When the sun rose again, the victims in the flood shelters had generally accepted a life of two meals a day, with a steamed bun and a bowl of porridge for each meal. They ate and slept in the flood shelters, and did not do any work or consume much energy. With this standard of food, they could basically eat about 80% full.
“Hey, another steamed bread and a bowl of porridge… Who will eat this? My pigs used to eat better than this.” Of course, every time when people get their meals, there are always complaints.
"Okay, stop complaining. It's good enough to have something to eat now. Yesterday, I went to the county town with Tiesuo, Shuiniu and others. My dear, you don't know how much the price of grain has risen. The price of a stone of rice sold in the grain shop has risen to 1,260 coins. If you eat in a restaurant in the city, a bowl of porridge and a steamed bun will cost you at least 15 coins, and you may not even be able to buy them."
After hearing his complaints, the villager behind him patted him on the shoulder, shook his head and gave him an advice with a wry smile.
"What? A broken steamed bun and a bowl of broken porridge can be worth so much money?!" After hearing this, the complaining victims opened their mouths in shock and quickly held their bowls tightly, fearing that someone would snatch them away.
"What do you think? We wanted to go to the county town yesterday to secretly buy some food and have an extra meal, but when we saw the prices, we were so scared that we came back with our tails between our legs. If you don't believe me, ask Tiesuo, Shuiniu and the others."
The villager behind smiled bitterly.
Behind them, Tiesuo, Shuiniu and other villagers also nodded vigorously, with lingering fear on their faces. The outrageous prices in the county town yesterday still left them with psychological trauma.
"Oh my god, food is as expensive as meat, why don't they just go and rob them?" The complaining villagers opened their mouths wide.
"Rob?! Let me tell you, even at this price, people in the county are still scrambling to buy it. If you go too late, you won't be able to buy it even if you want to." Tie Suo and others said at the back.
Well, after hearing this, the complaining villagers stopped complaining and found the steamed bread and porridge tasted extremely sweet.
"Hey, Brother Sanshui, have you noticed that there are so many new faces in the team today?!"
After Tiesuo had his meal, he casually glanced around and found that the team was much longer than usual. He glanced again and found that there were many unfamiliar faces in the team. He couldn't help but push the villager in front of him and said with a frown.
"You just realized it. I discovered it yesterday. These people are here to eat for free. But there are more people eating for free today than yesterday. Look at them. They are dressed cleanly and of good material. They don't look like disaster victims at all. They are all city people. Many of them have come all the way from Taiping County to eat for free. See that guy over there? He runs a pawnshop in our Taiping County. He is famous for taking advantage of others. He must have heard that meals are free here, so he came all the way here to take advantage. With so many more people coming in all of a sudden, I'm afraid those lining up at the back won't be able to get any food." The disaster victim Sanshui said in a low voice, full of contempt for those who came to eat for free.
"Bah, these people are so shameless that they even snatched the food from us disaster victims. It's really despicable."
Buffalo couldn't help cursing.
"Okay, it's better to have less trouble than more. We have already got the food, so let's just forget about it, forget about it." Brother Sanshui advised.
"What can we do, Brother Sanshui? We are at the front of the line this time, but what about next time? If we are at the back of the line next time, we won't have any food." Tiesuo and others shook their heads vigorously.
"It's not okay to have no food to eat!"
The villager who had complained before immediately got angry when he heard this and started shouting loudly while holding his bowl.
In addition to them, many other people noticed this scene and started arguing with the people who were eating for free.
After the officers maintaining order discovered this, they came over to inquire. The victims pointed out some people who were eating for free, but the people did not admit it and insisted that they were also victims. As there were many people eating for free and there were even more people in the flood shelter, it was not an easy task to check the registration book, and in the end the matter was left unresolved.
However, there were too many people wanting to eat for free. The cook prepared breakfast according to the number of victims in the morning and reserved some extra food. But when breakfast was served later, the steamed bread and porridge were gone, and there were still many people left who did not get breakfast.
Of course, the victims who didn't get any food were not happy. So the clerk in charge of the flood shelter had no choice but to ask the cook to make some breakfast so that all the victims in line could get some.
Finally, Liu Dianli and others calculated that the amount of grain consumed in this breakfast was thousands of buckets more than before the food standards were lowered, which is not a small number.
Liu Dianli and others felt that the matter was serious and reported it to Zhu Ping'an one after another.
"Free food..." After receiving the report, Zhu Pingan pondered for a few seconds and immediately thought of an anecdote in history. He couldn't help but smile and said to Liu Dianli and others, "This is not difficult to solve. How about this, wait for me to arrive in the afternoon and then you can have dinner."
Not difficult to solve
Liu Dianli and others couldn't help but widen their eyes. We were so tired that we almost scratched our hair out, but we couldn't think of a solution. The county magistrate actually thought of a solution all of a sudden. The county magistrate is worthy of being the county magistrate.
In the late afternoon, it was time for lunch again. A long line formed at the North Suburbs Flood Refuge early in the morning. Just like in the morning, many of the people in the line were freeloaders, and they lined up quite high.
Zhu Ping'an arrived at the northern suburbs flood refuge before dinner time and took a look at the queue. It was just as Liu Dianli and others had said, there were obviously more people in the queue than the registered victims.
"Look, the county magistrate is here." As soon as Zhu Ping'an arrived, everyone turned their eyes to him.
Under the gaze of everyone, Zhu Ping'an came to the kitchen area, squatted down, grabbed two handfuls of grass ash from under the stove, and in front of everyone, he sprinkled one handful of grass ash into the steaming porridge pot in front of him, and the other handful of grass ash into the steamed corn bread basket, and then clapped his hands.
Petrified!
The people waiting in line for food were all petrified! They were all stunned, their hair disheveled in the wind.
"Fuck, am I seeing this right? The official sprinkled ashes into the porridge and steamed bread?!"
"Is this something a human would do?!"
"This official is so heartless and has no conscience! The day before yesterday, you lowered our living standards, and our food was reduced to a steamed bun and a bowl of porridge. We couldn't even get full, and now you're throwing ashes in it! You have no humanity at all!"
A second later, the shocked people finally reacted, and the northern suburbs flood refuge was immediately in an uproar.
"Pah, is this person still edible?"
Seeing this, a freeloader in the team spat, and walked away cursing.
"How can I eat this! Let's go, let's go..."
"Bah, what a piece of shit! Who cares? Let's go!"
People who were queuing for a free meal left one after another, cursing and swearing, and at one time there were more than a thousand people leaving.
They are not real disaster victims or refugees, their families are doing OK, they just come to the flood shelter to take advantage of the food and drink. Now they see grass ash sprinkled in their porridge and steamed buns, how can they still eat them
Those who are still left in the team are real disaster victims and refugees. They really can't bear it anymore. Let alone there is a handful of grass ash in the porridge, even if there is a lot of grass ash, they have to eat it in order to survive.
Although these real disaster victims and refugees cursed, they all lined up obediently and waited for their meals.
"County... County Master, why... why is this happening? A scholar can be killed but not humiliated. Although they are disaster victims, but..."
Not only disaster victims and refugees were present, but also Liu Dianli and others. When they saw Zhu Ping'an's actions, they were petrified like everyone else. It took them a long time to react and they said with dumbfounded eyes.
"Look, the people who were eating for free have left..." Zhu Ping'an pointed and said softly.
"Ah? Ah..."
The clerks were so shocked that they didn't notice that someone had left. Then they looked in the direction Zhu Ping'an pointed, and sure enough, at least a thousand people had left. Neither their clothes nor their appearance looked like refugees. Then they realized that the county magistrate did this to get rid of the people who were eating for free.
"Ahem, but County Master, this is a bit..." Liu Dianli and the others coughed and were speechless for a long time. At noon, the County Master said that it was not difficult to solve, and it was really not difficult to solve, just sprinkle a handful of ashes, but sprinkling ashes into the porridge pot, this is too... too much...
"My fellow villagers, I'm shamelessly cutting in line..." Zhu Ping'an bowed to everyone and said something apologetically. Then, in front of everyone, he took the long spoon from the cook, scooped a bowl of porridge from the pot, reached out and took a dusty steamed bun, and started eating in front of everyone.
“Young Master…” Liu Dadao stepped forward and tried to stop him.
"It's okay, I'm fine. Grass ash can strengthen bones and joints."
Zhu Ping'an waved his hand, swallowed a steamed bun in two or three bites, slurped up a bowl of porridge as if he had finished drinking wine, and turned the bowl over to show it to the victims waiting in line.
"The porridge sprinkled with ashes is also eaten by the county lord. And the steamed bread is also covered with ashes."
"If the county magistrate can drink it, how can we be more valuable than the county magistrate? What are you all making a fuss about? The county magistrate can drink this porridge, so can we; the county magistrate can eat this steamed bread, so can we."
"You are stupid, don't you understand? The county lord did this to drive away those freeloaders. The county lord really has good intentions."
"Oh, it's true. Those strangers who came to eat for free have all left. It's not like they have run out of food at home, they just think it's dirty."
The crowd was buzzing, surprised that Zhu Ping'an drank porridge sprinkled with grass ash. But later they realized that Zhu Ping'an had good intentions. Suddenly the anger on people's faces disappeared, and they stopped cursing and lined up obediently to get their meals.
"Let's go to the next flood shelter." Zhu Ping'an took Liu Dadao and others and turned to go to the next flood shelter.
Liu Dianli and others looked at Zhu Ping'an's back and were full of admiration. The county magistrate was worthy of being the county magistrate. He scattered a handful of ashes, solved the problem of free meals, drank a bowl of porridge, and eliminated the hidden dangers of public grievances in the flood refuge area.
"We want to have a bowl of this porridge too." Liu Dianli and others looked at each other and said in unison.
The county magistrate has good intentions. So many people have sacrificed their lives due to the flood, and we cannot stand idly by.