Traveling through 1942 with space

"Little kid, if I didn't feel really sorry for you, I wouldn't sell you food.

Don't spread rumors when you go out. This grain is what I got from the clan leader's family. The village doesn't allow us to sell grain outside, otherwise we won't get any more grain." After the transaction was completed, Wang Laoshi did not forget to remind Hou Xiaoge a few words.

"Uncle, don't worry, I dare not tell anyone. What if they find out that I have food and come to rob me?

Uncle, brother, someone seems to be here, I have to leave quickly, I hope we can meet again after the disaster." Hou Xiaoge said hello and quickly slipped away.

After seeing Hou Xiaoge leave, Wang Laoshi jumped off the high stool, put his hands behind his back, and went home happily with his son.

Wang Laoshi was very satisfied with this transaction. He had bought the grain on credit from the clan leader's family. He only had to wait until the disaster was over and then return it to the clan leader with 30% interest.

How could the grain supply in a disaster year be compared with that in normal years? Therefore, Wang Laoshi made a lot of money by exchanging five kilograms of flour for one dollar.

There are also old hens. In normal years, a three-pound hen would only cost fifty cents, but now he sells a two-pound hen for 2 yuan, which is a lucrative profit.

However, Wang Laoshi was a fairly honest man, and he was also fooled by Hou Xiaoge's acting skills, so he asked for a low price and only made four times the profit.

If you meet someone with a bad heart, who charges you three or five dollars for five kilograms of flour, would you change it?

If you don’t change, then just wait to starve to death!

Hou Xiaoge was also very satisfied. He only spent a few dollars for free to get the seeds and old hens he urgently needed.

During the subsequent escape, they no longer lacked eggs and food, and their planting space was further expanded.

After putting the things into the planting space, Hou Xiaoge didn't plan to move around anymore. For many things, excess is as bad as excess. Today's harvest was already a great one.

However, when Xiaoge returned to the gate of Wangjiazhuang, he saw a large group of people gathered at the gate of Wangjiazhuang. From time to time, three or five people rushed out of the crowd and ran away.

Hou Xiaoge relied on his small stature but great strength to pinch the balls of anyone who blocked his way and squeezed through the crowd.

Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was the villagers of Wangjiazhuang who were selling flour made from bran and corn cobs. A pound of bran cost twenty yuan, and a pound of corn cob flour cost three yuan.

Hou Xiaoge was so shocked when he heard the price that his mouth opened wide! The price was simply sky-high, it was crazy.

However, Hou Xiaoge still saw many victims scrambling to buy flour, especially flour made from corn cobs, which he thought even cows would not eat. It was more popular among the victims than bran.

The victims first put the money into the bamboo basket. After receiving the money, the villagers of Wangjiazhuang put the grain into the bamboo basket according to the amount of money, and then stood on the city wall and used a rope to slide the basket down.

After catching the bamboo baskets that had slipped down, the victims took out the food and, under the protection of several of their companions, ran out of the blocked exit of Wangjia Village, holding the food.

As for why no one rushed to rob at the exit, Wangjiazhuang had more than twenty rifles and a machine gun mounted on the gate tower. Anyone who wanted to die could rush forward.

Besides, Luoyang has not yet reached its most difficult time. The victims are fleeing famine to survive and don’t want to die in vain.

Hou Xiaoge watched the excitement and listened to the conversations of the refugees around him. It took him a while to understand what was going on.

It turned out that the militiamen from Wangjiazhuang saw the refugees resting nearby and thought it was profitable, so they ground the corn cobs that they usually used for burning firewood at home into flour, and then got bran from the landlords and sold it to the refugees to make a profit. This could be considered a welfare provided by the landlords to the militiamen.

Some villagers, seeing the profitability, also joined the group.

After returning to the camp, Hou Xiaoge asked his uncle with some doubt, is Wangjiazhuang so rich?

Let’s not talk about corn cob flour, bran is a good thing. In years of famine, people can’t even get enough food, so why would they be willing to sell it?

Uncle Hou Yangmin was obviously very familiar with Wangjiazhuang, and he took Brother Hou aside to explain.

After his uncle's explanation, Hou Xiaoge suddenly understood.

It seems that Wang Laoshi sold grain to himself not out of pity for him, but to resell it and make a profit from the difference to supplement his family income.

It turns out that Wang Laoshi and his family can still live their own lives behind closed doors, all thanks to the village landlord Wang Laocai, who is also the patriarch of their Wang family.

Wang Laocai from Wangjiazhuang is a famous landlord in the area within dozens of miles. He owns thousands of acres of land and is also in the grain business. His family has dozens of granaries all year round, which he uses to hoard grain and sell it at high prices.

However, after the famine, the government directly implemented grain price controls and prohibited merchants from speculating in grain. Seeing that there was no profit to be made, Wang Laocai simply stopped his grain business.

This year, there were disasters everywhere in the Central Plains. Wang Laocai did not believe others' suggestions about where to escape to. He only believed in his own old nest. After stopping his business, he went straight back to the village and defended it.

As for why Wang Laocai is confident about his own safety, it is naturally because of the large population and abundant military force of Wangjiazhuang.

All the people in Wangjiazhuang are descended from the same ancestor. Today, the village has a population of over 2,000. The clans in the village are complete and well-known for their unity.

The world has been in turmoil in recent years, and with the support of several wealthy people, the village has purchased hundreds of long and short guns, a homemade cannon and three machine guns.

For safety reasons, the clansmen were recruited to build a village wall that was three meters high and half a meter wide. Although it was made of earth, it was enough to defend against ordinary bandits and defeated soldiers.

With such a large population and strong military force, it is a well-known overlord-level village in Luoyang County.

Wang Laocai not only owns more than half of the village's land, he is also the current patriarch of the Wang family. Returning to the land of Wangjiazhuang, he is the local tyrant and is very safe.

However, Wang Laocai also knew that his confidence came from Wangjiazhuang, so he was usually quite nice to the villagers.

Normally, Wangjiazhuang employed people from the village for his business and workshop, and the rent was the lowest. In years of disaster, he could borrow money on credit, as long as he paid the normal interest the following year. Otherwise, Wangjiazhuang would not have been able to develop into a large village with 3,000 people.

Wang Laocai was also very smart. After returning to the village, he felt that the dozen or so granaries he had left were too eye-catching, so he took the initiative to lend grain to the villagers, agreeing that they would return 50% more grain after the disaster.

With food, the people of Wangjiazhuang are more united, and Wang Laocai can rest easier.

However, it is now a disaster year, and ordinary villagers have no income. They can only buy grain on credit from Wang Laocai every month. If this continues for a long time, after the disaster year, the owed grain and interest will be an astronomical figure.

Therefore, there are speculators like Wang Laoshi, who save some food by tightening his belt at home, and then when he meets wealthy disaster victims, he takes out the food that was sold at sky-high prices during the disaster and exchanges it for money. Then after the disaster is over, he buys food at a fair price and returns it to the landlords.

You think Wang Laocai didn't know about Wang Laoshi's speculative behavior? How could these cunning landlords not know?

But Wang Laocai knew what he needed most at this time, and that was safety. As long as the villagers didn't do anything openly, it would be a win-win situation for him, Wang Laocai, even if he just lay down.