The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 37 Horrible speculation, vegetarian food is expensive and meat is cheap
When Captain Huang left, the refugees who had looked honest just now immediately knelt down to Liu Sheng one by one, crying and begging: "Master, buy me, I'm willing to do anything!"

"Master, please take me away. I really don't want to go back to the valley."

"Please do well..."

After these few people said a word, several officers and soldiers began to beat them with sheathed waist knives, scolding and urging them.

"Have you forgotten the rules? Go back to the valley!"

"If you keep talking nonsense, let's see how I treat you!"

Liu Sheng watched the officers and soldiers drive the remaining six people back to the valley while scolding them, and did not interfere again because it was useless - unless he could kill the officers and soldiers here now.

But again, without knowing the details in the valley, he couldn't act rashly.

Otherwise, it is very likely that you will do bad things with good intentions, or even capsize.

After the officers and soldiers left, the man and woman selected by Liu Sheng also knelt down, but they thanked Liu Sheng.

"Thank you, sir, for saving my life!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Sheng asked, "Why, if I don't buy you, will you die in the valley?"

The man named Di Hong smiled bitterly and said, "In ten days and a half, we will probably starve to death."

"I heard the archers from the Inspection Department say, isn't Shizhou here every day?"

"It's porridge every day, but..." Halfway through, Di Hong looked at the officers and soldiers not far away and the archer Lao Zhang who looked unkind next to him, and then shut up.

As for the woman named Song Lan, she didn't dare to say a word other than thanking her.

Lao Zhang said at this time: "Master, there is not much food available from above. Even for relief, we can only make porridge for some people's lives every day. Some people are ungrateful and dissatisfied. Don’t just take their word for it.”

Liu Sheng smiled and said nothing more.

After a while, the two men were taken out of the valley by officers and soldiers.

One girl is Di Hong's sister, and the other man is Song Lan's husband.

Immediately, Liu Sheng and others took the four people to Minggang Town.

After walking a few dozen steps, Di Hong said, "Master, can you give us something to stutter first?"

Liu Sheng saw that Di Hong's sister and Song Lan's faces were uglier than before, as if they were about to faint at any moment, so he asked Ma Jinshui to take out a piece of cake and a bag of water for the four of them.

Ma Jinshui divided the cake into four parts and said, "Once you've bitten it, eat it slowly. Don't choke to death before taking two bites."

The four of them did what Ma Jinshui said, but the girl ate too quickly and choked. Fortunately, the water was delivered in time, otherwise she would have choked to death.

After eating the cake, the four of them reluctantly followed Liu Sheng and others and walked slowly towards Minggang Town.

Because Di Hong and others were walking too slowly, the archer Lao Zhang was impatient and went back after walking a mile.

Before leaving, he never forgot to give Di Hong a warning look.

However, when Lao Zhang walked away, Di Hong immediately came to Liu Sheng and said with anger: "Master, we were all tricked into the valley by those archers.

They said that the valley was a refugee camp set up by the government, and they gave out porridge every day, but the porridge was no more than water. There were only a handful of rice grains in the porridge water they received every day, and even bran and wild vegetables were not included.

That's it. They also charged us a lot of money before entering the valley.

My parents entered the valley together. After staying there for more than ten days, they died of hunger one after another.

Nowadays, dozens of people starve to death in the valley every day, but a group of bullies specializes in snatching corpses.

I watched secretly and found that the bullies mainly ate millet porridge and steamed buns on weekdays. Although they cooked meat every day, they definitely couldn't eat that much.

I suspect that they probably took the meat to other places - I want to enter Minggang Town, but I don't want to eat meat. "

Hearing this, the expressions of Liu Sheng, Ma Jinliang and others changed drastically.

Although Liu Sheng guessed that there was a problem in this refugee valley, he did not expect that the problem was so big.

If what Di Hong said is true, then it is possible that the officers and soldiers and the gang of bullies in the valley did something so unscrupulous.

After coming back to his senses, Liu Sheng looked at Di Hong and asked, "Is what you said true?"

Di Hong raised his palms and said, "If I tell half a lie, I will be struck by lightning and die!"

"Is it because you have read the book when you talk?"

"I read it for a few years when I was a kid."

Liu Sheng nodded and asked, "Is anyone in the valley suffering from the disease?"

"How is it possible?" Di Hong shook his head. "With the virtue of these officers and soldiers, if someone really gets the disease, they can't control it, and they don't dare to stay outside the valley."

Liu Sheng sighed after hearing this.

After listening to the words of the archer Lao Zhang before, he had also thought about whether there happened to be a capable Ming official in charge of Minggang Town, so he set up a refugee camp in the valley to provide relief to the victims while also Avoid threats to Minggang Town.

Now it seems that he has obviously thought too much.

"You have been in the valley for so many days, do you know the origins of the officers and soldiers guarding outside the valley?" Liu Sheng asked again. "I heard it seems to be Liu Xicai's soldiers."

"Liu Xicai?"

Di Hong said: "Liu Xicai used to be a famous bandit in Runing Prefecture. I heard that he initially followed Sheng Zhiyou and Shen Wandeng. Later, he was surrendered by the government for some reason. Now he is the commander-in-chief and is stationed in the King of Chu City in the south. "

"Then do you know how many soldiers and horses Liu Xicai has under his command?"

Di Hong shook his head, "I don't know about this."

'Xiao Yingxun, Shen Wanteng, Liu Xicai, there were quite a few famous bandits in southern Henan in the late Ming Dynasty...'

Liu Sheng muttered in his heart and called Song Lan's husband Xu Wenzhou over.

He asked Xu Wenzhou some things about the valley. Although Xu Wenzhou didn't know as much as Di Hong, it also proved from the side that what Di Hong said should be true.

It took more than an hour for Liu Shengcai and others to arrive at Beijiekou, Minggang Town.

Liu Sheng looked at his watch. It was already four o'clock in the afternoon.

Out of caution, Liu Sheng called the four of Di Hong together and told them not to talk nonsense when they entered the town, and then paid the money to go in.

Speaking of which, the "gate tax" collected by Minggang Town is also very shady. On the surface, they didn't bring any goods, but they were actually required to pay one or two taels of silver each before they were allowed to enter the town.

It can be seen that the two wealthy refugee families before were mostly allowed in only if they could afford the "gate tax".

After walking around Minggang Town for a while, Liu Sheng found that although the people here were not as dense and prosperous as before in Xingji and Maojiaji, there were still quite a few people. At first glance, it seemed like it was a peaceful season, and there were no major disasters. Same.

Of course, after careful observation, Liu Sheng quickly noticed something unusual.

For example, there are no beggars in the town.

There are always people queuing up in front of the grain store, and indeed, as Lao Zhang said, brown rice has risen to 50 taels per shi.

The prices of other items have also increased a lot.

No, Ma Gui, under Liu Sheng's instruction, found a B&B-type inn, and the owner actually offered a room at a high price of [-] taels a day!

You can provide food and fodder for horses and mules yourself, or you can let the store take care of it.Regardless of which option you choose, the cost is equally high.

Fortunately, Liu Sheng and the others only planned to rest for one night, so they could afford to spend dozens of taels of silver.

After settling in the B&B, Liu Sheng let Shi Jincai and others rest and look after the house while he took Ma Jinliang, Ma Gui, Wang Laowu, Yang Kuiwu, and Ma Jinshui shopping.

Certainly not hanging out.

Instead, you need to find a suitable pawnshop to sell a few "treasures" in exchange for silver.

Then just ask for some information.

When Liu Sheng and others were shopping, it was already past four in the afternoon, and the smell of meat was wafting from the restaurants and street food shops in the town.

Although Liu Sheng and others were hungry, they remembered Di Hong's speculation and felt uneasy when they smelled the smell of meat.

Ma Jinliang said: "Brother Liu, let's not go to the restaurant. Why don't we eat some vegetarian stuffed buns and drink some tea at the street food shop."

"Row."

After Liu Sheng nodded, he led a few people into a food shop selling steamed buns.

"Shop, here are the six-cage steamed stuffed buns with vegetarian fillings."

But the shopkeeper smiled and said: "Guests, the plain stuffed buns here are more expensive than the meat stuffing ones. Why don't we use some meat stuffing ones instead? These meat stuffed buns are so delicious!"

Hearing this, Ma Jinliang couldn't help but said: "This is strange. I heard for the first time that vegetarian food is more expensive than meat food."

The store owner explained: "Isn't this a severe drought and water shortage? Vegetables can't be grown, so vegetable prices have naturally risen sharply. However, there have been a lot of dolphin killings recently, so the price of dolphin meat is not that expensive."

Ma Jinliang wanted to retaliate, but Liu Sheng stopped him and said to the store owner: "Let's just get some stuffing. Come up quickly."

The shopkeeper smiled and said: "Three to one cage with plain stuffing, please be patient and pay the money first."

"Three liang? Why don't you go and grab it?" Ma Jinliang slammed the table angrily.

You know, Liu Sheng got most of his money from him.So when he saw the storekeeper killing Liu Sheng, Ma Jinliang felt as if he was killing him, and felt very distressed.

The smiling shopkeeper turned cold and was about to say something when he saw Liu Sheng taking out a few coins.

The shopkeeper put away the money, regained his smile, and said, "This guest is sensible."

After saying that, he went in to get the buns.

"Brother Liu, even if the gray noodles cost 50 taels per stone, a cage of steamed stuffed buns with plain fillings only costs [-] taels. We can't get used to such a black-hearted shop owner..."

While Ma Jinliang was feeling sorry for Liu Sheng's money, Liu Sheng turned his attention to the noisy crowd not far away.

There was actually a circus troupe performing in the street.

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(End of this chapter)