Don't panic, the family boss is busy farming

Chapter 124 Qingzhou Great Pandemic
Days passed, time entered June, and the scuffle in the Central Plains seemed to have subsided.

Immediately afterwards, another piece of news came that made Xu Yue's family tremble when they heard it.

The great epidemic in Qingzhou resulted in numerous dead and injured. In the worst plagued area, there were [-] households in the county, and none of them survived.

A large number of refugees withdrew from Qingzhou and fled everywhere.

In the past few days, Xu Yue went to her aunt's house to ask her cousins ​​to borrow books, and she saw the housekeeper Rong Bo commanding the Dings to prepare food, chariots and horses, and prepare to go outside the county to collect some refugees back.

Concerned about the second room, the aunt and grandma's family did not dare to publicize it and did it quietly.

It can be seen from this that there are still many tyrants who are doing the same thing behind the scenes, but outsiders don't know it.

Perhaps because Xu Yue was a child, the adults thought she didn't understand, so Gongsun An personally brought back a carload of slaves from the county seat, and discussed with his parents in the hall how to sell these slaves to make a profit.

My aunt, Gongsun Yu, has some contacts. With such a small number of slaves, he can just find a wealthy family and digest them.

Aunt Xu suggested that her son should bring back more slaves so that the family could use them.

Just like that, Xu Yue stood under the eaves of the hall with her newly borrowed books in her hands, listening to their discussion on how to buy, how to sell, and how to avoid the eyes and ears of the second room.

A slave bought for a bucket of rice can be sold for a horse of Juan, which is equivalent to spending less than one hundred yuan and getting back 1500 yuan.

This is indeed very profitable.

If it wasn't for her rationality to wake herself up in time, Xu Yue's heart would almost be moved.

As for the carload of slaves, Xu Yue also saw them by the livestock barn in the backyard before going out. They were all sallow and emaciated, presumably starving, and were gnawing on the water and brown rice cakes distributed by servants in the mansion.

Perhaps, as long as there are stutterers, they no longer want to care about their future and freedom.

There is a heart-wrenching fact, even Xu Yue has to admit that it may be better to be a slave in an aristocratic family than to be a commoner outside without enough food and clothing, facing the threat of death at any time.

What makes people helpless is that Xu Yue has to take Uncle Rong to the city to collect slaves in the car, and let him take her for a ride.

The bean dregs in the house were already flooding, and the chickens and ducklings raised by Wang Youliang could not digest them all.

So Xu Yue planned to go to the city to pick a few pigs to raise. When they were raised, the family would have meat to eat and sell them for money, and there was no need to throw away the piled up bean dregs.

In the early morning of the next day, before dawn, Xu Yue and her elder brother Xu Dalang got into the ox cart that the aunt's house was going to collect slaves.

The tenants who picked out the tofu to sell in the county town also followed behind the ox cart at first, but after a while, they were thrown far away by the ox cart.

Yuyang County has recently seen a sudden increase in the number of migrants. Tofu is cheap and looks big, and it can fill your stomach, so the tofu business is much better than before.

Many tenants went to Xu's house in the middle of the night to get tofu and walked quickly to the county town, planning to make an extra round trip to earn more money.

Uncle Rong, the housekeeper, looked at Xu Yue and Xu Dalang's empty-handed appearance, and looked at the tenants who were left far behind, and asked the brothers and sisters funny:
"There is a car, Miss Yue'er, why don't you take some tofu to the county town to sell?"

Xu Dalang is not used to talking to outsiders, so Xu Yue had no choice but to explain: "Our family is in production, so it's not good to compete with them in sales, otherwise it will be messed up."

"Production. Sales?" Uncle Rong sighed in surprise, "These two new words are interesting. Miss Yue'er is young and knows a lot."

Xu Yue just smiled and stopped talking.

Woke up too early, the ox cart wobbled like she was sitting in a cradle, she was sleepy, and leaned against her brother's arms, not only to catch up on sleep, but also to avoid Uncle Rong's curious questioning.

As a child, it is good to know a little, but if you know too much, you are a monster.

Seeing this, Uncle Rong had no choice but to withdraw his curiosity about the brothers and sisters of the Xu family, and concentrated on driving the ox cart to the county seat.

In the staggering, the county seat arrived, and the sky was already bright, probably around seven o'clock in the morning.

As soon as she arrived outside the county seat, Xu Yue saw the same scene as when she was in Puyang County that day.

Hundreds of refugees gathered under the city gate, most of them were young people, and occasionally there were a few half-grown children.

They all escaped from the sea. The epidemic situation in Qingzhou was so serious that even Jizhou did not dare to open the city to take in refugees. These refugees could only take the risk of taking the sea route, all the way north, and arrived in Yuyang County.

I don't know how many hardships I went through before I reached Yuyang County.

At this time, under the guidance of the officers and soldiers, these hundreds of refugees were orderly receiving free porridge in front of the porridge shed built by the wives of the aristocratic families in the city to accumulate blessings.

The number of this group of people is far less than the dense crowd outside Puyang County that day, and coupled with the charitable deeds of the wives of the aristocratic families, the situation is many times better than that in Puyang.

Uncle Rong's purpose was to take in those refugees who voluntarily sold themselves into slavery, but today he saw that there were so few people left, and he was a little disappointed.

Seeing this situation, Xu Yue panicked.

It may be her occupational disease. Thinking that these people came from Qingzhou, I am afraid that they may have the virus on them.

Although these people look fine now, as if they are not sick.

But she disapproved of this casual handling of Yuyang County.

At the very least, they should be quarantined and observed for a while, right?

It's just that the real problem is in front of us. With so many people isolated, who will provide the food and manpower needed?

If the eunuch doesn't even pay the money, who would be willing to pay?

But Xu Yue felt that everyone probably didn't have this awareness.

But seeing that Uncle Rong was going to take him in without taking any precautions, Xu Yue couldn't help but hold him back.

"Miss Yue'er? Is there anything else?" Uncle Rong asked doubtfully.

It was agreed before that it would be enough to send Xu Yue brother and sister to the gate of the city, and he would wait for them at the gate of the city before returning, and would not go into the city.

After all, you have to pay taxes when you go to the city, so you can save a little for the master's family.

Seeing Uncle Rong's expression, Xu Yue knew that he had misunderstood, and reminded helplessly:

"Uncle Rong, cover your mouth and nose with a veil, there are so many people here, it will be bad if you accidentally get infected."

As he said that, he still felt uneasy, and added again: "Before buying someone, it's best to check their teeth and eyes for abnormalities, and don't get close to those who are particularly sluggish."

Hearing Xu Yue's words, Uncle Rong was surprised for a while, then nodded and smiled and said: "I see, thank you Miss Yue'er for reminding me."

He listened to what Xu Yue said, and immediately ordered the servants to take out their handkerchiefs to cover their mouths and noses, and then walked towards the refugees who sold themselves with grass.

Seeing this, Xu Yue's tight heart finally relaxed a little, and she paid the entrance fee with her brother and entered the city.

The inside and outside of the city seem to be two worlds. Those refugees are blocked outside the city gate and are not allowed to enter the city, so the lives of the residents in the city have not been affected.

(End of this chapter)