Transmigrated into the role of the matriarch, I ensured my family had enough to eat and wear during

Seeing that Tang Susu's expression was calm, Lu Hao added, "The suppression is not indiscriminate killing. It involves sending troops to guard the areas where refugees gather, maintain order, and prevent anyone from inciting riots or looting food, so as to avoid the situation from escalating and affecting the surrounding people."

"As for appeasement, the imperial court will open granaries to distribute grain and set up soup kitchens in areas where refugees gather to ensure that they can eat their fill and not starve to death. After the disaster is over and the situation is relieved, people will be sent to send refugees who have homes to return to their hometowns and help them rebuild their houses and cultivate fields. Those who have no home and no land to cultivate will be resettled on fertile wasteland so that they can cultivate the land, settle down, and become self-sufficient and no longer wander around."

After listening, Tang Susu didn't immediately comment. Instead, she turned to Tang Chengyu and asked softly, "Yu'er, what are your thoughts after hearing what Young Master Lu said?"

She then looked at Lu Hao, her tone calm yet incisive: "What you've said, Young Master Lu, are all temporary measures taken by the upper class to deal with the refugees. They can solve the immediate problem, but they don't address the root cause. The refugees will eventually reappear."

Tang Chengyu nodded and said in a solemn tone, "Eldest sister is right. Natural disasters are just the beginning, not the root cause. Heavy taxes leave people with little after a year of hard work, barely enough to make ends meet. There are also domineering officials who oppress the people and extort money from them. Wealthy merchants are greedy and seize large amounts of land, leaving people with no land to cultivate. Even without natural disasters, many people would be driven to desperation and become vagrants."

Upon hearing this, Tang Lifu couldn't help but praise, "Fortunately, our Dongtai Town is good. Young Master Lu's father is an honest official who only collects six percent of our taxes, which is much better than other towns."

Lu Hao immediately became smug, raising his chin slightly: "That's natural. My father is an upright official who never oppresses the people or embezzles or breaks the law. Otherwise, he wouldn't have earned the respect of the people."

"But it's not like that in Qintang Town." Yang Gousheng frowned and said, his tone full of indignation. "I heard that the tax rate in Qintang Town is as high as 60%. After paying taxes, the people have nothing left to grow seeds after a year of farming. They are suffering terribly, and many people have fled to other places."

Tang Liqiang chimed in, "That's right. With such high taxes, farming is less profitable than working as a porter in town. At least you can at least get a decent meal and avoid starving."

A moment of silence fell over the crowd. After a while, Tang Chengyu slowly spoke, offering his opinion: "Using force to suppress the displaced people is likely to incite resistance, which would be counterproductive. Simply providing food relief will inevitably be embezzled by officials at every level, and very little will actually reach the displaced people. I think a feasible method is to provide work relief, letting the displaced people repair city walls, dig ditches, and build roads, earning their own food through their labor. This will prevent them from reaping the benefits without contributing anything and will also solve their food problem."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Yang Xiaobao immediately raised his hand to add, his eyes sparkling. "If we dig ditches in advance, we can bring in water for irrigation during droughts and drain water during floods. It's a win-win situation!"

Tang Susu smiled and patted Yang Xiaobao's head, praising, "Xiaobao makes a lot of sense, you're really quick-witted."

Lu Hao also became interested and quickly said, "I have an idea too! The court can take this opportunity to recruit refugees into the army. Young and strong refugees can be incorporated into the army, which can not only solve the livelihood problem of refugees and stabilize the court order, but also expand the military force to support the front line. Wouldn't that be a win-win situation?"

Everyone nodded in agreement, and even Tang Lifu, who was usually taciturn, couldn't help but speak up: "I think we can also let the refugees reclaim wasteland. The government can give them seeds and farming tools, and once they grow the crops, they can pay a small amount of tax. This way, they will have land and won't wander around anymore."

Everyone chimed in with their own opinions, and the discussion was lively, with each person expressing their own perspective.

As night deepened and the evening breeze grew cooler, Tang Susu raised her hand to signal everyone to be quiet: "Alright, it's getting late. Let's stop discussing. You've all worked hard all day and are tired. Everyone should wash up and go to bed early. We still have to work on the autumn harvest tomorrow."

Upon hearing this, everyone stopped their discussion, dispersed, and busied themselves with washing up and resting.

Lu Hao lay down on the bed and soon fell into a deep sleep. During the night, he had a bizarre dream—he dreamed that he had become a refugee, wearing tattered clothes, starving, and huddled with a group of refugees, fighting for a dark, greasy cornbread. He finally managed to grab it, took a big bite, but found that it tasted foul and was hard to swallow.

He woke up with a start, covered in sweat, still chewing on something. Looking down, he saw he was biting Ah Gui's foot. Enraged, he shoved Ah Gui away, yelling, "What are you doing? Who told you to sleep next to me! Go sleep outside, don't dirty my eyes!"

Ah Gui was pushed and stumbled, but he didn't seem to care. He rubbed his eyes and said softly, "Young master, I'll go right away."

After saying that, he got up, straightened his clothes, and quietly left the house. He went to the kitchen to help Tang Susu cook porridge, afraid of delaying everyone's breakfast.

As dawn broke, Tang Susu got up and busied herself in the kitchen, cooking a pot of fragrant new rice porridge. She also took out the pickled vegetables that Old Mrs. Yang had sent the day before. Old Mrs. Yang was worried that there might be a famine next year, so she had pickled a lot of vegetables in advance. Taking advantage of this year's bumper harvest, she specially sent some to Tang Susu so that they could have some help in case of need.

After the porridge was cooked, the family went into the main room and had just sat down to eat when they heard the sound of horses' hooves and wheels rolling outside the courtyard gate. Then someone shouted, "Miss Tang, Young Master Lu, Young Master Jin have sent us to deliver the stone roller!"

Everyone quickly got up and went out of the house. They saw several carriages parked outside the courtyard gate, and several strong men were carrying a huge stone roller. They slowly walked into the courtyard. The moment the stone roller hit the ground, there was a muffled "thud" and it created a small crater, raising a cloud of dust.

Tang Susu stepped forward to express her gratitude, and the burly man beside her smiled and said, "Miss, there's no need to thank me. My young master said that since he promised Young Master Lu, he would definitely deliver it on time. My young master's uncle is a wealthy merchant in Qintang Town. His family has a large business and many people. He had a stonemason prepare this stone roller overnight and delivered it early this morning."

Tang Susu nodded, then turned to Yang Xiaobao and said, "Xiaobao, go to Uncle Fa's house and borrow a cow. We'll use a stone roller to thresh the grain first, and after we're done, we can let the villagers borrow it too. Let's not waste this good stuff."

Yang Xiaobao immediately replied, "Okay, Mom!" Then he skipped and hopped out of the yard to borrow the ox.

Tang Chengyu pointed to the tools next to the stone roller and introduced them to everyone: "This is a yoke. There are herringbone-shaped ones and U-shaped ones. It is put around the neck of the ox, and then the yoke is connected to the stone roller with a hemp rope. When you lead the ox, the ox can pull the stone roller to crush the rice ears and thresh the grains. It is much faster than using a flail or a basin."

Before long, Yang Xiaobao returned with a yellow ox. Everyone worked together to put the yoke around the ox's neck, tied the rope, and led the ox slowly. The stone roller rolled slowly, crushing the rice ears drying in the yard. The golden grains fell off one by one. The efficiency was indeed far greater than the previous method, saving both time and effort.

The news spread quickly, and the villagers all rushed to watch. Looking at the rolling stone roller, they were all filled with envy and discussed it among themselves.

"My goodness, this stone roller is amazing! It's several times faster than when we were using flails!"

"Yes, yes, let's pool some grain and ask the stonemason to make one too. This autumn harvest is busy, and having this stone roller will save us a lot of effort."

"With grain prices high now, we can pay the stonemason's wages with grain. If every household contributes a little, it won't be too difficult."

Amid the discussions, the village children ran up the mountain to find suitable stones, intending to have the adults carry them back and have a stonemason grind them into smaller stone rollers for their own use.

The adults gathered together to discuss collecting grain and finding a stonemason.

People from Yang Defu, the Yang family, and Aunt Liu's family all came forward, smiling and greeting Tang Susu, reserving their time to use the stone roller, and even specially bringing some grain in advance to show their sincerity, fearing that they would not be able to get a turn.

The villagers, watching Lu Hao busily working, praised him, saying, "Young Master Lu is truly a lucky star! If it weren't for him asking, we wouldn't be able to use the stone roller so quickly. We are so grateful to Young Master Lu!"

"Yes, yes, Young Master Lu is quick-witted and helpful; he's truly a good boy!"

Lu Hao was flattered by the praise, and with his head held high and a smug look on his face, he turned to Tang Susu and said, "Aunt Yang, look, the villagers are all praising me. When you take me back to town after the harvest, be sure to say a lot of good things about me to my father, saying that I'm sensible and capable here, so he won't scold me anymore. I want to go back to town as soon as possible, I don't want to stay in the village doing farm work anymore."

Tang Susu couldn't help but laugh at his childish appearance: "Don't worry, Auntie promises you that she will send you back after the harvest. She will also praise you to your father, saying that you have grown up here and become much more sensible."

Upon hearing this, Lu Hao immediately beamed with joy and stepped forward to help lead the ox and tidy the rope, no longer wandering around leisurely as before.

In the following days, Tang Susu's family was busy with the autumn harvest every day, cutting, threshing, and drying the grain in an orderly manner. With the help of the stone roller, their efficiency was greatly improved.

On the evening of the seventh day, Tang Susu's family finally finished harvesting and threshing all the grains. The golden grains were piled up in the house, emitting a faint fragrance. The family looked at the bountiful harvest and their faces showed a smile of satisfaction.

The large stone roller was not left idle; it was still lent to the villagers, with each household taking turns to use it to help them quickly complete the threshing process. It played a significant role during the autumn harvest season.

After all the grains were threshed and dried, Tang Susu's family began to patiently remove the husks from the grains. First, they placed the grains in the yard and used a wooden winnowing fan to remove the dust and impurities. Then, they put the clean grains into a stone mortar and repeatedly pounded them with a wooden pestle to remove the husks and bran little by little, leaving the plump grains.