courtyard before, but I don't know where they went after that?"
The third master of the Wu family excitedly slapped his thigh with a "pop" sound, which scared the other two into silence.
"Brother, you said that if we buy this dilapidated courtyard, then everything in the courtyard will be ours, and we can also ask our superiors for this batch of food. If we get it back, it will greatly improve our lives in the future.
"
By then, they will no longer have to hide in order to have enough to eat.
The eldest son of the Wu family has a natural filter for his second and third brothers, but after listening to the third brother's words, he felt that this was impossible to achieve.
You must know that she is the high-ranking empress. If they dare to take advantage of her, if they are discovered, then the Wu family will not be far away from being executed.
"Third brother, your idea is unrealistic. If what you say is true, do you think the emperor, the queen, the princes, and the frightened ministers can let you do whatever you want? No one will dare to give you anything even if you die by then.
Collect the bodies!”
His third brother is only suitable for eating, drinking and having fun, it is completely unreliable for him to handle other things.
The third master of the Wu family, after being lectured by his eldest brother, did not dare to mention this matter again.
The eldest man of the Wu family looked at the stupid third brother and felt a little uneasy, as if something bad was going to happen?
Always feel like you've overlooked something?
For a moment, he couldn't remember where he had overlooked?