Chapter 214 Going to the Countryside
According to the village head, when the county magistrate goes to the countryside, he must show his good side. If asked if there are any difficulties, he will definitely say that there are none.
So he sent a message to Qili Village one day in advance, saying that if the county magistrate did not come, it would be fine, but if he came, the roads in the village must be cleaned, and every household must clean their homes and take out the best things.
White rice sounds too fake, and the village head didn't dare to make such a request, so he asked every family to prepare the same food as during the Chinese New Year.
Because the county magistrate had not visited Qili Village for many years, many villagers had no experience in entertaining high-ranking officials, so the village chief could only pass on the instructions of the head of the village.
There were a lot of things to talk about, and everyone held a meeting under the banyan tree at the entrance of the village. When Manbao and his friends returned from the county town, the meeting had just started, so Manbao listened to the whole process.
She was a little angry, thinking that it would be fine if the headman didn't complain about being poor, but he actually planned to show off his wealth.
So she followed Old Zhou to find the village chief, trying to persuade him not to follow the head of the village's instructions and change from showing off his wealth to crying poor.
But before she could finish, Old Zhou took her back and said to the village chief, "This kid does whatever he wants. Don't listen to her."
The village chief waved his hand and said, "Uncle Jin, take her back. I know what's going on."
It is impossible for him to cry poor. It is such an obvious thing. After the head of the village settles the score, will he still be the village chief?
However, it is impossible for them to show off their wealth, because even if they want to, they can't do it.
The whole village was mobilized, and with the help of the energetic children, the entire village was cleaned up in half a day.
In fact, there was nothing to clean up. I just picked up the rocks on the road and filled them into some mud pits. What kind of garbage could there be in the countryside?
However, there were many places in the house that needed cleaning, so the Zhou family cleaned and tidied the house inside and out, even more carefully than during the Chinese New Year.
Manbao ran to find Bai Shanbao, and the two of them whispered to each other for a while, and then he took Datou to play with the children of the three families whose houses collapsed. Zhou Daliang had just been married for half a year, and his wife was not pregnant yet, so there were no children in the family.
However, Zhou Daliang was not very old, so Manbao directly dragged Zhou Silang to find him.
Everyone gathered together and whispered.
The next day, after County Magistrate Fu came to Qili Village from Dali Village, the first place he wanted to visit was the three families whose houses had collapsed.
As soon as I walked into the low courtyard wall of Zhou Daliang's house, I saw a lot of winnowing baskets on the ground, with rice and wheat of somewhat ugly color drying in them.
The head of the village was stunned and subconsciously glared at the village chief. He saw that the village chief was also glaring and turning his head to look at Zhou Daliang's parents.
The head of the village also looked at Zhou Daliang's parents. The couple obviously didn't expect such a situation at home. Their faces turned pale and they quickly looked for their son in the crowd.
Magistrate Fu didn't notice their unusual movements. He squatted down to look at the blackened rice, touched it, and asked, "Have these been soaked in water?"
Zhou Daliang carried out a bag of wheat from the house and looked at the people in the yard with surprise, as if he didn't expect there would be so many people in the house.
Manbao squeezed to the front from the back of the crowd, hid behind Zhou Dalang and gave him a thumbs up to express his appreciation.
Zhou Daliang didn't dare to wink at her and just stood there without moving.
Seeing that Daliang's parents were hesitant and unable to speak, County Magistrate Fu frowned, looked at Zhou Daliang, and asked again, "Have all these grains been soaked in water?"
Zhou Daliang nodded repeatedly and said, "Originally, each household would store their food on wooden racks, except for some leftovers to eat, to protect it from moisture. But my house collapsed, and the beams fell down, knocking all the food piled on the wooden racks to the ground. It was raining heavily outside, and when the house collapsed, water flooded in, so all the food got soaked."
Then their luck was even worse. It continued to rain heavily after that day, and they had to stay with relatives, let alone take care of the food.
When the rain finally subsided and they found a place to dry the grains, they took them out and saw that a lot of wheat had sprouted, and a lot of rice had also sprouted.
As for the rest, even if they were hung out to dry, many of them still sprouted in the absence of sunlight.
In the end, Da Liang's father was so cruel that he exchanged the sprouting wheat and rice with the villagers at a rate of three pounds for one pound.
There was no way. Not only had the wheat and rice sprouted, they were also wet. But even so, not much of them could be exchanged.
After all, this thing is okay for one or two meals. If you buy too much and take it home, the sprouts will be too tall and you won’t be able to eat it even if you want to. That would be a waste.
Old Zhou exchanged a lot. It can be said that the Zhou family exchanged the most, a total of 300 kilograms.
There is more wheat and less rice.
The Zhou family had many members and a large space, so the eldest son burned charcoal directly in the kitchen and asked the second son to weave a long and wide bamboo bed, put it on top, and put the charcoal underneath to heat.
Pour the rice on top and carefully bake it with charcoal fire overnight. Be sure to turn it over and the rice will slowly dry out.
Although they have sprouts, Lao Zhoutou doesn't mind them at all. He removes the shells after drying them, and has been using this rice to cook porridge and other meals at home recently.
Although Manbao felt that the food was not tasty and lacked a lot of flavor, the whole Zhou family still ate it with relish.
The wheat is also placed on top to dry. If there is not enough time to dry it, it is ground into flour.
Because the wheat is wet, the flour ground from the husks is not very good-looking, but the family members don’t care. They just put the ground flour on a bamboo bed to dry, carefully dry it and put it away. They can make noodle soup, or make pancakes or steamed buns directly.
It might not taste very good, but at least it can be preserved.
Daliang was curious and came to visit their bamboo beds, and paid to order one from Zhou Erlang.
But it didn't help their family recover much of their losses, because they had a small family and they had to use fire to bake, so someone had to keep an eye on them all the time.
He has to work in the fields and keep an eye on the fire at home, and he may have to stay up late at night. Daliang's family has four people, and he simply can't stand it.
In the end, most of the grain turned into black and moldy food because it was not dried and aired in time.
Magistrate Fu rubbed his hands together, then opened them to see that they were black. He took a closer look and was greeted by a musty odor.
County Magistrate Fu pondered for a moment and said nothing.
The chief clerk who followed him hurriedly said, "Sir, let's go to the next house."
County Magistrate Fu glanced at him and asked Zhou Daliang, "How many acres of wheat and rice did your family plant this year? How many acres were flooded? Did you plant beans?"
Zhou Daliang answered them one by one.
County Magistrate Fu nodded and asked the legal advisor to take note of his situation. He then took people to check on the other two families. Those two families were also drying grain in the yard. It could be said that now everyone in the village was drying moldy and blackened grain in the yard.
Everyone had good reasons, "The sun is only shining for the past two days. If we don't dry it quickly, it might rain again later."
It is expected to be available next week, and the version will be reversed by then, so if you haven't read it yet, hurry up and read it, otherwise after the version is reversed, you will have to pay to read some of the current chapters.
(End of this chapter)
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