Rebirth of the third master of the ring of the Red Chamber

On this day, Bao Dingting rushed over and whispered, "Here we go again."

The third prince nodded and waved at the dumb brothers and sisters, "Go, be smart."

The siblings nodded and ran towards a group of ragged children holding hands.Although the two were dressed in thin and tattered clothes, their small faces were wiped clean with snow every day, and because they followed Jia Huan all day long, ate well and slept well, their eyes were shining brightly.

They were different from others at a glance, so they naturally didn't like this group of children. Before they got close, they were hit by snowballs and couldn't move an inch.

"You bullies, woo woo woo..." The younger sister wept sadly as she patted off the snow particles from her brother's body.The elder brother hurriedly hugged her back.

"Little Nier, what's the matter? Why are you crying like this?" The two women walked over together and asked softly.

"They bully people and don't want to play with us!" My sister pointed to a group of unkempt children who kept making faces.

The two wives looked at the children with dark faces who couldn't see their facial features clearly, and then at the two fair and tender, their hearts were naturally distracted, and they walked over and blasted those children away, and then turned back to wipe the faces of the brothers and sisters , asked in a low voice, "Where are your parents? Why do you have to ignore you?"

The younger sister cried even more sadly, and said intermittently, "He, they are all gone..."

Missing may be lost on the road, or it may be dead, which means that these two children are already orphans.The two women looked at each other and continued to ask, "Xiao Nier, how old are you this year?"

"I, I'm seven years old."

"Where's your brother?"

My brother said a few times, and made a horoscope.

"Hey, why are you dumb?" One of the women hesitated.

The other woman looked at the two of them carefully, pulled her companion aside and whispered, "Although this elder brother is dumb, he has starved for several months, but his eyes are still bright and bright. It can be seen that he is in good health, and there is no need to take him back with him." It can save a lot of money. Besides, he is only dumb and not deaf. The master needs such a tight-lipped person! Didn’t you hear that, on the night of the congee giving, the master beat and killed three slobbers in the yard. Take him back to show the master, if you can use it, you can keep it, if you can’t use it, you can drive it away. For this little girl, I must take it back. My wife will definitely like it. "

"Okay, let's take it home first." The other person nodded in agreement.

It turns out that although the Qiu family is a first-class rich family in Ze'an County, Mr. Qiu is the most penniless. Seeing so many refugees pouring in, he thought of abducting a few of them back to be servant girls. Loyal, and able to save a lot of silver from Ren Yazi, taking care of their meals every day, I am afraid that they don't even have to pay for selling themselves.

They didn't dare to use strong adults with unknown origins, so they put their ideas on a group of orphans.These two women came here specifically to find candidates for the master.

The two agreed, then turned to ask their sister, "You are so young at two years old, and you are lonely and helpless, how can you survive? How about this, I will take you back to show my wife. If she likes you, stay Not only do I have enough food and clothing to keep warm, but I also have [-] copper coins as pocket money every month. If my wife doesn’t like it, I can’t help it. I will give you a full meal, and you can go find another way of life.”

After hearing this, the younger sister hurriedly grabbed the woman, her tone excited, "I beg you to keep us, we don't need new clothes or copper coins, we just need to give us a bite of food every day! Please!" Then she knelt down Kowtow down.

The woman hurriedly stopped her and took the two of them away in a hurry.

"Twenty copper coins per month, Mr. Qiu is really generous!" Jia Huan walked out of the dark and laughed.

"How much should it be normally?" The Third Prince asked shamelessly.

Jia Huan looked at him in disbelief, and then remembered that he used to be a prince, and the eggs he ate every day might be golden eggs of one tael of silver, so he curled his lips maliciously, and walked away with two hehes.

Although the young man didn't say anything, the third prince felt that he was deeply despised.He shook his head helplessly, thinking that he would have to have a good chat with Bao inquiring later, so as to understand all these livelihood issues.

That night, the bonfire was burning vigorously, and the orange fire light shone on people's faces with a warm taste, which completely drove away the winter cold.

The third prince walked towards Jia Huan, who was sitting alone in the corner, wiping the hatchet with a piece of silk cloth, sat down next to him, coughed twice, and said, "I found out, five renminbi can buy a liter of rice, Twenty Wen can buy four liters of rice, brother and sister can eat three taels of rice a day, and four liters of rice is enough to last 32 days. I never thought that twenty Wen could last a month.”

"Ah," Jia Huan nodded casually, and calculated another sum, "The contract of sale signed by the two of them is ten taels of silver. Twenty copper coins per month, and it takes two years and one month to deposit one tael of silver." It will take 20 years and eight months to save 41 taels of redemption money. What's more, these 20 taels are just empty words, and they never got into their hands. They only give them two meals of gruel every day, but there is endless work. With the ransom money that I can’t save, life is really easy.”

The third prince was silent for a while, then continued, "They didn't really sell themselves, we will always rescue them. By the way, do you know that one penny can buy two eggs, one tael of silver can buy a stone of rice, and 35 taels of silver You can buy a big brick house with two entrances and one exit with a pavement."

Speaking of this, he picked up a dagger to play with, and his tone became colder, "But when I opened the mansion, a total of 14 taels of silver was used to repair the county prince's mansion, and only half of it was repaired. They told me that the silver was not enough, so they added more 10 taels. Now think about it, 24 taels, how many brick and tile houses can I build for these poor people to live in? For commercial tax, take one out of thirty, and those who exceed it will be regarded as violating the order; the old official land rent, from one dou to four per mu, will be reduced by two tenths each, and those who rise from four dou to one stone will be reduced by three tenths; Those who open up wasteland will be exempted from taxes for three years; those who open up wasteland will not be allowed to pay more than one bushel per mu. But these decrees have become a dead letter when they reach the localities, and the government can collect as much as they want, especially in disaster years. Before I knew it, my Daqing Being bitten and eroded by these beetles, they are riddled with holes. Local officials are all rich, but the treasury is empty every year, and they have to borrow countless silver to spend extravagantly on those princes and ministers. 600 million taels, four kings and eight kilometers How could any family not be able to provide 600 million taels? But my Daqing treasury can't afford it! Heh!" After saying that, he sneered and plunged his dagger into the snow.

Jia Huan glanced at him, and said seriously, "As far as I know, the declining Jia family can't take it out. Oh, it's a different matter if the house is confiscated. Sell those ancestral properties, antiques, manors and so on. Come to 600 million taels."

The third prince smiled softly, "Isn't what I'm talking about just copying the house?"

Jia Huan's forehead twitched, and he thought to himself, so you have already made up your mind to copy the four princes and eight princes?Have to say, well done!As if remembering something, he raised his eyebrows and asked, "I've heard a story about a young man from a family who likes to eat pancakes the most. He has to have one every morning, otherwise he'll be exhausted. Make 30 for him to eat, and repay [-] taels a month. I don’t want one day when his father is convicted and he becomes a commoner, but he sighs: It’s better to be a commoner! You can buy two sesame cakes for one penny, and it’s still hot of!"

Hua Luo looked at the third prince, and smiled wickedly, "How much is your biscuit? Is it cold or hot?"

The third prince squinted his eyes and recalled the account book he had seen at the princess's place, and said with a livid face, "I don't like sesame cakes, and I don't know how much the price is in the mansion. I only saw the steward's reimbursement once, and the egg was 35 taels of silver."

Jia Huan was stunned, this was even more exaggerated than he imagined, so he clapped his hands and laughed, and asked, "Good guy, you ate a big brick house in one go! How does it taste? "

The third prince squinted his eyes at him, and said with a half-smile, "I was just about to ask you, an ordinary family can live comfortably and peacefully for a whole year with ten taels of silver, but you squeezed 55 taels from me, but How are you going to spend it?"

Jia Huan immediately stopped laughing, stood up and patted his buttocks and said, "I'll go see if those people with diarrhea are awake."

"Huan'er, you little rascal!" The third prince gathered a handful of snow and threw it over.Jia Huan dodged it lightly as if he had eyes, and threw one back.The two played together in a blink of an eye.

A few days later, Xiao Ze hurried back, leaned into the ear of the Third Prince and said, "I've seen it, and I've accepted the case."

"How does he look?" The third prince fiddled with the fire absently.

"It still looks the same as it did five years ago, only a lot thinner. Shall we..."

The third prince waved his hand, "Wait and see. After many years, I don't know whether he is a human or a ghost now. Let's try him with the moldy rice case in Ze'an County."

Xiao Ze nodded silently.

Jia Huan didn't want to ask these secrets, pretending he didn't hear anything, he said slowly, "Since Lao Xiao has turned around, shouldn't we do it?"

"Let's do it tonight, ask Bao to inquire and send a message to Qiu's mansion." The third prince nodded.

It was night, the fat-headed and big-eared Master Qiu and his wife drank wine and hugged each other for a good time. They didn't even ask for water, and just fell asleep like that.

Due to the gathering of thousands of disaster victims in Ze'an County, the law and order was very chaotic, and many nursing homes were hired to take turns to stay on duty at night.But because the weather is really cold, who can stand it for a long time?Seeing that there had been no movement in the past few days, these people relaxed, and gathered in the ear room to warm wine and gamble, feeling very happy.

In the heavy snow, a small figure scurried left and right in the yard, silently groping towards the rice barn.Arriving at a corner door, seeing that the porter really couldn't stand the cold, he locked the door with a big iron chain, went back to sleep early, and immediately knocked three times on the door.

There were also three soft sounds outside the door, and he quietly opened the corner door a crack.A slender hand came in through the crack of the door, twisted a piece of iron wire with the fingertips, fiddled with the keyhole twice, and opened it easily with a snap.Several black shadows entered one after another, hung the iron chain back on the door, turned around and disappeared in the dark.

The little black shadow continued to walk towards the granary, but didn't go inside. Instead, he went around to the back of the house, lit a fire every two meters, covered it with wet firewood, and made a lot of smoke and dust.He turned around and went to a miscellaneous room, lit an open fire, and waited until the fire was burning hot before walking towards the person hiding in the dark.

After he hid, one of them shouted at the top of his voice, "No, the granary is on fire! Come and put out the fire!"

It was already midnight, and because of the extremely cold weather, the servants had already gone to bed, and the guards guarding the granary were also drunk. After hearing the shouts, it was only a quarter of an hour before the chief steward of the Qiu family brought them in disheveled clothes. A group of people rushed to see the granary surrounded by thick smoke, and they were almost not frightened.

Taking advantage of the fact that everyone arrived one after another and their attention was drawn by the fire, a few people who had been hidden in the dark came out openly, stood in the crowd and pointed, without arousing even the slightest suspicion.

"Why are you standing there stupidly? Go put out the fire! No, no, it's too late! Hurry up and recite all the food bags for me! You can't miss a single bag! Come on!" Kick the boy standing at the front into the fire.

"Let's go now, little ones! Brothers, come on!" The boy pulled his clothes high, covered his mouth and nose, only his eyes were exposed, and rushed into the granary with a group of brothers. It took him a long time to remove a bag of grain. .

The butler was very anxious, but seeing the flames lighting up half of the sky in the miscellaneous room and the thick smoke filling the room, he didn't dare to go there, he just stood at a distance and urged loudly.

At this moment, the main courtyard was lit up with flames, and the momentum seemed to be bigger than that of the granary, and the screams of the girls and women could be heard from far away.

"No, the main courtyard is also on fire!" The head housekeeper left the nurses to help, and turned around and ran to the main courtyard.

Seeing this, a boy who was rescuing the grain bags yelled, "Why are there fires everywhere? Could it be that the Mangshan bandits broke in? Oh, those are murderous masters, even the emperor's son! Dude! Let’s run, you guys! You don’t have to lose your life for a few bags of grain!” He said, throwing down the grain bags and running wildly.

Seeing this, everyone scattered and ran away, almost peeing out of fear.

"Come back, come back quickly! Who said the bandits are coming! Nonsense! If you save all the food today, I will reward each of you with five taels of silver later!" These words had no effect, and many people still ran away. Only a dozen or so stood in the corner and hesitated.

The butler raised the reward to ten taels before they reluctantly nodded.

After delaying for a while, the fire in the main courtyard became even bigger, mixed with shrill screams and howls.The head housekeeper panicked, he was really afraid that he would be cut off by bandits on the way, and he would call away all the remaining guards, surrounded him and rushed all the way away.

"Quickly, move all the food out!" A stooped servant slowly straightened up, ordering in an orderly manner, his silhouette looked extraordinarily tall in the light of the fire.Among the people left behind were a few servants of the Qiu family, who were quietly knocked out before they even realized it.

A small black figure emerged from a secluded path and asked softly, "Where's my brother?"

"Ah!" Another small figure waved to his sister, then pulled the iron chain to open the corner door, and asked these 'boys' to carry the grain out and put it on the three-wheeled trolley that had been prepared.

After a while, the beams and columns of the miscellaneous house were burned, and the heavy roof and half-melted snow were smashed down, completely extinguishing the fire, but the wet firewood was not easy to burn, and the thick smoke around the granary faded after a while.

When the butler extinguished the fire in the main courtyard and ran back to the granary after making sure that the master and wife were safe, it was already empty.

In the refugee camps on the outskirts of the city, bags of food were thrown everywhere. When everyone woke up in the morning and found them, they all wept with joy and immediately lit the fire, eager to make porridge.The strong rice fragrance lingers in the air for a long time.

Jia Huan sprinkled a little salt into the pot, mixed it with chopsticks, took a spoonful of it and let it cool slowly, put it in his mouth, and sighed comfortably, "It's so refreshing to eat rice at last!"

"The smell is so strong! It's better than Yuchu!" Xiao Ze praised in a low voice.

"Well, not bad. But I think it's better to rob the rich and give to the poor." The third prince laughed.

Jia Huan nodded sympathetically.However, Xiao Ze felt extremely worried, and said to his heart, my lord, you must not let it go, a good Tianhuang nobleman should not run to become a bandit with the third master Huan!