Farming and reading family

He was wearing a coarse cloth shorts and straw sandals, and his legs were covered in mud. When he saw Xu Boyan, he smiled and wiped the sweat off his face.

"You still have the nerve to laugh." Xu Boyan stood beside Cao Geng and scolded.

Cao Geng's expression froze. "What? Did I embarrass you, Master Xu?"

"You've embarrassed yourself," Xu Boyan said angrily. "If He County were peaceful, you would have helped build bridges and roads, which would have been considered a gesture of kindness. But now that He County is suffering from a severe drought, the crops are dying. What's the point of you doing this yourself?"

"If I'm not mistaken, the landlords and merchants have started hoarding food, right?"

"Food prices are soaring. Life is tough for the people, right?"

...Xu Boyan kept on complaining about everything.

Cao Geng wanted to make a few more remarks in rebuttal, but he couldn't even utter the last word.

"You're an official, the father and mother of He County. The least you can do is keep them alive." Xu Boyan became even more angry when Cao Geng remained silent. "Whose land will be irrigated by this reservoir after it's built?"

"If the people really can't eat and need to use work-for-relief, and you've already repaired it, what will you repair then?"

"Sometimes you really should learn from Gao E. Those who follow her can live well. You want to do something practical. What have you done in all the time you've been in He County?"

Cao Geng lowered his head lower and lowered, without saying a word.

"Let's go." If Xu Boyan didn't want to save face for Cao Geng, he really wanted to kick him into the reservoir.

Cao Geng thought about it and followed Xu Boyan away.

Gao E and the others prepared everything early in the morning, even Huo Ji came.

Chen Ke had been waiting at the village entrance, showing how seriously he took the matter.

Xu Boyan didn't let them wait too long and rode over with Cao Geng.

"Master Xu, Master Cao." Chen Ke saluted hurriedly.

Xu Boyan saw Chen Ke dismount and said, "I am here as a personal assistant to Xiao Wu. There is no need for such a grand ceremony."

"It is an honor for the Chen family that Lord Xu can come here in person." Chen Ke stepped aside.

Seeing that the Chen family was well prepared, Xu Boyan started directly.

As for what word to write, Xu Boyan had already thought about it and held Chen Zhengrui's hand to write a new word.

Everyone looked over at the same time, unsure where this new word came from.

"If you continue to improve, you will improve every day." Gao E said with a smile, "Zhengrui will definitely remember your teachings."

Xu Boyan nodded and looked at Chen Zhengrui who saluted respectfully: "Correct yourself and seek new things. Your future is limitless."

"Thank you for your teachings, sir." Chen Zhengrui looked up at Xu Boyan.

"Okay, I have something urgent to do, so I won't stay any longer." Xu Boyan said goodbye to everyone.

He should have left after meeting Gao E yesterday, but he was delayed until now because he was helping Xiao Wu start writing.

Although Xu Boyan left, Cao Geng and others stayed, and everyone had a feast together to celebrate Xiaowu's start of writing.

After dinner, Chen Ke, Du Weiqing and others went to the academy together, but Cao Geng still did not leave.

"Is there something wrong, Lord Cao?" Gao E asked uncertainly.

"I want to borrow some people from you." Cao Geng said with a smile.

Gao E looked at Cao Geng's expression and felt that he was being a bit rude. "How much do you want to borrow?"

"Thirty people with better skills." Cao Geng was indeed not polite.

"So many? Then Lord Cao has to tell me what you want to do, and I'll ask them if they are willing." Gao E crossed her arms.

She thought that Xu Boyan must have said something to Cao Geng, and why did she feel that Cao Geng was a little different.

"There's a problem with the county government's granary. I need to recalculate and I need people." Cao Geng said very honestly.

Gao E was a little surprised. Needless to say, there shouldn't be much grain in the government granaries and charity granaries. If there was enough grain, Cao Geng wouldn't be too worried.

"Okay, I'll ask Lord Cao who is willing to go." Gao E said directly.

"Thank you very much in advance." Cao Geng bowed. "I also need to borrow some food."

"When will you return it?" Gao E is not a fool.

"Within a month." Cao Geng promised.

"Okay." Gao E said that it would be fine as long as she could pay it back.

Gao E went to find Ji Wuyang about this matter and asked him to select thirty people, and Ji Wuyang was among those thirty people.

With these thirty people, Cao Geng instantly became different from before, and he could replace those yamen runners who were disobedient.

At the same time, it was announced that there was sufficient grain in the government granaries and charity granaries, which stabilized the grain prices in He County.

The landlords and gentry in He County exclaimed that it was impossible, as some of them knew how much grain was in the warehouse even better than the county magistrate.

Then Cao Geng brought people to investigate, recalculated the land, found all kinds of faults against them, and took away their grain cart by cart. By the time those people realized what was happening, their grain had already entered the government warehouse.

Gao E laughed when she heard this. This was very similar to Xu Boyan's behavior, and Cao Geng executed it well.

The drought continued, and Gao E did not continue to buy food from outside. Instead, she reduced the food used to fatten the livestock and let them grow slowly.

The livestock they raise are used for their own consumption and to supply the Huanxizhu restaurant in He County. By that time, people will have nothing to eat and the hot pot restaurant will not be able to operate, so there will naturally be no need for so many ingredients.

Xiao Chuyun went into the mountains three times before he determined the location of the water source. The water source was also the source of the water flow from Qingtan Gorge. Although it was not deep, the water flow was very large.

According to Xiao Chuyun's description, when things really don't work, drinking water is not a problem.

There was only a little sporadic rain until the autumn harvest, so not many of the newly planted mulberry trees survived, let alone the grain harvest.

Batou Village and Luoyun Village are located at Shangshuikou. They water the crops diligently every day and have a good harvest.

When the autumn harvest came, many landlords came to the fields to collect grain, but they all sold the grain to Gao E according to the price agreed upon beforehand.

Gao E's granary is full again, so even if there is a drought, it will not have much impact on her family's life.

It's not very cold in winter even though it hasn't snowed. Today the sky is gloomy and it looks like it's going to snow, so people finally have some hope.

Gao E came back from the workshop and saw a man lying at her doorstep, so she asked Lu Qingluo to go and take a look.

"Huh?" Lu Qingluo was a little surprised to see that it was Yi Nanzhi.

Yi Nanzhi was wearing a gray patched cotton coat, and her hair was simply tied up and looked messy.

Gao E was also surprised: "Take her back first."

Gao E asked someone to boil water for Yi Nanzhi to soak in. Her body temperature gradually returned to normal and she woke up.

After she finished cleaning up, Gao E prepared porridge for her.

Although she was very hungry, Yi Nanzhi still restrained herself and slowly finished the bowl of porridge, tears falling down her face.

"What's going on?" Gao E looked at Yi Nanzhi's aggrieved look.

Yi Nanzhi burst into tears and only calmed down after she finished crying.

It turned out that when she returned home she happened to encounter bandits who killed her family and stole all her belongings.

She was outside and escaped death.

But she was the only one left at home, and she didn't dare go home, so she had to go to her aunt's house. Her aunt actually wanted to use her to exchange for a wife for her stupid son.

Of course Yi Nanzhi didn't want to do that, so she set fire to her aunt's house and escaped.

After that, she didn't know where to go, so she remembered that she had a small courtyard in He County, so she sold her belongings along the way and arrived in He County.