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

Before the sun sets, the second daily porridge begins.

Zhao Zhenwen and his family joined the queue to receive porridge.

The rules of queuing up to receive porridge are commonplace, but being able to maintain good order when helping thousands of people is quite rare in Zhao Zhenwen's opinion.

Zhao Zhenwen observed for a while and felt that not only the victims respected Liu Dashan, but also because Liu Dashan's bodyguards all looked very strong and had a vaguely intimidating aura.

When Zhao Zhenwen was young, he had the opportunity to witness the march of the border army, and found that compared with Liu Dashan's guard, he was obviously inferior.

This secretly surprised him even more.

'I'm afraid this Liu Dashan is not a serious maritime trader, but a big pirate who roams the sea, right? '

Qingzhou also has a coastal area. Zhao Zhenwen has heard many legends about pirates, but the Zhucheng area is more inland and has never been ravaged by pirates.

Although he is a scholar, he is not pedantic.

There is no reason why Liu Dashan would not accept his aid or even report it to the government just because he suspected that he was a big bandit.

In his opinion, even if Liu Dashan was really a pirate, what he did at this time was a matter of human life, which was much better than the many corrupt officials in Qingzhou and Laizhou, and the powerful landlords who were unkind for their wealth.

The Zhao family waited in line for a long time, but before they got there, Zhao Zhenwen's eldest daughter, Zhao Lan, couldn't bear it anymore and fainted.

"Someone fainted from hunger!"

The victims who saw it exclaimed.

Zhao Zhenwen, Zhao Chen and others were also panicked for a while.

"Lan'er?"

"Lan'er, wake up quickly!"

"Come here, please, save my daughter!"

In panic, Zhao Chen asked the people around her for help.

We are also victims of the disaster. Even if others sympathize with us, there is nothing we can do about it.

Fortunately, several strong men rushed over at this time.

"Don't mess around. Those who should queue up will continue to queue up. Those who disrupt order for no reason will be kicked out of the queue and will not be allowed to receive porridge!"

The leading man yelled and scolded, immediately restoring order to the newly chaotic team.

Only the Zhao family continues to be anxious, not knowing what to do.

The leading man came over and said, "How many people are in your family? One of you will come with me to take the girl to see a doctor, and the rest can continue to receive porridge."

Seeing that his wife was confused, Zhao Zhenwen said, "You take Jian'er and Hui'er and continue queuing up to receive the porridge. I'll follow and have a look."

Although Zhao Chen was worried, she could only nod.

Zhao Zhenwen wanted to pick up his daughter, but found that he was too hungry and couldn't use the strength at all.

The leading man said: "Human life is at stake, so let me do it."

After speaking, he picked up Zhao Lan and walked to a tent not far away.

Zhao Lan is already fifteen years old and has already proposed marriage. Unfortunately, her fiancé's family died of starvation this year, and their family was forced to flee, so the marriage naturally ended.

But Zhao Zhenwen, as a father and a scholar, felt a little ugly for a big girl to be held by a young man in front of a large crowd.

But he didn't blame the young man. Instead, he felt that he was right. Human life was at stake, so how could he care too much?

It's important to save my daughter's life first.

He stumbled and followed a few people to the tent area.

I found that these tents were very simply set up, but they were clean and neat. You could see inside from the outside - most of them were filled with disaster victims, and they seemed to be patients like Zhao Lan.

Several people came to a big tent.

There was a doctor and several apprentices working inside.

Seeing Zhao Zhenwen and others coming in, he immediately called for apprentices to help.

What surprised Zhao Zhenwen was that three of the apprentices turned out to be young women. Although he was curious as to why the doctor would accept female apprentices, he felt more comfortable having his daughter escorted by three women than by men.

The doctor looked at Zhao Lan's face, took his pulse, and said, "She's fainted from hunger. Just go get her a bowl of rice soup with sugar and feed her."

There are obviously many patients who have fainted from hunger here, so rice soup is specially prepared.

A female apprentice quickly brought a bowl of rice soup and fed Zhao Lan spoonful by spoonful.

While Zhao Zhenwen was slightly relieved, he felt that his eyes were going black for a while, but he was also threatening to fall into coma.

The doctor asked: "Who are you to this girl?"

"I'm her father."

The doctor nodded and asked his apprentice to get a bowl of porridge for Zhao Zhenwen.

After a bowl of gruel, although he was still far from full, Zhao Zhenwen finally regained his composure and no longer felt dizzy or dark-eyed.

So he bowed and saluted everyone, "Thank you all for your life-saving grace!"

The doctor smiled and said: "We are all acting under the orders of the master of the family. If you want to thank us, please thank our master."

Zhao Zhenwen added: "Liu Dashan is naturally our savior."

At this time, Zhao Zhenwen already trusted these people and said: "My daughter Zhao Lan will take care of the doctor and several female doctors first. I want to see my wife."

"It doesn't matter, you can just go."

Zhao Zhenwen went over and found that his wife, son, and youngest daughter had already received a bowl of porridge and were eating it.

The porridge I received was indeed thicker than the porridge from the doctor.

Zhao Chen said: "We wanted to give you a bowl, but they didn't let you. We have to do it in person before we can give you porridge, and you have to register."

As he said that, he handed over the half-eaten bowl of porridge.

Although Zhao Zhenwen was not full, he felt sorry for his wife who had eaten the least while fleeing the famine, so he refused: "I have eaten at the doctor's place, you can eat it. If it doesn't work, I can get it again."

Zhao Chen hesitated.

Although it is only half a bowl of porridge, in this era of famine, it is a matter of life.

However, Zhao Zhenwen had already gone to the Liu family guards who were maintaining order to explain the situation and wanted to continue queuing up to receive porridge.

The guard laughed and said, "You are an honest scholar. According to the rules set by our master, you can indeed continue to receive the porridge, but you have to queue up at the back."

"Eh!"

This was really an unexpected surprise for Zhao Zhenwen, and he immediately went to line up.

When it came time for him to register, he specifically explained the situation and asked the person who registered to register him and his family together.

After eating, the Zhao family, guided by the Liu family's escort team, came to a relatively clean open space.

"Although our master sympathizes with you, we can't get so many tents at the moment. If you don't bring tents with you, you will have no choice but to rest here in the open at night."

Zhao Zhenwen said: "We have brought tenters, so you can do it yourself."

After all, the Zhao family has dozens of acres of land and has accumulated some wealth. Even if they are forced to flee famine, they are better prepared than the real poor.

The guard heard this and said, "That's good - if someone oppresses you, just come to us and we will seek justice."

"Thank you very much."

After the guard left, his son Zhao Jian couldn't help but said: "Mr. Liu is really a kind man. Their guard looks tall and powerful, but he treats us very kindly."

Zhao Chen nodded, "That's true." Zhao Zhenwen thought further and sighed: "Master Liu is a kind person, but he doesn't know how long this relief can last. Now that more and more victims are gathering outside Jiaoxi City, he Even with a huge fortune, I’m afraid it won’t be able to sustain it for a long time.”

"If we people want to survive, we still have to wait and see when the imperial court realizes the disaster and sends imperial envoys to come down to provide relief."

As a thirteen-year-old boy, Zhao Jian was influenced by his family education and studied since he was a child. However, from the time he can remember, he has not had a good impression of the Chu court and government.

When he heard this, he couldn't help but angrily said: "The imperial court? My son thinks that instead of expecting the imperial court to provide disaster relief, it is better to expect that Mr. Liu's family assets will be one hundred thousand or one million guan!"

Zhao Zhenwen heard his son's hatred for the Chu court and wanted to teach him a lesson, but he didn't know how to speak.

Because in his heart he was deeply disappointed with the Chu court and Emperor Jiahua...

The next day.

Zhao Zhenwen's family was waiting for the first porridge meal of the day when they saw a shrewd middle-aged man arriving at the refugee camp with a group of followers.

One of the followers with a loud voice yelled: "We are Master Ren's servants. The Master took pity on the Shandong fellows who suffered the disaster, and asked me to select some servants."

"Anyone, male or female, who is under the age of sixteen, looks good, and is in good health can come to me."

"At least give me three buckets of food. Listen, it's three buckets, not one bucket anymore."

"In addition, if you become a slave of our Ren family, you will not be hungry in the future, and you will even have meat to eat every few days."

"If you don't believe it, you will know just by looking at our faces and figures - which one is not rosy and which one is not strong?"

Hearing the shouts of this master's servant, some people were really tempted for a while.

Many poor families have several children, and it is difficult to fill their stomachs even during times of famine.

Nowadays, if there is a famine, it is normal for a few people to starve to death.

Although Liu Sheng is currently providing relief in Jiaoxi, the victims don't know how long he can provide relief.

And two bowls of porridge a day can only guarantee that these people will not starve to death for the time being.

Autumn is about to begin now. Even if the disaster situation eases and people return to their hometowns to plant crops, they will have to wait until next year to harvest.

Just as Zhao Zhenwen thought, if the victims wanted to be saved, it seemed that they could only rely on relief from the Dachu court.

However, relief from the imperial court and the government has been delayed. In the past ten years, the people have already lost confidence in the Chu imperial court. Naturally, they must take precautions and find a way to survive in advance.

Moreover, for the poor people, working as a slave for a wealthy family is not only a carp leaping over the dragon's gate, but also an opportunity. It is rare to encounter this kind of thing on ordinary days.

After all, large households need thresholds to recruit slaves.

Now the master of the Ren family has taken more slaves out of pity for the victims. This opportunity is really rare.

Thinking of this, a few victims no longer hesitated and gathered towards that family member.

The steward of Ren's family couldn't help but smile when he saw many people coming over, many of them holding little girls.

Little girls are good, little girls are valuable.

But if there is a handsome little boy, it will be more valuable.

He immediately said loudly: "Fellow villagers, if there is a beautiful little girl, please give me five dou of grain; if there is a handsome little boy, please give me eight dou of grain!"

Hearing this, the victims, who were still a little hesitant at first, were moved.

So more people gathered.

When the steward of the Ren family was happily picking people up, a team of Liu family guards came over.

The leader of the guard captain said: "Everyone, although this Ren family is a big family in Jiaoxi, they have always colluded with human traffickers and specialize in selling people to the brothels in the south."

"Anyone who accepts me as a servant of the Ren family is a lie. If you want to sell your sons and daughters, you have to think clearly!"

After the guard captain finished speaking, he sighed secretly.

He could only say so much.

Because in these times, for many poor families, selling their children is also a way to survive - if there is no food to eat, you can't hold each other together and starve to death, right?

Therefore, Liu Sheng had already told people that they could tell the people the truth about the human trafficking in Dawei, Jiaoxi, but they could not forcibly stop the victims from selling their children and daughters.

Sure enough, after the guard captain finished speaking, although there was a commotion among the victims who had gathered, not many of them dispersed in the end, and there were still many people left behind.

But when the steward of the Ren family saw that there were nearly half the people, he still hated these Liu family guards and the maritime merchant Liu Sheng.

He pretended to be stern and shouted: "You Liu family are really ignorant. You came to our Jiaoxi to stir up trouble and trouble, and you also slandered our Ren family's innocence?"

"What are you talking about, merchants? I think you are all pirates, right? Believe it or not, I will go to the county government office and report it to the magistrate to arrest you all?!"

The guard sneered when he heard this, pulled out a section of the steel knife from his waist, revealing the cold sword light, and said: "Report the officer to arrest us? You can try it!"

When the guard said this, the murderous look he showed made the steward shrink his head and did not dare to say any more.

Afterwards, he hurriedly picked out a few good-looking boys and girls to buy, and then returned to the city with a group of followers.

Back at the Ren family's mansion, the steward found Ren Tianxing, the master of the Ren family, and told him what happened outside the city in a more acrimonious manner.

In the end, he wiped his tears and said: "Master, it doesn't matter that we servants are bullied by the Liu family guard. The key is that he is a foreigner and doesn't take you seriously at all."

"Now that this matter has spread, what will the other big business owners in Jiaoxi think? And those mud-legged people, I'm afraid they will all laugh at you secretly and no longer respect you!"

When Mr. Ren was young, he liked to wander around and made friends with many green people. Unfortunately, he did not follow the right path. In the end, he colluded with human traffickers and became a half-black local boss.

In the past ten years, the Ren family has participated in the population trade in Jiaozhou, which has become the main source of money for the Ren family.

Ren Tianxing originally wanted to take advantage of this severe drought to buy and sell more people, annex some land, and expand his family property.

As a result, Liu Sheng, a maritime merchant, appeared outside the city and gave charity, ruining his good deeds.

He was older now and was not as ruthless as he used to be. In addition, Liu Sheng brought a lot of guards, so he was too lazy to conflict with him. He just regarded it as bad luck and asked the manager to "increase the price" to buy people.

He gave in before he arrived first, but Liu Sheng's people actually did bad things. They really didn't know what was good or bad.

Thinking of the news he had received in the past few days, Ren Tianxing showed a sneer on his face and said: "Don't worry, this guy named Liu won't be able to survive for a few days - there are more and more refugees outside the city. With the batch of food he bought earlier, he can support Not going down.”

"At that time, if he wants to buy grain at a 'low price' in the city, it will be impossible. At that time, I want to see what he will do."

"In addition, he caused such a big battle in Jiaoxi, but he has not gone to the Yamen to visit the magistrate. The magistrate Yan has already had thoughts about him."

After hearing these words, the steward rolled his eyes and said, "Sir, it's too slow to wait for the food surnamed Liu to run out. Since County Magistrate Yan has ideas for the man surnamed Liu, why don't we help him?"

"In my opinion, the guards surnamed Liu are all fierce. Not only do they carry knives, but they also seem to have hidden muskets. They are most likely pirates rather than merchants."

Ren Tianxing asked: "These days, is there much difference between maritime merchants and pirates?"

"What do you mean, sir?"

Ren Tianxing narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "It is precisely because he may be a pirate that we gave him three points. But now the big families in Jiaoxi who hate him are not just our Ren family, but more than a dozen families."

"Right now, we still need to be patient and explore his details. When we know more about Liu Sheng, Magistrate Yan is also ready and will take action on his own, so you don't need to worry."

After hearing this, the steward immediately gave a thumbs up and praised: "You are still thoughtful."

At this time, a porter ran in and said, "Master, Magistrate Yan has sent an invitation, asking you to come over."

After that, hand over the invitation.

Ren Tianxing took it and looked at it, but saw that Magistrate Yan used the excuse of "discussing the prevention of pirates" to summon all the big households in Jiaoxi County to discuss the matter.

So he couldn't help but smile and said: "Zhixian Yan moved faster than I expected - also, when Liu Sheng went to the city to buy food and other supplies, he made generous purchases. He was obviously rich, and he showed such a big figure. Magistrate Yan is probably greedy for the handle."

Then he stood up and said: "Prepare the sedan chair, sir, I'm going to the county government office!"

"Yes!" (End of this chapter)