Quick Travel to the Clouds

Chapter 135: Refugees Attack

The three-day holiday had not yet ended, and the farmhands returned to the farm early.

They felt guilty for taking such a long vacation.

It’s not good to take a rest after getting paid so much. You should come back to work and make them feel more at ease.

It's August now and the rice harvest has begun.

After the rice is harvested, the women workers collect the straw and sew it together. This straw is used to keep the fruit trees warm to prevent them from being frozen to death in the cold winter.

The people of Shuiquanzhuang lived and worked in peace and contentment, but in the south, in June, a flood occurred, leaving the people with no harvest.

There were countless casualties due to the floods, and many infectious diseases broke out.

The people, who had been waiting for a long time for disaster relief food from the imperial court, left their hometowns one after another.

By the end of August, refugees arrived in Anyi City.

The prefect of Anyi City closed the city gates but did not dare to let the refugees into the city.

Because the number of refugees is really too large.

After receiving the news, Li Zhonglun immediately sent his entourage to inform his family and Yun Chu.

At this time, Yun Chu, who was hunting in the mountains, had already encountered refugees.

These dozen or so refugees were one family. They took a long detour and climbed over the top of the mountain.

"Where are you from?"

Zhuang Guangquan glanced at Yun Chu, then at the bow and arrow on Yun Chu's back, as well as the prey beside him, and said with a folded hand: "My name is Zhuang Guangquan, and I am from Xinyi."

"Isn't Xinyi in the south? How did you get here? But what happened?"

"The four southern cities suffered a flood that hadn't been seen in decades. The common people had no harvest. Countless people died and were injured because of the flood. The imperial court did not provide disaster relief, so my family, young and old, fled here."

The south suffered a flood, but his father did not receive any report on this matter.

“In which month did the flood occur?”

"June 3rd."

It is now August 17th, and the court has not received any news in more than two months. Either the news was suppressed, or the officials in the south did not report it.

Yun Chu felt that maybe someone in the court deliberately suppressed the news of the flood.

"I am Li Yunchu, the daughter of the magistrate of Tianhe County."

"Come down the mountain with me."

Zhuang Guangquan never thought that in this deep mountain, their family would actually meet a noble person.

"I've seen the young lady."

"You're welcome." Yun Chu said, "Do you mind if I take your pulse?"

Zhuang Guangquan shook his head to indicate that he didn't mind.

After Yun Chu took the pulse of Zhuang Guangquan's family, he didn't find any major problems, they were just hungry and tired.

Yun Chu took out a Qi-boosting pill and said, "This is a Qi-boosting pill. Give it to this old man."

"Thank you, young lady." Zhuang Guangquan took the pill and gave it to his father.

After taking it, Zhuang Quangen's complexion looked much better.

"Let's go down the mountain."

With Yunchu leading the way, Zhuang Guangquan and his companions no longer had to take a detour through the deep mountains.

Half an hour later, Yun Chu led them down the mountain.

They were given a house for long-term workers, with men and women living separately.

"You guys stay here first, I'll come to see you later." After Yun Chu said that, he called Uncle Daji and took the ox cart back to the farm.

Afterwards, he took some straw mats, quilts, mattresses, some food and other items from the village and sent them to Zhuang Guangquan and others.

"This food is enough for you to eat for a while."

"I'll lend you this food."

"The people next to you are all farmhands of the manor, earning 600 coins a month."

"When the time comes, each family in your family will send one person to work as a long-term worker, regardless of gender."

"Your first month's wages as long-term workers are 500 coins. This is a one-month probation period. If you don't do well, I won't hire you."

"If you cheat, your wages will be deducted."

"You will have three to six days of rest each month. The rent for the house you are living in now is ten cents per month, which will be deducted from your wages in the future."

On the way down the mountain, Yun Chu had already found out everything.

Zhuang Guangquan is the eldest, and he has two younger brothers and a younger sister.

My two younger brothers are already married, but my younger sister is seventeen years old and still unmarried.

She was originally planning to get married in the early spring of next year, but a flood occurred and my sister's fiancé and his family died in the flood.

The banker has not split up, and the whole family is together.

If there is only one person in the family working as a long-term worker, Zhuang Guangquan and his brothers will probably have a quarrel.

Finally, there should be one person in each room to avoid conflicts among them.

After giving the instructions, Yun Chu left.

After discussion, Zhuang Guangquan and others decided to split up.

There is one household for the parents and the younger sister, and one household for each of the three brothers, so there are four households in total, and then there will be four people to work as long-term laborers.

The next day, Zhuang Guangquan went to find Yun Chu and rented two more houses.

After Yun Chu asked, he found out that the banker had split up.

Zhuang Guangquan, Zhuang Guangming, Zhuang Guangjin and Zhuang Mei worked as long-term workers.

After they had rested, Yun Chu took them to find the long-term worker team leader, Zeng Dahe.

As for Zhuang Mei, Yun Chu took her to the orchard and asked her to work there.

After making all the arrangements, Yun Chu returned to the town. There were many refugees outside the town.

There were local soldiers guarding the entrance of the town to prevent the refugees from entering.

After Yun Chu entered the town, he returned home.

Li Pinghui and Pan Qing felt relieved when they saw Yun Chu coming back.

"Did you encounter any refugees on the way back?" Li Pinghui asked.

"Yes, there is another refugee family staying in the village."

"Zhuangzi Shang, why did you become a refugee? Is Zhuangzi okay?"

Yun Chu briefly talked about his encounter with Zhuang Guangquan.

"It's good that Zhuangzi is safe." Li Pinghui sighed, "There are more and more refugees outside the town. This is not a solution."

"I don't know if your father has any rules."

"Grandfather, I can use the system to exchange for a lot of food. Why don't you let Dad call on the wealthy businessmen to raise funds? I will then secretly give the food to Dad, and then let Dad use the food to help the refugees."

"Yes." Li Pinghui nodded.

"Then I'll go to the county to discuss this with my father."

"Go, be careful on the road."

"Yes, Grandfather."

Yun Chu rode as fast as he could to the county government office, found his father, and told him about his plan.

After listening to it, Li Zhonglun agreed.

The next day, he met with wealthy businessmen in the county and persuaded them to raise funds.

The wealthy businessmen in the county donated some food and money as a token of their appreciation.

There is plenty of food in the Yunchu Space, and it will be no problem to provide relief to more than 100,000 refugees for two to three years.

Yun Chu donated 50,000 kilograms of rice, 100,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes, and 100,000 kilograms of corn.

With this food, I believe her father will be able to settle the refugees.

Song Wen and others from the county government were shocked to see so much food.

Which rich businessman donated so much food?

Afterwards, everyone discussed how to distribute the relief food.

On the second day, the county government posted a notice requiring each household to receive relief food based on their household registration, with each person receiving half a pound of food per day.

Those without household registration must register at the county government office and can only receive the subsidy after registration.

Li Zhonglun also sent yamen runners to each village to notify them that if they found any refugees, they should go to Tianhe County to receive relief food.