Chapter 381 The Disaster Expands
What can the village chief do?
He sat on a chair in the main hall of his house, his fingers unconsciously stroking the rough surface of the chair.
He let these people kneel on the cold ground, while he sat upright on a chair with his eyes half closed, not saying a word, nor waving to ask them to get up.
The sun was blazing outside, making the stone slabs in the yard hot, but inside the house it was so quiet that one could hear the chirping of crickets in the corners and the suppressed sobs of the villagers.
As those people cried, their voices gradually became softer, and it seemed as if their tears had dried up, leaving only their shoulders still shaking slightly.
They looked at each other, their eyes full of despair and unwillingness.
One of the dark-skinned men gritted his teeth, as if he had made up his mind.
He raised his head and said in a hoarse voice, "Village chief, if you are willing to help us, I am willing to give you one-third of my family's food!"
In his opinion, the village chief was reluctant to give in simply because he wanted them to pay a price.
A few days ago, he passed by the cellar of the village chief's house and saw that the cellar was large and deep. The water stored in it was probably enough for their family to use for three years.
They don't ask for much, as long as they can maintain their daily food and drink, they are satisfied.
The village chief suddenly raised his head, his eyes widened, and his face turned red.
It's not shame, it's anger.
He stood up and pointed at the man, cursing, "Shut up, you bastard! Am I the kind of person who would take advantage of you to get something for yourself? Am I that kind of person?"
Seeing this, the others quickly waved their hands and chimed in. "No, no, no, Village Chief, you're not! You absolutely are not! Everyone in this area knows that you're the most upright and compassionate person in the village!"
Having said that, they still had some doubts in their hearts, thinking that the village chief might be pretending.
He wanted to gain a good reputation, and also wanted to get some food or money from them, and finally pretend to be forced into a helpless situation.
Seeing this, another man in a patched short coat gritted his teeth and said, "Village Chief, I know you worked so hard to dig the cellar, and we won't take your water for nothing. I'm willing to give you five taels of silver, just to take five loads of water from your house!"
Fortunately, he has been working in a papermaking workshop for the past six months and has not dared to spend a penny of his wages. His wife also saves the money she earns from needlework and odd jobs.
If he took out five taels of silver at once, his family would definitely live a tight life in the future, but it was better than dying of thirst.
When a person dies, he loses everything, and his wife and children become someone else's.
After hearing this, the village chief sighed heavily and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes squeezed together.
He glanced at his wife, who was standing at the doorway of the inner room, glaring at him fiercely, and finally said, "Forget it. You give me twenty coins a day, and each family can take five loads of water from my house every day. But if you want more, there's no more!"
As the head of the village, he felt like a stone was pressing on his heart when he saw his fellow villagers kneeling on the ground and crying for help. In the end, he couldn't bear to watch them die.
Twenty cents?
The man who had just spoken suddenly stood up from the ground, his eyes wide open, his face full of disbelief, and asked again: "Village Chief, are you sure it's really twenty cents?"
"Why, you think it's too much?" the village chief asked irritably, "If you think it's too much, you don't have to come!"
Hearing this, everyone quickly shook their heads and waved their hands, forcing ingratiating smiles on their faces. "Not much, not much at all. We're willing to give, willing to give!"
"Hmph!" The village chief snorted coldly, his tone still stiff, "You can only come to fetch water at noon. No one will be served after that time!"
"I understand, I understand! Thank you, village chief, thank you, village chief! We will go home and get buckets of water!" Everyone responded quickly, crawled up from the ground as if they had been pardoned, and hurried out.
After sending these people away, the village chief turned around, the seriousness on his face instantly fading, replaced by a flattering smile. He rubbed his hands at his wife at the door of the inner room. "Meihua, look how pitiful they are! They're almost out of water. As the village chief, I can't just watch them die, can I?"
When Duan Meihua heard this, she became furious.
He walked up to the village chief, put his hands on his hips, pointed at his nose and cursed, "How pitiful are they? Didn't they inform them when the village was digging a water cellar? You ran to their house three times a day, begging them to dig a cellar, but they were lazy and didn't want to dig! Now there's no water to drink, who to blame? Blame themselves!"
"Now you're scared and come to you for help? You're the only one who plays nice! There are so many families in the village who have dug cellars, why don't they ask others for help instead of coming to you?"
Duan Meihua became more and more angry as she spoke, and her eyes scanned the yard as if she was looking for something.
The village chief had been with her for decades, and as soon as he saw her attitude, he knew what she was going to do.
This is to find someone suitable to teach him a lesson!
He quickly dodged and rushed to the door, shouting, "Plum blossom, please stay home. I'm going to the fields to see how the crops are growing!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he ran away.
Duan Meihua threw the broom she had just picked up in the corner to the ground, and the broom handle made a "dong" sound when it hit the ground.
She put her hands on her hips and cursed at the door: "You damned bastard, if you have the guts to get out, don't come back!"
How dare the village chief come back?
He walked quickly to the fields outside the village and looked at the cracked earth, the cracks of which looked like open mouths.
The rice in the field drooped its head listlessly, its ears were shriveled, and its leaves were curled and yellow.
The more he looked, the more upset he felt. He kept shaking his head and sighing, and walked back with heavy steps.
Halfway through the journey, he thought of his wife's furious expression and, figuring she was still angry, he turned around and decided to go to the papermaking workshop.
But after walking a few steps, he suddenly remembered that the workshop had stopped working long ago due to lack of water, and the workers who originally worked in the workshop were now staying at home and doing nothing.
For a while, he had nowhere to go.
Oh, what a commotion!
He squatted dejectedly under the big banyan tree in the village. Most of the leaves of the banyan tree had fallen, revealing bare branches.
The sun above was scorching, burning the earth without any hindrance, and the air was filled with a hot smell.
He looked up at the cloudless sky and muttered to himself, "Oh my God, what are you going to do to us ordinary people? Are you trying to kill us?"
But no matter how the village chief called out and prayed in his heart, no rain fell in Annan County.
The days passed one by one, and three months passed in the blink of an eye.
The water in the river had long since dried up, leaving the riverbed exposed and cracked into pieces.
There is no longer any green on the hills in front, behind, left and right, only withered yellow and charred black.
At dinner, Gu Yuhe was picking at the dry and hard rice in his bowl. Looking at the sour cowpeas and dried radishes on the table, his brows furrowed and he whispered, "Mom, I want to eat some bok choy."
He missed the green cabbages that he had once despised.
"It's good enough to have something to eat, but you still want to eat bok choy?" Grandma glared at him, her tone filled with disappointment. "Don't you know? Water in the next county is already selling for thirty cents a bucket."
"That water isn't clean and clear; there's a lot of sediment underneath. But even this kind of water isn't available every day."
"In counties further away, people have already started selling their children."
What?
Gu Jiayue looked up, her face filled with shock and disbelief. "Didn't Chief Jiang Shan inform their county magistrate in advance to store water? Why did this happen?"
Grandma shook her head, picked up her chopsticks, picked up a piece of dried radish, and put it in her mouth. "I don't know about that. Anyway, when your aunt and I went to the county town yesterday, we saw with our own eyes that human traffickers brought back dozens of children from the neighboring county. They were so skinny that they were just skin and bones. It was heartbreaking to see them."
Gu Jiayue was stunned, unable to accept this fact for a moment. He even hoped that his grandmother had seen it wrong.
But grandma never lies about things like this.
She frowned, feeling puzzled.
Jiang Luli had clearly informed them in advance, and they knew the drought was coming. Furthermore, cement factories had been built in every county, so how could anyone be forced to sell their children because they had no drinking water?
Gu Yuchuan put down his bowl and chopsticks with no expression on his face.
He seemed to have anticipated this result.
He patted Gu Jiayue's arm and said calmly, "You have to understand that not every county magistrate is as dedicated as Zheng Qinghe. If they don't take advantage of the opportunity to exploit the people, they are already good officials. Can you still expect them to work sincerely for the people?"
Gu Yuchuan was right.
Although Jiang Luli issued orders to each county magistrate, asking them to notify the people under their jurisdiction to dig a reservoir as soon as possible, and then go to the cement workshop to get cement for reinforcement.
But Jiang Luli left after giving his instructions. Most of the county magistrates just went through the motions, sending someone to inform them. As for whether the people followed his instructions or not, they didn't care or ask.
It is better to have less trouble than more.
Anyway, how could a powerful person like Jiang Luli have the time to pay attention to these trivial matters?
Even if he asks about it, I can just make up an excuse, such as "the people are unwilling to cooperate" to get away with it.
By then, those who were destined to die of starvation or thirst would have died, and it would be impossible to find any witnesses.
If they had that much time, they would be better off spending it on making friends with their superiors or doing more profitable business. If that didn't work out, having a few more children with their concubines or mistresses would be much more enjoyable than worrying about the lives of the common people.
"But they are the officials who support the people. They should work for the people!" Gu Jiayue's voice trembled slightly, and she felt angry and anxious.
Officials are the parents of the people. If they don’t work for the people, can they still be called officials?
Gu Jiayue is not a naive person. She has always known the darkness of officialdom, which exists to a greater or lesser extent wherever it is.
But she still couldn't accept that such a situation would occur when there were already warnings and response plans.
The atmosphere at the dinner table suddenly became depressing. Gu Yuchuan looked at Gu Jiayue's furrowed brow, reached out his hand, and gently patted her shoulder. "Don't think too much, we have tried our best."
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