There were also people who noticed that there was more than enough grain to be had and remembered that Royal Prince Yang had promised there would be a second and third shipment of reasonably priced grain...thus they only bought enough grain to last their family two months. 

The Yu Family still had a lot of grain back home, so Yu Hai and Liu Hu took out the horse and donkey carts to help their fellow villagers transport grain back to Dongshan Village.

Because Royal Prince Yang had a connection to Tanggu Town, the first fleet of grain ships stopped at Tanggu Town first. However, there were a total of three prefectures and nineteen villages that were affected by the locust plague. For the past two months, the commoners who lived in these prefectures and towns all had to tighten their waistbands. By now, most of their stores of grain had been almost exhausted. The villagers who lived closer to Tanggu Town all hurried over to the docks and town to line up to buy grain.

For the next few days, the twenty or so reasonably priced grain shops in Tanggu Town and the docks had massively long lines in front of them. Even when the grain shops closed for the night, the lines waiting for grain did not disperse. The people stayed overnight to sleep as they were all afraid that they would have to line up again the next day. They were also afraid that the reasonably priced grain would be sold out.

Every morning, County Magistrate Zhao of Tanggu Town would take his people from the ya...