Chapter 246 How does this look like a refugee fleeing from famine?

Burning a few charcoal can not only prepare meals, but also use the residual heat to boil some hot water. Soak your feet before going to bed to remove the cold, making it more comfortable while sleeping.

When sleeping, you can light a pile of charcoal in the tent and sleep comfortably until dawn. It is not like being smoked to tears when burning firewood, and being woken up by the cold in the middle of the night and having to get up to add more firewood.

Although their farmers rarely buy charcoal, they also know that charcoal is also divided into levels.

What poor people buy is the lowest quality black charcoal, which not only produces smoke, but is also not durable.

Generally, wealthy people in the city buy medium-grade white charcoal, bamboo charcoal, etc. Although there is still smoke, it will be much less.

And those very wealthy families or powerful families use much better quality charcoal. They have only heard of the names of red charcoal and silver charcoal.

As for the wealthy families in big cities, the families of important ministers with generous salaries, and the palaces, it is said that higher-grade charcoal is used.

They have never even seen them before. Those are specially supplied and cannot be bought by ordinary people.

Therefore, compared with the ones they used before, they already feel that these charcoals are many times better.

It should be possible to sell such good charcoal to the wealthy families in the city.

I wonder how much such good charcoal can be sold for!

Qiao Ran didn't care how much the charcoal could be sold for. She had plenty of easier ways to make money, and she hadn't yet considered making money through such dirty and tiring work as burning charcoal.

With these good charcoal, as well as a large tent that can protect against wind and rain, keep out the cold and keep warm, as well as very warm clothes sewn from animal skins and animal skin boots with fur insoles, the road ahead for this escape team will not be easy. Very difficult to walk.

Recalling that before they fled the famine, even if they lived safely in the village, winters in previous years were very difficult.

There were no warm clothes, no thick bedding, no useful charcoal, and even cheap charcoal was reluctant to buy more. The house built of mud bricks also leaked from all directions. ,

When winter comes, everyone doesn't even dare to go out, so they stay in bed all day. This can not only keep warm, but also reduce the amount of exercise and save food.

And now they feel that even if they are still on the road to escape, even if they don't have their own home, this tent that they can carry around with them feels more like home than their original home.

As long as a large family can live comfortably, have enough food, and avoid cold and hunger, it is already a very happy thing.

They were well fed, clothed and warm, and lived comfortably. While other refugees were still starving and struggling to survive, and countless people fell on the road, the fleeing team in Qingshui Village had arrived safely. Yingzhou Fucheng.

When this huge and strange team appeared outside the city gate, the guards at the city gate and the people passing by looked at them curiously and warily.

When they found out what was going on, they still couldn't believe that this was a group of refugees who had traveled from the distant Qingzhou Prefecture across several prefectures and fled here after going through hardships.

Almost all of them were wearing warm fur coats and animal skin boots, and their bodies in the car were mostly full of supplies. They all had straight backs, rosy faces, and were walking as fast as flying.

How does this look like a refugee fleeing from famine?

Are you sure they're not a group of wealthy people who have a little money and want to go out for fun?

Because there were no other refugees here, the people of Qingshui Village found an open space at the gate of the city to unload their things. They planned to stay here for one night, go into the city to buy some supplies, and continue their journey tomorrow.

However, before they could enter the city, a group of official servants came out of the city, carrying a sedan with the official logo.

These people came directly to the villagers who were packing their things.

Seeing an official coming, the old village chief led the whole village to greet them with some confusion.

The sedan door opened and an official wearing a sixth-grade official uniform came out.

The old village chief hurriedly led the whole village to kneel down.

Qiao Ran happened to be looking for empty bags in the carriage, preparing to go into the city to buy.

From a distance, she saw an official sedan coming out of the city gate and heading this way. She had a premonition that something was not going to happen, so she hid in the carriage and did not go out.

She is not an ancient soul, and she does not want to kneel down to an official of unknown rank.

In a hurry, the Qiao family did not know that Qiao Ran had not gotten out of the carriage. They all knelt on the ground and did not dare to express their anger.

In the past, in Qingshui Village, they rarely even went to the county seat, and had never even seen the county magistrate, let alone the senior officials in the prefectural city.

Seeing that these people still understood the rules, the official smiled with satisfaction, raised his hand to let everyone get up, then cleared his throat and began to speak in a tone of voice.

It turned out that this person was the magistrate of Yingzhou Prefecture, assisting the magistrate in handling government affairs, and was in charge of military affairs, money and grain, household registration, taxation and other matters.

He relayed what the prefect said. It turned out that the imperial court had learned that Qingzhou and Bianzhou had suffered drought and flood respectively, and that a large number of refugees were fleeing towards Zhongzhou.

So people were sent to notify the prefectures and cities along the way that they should try their best to accept and resettle the refugees, and they should not be allowed to become homeless and eventually forced to steal and kidnap, causing serious security risks.

Not to mention that too many refugees are not allowed to flow into Zhongzhou. After all, so many unstable factors are not allowed to exist near the imperial city.

The prefect of Yingzhou only received the imperial decree yesterday, and had not yet negotiated a charter. He did not expect that the first batch of refugees would arrive outside the city so soon.

What the prefect meant was that if the people of Qingshui Village were willing to settle down in Yingzhou, the government would issue them household registration and some relief food.

But in a hurry, I don't know how to arrange these hundreds of people. They may have to be scattered and placed in some villages outside the city.

When the people of Qingshui Village heard this, they immediately looked at the old village chief anxiously.

Along the way, they have supported and helped each other, and have already established a profound revolutionary friendship. They have become as close as a family and do not want to be separated.

They especially don't want to be separated from the Qiao family. Even the stupidest people can see that Qiao Ran is an outstanding person.

Along the way to escape famine, she was able to help them solve every difficulty and survive every danger, so that everyone could get here safely, and she also allowed them to get food, supplies and money that they had never thought of before.

If they follow Qiao Ran, she might have more good ideas in the future to lead them to make money!

Qiao Ran didn't know that the consciousness of the people in Qingshui Village was already so high. When she saw that everyone was getting up, she quietly got out of the carriage and stood behind the crowd, quietly waiting for the old village chief's reply.

The old village chief saw the worry in everyone's eyes, so he politely refused Lord Tongpan's arrangement.

"The common people would like to thank the prefect and the magistrate for worrying about us! However, our village has gone through so many hardships and we have become as close as a family. We really don't want to be separated..."