I was pulling trees in Daming, and Lao Zhu begged me to come out of retirement

Chapter 32: Zhu Yuanzhang is crazy?
"Master Liu! Master Liu! Please be kind and give us some food!"

In front of the landlord Liu Xiaode's door, there were a dozen skinny tenants gathered in groups of three or four.

They kept kowtowed in front of Liu Xiaode's closed door, begging him to give them some food.

These were all tenants of Liu Xiaode's family. In the year of disaster, they could not even keep the rice seeds from the little food they grew. They had to hand it all over to the court and pay Liu Xiaode interest.

Although they had just harvested the early rice, they had no more food to eat. As a last resort, they ran to the landlord Liu Xiaode and begged him to lend them some food to survive the next few months.

But this was a disaster year, so how could Liu Xiaode lend them food? They were lucky to be able to get it back this time.

Liu Xiaode's doorman stuck his head out and shouted:
"What alms! The landlords don't even have any surplus grain. Don't you know that the master paid decades of taxes for you poor bastards the day before yesterday? It's all out of kindness that the master didn't ask you for it! Moreover, the master has kindly waived part of the borrowed grain, and you dare to push it further? If you continue, I'll beat you all to death!"

bang,
The door was shut heavily.

Also locked up were the hopes of those poor people.

"Dad, I'm hungry..."

A boy about fifteen years old pleaded weakly to his father with dry lips and sunken cheeks.

The father closed his eyes in despair, tears flowing out of his eyes unconsciously.

"Son! Dad is useless!"

He suddenly opened his eyes, stretched out his withered hands and pressed them on the mouth and nose of his young son.

"Son, I'm sorry for you. I shouldn't have let you be born into this world. Go first, I'll be here to accompany you soon!"

As he exerted force with his arms, the already weak child began to have difficulty breathing. He waved his hands continuously, trying to slap his father's big hands away. He didn't understand why his father did this.

"Brother Tang! Brother Tang!"

A companion nearby noticed the man's action and turned pale with fear. He pulled the man's hand away and shouted:

"Brother Tang, what are you doing? We can't do this! Those...those are beasts!"

The man thought that his brother was also starving and wanted to eat his own children like those beasts.

Unexpectedly, the man burst into tears:
"I'm sorry for my son. I don't want him to continue to suffer with me in this world!"

His companion beside him trembled all over and fell to the ground in sorrow.

For a moment, an atmosphere of despair spread among these poor tenants.

suddenly!

An excited shout was heard:
"Hurry! Hurry! Zhu Chongba's family is hiring! Meals are provided!"

Everyone was stunned at first, then looked in the direction where the sound came from with red eyes.

At this time, the man was holding a piece of wheat bread in one hand and a wooden bowl in the other, desperately pouring some soup into his mouth. It was obvious that he was afraid that his food would be robbed by the group of starving ghosts in front of him.

"Wow! Really! There's food! It smells so good!"

He sobbed and repeated it to everyone, stuffed all the bread into his mouth and waved his hand: "I was assigned by Chongba to deliver the message."

At this moment, he was very happy.
I didn't expect that just by calling someone, I would be given a big bowl of mushroom soup and something called bread. It was so delicious and it also satisfied my hunger!
If we weren't afraid that our food would be snatched away by these hungry tenants, we would have kept it and divided it into several meals, not just dozens!

At this time, the group of tenants finally reacted.

Everyone rushed towards Zhu Yuanzhang's house.

Although they say they are recruiting, they don’t say how many people they are recruiting. What if I go too late and the position is full?
In a short while, all the tenants gathered in front of Liu Xiaode's door were cleared out.

The doorman opened the door in surprise and stuck his head out. Looking at the messy straw mat in front of the door, he hurriedly reported to his master.

Liu Xiaode was also stunned when he heard the report from the concierge.
"Recruiting workers? Is Zhu Yuanzhang crazy?" What year is this? It's unknown how many years the disaster will last.

Liu Xiaode would rather not rent the land than lend it to those poor people.
In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang did not rent grain but recruited workers?

Liu Xiaode sneered:
"A nouveau riche is a nouveau riche. How long do you really think the little money you earn can last? You even provide meals. You must be a fool."

As landlords, grain was gold in those days.
As long as the food is transported to the disaster area, it is easy to make a hundred times the profit.

When it comes to making money from national disasters, these landlords are the best at it.

"I originally thought this guy had a chance to be like me, but unfortunately he's just an idiot and not the same kind of person as me."

The doorman on the side said servilely:

"Yes, that's right, Master. That kind of bastard is useless even if given a chance. Our Master was kind enough to reduce the rent for those tenants. It would be fine if they didn't know how to be grateful, but they came here to cause trouble. They deserve to starve to death."

Liu Xiaode stroked his beard proudly as he listened to the flattery.

It is certainly not out of kindness to reduce part of the grain rent for those poor guys. The main reason is that after deducting taxes and grain rent, they don’t even have rice seeds left.

If he didn't leave some for them, he was afraid that those poor guys would fight him to the death.

Now that I have reduced the grain rent, I have discouraged their will to fight me, and I have also earned some good reputation. It is really a matter of killing two birds with one stone.

The only thing left is to recruit a few more strong men to prevent those poor devils from jumping off the wall.
God knows how long this disaster will last. I heard that the Yellow River flooded and there were starving people everywhere, and the plague has spread to Huaixi.

Now I have not only food but also money. If things really go wrong, I can take my family and flee south to seek refuge. When I come back, I will still be a big landlord.

He is nothing like Zhu Yuanzhang, that little bastard who shows off just because he has some money. He still has a long life ahead of him.

Liu Xiaode smiled crookedly, as if he could see through the future, waved his hand to send the doorman away, and continued to taste the tea of ​​his new wife.

These days, having more people is cheaper. You can get a concubine without spending even half a bag of rice. How wonderful it is.

……

And on the other side,
The front of Zhu Yuanzhang's newly built house was crowded with tenants.

They were called tenants, but at this time they were more like refugees.

Almost all the people in the village, with their families, ran to Zhu Yuanzhang's house.

Zhu Chongliu, sweating profusely, shouted to the villagers:

"Don't push! Don't push! Everyone has a chance! Everyone has a chance! We are not limiting the number of people we can recruit this time! Don't push!"

But at this time, this group of tenants would never listen to him. All of them swarmed into the yard and tried hard to move forward, hoping to get the first job spot for themselves.

Zhu Yuanzhang was also a little flustered at this time. He did not realize that just calling for food would cause such a big reaction among the people.

Or maybe he shouldn't have opened the yard in the beginning. Now they all rushed in. If he didn't maintain order, this group of people might rob his house.

Zhu Yuanzhang's forehead was covered with sweat, and he saw that the situation was getting out of control.

Suddenly, an arrow flew out from outside the yard and hit the doorplate of the house!
Buzz~!

A muffled sound!
The sound of the arrow shaking made everyone quiet down instantly.

Tianyu was standing on a pillar nearly ten meters high outside the wall at this time. He waved to Zhu Chongba and said with a smile:

"You look like you need help."

　It's a new week. I'm begging for recommendation votes and monthly votes. Although I don't know what the use is, I'm begging you. Is anyone else reading this?

　　
　
(End of this chapter)