In fact, Xu He had made up his mind just now and tried to find a way to get out the captured cooks in Liangduo.
It's just that being soft at that time would make Hou Si get it without any effort, leaving the impression that Xu Henian was weak and easy to bully.
So after holding Liang Duo, he gave him a sweet date.
As for how to operate this matter.
Isn't that the master of Wenxiang Hall who has the county government prison?
When the time comes, all we need to do is do some tricks on the oral confession and give an explanation to the superiors.
Xu He estimated that Chen Hua would cooperate in order to stabilize the overall situation.
Liang Duo's people are now being detained in Yangzhou Guard. Just ask Chen Hua to come forward and discuss it with Zhang Jingxian.
The reason why Xu He did this was not because of favoritism and perversion of the law, but because the people arrested in Liang Duo were actually just some deceived cooks.
They were similar to the people who attended the rally next to He's house by Qin Lake.
The original intention was just for the stuttering. When the time comes, just put him back and keep him under strict supervision. Being decapitated and put in jail for this is really a crime.
After the people in the four fields divided the food noisily, Qiu Hushu sighed: "Mr. Xu, you are still brave. The man named Hou Si just stared at him. To be honest, we are all a bit weak. These kitchen workers are all They are some powerful people, you are the only one who dares to offend them!"
Indeed, the cooks at the Lianghuai Salt Farm are notoriously powerful.
Grandfather Zhang Shicheng was from Yanhu, and the team that raised the army were all Zao Ding from Shichang in Huaizhong.
In the words of future generations, there are rebel genes in this place. If one is not good, these people really dare to kill people, no matter what county government or scholar you are.
Xu He was not happy after hearing Qiu Hushu's praise. Instead, he smiled thoughtfully.
The people in the four salt fields were temporarily calmed down.
But that was not for my own sake, but for the food sent by the county government.
So, what should we do if we run out of food?
This little food is enough to barely last three days with some water.
Ding Ze had just come back and reported to him. According to his understanding, not to mention the other three meetings, it was just about making tea, and he was really too poor to open the pot.
Because salt needs to be boiled at the seaside, the rising tide of seawater intrudes, leaving most of the land around the salt farm uncultivated.
Although the soil quality here is better than the pure saline-alkali land in the Shandong salt field, it is only better.
As a result, the kitchen workers cannot grow food to be self-sufficient after drying salt. Most of the food they eat needs to be purchased from other places with the money gained from drying salt.
This is one of the reasons why Zaoding people live in poverty.
If the idle fields cannot be cultivated, is there any land that can be cultivated?
Yes, but most of them are unusable swamp land. The land contains high salt content. Planting reeds to dry the salt is fine, but growing grain will definitely yield nothing.
This is not the future generation. After generations of efforts, water was diverted to wash the land and the salt in the soil was washed away. There will also be many fertile fields by the sea in the future generations.
But in this era, to put it bluntly, we rely on the sky for food. Even the sky and earth around the city do not have good irrigation and water conservancy projects. Who would bother to build salt land on the seaside.
The reason why Xu He asked Ding Ze to inquire about this was because you can't wait for it to rain for anything. Although Chen Hua would not cheat him, after such a disaster, there were too many places to use food, and Chen Hua also had many situations that he could not control.
If there is no food in three days, will he really pat his butt and say: "I promised you three days anyway, but now that three days have passed, I don't care anymore!"
This is a major event that concerns the people of Huaizhong and must be treated with caution.
Prepare for a rainy day and be prepared so that if something happens, it will impact your hometown. The person who will lose is not others, but the people living on this land!
Taking advantage of the three days of nothing to do, Xu He wanted to go around, especially the several villages of the Xu family.
After saying hello to Lao Zhengtou and Qiu Hushu, Xu He set off with Ding Ze and Wu Decao.
There are three villages of the Xu family about ten miles away from Tuancha. Xu He went to one of them called Caijiazhuang.
As soon as they entered the village, the enthusiastic villagers led the three people to Zhuangtou's home.
Xu He took out Xu Song's autographed letter and handed it to the village head named Cai Song. Cai Song quickly and enthusiastically welcomed everyone into the main room and sat down.
Then I arranged for my wife to make some crude tea.
Xu He looked at the furnishings in his house and smiled: "Is Zhuangtou's family okay with this flood?"
Cai Song did not dare to neglect, and quickly stood up and replied: "It's okay for us. The eldest master sent some more seedlings a few days ago. Just replant them. It won't delay the autumn grain!"
Xu He motioned for him to sit down and talk, and then asked: "Tandangtian exempts the kitchen workers from rent, does it have a big impact on you?"
Cai Song said with a smile: "That's because the master is kind. He took less money, which made me feel relieved a lot!"
Xu He nodded and got to the point: "After the summer harvest, how about the food left by the people nearby? Is it a lot? Is it enough to eat?"
Cai Song said: "The situation this year is actually pretty good. When the flood came, we happened to have already delivered food nearby, so the loss was not too big."
"If I ask you to take out some food and wait a while to return it, can your village take it out?"
As soon as Xu He said these words, Cai Zhuangtou, who was originally relaxed, suddenly became alert: "Mr. He, all the rent we paid to the Xu family this year has been sent to Hailing!"
Xu He smiled and said: "I know, I'm borrowing the remaining food! I'll pay it back when I use it up!"
Cai Song shook his head and said: "Master He, logically speaking, you have a letter from the eldest master, and we should listen to you, but there is something I don't know whether I should say."
Xu He stretched out his hand and motioned for him to continue.
Cai Song raised his eyes and looked at the expression on Xu He's face, and then continued: "Master, other people are eager to give money to our house. What are we doing? We keep throwing money away. A while ago, the beach was flooded with farmland. Many people have complained about the incident, saying that Mr. He is not a good man, even if he throws money into the water, it won’t bubble!”
Xu He sneered in his heart, these complainers were probably the elders of the Xu family.
Cai Song saw that Xu He didn't get angry, so he added: "Since I have the eldest master's letter, I will tell you that this grain is stored in various villages, but it is all stored by the master's family here. Logically speaking, you can use it." , As an outsider, I can’t talk too much, but you have to think carefully, if you lend it out but can’t get it back, or if the clan gets into trouble, even the eldest master won’t be able to suppress it!”
From Cai Song's words, Xu He got two pieces of information.
First of all, not all the food of the Xu family is collected in the ancestral home in Xujia Village. As the largest landowner in Huaizhong, it is indeed impossible to gather all the food together.
In the past, people would go to the countryside to collect part of it and then sell it directly to grain merchants.
But this year is special. The grain that was just harvested was hit by floods and is now being spread out on the drying ground to dry again.
In other words, there is food.
But these grains do not belong to Xu Song's family, but to the entire Xu clan.
When using this food, you must ensure that you can get enough benefits, otherwise you will never be able to persuade those people.
"It's a bit troublesome!"
After Xu He came out of Cai's house, he stood on the roadside and thought for a long time.
Finally, he said to Wu Decao: "Brother Yaochen, please help me go to Hailing. I will write two letters at once, one to County Magistrate Chen and one to my uncle!"
Wu Decao said: "Leave it to me, don't worry!"
Xu He said to Ding Ze again: "I'll stay here while you go back to make tea. If after three days, no food has been delivered from the county, and you ask Uncle Zheng to appease everyone, then tell me I'll find a solution!"
Ding Ze was a calm man and didn't say anything. He just nodded, turned around and left.
