Concubine

Chapter 183 Rice
Yang Qiuchi wondered: "It's so far away, why didn't you flee to De'an Mansion nearby, why did you come to Wuchang, which is so far away?"

Aloe sobbed and said slowly: "We went to De'an Mansion to escape the famine. There was a plague of locusts in my hometown last year, and no grain of grain was confiscated. The square garden was plagued by disasters for hundreds of miles, and everything that could be eaten was eaten up, even bark and grass. The roots are almost eaten, and some villages still eat people. There is really no way, after the New Year, my parents took me and my brother and fled to De'an Mansion."

"I didn't know until I arrived at De'an Mansion that the food distribution had already run out, and some well-meaning rich families opened porridge factories to save lives. At this time, I heard that the imperial court was going to send relief food to Wuchang for distribution, so we begged along the way. Wuchang. Unexpectedly, parents and the others still starved to death. Huh, huh, huh." Aloe burst into tears.

Yuechan looked at Yang Qiuchi, and said softly to Aloe: "Don't cry, the young master still has something to ask you."

Aloe wiped away her tears and nodded.

Yang Qiuchi praised Yuechan in his heart for being so considerate, and then asked Aloe: "Then have you received the food?"

Lu Hui shook her head: "No, at that time, Wuchang City was full of disaster victims, and they all came here when they heard that Wuchang would release grain. When we arrived in Wuchang, we heard that the imperial court's grain had already arrived, and it would be distributed after the counting. But that night, the yamen granary caught fire, and the fire was so big that half of Wuchang City was covered in red." Speaking of which, Aloe seemed to be still terrified by the fire.

"The yamen granary caught fire?" Yang Qiuchi frowned, "What a coincidence?"

"Yes, I heard that the officials guarding the granary warmed themselves by the fire at night, and accidentally caught fire, which caused the fire." Aloe looked sad: "Everyone says that even God does not help us poor people. We can't live this day." gone."

Yang Qiuchi's heart shuddered when he heard her desperate words.He asked again: "Did the imperial court continue to transport food for disaster relief?"

"It's shipped, and it's all piled up in the granary of the prefect's yamen in Wuchang Prefecture."

Wuchang is the capital of Huguang Province, and there are two levels of government, the magistrate's yamen and the chief envoy's yamen.It is equivalent to the municipal government and provincial government of the current provincial capital city.

"Why didn't you release the food?" Song Yun'er asked strangely.

"The government said that the food can only be distributed after it has been counted. It has been several days and it has not been counted yet. Someone went to ask, but the officers and soldiers beat them out with whips."

Yang Qiuchi frowned even tighter: "Do you know about the hungry people grabbing food?"

"That's because I'm so hungry that I can't help it. Those people say that starving to death is death, and beheading is also death. It's better to have a good time."

"How many food grabbers have been executed by the government?"

Aloe shook her head: "I don't know, my parents said they can't do that kind of thing even if they starve to death."

Yang Qiuchi was walking back and forth in the room, suddenly stopped, and said, "Go, go to the Wuchang magistrate's yamen to see why there has been no food relief for so long, what's going on!"

Master Jin had guessed Yang Qiuchi's thoughts, leaned forward and said in a low voice: "My lord, be careful in everything, these people can't afford to offend."

Yang Qiuchi nodded: "I have a sense of proportion. Let's go."

Take a step to go out.Song Yuner said anxiously: "Brother, wait, what about the aloe?"

Yang Qiuchi was stunned, he saved her life, he couldn't care about her for the rest of his life, he took out a piece of silver from his bosom, and said: "You have recovered now, here is some money for you, there are some dishes and rice on the table, I will Ask the shopkeeper to prepare some dry food for you, and after the yamen releases the food, you can go back to your hometown."

Aloe is very well-behaved, knelt down with a thud, and kowtowed to Yang Qiuchi repeatedly: "Master, sir, please accept me as a maid, I can endure hardship, I can do everything, I have no relatives in my hometown, parents My brother and I are both dead, and sooner or later I will starve to death when I go back, please, save me, accept me as a maid, I don’t need money, just give me something to eat. I beg you.” , Weeping and kowtowing on the ground.

Yang Qiuchi thought, this little girl is telling the truth, she is so young, she is not good at plowing the fields, the food relief won't be much, and she will starve to death sooner or later.Seeing Mrs. Bai and Bai Sumei looking at the child with pity, Yang Qiuchi had an idea in his mind and said, "Well, you sign the contract of sale and become my little girl."

Aloe was overjoyed and kowtowed to thank her again and again.

At present, the helper of the shopkeeper of the restaurant wrote a contract, and Aloe signed the bond with her fingerprints, which means she sold herself to Yang Qiuchi as a maid.Although Aloe said she didn't want money, Yang Qiuchi still gave her 20 taels of silver.

After the formalities were completed, Yang Qiuchi pulled her to Mrs. Bai's mother and daughter, handed the deed of sale to Mrs. Bai, and said, "Mrs. Bai, you gave me the maidservant Yuechan, and now I'm giving the little girl named Aloe as well." The girl is giving it to you. I will be your maid. Please do not refuse."

Mrs. Bai didn't expect that Yang Qiuchi bought this little maid for herself, and said, "Young Master Yang, this is not acceptable. Both our mothers... are criminals, how can we have a little maid."

"Whoever said that prisoners can't have servants to serve them. Besides, before leaving, Yin Tianfu Gu Fuyin has already made arrangements. I will find a way to redeem you from hard labor. As long as you don't leave Yunnan, you will be as normal. Live like a human being. I will make proper arrangements for you."

It turns out that in the system of serving sentences in exile, rich people are convicted of being popular. When they arrive at the exile, they can pay for redemption, that is, pay someone to do hard labor for them. In this way, they only need to report regularly, except Cannot leave the jurisdiction where the exile is located, no different from a free person.This is called redemption.

Mrs. Bai and Bai Sumei were overjoyed when they heard the words, and Yingying wished Yang Qiuchi a blessing, expressing their gratitude.Only then did he take over the contract of sale from Aloe, leaving behind the little girl, Aloe.Bai Sumei renamed Aloe Huier.

After eating the Wuchang fish, it tasted very good, and a new maid was given to Mrs. Bai's mother and daughter, so they had someone to take care of them, but seeing the hungry people all over the street, Yang Qiuchi couldn't be happy at all.

Yang Qiuchi and others left the restaurant and went to the magistrate's yamen.

On the way, I passed by a compound with a high wall, and I saw many people who looked like victims of disasters surrounded there, and I didn't know what they were doing.Yang Qiuchi asked the little maid Yuechan to go over and ask, and only then did he know that this is a rice store owned by the wealthy businessman Mi Yuanwai in Wuchang Prefecture, and they are selling grain.

Surrounded by hungry people, few people went up to buy rice.Yang Qiuchi was a little strange when he saw an old woman squeezed out from the crowd, holding a bowl of white rice in her hands, walked a few steps with trembling hands, looked at the rice with tears in her eyes, let go of her hands, and clattered, A bowl of rice fell to the floor, and the white rice was scattered all over the floor.

The old woman didn't care about Nami, she slumped on the ground and burst into tears.

The hungry people around came up and wanted to scratch the rice on the ground, but the old woman didn't stop her, she just cried sadly there.

Song Yun'er shouted: "What are you doing! Do you want to grab the old man's things in broad daylight?" She rushed over and grabbed those hungry people who were pulling white rice on the ground and threw them out.Those people saw that Song Yuner was very skilled, and there was a large group of men and women behind them, obviously they belonged to the same group, and they were ashamed by Song Yuner's words, so no one dared to come up again.

Song Yun'er put the white rice on the ground into a pile, and seeing that the porcelain bowl had been broken, she asked the old woman, "Old man, do you have any pockets for rice? I'll help you."

The old woman cried and said, "Don't pretend, don't want to, I don't want to live anymore~!"

"What's the matter? Are you okay?" Song Yun'er was very surprised. She picked up a handful of white rice and handed it to the old woman. "Hey! This is white rice, why don't you want it?"

"I used to buy a bowl of rice for more than ten cents, but now, I sold my own daughter to a brothel, and the money I got was enough to buy this little rice, which can last for a few days? I killed my daughter, and I paid for it. What are you doing? Huh, huh, huh"

Song Yuner was furious when she heard the words: "You~! You~! You actually sold your own daughter to a brothel! You are still not human! Hmph!" Song Yuner threw the handful of white rice in her hand heavily to the ground.The crystal clear white rice was scattered on the ground like pearls.

Yang Qiuchi snorted, squatted down, grabbed a handful of white rice on the ground and looked at it, then turned to Master Long and said, "Mr. Long, come and see, is this white rice new rice or old rice?"

Master Long is the master of money and grain in Song Zhi County for many years. He is in charge of money and grain affairs such as grain collection and taxation.He squatted down and grabbed a handful of rice, twirled it in his hand, took it under his nose and smelled it, and said with certainty: "This is new rice, it should be new rice that was harvested not long after the autumn harvest."

Yang Qiuchi said to himself: "This is strange. There are locust plagues in hundreds of miles around here, and the crops are not harvested. How can there be new rice for sale in this rice store?"

Master Long said: "Perhaps it was bought from other places and sold at a high price."

Yang Qiuchi nodded and asked the old woman, "How much silver did your daughter sell?"

"One or two." The old woman cried.

"One or two?" Yang Qiuchi and the others were stunned.

Master Long said: "On weekdays, selling a girl to be a servant girl costs at least one or twenty taels. If you sell it in a brothel, it will be even higher. Why did you only sell it for a tael of silver?"

The little maid Hui'er said behind her: "Master, now Wuchang City is full of hungry people fleeing the famine, and there are too many people who sell their sons and daughters. It would be great if you can find a good family and have a meal. You can also count on selling a Is it a good price?"

Yes, people are really poor.

Yang Qiuchi weighed the white rice in his hand: "A bowl of rice used to cost more than ten pennies, but now it costs one tael of silver. A poor family sells a girl for a bowl of rice. I don't know if the price of rice is too dark, or people's hearts are too high black."

(To be continued, if you want to know what happens next, please visit www.CMFU.COM, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)
(End of this chapter)