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

The two groups started arguing again, "Why don't you return it? Besides, you protect us, and we protect you, too. We still provide the food for you, but you still don't want to return it. How can we let you do what you want for free?

Not only do I give you orders for free, I also have to share food with you. Who do you think you are? You are the emperor. Even the emperor is not as shameless as you. You think you are a great master..."

The head of the village was annoyed by the noise. He shouted a few times but no one stopped talking, so he had to temporarily leave the crowd.

As soon as I came out, I saw the Zhou family sitting on the side, but no one from the Zhou family came on stage.

He was immediately delighted. The Zhou family was great. Zhou Dacang was a good guy with good ideas, responsibility and courage. Zhou Guo was not bad either. She always gave people surprises. She was diligent, smart and even more courageous.

He walked forward happily, thinking that he had to have someone to discuss things with, as none of the children in his family were capable of anything.

The Zhou family was also discussing this matter.

Xu insisted on asking for an IOU, as he believed that the things he had grown with so much effort would not be given away to outsiders for free.

Zhou Dacang felt that if he forced people to write IOUs, it would probably cause dissatisfaction among the people. If people's hearts were divided, it would be troublesome if the team was not united.

Huang and Li felt that both of them had their reasons.

Zhou Guo didn't think it was difficult to handle. "Then let's fight. I think what that person said just now makes sense. The safety of the team is maintained by everyone. You protect me and I protect you. No one can be missing. In this way, no one takes advantage of anyone. But food is different. Those families have no food left, so they ask us to share food. Since no one owes anyone anything, then no one owes anyone anything."

"This food can't be given for free. It's better to calculate it clearly. Otherwise, if we settle down, I'm afraid we will never be able to make up for it in several lifetimes. If I hadn't given you a grain of food when you were fleeing, your family would have starved to death. I'm afraid they will have to pay back this favor for their entire lives. After all, it's the lives of a family. If their family gets into trouble and relies on you for the rest of their lives, you won't be able to refuse. Otherwise, you'll be ungrateful and can't hold your head up for the rest of your life."

Mrs. Xu was so happy that she nodded repeatedly. She thought that Guoguo was a very smart and sensible girl. No wonder her parents-in-law favored her.

Zhou Dacang hesitated, "But if that happens, what if the guys are not on the same page? I think it would be better to gather the things in one place, like the water in front, and give them out at regular intervals and in fixed quantities. In this way, everyone will have the same food and accommodation, and will be united in mind. Who can't run away?"

Zhou Guo motioned him to look at the scene next to him where people were arguing fiercely and spitting everywhere, and said, "Look, why are everyone arguing so fiercely? Are you sure that if you don't issue a warning, everyone will be united and work together?"

Zhou Dacang: “…”

"If we have to fight, we won't be willing to do that." Everyone turned to look over and saw the headman frowning in annoyance, almost holding his head in his hands.

Zhou Guo said calmly, "It depends on how much the host is willing to share. There is a difference between one grain and a bag."

"One grain and one bag, one grain and one bag, one grain..." The headman's eyes lit up, he stood up and walked towards the crowd.

Several people watched the head of the village leave in a hurry, then turned to look at Zhou Guo. Just as they were about to say something, they saw the child lying down again, and soon he began to snore, and this time he was really asleep.

Several people looked at each other.

Xu touched her head and looked at Li and said, "Second sister-in-law, what did Guoguo mean? I don't understand what you said."

Li couldn't put it into words. She felt that her daughter seemed to have grown up a lot and could even give advice to the head of the village. Then she started to worry. If she used her brain too much and didn't have enough to eat, would she become shorter?

Huang counted the family's stored grain and said, "We still have eight bags of grain. We've opened one bag, so there are still seven and a half bags. How much should we give out?"

Mrs. Xu immediately perked up, "We can't give too much. There are eleven people in our family. If two people get one bag, that would mean five and a half bags. If there are a little more, that would mean six bags. So we can give two bags away. Two bags are a lot too. If we eat frugally, it will be enough for ten people to eat for more than a month. At least they can be settled in more than a month, right?"

No one spoke. Who knew? No one dared to predict what the future would hold.

A few people looked around and saw that the noisy noise had stopped. They thought that the headman had finally persuaded them and both sides reached a consensus.

At this time, several people from the Huang family came over. Since the quarrel had stopped, it was time to talk about business. They wanted to hear how the grain was to be divided.

As soon as I squeezed in, I found that the village head was going door to door asking about the food reserves at home.

Seeing this, Xu hurriedly leaned over to Huang's ear and whispered, "You can't tell the truth. You have to downplay it."

Huang looked at her and said nothing, but thinking of so many children in the family, she nodded.

So when the head of the village asked them, Huang only said that there were eight bags left and she kept the bag that had just been opened secret.

The bags of grain and wild vegetables were piled together on the cart, so apart from themselves, no one else knew how much food they had.

After asking around, the result came out.

There are a total of twenty-eight households.

Four families have run out of food, three are almost out of food, and six can hold on for a short time.

There was only one family that had more than ten bags of grain in stock, and that was the family of the village head.

Eight bags is considered a lot for Lao Zhou’s family.

Most of the remaining bags are five or six.

Of course, someone must have been hiding something. The head of the village looked at the eleven bags of grain in his home and tried hard not to frown.

But that's enough.

The next thing was to distribute the grain and write IOUs. No one in the village could read, so this task fell on the head of the village. After all, he could still recognize a few people, but the rest were completely in the dark and no one knew each other.

When Zhou Guo woke up again, the food had been distributed, the IOU had been written, and all the work had been done. Everyone was ready to set off in a hurry.

She looked at her cart and saw that two bags were missing. She realized what was going on and gave away two and a half bags of grain.

There are still five and a half bags of food left at home. There are eleven people in the family. If we eat them sparingly, these five and a half bags of food can last us... three months?

It is said that the little brats can eat their fathers out of money. Now there is no vegetable to go with the food, not even a bit of oil. And we have to walk such a long distance every day, so we have to eat even more. I am afraid that these five bags will not be finished in three months.

However, she was a little curious about how much food other families had received.

Li said in detail, "Each of the fifteen families will give some, for a total of thirty bags. After all, each of the thirteen families is different. Some still have food in stock, while some have no food at all. Some families have many people, while some have few. Just like your aunt Zhao's family, which is simple, with only one adult and two children, they will get less food, while those with more people will get more. When these accounts are settled in the future, they will each hand in the food they owe, and then each family can go and get their share."