In the end, Song Laoliu only took fifteen taels and went home happily.
Chang'an sat on the kang and watched his uncle and aunt counting money, saying, "There will be a three-year drought. Buy, buy food and hide it."
Song Sanshun was startled and looked at his niece suspiciously.
Chang'an continued, "The drought will starve people to death, and refugees will come to rob food and money. We, our family's food must be hidden."
Song Sanshun and Wu looked at each other.
Since they knew that their niece was a little bit supernatural, they believed in Chang'an's words.
It has indeed not rained this year so far, and the continuous scorching sun has caused the water in many ditches and ponds to drop rapidly.
"Sanshun, will there really be a drought?" Wu looked at her husband worriedly.
According to the little niece's words, the next three years will be a period of drought.
Song Sanshun did not answer his wife's words, but asked Chang'an seriously: "Chang'an, how do you know there will be a three-year drought?"
Chang'an wanted to say that it was his cousin who said it, but if his uncle went to ask his cousin, wouldn't it reveal that he could hear her inner thoughts?
"Yuyu said." Chang'an said truthfully.
Little Goldfish did not deny that there would be a severe drought in the future, so just tell your uncle.
Song Sanshun heard Xiao Chang'an mention the name Yuyu again, and he didn't know how to ask.
"Sanshun, it seems that we really have to prepare." Wu said worriedly.
A year of drought is nothing, anyway, my family is rich now, and we can buy some food and save it to get through the difficulties. But three years, not everyone is as lucky as my family, and suddenly have so much money.
Song Sanshun nodded: "I will tell the clan leader tomorrow and ask him what to do?" It is very dangerous for my family to store food alone. Once others have no food, they will probably come to rob my family first.
"Well." Wu looked at the silver and money on the kang and couldn't laugh anymore, so she quickly packed it into a box and locked it up.
The next day, Song Sanshun took Song Laoliu to the clan leader's house and told him that there would be a severe drought in the future, saying that he had listened to the divination of a wandering Taoist priest.
The clan leader looked up at the clear and cloudless sky and believed it about 70%.
He stroked his beard and said, "Let's ask the villagers to come over later, and we'll discuss the purchase of grain together, but don't tell others about the three-year drought. If we are accused of spreading rumors and misleading the public, we will all go to jail."
Song Sanshun was startled.
He had actually forgotten about this.
The clan leader said again, "Just in case, you should repair the courtyard wall when you have nothing to do. If there are refugees entering the village, you can also resist them."
Song Sanshun and Song Laoliu both nodded.
After leaving the clan leader's house, Song Laoliu said, "Sanshun, our two homes are not far from each other. Why don't we secretly build a cellar that connects them? If there are refugees entering the village, we can also let my wife and children hide in it for safety."
"Okay." Song Sanshun thought for a while and said, "We must not let others know about building the cellar."
"Of course, I'm not stupid, how can I tell others?" When it comes to life and death, one's family must always leave a way out. If everyone knows about it, it will not be a way out, but a dead end.
The two of them made their own preparations and decided to build the courtyard wall first, and then dig a cellar. When everything was ready, they would quietly store some food and hide it.
Fortunately, the two families had made some money recently, otherwise they would not be able to afford to hire people to repair the courtyard wall.
Of course, there was no need to pay the villagers to come and help, but two meals a day had to be adequately supplied.
The villagers all had a huge appetite, and it was no problem for one person to eat three large bowls of food at a time. If four or five people were invited, it would take at least seven or eight days, and the family would not be able to prepare more than a hundred kilograms of food.
Since it was for people to eat and drink, the dishes had to be prepared as well. Not to mention meat for every meal, but a few pieces of tofu were necessary every day.
So, Song Sanshun and Song Laoliu decided to enlarge the courtyards of the two families and separate them with a wall. In this way, not only the small vegetable plots in front of and behind the house were enclosed in the yard, but also a wall in the middle was saved.
Song Sanshun also thought that his niece and a few friends would play in the yard in the future. As long as the gate was closed, no one could bully her.
Then the two families began to get busy.
They hired ten people at a time, some carrying mud and some building walls. In less than ten days, the walls of the two courtyards were built.
The villagers were puzzled and ran over to tease: "Sanshun, Laoliu, why do you two build the yard so high? Are you afraid of being seen when you dig gold?"
The walls of ordinary villagers' houses are only half a person high, but his two families are so good that you can't see the situation inside even if you stand on tiptoe.
Not only that, Song Sanshun also inserted a lot of thorns and soapberry thorns on the top of the wall. Who is he worried about?
Song Sanshun ignored the ridicule of the villagers and paid someone to make a thick gate to completely block the sight of others.
Song Laoliu's family also followed suit and cut a lot of thorns from the mountain and inserted them all on the top of the wall.
After that, both families built a firewood shed in the backyard, and the two dug cellars in it in their spare time.
They were busy until the summer harvest in May.
Due to the lack of water, the crops in every household were not very good.
But the tax collectors didn't care about that and still came to collect taxes on time.
The clerk and the head of the village, along with several village guards, went from house to house, beating gongs to collect grain.
This time, the court not only wanted tax silver, but also grain, and asked the villagers to send the grain they should pay to the official warehouse in the county.
Song Sanshun's family had only two acres of land in total, and there was not much left after paying taxes.
He sighed, resignedly dried the millet, cleaned it, and put it into a sack.
While he was tying the mouth of the sack, his biological father Song Baqi walked into the yard with his hands behind his back.
He looked around and said, "Sanshun, tomorrow you will deliver our tax grain to the county, and Jizu will go with you then."
Song Sanshun stopped and looked at his father indifferently: "Dad, how are you going to deliver it? Hire an ox cart?"
"What ox cart?" Song Baqi said unhappily: "It's only more than 200 kilograms in total, just hire two people to carry it."
"Hire two people to carry it?" Song Sanshun was so angry that he laughed: "Dad, how much money are you going to give for the labor?"
Song Baqi was irritated by his son's attitude, and scolded: "I think you are money-minded? Why should your father pay for such a small matter? Don't you want to deliver the grain yourself?"
"My family has a total of two acres of land, and the tax grain is less than 100 kilograms, so I carried it by myself. But your family has more than six acres of tax, which is more than 200 kilograms. Who do you want me to hire to carry it?" Song Sanshun picked up the broom and swept the grains on the ground.
"Rebellious son! I asked you to deliver the tax grain but you refused to do so. Do you still have your father in your eyes?"
Song Baqi jumped to his feet and cursed. Seeing that the old house was surrounded by a circle of high walls, he was furious and shouted, "What's the meaning of making my house like this? Do you want to monopolize my house?"
Song Sanshun said coldly, "What do you mean by monopolizing? This house has been divided to my son and will belong to him in the future. Do you want to exchange my new house for these shabby huts of mine?"
His father suddenly visited and brought up the topic of delivering grain and house. He probably still didn't give up and wanted to find a reason to take away his shabby houses.
It was hard for him to rack his brains to calculate again and again for just three shabby huts.
(End of this chapter)