The servant reported the matter to Li Chengqian and Chen Ninghai, and both of them felt very strange, this Heng Xinyuan should not have traveled all the way to Junnan Mansion to buy jewelry for the lady.

After Heng Xinyuan's observation in the past few days, the life of the people in Junnan Mansion seems to be better than that of the people in the county below, although they are also yellow and thin, listless, but they can work anyway, and normal business has not been affected by this, it seems that Li Chengqian has still done some face engineering,

On the second day, it was the day when the government distributed food, Heng Xinyuan also came to the street, watching everyone with pots and pans lined up in front of the government yamen, looking forward to it, Heng Xinyuan watched from the side, and found that the food that everyone could receive was only half a bag of rice and five eggs.

Heng Xinyuan caught up with one of the men and asked him, "How many people are in your family?" ”

"Hey, five people ......" the man sighed, "These grains, only seven or eight days, will be eaten up, and they will not be ......used at all."

"If there is no food, what will you do?"

"If you have money, you can take the money to buy it in Zhaojiazhuang outside the city, and if you don't have money, you can only eat wild vegetables."

"Zhaojiazhuang?" Heng Xinyuan felt that this place was very unfamiliar, "What kind of place is Zhaojiazhuang?" ”

"Our richest man here, I don't know where he got a lot of grain, he said he could sell it to everyone, but it was three times more expensive than cheap grain! Poor people like us can't afford to eat at all......" The man said, his eyes were already a little red, but he was helpless to continue, "I don't know how many days I can last on this day......

"Where is the grain in the hands of this county Nanfu?"

"I don't know, the official said that the imperial court has distributed so much grain in total, and it has to survive this winter and survive until the beginning of spring, so the warehouse is opened once a month to release grain, but that's all...... It's not enough! ”

The man wiped his tears and walked away dejectedly.

Heng Xin looked at his back from afar, not to mention how angry he was, the people couldn't eat, but they closed the door in the house, eating and drinking, what a group of corrupt officials!

It's just that right now, he has to figure out what is going on with this Zhaojiazhuang, and why they have more grain there than the relief grain of the imperial court.

Fortunately, this Zhaojiazhuang is not far from Junnan Mansion, and he hired a carriage, but it took half a day to arrive.

Sure enough, I saw two or three sheds on an empty wheat field in the village, under which were sacks of grain, and outside the shed were people lined up, holding money and silver in one hand and pots and bowls in the other. , they are indeed dressed a little more ornate than the average people.

Heng Xinyuan also stood at the back of the team, and when the team slowly moved in front of him, he asked, "Hello, how much is a bag of rice?" ”

The man looked up at him and said angrily, "A bag of rice for a tael of silver." ”

"A tael of silver?" He was a little surprised, and continued with a smile, "This is many times more expensive than the food on the market, where can ordinary people afford it?" ”

Sitting on the side of the cashier was a man with a dark face and a mustache, shouting at him, "What are you doing here if you can't afford to eat?" That's what we're selling here! And there's no food anywhere else but us! Eat if you want, get out if you don't! ”

At this time, the people who had been queuing up behind him began to get impatient, and shouted behind him, "Hey, the one in front, you can't buy it yet, if you don't buy it, you can leave, we still have to buy it!" ”

Heng Xinyuan had to take out a piece of broken silver from his sleeve, exchange it for a bag of rice, take it to a tree in the distance, open it and observe it carefully, these rices seem to be the same batch as the grain distributed by the imperial court.

But how did the grain of the imperial court get into the hands of this landlord of Chenjiazhuang?

With full of doubts, he walked towards the village, and suddenly saw smoke in the chimney of a house, thinking that he was cooking, he walked to the door, softly buckled a few times, and an old man with a rickety back opened the door for him, and asked vigilantly, "Who are you?" ”

"Oh, uncle, I'm a passer-by, looking for relatives, I wonder if I can come to your house to ask for water?" Heng Xinyuan smiled.

"Looking for relatives here? Are you alright, young man? People here are trying to run away, and you're here anyway? Half of the old man's front teeth were missing, and his speech was a little slurred, "We don't have anything for you to eat here...... You'd better go somewhere else......"

Heng Xinyuan shook the bag of grain in his hand, "Uncle, I have rice here, I just bought it, why don't we eat it together?" ”

"Do you have food? Don't want money? The old man's eyes lit up, and he didn't believe in this pie-in-the-sky good thing at all.

"Yes, I don't need money, as long as you let me in and sit down for a while."

"Okay, come in!" As soon as the old man heard that there was food, he quickly let him in, hunched his back and shouted into the house, "Old woman, come out quickly!" There is food to eat! ”

After a while, a thin grandmother ran out of the house, shouting, "Who will bring you food!" Stop dreaming! ”

But when he ran to the front and looked, sure enough, there was a white and pure young man, standing there with a bag of rice, quickly rubbing his eyes, and asked the old man next to him, "Old man, who is this?" Why do you send rice to our family? ”

"It's just a passer-by, who comes to look for relatives, you quickly take it and pour a bowl of water for someone, and then cook some food."

Heng Xinyuan hurriedly handed her the rice in his hand, "I'm sorry for you, I'll leave this rice to your family, and I can barely last for a while." ”

The ecstatic expression on the aunt's face, she almost knelt down and kowtowed to Heng Xinyuan a few times, and hurriedly took the food into the kitchen, and the uncle led Heng Xinyuan to the house to sit down, and asked carefully, "Young man, what kind of relatives are you looking for?" Where do you live? ”

"Well, it should be not far away." Heng Xinyuan snorted and inadvertently changed the topic, "Uncle, I'm from out of town, is the drought here so serious?" ”

"Hey, don't you know if you see for yourself, I won't tell you, your bag of rice is the first time that our old couple has eaten grain this month, and the rest of the time we can only eat some wild vegetables with clear soup and little water, just yellow flour cakes......" The uncle sighed, but his expression was a little gloomy, thinking that he was used to such days.

"Who's the guy out there handing out food?"

"They? It belongs to Zhao Youlong's family, and they set up a stall here to sell grain. ”

"Zhao Youlong?" Heng Xinyuan searched in his mind for a long time, and he didn't remember what kind of character this Zhao Youlong was, it stands to reason that he should have heard of these such rich tyrants.

"Zhao Youlong, a landlord here us, was originally only a little richer, but I don't know why, since the drought began, his family got a lot of grain from nowhere, sold it to the people at a high price, and now he has made a lot of money." Uncle explained.