Chapter 66
This drought came so suddenly that there was no warning at all.
Even though Lu Shang was alert in advance, less than two months passed from the time he started preparing to the time the disaster broke out. As the first village experienced a complete failure of crops, abnormalities began to occur in everything from the fields to the livestock sheds.
At first, only two or three villages were affected by the drought. The villagers reported the situation to the county government. The county magistrate simply called the legal advisor in charge of agricultural affairs to make a record, and symbolically distributed two pounds of grain to each family, then waved his hand and sent everyone away.
But half a month later, the situation of barren fields spread to the entire Songxi County. In addition to grain crops such as wheat, vegetables and fruit trees also experienced varying degrees of yield reduction. In some families, the situation was even worse, with dozens of acres of fruit trees failing to produce a single ripe fruit. All they produced were cucumber eggs half the size of a fist. Under the strong sunlight, they all rotted in three to five days.
Only then did the county magistrates realize the seriousness of the situation. Fearing accountability from their superiors, the county magistrates could only lash out at the people in advance: "The drought has lasted for so long, didn't you realize something was wrong beforehand? The trees and fields haven't produced fruit or grown crops for so long, and you only realize there's a problem now?"
"Your Excellency, please understand. I came to the government office to report back in May, but the officer at the gate said it wasn't unusual for a month or two without rain, and that I should just be patient and wait. The fruit on the trees shouldn't be ripe by now, but it's been too hot this year, so the fruit is rotting in the ground before it can even grow."
Half of the villagers knelt at the entrance of the village, crying with tears in their eyes, and then bowed their heads heavily after speaking.
The county magistrate who had rushed over from the government office had a pale complexion. After a while, he waved his sleeves and said, "Enough! Take me to the fields and take a look!"
Little did they know that such "good officials" who were willing to go to the fields to investigate were rare. More county magistrates chose to drive back all the people who came for help, and sent yamen officials to guard the village entrance, trying to suppress the disaster in the village. At that time, they would order the wealthy businessmen in the town to pay the grain taxes, and the year would be passed by in a daze.
As for the people trapped in the village, who had no food and could not leave, they all chose to remain silent.
At the end of July, the temperature in Songxi County began to rise, and ice basins were in short supply throughout the county. By this time, there had been no rain for four whole months.
Something went wrong at Lu Shang's mountain farm.
The hilltop he bought has a shady side and a sunny side. The sunny side is used for farming and the shady side for livestock. In previous summers, the shady side was not too hot. Thousands of poultry and livestock on the mountain strolled leisurely. Because they were free-range, their meat was more tender and juicy than that of those raised in cages.
But this year, even though Lu Shang urgently asked people to build shaded sheds and confined all the poultry and livestock in the sheds, and fed them with water more than ten times a day, the poultry and livestock still showed signs of weakness. At first, only the chickens and ducks were listless, and later even the cattle and sheep lay on the ground motionless.
As soon as Lu Shang received the news, he hurriedly called Ge Haonan over and had him live with him in the shady house. Together with the workers in charge of taking care of the poultry and livestock, he patrolled the shed day and night. Whenever he found anyone in a bad mental state, he would drag them out immediately.
Although Lu Shang didn't know much about animal diseases, when he saw the fainted livestock, the first thing that came to his mind was...
Heat stroke.
After receiving a clear reply from Ge Haonan, all the separated poultry and livestock suffering from heatstroke were moved indoors and treated uniformly for cooling down. However, due to a lack of ice for cooling down and sufficient medicinal materials, less than one in ten were saved. Although the symptoms of heatstroke may not seem serious, it actually only takes two or three days for the condition to worsen.
It would have been fine if it was just a large number of poultry and livestock that died of heatstroke, but there were too many animals affected and the farm was short of staff. The dead animals were not dealt with in time, and when they were discovered, their bodies had already rotted, which undoubtedly exacerbated the spread of the plague.
That day, Lu Shang was discussing treatment with Ge Haonan when his subordinates came to report in a panic, "Boss, something bad has happened! There's a big problem in Dongsan's duck house. Most of the ducks are sick!"
Lu Shang was shocked and stood up from his seat suddenly.
He didn't have time to ask more questions, so he could only take Ge Haonan with him to check it out. However, as soon as they entered, they smelled a strong stench of foul smell. After Ge Haonan checked the ducks one by one, he looked extremely embarrassed and said, "It's duck plague."
Lu Shang's vision went dark, and his voice was dry: "Gather everyone, check all the sheds immediately!"
All of a sudden, hundreds of workers from the entire mountain farm moved to the back mountain. Lu Shang then went to Tang Town to call some long-term workers from the logistics team to help. They were busy for two days and nights, and there were three to five people watching over almost every shed.
Even so, half a month later, a large-scale animal plague broke out in the entire ranch. Large numbers of chickens, ducks, cattle and sheep died. The speed of cremation and burial could not keep up with the speed of death. Even those who went down the mountain to buy medicine returned empty-handed.
"The boss can't buy it anymore. All the clinics in town are empty. Some private clinics have raised the prices of medicines so much that they are more than three times the normal price!"
Lu Shang was stunned for a long time, and finally he could only wave his hand reluctantly: "Forget it."
In just one month, the mountain farm suffered losses of over a thousand taels.
As temperatures continue to rise, prices of food and medicinal herbs have skyrocketed, leading to looting sprees in towns and counties.
The shortage of medicinal materials is not a big deal when there is no plague spreading, but the price of rice can reach a new high in half a day.
The county magistrate, who still had some conscience, would send people to investigate the situation thoroughly, but those merchants agreed on the surface, and then turned around and told the people that the ordinary rice had been sold out, and only the fine rice with a slightly higher price was left. But when they took it out, they found that it was no different from the previous grain.
The shopkeeper boasted, "Our fine rice is scarce, and we pay eighty wen per jin."
"Eighty wen?" The common people who came to buy food gasped. "Isn't this just the best coarse rice? Wasn't it always eight wen per jin before?"
The shopkeeper's face changed. "Go away, go away! How dare you come to our door and say such nonsense? What coarse rice? This is refined rice! It's only eighty cents. Buy it if you want. If not, leave now. Next time you come, you won't even get the eighty cents a pound of rice!"
Those who have a little extra money can only reluctantly buy two kilograms, but they don’t know that the coarse rice is mixed with stones and sand. After filtering, only a little over one kilogram is left. More ordinary farmers cannot afford the high-priced grain, so they can only come empty-handed and go back empty-handed, sighing all the way, and then face the disappointed eyes of their wives, children and parents when they return home.
Lu Shang stayed in the mountains for two months without going down once. By the end of August, the number of poultry and livestock on the mountain had dropped sharply from thousands to less than 200. The rest of the sick ones were burned and buried, and the huge pasture was filled with smoke from the burning.
After burying the last batch of animal carcasses, Lu Shang looked at the empty pasture and wiped his face fiercely.
He adjusted his expression and turned to face the farmhands on the mountain. He had regained his usual composure and said, "Thank you all for your hard work over the past two months. Now that there's not much to take care of on the mountain, there's no need to keep so many people."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's expressions changed drastically.
Fortunately, Lu Shang quickly said, "I'm not going to fire you. It's just that there's been a severe drought this year, and even on the mountain, there have been so many problems. I'm sure the situation in the village and town isn't optimistic either. The mountain manager will arrange your shifts later. Just leave 20 to 30 people on the mountain to keep an eye on the situation. And then, try to take care of the remaining poultry and livestock."
"Those who haven't been scheduled for work can go home. Come back when the work schedule arrives. Your wages will be calculated based on the hours worked. As for when normal work will resume, we'll have to wait and see when this natural disaster is over. Okay, I'm going back to the capital, and everyone can go home."
In order to thank these people for their recent efforts, Lu Shang gave them a reward. However, due to the heavy losses suffered by the farm this time, the reward was not large, only two hundred yuan per person. He also caught some fish from the mountain stream and took two fish home for each person.
The rest of the matters will be handled by the steward. Lu Shang gave a few final instructions and then went down the mountain to go home.
After going down the mountain, Lu Shang looked up at the scorching sun above his head and finally remembered the passage of time. He thought about it again and realized that he had been separated from Jiang Wanning for two months.
Without further hesitation, he ordered the driver to go directly back to the city, but the scenery he saw along the way was shocking.
Large numbers of people lay on the roadside, some with empty and numb eyes, some with barely a ripple in their chests. Newborn babies lay in their mothers' arms, biting their shrunken nipples, completely without the strength to cry out...
This was before he entered the city, but only saw it on the small road outside.
As we got closer to the provincial capital, this kind of scene became more and more frequent. When we arrived at the city gate, we saw a fence erected at the gate, and a large number of officers and soldiers were guarding behind the fence. Everyone entering the city had to go through layers of questioning and inspection. If there was anything wrong, they would be refused entry, and those who forced their way in would be executed on the spot.
Lu Shang walked through the dense crowd of disaster victims outside the city, answered questions about his home address and reasons for entering and leaving the city, and showed his household registration to the officers and soldiers before he was allowed into the city.
I thought the situation in the city would be better than outside the city, but I didn't expect that the situation in the city was also bad. The small vendors wandering around the city had disappeared, leaving only the grain stores and clinics that were blocked tightly. The noise and crying of the people resounded through the sky.
This was his first time facing the world under ancient natural disasters, and he suffered a great shock both physically and mentally.
Lu Shang couldn't bear to watch any longer, so he could only lower the curtain and tell the driver to go home quickly.
When the carriage passed by a private school on the way, Lu Shang stuck his head out to take a look. He saw that the private school was locked. Judging from the dust in front of the door, it had been closed for some time. Seeing this, he felt a little relieved.
Soon, the carriage arrived at the Lu family's door.
Lu Shang quickly jumped off the carriage and sent the driver away. He took two steps at a time and climbed the stairs. When he pushed the door, he found that it was locked from the inside.
He knocked hard on the door. After a long time, he heard an elderly voice from inside, which was not without caution: "Who is here?"
"Grandma, it's me, Lu Shang!"
There was a sound of hurried footsteps inside the door, and the door opened, revealing Grandma Lu's slightly frightened face. She quickly pulled Lu Shang in, and then quickly locked the door. Then she grabbed Lu Shang's hand and looked him up and down.
Grandma Lu's face was filled with fear and blame: "Why did Shang'er come back at this time?"
Before Lu Shang could answer, another voice came from the courtyard. Jiang Wanning came out of the house and looked at him in surprise: "Husband..."
When Lu Shang heard the voice and looked over, the first thing he saw was the dark circles under Jiang Wanning's eyes. He didn't know what had happened at home. In just two months, she had lost a lot of weight and was not as energetic as before.
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