Last year, Niu Mantun's life was quite comfortable. The address he was assigned to was not far from Gan Deleng's family. It took him a long time to get there by riding a horse. And because it had the great ability to pedal first, it was assigned to him.

The fields are also mature and there is no need for him to open up wasteland. With the hard work of Niu Mantun and the two Aha, the fields have been planted with wheat. But unfortunately, due to the severe drought this year, the harvest is not good.

.The food at home is not only sufficient for your Niumantun family, but the remaining food, with some bran and wild vegetables, can barely feed the two Ah Ha until the beginning of spring. However, the spring famine may be a bit sad.

However, during the autumn harvest this year, Niu Mantun, who was born as a farmer, felt keenly that things seemed to have changed. Because he found that the price of grain kept rising. And even after the autumn harvest, the price of grain did not fall, but kept rising.

The market price was rising. Niu Mantun often heard his father say that he would not panic if he had grain in his hands. So faced with this situation, Niu Mantun finally made up his mind to spend all his money to buy grain.

Niu Mantun got inspiration from the history of his father's fortune. He has always done what his father did, and he was determined to get some benefits when he could. So every time he restrained the corpse, he

He was the most proactive, so he got a lot of scattered silver and copper coins from the corpses, and finally he quietly changed them into silver ingots to carry around with him.

When Niu Mantun had 18 and a half taels of wheat per stone, he spent all his silver. However, he did not buy wheat. All he bought was miscellaneous grains. This was cheaper, as one stone cost 15 and a half taels of silver. After buying the grain,

His Jurchen woman even scolded him. As a result, within a few days, his Jurchen woman began to praise Niu Mantun for being able to live well because the price of food has been rising. Just before the Spring Festival, the price of food has been

It climbed to 25 taels and one stone.

In this way, Niu Mantun quietly became the largest wealthy household in the entire village. With all this food, Niu Mantun did not even dare to leave his home. He had to dig a cellar quietly with Liang Aha at night and store the big house in the house.

He was relieved after part of the grain was stored.

Not long after the Spring Festival, everyone had nothing to do. So Niu Mantun got up early to set a few traps to see if he could trap some prey. But he didn't expect that he was sent by Gan Deleng as soon as he went out.

Blocked. Aha kowtowed to Niu Mantun respectfully. After getting permission, he got up and said: "My master said there is something urgent and asked you to go there quickly. He said the sooner the better."

Niu Mantun didn’t know what Gan Deleng was looking for. But Niu Mantun still had to take this cheap uncle seriously, because he was a real Jurchen and his status was above him. So Niu Mantun and his mother-in-law

He said hello and rode off.

Entering Gan Deleng's yard, Aha helped him take away the horses. When he entered the house and saw Gan Deleng, he immediately asked: "How much food do you have at home?"

Niu Mantun was stunned by Gan Deleng's question, but how could such a fatal question be easily answered! Niu Mantun asked with peasant cunning: "Brother, your family is short of food?"

Gan Deleng said angrily: "Which family is not short of food these days? Let me ask you, how much food does your family have? Tell me the truth!"

Seeing that he couldn't avoid this question, Niu Mantun hid half of it and said, "It's about less than two and a half stones."

Gan Deleng asked: "Are you sure? Is it real food?"

Niu Mantun nodded and said, "Yes, they are all grains."

Gan Deleng let out a long breath and said, "Not bad! Not bad! You are lucky!"

Niu Mantun asked Gan Deleng what had happened. Gan Deleng heard that Niu Mantun had food at home, so he lowered his guard. He whispered: "Don't tell others!" Old Khan said several times.

Order, all homes outside the Eight Banners must be searched, and if the family cannot collect five buckets of food, all of them must be killed!"

Niu Mantun was shocked when he heard this! In this month, five dou of grain is not a small amount! At least Niu Mantun knew that in the village where he lived, at least half of the families could not get together five dou of grain. If calculated this way,

Wouldn’t it mean that half the village would be killed?

Niu Mantun asked hurriedly: "Why did the Great Khan give such an order?"

Gan Deleng sneered and said: "You still don't understand? It's all the old Khan who is wise! There has been a severe drought in the past few years, and nothing can grow in the ground. In addition, there are wars every year, and everyone has no intention of farming.

, this harvest is even worse! Moreover, after winning the war, we also gained so many Aha and Nikan (meaning Han people), and the food is not enough to eat. There are so many Nikans now, if they don’t have enough food

What should we do if we eat the rebels? It’s better to kill them first while they are honest, and we can still get some food to subsidize the poor families in the banner!”

After hearing this, Niu Mantun felt as cold as falling into an ice cave! As for what Gan Deleng said behind him, he couldn't hear anything, but he vaguely knew that he was talking. He was completely frightened by Nurhachi's ferocity!

At the same time, he also felt extremely lucky! If Gan Deleng hadn't trained him and he risked his life to fight, maybe he would be among the people who died this time.

Niu Mantun hurriedly said goodbye to Gan Deleng and hurried back home. After carefully counting the food at home, he breathed a sigh of relief. But when he thought of other Han people in the village, he didn't know what to do. In this village

Basically they are all Han Chinese, and

There are a few Jurchens. He doesn't know the situation of those people in the Han Army Banner, but he knows that most ordinary Han people will definitely not have five measures of food in their homes. In other words, most of the Han people in the village will be killed. And those who know this news

Niu Mantun did not dare to say it, because after all, this was an order given by Nurhachi.

Niu Mantun sat in the cellar thinking about countermeasures. He didn't dare to leak the news. Otherwise, he might lose his life and implicate Gan Deleng. The military law of the Jin Army was no joke! But you can't ignore death.

Ah! This makes Niu Mantun very embarrassed!

After thinking for a long time, Niu Mantun finally made up his mind. He decided to move a batch of grain to his home first, so as not to be killed during the inspection if he was not able to carry it in time. That would be unjust! And there are two Aha at home,

Their rations must also be counted on their own account and must be prepared in advance.

The remaining grain will continue to be hidden in the cellar to avoid being discovered. Then Niu Mantun is thinking about how many families he can help. His neighbors on the left and right are all members of the Han Army Banner, and they are all from Niu Lu. They have just arrived.

They helped a lot during the battle. And Niu Mantun knew that he would definitely go into battle again in the future. He hoped to have a few trustworthy people to look after each other. Having one more reliable partner on the battlefield would save an extra life.

Ah! So these two families must go. But the remaining food is only enough to help one family, and Niu Mantun doesn’t know who to help.

As he thought about it, Niu Mantun thought of the father and son family next to his house. There were only two father and son in his family. The father was a scholar, and the son was also a scholar. He was originally a gentleman from Mengxue. When the city of Shenyang was destroyed, he was captured by the Hou Jin Dynasty. The army captured them and found that both of them were scholars and could not farm or work. So no one wanted them to be Aha, so they were left here to fend for themselves. Their land was still full of cattle. A few neighbors helped them grow it.

So Niu Man Tun decided to help them with the last grain. But that was okay. They happened to be Niu Man Tun's three neighbors and they were familiar with each other on weekdays. Even if he helped them, the news would not leak out.

Niu Mantun made up his mind and decided to go to Zhang Liang's house on the left first. Zhang Liang's family has a relatively large population, with five people, and the food rations are definitely not enough. When he left the house, Niu Mantun did not leave the door, and saw no one around. He jumped over the wall and jumped to Zhang Liang's house. He walked to the door and knocked on the door and shouted in a low voice: "Old Zhang! Zhang Liang, are you at home?"

I heard someone say from inside the room: "Is it Brother Niu? Just open the door and come in. Move quickly, don't let the cold air come in."

Niu Mantun said: "I won't go in, you come out, I have something important to see you!"
Chapter completed!