Crossing the famine, I am a poor fish, and my descendants have to work hard

Boss Zheng saw that the inkstone was snatched away by her mother.

He tried to grab it back, but was kicked to the ground by Zheng Yinzi.

Zhao Yuanzhen and the others just watched the fun.

"Are you still going to cross the river? If you are still going, just go to the side. Others still need to cross the river."

The village chief called out to their family.

"Cross the river, cross the river. We can use this to pay the expenses, see how much it can offset." Old Mrs. Zheng said to the village chief while holding the inkstone.

The village chief didn't understand this and turned to look at Zhao Yuanzhen.

"How about this, I'll take these people in your village, plus you, across the river. Then you can ask them to pay you back, and I'll give you 10 kilograms of cornmeal. Let's make the deal. "

Zhao Yuanzhen looked at the inkstone and could only say that it was slightly better than the average one and worth a few taels of silver. But she certainly couldn't pay her according to the market price.

There are 5 people in their family, plus 12 people from their village, and none of them have much luggage.

The toll for 17 people was 85 wen, and cornmeal was 9 wen per pound, which added up to 175 wen. This business was still very profitable.

"No, I earned more than 4 taels of silver for this inkstone. Is that all you're going to give me? At least give me another 4 taels of silver."

"You're such a spendthrift. You actually spent so much of my money to buy a broken stone. I'll beat you to death."

When Mrs. Zheng heard that this was so expensive, she bought it even more expensively because it was all her hard-earned money.

Zheng Lao Da was holding her head, limping, and hiding from her mother. Zheng Yinzi was watching the fun from the side, and the two little ones were also watching the fun.

After the beating, she vented her anger. Old Mrs. Zheng came over again.

"Can you give us a little more? Our boss said that this is more than four taels of silver. This is too little."

"Your broken stone is of no use to us. We should be grateful that we accepted it. You still want to bargain."

Li Zhijuan mocked them.

"Please give us another 100 kilograms of cornmeal. Otherwise, our whole family will starve to death."

"20 catties, I will give you 20 catties at most"

"Eighty kilograms is fine."

"10 catties"

"Okay, okay, 20 kilograms is 20 kilograms. Let's change it."

Fearing that they would reduce it again, he handed the inkstone to the village chief.

The village chief sent someone back to get 30 kilograms of cornmeal.

The extra 20 kilograms of cornmeal was supposed to prolong the lives of Zhang Qingyan's two ungrateful children. Although they were both unfilial, Zhao Yuanzhen couldn't bear to let them starve to death.

Soon the men who had returned on horseback to get the cornmeal arrived. They weighed the goods on the spot, and after the payment and settlement were made, the people from Zhengjia Village boarded the bamboo raft and left.

One of the refugees who was watching the farce suddenly jumped up and knelt down in front of Zhao Yuanzhen.

Zhao Yuanzhen was so frightened that she quickly dodged away, for she was afraid of shortening her life.

Zhang Xinnian quickly stood in front of his mother and arrested the man. He was a young boy, about the same age as Zhang Xinshu, maybe a little older.

"What are you doing?"

"Please, Auntie, please take me in. I am willing to sell myself for no money. I just want to follow you across the river and give me something to eat."

Although he is young, he knows that given the current situation, crossing the river will mean death.

"Why do you think I would buy you?"

"I don't know either, but I have a hunch that you can buy me, Auntie."

"What about your family? Do they agree with you selling your body?"

"I have no family left. The Yellow River flooded and my father, mother and sister all died. I am the only one left in our family. I have no money and no property. But when my father and mother were washed away by the flood, they shouted for me to live well."

As he was talking, the boy started to cry. The image of his father, mother, and sister being swept away by the flood kept lingering in his mind.

"Although your life story is tragic, every family is in trouble right now, and we don't have much food left!"

Zhao Yuanzhen didn't feel sorry for the food, but her family didn't accept useless people.

"Aunt, please take me in. I can work, I eat little, I can do any work, and I can read. I am obedient, I will definitely be very obedient."

The boy begged quickly.

Zhao Yuanzhen looked at his innocent and clear eyes. She thought that this should be a child with good behavior and could read, so she thought of finding a book boy for Xin Shu.

"I can take you in, but my family is just an ordinary farmer's family. We have to do a lot of work every day, and we only eat wild vegetables and coarse grains. Can you accept that?"

"I can accept it. Thank you, Auntie, for saving my life. You are saving my life by taking me in. I am not picky about food and clothing, and I can work!"

Then he kowtowed three times to Zhao Yuanzhen.

Zhao Yuanzhen felt pain just watching him kowtow. This kid kowtows really sincerely!

"Come on, get up. What's your name? We have to sign a contract to sell ourselves. Are you willing?"

"My name is Yue Lianyun! I am willing to sign a contract to sell myself."

"Okay, then sign it. You can keep your old name and surname. Write a contract of sale and have him sign it."

Zhao Yuanzhen looked at the signed contract and then asked Zhang Xinnian to take him home for dinner. This kid hadn't eaten for a long time. He was so thin.

Just as they collected the indentures, several more people fell to their knees with a thud.

Zhao Yuanzhen held her forehead with her hand. What was going on? They thought their family was a dental clinic!

Those who are kneeling down are all selling themselves!

Although Zhao Yuanzhen knew that her family would buy some servants in the future, she preferred to buy those who were well trained and taught good manners by the dental shop.

Zhao Yuanzhen looked helplessly at the people kneeling down. After taking a look, she found a few who were quite pleasing to her eyes.

Zhao Yuanzhen bought four more. These four looked pretty good, but of course, she still had to observe them for a while.

Zhao Yuanzhen looked at the remaining dozen people.

Go find the village chief.

"Second Grandfather, look at these people. Why don't the village pay to buy them, and then find a dealer to sell them after crossing the river? It won't be a loss, and there will be some profit. They just want to cross the river and have something to eat."

The village chief was not going to buy it at first, but after hearing Zhao Yuanzhen say that he would sell it later, he thought it was okay. It was not for the purpose of making money, but just to give these people a way to survive. He could not follow them for a few days.

Then I agreed.

"Our village can buy you out, and then we will feed you, take you across the river, and then find a broker to sell you. We don't want all the money from selling your bodies, we just want some money for food and money for you to cross the river, and the rest will be yours. If you are willing, come over and sign the agreement."

Zhang Xinshu has been writing a contract to sell his body.

Subsequently, about 18 people signed the indenture.

The village chief also asked someone to take them back and give them something to eat.

Zhao Yuanzhen also asked Zhang Xinbai to take these four back.

There were not as many people in the afternoon as in the previous few days, only about 1000 people.

We have decided to cross the river tomorrow. Seeing that there are not many people on the river bank, some people will leave and go back to pack up. We will cross the river early tomorrow morning.

Zhao Yuanzhen also went back.

Her things were originally placed in her space, but now they had to cross the river and take the cargo ship. So she had to clean up and see what she could take out.

Some of the food had to be taken out, the water jars had to be taken out, and some of the remaining daily necessities had to be taken out as well.

I put everything I needed to take out in a corner of the space, planning to secretly put it in another carriage tomorrow morning.

When he finished cleaning up, he saw that the five people he had bought had already cleaned up very neatly.

Qian Xiaohui boiled water for them to take a bath, mainly because they were all too dirty and their clothes were tattered.

She found some linen clothes from her brothers and gave them to them.

These people ate well and washed themselves clean. Now they look much better.

Zhao Yuanzhen looked at the other four. He hadn't decided what to do with them yet, so he would take them with him for now and then see what each of them excels at and then train them.

Because there are five more people in the family, five young men.

When cooking in the evening, Qian Xiaohui felt the pressure and steamed two large pots of steamed buns, which were made of miscellaneous grains mixed with white flour.

I stewed a large pot of cabbage and pork, and a large pot of bacon and bracken. Of course, there were more vegetables than meat in each pot.

A table was set for them, half a plate of various dishes were served, and a large plate of steamed buns were also brought. The main problem was that there was not enough space at the table.

Several people were a little reserved. The food was too good. They had never eaten such good food at home before. They didn't dare to eat it. It was only after Zhang Xinbai invited them several times that they dared to eat.

After eating one, he put them all down again, not daring to eat more. Finally, Zhang Xinbai threatened and comforted him before he dared to eat. He ate until he was full.

I can’t remember how long it had been since I had a full meal. When I started fleeing, I was lucky to have a bite to eat, let alone a full meal, and it was basically wild vegetables.

Shortly after the meal, the village chief called everyone to a meeting to divide the money.

It took a total of 7 and a half days to ferry people across the river.

The money earned is:

7590+++++++9100=.

It’s actually more than 100 taels.

Everyone couldn't believe that there were so many.

Because every family had someone contribute, even if they didn't go to the ferry, they would stay at home to watch everyone's things, and in the end everyone decided to divide them according to family background.

There are 52 households in their village.

After discussion, each household was given 2 taels of silver, and the rest was used to build a school in the village and hire teachers.

Now, every household gets two taels of silver in seven and a half days, which used to be two years’ income! Everyone is very excited.

Because basically all the money was collected was copper coins, so every family took two strings of copper coins. The jingling sound was very pleasant and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Zhao Yuanzhen looked at everyone's expressions and said that she could fully understand. This was like a flower grower in the 70s who suddenly had 2 yuan each. It was this concept that made everyone so happy that they couldn't stop smiling.

Zhao Yuanzhen put away his family's copper coins.

As for those who used items to offset the cost of crossing the river, the village auctioned them off and kept the money.

Actually, there is nothing good about it, just some daily necessities such as pots, pans, and bowls, but it is cheap, so people don’t mind it.

The grain was not auctioned off as it was intended to be given to the people in the village who bought it.

The last inkstone.

The village chief came over and asked Zhao Yuanzhen if it was really worth 4 taels of silver. Zhao Yuanzhen nodded and said that 4 taels of silver was still worth it.

The village chief then spent 400 coins to buy the inkstone, intending to give it to his great-grandson.

Today, he saw that the boy Zijin not only had beautiful handwriting, but was also good at math, even faster than him. He felt a little stimulated and decided to send his own children to school to learn to read and write.

Although everyone knows that this inkstone is expensive, it is of no use to them. It is just a stone worth some money.

Besides, I felt reluctant to spend 400 Wen to buy it for my child, so not many people bid for it.

The simple villagers never thought that they could pawn it.