Cowardly Stepmother Dressed As the Hero

A few days later, King Bei'an and his party left Jiuchang City after supplies were completed.

Perhaps it was a psychological effect. As soon as the carriage drove out of the city gate, Cao Mi felt a burst of depression. Linzhou, where Liaozhou and Jiuchang are located, and Jinzhou, where the capital is located, seem to have some invisible barriers.

People on this side of the estrangement are pursuing a better life, while those outside the estrangement are looking for a chance to survive.

The convoy walked for a long time, and the deeper it went into Liaozhou, the more refugees there were. Cao Mi occasionally lifted the curtain of the car to take a breath, and could see people standing or lying on the side of the road.

Some people still have anger in their eyes. Looking at the tall carriages and horses in the Bei'an Palace, there will be some anticipation in their eyes. And some people have already abandoned everything, and even need the soldiers to drive them away to avoid the rolling horseshoes and wheels.

It is precisely because these soldiers are there that these refugees dare not come forward to disturb them.

But in the evening, Cao Mi realized that he was wrong.

Those refugees who did not dare to approach and beg fell far behind their motorcade, as if holding on to the only hope, wandering around and refusing to leave.

Qi You found an open space, instructed all the carriages to form a circle, and asked Qi Wu to arrange for people to patrol outside the circle.

After that, he came to the carriage of Cao Mi and his three children.

He personally helped Cao Mi out of the car, he turned around and hugged the three children who couldn't get out of the car at all, and comforted him: "Today will be another day in the wild, please bear with me, tomorrow we will rush another day, just I can get to the nearest peace."

Cao Mi knew that he was worried about these refugees, and he didn't dare to let go of his speed during the day, so he delayed his schedule.

She nodded understandingly, "Well, the concubine knows."

There were still twins left in the car, Qi You didn't delay, and took them out one by one.

He bent over to put the two children down, but the two children hooked tightly around his neck.

"What's wrong?" Qi You simply stood up again.

The two children looked a little embarrassed. They didn't reply when they heard the words, they only tightened Qi You's collar.

The three children are sensitive, and along the way, they also discovered the refugees who followed them. They were not very interested all day. They even ate only half of their favorite molar sticks on weekdays.

Qi You quickly realized this, he turned his head and explained a few words to the housekeeper behind him, and took the child directly to sit down on the mat that the next person had arranged.

Cao Mi quickly took the biggest Qi Rui and followed him.

When she arrived, the father and son had already started talking.

"Why are they following me?" Little Fatty asked sadly with a flat mouth.

"They are all homeless refugees." Qi You didn't treat the twins as two-year-old children, and explained it earnestly, "Following behind the convoy, I want to get some food to feed my stomach."

The second child Qi An immediately said: "Then give them to them quickly and send them away!"

He didn't know why, but he just didn't like these dirty clay figurines looking at him with inexplicable eyes, and stumbling after him.

Qi You said again: "I can't get rid of it."

When he saw Cao Mi coming, he simply explained together: "I asked Qi Wu to distribute some food for them. We will go to Pingjing tomorrow and urge the prefect to manage the surrounding refugees. Then they will be sent back to their hometowns according to their nationalities. Let them settle their farming again."

Cao Mi nodded when he heard the words.

I have to say that Qi You's solution is the most effective solution at present. These refugees are the responsibility of local officials. Although Cao Mi is moved by compassion, he knows that he can save the entire Bei'an palace. not them.

But she had a hunch in her heart that Qi You's approach might not have any effect. But she didn't really have any idea, so she didn't make a sound.

Qi Rui suddenly pulled her hand and asked, "Why are they 'homeless'?"

Cao Mi was stunned when he heard the words, and many reasons flashed through his mind. For example, Liaozhou was already poor, and the disaster last year caused the people to have no ability to save themselves. For example, the landlords took the opportunity to attack and annexed the land of the poor at a low price. Another example is the corpse of the officials of the state government, which has long ago made the land in the northernmost part of Shengchao sick.

But she didn't know how to explain these things to several children, so she didn't respond for a while.

Seeing that she was silent, Qi You, who was sitting next to him, opened his mouth to help explain: "Everyone has their own fate."

Cao Mi sighed, "Yes, everyone has their own fate."

She was suddenly a little unwilling and asked: "They are the people of the Sheng Dynasty, and the entire Sheng Dynasty is their home country. Why can't they find even a small place to live?"

Qi You was stunned for a moment, his brows furrowed.

Cao Mi added, "If it's not a problem with people, then it's a problem with this country."

She didn't want the child to be immersed in this heavy atmosphere, and she changed the subject after saying this.

After a while, Dong Li served the hot food, and Cao Mi saw the cook and a few other maids pack out a few baskets of bean dregs cakes and walked out of the rim under the guard of the soldiers.

Refugees who were wandering nearby swarmed around her, kneeling and kowtowing, and stretched out their hands to beg her.

Cao Mishi swallowed a mouthful of soft tofu and hurriedly filled his appetite, then took the child back to the carriage, ready to go to bed early.

When the moon was in the middle of the sky, she was shaken awake by Qi Ran.

Little Fatty blushed slightly, and seemed a little embarrassed, "Mother, mother, me, I want to pee!"

Cao Mi forced himself to wake up, only to find that Qi You hadn't come back.

The urinal was not in the carriage where they were sleeping, and Cao Mi was going to take him outside to solve it. She estimated the time and knew that it was almost the time when the other two children usually woke up and asked to go to the toilet. Now that the situation is special, Cao Mi simply wakes them up together.

She knocked on the car door, and Taozi, who was on duty outside, immediately noticed the movement and came in to help her dress the children.

Taozi saw that Cao Mi was blue and black until she was sleepy, and she said directly: "Princess, please call a few more people, and wait for the young masters to go to the toilet. You can continue to rest."

Cao Mi shook his head.

She always felt that after entering Liaozhou, several children were more attached to her than usual, and she herself was the same, reluctant to let the children out of her sight.

Fortunately, although there are many refugees outside, Qi You's army has been closely guarding this open space, with torches lit around it, and a team of five soldiers patrolling back and forth.

So when Qi Ran finished her convenience and ran to the side to pick up small stones, Cao Mi didn't care much, she was busy helping Qi An put on his pants.

Little Fatty was attracted by the orange pebbles illuminated by the bonfire on the ground, and came to a nearby carriage.

Just as he picked up the two pebbles, he found a little clay figurine about his own size sitting outside the carriage.

It's just that he is fat, and he is still wearing a warm long-sleeved silk shirt, while the children outside the carriage are very thin and covered with mud. effect.

When he saw Qi Ran, he didn't know if he was scared or hungry, and swallowed hard.

Xiao Pangdun thought for a while, then dug it out in his arms and found a piece of mung bean cake that he had eaten.

This refugee child is lucky, that is to say, he will eat some food by himself. If Qi Rui or Qi An came over, the two of them rummaged through their bodies without even trying to find a single bit of food dregs.

Qi Ran could clearly see the child's desire. With a wave of his little hand, the mung bean cake "thumped" into the eyes of the refugee child.

The child took another sip of saliva, and approached the cake carefully. After confirming that it was eaten, he clenched the thing tightly in his palm, gave Qi Ran a deep look, and turned and ran away.

On the other side, Cao Mi finally helped the other two tidy up and called Qi Ran back.

Qi Ran responded, got up and started walking back.

Just when he was five or six steps away from Cao Mi, there was a sudden noise behind him.

After a few breaths of confusion, it was the night vigil soldier who deliberately suppressed the scolding.

"Don't fight and make noise here!"

"...What are you robbing? Leave now!"

"What's wrong with that kid? Don't move... Didn't you just deliberately didn't chase him away and let him lean against the wheel to keep warm?"

"..."

Cao Mi frowned, deliberately keeping himself from listening to those movements, stepped forward and hugged Qi Ran, just wanting to get out of here quickly.

After being picked up, Little Fatty, who had been standing still, let out an earth-shattering cry without warning, dispelling the drowsiness of the people around him.

That night, Qi Ran cried for a long time.

He likes to cry in the mansion on weekdays, but Cao Mi has already figured out his petty temper. After being bullied by Qi An, he cried angrily, and when he was wronged, he asked Cao Mi to comfort him.

But he had never cried so much for no reason like this night, but tried his best.

It took Cao Mi a lot of time to figure out the ins and outs of the matter, and she asked people to bring the refugee child in.

The child passed out, holding a tiny bit of pastry crumbs in his hand.

Cao Mi probably knew what was going on.

In the stories she told several children, she occasionally preached some good virtues of helping others. It is rare for Xiao Pangdun to use his favorite food to do the next best thing, but it turns out that he has harmed others. How could such a strong sense of psychological gap be endured by a little kid who was less than three years old.

Cao Mi held him in his arms distressedly, patted his back to help him calm down his hiccups, and motioned to Dong Li with his eyes to take the person down for good treatment.

After dawn, Qi Ran with swollen eyes went to look for the child at night. The child has been treated by the doctor accompanying the palace overnight, and several ointments have been pasted on his body, but he has not yet woken up.

Qi Ran stood far away from the child, staring straight at him.

Seeing this, Qi An immediately wanted to pull him closer, but he refused.

Qi An laughed: "Fool, coward!"

Qi Ran glared at him and choked with him: "You are a fool, you are a villain, an old monster who wants to eat Tang Seng's meat."

Qi An didn't care about you, turned around and looked for the boss Qi Rui to bury his head in one place to talk.

After the people packed up, the convoy continued to set off for Pingjing.

The day went a lot smoother. Halfway through the journey, they met officials from Pingjing who came to pick them up, as well as the vanguard of Qi You's army who had settled in Liaozhou.

Those refugees seemed to have any scruples about Pingjing, and the most stubborn ones only continued to follow for a mile, and stopped when they saw that they were heading straight for Pingjing.

Cao Mi saw everything in his eyes and sighed secretly.

Entering Pingjing, Qi You settled them in a courtyard and left quickly. Cao Mi was a little apprehensive as he watched the soldiers patrolling and defending them in and out of the courtyard.

But everything seemed to be calm, except that Qi You did not come back that night, everything was the same as their experience in other inns.

At night, the children who had rested for an afternoon were not sleepy, so Cao Mi took the three of them to watch the stars in the yard.

The conversation of several people inevitably turned to the rescued child.

"That's what Daddy said, everyone has their own destiny." Qi Rui suddenly said: "We are different from them, so we shouldn't be meddling."

Qi Ran flattened his mouth beside him.

He dared to quarrel with his twin brother Qi An, but he did not dare to refute the elder brother who always spoke well.

But Cao Mi shook his head and pinched Qi Rui's little face.

She looked up at the sky above her head, and suddenly said, "There is a rich man who wants his son to understand the gap between poverty and wealth, and brings him to the poorest family in the suburbs to stay overnight.

"A few days later, the rich man proudly asked the child, 'How, now you know the difference between us and those poor people?'

"The boy nodded and said, 'Yes, father.'

"The rich man was very happy and asked: 'Then tell me, what's the difference?'

"The boy replied: 'We live in a big square yard, but the family sleeps on the whole vast plain. Three wells were dug in our house, but the river the family draws water from west to east, There's no end in sight. At night we light candles and the family illuminates the entire sky with stars.'"

After finishing the story, Cao Mi turned his head and touched the top of Qi Rui's hair.

"Rui Er, everyone's fate is indeed different, but we live under the same sky, and those who are illuminated by stars are not inferior to those who can afford candles."

Qi Rui pouted and seemed to want to refute, but couldn't think of any reason for a long time.

The second child, Qi An, then asked, "Mother, what are you going to do with that person?"

Cao Mi actually didn't think about it, but he had already been rescued, so she wouldn't just throw him away.

So she replied: "Well, let's take it away for now and see how it will be arranged later."

Qi Rui finally found his voice, he thought of something, and said, "When Qi Ran's cake is smashed, his fate will be different."

The second child Qi An nodded in agreement, "I said it in the morning, he is lucky!"

Only then did Cao Mi understand what the two were muttering to the child during the day.

She shook her head amusingly, and hugged the third child over, watching Little Fatty yawn in her arms, and asked, "Are you sleepy?"

Qi Ran nodded, "Mother, let's go to sleep."

Cao Mi nodded, "Well, go back to the house."

Qi Ran blankly said "um".

That night, his interest was not high, and he didn't even touch the crystal cake on the table next to him.

Cao Mi looked at his eyebrows, and for some reason, a thought suddenly popped into his mind.

She paused and said tentatively, "Or, let's pick up all the children who have lost their parents along the way."

The more she thought about it, the more feasible it became. "They have no support. Even if your father really asks the prefect to send them back to their hometown, they will have no one to take care of them."

Qi Ran looked up at her suddenly.

The second child wrinkled his nose, "It's very troublesome."

The boss paused and asked realistically: "There will be a lot of people, can they afford it?"

Cao Mi recalled the batch of food in the space, smiled, and said, "No problem, more is fine."

Qi Rui glanced at her in surprise. Seeing that she didn't seem to be joking, he finally nodded and stopped talking.

The four of them, their mother and son, lived in the courtyard for two days. In the early morning of the third day, Qi Wu personally brought someone to pick them up.

At this time, Cao Mi realized that Qi You had eliminated the corrupt officials in Pingjing in one fell swoop in the past few days, and stared at the people on the temporary top to handle the affairs of the refugees, and then he was ready to continue.

She saw so many refugees along the way. She didn't believe that these officials could do anything good, but when she heard Qi You's words, she thought it might not be effective. It was only then that she realized that Qi You didn't believe them either.

Instead of wrangling with them, he cut through the mess with a sharp knife and directly pulled those corrupt officials off their horses.

This courage made Cao Mi awe, but at the same time she was also a little worried. After his demonstration, the local forces in Liaozhou would definitely react. She wondered if Qi You was ready to deal with it.

Fortunately, Qi You had already planned.

He just did the act of killing chickens in Pingjing City, and in the next few cities he passed by, it was as if he had changed a person. Spread goodwill.

The effect of this is surprisingly good. Anyway, after more than a month, when they stopped and walked, they finally arrived at the destination of this trip - Cannes, Liaozhou. Greetings from several old-fashioned families.

On the post with the fragrance of flowers, the woman's beautiful handwriting gently expressed her greetings and respect to Cao Mi, looking forward to seeing him in person one day.

Cao Mi browsed through it roughly, and then handed over all the invitations to Dong Li, and let her watch the arrangement after a while.

When she first arrived in Cannes, she had a lot of things to deal with.

She didn't need to worry about things in the Fuzhong. Qi You's people came to clean up earlier, and the rest of the people in the Fuzhong would take care of themselves after they took up their jobs.

What gave Cao Mi a headache was the refugee orphans she was going to take in.

Although she put down her arrogance that night, she was still very stressed when she saw hundreds of pairs of hopeful eyes.

But soon, the housekeeper took some land deeds from her, so that Cao Mi finally tasted the sweetness of this seal.

The Bei'an Palace has land, and it has a lot of land!

I don't know if it was because of the guilt of sending a good King of Bei'an to this poor place in Liaozhou, the emperor was not stingy when it came to demarcating territory.

Also, the Rong tribe in the north came to grab it every few years. Compared with fifty years ago, Liaozhou already had one-third less territory. I don't know when the remaining two-thirds will be gone. Of course, the old emperor gave it generously.

It's all hot potatoes!

But at this time, these things really solved Cao Mi's urgent needs.

She asked tentatively, "Uh... what does the lord mean?"

The housekeeper replied respectfully: "The lord knows that the princess must be worried about arranging those people recently, so she has assigned these places to the princess. It happens that these places are deserted, and the princess can gather some more people and start to open up the wasteland."

Although Cao Mi's previous plan was only to gather orphans, he couldn't help that there were many refugees who had no hope at all. As soon as they heard the wind, they followed closely behind the convoy and couldn't drive away again.

So, before entering Cannes City, Cao Mi had raised more than a thousand mouths. Among them, less than 20% are children, the rest are adults, and many of them are elderly people over fifty.

Even if these people eat the cheapest bean dregs cakes every day, they consume a lot of money every day.

Cao Mi calculated in his heart, nodded and said, "Thank you housekeeper for this trip. If it's late spring, you should arrange them quickly and catch up with Xia Geng."

The housekeeper said, "It's all the old slave's job", and left on his own.

After that, Cao Mi came to Beisi and asked him to borrow some people from Qi Wu, and bring the group of refugees to a place called "Rongguang Mountain Villa" on the fief to be resettled.

They called Nanxi again and asked her to prepare the urgent supplies needed by the more than 1,000 people, and then invited a doctor to diagnose and treat the sick and injured refugees.

Beisi quickly led the order to leave, but Nanxi said with a bitter face: "Princess, things and doctors are not difficult, but... If we continue to support them, the food in the house should be in a hurry."

She paused and asked for instructions, "Should you allocate some money first to purchase a batch of food?"

Cao Mi shook his head, "The food in Liaozhou is expensive. Long before I got here, I found a few caravans and asked them to run back for me to collect food from Linzhou. Counting the time, These two days should come. You can bring someone to clean up the two granaries in Rongguang Villa. "

Nan Xi was stunned for a moment, and then he admired Cao Mi's thoroughness in his heart, replied "yes" and immediately retire.

After she left, Cao Mi breathed a sigh of relief.

The caravan thing is indeed true, but the main thing she buys is not grain, but some basic herbs, wool that no one wants, and some other condiments.

In short, the caravan is only to hide people's eyes and ears. food? The ones in her space are enough to keep those people through this toughest time.

In two days, she only had to walk around the villa in the name of inspection and keep Chen Cang in the dark for a few times, and the problem would be solved. Anyway, she found several caravans, and no one knew what the other party brought.

After sorting out everything, Cao Mi instructed Dongli, "Go and call Liu Ge and the newly hired craftsmen in the house."

Taking advantage of Dong Li's absence, Cao Mi went back to the house to change into a pair of clothes, and by the way, took out the drawings of several improved farm tools that he had traced in the space these past few nights.

Some of these things were drawn by her according to the farm tools in the yard, and some of them were pulled out from the corners of her reference book. Liu Ge and the craftsmen in the house knew more than she did. Cao Mi believed that they had obtained the correct answer in advance and should be able to figure out how to solve the problem by themselves.

Anyway, even if they can't solve it, there's no way, and Cao Mi can't solve it either!

Soon, Liu Ge and his party arrived, and Cao Mi divided the drawing and briefly explained the specific purpose.

Indeed, needless to say, it is all on paper!

"Seeing that it's already April, the spring ploughing has already passed, and the villa can only fight for the summer ploughing that will come soon." Cao Mi said, he also realized the urgency, took a sip of tea and continued: "Look if you have any. There is no way to mass-produce a batch of agricultural tools, which solves the urgent task of reclamation."

Liu Ge had already put on a self-made prosthesis. Hearing this, he stood up and saluted her, saying, "The princess will help the weak and save thousands of refugees in Liaozhou. Ge knows the princess' benevolence and will do her best."

Cao Mi nodded and watched them leave with a smile.

Then, she started to have another headache—

Now that she has the tools, how can she clear the way for those high-yielding seeds in her space?

High-yield in the future can find some reason to round the past, that is, there are many seeds that have not appeared in this dynasty at all!

The author has something to say: today's update will be delivered in the early morning, and tomorrow's update will be delayed in the evening.

It will return to normal the day after tomorrow, and it will be fixed at 6 o'clock in the afternoon.

Thanks to the little angel who threw the mine: 1 male and 1 male;

Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: 5 bottles of Yudi;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!