Chapter 211: I did it so well that I couldn’t control my strength. I accidentally saw something…
In Tianshui Village, every household is worried about the sharp rise in food prices.
But at this moment, Zhang Lao Da, the head of the village, rang the gong in the village, saying that the wealthy Qian family in the town would probably give out porridge outside the gate early tomorrow morning. If there were any families in the village who couldn't afford the food, they could go and line up early.
As soon as these words were spoken, the villagers were all happy.
Because their village had prepared in advance, they had managed to preserve their food reserves. Unlike other villages where all their food had been washed away by the floods, it was truly difficult to even get food. However, with their crops gone, their food reserves wouldn't last much longer. Since there were kind people offering to share their porridge, they naturally wanted to ask for a meal.
Zhang Lao Da reminded them, "My father's point is, if you still have enough food at home, don't join in the fun. But if you have relatives in other villages who are starving and can't get to eat, you can go and warn them to get in line early."
The villagers grumbled, "If you don't take advantage of this opportunity, you're a jerk!" Of course, such a good thing should be given to the people of their own village first, so why would they tell anyone else? Their village was so far from the town, so they were already at a disadvantage.
When everyone has enough to eat, everyone is a hospitable and honest person, but when it comes to personal interests, everyone will put themselves first.
Selfishness and greed are the most common aspects of human nature.
However, this news cannot be concealed. There will always be someone who secretly takes the news to other villages, and then it will spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred, until basically everyone knows it in the end.
When Zhou Ye learned about the Qian family's porridge-giving program, he was silent for a moment before praising them: "The Qian family is so righteous."
After the flood, the government should have set up a porridge stall to provide porridge relief as soon as possible, but Taiping County is mountainous and the roads are steep. It would take several days for the county officials to transfer the grain and then send it to other places. Distant water cannot save the nearby fire. The Qian family setting up a porridge stall in advance can solve the urgent needs of many people.
Lin Dashan scratched his head and said, "We don't lack food at home right now, so we shouldn't go and fight with others for it tomorrow."
He Guixiang glanced at him and said, "If you don't want to go, then don't go. Stop making decisions for others."
Lin Dashan fell silent immediately. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he felt that his wife was getting more and more aggressive. However, since the flood, his wife, son-in-law and daughter had been busy running around the house, and he had done nothing. He really should have listened to them.
Although He Guixiang said this, none of her family planned to go, including Lin Zhaodi and Zhao Laosan.
Food is limited, so those who have food will not compete with the poor families in other villages for this bowl of porridge.
Now the most important thing for them is to build houses. Although the weather is clear every day after the flood, there is no guarantee that there won’t be another heavy rain, and they may not even have a place to shelter from the rain.
The men from several families did what they said.
The food was hidden behind the firewood shed and looked after by several female members of the family, while Zhou Ye, Zhao Laosan and other men went to the mountains to cut wood and bamboo.
Wood is the strongest, so load-bearing beams must be made of wood. Other places use double-layer bamboo to make walls as Lin Shu said, with a layer of yellow mud mixed with straw and thatch in the middle. This will not only make it stronger, but also keep it warmer in winter.
But before Zhou Ye could be busy for too long, Zhang Lao Da, the head of the village, came to his door with a few strong men.
Several villagers were really short of food and wanted to quickly retrieve the food stored in the cave. They needed Zhou Ye to lead the way so that they could retrieve the stored food and distribute it.
Zhou Ye nodded and put down the work in his hands.
On the way to get food, there was a villager who was worried and insisted on going with them, but Zhou Ye did not stop him.
This cave is hidden and is located deep in the mountains. The villagers usually don't dare to come here. Even if they follow today, they won't be able to remember the way. The cave can still be kept for their future use.
Several strong men carried the backpacks and baskets full of grain out of the cave. The mountain road was difficult to walk on, and it took a lot of effort to carry the grain back to the village.
Before the village head Zhang Lao Da could distribute grain to each household, the villagers had already swarmed around him.
"Are we going to distribute grain? Is this the grain we saved before the flood? My God, my family only handed in a small jar of rice, and other families received so much grain?"
"Don't look at me. My family didn't give us much. It was just a pottery jar of ash flour. It's been stored in the cave for so many days. I don't know if it got damp."
The villagers gathered together, and those who had collected their own grain lingered around, wanting to see which families had the most grain stored.
It was expected that the village head's family had more grain, but several families that were usually inconspicuous also stored so much grain.
"Old man Li, you actually have a whole basket of grain stored at home. That must be about seven or eight dou of grain, right?!"
The old man named Li hurriedly explained, "It's all aged rice, with a lot of rice husks mixed in. It just looks like a lot."
At this critical juncture, everyone who has food will hide it, not wanting others to know that they have so much food.
When it was the Wang family's turn, the villagers were so jealous of the two full baskets of grain.
When Li Chunmiao was lifting the basket, his hand slipped deliberately, causing the basket to tilt and the contents to spill out. Turns out, they were just some dried mushrooms and vegetables.
"Mrs. Li, why do you store these dry goods at home?" someone asked.
Li Chunmiao explained: "Well, it's because we have a lot of dry goods stored at home. If there is a flood, these dry goods will be soaked in water and cannot be eaten. At that time, my family was reluctant to pay too much grain, so we paid these dry goods to store them. Who would have thought that, alas... my family had a lot of grain stored, but there were few laborers in the family. When the flood came, we couldn't take it away at all. The grain that we couldn't take away was flooded!" As he said this, Li Chunmiao was about to cry.
It was true. She felt heartbroken whenever she thought of the food that she didn't have time to move away that day.
The food at home was not washed too far away by the flood, but the food had been soaked in rain for several days and had already spoiled and was inedible.
The villagers couldn't help but sigh when they thought about how small the Wang family really was.
It seems that having a lot of food is useless if there is not enough manpower to move it away. Unlike them, who have many men in their family, they can move all the food in their home when the flood comes.
After dealing with the villagers, Li Chunmiao's heart was still pounding.
Fortunately, Ah Shu reminded her, and fortunately, Ah Shu and Zhou Ye helped her family exchange food. Otherwise, if other people in the village knew that her family had a lot of food, especially those gossipy women who spread it everywhere, her family would definitely be envied.
This time, Old Man Liao brought some food for the villagers, but she didn't take it because she had plenty of food at home. However, she heard Old Man Liao mention it, and when she came back, the food on the ox cart was almost stolen!
There are no villagers in Tianshui Village who steal chickens and dogs, but there are some in other villages. If word gets out that her family has a lot of food, there is no guarantee that idlers from other villages will not come to their house and steal their food.
After the grain was distributed, the village head took advantage of the fact that many people were still there and began to organize the villagers to rebuild their thatched houses.
According to the principle of proximity, every three or four households built thatched houses in a group. In order to prevent disputes, the head of the village even decided which family would build the house first.
Old man Liao took the opportunity to express that he no longer wanted to live in the original thatched house. He left the land for other villagers to build houses, and he went to the end of the village to find a piece of land to build a house.
When a family at the end of the village heard this, they immediately exchanged land with Old Man Liao. The end of the village was far away and it was inconvenient to do anything, so some people wanted to go to the head of the village.
After Old Man Liao made this change, it no longer stood out if they were grouped together with Old Man Lin's family.
Lin Dashui and Lin Dashan are brothers, and there is also Zhao Laosan who lives nearby, so the several families are just right together.
In this way, under the leadership of the village head, while other villages were still worrying about food, the villagers of Tianshui Village had already started building new houses.
After a day of hard work, smoke rose from every household. The villagers were very satisfied to be able to survive the natural disaster and even have a mouthful of hot rice porridge to eat.
Because the new houses had not yet been built, every household slept outdoors in the courtyard, and any movement from any house could be heard clearly. The next day, at dawn, several poor families got up early and rushed to town.
Lin Laoer and Zhao Laosan didn't go to the other families; they didn't need food. Besides, Jingxi Town was far away, so they could do a lot of work in the time it took to go back and forth.
"It's time to have breakfast!" He Guixiang shouted to the men who were working.
The men, who had already smelled the aroma of food, hurriedly washed their hands and went to the dining table.
While other families only had a bowl of rice porridge for breakfast, Lin Laoer's family had brown rice. In Lin Shu's words, you have to eat enough before working, and the fuller you eat, the more energy you have to work.
The rice and grain were contributed by several families and divided according to the amount. Lin Shu also cooked some wild dishes.
Stir-fried bamboo shoots with lard, bamboo fungus salad, and a delicious chicken mushroom soup. It wasn't the same as in the past, but after the flood, having two dishes, a soup, and plenty of brown rice was considered a luxury.
After breakfast, Old Man Liao and Zhou Ye drove the ox cart to the town, while the other men who had eaten and drunk their fill continued to work.
The country road was no longer as muddy as it was yesterday and was much easier to walk on. Before the ox cart reached the town, Zhou Ye and Old Man Liao saw a long line of people.
The team was filled with people from the surrounding villages and towns. Each of them was holding a clay bowl or a bamboo jar, as if they were going to the gate to get rice porridge.
When the ox cart slowly approached the gate, Zhou Ye saw a simple porridge shed. A man was scooping rice porridge from the pot with a wooden spoon. The porridge was not thick, but not thin either. However, the pot was almost empty.
Not long after the ox cart entered the gate, the two men heard screams and wails coming from behind them.
"What? They're no longer sending out? I've been waiting in line for an hour, and it's almost my turn, so how come they're gone?!"
"All our food has been washed away by the flood. We've been eating wild vegetables and mushroom soup these days. Our family of seven is starving. We came here as soon as we got the news. Can't you give us some more rice porridge?"
"Please, Master Qian, please be kind and give us some more rice porridge. My family and I haven't had a hot meal in several days!"
"Please ask Mr. Qian to give us some more rice porridge!"
“…”
The voices of the people pleading behind him gradually faded away. Old Man Liao sighed, "Our village is so lucky thanks to you and Ah Shu. Otherwise...sigh."
There are indeed a lot of wild vegetables, fruits and mushrooms in the mountains, but they can't fill you up. At most, they won't starve you to death.
Zhou Ye was silent.
The initial stage of a natural disaster is difficult to endure, but as long as you can hold on until the relief from the government comes, you can still live. Unlike the place where he was back then, the relief distributed was short in weight and not enough to eat at all. In addition, there was a locust plague, and the people had no tree roots or grass leaves to eat. In order to survive, they could only sell their children and even their land and houses. In the end, when there was nothing left to sell, they had no choice but to leave their homes to escape the famine.
When the two men arrived at the grain shop, they found that there were no longer noisy people crowding outside the shop. Everyone was queuing in an orderly manner like the people outside the gate who were receiving porridge.
After asking around, I learned that the price of rice at several grain shops in town was fixed at 140 wen per dou. Citizens had to register their household registration before buying grain, and could only buy one dou per day, and no more for three days. They could buy more than one dou, but each additional dou would cost an extra 30 wen!
Someone who was good at accounting was shocked when he did the math.
My God, if I want to buy one stone of grain, it will cost two strings of seven hundred and fifty coins!
You should know that before the flood, a stone of brown rice cost only seven hundred coins!
I don't know which talented person came up with the idea of limiting grain purchases at grain stores, but this calmed down the people who were rushing to grab grain for fear of not being able to buy it.
The price of rice, at one hundred and forty wen per dou, was already very high. Only a fool would spend that kind of money to buy more grain. Even though the wealthy families had plenty of money, they didn't want to be taken advantage of. After all, with that much money, they could have sent people to other counties to transport grain themselves, but it would have taken longer.
"Aye, are you still queuing up to buy food?" asked old man Liao.
His family doesn't have much spare money, so they don't plan to buy food this time.
Zhou Ye was about to say, "There are so many people right now, why not come back another day?", but then he changed his mind and said, "Since we're here, I might as well buy a bushel. Father Liao, please help me queue up first. I'll go look around the town and come back to see you later."
Old Man Liao thought he just wanted to check out other shops in town and immediately replied, "No problem."
After the flood, except for the grain shops which were crowded, other shops were very deserted, especially a few restaurants. Now that grain is expensive, the prices of restaurants have also increased, and most people can no longer afford to eat.
Old man Liao was sure that Zhou Ye would be back soon, but as he waited in line, there were fewer and fewer people in front of him. He waited for a long time before he finally saw Zhou Ye.
Zhou Ye looked no different from before, but Old Man Liao could sense a hint of ruthlessness between his eyebrows.
There were even a few red stains on the rolled-up sleeves, which looked like some fresh blood had accidentally splashed on them and then spread out, which made Old Man Liao feel uneasy.
"Aye, what have you been doing?"
Zhou Ye hadn't intended to say anything, but Old Man Liao asked, so he explained, "I saw a few sneaky people following me all the way. I found out they were trying to steal other people's food, so I beat them up. I didn't hold back, and I accidentally drew some blood."
Old man Liao opened his mouth wide, then slowly closed it, praising him dryly: "Grain robber, well done, well done."
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