Dressed as a peasant girl, she pampered the powerful villain

To help the porridge, Magistrate Gu had to borrow a bowl, so he had to go to the Lin family of Laifu Inn, with whom he had some personal friendship. The Lin family learned about Magistrate Gu's righteous deed of setting up tents to help refugees in Linxian County, and asked the kitchen to do it without saying a word. Five hundred coarse grain steamed buns.

Magistrate Gu felt warm in his heart, and his eyes were red with gratitude, "Dong Lin's family is of great righteousness, and I would like to express my gratitude to the refugees in Linxian County."

Putting aside personal relationships, the Lin family has always liked people who do good deeds. After the riots, County Magistrate Gu had a high reputation and was willing to do practical things for the people, which made him admire him.

After Zhao Qian built the porridge shed, he tidied up the victim's room that was usable in preparation for arrangements.

Two hours later, the fragrance of fragrant rice porridge filled the county gate of Liuying Lane. The steaming smoke of fireworks and the aroma of porridge dispelled the fear and uneasiness in the hearts of all the refugees, and all the refugees were made hungry by the aroma.

The county gate was opened one person wide, and all the refugees queued up to receive porridge in an orderly manner under the supervision of the guards.

No matter male or female, old or young, everyone has a share.

Before receiving the porridge, refugees were asked to wash their hands.

The guards brought baskets of dishes and chopsticks, and burned a bucket of snow to ask the refugees to clean their hands first. This was the advice Qi Tong heard after asking the doctor. It had no other meaning, but he was afraid that if his hands were dirty, they would cause trouble to their stomachs. .

Magistrate Gu thought it was reasonable and wanted to take precautions before it happened, so he recruited several doctors to come over, lest refugees suddenly become hungry and unable to bear the food.

Along the way, the refugees in the two counties ate what they had on their bodies. Some people huddled together to keep warm, while others took advantage of the situation to rob them. Until everyone had no food left, they finally swallowed snow and water to hold on all the way.

There were several buckets of boiled snow water, and every three people came forward to wash their hands before they could receive the porridge.

What they didn't expect was that there was not only porridge, but also whole grain steamed buns. The aroma and heat were wafting in front of their eyes, but they couldn't believe it.

Many refugees were moved to tears by holding hot porridge and kowtowed to Magistrate Gu and Zhao Qian. Every expression of gratitude was a mixture of joy and sorrow at the sudden sight of hope after being on the verge of despair for a long time.

Four hundred and thirty-nine people came from the two counties. There were originally more people, but they died all the way, so there were only so many people left. Many people closed their eyes on the road and never woke up. They were still frozen there before being buried. .

Magistrate Gu helped the kowtowing refugee to his feet with a look of shame on his face: "I'm so ashamed. My abilities are limited. I'm really ashamed..."

Doing good deeds when you are short of money is like shooting yourself in the foot. You want to do something big, but you have no money in your pocket.

The refugees understood, and an elder who spoke in a coherent manner cried and said to Magistrate Gu: "Sir, we don't dare to ask for anything, we just ask that we can buy food on credit, and we will pay it back when we get through it."

Other refugees echoed: "Yes, yes, sir, please lend us some life-saving food on credit."

Credit?

Magistrate Gu was dumbfounded!

Zhao Qian's back tightened, and he suddenly felt that something was wrong.

Qi Tong also felt that he was caught off guard. It was a bit excessive to buy grain across counties and pay on credit.

The elder saw Magistrate Gu's expression of embarrassment. He was deeply afraid that others would not agree, so he immediately knelt down and kowtowed: "Sir, we really have no money. The price of food is so high now. It's hard for us to even buy a pound of food." We can’t even afford it.”

Magistrate Gu squirmed, looked at the refugees in front of him, and said with relief: "Eat first, and then make plans after eating."

The old man was starving, so he was helped up by his son. He picked up the porridge and steamed buns and wolfed them down.

No matter how much Magistrate Gu asked them to eat slowly, it was useless. Everyone just couldn't slow down and they were really hungry.

Suddenly. The bowl of porcelain shattered and splashed...

The elder fell violently.

Magistrate Gu turned pale with shock and shouted: "Doctor, let the doctor take a look..."

The refugees were so frightened by the sudden chaos that they couldn't eat the porridge and steamed buns in their hands, or not eat them.

A terrible thought flashed through his mind: Could it be that the magistrate didn't want to save them, so he planned to poison them?

Zhao Qian looked at the elder who fell on the ground. The broken porcelain at his feet didn't even have any porridge or soup. Did he faint after eating so much?

I’ve heard of people feeling dizzy from hunger, but I’ve never heard of people feeling dizzy from being full!

Zhao Qian looked at the elder who was being carried on the guard's back, his starry eyes narrowed in thought.

……

There was so much news about the arrival of refugees in the county that it quickly spread in Tongzhou County.

Many people came to the scene for one look and then left. They thought other places must be better than Tongzhou County. They did not expect that so many people in places that had not experienced riots were already unable to eat.

It is most irritating to encounter a disaster year just after a good year. In a good year, people tend to relax their vigilance, and the price of food sold is low, but in a bad year, the price of the food purchased has more than tripled.

If everyone takes precautions against disasters, more food will be stored, and so many people will not die.

The rise and fall of grain prices means how many survivors can be left in disaster years. This is why Magistrate Gu immediately went to the Chamber of Commerce in the name of the county government to invite the owners of all grain shops in Tongzhou County to attend.

'Fengji Grain Shop' was the first grain shop to state that it would not raise prices. 'Fengji' had some influence in Tongzhou County. As soon as he stated his stance, other proprietors agreed. If merchants do not fight with officials, they still have to give face. .

Magistrate Gu had just left. Feng Zheng went to the county gate in person to inquire about the situation. After confirming that it was true, he went directly to the grain shop and told the shopkeeper: "Sell the grain charcoal at ten cents per catty. Only one thousand catties are sold every day."

The shopkeeper had just been selling food to Fu Fei Shaodong's house for being unkind and unkind. He never thought that they would immediately make a huge price cut, directly reducing the price of grain from twenty cents per catty to ten cents. This is nothing in exchange for ordinary things. There is life-saving food in front of me.

The shopkeeper kindly reminded: "Young master, don't you need to say hello to the owners of other grain stores because you suddenly dropped so much?"

Whether food prices fall or rise is determined through discussion at a chamber of commerce. They rise or fall according to actual needs. Generally speaking, the county government will not intervene unless it reaches an uncontrollable point. The current price of twenty cents per pound of food will not cause any problems. Public resentment.

According to the current market situation, when the old rice harvested in a good year is sold at a high price, people rush to buy it.

Feng Zheng thought of the crowd of refugees and curled his lips and said disdainfully: "Master Gu wants me not to raise the price, but he didn't ask me not to lower the price. He just happened to clear out all the old rice from the granary. There are so many people stuck at the county gate. , I feel upset just looking at it, how can people get out if they don’t buy food?”

Feng Shaodong said with a look of disgust on his face, deeply afraid that Tongzhou County would be occupied by refugees.

The corner of the shopkeeper's mouth twitched. It was really new. It was the first time I heard someone trying to do something good but using this bad excuse.

If Shaodong's price drops, people will probably hate him. Isn't this obviously going against the people from the Chamber of Commerce?

The shopkeeper reminded a few more words that Fengzheng didn't care about that. It was not convenient for him to patrol the shops before the snow stopped. There were many grain shops in Songxian County and Luoyang County, so Fengji did not open a grain shop there, but opened a shop in a few grain shops. If you open a grain store in a certain place, the price of grain is different in each place, and the price of grain will be determined by the local chamber of commerce.

He didn't expect that the grain stores in Songxian County and Luoyang County could actually set the price of grain to such a high price of eighty cents per pound that the common people couldn't afford it. This was really outrageous.

At this time, someone hurriedly came out to report, with an anxious look on his face: "My young master, Miss...she is missing..."