Traveling through troubled times to escape famine and cultivate crops as a grain merchant

Don't you understand what this means? People have no food, so what else can they do? There is no village or shop nearby, so they can only ask them for food. But that won't work, as they have families to support themselves.

If we give it to them, what will they eat later?

"If there's nothing left, just eat tree bark or dig up grass roots. It's also OK to dig up wild vegetables. Who has a lot of food these days? Not everyone is destined to eat tree bark, and it's not just you who have nothing to eat."

"Yes, there are so many children in our family who need food, but the adults in our family are not so particular. They have already started digging grass roots to eat. Haven't everyone been digging grass roots these days? In this wilderness, how do you expect the head of the village to get food for you? It can't just appear out of nowhere, right?"

This statement is just short of making the other party's purpose clear.

But now that it has come to this, who wouldn’t be afraid?

Someone just stuck his neck out and yelled, "Those of you who have food should at least give us some. We are all from the same village. Can you bear to eat the food yourself while you watch us, with our families, chewing tree bark and digging grass roots?"

Everyone was naturally dissatisfied. "You were chewing tree bark and digging grass roots because you didn't bring enough food with you and didn't protect it well, so someone stole it. Why are you blaming us? You lost your own things and asked us to make up for it. Even if you go to the ends of the earth, you won't be so unreasonable."

As soon as the words were spoken, not only the other party refused to do it, but everyone refused to do it.

"What do you mean we didn't protect it well? Why are you saying such harsh words? The thieves wanted to rob us but we had so many people but we didn't stop them. So many families died because they were trying to protect the food. Don't you feel guilty for saying this now?"

"That's right. Without our desperate efforts, you wouldn't be able to protect your food supply. It's because so many of our families' food supply was robbed that they retreated after they had robbed enough. In the final analysis, we contributed to your ability to protect so much food supply. You should share some with us."

"How shameless! You are giving away the credit for your efforts. We fought hard to protect them. My boss was hit on the head with a rock and died on the spot. We fought hard to protect that little bit of food. You say we don't have any, so we have to give it to you? Why don't you go and rob them? You are no different from those bandits who rob people."

……

The crowd was arguing fiercely, no one was willing to give in, the wife said she was right, and the husband said he was right.

Zhou Guo turned his head and looked around, then lay down again after a while. He decided to take this opportunity to get some more sleep, otherwise he would have no time to rest while walking.

Seeing this, Zhou Su hurriedly shook her and said, "Sister, get up, don't sleep, they are arguing, there will be fun to watch."

Zhou Guo didn't move. Although it was fun to watch the excitement, his body was his own. He could watch it just as well while lying down.

Xu frowned tightly, her face full of displeasure, and said to Huang and Li: "What's the logic? Why do you want to divide our food? This amount of food is not much to begin with, and there are so many children in the family. If this is divided, what will the children eat in the future? Will we all starve to death?"

Li opened her mouth but said nothing.

Huang thought of old man Zhou who died because of this, and she couldn't help but feel sad. The child's father left to protect the food, and her family had barely eaten a bite, and now they were afraid they would have to share it.

Zhou Dacang came back with a sickle in his hand and sat cross-legged on the ground.

Several women from the Huang family immediately surrounded him as if they had seen their leader.

Xu said anxiously: "Da Cang, what do you say we should do? We can't divide the food in our house. There is not much to begin with. If we divide it again, the children will have nothing to eat. They are already hungry, and now they will have even less to eat." In any case, she was unwilling to divide the food.

Li was a little worried. "I'm afraid it won't work. The grain will probably have to be divided in the end. The head of the village always considers the overall situation when doing things."

Huang nodded, that was true, and looked at her youngest son. The youngest son was the head of the family now.

Zhou Dacang looked at them and said with some guilt: "...Mother, sister-in-law and second sister-in-law, let's divide the food!"

Xu was the first to disagree. "Why? Why should we give away our own things? We have been tightening our belts and saving money on food all the way. The children have never had enough to eat. Now the food we have saved with great difficulty has to be shared with others? It would be a waste of money. I would not have saved a fart if I had known."

When the children heard that they were going to give away all their food, they were reluctant to do so because they themselves were not able to eat enough.

Zhou Dacang said, "Sister-in-law, the situation is different now. You see, other families have indeed lost all their food. How can people move forward without food? You have seen along the way that there are so many of us, and we have been robbed twice. These people will not be able to do without food, and there will be even fewer people by then. By then, I am afraid that we will not be able to walk a few miles with so much food. We will have been targeted by others. By then, not only will the food be robbed, but the children at home are so young and may get hurt. It will be too late to regret."

He still spoke cryptically, and it is possible that the whole family would be wiped out.

After these words, everyone fell silent.

Everyone remembered the late old man Zhou. Didn’t he die because he was robbed?

Zhou Guo opened his eyes and sighed silently. Just distribute it. As the saying goes, there is always a path for travelers in the mountains and there is always a ferryman in the deep waters. If there is really no food, there will always be a way.

Zhou Dacang glanced at his niece and saw that she was lying there sleeping calmly. He asked, "What do you think, Guoguo?"

Everyone looked over.

Now she couldn't sleep even if she wanted to. Besides, what ideas could she have? She couldn't turn into food or money. The fundamental problem of the contradiction could not be solved, and there was no better way at the moment, so she said to everyone: "Divide it." She didn't hesitate at all, but she couldn't just divide it.

Xu was unwilling to accept the decision, "Sharing it for nothing? How about getting an IOU and asking them to pay us back? We worked hard to grow these crops."

Li and Huang's eyes lit up. Yes, write an IOU...

"If you really want to divide it, that's fine, but we can't give away our food for free. You need an IOU. We don't ask for much. You must pay back as much as we lend you now." Suddenly, someone in the team suggested writing an IOU.

"Yes, yes, yes, you need to write an IOU, you can't just give it away for free."

The head of the village spoke to everyone earnestly for a long time, breaking down the truth and explaining it to everyone, emphasizing that only if they all worked together in harmony could they go further. After talking for a long time, everyone reluctantly took a step back, but it was not a division, it was a loan, and they had to write an IOU.

"Write an IOU? What's the point of writing an IOU? What's wrong with a village distributing some grain? Didn't you hear what the headman said? Without us, you couldn't go far. So, we use our strength to protect you, and you have to pay us back after we distribute some grain. Are we just using you for free? I won't do that. I won't pay you back." A dark and thin man in his forties said with some pride.