Li Zheng glanced at Lin Huan'er and wanted to ask her what she was laughing at, but before she could ask, Li Yuan came back and called Lin Huan'er over. The grain store is strictly inspected, and it is not enough for others to buy grain on their behalf, so they must register it themselves.

After registering, he came back, continued to move forward, and when he finished buying the third grain, Li Zheng told Li Yuan about the soaked grain.

"I once read a book about a method of making ice from saltpeter to freeze the grain so that it doesn't spoil anymore. Now that Huan'er's family has just built a cellar, let's buy some saltpeter and try it, and always save some grain for emergencies, even if it is wasted, it is better than not having to eat it later. ”

Li Yuan was silent for a while, "I have heard of that kind of grain storage method, which has extremely high requirements for the cellar, which requires the cellar to be completely impermeable, and the grain may not be able to freeze all the food. ”

"Huan'er's house is a newly dug cellar, you can try it, the cellar is covered with oilcloth, covered with quilt curtains, usually in and out of the cellar only let our two children in and out, almost can be insulated."

Seeing that Li Yuan was still hesitating, Li Zheng said again, "The three of us are almost the same as only buying two thousand catties of grain, and the soaked grain is cheap, and we don't need a few taels of silver." ”

It probably didn't take a few taels of silver to poke Li Yuan, and his current thinking was that it was the best thing to spend money to keep him safe. Li Yuan set up the ox cart and said, "Go and find Meng Dahe." ”

Hearing that a few people bought his family's soaked grain, Meng Dahe was surprised and worried, and he didn't set up a stall anymore, packed up his things, went to the three grain shops to buy his own share of the grain, and waited for Li Yuan at the big archway in Qingshan Town.

After a while, Li Yuan hurriedly came with a few sacks of saltpeter and several large bundles of oil paper.

Meng Erhe's family still has more than 5,000 catties of soaked grain, and before the immersion, there are some good rice, Meng Erhe said that this is for the sake of the eldest brother's face and the news you bring to give a good price, seven cents a catty. This is indeed an affordable price. The county lord only allowed the grain shop to be sealed, but he did not let the price of grain not rise. Now the coarse grain in the grain shop is ten yuan a catty, and the white rice and white flour have almost doubled, ranging from twenty yuan to the top.

Li Yuan bought 2,000 catties, a total of 20 sacks, all of which were loaded into ox carts, and the surface was covered with oiled paper and pulled back.

I just pity the newly bought cattle, and I didn't eat a bite of feed from the new owner's house, so I was sore first.

As soon as the ox cart arrived at the entrance of the village, I heard a cry inside.

"Dead! They're all dead! I'm not alive anymore! ”

Li Yuan raised his eyebrows.

He is not familiar with the people in the village, and he rarely asks about things when he encounters them, but if there are really dead people in the village, they all pass by, and it is not good not to help them.

"I'll take a look." Lin Huan'er jumped down from the carriage, trotted to the house where she was crying, stayed there for a while and ran back, "Grandpa Li, it's not that people die, it's that chickens die." Aunt Niu raised a lot of chickens, and this hailstorm killed all her chickens. ”

Li Yuan nodded thoughtfully, "Let's go, go home first." ”

After returning home, he unloaded all the food in the car to Lin Huan'er's new house, instructed Zeng's to lay oil paper, Li Zheng to make ice, and Li Yuan drove away.

On his second trip, Li Yuan brought back twenty chickens and a half-sized piglet, and he bought some of the village's livestock that had been killed by hail at a bargain price. Unloading the goods, Li Yuan went out for the third time.

After going out for a long time for the third time, Liu Gong and Liu Jian came to Zeng's house to ask questions, and after listening to Li Zheng's explanation, several people tossed and tossed, laid the oil paper, transported the grain to the cellar, and put the ice basin on the table. Li Yuan was late.

When he came back this time, he brought back a few quilts, a bag of cotton, and two pieces of coarse cloth, one red and one blue.

After coming back, Li Yuan first poured a big mouthful of water and called Liu Gong and Liu Jian, "Call your mother over, and I'll say a few words." ”

"Oh!" The two were stunned for a moment, and Liu Gong pulled out a nervous smile, "Uncle Li, don't be so serious, I'm afraid of you like this, it makes me feel like I'm back to the time when I fled from the famine." ”

Li Yuan waved his hand and motioned for them to go first. Then he sat on the ground.

This is the first time Lin Huan'er has seen Bai, she is very beautiful, with willow eyebrows and apricot eyes, fair and delicate skin, even if she is wearing coarse cloth clothes, she can't hide her handsome temperament.

She has a slender and well-proportioned body, which is completely different from Lin Daiyu's body shape in Lin Huan'er's imagination. Seeing everyone, Bai lowered his eyes and lightly blessed, "Uncle Li, Aunt Zeng." ”

"Sit." Li Yuan asked Bai to sit directly on the bench in the storage room, and then asked everyone else to sit down.

He first highlighted the news of the grain limit in the town and the process of buying water-soaked grain, "The last trip to buy cotton, I went to Hujia Wharf. Not only was there hail, but the river was already high, and the people on the wharf said that there was no hail in several neighboring counties, and it was heavy rain, and the seedlings were flooded. ”

"That's the thing, let's rely on the hail to stop and replant some other crops, no matter how starving to death, Linxian is even worse, at least we have to wait for the water in the field to recede before we can think of the next step." In addition, I also heard a news that the battle between the front line and the King of Shu has reached a critical moment, and the military tax of the King of Huai may have to be increased this year. ”

After everyone eased up, Li Yuan continued, "Now the materials I have bought, meat and cotton, which are counted separately, first say that there are two thousand and one hundred catties of water-soaked grain, and I bought it according to the amount of three hundred catties per person, but the situation of each family must be different," he looked at Lin Huan'er and then at Liu Gong, "There are those who can't eat, and there are those who can't eat enough." ”

"So from now on, the specific number of each family should be reported, and it is not forced. After the count, the grain was directly placed in the cellar of Sister Zeng's house, and when it was used, Li Zheng and Liu Jian kept the accounts, and Lin Huan'er took it out. You report first, and I'll keep the rest when you're done. ”

"But I said ugly things in front, and after the report is finished, the grain is yours, and you are responsible for your profits and losses. If you don't save the grain well with this method, and the grain becomes moldy and rotten, you have to bear it. If you report less, you will not have enough food to eat in the future, and you can only buy new food at the price of grain at that time. Of course, if you want to take out the food and keep it yourself, you can also do it. ”

After speaking, he looked at Zeng for the first time. His thoughts, Zeng's hand has little money, the grandparents and grandchildren eat less, plus this preservation method is unheard of, he definitely doesn't dare to report too much grain, Zeng is a peasant woman, and the habit of the countryside for so many years is that the grain should be dry and ventilated, and it is reasonable for her not to believe in Li Zheng's method.

To be honest, if this method hadn't been proposed by his young master, Li Yuan wouldn't have believed that this would have preserved the grain. Right now...... It's purely about spending money to buy insurance for yourself.

It's a pity that he thought about it, the Zeng family really didn't believe Li Yuan, in her heart, Li Zheng and Li Yuan were both from big families, and they had seen a lot of the world, and what they said was credible nine times out of ten, plus the little granddaughter also gave Li Zheng a guarantee, that is, ten out of ten credible. Seven dollars a pound of rice, even if it doesn't suffer from disasters, it doesn't have this price.

She just wanted to report 600 catties, but the little granddaughter pulled her, "Grandma, let's wait and report again." After speaking, Lin Huan'er looked at the Bai family, "Aunt Bai will report first." ”