While everyone was busy, the crops in the fields yielded a new harvest. Fortunately, this time it was harvested before the severe drought, and with the help of poultry manure as fertilizer, the potatoes and sweet potatoes that everyone planted had a bumper harvest.
To make storage easier, everyone dried everything except for the seeds. This increased the workload, and everyone became busy.
The villagers are discussing whether or not to go out, but if they don't go out, the supply of necessities in the village will gradually run out.
It's worth mentioning that ever since the village dug that long trench on the back mountain, perhaps because of the extremely hot and humid weather, all the snakes on the back mountain have been hiding at the bottom of the trench. At first, everyone was horrified to see the dense swarms of snakes at the bottom of the trench; it was almost like the legendary cave of ten thousand snakes.
Later, the wild animals on the mountain, whether they wanted to come to the village in search of food or were attracted by the snakes at the bottom of the pit, gradually began to fall into the pit. Those who found it early could be hooked out, but those who found it late would be poisoned or strangled to death by the snakes.
At first, no one paid much attention to these things, until one day, a family of wild boars fell into the pit. The villagers saw that they were still alive and kicking and were racking their brains trying to figure out how to get them out. But later they discovered that the boars had started eating snakes inside, and the snakes actually started to avoid them when they encountered them, which everyone found very strange.
Since they could eat snakes, no one bothered to get them out; they simply let them fend for themselves. After they moved in, the number of snakes at the bottom of the pit gradually decreased, while the wild boars at the bottom of the pit gradually grew bigger and fatter. The place had become a natural pig farm, and everyone decided to treat the wild boars in the pit as the common property of the village.
Now that we're preparing to go out, we need to prepare some supplies. In addition to each family's preparations, the village is also planning to catch two large wild boars and make them into cured meat, which we'll take with us when we go out.
The items that can be exchanged have been agreed upon, but no one has a clear idea of where to go or what to exchange them for.
"The most urgent thing we need right now is salt and rapeseed seeds. Can you think of any places around here where we can get these?" That day, the village chief gathered everyone in the square again and asked them for suggestions.
"There are rapeseed seeds in the next town. Before the disaster, we went there to see the rapeseed flowers. They had hundreds of acres of rapeseed fields back then, it was so beautiful." Chen Baoguo used to enjoy driving around when he had free time, so he knew the area quite well.
"As for salt, I heard Zhixin mention it once before. The army used to have a lot of salt stored up, but due to the earthquake and tectonic movement, that batch of salt is now buried underground. They can't find it now, so they can't guarantee the salt needs of our area. We have to find a solution ourselves." The second grandfather was more regretful than anyone else about this batch of salt. According to his son, the amount was enough for the people in this area to use for decades, but now it's all gone.
"So we're going to have to go to the coast to look for it? Didn't they say there was a major earthquake and tsunami in the coastal areas? Even if we go there now, we won't find any salt. We can't just dry the salt ourselves, can we?"
"Even if you could go to the seaside to make salt, you wouldn't dare eat the salt produced. After such a major earthquake, who knows how many harmful substances are still in the sea? Don't even think about taking salt from the sea these next few years."
"What can we do then? People can't live without salt. I should have stored up dozens of tons of it back then."
"Why worry about 'if only'? We should hurry up and think of a solution. Even if we have to go to the next province to exchange for salt, we have to go. Otherwise, how will we survive without salt?"
"Actually, it's not that there's no way. Besides sea salt, there's also mineral salt and well salt, right? There's well salt in the neighboring province of S. It's just that the journey is too far, and it may take a lot of time to get there. Moreover, there will be many unknown dangers along the way." From the moment everyone started talking about looking for salt, Yun Qi had already looked up books and found out the distribution of mineral salt. She actually found the closest well salt, but given the current situation, the round trip would take much longer.
"No matter how far it is, we have to make the trip. Even if we're not in a hurry right now, salt will eventually run out."
"Yes, luckily we brought back a batch from the county town before, otherwise we would have run out by now."
"If there were any other gangs somewhere, we could take them down and then double-cross them, wouldn't that be so exciting!" Sun Shaolei was lost in his fantasies.
"You're always thinking about these crooked and evil ideas." His cousin Sun Shaofeng, who was standing next to him, slapped him on the head.
“If that’s the case, each family will have to send a strong laborer to go out with them, and their return date is uncertain. Wouldn’t that mean the safety of the village is not guaranteed?” Lu Jiafu’s first thought was about the safety of the village.
"You don't need to worry about that. When you go out, you'll definitely need to contact a few nearby villages, and they'll definitely need salt too. Once you've all set off, have Zhixin and the others guard the section of road leading to the county town, and make sure each village is sealed off. That way, everything will be foolproof." The village had already considered these issues beforehand; otherwise, they wouldn't have dared to send so many people out to find salt.
"Since everyone is preparing to set off, let's make preparations in the next few days. Once we've notified the nearby villages and agreed on the departure date, we'll all travel together. But while you're still at home these days, quickly turn over the soil and see if you can plant some drought-resistant crops. The coming days are definitely going to be tough, so plant as much as you can," Grandpa San said earnestly to everyone. According to historical records, droughts often last for several years in a row, and if we don't prepare, we'll be in a very passive position when the time comes.
In the days that followed, everyone discussed how to go and who should go.
This opportunity to go out is quite rare, and in order to bring back more salt, each family wants two people to go with them. However, this will leave some elderly people and children behind in the village.
Seeing that everyone had been arguing about this issue all day, Si Cheng recalled the time they had gone up the mountain together to carry tea seeds. He suggested that each family could send one able-bodied man and one woman, but with one condition: they had to be physically strong to go. This way, they could preserve some of the village's strength and carry back as much salt as possible.
This method gained widespread acceptance and spread to several nearby villages, with each household matching their ingredients according to this standard, thus expanding the team.
But then the problem arises: with so many people traveling, should each person manage their own affairs, or should a leader be chosen?
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