Upon hearing this, the three village chiefs' eyes turned red; more than half of their men had fallen!
After discussing it, the three village chiefs decided that the team would be subject to centralized management from now on.
Centralized control is an effective measure that villages have consistently used to cope with famine and drought during years of disaster.
Previously, a certain amount of grain was collected from each household in the village and then distributed equally among respected people in the village.
Food is distributed to households without food, one meal a day, just enough to keep them from starving. Of course, households without food must contribute some useful resources, such as herbs, clothing, or jewelry. Those with nothing else must do manual labor. In any case, they cannot receive food for free.
In this way, the villagers were able to survive the years of famine.
In Anping Village, every household has to contribute some resources to the village every year for public use, which lays the foundation for centralized management in the event of future disasters.
Things are different now. The water is long gone, and some families may still have a little dried meat left. There are hardly any usable household utensils left, as they have all been looted. The only thing we can do is ask each family in the group to hand over some of their farm tools, pottery jars, and the food they find each day.
After reaching an agreement, the three village chiefs sent word that the teams would be under centralized control from now on.
After the grassland was cleared, everyone took their tools back. Not long after, the village chief gathered everyone together and told them that the team would be under centralized control from now on. After saying that, he asked everyone to hand over their belongings.
Except for those who are seriously injured or ill, the order of treatment for other wounded and sick people will be determined according to the items submitted by each family.
The families began handing over their belongings, including farm tools, earthenware jars, dried donkey meat, freshly dug grass roots and Smilax glabra, and freshly caught insects.
The village chief had people keep a record of what each household handed in, and food would be distributed according to what each household handed in each day.
The food collected was very little, not enough to share with an entire village, but it was still early, and they had a whole day to find food.
Farm tools were also scarce, consisting of only eight pottery jars.
After exchanging the gifts, the Bai clan members gathered together to worship their ancestors and pray for their blessings. They hoped that the ancestors would grant them something in return.
When the others in the group saw that they were going to pay respects to their ancestors, they also followed along to join in the fun and kneel down to seek peace of mind.
The newcomers to the team looked at them with blank expressions.
The young scholar from the Zhao family was also wounded by an arrow. Unfortunately, his elder brother was also hit by an arrow and slashed, and was unconscious.
Because they are outsiders, their own family can't even take care of them, so no one helps them, and they can't even get medical treatment.
The Zhao family also wanted to join their centralized control, but they had nothing to submit. They planned to weave some rattan baskets later and then talk to the person in charge of the group to see if they could be allowed to join.
Zhao Tongsheng was still conscious. The old lady of the Zhao family wanted to help him kneel down with everyone else to ask for blessings. She also brought along any other family members who were still around.
Seeing that these people seemed possessed, Zhao Tongsheng suspected that they had joined a cult, which startled him.
The old lady from the Zhao family said from the side, "Son, when they kneel down, we should kneel down too."
The people of Lijia Village also knelt down, looking completely bewildered. They also wanted to join the centralized control, so they decided to follow local customs.
Seeing the Bai clan's commotion, the Chen family also brought out their ancestral tablets and knelt to pay their respects.
The memorial tablet was brought out by the eldest brother. How could they lose it? Although it was hastily hand-carved by the family, it had been used for kneeling for many years and had received their incense offerings.
Chen Kai told Xiao Bao to take out the hay after he finished kowtowing. Since no one was paying attention to them, they would have an excuse to take the hay out.
So, just as the Chen family finished kowtowing, they saw a bunch of plants suddenly sprout from the ground, taller than sugarcane and with thicker stems. They were overjoyed at first, but then they were stunned.
To be honest, Xiao Bao was also stunned. This guy is just too tall!
These Napier grasses are all about four or five meters tall, and some even grow to more than six meters tall. The stems are three to four centimeters in diameter and look similar to sugarcane.
This is a modern, improved, and excellent product; of course it looks good.
That's why people didn't think it was Napier grass. Although it looks like sugarcane, there aren't sugarcane plants this tall.
When Chen Kai saw this pile of Napier grass, he realized that they had been making a misunderstanding all along.
Anything produced by the system is guaranteed to be top-notch! So many days have passed, and all they've been thinking about is that little bit of water from the system.
This bunch of Napier grass is way better than a bottle of water; one Napier grass plant is worth a bottle of water.
But they underestimated the grass, thinking that water was more important.
Zhou counted the Napier grass around the plant and said with a beaming smile, "There are thirty in total. We'll give five to the team, cut off the rest, and hand over a handful to the team."
As for the leaves, of course they were reserved for the family's donkey and dog.
More than ten dogs and a donkey were wolfing down a pile of Napier grass leaves, and even Shirakawa's dogs came over to snatch the food.
The Zhou family cut the stems of the royal bamboo into sections, and each child received a section first.
The eldest son's wife said, "Don't throw away the torn skin and chewed bits; put them aside to feed the donkey."
Their donkeys ate nothing but dry hay and grass roots the whole way, which were devoid of nutrition, and they became very thin from hunger.
When the fourth brother carried five bamboo stalks to hand them over, everyone was stunned. Had the Chen family ancestor appeared again to bestow gifts? They were truly favored; they had just paid homage to the ancestor and received no reward.
After putting the things down, the fourth brother smiled and said, "If you have any medicine, don't forget to give it to our family first. By the way, we also have some grass roots, which are handed over to the village. You can go and get them yourselves."
The village chief asked curiously, "This is... sugarcane?"
Fourth brother: "Yes, it's sugarcane, a gift from our ancestors."
They don't care; they want to call something as good as sugarcane, or some kind of grass.
The roots of Napier grass are very developed, thin and long, really long, longer than the stem diameter, about 12 meters long. Because of the host's needs, the system automatically cleans these roots.
So, despite having so many clean roots and stems, the Zhou family was only willing to hand over a handful. They couldn't bear to eat the sugarcane themselves, wanting to save it for their children, but they were willing to eat these grass roots.
The village chief's daughter-in-law came over and was stunned to see so much sugarcane! And a huge pile of grass roots too!
The Zhou family had already cut the sugarcane into sections and piled them aside. They had no cover, so everyone could tell what they had at a glance. They weren't afraid of being envied; let them come if they dared.
The eldest son's wife had already pulled out a handful; it was actually just the root of a sugarcane plant.
"Here, that's enough, isn't it? Several families couldn't dig this much in a whole day."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com