She picked up the young prime minister while fleeing famine

"Tomorrow, I plan to go to Li County to buy some grain," Lian Chengmo said directly.

"Sure, we're really running low on food." Banxia nodded; she was worried about this very thing.

She was in charge of the grain in the household, and no one knew better than her how much grain was left.

"Do you want to go?" Lian Chengmo asked directly, seeing that the little girl didn't seem to understand him.

"Ah, can I go too?" Banxia asked in surprise, pointing to herself with one finger.

“Of course you can. Before, it was just the two of us, and I was worried about my younger siblings not being able to keep an eye on them. Now that your sixth aunt’s family is helping to look after them, you can come with me.” Lian Chengmo couldn’t help but chuckle, but he still managed to suppress the smile on his lips.

"Okay, okay, I want to go too."

"By the way, what should we prepare for our trip to the county town? It's my first time going to the county town."

"Will Li County be like Qingyang County, where you have to pay to enter the city?"

"No, no, one tael of silver can buy a lot of grain. Wouldn't it be a waste for me to go?" Banxia said, then changed her mind about going.

"Banxia, ​​Li County shouldn't be like Qingyang. There are no natural disasters here, and it's not a battleground. There shouldn't be any tolls for entering or leaving the city. At most, prices might be a bit higher." Lian Chengmo couldn't help but laugh and explain when he saw the little girl shaking her head like that.

In my previous life, neither natural disasters nor wars reached Li County, at least not for three years.

Most of the refugees were blocked in Qingyang County and did not even leave Hedong Prefecture. They were either directly conscripted or became military households. Only a few disaster victims overcame numerous obstacles to reach Qingyang County, but they did not pose any threat.

Ultimately, if one still wants to settle down and live a peaceful life, they will inevitably end up as a military household, making all their efforts futile.

"That's alright, I'll go then. Tell me what I need to get into the city?" Banxia cheered up again.

She had been fleeing famine since she transmigrated, and it had been almost two months. She hadn't even seen a town, let alone a county.

She was quite interested in seeing what an ancient county town was like, and also wanted to see what good things she could buy.

Banxia felt that what she lacked most right now was seeds, all kinds of seeds.

With the seeds, she will surely be able to cultivate a world of her own in the future.

"You need a household registration certificate to enter the city, I'll take care of that. You should bring all the gold and silver hair ornaments and banknotes you collected earlier."

"Once we get to the city, we'll exchange all of this for cash, then buy some of the supplies we need. After we go to the barbarian lands, we won't be coming out for at least six months."

Lian Chengmo then explained the preparations that Banxia needed to make.

As for household registration, he was such a high-ranking official in his previous life, he wouldn't be so incompetent as to not know how to forge a household registration certificate, it wouldn't be a problem to fool a few guards at the city gate.

As for why he didn't use his own household registration, it was obviously to prevent the Lian family from knowing that he had appeared in Li County.

As for the household registrations of Yao Li Village and Ban Xia, they are even less usable. If they were shown to the officers and soldiers, they would be removed from the military household registration list in no time.

"Okay, I'll do as you say. I'll go get ready right away." Banxia nodded and turned to pack.

Banxia had wanted to exchange the jewelry and banknotes for cash for a while, but the situation in Qingyang County was not good at that time, so she didn't say anything to avoid causing trouble for Xiaoguban.

Judging from the current situation of the Great Xia Dynasty, it is probably doomed. It is unknown whether those silver shops will be able to survive the change of dynasties. Why not quickly convert them into cash or goods, or wait for them to become worthless?

So before going to sleep, Banxia took out her most treasured little bag and then did a thorough inventory.

At first, she took five pieces of gold and silver jewelry from those cannibalistic bandits. Although they were not heavy, according to the prices Banxia had learned during this period, they were worth about a few taels of silver.

Then there was the money I'd found: seven or eight pieces of loose silver, the smallest being half a tael and the largest probably two taels, which added up to about ten taels.

Those guys were just the lowest-level thugs, yet they had already robbed so much money. Who knows how much their superiors had stolen during the chaos?

In comparison, the bandits in the mountain stronghold were much poorer. Of course, probably because they shared the spoils with the people of Yao Li Village, Banxia received a pitifully small amount of copper coins, which were all left to the women.

So, all things considered, Banxia only had about twenty taels of silver. Not knowing what the prices were like in Li County, Banxia had already begun to quietly distribute her assets.

One-third is used to buy daily necessities, such as oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, grain, and cloth; another third is used to buy various seeds; and the last third, well, is used to buy things like writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.

Although the younger brothers are now being taught by a strict teacher, they have never had any textbooks. They only have two books, the Hundred Family Surnames and the Thousand Character Classic, which the teacher has memorized himself.

No matter how poor we are, we can't skimp on education. Banxia felt that her younger brother had to be raised well. Who knows, when the world is at peace in the future, he might be able to go out and take the imperial examination and become an official?

After deciding what to buy the next day, Banxia carefully put the money away on her person before cuddling with Xiaoshuang'er to sleep.

The next morning, everyone got up early, and after breakfast, those who had been sent out to the city gathered together.

Besides Lian Chengmo and Banxia, ​​each household in Yaoli Village sent one person to the city, making a total of more than thirty people, roughly half men and half women.

This was also Lian Chengmo's suggestion. If all those entering the city around the same time were men, and all of them were unfamiliar faces, it might arouse suspicion.

Once everyone had arrived, Lian Chengmo distributed the dozen or so household registration records he had forged, in groups of at least three. Each record listed a large family of all ages, so everyone could just pretend to be one.

Because the villagers in Yao Li Village were illiterate, each group confirmed with Lian Chengmo the identities they were impersonating, such as names and ages.

The household registration certificate that Lian Chengmo produced was not only written on deliberately aged paper, but also stamped with a forged official seal, the kind that even the county magistrate himself couldn't tell the difference from.

Banxia was truly amazed by what she saw; it turns out that forgery is a phenomenon that has existed throughout history.

Thinking back to the writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones that the old-fashioned man bought in Qingyang County, he had always used them sparingly, so he must have been looking forward to this day for a long time.

Qingyang County is a mixed bag; you can enter without a household registration and just pay a fee. But once you pass through Qingyang County and reach Taiping, household registration becomes extremely important.

In ancient times, population control was quite strict. People in each prefecture could only move within designated areas, and if they wanted to go to other places, they had to obtain a travel permit.

For locals traveling to and from county or prefectural capitals, only household registration is required.

With this forged household registration, as long as they don't confront the village head or neighborhood chief of the area listed on the registration, there's no risk of them being exposed.

After all, even a county magistrate couldn't possibly know every villager, could he?

With this household registration certificate in hand, everyone entered the city smoothly. Lian Chengmo and Banxia's group, however, hid in the shadows and watched everyone else enter the city safely before being the last to enter.