Zuo Gui coughed lightly, motioned to Miao Peilan to close the door of the store, beckoned Zuo Shaoyang to follow him into the concoction room, closed the door, and then said in a low voice: "Zhong'er, after the family's grain is finished, I will go to Abbot Zhikong to get food, he said that you confessed when you left, if these grains are for our family, your brother-in-law's family, Old Lady Qu's family, Miss Miao's family, Miss Sang's family and Master Qiao's family A total of twenty-eight people have four months of food." Barely enough for four months, I can't give it to me at one time, for fear of danger, so I can only supply it on a daily basis. Because Mrs. Qu and Fennel had already taken some grain, they only gave us one bucket of grain per day for the first month, and another bucket of five liters of grain every day for the second two months. Three months passed, and the fighting had not subsided, so they sent us to flee. Therefore, it is necessary to leave a month's worth of food for the evacuation journey. ”

Zuo Shaoyang nodded and said, "That's right, that's how I discussed it with him at the beginning." ”

"However, after you and Miss Miao left, there are a lot more people to support." Zuo Gui smiled bitterly.

"Huh? Who are the more? ”

"Dr. Ni's family of four, Uncle Cai's father and son in the grocery store opposite, three members of Yu's shopkeeper's family, six members of Carpenter Li's family, and three members of Zhao Sanniang's family, took your mother to take in a new slave and maid Cao'er, and later added Fan Heimian and his eight soldiers who were dying of starvation, a total of twenty-seven!"

"Huh? Doesn't Fan Heimian have official food? ”

"There is not enough food at all, many officers and soldiers are starving to death, Fan Hei came to intercede, saying that he knew that we had food in hiding, and he would not report it, and only hoped that we could leave his eight brothers who were dying of hunger, and he could not watch his brothers starve to death. I thought that if he hadn't reported your deeds, the general would not have rewarded us, nor would he have forgived us to help our relatives and friends. Besides, he couldn't bear to see these soldiers starve to death, so he agreed to let them come to his house every day to eat. ”

"What about Zhao Sanniang? Why did she come looking for something to eat? I sold nine buckets of rice to her, enough for her family of three to eat for three months! ”

Zuo Gui sighed: "Her family's nine buckets of rice exceeded the limit, so in order to hide people's eyes, she transferred six buckets of rice to her father-in-law's house, and concealed the grain requisition." Later, when I went to ask for it, his father-in-law was beheaded, and the brothers divided the family, and the grain was also divided, and no one was willing to return it to her. That's not all, when she was not at home, she climbed over the wall and stole the remaining two buckets of rice! ”

"These brutes!"

"Alas, men are so hungry that they can do anything. However, the food did not allow her father-in-law to live long, and within a month, several people starved to death. ”

Zuo Shaoyang said: "It was originally food for twenty-eight people, but now it has increased by twenty-seven people, a total of forty-five people, less than four taels per person per day, no wonder it is not enough to eat." ”

"If only these were the only ones, but later, I learned that some of Xue Langzhong's peers were dying, and they looked pitiful, so they helped them some, and then rushed to make bandages, but the medicinal materials were not enough, and they needed someone to go up the mountain to collect medicine to exchange for porridge. In this way, in addition to the twenty-seven additional men, there are almost thirty or forty more rations per day! ”

"Go up the mountain to pick medicine for porridge? What kind of medicine to take? Is it Sanqi? ”

"Hmm,"

Zuo Shaoyang said happily: "That means, we have already signed a contract with the official army?" ”

After talking about this matter last time, Zuo Shaoyang went out of the city to collect medicine, but he went for more than two months, and he didn't know if this matter had been done.

Zuo Gui said: "I signed the contract, and I signed the contract the next day." A deposit of 100,000 was paid, and a month ago, we had already delivered all 10,000 rolls. ”

"So fast?" Zuo Shaoyang was pleasantly surprised.

"Yes, at that time, the officers and soldiers were worried that the enemy would attack immediately, and the officers and soldiers paid special attention to the hemostatic and analgesic effects in our hemostatic bandages, saying that using our bandages, the wounded could continue to fight under normal circumstances, and the officers and soldiers were too injured last time, and the troops were not enough, thinking of increasing the military strength, so this bandage was a treasure for them, and the Fu team was urging the goods every day, and they were in a hurry to supply the soldiers who were defending the city on the front line. It just can't be helped. ”

"Then find a way to speed up the production."

"Yes, the day you left, we moved to the Qu family's old house. Zhi'er organized the Miao family, the Qu family, your brother-in-law's family, and our family, a total of about 20 people, old and young, all called to the yard to help make bandages. The concoction of medicinal materials, the tailor's bandage, and the dressing of the medicine are all responsible for their own responsibilities, and I am specifically responsible for dispensing the medicine, but Sanqi cannot be supplied. ”

"Increase the number of people who collect medicine!"

"But no, that's the only way, it just so happened that Xue Langzhong and they had no food, so I discussed with them and asked them to go up the mountain to help collect medicine, and I provided them with food, of course, to eat medicine porridge with us. They agreed, and went up the mountain to collect medicine for porridge, so that Sanqi could pick it up. ”

Only then did Zuo Shaoyang understand what it meant to exchange medicine for porridge, and for this, there were thirty or forty more people in vain, and said: "That adds up to ninety people in our family!" It's less than two taels per person per day! No wonder you're all swollen with hunger. ”

"It's still because I have the edible herbs you bought last time at home and eat them, so I have insisted on it until now."

"Why don't you tell Abbot Zhikong to give you more food every day?"

"Yes, the abbot disagrees."

"Why?"

Father Zuo Gui sighed: "Abbot Zhikong said, this is what your brother Xiao confessed before leaving, saying that our family is too kind-hearted, and we also want to take care of that, but in the end, no one can save it, and put his own family name into it, let him help us if he has the opportunity, don't let us starve to death." When he heard that he had to take care of so many people, he shook his head vigorously, saying that the grain was for four months, and that he would eat it now, and that everyone would starve to death in the future. Thanks to Abbot Zhikong's insistence, your mother will never increase relief again, and everyone will survive in these two months. And there is still surplus food. Although everyone is swollen, at least they are still alive. ”

Zuo Shaoyang understood, it turned out that for more than a month, the four families had been boiling porridge with wild vegetables, no wonder they were all shriveled and emaciated. He also understands now why his mother looked embarrassed when she heard that she was going to send two steamed gruels to Huang Qin and her sisters, because the family was already overwhelmed.

He also understood why Bai Zhihan didn't add more food to the Sang family, because the Sang family still didn't add wild vegetables to eight steamed buns a day, and so many people here could only eat gruel and boil wild vegetables. Naturally, she can't add anything to the Sang family, and Bai Zhihan also knows that the extra will definitely fall into the stomachs of Sang's mother, and she can't stop Sang Xiaomei from giving food to her parents.

Zuo Shaoyang said: "Last time we put porridge in our house, no one received it, what happened later?" Does anyone claim it? ”

"Why not, just like you said at the beginning, in a month's time, the wild vegetables that can be eaten below the halfway of the mountainside blockade by the enemy army on the mountain are almost finished, and the hungry people in the city have nothing to eat, remembering the medicinal porridge that our family put that time, so they came to beg for alms, your mother saw the hungry people in front of the door who were starving to death, so she discussed with me and made a pot of medicinal porridge for them to eat. We were all scared and hid in the old house. Team Fu immediately sent a large number of soldiers to the gate of Guizhi Hall to guard, so there was no chaos. Your mother pity those hungry people, crying every day, no way, I discussed with Team Fu, and Team Fu agreed that we would use the medicinal herbs at home to make porridge to help the people. But don't add food, in fact, where can we add food in our family, and the 90 people we need to take care of are already left with nothing to eat. ”

"Didn't the officers and soldiers suspect that our family had food?"

"How can you not doubt it? I've searched twice! ”

"Huh? Did you find out? ”

"No, the abbot of Zhikong is given the food of the day on the same day, and it is quietly sent directly to the small courtyard where we live at night, no one saw him come in, even we don't know, anyway, when I get up in the morning, I see a small bag of food at the head of the bed or somewhere in the kitchen, and immediately add medicinal herbs to make porridge, and then everyone eats, and it is gone after eating. So the officers and soldiers came to search several times, but they didn't find it. The food added to the medicinal porridge given to the hungry, Abbot Zhikong has already helped to grind it into powder, we boiled it directly in the medicinal porridge, and used a spoon to find it, but we couldn't find a single rice. Coupled with the official army custom-made bandages, we took a hundred yuan to give Liu Huochang some relationship, and the Fu team had a lot of benefits from it, so he knew that we had food in hiding, but he also turned a blind eye and sent people to search, but he was just pretending, looking east and west, even if he searched, he didn't embarrass us. ”

Zuo Shaoyang breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, money can make ghosts grind." ”

"Not really." Zuo Gui's father said.

"And then? After our bandage task is completed, we don't need to supply the thirty or forty people who dig medicinal herbs to eat, we should be able to eat better, right? ”

"No, most of those are peers, like Zhu Medicine Cabinet, Dr. Ni, Xue Langzhong, they also have backbone, they refuse to ask for food in vain, they can only continue to exchange medicinal materials for porridge, if they don't change porridge, it won't take two days, I'm afraid they will all starve to death! Therefore, after the bandage task was completed, we didn't tell them, continue to change them, notoginseng is inedible, no one digs it, there are a lot of them on the mountain, they go up the mountain to dig notoginseng and come back to change porridge. There are too many Sanqi, and they can't be put in the concocted room, so they are placed in the empty backyard of the Qu family's old house. Thanks to this livelihood, these people, although they are hungry, swollen or emaciated, are still alive today. Because we added more food to the porridge that changed the herbs for them, we were able to save their lives. Your mother and I are a little bitter, and sometimes I think that I am still very happy to have saved so many people's lives. ”

"Yes, sacrificing oneself to save others, this time my father's benevolence, righteousness, and medical virtue are known to the whole city. The couplet hanging at our door is really vividly reflected in my father this time! ”

Zuo Gui's father grinned a little proudly, but there was some bitterness in his smile.

(To be continued)