Pampered by the Toughest Man After Divorce
Chapter 872 Heading North (3)

Chapter 872: Chapter 872 Heading North (3)

These battle-scarred cities, though seemingly revived on the surface, still harbored many parasites hidden within.

Yige and Lu Jianxi, along with the commoners, had waited a long time before the gentry leisurely made his appearance.

Given that he looked like a benefactor to the common people, neither Yige nor Lu Jianxi went up to scold him bluntly; instead, they intended to observe how Xiang Kun treated the returning refugees.

The gentry set up a chair and a table at the doorway and placed a small register on top of it before calling out languidly to the people below:

"Line up everyone, register one by one!"

Yige and Lu Jianxi queued at the very end, while the others had already begun their registration.

"Village chief, I returned from the south the day before yesterday. My family owned a plot of wheat and some sweet potato fields previously... but now I’m forbidden to farm them," one middle-aged man said.

"Where is your house? Is it still there?" asked the gentry, indolently.

"The house is still standing, but everything inside has been taken, not even a hoe was left, not even the stick we used to pound pig feed was spared. They took everything except they just didn’t dismantle the windows, these people..."

The gentry interrupted the man’s complaint, "So, how long have you been away from Tiandu City?"

"Over two years. When I heard that the Hu people had left, I came back."

"Didn’t you do some business on the outside, save some silver or something?" Xiang Kun inquired.

"Nothing of the sort. I spent it all on lodgings along the way. Didn’t I hear about aid being provided? So..." the middle-aged man said, rather embarrassed, "So, I came to collect some of the relief silver."

On hearing that the middle-aged man had no savings, the gentry’s mood soured, "Where is there so much silver? The silver has all been spent on food. If you don’t have any saved, go home and wait. If you have no money for food, there are people distributing rations daily at the Yamen entrance. Just go collect it."

The middle-aged man didn’t dare say much more and left sheepishly.

After questioning a few more people, who were all treated the same way—those with money were registered first, and those without were told to go home and wait—Yige and Lu Jianxi’s turn came, and the gentry’s eyes brightened at the sight of them.

Although they were dressed plainly, they were clearly extraordinary, likely to be quite profitable.

"Where have you returned from?"

"From Fu County," Yige said.

"What did you do there?"

"We were in business, and it went quite well."

"Do you have savings?"

"We have a few hundred taels," said Yige.

"Please wait a moment then; I’ll come find you later," the gentry said and then had a servant lead the two to the hall for a drink of water.

After another half hour or so, the gentry finally finished his business and came to attend to Yige and Lu Jianxi. He was especially enthusiastic upon seeing them, "So the two of you were doing big business down south. Not bad at all. The fact that you’re willing to return shows your profound love for your hometown..."

After chatting for a while, the gentry finally steered the conversation toward the distribution of land, "About these fields, they’ll definitely need to be reassigned. The war took many lives, and many people won’t be returning, so we need to register actual names. The higher-ups have tasked me with this, and I can’t just be careless about it. There is land available, but we can’t just divide it willy-nilly, nor can just anyone farm it. Since the two of you are now merchants, you’ll likely need to hire hands to farm the land in the future. We can assign more land to you, but, well..."