Daxi 'er had no choice but to return the treasures that she had painstakingly robbed to Ang Lee. Otherwise, their entire village would be finished.
"It's all here. Young Master, please check it."
Daxi 'er said.
Ang Lee glanced at it and nodded. "There's no need to check. It's more or less enough! What's wrong? You can't bear to part with it? "
"I wouldn't dare. This belongs to Young Master. I took something that I shouldn't have."
Daxi 'er answered nervously. It was the first time that she had met someone like Ang Lee. She was a little uncertain and didn't know what Ang Lee was going to do.
"Aren't you going to invite me to your house?"
Ang Lee said.
Daxi 'er didn't understand what he meant, but she still smiled. "Young Master, aren't you afraid that I'll poison you again?"
"What's there to be afraid of? My subordinates are all outside. I know you won't do it. You don't look like an evil person. You wouldn't care about the lives of the villagers, would you?"
Ang Lee said with a smile.
The villagers in this village should be Daxi 'er's weakness. With these villagers as hostages, she wouldn't dare to do anything. Moreover, Ang Lee wasn't a fool. It would be fine if he didn't eat or drink. Even if all the strong men in the village came, they might not be able to trap Ang Lee.
Daxi 'er saw that Ang Lee didn't seem to have any ill intentions. She invited him, "Young Master, please. My house is just ahead."
Ang Lee nodded and followed Daxi 'er to a house.
This house was not far from the entrance of the village. There were more than ten houses in total. There were seven or eight children playing in the yard. There were no adults.
"The environment here is quite good. It's a good place to cultivate one's mind!"
Ang Lee said.
Daxi 'er's face was full of disdain. Cultivating one's mind? Anyway, she couldn't feel it. After all, the village was very poor. In a poor village, it was difficult to even eat, let alone cultivate one's mind. If one had to worry about food every day, no matter how beautiful the scenery was, they wouldn't be able to experience it.
"Young Master, this is my house. There are only a few children here."
Daxi 'er said.
"Only a few children. Where are the elders?"
Ang Lee asked.
"Starving to death, all of them are starving to death."
Daxi 'er's face was filled with sorrow.
"How many have you given birth to? There are so many children, surely not all of them are yours!"
Ang Lee asked.
Daxi 'er glared at Ang Lee and said, "No, I've never given birth. These are all orphans in the village. Their parents starved to death, so I adopted them."
Ang Lee nodded and said, "So it seems that you opened a black shop outside to feed these children!"
"Yes."
Daxi 'er did not deny it.
Ang Lee sighed. "It's been hard on you. Haven't you ever thought of doing something decent? Earn money with your own ability to support your family. "
"A proper business?"
Daxi 'er's face was filled with melancholy. No one was born to like opening a black shop. Everyone liked to make a decent living. However, in this poor Dazhou, there was no opportunity to make a decent living. In other words, there was no way to make money. Everyone farmed and hunted, and there were no workshops. There were many merchants coming and going, but if they were injured and had nothing, what could they use to exchange with the merchants? As such, the most convenient way was to directly rob them.
Ang Lee naturally understood Daxi 'er's difficulties. However, as long as they thought of a way, they would eventually find a way to survive. If they couldn't find a way to survive locally, they could always migrate! They could find a way to survive elsewhere. In fact, the entire tribe could even leave their hometowns and live elsewhere.
However, this method was very popular in later generations, but it was a little difficult in ancient times. In the backward ancient times, people were very attached to their hometowns. As long as there was no special reason, they were generally unwilling to leave their hometowns. People were very attached to their hometowns. Moreover, the law seemed to deliberately prevent people from moving around, which further made people unwilling to leave their hometowns. When their hometowns were in trouble, they were unwilling to leave. There were also some people who had doubts about the outside world. They did not believe that they could live well outside. What if they died of exhaustion halfway through?
For young and strong people, it did not matter. However, for the old and frail, leaving their hometowns might mean that their chances of survival were very low. There was a high chance that they would lose their lives halfway through the journey. The transportation conditions in ancient times were too poor. People who were not in good health would fall sick easily. If they fell sick and did not have the money to buy medicine, they had to continue on their journey, and there was no suitable place to rest. Wouldn't that mean that they would lose their lives?
Therefore, as long as there was a glimmer of hope, the elderly were unwilling to leave their hometowns. Even if they starved to death in their hometowns, they would accept it.
There were not many young people in this village. There were more old people and quite a number of children. It was obvious that the young and strong must have left, leaving only the old and frail behind. Perhaps the young people who left would return to their hometowns after earning some money, but the possibility of this was not high. Earning money was not that easy.
After a portion of the young people left, the people who stayed behind were under even more pressure. The food available in the mountains was very limited. Everyone could not eat their fill and could only live a half-starved life. Some of the old people had to endure not eating in order to save food for the young people. They would rather starve themselves to death so that their descendants could survive.
It was precisely because she could not bear to let the villagers starve that Daxi 'er went to the roadside to open a black shop. She robbed passing merchants of their treasures in order to improve the villagers' lives. Not long after she opened her shop, she was caught red-handed by Ang Lee.
"You are from the Da tribe."
Ang Lee asked.
Daxi 'er said, "Yes, we are from the Da tribe. However, not everyone has the surname Da."
Ang Lee continued asking, "The Da tribe is different from the other tribes! Why do you live so far apart? There are only about a hundred people in each village. "
Daxi 'er replied, "It's not that we want to live separately. Dazhou has the most land, so the people naturally have to live more widely. Moreover, if we all live together, what do we eat? There is not enough food, so we naturally have to live separately. Each village looks for food near the village, and we can barely fill our stomachs."
"Look for food near the village? What do you look for?"
Ang Lee asked.
Daxi 'er said, "Just prey! There are also wild fruits, wild mushrooms, wild grass, and so on. As long as it's edible, we can eat it. "
"What about food? Don't the people in your village know how to grow food? "
Ang Lee asked.
Daxi 'er said helplessly, "Not all places can grow food. The food we grew was all washed away by the mountain torrents, so there was no harvest. Otherwise, we wouldn't be starving."
"It was all washed away by the mountain torrents. It seems like there was a natural disaster. The situation in Dongnu Province should be similar. Many people must have starved to death!"
Ang Lee said.
Daxi 'er nodded and said, "You are right, Young Master. The situation there is worse than here. More people have starved to death. Therefore, the people who left here went to Central Sichuan. No one went to Dongnu Province. Due to the shortage of food, the price of food in the main city has increased by twenty times."
"The main city? Is that the main city of Dazhou? How many people are there? "
Ang Lee asked.
Daxi 'er said, "I dare not lie to you, Young Master. A few years ago, there were at least a thousand people in Dazhou City. But now, there are only four or five hundred people in Dazhou City. More than half of the original population is gone. Moreover, many of them are merchants and guards passing by. I'm afraid there are less than three hundred locals in Dazhou City."
A city with a population of less than three hundred could not be considered a city. It could only be considered a large village. It was obvious that this place had fallen.
"These merchants are quite bold!"
Ang Lee exclaimed.
Risk and opportunity coexisted. These merchants dared to come here because they knew there was a shortage of food. Therefore, they bought food from Central Sichuan, where there was no shortage of food, at a low price. Then, they transported it all the way to the west. The further they transported it to the destination, the higher the price of the food, and the more they could earn.
Of course, there were risks in doing so. Not all citizens had the money to buy food at a high price. Some citizens who really did not have the money to buy food at a high price but were starving might rob them along the way. Then, these greedy merchants would be left with nothing.
However, these merchants were not stupid. They chose to work together to transport the goods and support a team of bodyguards. In addition, the burly man in charge of the transport could also fight. Thus, there were not many people who had the ability to rob. In order to prevent being cheated, they did not even go to the inn on the way. All the food they ate was prepared by themselves in order to avoid meeting with people who opened unscrupulous shops to make money.
As these merchants worked together to transport food, the chances of being robbed were greatly reduced. As long as there were people buying food along the way, they would sell some to them. They could earn quite a bit of money by selling along the way. The majority of the food would definitely be transported to Dongnu Province to be sold. After all, the disaster there was the most severe. The people lacked food the most, and it was also the best place to earn money. They did not even need to open their own shops to sell the food. As long as the food reached the border of Dongnu Province, the royal family of Dongnu Province would buy all the food at a high price and sell it to the people in the province. This was to prevent the food from falling into the hands of the nobles and be sold at a sky-high price. Of course, it was also to save more people and let all the people have food. Even if they were only half full, it was better than starving to death.
The reason why the royal family of Dongnu Province was willing to buy the food from the merchants at a high price was naturally because if they did not offer a high price, the merchants would not be willing to go to Central Sichuan to buy food and transport it. Without enough economic benefits, who would be willing to go all the way to Central Sichuan to transport food? It was very difficult and full of risks. Without several times the benefits, the merchants would not take the risk. Even five times or ten times the benefits would be able to move their hearts.
Whenever these adventurous merchants passed by Jiyang Province, they would be warmly welcomed by the clan heads of Jiyang Province. These clan heads treated these merchants like flattering lords. Of course, they wanted to purchase goods from these merchants at a lower price.
Not all of the Jiyang Province along the way were lacking in food. Those who lacked food mainly bought food, while those who did not lack food would naturally buy some goods that they needed. Some even sold their local specialties to these merchants. In short, there was nothing wrong with building a good relationship with these merchants.
Ang Lee never expected that the price of food in Dazhou would have increased by more than 20 times. If that was the case, when the food arrived in Dongnu Province, the price would have increased even more. It would have increased by 30 times, 50 times, or even more.
"I really didn't expect this! The price of food is actually so high. It's no wonder that the common people have learned to rob. Sigh! "
Ang Lee sighed.
Daxi 'er saw that Ang Lee seemed to sympathize with them, so she asked, "May I ask what rank the young master is?"
Ang Lee smiled and said, "I'm considered a high-ranking official! Why are you asking this? "
Daxi 'er knelt down and said, "Young master, the Da Tribe has suffered greatly from the disaster. If the imperial court can transfer food for disaster relief, we can get through this difficult time."
Ang Lee waved his hand and said, "My wife, you're thinking too much. Although Dazhou is a part of the Tang Dynasty, it's a pity that it's Jiyang Province. It's also quite far from the Tang Dynasty. The imperial court can only transfer a limited amount of food. Didn't they give it to you long ago? Unless Dazhou becomes a province of the Tang Dynasty and accepts the governance of the Tang Dynasty officials, it's impossible to provide large-scale disaster relief."
Ang Lee couldn't help with the disaster relief in Jiyang Province. He could only do what he could. Only the emperor could decide on the imperial court's policies. Ang Lee couldn't make the decision. Moreover, these tribesmen wanted to be local emperors and receive a large amount of disaster relief from the imperial court. How could this be possible? It was simply wishful thinking.
If they wanted to receive a large amount of care from the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty, they had to completely submit to the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty and become an ordinary province of the Tang Dynasty. If they wanted to continue to be local emperors, the imperial court wouldn't give them too much care. This was a matter of principle and couldn't be compromised.
"The chief of our Da Tribe is a very stubborn person. I'm afraid it's impossible for him to give up his power. It seems that we can only count on ourselves."
Daxi 'er said with some displeasure.
It was obvious that Daxi 'er knew her chief very well. Although she had only seen him a few times, the village she lived in was very far from the main city. It would take two days to walk there. She usually wouldn't go to the main city if there wasn't something important.
"You seem to be quite pitiful. Then I'll leave you two carriages of food! Although it's not much, it can solve the urgent problem at hand. "
Ang Lee said.
"Thank you, Young Master."
Daxi 'er suddenly knelt down in front of Ang Lee.
Ang Lee gently helped Daxi 'er up and said gently, "You don't have to do this, Daxi' er. It's just two carriages of food. It's not worth mentioning. If you perform well, I'll leave some of these gold pancakes for you to buy food."
"Really? Thank you, Young Master. "
Daxi 'er said excitedly. After a pause, she asked, "Young Master, what does' perform well 'mean? What does' perform well 'mean?"
Ang Lee smiled faintly and said, "It's nothing. Just chat with me more. That's all."
"Just chatting? Is it really just chatting?"
Daxi 'er's lips curled into a smile as she looked at Li An in confusion.
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