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

After Huang Changyuan returned, he directly summoned the heads of every household and told them what Song Shiwei said and the matter of the officials buying bear meat. After he finished speaking, he looked at everyone's expressions intently.

According to the village chief, there are more than 200 people and more than 20 households in Dahe Village. If 600 kilograms of bear meat is divided equally, each family can get 20 kilograms of meat. This is a huge amount of meat. You have to know that in the past, in the village, meat was only bought during the New Year, and each time only one or two kilograms of meat was cut, and at most no more than five kilograms. Now 20 kilograms are distributed to each household, which is a good thing that they would never dare to do even in their dreams.

What's more, the officials have to pay money to buy it. Not to mention that food and meat are incredibly expensive in times of disaster. Even according to the normal prices in the past, a pound of meat can be sold for a lot of money. Brother Song still let everyone keep it for themselves. He is no longer a good person, he is a great philanthropist!

However, despite being excited, everyone had their own standards in mind. Liu Dong and Chen Qiang were the most obvious. They were both veteran hunters in the village and made their living by hunting all year round. Therefore, they knew how difficult it was to hunt a bear.

Liu Dong was afraid that someone in the village might have other ideas, so he said solemnly, "Village head, although Young Master Song asked everyone to keep the money, we can't be the kind of people who are blinded by money. The bear was killed by Brother Song. If he didn't kill the blind bear, the blind bear might have slandered us and attacked us. After all, all of us were saved by Brother Song and Brother Zhangwu this time, and we can't give anything good. We are embarrassed to even share the meat, so how can we collect money?"

Chen Qiang followed closely behind him: "Yes, village chief, Dadong is right. Not only can we not give anything to thank them for saving our lives, but now we have to be so shameless as to take so much meat. If the officials want to buy it, we can sell it to them, but we cannot accept silver."

"Uncle village chief, Brother Song risked his life to kill the bear and solved the danger for us, and in the end we took the meat and the silver. This behavior is too shameless. Uncle village chief, you can't let the silver go to your head. We don't want to be such a shameless person."

Huang Changyuan was very pleased with what Chen Qiang and Liu Dong said. Other people in the village also agreed with them. At least it proved that everyone was not short-sighted and they were all grateful for Xiao Song's kindness. However, Huang Changyuan was almost angry to death with what Liu Daming said.

Huang Changyuan immediately kicked Liu Daming and said, "Go away, do you think I am that kind of person? I didn't agree with what Xiao Song said at the time. I tried to persuade him, but he ran away. In the end, Xiao Zhang also said that they didn't need that little money and told us to take it with confidence. We still have a long way to go to the north, and we can get there more safely with money in our hands."

Huang Changyuan glanced at everyone and continued, "Since Xiao Song asked us to take it, then we should accept it. But everyone should not forget his kindness. Xiao Song has saved us several times. Even if we work like slaves, we can't repay Xiao Song's kindness. Everyone should remember this and always remember his kindness."

Everyone agreed and said they would work like slaves to repay Song Shiwei.

"Work like a slave? That requires Brother Zhang's consent."

Liu Daming's words again caused everyone to glare at him angrily, and even affected his father Liu Dong.

Liu Dong resisted the urge to beat him with a stick and kicked him away: "You idiot, our elders are here, you have no right to speak, get out of here and get back to work."

Liu Daming ran away with a grin on his face.

With Liu Daming's joke, the serious atmosphere became much more relaxed, and Huang Changyuan smiled again: "Then listen to Xiao Song. Each household will bring as much meat as they are willing to sell. We will sell it to the officials later. But don't sell it all. After all, the meat is Xiao Song's to improve everyone's meals. Keep some for yourself."

Huang Changyuan asked everyone to leave after he finished speaking. Those who had left gathered together to discuss how much meat to sell. Finally, they agreed that each household would take ten kilograms of meat to sell to the officials. This was mainly because there were quite a few people in the officials and the Shen and Xie families, most of them were men, so more than two hundred kilograms of meat was enough for them to share.

However, everyone had no idea about the price of bear meat, so they turned their attention to Chen Qiang and Liu Dong.

Chen Qiang immediately laughed: "Don't look at me. Dadong and I have never hunted such a ferocious beast as a blind bear. As for the price, he is an official after all, and he is traveling with us. It is not easy to sell him too high. It is better to sell him at the price of pork."

Liu Dong agreed. "In previous years, pork was 35 wen per jin. Now, the price of edible things has increased several times. I heard it when I was shopping in the capital last time. Pork has long been 100 wen per jin. But Qiangzi is right. Let's not talk about those officials. We can't charge more than General Xie. Why don't we sell it at the price of pork in previous years?"

The two men's words were agreed by everyone, and the price of bear meat was sold according to pork.

When each household handed over ten kilograms of meat to Huang Changyuan, they also told him about the price. Huang Changyuan agreed after hearing this, so he took his two sons and took the bear meat to find the official. Just as he mentioned that he wanted to sell more than two hundred kilograms of bear meat and was about to talk about the price, Ge Li took out a fifty-liang silver note and stuffed it into Huang Changyuan's hand.

"Although I don't know how much bear meat is worth, I know that everything edible is expensive nowadays, let alone meat. This silver is the most I can give you. If you think it's not enough, you can ask the Xie family or the Shen family for more."

Huang Changyuan had long been stunned by Ge Li's heroic act. After he came to his senses, he waved his hands repeatedly, his voice trembling a little: "Enough...enough, enough. Then, Sir Ge, please share the meat with everyone."

According to the price of pork in previous years, more than two hundred kilograms of meat would only cost eight or nine taels of silver, but Ge Li directly took fifty taels of silver. He even felt that it was too little, but when he thought that the money Ge Li took out was all donated by the exiles, Huang Changyuan swallowed the words of "it was too much" and went back with his two sons.

After returning, Huang Changyuan told the incident to the villagers who were there, and warned them seriously not to talk nonsense, lest the officials think that the villagers had cheated them out of their money. Then he recorded the fifty taels of silver in the village account, and would exchange and distribute it at the money shop next time they arrived in the town.

It was a pleasant surprise that each household could get more than two taels of rice. While being excited, they also remembered Song Shiwei's kindness.

Although Song Shiwei did not want the money, Huang Changyuan still found Zhang Wu and told him about it. After Huang Changyuan left, Zhang Wu told Song Shiwei about it again.

Song Shiwei was eating a snack, but his eyes fell on the bear paw in the pot, with a faint smile in his eyes: "It's good, they are living a better life, and we can eat good food in the future, and it won't be conspicuous."

Zhang Wu smiled and agreed. While frying the bear paws in the wok, he said, "I have marinated the thirty kilograms of meat. However, in this weather, it cannot be kept for too long. I will cook bear meat for the master in the next few days. I heard from Doctor Xu that bear meat is also a good thing and is good for the body."