Traveling through 1942 with space

Chapter 155 Sympathy!

Hou Xiaoge and his family were pulling a cart and they looked at the refugees nearby with deep concern.

After all, people's conscience returns when they have enough food and clothing. Hou Cuiping saw several children about the same age as her daughter Lanlan frozen to death along the way, and she cried bitterly.

"Brother, our fellow villagers in the Central Plains are so miserable." Hou Cuiping said, wiping her nose.

"Oh! What can we do? It's good enough that we can take care of ourselves." Hou Yangmin's face turned grim when he heard the local accent nearby.

"Dad, there are so many children behind our cart. Why don't we treat them to some braised pork today?" The eldest cousin said with some sympathy as he looked at the dozen children following the cart.

In fact, the Hou family often does this. They are all fellow villagers and have experienced fleeing themselves, so they cannot help but sympathize with them.

So if a refugee child comes to my stall, I will occasionally give him some sausage, half a pancake, and a bowl of soup.

However, the adults would definitely not give it to him. This was Hou Xiaoge's request, because if the adults gave it to him, it would easily cause conflicts.

"Brother, we can't feed these kids. It snowed last night and there are more refugees. If we feed just one person, the news will get out and our stall will be robbed." Hou Xiaoge refused sternly.

When it came to his family helping refugees from the stall, Hou Xiaoge always took a tough stance and refused to allow it.

Hou Yangmin wanted to say that when they got to the stall area, there were officials watching and they would give some food to the children! But after hearing what Hou Xiaoge said, he stopped talking.

When we arrived at the stall area, we found that almost none of the morning market stalls were closed; everyone was busy in the wind and snow.

While watching the busy uncles and other people around, Hou Xiaoge admired the hard-working spirit of people of this generation and his mentality also changed.

"Yes! The livelihood of the vendor's family depends on the stall, how dare we neglect them in the slightest." Hou Xiaoge muttered to himself.

Looking at their own stalls, they wouldn’t make much money if they didn’t offer some hard-to-find spices at a low price.

Although the three families earned seven or eight dollars a day, the government taxes were heavy! They had to pay one or two dollars a day in taxes alone, and occasionally they had to pay the managers who took advantage of them.

If Hou Xiaoge hadn't created a pseudonym recently and used the Yanhuang League as a cover to collect protection fees, the gangs would have lost money.

The little money earned is shared by the three families. After so many people eat and drink, and if they get sick, there won't be much left.

My family is an exception. Take the income of my uncle and aunt for example. After two months, each family received more than 80 yuan, which does seem like a lot.

But after digging a cave, buying food, setting up household items, and supporting relatives, it is estimated that a family could only save about a dozen dollars.

Of course, Hou Xiaoge's own family didn't care about the little money. Since they harvested the first batch of supplies, they no longer had to worry about food and drink, so they gradually stopped caring about these trivial matters.

There were no relatives at home to help, so the money for digging the cave and purchasing bulk supplies was all paid by myself, and the income from selling meat was given to my stepmother.

Wang Maimiao had more than a hundred dollars in his hand, so he was naturally confident.

So these days, the living standards of both Hou Xiaoge and his family have exceeded those of ordinary people, and the way they speak and act are different from ordinary people. I have gradually become indifferent to it.

"I examine myself three times a day." Hou Xiaoge sighed and silently condemned himself in his heart.

……

The stall has been open for two months. As soon as the stall is opened, the steam comes out of the iron pot and the aroma of braised meat wafts, customers come.

When Hou Xiaoge came to the stall to help, he naturally did the simplest job, which was to collect money.

Today, these refugee children may be cold and forget the rules. They are all circling around the pot, perhaps wanting to get some heat from the stove!

Over this period of time, most of these refugee children have become very familiar with Hou Xiaoge's family. These are all children with families, and there are very few who are homeless.

As for the orphans, most of them were taken away by the Yanhuang Alliance, so Hou Xiaoge generally didn't feel too much sympathy for these children.

After all, these kids are good at stealing and robbing. Although they look pitiful, if you sympathize with them, it will be easy for them to develop bad habits.

But don’t give them! These children are indeed pitiful. Their parents just leave them alone and don’t care about them. Just look at the straw sandals on their feet.

With the temperature dropping to minus ten degrees Celsius, everyone's feet were covered with frostbite and eventually became numb.

So even though these children were annoying, Hou Xiaoge's family would always keep some broth after selling the braised meat, add some water, and distribute it to these children. After all, the broth contained enough oil, water, and salt water, and could provide nourishment and save lives.

"Shi Tou, have you forgotten the old rules? Take them all to play over there first. The remaining soup in the pot will naturally be left for you. You won't be left out." Hou Xiaoge said to the dozen or so children gathered in front of the pot.

Maybe it was because Hou Xiaoge didn’t come often and had lost his prestige, so most of the children stayed around him and didn’t leave.

Seeing that no one left, Hou Xiaoge was worried that the children would spit into the pot, so he asked his eldest and second brothers to chase them away.

Erhuan was really reckless. As soon as Hou Xiaoge told him to get rid of them, he came up with the thin branches he had prepared and started beating them.

The children were beaten and screamed, and ran away in fear. Some new children saw the old hands running and followed them.

As for why these kids were afraid of Erhuan, one was that Erhuan was strong and they could not beat him, and the other was that Erhuan had another identity, that is, he was an outer disciple of the Yanhuang League Battle Hall and had powerful forces behind him.

After driving the children three meters away from the stall so that they no longer affected the business, Erhuan stopped chasing them away.

"Master Tie, good morning!" Hou Yangmin greeted the Master of the Yanhuang Alliance War Hall who came with a dozen people.

"It's freezing today, brother Yangmin, hurry up, fifteen bowls of braised pork, and cut two yuan's worth of braised meat to add in, and three bowls of two bowls of flatbreads." Tieli and his men sat in their seats and reported the numbers to Hou Yangmin in a carefree manner.

"okay!"

Hou Yangmin nodded and quickly asked Erhuan to pour wine for everyone.

The Hou family's braised meat tastes good, there are discounts for disciples of the Yanhuang League, and the quantity is large, so disciples of the Yanhuang League often consume it during this period.

Especially those in the war hall, who are patrolling and practicing martial arts, and their consumption is huge. This kind of cheap meat is the most economical to eat, so there are at least thirty or forty people patronizing it every day.

Of course, most of the patrons are elite disciples and leaders. After all, the Yanhuang League provides meals, so ordinary disciples have no problem getting enough to eat.

The elites and leaders have money, so they can naturally sell food outside.

"Master, come and have a drink to warm yourself up, brothers." Erhuan held the wine jug and enthusiastically poured wine for Tieli and a group of Yanhuang League disciples.

"You are such a cunning boy that you are wasting your talent in our war hall. You should go to Lao Han's Jinyintang." Tieli took the wine cup handed to him and laughed.

"Hehe! Master, I still want to practice boxing with you! I can't sit still while Jinyintang settles the score, so forget it." Erhuan flattered him with a smile.

"Yeah, the abacus at Jinyintang is making a clattering sound. If I were to calculate it, my head would hurt. I can smash it to pieces with one punch." Tieli laughed.

Hou Xiaoge was not wearing a vest and knew everyone. When the meal was served, he came over and greeted them with a smile.

"Master Tie, you're still out patrolling in this snowy day. Thank you for your hard work." Hou Xiaoge greeted with a smile.

"Haha! They all work for the leader.

Brother Hou, why are you here with us today?" Tieli didn't know Hou Xiaoge's identity, he only knew that he knew the leader, so he was usually very polite.

“It was snowing heavily and the donkey cart couldn’t move well, so we had to use a cart, so I followed my family out.

We haven't seen each other for a long time. Now that we meet today, I would like to invite Master Tie and all the brothers from the Yanhuang Alliance to have a drink.

"Second brother, bring me a five-jin jar of wine. It's cold today. Master Tie and the brothers of the Yanhuang League should drink more to warm up their bodies." Hou Xiaoge said to Er Huan with a smile.

"it is good!"

"Haha! Then I would like to thank Brother Hou on behalf of my brothers." Tieli smiled heartily and bowed to Hou Xiaoge.

The members of the Yanhuang Alliance did not stay for long. After all, there were still many things to do in the gang. After finishing their meal, they threw five dollars and left one by one with their legs spread wide.

"Heiwa, the hall master and the others gave us a bit too much." Erhuan came over with the money to pay the bill and said.

"It's okay, just send a few more cups of wine and a little more meat later." Hou Xiaoge took the money and said indifferently.

“Yes!”

Maybe it was because of the snow, the braised pork sold out very quickly, especially since the Yanhuang League members often ate it. The two large pots of braised pork were sold out before ten o'clock.

Seeing twenty or thirty children gathered in front of the stall, Hou Xiaoge asked his aunt to make soup, then went out for a walk and came back with a small bag of ten pounds of cornmeal.

Ten pounds of cornmeal is not much, worth only fifty cents, but it is not a small amount. It can be enough to feed and clothe these twenty or thirty children if made into food.

"Aunt, make it into dumpling soup." Hou Xiaoge said as he gave the cornmeal to Hou Cuiping.

"Shi Tou, hurry back and get a basin. It's snowing today, so I'll treat you to some dumpling soup." Hou Cuiping said with a smile to the children in the distance who were looking eager.

"Remember, adults are not allowed to come, only children." Hou Xiaoge reminded from the side.

Not long after, Er Huan also called over a dozen of the Yanhuang League's outer disciples who were on good terms with him nearby.

These outer disciples of the Yanhuang League all wore black and red gang uniforms, and they were quite intimidating standing aside.

After a while, a group of children and a group of adults came over from afar. However, the adults did not dare to step forward when they saw the disciples of the Yanhuang Alliance watching them, and just gave the basin to the children.

When Hou Xiaoge was seasoning the dumpling soup, he added a lot of salt and a lot of oil and chili peppers. The golden dumplings rolling up and down in the bright red broth were quite appetizing.

Each child scooped out four or five pounds of food, and then went back to add some water, which was enough for a family of four or five people.

The children swallowed their saliva and quickly returned to their parents with the wooden basins. The whole family ran back with laughter.

There was still some left after the two pots were shared by more than twenty children. Hou Xiaoge asked her aunt to give the rest to the elderly and weak refugees nearby.

After providing relief, Hou Xiaoge asked his uncle and the others to go back and get the braised meat, while he slipped away on the pretext that he had something to do.

It snowed too heavily last night, so the Yanhuang Alliance will definitely take action today, and Hou Xiaoge is also preparing to go back to organize relief for the new victims near the train station.

In this era, especially as a native of the Central Plains, Hou Xiaoge feels that he should do more for his fellow villagers and not be too petty.

Arriving at a main road outside the city, Hou Xiaoge entered the space, tied iron chains on the truck to prevent it from slipping, then prepared four tons of food and a thousand kilograms of Chinese cold medicine in stock, then changed into Zhou Debiao's vest and left the space.

Hou Xiaoge drove the car on the highway without being conspicuous, and went straight to the headquarters of the Yanhuang League.