Chapter 327 Touched
This large table dish is very ordinary, home-cooked food. The color looks good, but the cutting is not exquisite enough. However, Aunt Yuan’s craftsmanship is really good. Although it is not as delicious as the one cooked by Chu Zhai’s cook, it is as delicious as ordinary village women. Than, it is already considered the best among the best.
Moreover, this is the best dish that Xiaozhuangzi can currently make.
Aunt Yuan has tried her best.
You know, although the Yuan family raises a large group of chickens, ducks and geese and can collect more than twenty or thirty eggs every day, the Yuan family is never willing to eat even one.
Only during the New Year and festivals would a bowl of fried eggs and some meat and vegetables appear on the Yuan family's table. Normally, these items would be sold to buy cloth, clothes, or household items for the large family.
Sometimes, when the children are hungry for meat, they will go to the ditch to look for snails, catch small fish and bake them.
The adults were greedy for meat, so they had no choice but to endure it.
At this moment, they saw a large table of meat and vegetables. Not to mention the large group of poor children surrounding the door of the house helplessly, even the adults such as Old Yuan Tou and Yuan Zhuang Tou were salivating with saliva.
But there were Xia Zihan and his group nearby, and they were too embarrassed to stare at the table like the children.
The dishes were divided into two portions, one table for men and one table for women.
At the men's table, there were Lao Yuantou, Yuan Sanshu, and Yuan Zhuangtou as companions.
At the woman's table, Aunt Yuan and a group of peasant women did not dare to sit and eat with Xia Zihan, so they waited on the side.
Xia Zihan didn't think anything was wrong. He took the chopsticks, ate half a bowl of rice, and then put down the chopsticks.
Nuanyu quickly served her a bowl of old duck soup and asked her to drink it slowly.
After eating, Xia Zihan and his group walked around the village again.
After understanding almost everything about Zhuangzi, inside and out, a group of people sat down to discuss whether the Yuan family should stay or leave.
Xia Zihan said to Old Yuan Tou, "You are an old resident of this village. I don't want to drive you away, but you also know that this small village cannot support a big family like you."
When Old Yuan Tou heard this, his face turned pale, "That's what the county chief said."
No boss in the world would be willing to support a large group of people like the Yuan family for free.
But he couldn't see this big family being homeless.
Finally, Old Yuan Tou put down his old face and begged, "The County Lord has a bodhisattva heart, please keep our Yuan family, and we will definitely work hard to repay the kindness of the County Lord."
As he said that, Lao Yuantou was about to kneel down.
Xia Zihan glanced at Tianzhuangtou, who rushed over to help him in time to prevent him from kneeling down.
The head of Tianzhuang said, "Old Yuan, what are you in a hurry? The county master hasn't finished speaking yet."
Xia Zihan smiled and said, "In recent years, Zhuangzi has been under the name of the imperial court. You, the Yuan family, have been responsible for growing grain. You only need to hand over a fixed amount of grain to the imperial court every year. The imperial court has nothing to do with Zhuangzi's affairs. Now, , this Zhuangzi was rewarded to me by the emperor, I can also follow the imperial court's instructions Do the same, no matter how much grain your Yuan family grows or how many chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs you raise, as long as you give me a fixed amount of grain every year, you can keep the excess, but if there is less, you have to supplement it, and, I can ignore everything about Zhuangzi.”
Hearing this, Old Yuan was so moved that his face turned red. At this moment, he actually knelt down, without even stopping him from the village head, "Thank you, Lord County, for giving my Yuan family a way to survive."
The rest of the Yuan family also knelt down in emotion. Even the elderly Uncle Yuan Sanshu was trembling and about to kneel down, but was stopped by He Donglin.
"Everyone, get up quickly." Xia Zihan said quickly.
Tianzhuangtou helped Lao Yuantou up.
Xia Zihan frowned again and said, "However, I see that life for you, a big family, has been difficult before."
There is not much left of the five hundred acres of land except for the grain that was handed over. However, the Yuan family's hundreds of people do not need to eat or wear clothes every day, and the income from chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs cannot make up much.
Therefore, as the Yuan family's population has increased in recent years, the Yuan family's life has gradually become difficult.
As far as Xia Zihan saw, the clothes worn by the children of the Yuan family were all patched, and some shoes were covered with patches. Old Yuan Tou also had a big patch on his clothes, but they were patched with the same color cloth. Yes, the stitching is so fine that you can’t really see it unless you look carefully.
But Xia Zihan sells clothes, so she saw the patch at a glance.
Judging from the cleanness of his clothes, it seems that they were changed when she first arrived, which shows that this clothes may be Lao Yuantou's best one.
The head of the family didn't even have any good clothes that he could wear when going out. This shows how difficult the life of the Yuan family has become.
Xia Zihan saw that the Yuan family were really honest and honest, so he decided to give them a chance.
It’s rare to be a good person once.
She smiled and said, "It just so happens that I have a village with no one on it. It's not far from here. It's an hour away. The village is covered with paddy fields, totaling 680 acres. This year's crops have been planted. You Yuan If you want, just go with this Just like Zhuangzi, everything will be taken care of by your Yuan family. I won’t care about anything. In the second half of the year, you can just give me food.” In this way, although she suffered some losses, she was happy to save trouble and it was considered to be saving the Yuan family. There are hundreds of people in this family.
Old Yuan Tou almost jumped up with excitement, "Yes, of course I do." Then he exhaled a deep breath and cried with joy, "This time, our Yuan family is saved."
Uncle Yuan was also moved to tears.
Yuan Zhuangtou said with wet eyes, "County Lord Chuyu, you are a great benefactor to our Yuan family. I, Yuan Huowang, am deeply grateful for your great kindness. From now on, I will definitely go through fire and water if the county Lord is useful to me. ”
At that moment, Xia Zihan ordered the head of the farm to lead more than a dozen Yuan family members to another village to check.
As for how the Yuan family arranged it, Xia Zihan didn't care. Anyway, she planned to let the Yuan family plant the two villages. As for how to plant and how to arrange it, it was all the Yuan family's personnel affairs.
She and Nuanyu He Donglin returned to the city. When they left, Aunt Yuan led a group of wives and caught a dozen chickens, ducks and geese, and also carried two large baskets of eggs, insisting that Xia Zihan take them back to eat.
Aunt Yuan also said, "I originally wanted the county boss to take a pig back to eat, but the old man said that no live pigs are allowed in the homes of wealthy families, so I thought about letting the children kill the pigs tomorrow. I’ll give you some pork to eat.”
After learning that Xia Zihan not only left all the Yuan family members behind, but also planned to plant another, larger Zhuangzi for the Yuan family, Aunt Yuan was very happy and her tone of voice became a little brisk.
Unable to brush off Aunt Yuan's kindness, Xia Zihan ordered He Donglin to collect the chickens, ducks and geese, hang them with ropes on both sides of the horse's back and carry them back.
However, knowing how difficult the life of the Yuan family was, Xia Zihan would not take these things in vain.
Before leaving, she asked Nuanyu to wrap a big red envelope of twenty taels of silver for Aunt Yuan.
Twenty taels of silver, the Yuan family had saved all their lives, but they had never saved so much money.
After they left, Aunt Yuan opened the red envelope and saw two banknotes inside. She was so moved that tears filled her eyes. She knelt down and kowtowed three times in the direction Xia Zihan left.
Aunt Yuan didn't know the banknotes, but she also knew that the minimum amount of the banknotes was five taels of silver. Even the minimum amount of these two bills was ten taels of silver.
Ten taels of silver. Aunt Yuan has lived for decades and has never seen so much silver.
When Yuan Zhuangtou came back and saw the banknote and told her it was twenty taels of silver, Aunt Yuan was moved again.
That's not even a big deal.
After returning home, Xia Zihan thought of the clothes on the children of the Yuan family, frowned, and told Mrs. Zeng.
Mrs. Zeng sighed and said, "There are too many poor people in this world, and we can't help them. But since we have met them, it is fate. We can help if we can."
Then he told Hongmei, "Go to the warehouse to see if there is suitable fabric. Find ten pieces and ask He Donglin to send someone to the Yuan family."
"Old Madam." Mother Su said, "Old slave, I remember that a few months ago, Manager Lu bought a piece of fabric for making clothes for the servants, and there were more than ten pieces of cloth that were not used up. He put them in the warehouse in the front yard, which was just right. Send it to the Yuan family ”
Every piece of fabric in the old lady's warehouse is of the highest quality. It would be such a waste to send it to a group of naughty peasant children to wear.
Even the clothes worn by the servants of the Chu family are mostly made of silk, costing more than ten taels of silver per piece of cloth. Only the clothes worn by the servants of the coarse envoy are made of fine cotton, but they are still much better than the clothes worn by farmers.
"Then go find Manager Lu and get the key." Zeng said.
Hongmei and Qingya went to the front yard.
Xia Zihan thought of the Yuan family's children staring at the sugar-watered eggs with salivating eyes, so she ordered the cook to make fifty kilograms of pastries before tomorrow morning and planned to send them to the Yuan family together with the cloth.
After thinking about it, Nuanyu asked Nuanyu to prepare a basket of peaches.
Thinking that Yuan's family had a large family and a box of fruits would not be able to eat any of them, she added another box.
The next day, He Donglin sent two guards, drove a carriage, loaded a carriage full of things, and sent it to the Yuan family.
When the children of the Yuan family ate cakes for the first time, they were as excited as calves and jumped around in the village.
As for Aunt Yuan and Old Yuan Tou, it was also the first time to eat cakes made by a rich family, and the first time to see such good fabrics. The whole family was so moved that they told the old lady of the Chu family and Xia Zihan He is a living Bodhisattva.
Even Yuan Zhuangtou was so moved that his eyes turned red, and he swore in his heart that he would repay her for such a good employer.
Yuan Zhuangtou and Tianzhuangtou were in Dazhuangzi yesterday afternoon. At that time, they signed a document in which the Yuan family contracted two villages. Then Tianzhuangtou took back the families he had brought out.
The Yuan family divided a group of people and went to another village.
Old Yuan Tou's grandfather had three sons in total. Old Yuan Tou's father's family was considered the eldest, with more than forty people, so they stayed in this small village.
(End of chapter)