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

At the end of the Shen time, three horse-drawn carriages came from the dim sum shop to deliver the cakes ordered by Song Shiwei. Not long after the people left, the sheets, quilt covers, cloth and quilts that he had ordered were also delivered. Song Shiwei had them placed in the front yard and put them all into the space when no one was around.

The food in the restaurant was served two cups of tea late because there were many customers today, so the agreed time was a little later. Song Shiwei expressed his understanding and renegotiated the time with the shopkeeper on the spot, setting it at the end of Weishi (3pm) every day. That was the time when the restaurant had no business and there was no need to queue.

After seeing off the restaurant owner, Song Shiwei left two dishes and a soup on the round table in the front hall, and put the rest into the space.

Just as we were about to eat, Zhang Wu came back, and after a while we heard Zhang Wu directing people to put things away.

Song Shiwei did not go out, but ate his dinner slowly. After he was full, the noise outside was still there, so he got up and went out.

Zhang Wu had people deliver a lot of things, and now he was sweating profusely as he watched those people move into the empty room in the front yard. While sweating, he happened to see Song Shiwei coming over, and he was about to salute him immediately.

Song Shiwei waved his hand, glanced at the people moving things, and asked casually, "What did you buy?"

"What was delivered now are some seeds. According to the master's instructions, all the seeds available on the market were bought. Now they are piled in two empty rooms. Liquor, tea, and spices are also placed in there."

Seeing that his master showed no surprise, Zhang Wu continued, "I also found three stores to buy food from. Because the quantity is too large, it would be too conspicuous to transport it during the day, so I made an appointment with the grain store owner to deliver it at the end of the evening hour."

Song Shiwei was very satisfied with Zhang Wu's attentiveness, and smiled slightly: "Well done, you've worked hard today."

Zhang Wu was flattered and waved his hands repeatedly: "It is my honor to work for the master."

"Okay, stop calling yourself such a small person. I think you are a down-to-earth and capable person. Let's not be so unorthodox."

Zhang Wu started to worry again, and looked at his master cautiously: "Thank you, master, but how about I call myself your subordinate? To show my respect and gratitude to you."

Song Shiwei had no objection and nodded in agreement.

The main reason is that Zhang Wu refers to himself as "small", which sounds particularly awkward, while referring to himself as "subordinate" is much more comfortable.

When Zhang Wu saw his master nod, his fear and anxiety finally dissipated and he couldn't help feeling touched.

The new master looks to be in his twenties. He speaks and acts very maturely, often making people overlook his age. Although I don't know how old the master is, I can roughly estimate it. After these two days of contact, I can also feel that the new master is a person who speaks frankly and is tolerant.

It would take some time to move the things, so Zhang Wu settled the bill while his master was around.

"Master, you have given me a total of 4,000 taels of silver notes in the past two days, of which 240 taels were spent on furniture and kitchen utensils. Today, I spent 300 taels on seeds, of which the medicinal seeds cost the most. I bought ordinary tea, which costs 60 wen per catty, and spent 6 taels. The top-quality liquor sold at 10 taels per bucket in the restaurant, so I spent 100 taels. The ordinary liquor costs 200 wen per catty, so I spent 200 taels."

"Then there is food. The grain shop charges 80 coins for a dan of white rice and flour, which cost 80 taels. Brown rice and corn cost 30 coins for a dan, which cost 12 taels. For seasonings, we bought oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, onions, ginger, and garlic, which cost 50 taels. This is the account book I recorded."

Song Shiwei took the account book and opened it. He took a quick look. Every expense was recorded in great detail, showing his attentiveness. He praised him generously, "Very good. You are indeed from a noble family. You have done a good job. Your handwriting is also very impressive. Thank you for your hard work."

Zhang Wu, a big man, was a little embarrassed when the little girl praised him like this: "It's what a subordinate should do for his master. It's good enough if the master doesn't mind that my subordinate is stupid."

After the movers left, Song Shiwei went into the house and pointed to the front door and said, "When the food arrives later, just have someone put it over there. The rooms over there are empty, and someone will come to take it away later. Don't worry about anything else. Put the food away and go back to the inn to have a good rest. There are still many things to do tomorrow."

Zhang Wu nodded repeatedly: "It will take a while for the food to be delivered. I will go to the kitchen to boil some hot water for the master."

"That's fine. Go boil some water and have dinner outside before coming back. I'll go back to the backyard first."

"Yes."

After Zhang Wu left, Song Shiwei went directly to the two rooms in the front yard and put all the things Zhang Wu bought today into the space. Then he returned to the kitchen, looked at the firewood in the stove, which was burning very vigorously, and finally returned to the bedroom in the backyard.

When Zhang Wu came back, the hot water in the kitchen had been boiling for a long time. Thinking that his master wanted to wash up, he immediately picked up the bucket beside him and scooped hot water from it. He first carried the hot water to the room designated by his master, and then brought a bucket of cold water. After pouring the water into the bathtub, Zhang Wu went to the door of his master's room to report.

Song Shiwei was very satisfied with his work: "Thank you for your hard work."

Zhang Wulian said yes, and then returned to the front yard after seeing that his master had no instructions.

It was a rare occasion that someone had prepared the bath water, so Song Shiwei lay comfortably in the bathtub, thinking while taking a bath. He wondered whether he should buy more bathtubs in the future, and then fill them with bath water and store them directly into the space. In the event of a natural disaster in the future, he probably wouldn't have the time to boil water for a bath, especially with the extreme heat and drought that followed, when there was no water for people to drink.

I silently made a note of the bathtub and would add it to my shopping list later.

After taking a bath and going out, he heard faint voices coming from the front yard. Guessing that someone had come to deliver food, Song Shiwei immediately walked towards the front yard.

Because the amount of purchased grain was too large, the ox cart carried the grain back and forth several times. Zhang Wu did not let anyone into the yard, for fear of disturbing his master's rest. He led people directly to move the grain to the back room at the entrance of the house. The white rice, white flour, brown rice and corn filled two entire rooms.

An hour had passed after the people who delivered the food left. It was already late in the evening, so Zhang Wu did not bother Song Shiwei anymore. He just closed the door carefully and left.

After a while, Song Shiwei walked into the back room and waved his long hand. All the food in the room was collected into the space and neatly stacked in bags in the static area of ​​the space.

For the static areas of the space, Song Shiwei also classified them into food, clothing, housing and transportation so that he could find things as quickly as possible when needed.

The supplies in the space currently include grain, various seeds, liquor, tea, snacks, seasonings, etc. Other ordered ready-made clothes and cloth will also be delivered in succession. Later, various meats, carriages for travel, and other large quantities of daily necessities will need to be purchased.

In addition to the grain collected by Cao Chong's warehouse and the grain bought by Zhang Wu, there was nearly 200,000 kilograms of grain, so there was no need to buy any more; the seasonings added up to several hundred kilograms, not to mention all kinds of seeds, and there were more than a thousand kilograms of vegetable seeds alone.

Follow the order on the list, and buy them one by one later, and fill in the gaps as you go. You can buy everything in about a month. But you still need to buy a carriage first, otherwise it will be inconvenient to bring back some small things, and you will also need a carriage when you leave the capital later.

So when Zhang Wu arrived the next day, Song Shiwei directly asked him to go to the horse shop to buy five horses and three spacious carriages. If there were suitable mules, he could buy a few as well.

Zhang Wu agreed immediately, came in a hurry and left in a hurry with the silver note, making sure to finish what his master had asked him to do before lunch.