General Yves traveled from the south to the north. The closer he got to the capital, the more desolate everything looked. There were starving bodies everywhere.
They had gone out to fight on the battlefield with their lives. All they wanted was for the country to be safe and peaceful so the people could live well. But now that he had returned, he realized the disaster in the kingdom had already become very serious.
"General, it's fine to give porridge outside the city. But if you want to send food to other provinces, I'm afraid you'll need an order from His Majesty," the steward said.
General Yves could donate his own food if he wanted, but it would be easier to deliver it everywhere if he had official approval.
"I'll report it to the emperor tomorrow. You just start getting ready," Yves said. He had already planned for this.
It was getting late. After giving the order, General Yves told the steward to go rest.
"Wait a moment."
Just as the steward lifted his foot to step out the door, Yves suddenly called him back.
"General, do you have more orders for me?" the steward asked as he quickly turned around.
"Check the private storage and give me a full list of everything in three days."
During the journey back, Yves had already guessed that they would need a huge amount of food. Sophia would also need silver to buy more. He had almost forgotten this part.
Sophia had found the correct way to use the pig trough, which made teleporting food much faster. Still, it took about an hour to finish sending all the rice and flour.
She had thought all that food would be enough for a while.
But that same night, she received a letter from General Yves.
"It's possible," she said, a little tired.
Sophia didn't expect that she would become a laborer in another way. For the next while, she probably wouldn't have time to do anything else or go out for fun.
Luckily, she had found a way to send food quickly. If not, it really would have worn her out.
She quickly ordered another batch of food. This time, she asked for one million jin.
After doing the math, it wasn't that expensive. About the same as the price of two off-road vehicles. So it was acceptable.
She had spent a lot of money recently. But she had kept track of it all. So far, the total was just over one billion yuan.
One big difference between ancient times and modern times was food.
Many plants in modern times had been improved so people could eat them safely.
But in the past, a lot of crops with high yields were poisonous. Things like cassava, taro, and jicama.
The ones that were safe to eat had problems. They didn't produce much, they couldn't resist pests, or they were hard to grow. Because of these reasons, the harvests were poor. So just filling their stomachs was already very difficult for people back then.
"For now, I can only keep sending more food. We'll help them get through the next few months," Sophia thought.
That night, she contacted several suppliers.
"Boss Qian, sorry to call you so late. I wanted to ask if you have any cheap old rice or flour. Can the price be lower?"
"It's for a mountain area. We don't have much money, so we want to buy as much food as we can. It's okay if the quality isn't the best, as long as it's safe to eat."
"Hello, Boss Rao. Can your cold storage provide me with 200,000 jin of frozen chicken, duck, and fish?"
Sophia made calls to ask about everything in detail.
From what she knew, the Kingdom of Zhao had about five to six million people.
Sophia had just sent about seven or eight million pounds of grain to the Kingdom of Zhao. That should be enough for them to get by for a while.
General Yves didn't expect that after just one trip to the palace, Sophia had already arranged everything for him.
He quickly got into the carriage. Inside, there were paper, ink, a brush, and an inkstone. He immediately wrote a message to Sophia: "Sending so much grain at once might cause trouble for you. It's fine. Just send the usual amount. I will find another solution."
This time, his visit to the palace was to solve this exact problem.
The current emperor, who was General Yves's father, didn't have the ability or courage to lead. He couldn't manage civil or military matters and was completely incapable of handling government work.
During the year General Yves had been at war, the court would have fallen apart if he hadn't left two reliable ministers behind.
Now, he had convinced the emperor to issue an order. The officials and wealthy families in each province had to donate money, or if they didn't have money, then donate grain.
General Yves was going to take money from the officials and the rich.
This time, he was going to manage the relief effort himself.
After leaving the palace, General Yves went straight to the city gate.
Just like he had arranged, the steward had already prepared the area for giving out porridge.
There was already a long line at the city gate. Men, women, the elderly, and children were all standing in line. They were so thin that only skin and bones were left. Their faces were pale and their eyes looked empty.
Sophia got up early that day. Lately, she hadn't been eating properly at home.
Today, she got up especially to go out for breakfast. The street was full of vendors calling out to sell their food.
She ate a bowl of tofu pudding and a basket of soup dumplings. She was about to go home when she saw a steamer full of big, fluffy buns. She suddenly got an idea.
"Boss, how many buns do you have left? I'll buy them all."
"You're serious?" the lady vendor asked, unsure, looking up at Sophia. "I have five hundred buns. Are you buying them for a party or something?"
Sophia scanned her payment code right away. "I'm serious. How much is it? I'll pay now."
The vendor started counting. "One hundred fifty meat buns, two hundred vegetable buns, and one hundred fifty red bean buns. The vegetable and red bean buns are one and a half yuan each. That's 350 buns, so 525 yuan. The meat buns are two yuan each, so 150 buns cost 300 yuan. Altogether, that's 825 yuan. Just pay 820."
Sophia thought, that's not much at all.
She said, "You also have steamed rolls, right? I'll take all of those too. And the tea eggs and boiled eggs, I want all of them."
She asked, "Can you cook 3,000 more boiled eggs before noon?"
Since Sophia bought everything on the stall and the vendor wasn't busy, she was happy to agree.
Sophia paid 5,000 yuan right away and told the vendor to make more boiled eggs to make up for the rest. If anything was missing, she would come back and pay later.
After that, she looked around.
The vendor who sold her tofu pudding earlier smiled and called out, "Miss, do you want some tofu pudding or wontons?"
Sophia smiled. "Sure, give me the whole bucket. And the wontons, don't cook them. Just pack them for me."
The tofu vendor closed the stall and went to help his wife wrap more wontons.
There were other vendors selling fruit, noodles, and fried snacks. Sophia bought everything from all of them.
General Yves received Sophia's message and didn't rush back. Soon after, food arrived: buns, tofu pudding, fried dough sticks, and steamed noodles.
He kept a portion for himself. The rest he gave to the city guards and workers who were giving out porridge. The remaining food was handed to the refugees in line. Adult men got just a bowl of plain porridge. The elderly and weak received an extra egg or a bun.