Natural disaster at the beginning: I will lead the system to build a safe zone

In the Chen residence, Chen Huairen felt somewhat uneasy after giving his orders, and called the servant: "Help me pass a note to the masters of the Wang and Qian families, and tell them that I have something to discuss with them."

The servant moved quickly and came back after a while to tell the other two masters that they had accepted the invitation and would meet at Jufulou at 4 p.m.

Chen Huairen nodded to show that he understood.

The hour of You arrived quickly, and as soon as Chen Huairen left his cool study, he began to sweat profusely.

For families like theirs, stockpiling ice in the house is an annual must, and these ice cubes are basically only supplied to the owner's family, so there is enough ice in the ice cellar, and he is not very frugal in daily use.

Unexpectedly, although he had tried his best to avoid the hottest time of the day, the temperature outside was still so high. Chen Huairen felt dizzy and extremely difficult to walk from the study in the mansion to the door. He did not breathe a sigh of relief until he got in his carriage.

He also placed an ice basin on the carriage he traveled in.

The carriage swayed slowly as it hurried towards Jufulou. Even though it was almost the evening hour, the sun was still blazing, and the high temperature was baking the ground so hard that it seemed to be warped.

The road to Jufulou was also deserted. In the past, there were small vendors setting up stalls on both sides, but because of the hot weather, few small vendors come out to set up stalls during the day. If he didn't have something to do, he wouldn't want to go out in broad daylight.

They soon arrived at Jufulou, which was the largest restaurant in the county, with excellent service and privacy. They basically met here to discuss business.

The waiter at Jufulou was obviously familiar with Chen Huairen. When he saw the Chen family's carriage approaching, he hurried out to greet him: "Master Chen, you are here. You must have been overheated on the way. Ice cubes have been placed in the box. I will take you upstairs to rest."

Chen Huairen got off the carriage. The driver went to park the car himself, and he followed the waiter into the restaurant. The restaurant hall was very stuffy, but the private room was like two different worlds compared to the outside.

The price of a private room with such service is naturally not cheap, but this money is nothing to big businessmen like them.

Chen Huairen sat down, and the waiter was very discerning and poured him tea and water. Chen Huairen said to him, "I have an appointment with Master Wang and Master Qian. Bring them over when they arrive."

After pouring the tea, the waiter responded and left.

After a while, Mr. Wang and Mr. Qian arrived as scheduled.

"Old Chen, what's the matter that you called us here in such a hot day?" Qian Jinbao, who had a chubby figure and a big belly, asked in a loud voice.

Compared with him, Wang Fuan was much thinner, but his eyes were shining brightly, and he looked like an old fox.

In fact, this is true. Among the three of them, Wang Fuan is the most cunning, Qian Jinbao is more generous, and Chen Huairen is just a good guy in their eyes.

Wang Fuan greeted him when he came in, without saying anything, but there was confusion in his eyes.

"Please sit down first. I heard that you all closed the grain shop today?" Chen Huairen asked while pouring tea for them both.

"Everyone knows this, and if the grain shop is not closed, I will starve to death." Qian Jinbao said nonchalantly.

Wang Fuan also added: "Aren't you Chen family planning to close the shop? You don't have enough food in stock, right?"

Chen Huairen smiled bitterly: "I really can't hide anything from you guys."

"Old Chen, don't tell me that you called us out today just to talk about this!" Qian Jinbao said dissatisfiedly. What's there to say about this matter that everyone knows? The situations of the three families are similar, so naturally their grain reserves are also similar.

"Yes and no. Have you ever thought about what risks will arise if we just close the grain shop like this?" Chen Huairen said with some worry.

Qian Jinbao was puzzled: "What kind of risk can there be? Isn't it risky to not close the shop?"

When Wang Fuan heard this question, he frowned and thought for a moment: "Are you saying that you are afraid that the county town will become chaotic?"

Chen Huairen nodded solemnly.

Qian Jinbao also reacted at this time: "No way, isn't our county magistrate still here, and there are so many soldiers guarding."

Chen Huairen disagreed and retorted: "You underestimate the power of the people. I got the news before that during the extreme cold, the people of Changping Town rebelled because they were out of food, and the mayor was beaten to death by the people."

"Changping Town? Isn't it the town farthest from us? How can the town be compared with the county town?" Qian Jinbao still felt that they were making a fuss out of nothing.

Wang Fuan actually listened to it a little: "What you said makes sense, but what can we do now?"

Qian Jinbao wanted to interrupt Wang Fuan at first, but when he heard Wang Fuan's words of agreement, he became stiff again: "That's right, then we have no choice but to close the shop. If we don't close the shop and wait for them to make trouble, we will starve to death!"

Chen Huairen certainly knew that they couldn't control whether the people would cause trouble because of the lack of food, but they couldn't just sit and wait: "We have no choice, but we have to do something. I want to talk to the county magistrate about this matter. If the people really make trouble, do you think we can stop the riot with our ability?"

There are countless cases in history where people rebelled and overthrew the rule of dynasties. Even if he was just a businessman, he knew that water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it.

Although the Tianqi Dynasty may now exist in name only, they have no idea what the current situation in the capital is like in their remote place. They can only know from some news from outsiders that the situation in the capital is very bad, and the emperor may be gone.

But these were far away from them, and they had no business in them. But the affairs of Qinghe County were closely related to them, and if the people of Qinghe County started to make trouble, they would not be able to get away with it.

After hearing Chen Huairen's question, Wang Fuan and Qian Jinbao fell silent. If there really was a riot, they would not be able to stop it.

Wang Fuan pondered for a while and asked, "Do you want the three of us to unite and ask the county to open the city gate?"

Chen Huairen nodded and shook his head: "It's not that the city gates are completely opened, but at least we merchants can go out to collect grain. As long as we can get the grain, we can continue to sell it. If the people can have enough food, they will naturally not cause trouble."

Wang Fuan asked again: "How do you know that we can get grain from outside? It is a year of famine now. The farmers don't have enough food to eat themselves, so how can they sell grain to us?"

"We have to give it a try. Even if we don't sell it, we can't just sit there and eat all the food," Chen Huairen replied.

Wang Fuan stopped talking after hearing this, and the atmosphere suddenly became quiet. Qian Jinbao looked at the two people's entangled expressions and said impatiently: "Alright, alright, it's just to find the county magistrate, I'll go with you. I've been annoyed with him for a long time. The world is like this, and it hasn't stopped him from collecting taxes. I pay him so much tax every day, and now he won't even let me go out of the city gate. It's okay to stop us from collecting grain, but he should open the warehouse and release the grain himself!"

After hearing Qian Jinbao's words, Chen Huairen and Wang Fuan looked at each other and made up their minds.