The Chief Secretary of Henan Province, an area hardest hit by the plague, in a certain county.

"I have already said that if the master wants to help those poor families, I will not stop him. This is all a good thing to accumulate evil virtue."

"But Master, with the little foundation our family has, why don't you keep some for yourself? Regardless of how I am, the eldest brother, second brother, and the others are all counting on me for food."

"And there are so many servants in our yard. I can care about the life and death of other people's families, but I can't care about the life and death of my own family."

"Now, His Majesty King Yu has paid attention to those of us who are suffering from the plague and sent us a solution."

"But our family is so poor now that we can't even afford lime."

"The plague outside is so serious. If other people's homes have lime, but we don't, then the plague will come to our home."

"Master! If this plague comes to our house, how will we survive!!!"

The noble lady in linen lay with her head on the table and kept crying.

Seeing this, Song Lichang remained silent and did not speak.

Seeing his wife crying all the time, Song Lichang finally couldn't help it, slammed the teacup on the table, and yelled: "That's enough!"

It suddenly became quiet.

"What do you know, woman? The government has already issued a notice that all limes are free of charge. No matter how rich you are, what can you do? Could it be that he can get more from Lao Wang's house next door?"

After Song Lichang scolded him, he explained.

Hearing this, the woman argued: "Master, how could he tell others how much lime the old Wang's family next door sent to them?"

"At this time, we only need to use more money. How can we not give more to those who work as errands? As long as we give enough money, the magistrate will be able to approve more for us."

Song Lichang's voice was a little angry and said: "As I see it, the county magistrate is not such a person. No matter how much money he has, he will not accept it."

The woman did not dare to argue, so she could only mutter: "I haven't used the money, how can I know the difference between using it and not using it?"

"snort!"

Song Lichang snorted coldly and was too lazy to respond.

Today, when the plague is so serious, there has been no plague in the Song Dynasty until now. This is mainly due to Song Lichang's personal habit: mysophobia.

Song Lichang had a weak mysophobia and could not bear to see mess. Even the pig pen in the back kitchen of the mansion must be cleaned cleanly by his servants.

After the plague appeared, Song Lichang devoted a large amount of money to disaster relief.

When the plague struck, some people who were infected by the plague and couldn't survive went to the houses of wealthy families when they were hungry.

You're going to die, why don't you just be a dead ghost?

In this way, some wealthy families in the city were directly attacked by the plague.

The madness before death is difficult for normal people to understand.

However, due to Song Lichang's good reputation, no matter how miserable the people were, they did not choose Song Mansion.

Hygiene and reputation are the reasons why the Song Dynasty has not had any plague so far.

One of the things is that Song Lichang strictly implemented the notices issued by the government.

It is the content related to preventing the plague compiled by Zhu Ying.

In addition to hygiene, it also explains that the plague can be killed by high temperatures.

People in plague areas are encouraged to cover their mouths and noses and use boiling water to kill the plague.

In Song Mansion, all people who go out must take a hot bath when they come back.

All clothes must be replaced, and the replaced clothes must be boiled in hot water before they can be used again.

In the front yard of the Song Dynasty, a large pot was set up to boil water for this purpose.

Song Lichang left the lobby and returned to the study for some quiet time.

Although what his wife said was unpleasant, Song Lichang also knew that the family's savings were now running low.

The early rice harvest is not ideal either.

This shows that for a long period of time, he could only make ends meet. If the plague lasted too long, he would have to sell some of his property to survive.

Just when Song Lichang was in the study, thinking about what to do next.

Suddenly there was a loud noise outside.

This made Song Lichang, who had been quarreled before, couldn't help but rub his brows and said to the housekeeper outside the door: "Old Zhang, go and see what's going on."

"Okay, sir." The sixty-year-old housekeeper walked quickly to the front yard to check the situation.

"This world, eh, life seems to be getting better, but why did something like this happen? Today, it's really hard."

Song Lichang sighed in his heart.

Song Lichang's father died in the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, but the Song family here has a large enough clan.

With the help of his clan connections, Song Lichang quickly stood up.

Although Song Lichang was engaged in business, he also had the title of scholar, which allowed him to be exempted from part of the tax.

Of course, on the surface, Song Lichang is not a businessman. Although he does make money from business, it is naturally someone else who is behind the scenes.

This is also something that many landlords do. Just find a servant who has signed a contract of sale and take on the title of businessman. The actual operation is of course behind the scenes.

The real big businessmen, or the big grain merchants, are all like this.

Even if he does not have the reputation of being a scholar, he is at least a scholar, that is, he is at the level of a scholar.

During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, people were thirsty for talents.

But there is no such thing as a poor scholar.

If you pass the examination as a scholar, you will not only be exempted from personal corvee, but you will also be given some fertile land, so at least you will not have to worry about food and drink.

But being a scholar is not that easy.

Only those who have passed the Boy's Examination are considered scholars, otherwise they can only be called Tongsheng.

There are three levels in the boy's examination: county examination, government examination, and college examination. The benefits for scholars are not that easy to get.

Gray-haired children are everywhere.

Of course, the meager income of a scholar was not worth mentioning to Song Lichang, who was doing business.

At this moment, hurried footsteps came over and the door was pushed open.

The old housekeeper looked excited and said: "Master, outside outside"

Song Lichang frowned and asked, "What's going on outside?"

"I don't know what to say. Please go and have a look." The old housekeeper said quickly.

Having never read a book, he didn't know how to describe the situation outside.

After hearing this, Song Lichang stood up and strode towards the front yard.

At the gate of the front yard, many servants and maids gathered together, making a lot of noise.

"How unbecoming is it to make a noise!"

Song Lichang saw this and scolded him loudly.

Many servants immediately became quiet when they heard the master's voice.

"What's going on?" Song Lichang asked the nearest servant in a deep voice.

The servant quickly replied: "Sir, there is a lot of lime outside."

"What!"

Song Lichang didn't believe it, so he didn't ask any questions about his mistake and walked directly towards the door.

The door is open, so you can see what's going on outside by going around the screen wall.

Outside the gate, I saw a white-haired old man, wearing linen clothes, standing there quietly.

Beside him were a large number of sacks.

It can be seen from the white powder spilled that it is lime.

When Song Lichang saw the old man, he immediately recognized him as the head of a village near the county seat.

A village in the Ming Dynasty almost has the same surname.

"Chief Zhao, what are you doing? Why did you bring so much lime here?" Song Lichang stepped forward and asked in confusion.

When Patriarch Zhao saw Song Lichang approaching, he quickly took a few steps back and kept a certain distance from Song Lichang.

Patriarch Zhao's face was covered with silk cloth.

I saw him bowing to Song Lichang from a distance, bowing deeply, and then said: "Please stay here, Mr. Song!"

Patriarch Zhao's meaning is very clear. During this special period of plague, we must keep a certain distance.

"I am worthy of being the head of the Zhao family. Since the plague, more than half of the 589 households in the village have withered away. In desperation, we have to turn to the county for help."

"I have nothing to do with the Zhao family. There is no work to do in this city. After eating the dry food, we can only beg on the street."

"Thanks to your generosity, my husband, I, the Zhao family, can survive."

"I, the Zhao family, are deeply grateful. There is nothing the Zhao family can do to repay you for this great kindness."

After saying that, Patriarch Zhao bowed deeply once again, and then kowtowed to the ground.

Seeing this, Song Lichang wanted to go over and help him, but Patriarch Zhao's kneeling legs moved backwards, so Song Lichang had no choice but to give up.

After kowtowing, Patriarch Zhao stood up and continued: "The imperial court will not give up, and His Highness King Yu has been so kind as to give us lime to cure the plague."

"After receiving the lime, I learned from the officials that lime was distributed throughout the city according to household registration."
To be continued...