Natural disasters in books: I stockpiled goods to escape famine in ancient times

After hearing Xu Shihe's words, everyone except Song Shiwei fell silent.

Food and firewood are fine, after all, they are daily consumption, but medicinal herbs are not. Medicinal herbs are scarce in the North. People pray for good health every day because they are afraid of getting sick and seeing a doctor, which means spending a lot of money to buy medicine to treat the disease.

If one listened to Xu Shihe and prepared medicinal materials, not to mention the high cost, just think about who would be so cruel as to buy medicine just for a rumor whose truth or falsehood was unknown. Every household would not even have enough money to buy food, let alone medicinal materials.

Xu Shihe naturally anticipated everyone's reaction and understood their concerns. As a doctor, the last thing he wanted to do was to take a gamble. But if he didn't believe it, and extreme cold really came in the future, and he was faced with countless people suffering from frostbite but without medicine, he would be so regretful and desperate. That's why he couldn't help but come in and talk.

"Here, medicinal herbs are precious, especially those for frostbite. There are many people suffering from frostbite in the north every year. Poor families cannot afford to spend money and can only let themselves suffer from frostbite. Those who can survive will suffer from unbearable itching in the winter, while those who cannot can only use a straw mat to deal with it. In the final analysis, they are just too poor."

Wei Xiong's words struck deeply into everyone's heart, and the atmosphere was filled with sadness for a moment.

Finally, it was Huang Changyuan who spoke up: "Doctor Xu's worry is not without reason. Let's look at each family's situation. Those who have extra money can prepare some. It's still hot right now, so the extreme cold won't come so soon. We still have time to prepare."

Chen Qiang and Liu Dong nodded at the same time, and they followed Huang Changyuan's footsteps closely.

As for Wei Xiong, he just kept frowning and listening quietly.

The group had been in the northern border for some time and had a general understanding of the situation here. According to the visits made by Xu Shihe and his disciples in the past few days, the north was actually very suitable for growing medicinal herbs, but due to years of war, the people here had no intention of growing those long-term crops, for fear that after they were planted and grown, they would be destroyed by bandits.

Xu Jingren had been sitting next to Xu Shihe without saying anything. After hearing what Huang Changyuan said, he took the initiative to say, "Uncle Huang, Daming and I have been going into the mountains to collect herbs these days. I found that many herbs on the mountain have never been picked. We can go up there to collect them."

Everyone in the hall looked at Xu Jingren at the same time. Huang Chang, Wei Xiong and others were overjoyed. It was a feeling of suddenly seeing sunshine after a long period of despair.

Xu Shihe looked at his apprentice with great satisfaction.

Song Shiwei was surprised. He was surprised that Xu Jingren went into the mountains to collect herbs regardless of his own safety. He was so considerate of others. It was probably because he was too kind-hearted and sometimes spoke without thinking.

The message had been delivered and their reactions were known, so Song Shiwei did not stay any longer and asked Zhang Wu to go home.

Wei Xiong did not stay long. As soon as Song Shiwei left, he hurriedly left and prepared to gather the villagers to discuss the extreme cold. Wei Xiong felt from the bottom of his heart that what Huang Changyuan and Song Shiwei said made sense. Everyone had to prepare more food and firewood. They probably couldn't afford medicinal materials, but they could prepare some cold medicines, which were cheap.

As for the medicinal herbs for frostbite, Doctor Xu is willing to take people into the mountains to collect herbs. Now that they have settled in Xiahuang Village, they are the people of Xiahuang Village. They should not only let the newcomers lead the way. The original people of Xiahuang Village should also contribute and try to pick more medicinal herbs.

After Master Xu Shihe and his disciples left, only Huang Changyuan, Chen Qiang and Liu Dong were left in the main room.

Seeing that everyone had left, Liu Dong couldn't help but say, "Old Huang, do we really have to spend money to buy medicine? Didn't Xiao Song also say that it was just a rumor? What if it's false? We finally escaped here and settled down. Who has extra money to gamble with?"

Chen Qiang remained silent, feeling somewhat hesitant.

Huang Changyuan sighed again when he saw this: "You think I'm not worried, but like I said before, it's better to be safe than sorry. Although we are fleeing here, we are much luckier than others. General Xie and Doctor Xu have given so much silver to everyone, so we can still get enough money to buy some frostbite medicine."

"Besides, as Xiao Song said, the news has already leaked out. If you don't believe it and don't make any preparations, when the extreme cold really comes, there will be no food or firewood. If you get sick, there will be no medicine and the doctor can only watch you. That's despair."

Liu Dong stopped talking. He knew Huang Changyuan was right, but he still felt bad about spending money to buy medicinal herbs.

"Old Liu, just listen to Old Huang. He is in worse pain than us. You don't have to worry about the herbs. If the extreme cold really comes, the food, firewood and herbs will not be wasted.

On the bright side, if the extreme cold doesn't come, it won't matter. Every household needs food and firewood, and the herbs bought from the pharmacy are already prepared. They are durable, and I can sell them to the pharmacy later. At most I'll lose a few bucks. Besides, winter here is always colder than other places, so it's safer to keep the frostbite medicine at home."

The last bit of hesitation in Liu Dong's heart was dispelled by Chen Qiang's words, and he finally nodded heavily in agreement.

Huang Changyuan stood up and said, "Call everyone later and talk to them. You can also go home and talk to your families."

The two nodded in response.

On the way back, Song Shiwei told Zhang Wu about the extreme cold. Unlike the uncertainty he had told Huang Changyuan and others before, Song Shiwei told Zhang Wu very clearly that the extreme cold would come, so when passing by Wei Cai's house, he asked him to go and tell the village chief and try to persuade them to make more preparations.

Song Shiwei didn't remind Wei Cai out of kindness; he just wanted to avoid trouble after the extreme cold came. By then, the villagers would be suffering, while he had everything he needed, so those people would definitely come to cause trouble. Song Shiwei never underestimated human nature.

No matter how disgusting and cruel something is, I am never surprised.

Isn't that what human nature is all about?

Fortunately, Wei Cai's reaction was much better than Wei Xiong's. Even though he was not sure whether the extreme cold was real or not, he was willing to make preparations in advance like Huang Changyuan. After dinner, he called all the villagers to an open space to talk about this matter. He earnestly persuaded the villagers to prepare more food and firewood. As for medicinal materials, every household in Damo Village had some silver in savings. Although they could not afford to buy too much, they could still buy some. At worst, they could go into the mountains to collect herbs with Doctor Xu from Xiahuang Village.

So, the next day, all the strong laborers in Xiahuang Village and Damao Village went out, took the carts that could pull things at home, and went into the city to buy food together. They tried to buy more food before the rumors spread, so as to avoid food shortages or price increases.

Except for Song Shiwei, no one in the two villages thought of spending money to buy firewood. The north is mostly mountainous, and if there is a shortage of firewood, they can just go into the mountains to pick up dead branches or cut down trees.

For two consecutive days, people from the two villages were buying food. At first, when a large number of people entered the city, the soldiers guarding the city were shocked. After checking the household registration and hearing that they were just entering the city to buy food, they let down their guard. However, they still called two brothers to watch them.

During this period, Song Shiwei also asked Zhang Wu to drive a horse-drawn carriage into the city to buy food twice. He had already brought back a lot of firewood in front of the villagers, so there was no need to buy more.