In reality, the grain ran out in less than a month, and the villagers flocked to the granary to seize the seeds left by the production team.
This incident caused quite a stir, even involving the militia. However, some of the militia members also had elderly, weak, sick, or disabled family members who joined in the looting.
The authorities dispatched a special investigation team to search house to house because of this. Because it happened so suddenly, many houses were caught off guard and they actually found quite a few things.
When the commune secretary called all the brigade leaders together for a meeting, he specifically mentioned their brigade, saying that they had a serious small-peasant mentality.
Their production team leader finally couldn't hold back and retorted.
"How can you compare these two things? You can find grain in production teams with a lot of resources, but what about us? Because you boasted about yielding 10,000 catties per mu, the whole production team cooperated with you in your exercise. Now the communal canteen has been shut down, and every household is starving. People are almost starving to death. Why don't you mention this?"
“We suffered because of the exaggeration policy. The higher authorities collected grain taxes based on the falsely reported yields. By the time we handed over the grain, there were hardly any grains left in the granary. It’s fortunate that I closed the communal canteen in advance. If I hadn’t closed it, who knows what kind of mess things would have become now!”
...
As soon as he finished speaking, the other brigade leaders of their Red Flag Commune began to ridicule their brigade leader.
"Whose fault is this? You all shot yourselves in the foot. You brought this on yourselves, don't you understand?"
Just as things were about to escalate into an argument, the commune secretary quickly stepped in to stop the conversation and continued.
"The work team is coming soon. Since we can't escape or stop them, and they won't give us any grain, in order to avoid being in a passive position, each of your brigades should go back and put up a grain exhibition. Say that there's plenty of grain, enough for everyone to eat. Let's work together to get through this and that'll be the end of it."
The captain of their third production team was the first to get restless.
"Let's not talk about those who have food, but how can we exhibit those of us who don't have food?"
The Party Secretary was furious when he heard this. "Why are you all so troublesome? I came to your brigade first. Go back and get ready!"
The captain's face darkened. He was angry but couldn't vent his anger. He was very resentful. What kind of person is this? If you have a problem, you can bring it up. You can bring it up however you want. But after you bring it up, he won't help you solve it. You have to figure it out yourself. What kind of person is this?
Upon returning to the village, the village chiefs were summoned by the brigade leader, and upon hearing the contents of the meeting, they all erupted in anger.
“We already didn’t have enough food. With such a large family, we’ve eaten everything we could find. Now we can’t even find dried vegetables or roots in the yard. The drought is so severe, the river has dried up, and the ground is so cracked that even the dry sod has been pulled away. Now everyone’s eyeing the tree leaves. And you still want us to hold a food exhibition? Aren’t you just pushing us to the brink of despair?”
"That's right, how many elderly people in our village have passed away this year? In this sweltering heat, we can't even keep them alive. They haven't eaten, they have no strength, they can't even dig up the cracked ground. We don't even have the money to buy a decent coffin for them. And because so many people have passed away, we can't even get a number in line, so in the end we can only bury them hastily, hastily!"
“The old man can’t eat hard food. As for those women who have just given birth, let alone eggs, they can’t even cook a decent bowl of rice porridge. If they’re not eating enough, how can they produce breast milk? Old Wang’s daughter-in-law and child died within three days. It was a son! Don’t you feel sorry for them?”
"That's right, more and more people in our village are getting ascites. I heard they're so hungry they're eating clay. It's only been a few days, how did it get to this point? People are starving to death so easily! And they still don't take it seriously, they're even making us provide food to appease the work team? Do they have no conscience?"
...
Actually, this didn't happen suddenly. The weather is dry, making people prone to illness and internal heat. In addition, people are often hungry, which makes them irritable and restless. Many people stay up all night looking for food. How can people store food when they are hungry?
The grain distributed initially was only a month's worth estimated by the production team, but how could families with elderly members and children possibly last a month?
Xiao Jiu and Cuihua had told their families early on that no matter who came to ask for food, they should not help anyone.
This is like surviving in the apocalypse. Whoever softens their heart first will be in big trouble. For food, they might even kill their whole family.
Even his brothers who lived away from home found out about it and wrote letters home to inquire after him.
My fifth and sixth sisters stayed in the city to try and earn more money to help with food rations, which is why they didn't come back for the summer vacation.
The older brothers were the same; upon learning of the disaster in their hometown, they tried every means to find food and send it back.
In addition to soybean cake, there are also various kinds of bran, wheat straw, rice straw, and corn stalks that are crushed and made into pig feed.
They kept all this pig feed; they plan to eat it when they run out of food at home.
They hid everything that would keep them from starving, and the village sent people to search several times, but they found nothing.
They didn't shut themselves off and live their own lives. Whenever there were any activities in the village, their parents and grandparents would go out to participate. They would often cry and beg for food for their little sister. The eldest sister even arranged for the thin third sister to faint at the gate. All of this was to cover up the truth.
Otherwise, who knows how much they would be framed and attacked behind their backs, since people's hearts are the most vulnerable to being tested.
Under such circumstances, the two families in Xiaojiu only dared to eat thin porridge to maintain their figures, and only when they were really starving would they steam some vegetable dumplings.
Even so, Xiao Jiu often wakes up hungry in the middle of the night. In these situations, she eats boiled eggs, which is the most practical and effective way to lose weight. She can eat two eggs and a salted duck egg in one go.
Since the duck eggs weren't very salty, and there were no pancakes, I washed some lettuce leaves and rolled them up like pancakes to eat.
If it weren't for this giving her a temporary respite, she probably would have developed stomach problems from hunger.
Her parents and grandparents would occasionally give her some snacks, like fried soybeans, fried peanuts, or fried yellow soybeans. Whenever her stomach acid kicked in, the experienced ones would put a few of these life-saving treats in her mouth.
The village is in such a state, yet they still put on a show for the investigation team. That's really enough.
Xiao Jiu wanted to see what ideas these people could come up with to deal with the work group from above.
To save money, my older siblings didn't come back.
My fifth sister took the college entrance exam on July 7th. They sent her a message beforehand to cheer her on. After the exam, she wrote back to everyone, saying she performed as expected. As for whether she will pass, we don't know yet; we'll have to wait for news.
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