Chapter 47: Doing Good Deeds Almost Starved to Death
Lu Yao took them to his temporary office.
The office is a bit small, and there are not many seats inside. Only Lu Yao and Tang Xi are sitting there, and the others are standing respectfully. There are just a few, and the air is not flowing. Lu Yao smells several strong smells. I am afraid that these people
It's been a long time since I took a shower.
It’s important to talk about business first, this kind of thing can be tolerated and endured.
Lu Yao held his breath and said, "I see that all of you have sound limbs and strong bodies. How did you end up like this?"
Tangxi had a sad face and sighed, "It's too hard to look back on the past, so it's okay not to mention it."
"Let's talk about it. I need to know about your past. Otherwise, how can I safely take you in?"
Tangxi sighed and said eloquently, "Fifteen of us brothers originally opened a escort agency in Linqing. We all have some skills. Although we have not earned much in the past few years, we must have a surplus every year, which can be considered as food and clothing.
At the beginning of last year, the Linqing County Magistrate took a fancy to the business of our escort agency and wanted to forcibly buy it for 20 guan. You must know that several of our carriages cost more than 20 guan, let alone the big shop we bought.
This dog official is really bullying people too much."
"Twenty guan is too few, but what happened next?" Lu Yao asked.
Tang Xi continued: "Our brothers must not agree to sell the escort agency, but the dog officer relied on his own power to support another escort agency, and no one was allowed to come to our agency to transport escorts. There was no business for two months in a row.
, our brothers sneaked into the magistrate's house at night, beat up the dog official, and escaped from Linqing County overnight."
"Later we planned to turn into bandits, but we didn't know that it rained heavily in those days, and then the Yellow River burst its banks. We had no way to escape but to follow the group of victims towards Bianliang."
Lu Yao said doubtfully: "You should have taken all your money with you when you fled Linqing County. No matter how you do this, you will never be without food."
Tang Xi nodded and said: "I brought all the money, and a lot of it was more than fifty dollars. But our brothers were soft-hearted and looked at the pity for the victims, so we used our own pockets to buy food for the victims. We are used to spending a lot of money, so I didn't remember it.
When we counted and realized something was wrong, we only had two strings of money left with us. With these two strings of money, we brothers managed to reach Bianliang City while eating cooking cakes."
Lu Yao asked: "Now that we have come to Bianliang City, we are determined not to starve to death! There are people giving porridge outside the city gate every day. Although it is not much, you can survive a day. Judging from your appearance before, it should be these of yours
Only when brothers are in danger will they do things like grab food."
Tang Xi pounded the table unwillingly, his eyes turned red, and big tears began to fall down, "Where is there enough food? We are all martial arts practitioners, and our appetite is much larger than ordinary people. A bowl of gruel is less than half
I was hungry at this time, and soon some brothers fainted due to lack of physical strength, and they didn't even have the energy to get up. Those government officials who give out porridge at the city gate will only give you porridge when they see you. My brothers can't come.
Naturally, they don’t have a share of the porridge.”
"It was okay at first. We brothers shared the porridge and survived for a month. Later, more and more brothers fell down, and the porridge became less and less edible. Until yesterday, I was the only one left who could move.
, what can I do if I go to the city gate to get a bowl of porridge, no one can even take a sip, so I have no choice but to find that porridge is also being given here, and it is thick porridge, so I have the idea of robbing it. I know if
If I couldn't find food yesterday, my brothers would all starve to death."
How miserable! It can be said that the human world is extremely miserable. A dozen big men starved to death. How can this be justified?
Lu Yao felt that it was not easy for these people. Apart from the victims who starved to death, no one was worse off than them.
He patted Tang Xi on the shoulder and comforted him: "You won't suffer like this anymore in the future. If you follow me, you can't guarantee that you will still have enough meat to eat and you won't starve to death."
Tang Xi immediately knelt on the ground, and his brothers also knelt down at the same time, kowtowing to Lu Yao, "My benefactor, from now on our brothers will go up the mountain of swords and the sea of fire for you. Even if we lose our heads, we will not frown.
"
Kneel down anyway! The Northern Song Dynasty didn't like this. He finally felt what Zhao Zhen felt when he knelt down in Daqing Hall, and he felt a little panicked.
He quickly helped Tang Xi up, "I'm just recruiting you as guards. I'm not asking you to die. It doesn't have to be like this. Besides, if you contribute your efforts, I will give you money. This is a matter of course. There is no need to worry too much about it. I know.
You are all good people. I am happy from the bottom of my heart that good people like you have taken refuge in me, Lu Yao."
Tangxi wiped away her tears and said, "Thank you so much for understanding how hard it is for me to wait."
"You don't have to shout about being benevolent and benevolent. Just call me Lu Erlang or Lu Xianzi like him. And don't hate the court. People have good and bad people, and officials are no exception. Generally speaking, a good official is still
A little more, for example, I am an official, but I am very good." Lu Yao smiled and boasted.
Lu Yao sympathizes with these poor people from the bottom of his heart, but his ability is limited and he can only take care of the things in front of him. When he is able to benefit all people, he will definitely do it.
And he has been doing this. After potatoes are cultivated, he will slowly promote them. By then, no one will die due to food problems in the entire Song Dynasty.
"We can save it." Tangxi lowered his head and said.
Lu Yao smiled and said: "Don't cry. Men don't shed tears lightly. A grown man looks like crying all day long. Tangxi, please take your brothers to the river to wash themselves. I'll call someone to help you."
Prepare a new set of clothes. After washing, go to the cafeteria for a full meal. After eating, come back to me here and I will take you to a place."
In less than half a quarter of an hour, Tang Xi and his brothers stood in front of Lu Yao, neatly dressed.
Lu Yao wondered if these things had rolled ashore in the river, and whether they had swallowed the food without chewing it. Otherwise, how could it have happened so quickly?
Anyway, as long as they don't smell anymore, the smell just now was too strong, and now he feels a little dizzy.
Lu Yao led them toward Bianliang City in a mighty manner.
Outside the gate of the city guard, looking at these somewhat familiar faces, they did not allow the victims to enter the city. When they saw that Lu Yao was taking the lead, they did not stop them. These civil servants and generals could not afford to offend them.
Not long after, Lu Yao and the others arrived at National Welfare Lottery. It was almost noon, but there were still many people outside the store, almost blocking the road.
The National Welfare Lottery has been open for a few days, and every day someone wins the first prize, and there are also many second prizes. Many people have made a fortune because of the National Welfare Lottery, and many people have started businesses with the bonuses.
When these people and merchants saw it, this was incredible!
Everyone has a desire to get rich. When you see someone really getting rich because of the National Welfare Lottery, why don’t you make people jealous? You don’t need Lu Yao to advertise it. These people are competing among themselves to buy it. At worst, they will eat less sesame seed cakes a day.
Not much money.
There are also some wealthy children who are also buying. They are not short of money. They enjoy the feeling of being rich and powerful. It is really great. Usually when they win the prize, they will give part of the money to the people who buy lottery tickets on the spot.
, so the lottery becomes more popular.
When people in Bianliang City met, they changed from 'Did you eat?' to 'Did you buy it?'. At this time, they would proudly take out a lottery ticket from their arms and talk about how many their numbers were.
Okay, based on my observations over the past few days, this set of numbers will definitely win the prize today.
The other person was dissatisfied and immediately took out his lottery ticket and told that person that my set of numbers was calculated by combining the Book of Changes, and he would definitely win.
The two were dissatisfied with each other and broke up unhappy.
The next day, they got together to discuss it again.
Such things happen frequently in Bianliang City.
Lu Yao looked at such a huge queue in the store and it was already impossible to enter through the main entrance.
He led Tangxi and his gang around a shop that a neighbor entered through the back door.
After hearing the waiter say that Lu Yao was coming, Lu Geng hurried over.
He admired this cousin even more. It was so difficult for them to make money in the past. This cousin casually took out a novelty, and there were people rushing to send money to the store.
When he saw those people receiving the awards, even he couldn't help but want to buy one.
He was frightened every day when he saw the account books. Every day there were several thousand guan in gift money. Yesterday, it broke the 10,000 guan mark. He was so frightened that he couldn't sleep well all night. So much money was stored in the cellar.
I'm really afraid of people stealing it.
Moreover, Lu Yao seemed to have forgotten about the National Welfare Lottery in the past few days. After explaining some matters to him, he never came again.
Lu Geng kept wiping the sweat from his head. There were really too many people in front of the store. As the shopkeeper, he was helping people print lottery tickets without stopping for a moment.
Lu Geng gasped and said, "Thirteenth brother, you are finally here. If you hadn't come, you would have attended my brother's funeral."
"Funeral? Could it be that someone is making trouble in the store?" Lu Yao's face was a little unhappy. This business was jointly opened by him and Zhao Zhen. Whoever dares to make trouble, I don't care who you are, get beaten first. My backer is the emperor.
Who are you afraid of?
Lu Geng shook his head and said, "It's not that it's causing trouble, it's that there are too many people buying lottery tickets. Brother Wei can't even get a bite of food. If this continues, he will die from exhaustion."
I see.
Lu Yao smiled and said, "I've made you the shopkeeper. Just handle the little things in this store by yourself. Just hire people if there's no one available! It's not like you can't afford the wages. You don't have to ask me about such little things in the future."
"
Lu Geng looked at the people behind Lu Yao and said, "Thirteenth brother, the guys behind you are not the guys you recruited. They are all strong and fierce, and they may scare the guests."
"It's not what you think, cousin. These are the guards I hired specifically to protect my money. They are not all given to you. I only left a few of them, and I have to keep the rest for use. There will be others in the future.
If he makes trouble, ask them to beat him out."
After knowing that they were guards, Lu Geng nodded with satisfaction. They indeed looked good enough for guards. He could sleep well today.