The work of filling the road potholes continued, and Chen Yu and the tall man sat by the roadside and began to chat.
From the tall man, Chen Yu learned that his name was Song Liangping, and that he and his companion were villagers from a nearby village called "Xihe Village".
Logically speaking, people like them who own land should have surplus grain in every household, so they shouldn't have run out of food in just over three months during this extremely cold and apocalyptic period.
However, a little over a month ago, people from the town came to their village and said that according to instructions from above, in order to better cope with natural disasters and to allocate resources scientifically and rationally, they decided to centralize all the village's grain and supplies in the town's warehouse for unified management.
The grain was then distributed by the town's warehouse, with fixed times and quantities. Each village's representative received only the amount needed for each day's consumption.
At the same time, a village-wide canteen system is implemented with unified cooking to ensure that every villager can obtain food fairly while minimizing energy waste.
Naturally, the villagers had doubts when this measure was announced.
After all, they were used to a self-sufficient lifestyle. In such extreme weather, handing over their food and supplies to others for unified management was tantamount to handing their lives over to others. Therefore, almost no one responded.
However, where there's a will, there's a way. They actually issued orders from higher authorities to give quotas to the village leaders, requiring them to complete the centralized delivery of grain and supplies within a limited time. Otherwise, they would face even more severe penalties, including but not limited to reducing their allocation share, canceling special preferential policies for the village, and even being held accountable after the disaster.
Of course, there are always rewards as well as punishments. For villages that cooperate in completing the task, they also promised generous rewards and honors, such as increasing the village's grain allocation, priority access to scarce resources, and enjoying more policy support and financial subsidies in post-disaster reconstruction. Outstanding leaders also have the opportunity to receive personal honors, such as the titles of "Excellent Village Chief" and "Disaster Relief Pioneer," and even the opportunity for promotion.
Such a reward and punishment mechanism undoubtedly puts enormous pressure and motivation on the leaders of each village.
Just like the village chief of Xihe Village, where Song Liangping and his group lived, he couldn't resist the pressure and temptation, and went door-to-door every day to do ideological work for them, even resorting to coercion and bribery.
However, the villagers, represented by Song Liangping, were like stones in a latrine, completely unmoved. They refused to hand over grain, determined to take their own destiny into their own hands.
However, the villagers were not a monolithic group. Some lazy people didn't have much grain stored at home, and they were eager for the grain to be distributed uniformly. As a result, this group became the first group of staunch supporters of this policy.
They started following the village chief around, putting pressure on each household every day.
Gradually, some timid and fearful families also began to compromise.
This group then put pressure on the remaining "stubborn elements." Since most households in the village are related in some way, this pressure spread like ripples throughout the village. The warmth between relatives seemed to be eroded by this cold current, becoming complicated and subtle.
Those "stubborn elements" who had originally insisted on not handing over grain began to feel isolated and criticized from all sides.
Some of them, bound by family ties and pressured by public opinion, began to waver.
In the end, almost everyone handed over their food.
However, after everyone handed over their grain, the food in the canteen got worse day by day. When it first opened, there was meat at every meal, and plenty of rice and steamed buns.
Later on, the food standards dropped sharply, from the initial sumptuous meals to porridge, and then to watery soup. There was no more meat or steamed buns, and they could barely fill their stomachs.
The villagers began to realize that they might have been scammed, so they decided to go to the town to demand an explanation.
However, the village chief stopped them and reprimanded them for lacking a sense of the bigger picture and only caring about immediate interests. He claimed that this was a special period, and the natural disaster might not end for a long time. They should unite to overcome the difficulties together, instead of blaming each other. They should not easily give up their trust in the collective and the organization and cause trouble for the organization! Doing so would be resisting the disaster! They would inevitably be held accountable in the future.
The village chief's words were righteous and stern, reasonable and well-founded, and even carried a hint of threat, which immediately silenced the disgruntled villagers.
Thinking that at least they wouldn't starve to death for now, and that although the food was a bit lacking, they could at least eat about 50% full every day, many people gave up, and the matter of going to town to demand an explanation ended without any resolution.
In the days that followed, the food in the canteen remained stable for a while. Although it was still bland and watery, it was enough to fill their stomachs, which gradually dispelled the villagers' dissatisfaction.
However, the good times didn't last long. Just half a month ago, when the village's grain trucks went to the town's granary to collect grain as usual, they were surprised to find that the granary's gate was locked and the staff who were distributing the grain had disappeared.
In desperation, representatives from various villages had no choice but to join forces and forcibly pry open the granary door, only to find it completely empty, with nothing but some scattered empty packaging bags and a few bags of expired emergency rations.
Finally, the village representatives had no choice but to divide the expired emergency rations among themselves and return to their respective villages.
The representatives from Xihe Village immediately informed their village chief of the devastating news upon returning to the village, hoping to let the village chief make a decision.
However, the village chief verbally said that he would find a solution to the problem and that the villagers should not be told yet to avoid causing panic.
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