Ancient natural disasters: The whole family traveled through time and was almost wiped out

Chapter 203

To light a fire, you not only need to burn charcoal, but also boil water.

Although eating compressed steamed buns is the simplest and most convenient, hot water is still necessary, so that the laborers can at least have hot water to drink after logging.

However, the match went out as soon as it was struck, and it didn't light up after a long time. Jiang Xiumian looked at the almost empty matchbox and the flint that didn't produce sparks even when it was hit hard. The corners of his mouth seemed to be pressed down by a huge rock, and he asked Jiang Xiubai: "Where is your kerosene lighter?"

"In my bag!" Jiang Xiubai slapped his forehead and said, "Haha..." He smiled, "I forgot about it. I'll go get it! Hey, hey! Where's my bag?"

"Then!" Jiang Xiumian pointed with his finger, his brows furrowed so much that he almost pinched a mouse to death.

This kid!

It turns out that having enough food and clothing cannot make a person grow up. Although he experienced two natural disasters, the suffering Xiaobai endured was nothing compared to that of any other person, so that he still has a bit of a childish mentality. Not to mention being confused, he is always losing things.

Although there is nothing wrong with being simple, that is in a peaceful society. In this ancient time when natural disasters are rampant, he is really afraid that he will suffer! He has such a big secret! If...

Tsk, Jiang Xiaomi has to teach this silly boy a lesson!

Jiang Xiumian's mind was in a mess. Jiang Xiubai had already found the kerosene lighter, but he tried to light it three times without success. Finally, he thought about it and poured some diesel on the firewood, and finally it lit.

The invention of kerosene lighters was originally intended to cope with extreme weather conditions. Kerosene has a relatively complex composition and a low freezing point. It will not solidify at -30 degrees Celsius and can be used normally in cold and humid temperatures.

Because the firewood was wet, the smoke was so thick that Jiang Xiubai couldn't open his eyes. Tears kept flowing out of his eyes. The smoke was choking, and even a mask didn't work. He felt his throat itchy all the time: "Cough cough - cough cough - come... someone, come and help me."

He couldn't bear it anymore! He was about to cry like Daiyu!

Upon hearing this, a young man next to him immediately took over his job with great tact - this young man was very inexperienced in making fire, and his posture and movements made him anxious, and he wanted to just help him light the fire, but the iron in the young man's hand looked very precious, so he didn't dare to say anything.

This time he finally got the hang of it!!

The young man deftly placed small branches loosely on the fire while blowing at it with his mouth. The fire gradually grew bigger in the smoke. After a long time, the smoke began to diminish because the wood was dried up.

"Here! Put it here!"

Liu Hai came back with a team carrying large logs. He wanted to build a temporary shelter, a large wooden house, on this flat open space.

After all, the labor service lasts for a month, and there are nearly a thousand people on the mountain. Although we stay in Shangtang Village at night instead of risking our lives to stay in the mountain overnight, there are so many people that there will be more or less accidents. If someone gets injured and can't get down the mountain for a while, we can't just leave them in the ice and snow, right? !

Besides, there is a young master here. Although the young master is working now, he can't keep working with them all the time. He has to take a break! Where to rest? The shelter!

Others, if they are too tired to work, also need to rest.

Therefore, this wooden house must be built, and it must be as big as possible.

Jiang Xiumian was also a brickman, he could be moved wherever he was needed. When he saw that there were some unreasonable arrangements in Liu Hai's command for the construction of the shelter, he thought about it and decided to go over to discuss some adjustments with him. Little did he know that Liu Hai saw that he knew so much and almost threw the task to him. If Jiang Xiumian hadn't said that the task of burning charcoal in his charge had just begun and he was too busy, he might have been given another job.

"Master, Master Bai, drink some hot water."

Xiao Shun filled Jiang Xiumian and Jiang Xiubai's water bags and asked, "It's getting late now. Do you want to eat in the mountains or in the village tonight?"

"Let's go to the village." Jiang Xiumian said. There was not even a thatched hut on the mountain. It was too cold to eat while squatting. Both the cooks and the diners suffered.

"Okay, young master!" Xiao Shun agreed: "Then should we send someone to tell the villagers in Shangtang Village?"

"Of course!" Jiang Xiumian nodded. Thanks to Xiaoshun, otherwise he would have forgotten that his master was right to ask him to be in charge of the meals.

No wonder I felt like I had forgotten something!

It was their plan to stay and eat in Shangtang Village, but they were pressed for time and had no time to notify Shangtang Village. He was supposed to negotiate with Liu Feng or Wang Yayi, but he couldn't leave now, so he set his sights on Jiang Xiubai: "Xiaobai, you and Wang Yayi go to Shangtang Village and tell the villagers about it. Arrange a place for them to stay. Tell them that we have brought our own food and will not take a single penny from them. As for the accommodation fee, give them half first."

"Okay." Jiang Xiubai was drinking water in small sips. Hearing this, he immediately agreed.

He came to the mountain just to keep Jiang Xiumian company. He played a minor role, unlike Jiang Xiumian, who was the main force in charcoal burning.

"Brother Wang, let's go to Shangtang Village!!"

Jiang Xiubai called out to Wang Yayi, who was helping to throw a large piece of wood from the man's shoulders to the ground. Hearing this, he hurried over and said, "Master Xiaobai?"

Jiang Xiubai put his hand on his shoulder and said, "Let's go to Shangtang Village and arrange accommodation and meals."

"Oh, I forgot about that!" Wang Yayi asked as he walked, "Is Mr. Xiaobai cold?"

"It must be cold then." Jiang Xiubai used the water bag Xiaoshun had just filled as a hand warmer: "Brother Wang, how many trees have you cut? Can we build a shelter tomorrow?"

"Master Mian said that we can't do that yet. We have just been up the mountain for an hour. We have cut down a lot of wood, but not much wood can be used to make the main frame of the shelter. We have to take our time. Master Mian said that we should build two small ones first as a last resort."

"Is that so? Then just listen to Master Mian. He knows a lot, so it's right to listen to him."

"That's right!" Wang, the yamen servant, laughed, "Haha——" with a simple and honest look.

Everyone had known each other for so long that they were all old acquaintances, but Wang Yayi had always called Jiang Xiubai "Young Master Bai", while Jiang Xiubai had called Wang Yayi "Big Brother Wang". At first, Wang Yayi was afraid to respond, but later he got used to it slowly. However, he refused to change his way of addressing Jiang Xiubai no matter how many times anyone told him to. So, everyone just kept talking about their own things.

"You are the head of the village? Nice to meet you!"

Jiang Xiubai arrived at Shangtang Village and went straight to the headman's house. He smiled warmly at the man and would have almost stepped forward to shake hands with him if he had not withdrawn his hand early.

"Sir?" The old village head was dozing on the recliner wrapped tightly. When he heard the voice, he opened his cloudy eyes and saw a handsome young man, Wang Yayi, who was already dressed in the uniform of a yamen runner. He hurriedly propped himself up and sat up, anxiously: "What do you want? There are a total of 150 households in Shangtang Village, and 299 of them have provided labor. Only Yao Ju's family has only one adult. It's not that they don't want to show up, but he is the only child in his family. His father passed away two years ago, and his child is only two years old. Our village really didn't hide the news!"

"No, no!" Jiang Xiubai quickly helped the man sit down. "No one said you concealed the truth. Don't be nervous or excited. We are not here to talk about labor. No, it is also related to labor. Isn't the place where we chop wood closer to here? It's not safe on the mountain. We are thinking of asking you, old man, to help arrange accommodation."

"Ah, this matter——" The old man was terrified: "Okay, okay, it's okay, let's all live in the village!"

"Thank you so much!" Jiang Xiubai was so happy that he couldn't help but hold the old man's hand after completing the task so quickly. The old man shook his hand along with his movements. Suddenly, he remembered something and asked, "Young Master, may I ask, how many people are there on this mountain?"

"Not many." Jiang Xiubai smiled: "Including the villagers of Shangtang Village, there are a total of 950 people!"

“Mr. Duo?” The old man was hard of hearing to begin with, and this fright almost deafened him: “Nine-nine-nine… nine hundred and fifty people?!”

"There shouldn't be any problem, right?" Jiang Xiubai had a bad feeling in his heart. This village was a big one, and it was an independent village with a headman and a village chief. It shouldn't be a problem to entertain six or seven hundred people, right?

The old head of the village almost pinched himself on the philtrum, otherwise he would have fainted. There are six or seven hundred people living in the village, so what problem can there be?

"Please don't be like this." Jiang Xiubai was frightened by the old man's grief-stricken look. "We don't have high requirements. We are all grown men and can sleep together. If there is really no bed, we can just find a place in the house to make a bed. We don't have high requirements. As long as it can block the wind and snow, we will also pay you rent. How about using firewood as rent? We bring our own food for meals. We absolutely don't understand the people's every stitch and every brick and tile!"

"Really?"

"Really!" Jiang Xiubai raised his hand and swore.

The old village head finally breathed a sigh of relief, and his pale face regained some color. Just now, he really wanted to faint, really.

Not counting the kids from my own village, there are still more than 600 people! Who wouldn’t be scared after hearing this?

The young boy is eating his father out of money, not to mention that they are strong men who dare to work hard. With more than 600 people to feed, how much food will each family have to give out? They dare not refuse to take it! But if they take it, how will they live in the future?

What’s the use of firewood when there’s no food left!

It would be better to freeze to death.

Fortunately, fortunately, they don't need to provide food!

That’s easy, just live wherever you like!

It saved more than 600 people’s food rations for one month, and he won’t stop you from living wherever you want!

The accommodation problem was solved. Jiang Xiubai and his friends decided to live in the home of the village head. Xiaoshun would definitely follow them. Besides, the village head's home was big, with a big kitchen and a big yard. It would be convenient for him to cook here and for everyone to come over for dinner.

But there was only one person who came, and he definitely would not be able to handle the cooking for more than a thousand people, so Wang, the yamen runner, had a "good" chat with the old man who was in the village, and they got twenty women to come and help.

County town, county magistrate’s study.

County Magistrate Zhang looked at the fluttering fifty-thousand-tael note in his hand, and his heart couldn't stop trembling—fifty-thousand-taels! Fifty-thousand-taels! He had never seen fifty-thousand-taels in his life! ! This piece of paper was so unreal!

"Food, cloth, cotton or anything else, as long as it is useful and can be bought, you can go and buy it."

County Magistrate Zhang really wanted to throw the thin silver note back to him. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to do it, but he just couldn’t do it!

Where can you find a place richer than Luoshui County? Not to mention 50,000 taels, even if he had 100,000 taels, he couldn't buy anything!

Jiang Yipei couldn't buy it either. The 50,000 taels given by County Magistrate Chen would have been impossible to spend without Jiang Xiubai. However, such a huge amount of supplies had to come from somewhere and couldn't just appear out of thin air. So Jiang Yipei threw this thorny problem to County Magistrate Zhang - it would be best if he could buy the supplies, and then let Jiang Xiubai mix half of it in, but it would be inconspicuous.

"Sir, I really can't do it!" County Magistrate Zhang knelt down to Jiang Yipei. "The rain disaster affected half of Dasheng, and the snow disaster affected most of Dasheng. Our county was able to grab so much food and supplies because of your warning. I'm afraid that the places in Dasheng that are richer than Luoshui County can be counted on one hand. Where can you let your subordinates buy them?"

As she spoke, she was about to cry, which showed that she really felt very embarrassed.

Jiang Yipei originally thought that since he was a native of Luoshui County and had been the county magistrate for so many years, how could he not have any connections? Who knew that he really had no connections? Tell me, how did you become the county magistrate?

"Would you please get up first and help me think of another solution?"

"Your subordinate——"

"Hey!" Jiang Yipei suddenly had an idea. Since he couldn't buy supplies outside, he could buy them in the county town! Other places were not as rich as Luoshui County, so the rich people in Luoshui County must have more food!

They harvested early!

He was really blinded by one thing. The servants of those families came in front of him several times, but he didn't react. It was obvious that the rich families in the town had voluntarily donated supplies, so why didn't he think of using the same trick again!

This cold wave really froze my brain.

In fact, it’s no wonder that Jiang Yipei didn’t think of it. He has been busy since he arrived in the county town!

But now that I have come to my senses, then——

Big investors, please!

Whether you can survive this cold winter depends on you!

Without further ado, that day, Jiang Yipei took County Magistrate Zhang to visit various wealthy households in the county.

"Lord Jiang, long time no see, hahahahaha——"

When the master of the Qian family heard the message from his servants, he went out in person to welcome Jiang Yipei into the house.

"I went to the capital city. It's been almost six years since we last met. Uncle Qian, how are you?" Jiang Yipei had a smile on his face, but the smile did not reach his eyes. It was just a business smile, with eight teeth showing.

This old man is very smart, even though he came to greet us personally.