Chapter 253: A bumper harvest in the planting area
Zhao Anqi worked in the military hospital and often went out for pneumonia tests, so she was more informed than Xia Xiaoman. During the more than two months that Xia Xiaoman stayed at home, she could only learn about the outside world through Zhao Anqi.
"I heard a few days ago that the planting areas had a bumper harvest, but there were not enough workers, so less than one twentieth of the grain could be harvested in a day. Some grain must be harvested within a specified time, otherwise it will rot in the fields and delay the planting of the next batch of crops."
"The higher-ups want to recruit people to help harvest grain in the planting areas, but the epidemic hasn't been brought under control yet, so there are not many people applying for the jobs. They're all hiding at home." Zhao Anqi's tone was a little depressed.
A bumper harvest in the planting area should have been a very happy thing, but because of the plague, the harvest time was delayed and the planting of the next batch of crops was affected.
The weather is getting hotter and hotter now. When the sun moves to the middle of the sky, the weather will be completely hot. It will not be so easy to grow food on a large scale.
Seeing Zhao Anqi's worried look, Xia Xiaoman said, "I remember there were a lot of people in the rescue station, why not let them help with the work?"
The people in the shelter have their food and drink provided by the government. They are asked to do some work to give back to the government, which makes it worthwhile for the government to provide them with free shelter.
Zhao Anqi sighed, "Most of the people in the shelter are old, weak, sick and disabled. Those who are young and strong are all lazy and greedy. It's better to do more work ourselves than to expect them to work."
Those who can stay in the shelter are either unable to take care of themselves due to physical, age or IQ problems and can only rely on the shelter for help. Or they are lazy and greedy, with healthy hands and feet and no IQ problems, but are unwilling to endure hardships and take risks to find supplies outside, hiding in the shelter waiting for food to be given to them.
Normal people with intact limbs may need help from a shelter when they are down and out, but once they recover, they will move out of the shelter immediately. It is not because they do not want to occupy public resources, but because the environment in the shelter is bad. Normal people will not go to the shelter unless they are forced to do so.
Xia Xiaoman thought for a moment and said, "The old, weak, sick and disabled are not unable to move. As long as they can move, we can arrange for them to work. At most, we can arrange some easier work for them. Those scoundrels with healthy limbs are easier to deal with. If they don't work and don't eat, and go hungry for a few meals, I don't believe they won't work."
Zhao Anqi laughed when she heard this and said, "It's not as simple as you think. The government has supported them for so long, but never asked them to work. If they are suddenly asked to work, they will definitely make trouble. By the time their problem is solved, the food will probably have rotted in the fields."
Xia Xiaoman curled her lips, "But if we don't let them work because we're worried about them causing trouble, then the government will have to keep supporting these people for nothing. If a major disaster happens one day and the government doesn't have enough food to continue supporting these people, the problem will probably be even more serious."
Zhao Anqi thought this made sense. "I'll report this to the higher-ups later and see what they decide."
Xia Xiaoman was curious, "Sister Anqi, you are just a nurse. Can the higher-ups take the problems raised by nurses seriously?" She was not discriminating against nurses, but she did not believe that the decision makers above would listen to the advice of a nurse.
Zhao Anqi smiled and said, "No one will listen to me, but I know a superior. If he reports this to the higher-ups, they will at least consider it."
"But it's too late to rely on the people at the aid station to help the planting areas collect grain. We still have to find a way to recruit more people to work in the planting areas, otherwise the grain in the fields will be wasted."
Xia Xiaoman thought for a moment and said hesitantly, "Does the planting area have any requirements for recruiting people?"
"Do you want to apply for the job?" Zhao Anqi asked.
Xia Xiaoman shook her head. "I'm the only one in my family. I'm afraid my belongings will be stolen when I go to the planting area. But I know a gang leader who has more than 2,000 people under her. If the planting area doesn't mind, I can try to talk to her about cooperation."
"Gang?" Zhao Anqi frowned.
Xia Xiaoman hummed and explained, "The Lingxu Gang is different from other gangs. They won't rob civilians. Their main source of income is to destroy those gangs that have no bottom line and rob those gangs of their supplies. Usually, they also grow their own vegetables or use their sports car fleet to transport goods to earn supplies."
"If you know anyone in the planting area, you can ask them to contact the Lingxu Gang. Maybe they can solve the problem at hand."
Zhao Anqi thought for a moment and said, "I'll go back and tell the people in the planting area about it! But they may not contact the Lingxu Gang."
Planting areas are not individual farms. If they want to cooperate with gangs, they need to apply to their superiors. However, the authorities are biased against gangs, so it is difficult to get planting areas to cooperate with gangs.
Xia Xiaoman shrugged indifferently. She suggested that the planting area find Li Yu'e and others to cooperate, just because she didn't want the crops to rot in the fields. Whether the planting area would contact Lingxu Gang or not had no impact on Li Yu'e and others.
However, if they really reached a cooperation with the planting area, it would be equivalent to the Lingxu Gang being connected with the official, which would make things easier in the future. Of course, it didn't matter if they didn't have the official connection, as long as they were strong enough, no one would dare to mess with them.
…
The neighbor on the right, Sun Haiyun, has been left at the power station and has not returned yet, while the neighbor on the left has been tested positive for pneumonia and is currently in an isolation area.
There was no one around, so it was a good time to make some delicious fried food and store it in the space. Xia Xiaoman picked two newly ripe pumpkins and planned to make a batch of pumpkin pie.
Steam the pumpkin, add glutinous rice flour and knead it into dough. Then wrap the prepared red bean filling and peanut sesame filling in it, flatten it, throw it into the pan and fry it. It tastes sweet and soft, and the skin is a little crispy. Xia Xiaoman ate three in a row before stopping.
Maodan saw that she was eating so happily and kept circling around her feet. Xia Xiaoman saw that it was crying so pitifully and threw two pumpkin cakes into its food bag.
Maodan ate one and thought it tasted bad, so he spat it out. Seeing that he was wasting food, Xia Xiaoman forced him to finish the two pumpkin cakes.
Forced to eat two tasteless pancakes, Maodan lay on the ground with a feeling of despair.
Suddenly, its ears moved, as if it heard some noise outside. The next second, Maodan stood up suddenly, growled at Xia Xiaoman who was concentrating on cleaning the stove, reminding her that a stranger was approaching, and then turned and ran to the second-floor balcony.
Seeing this, Xia Xiaoman put down the work in his hands, put on the mask, and ran quickly to the second floor.
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