The water level in the well gradually dropped and cracks began to appear in the ground.
The village chief bent down, holding the rice ears in his hands, and pinched them with his fingers. They were solid. He smelled the charming aroma of the grain and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"How is it? Village chief, can we harvest today?" A group of people stood on the edge of the field with sickles in their hands, staring at the village chief.
The village chief didn't keep them in suspense. He knew everyone was anxious and nodded at them. "Let's harvest the rice first!"
"good!"
After receiving the order, they immediately began to divide the work according to the assembly line.
A total of two acres of rice were planted, and five people were assigned to harvest each acre, and the harvest was completed in half a day.
The rice was neatly harvested, bundled, and carried to the threshing ground to dry. The elderly and children followed behind, picking up the fallen grain. Those with bags took them, while those without held them with the hem of their clothes, ensuring that not a single grain was wasted.
For fear of being discovered by outsiders, they spoke in low voices and dared not make jokes, enjoying a kind of silent happiness.
Changle Village hasn’t felt this kind of joy of harvest for a long time!
"This crop is great! Better than what we had before!"
"Yes, they feel heavy to the touch. We need to pick the best rice ears for seeds."
"We must stay!"
"The Jiang couple are truly our saviors!"
The village chief rubbed his aching waist, looked at the scorching sun above, and sweat flowed into his eyes. He shouted, "Everyone on patrol today, pay attention! Don't let anyone break in. This is our lifeline!"
"Yes!" Zhuzi and Tiezi, as patrol captains, responded in a rough voice. If anyone broke in, they would die first to apologize!
After harvesting the rice and threshing the grains, some people were left to guard the threshing ground while the next group of people began to harvest the wheat.
This place is located at the junction of the north and the south, and rice and wheat grow well there.
As for their beans, sweet potatoes and potatoes, they are harvested around September. Fortunately, these are drought-resistant and there will be no problem as long as they are harvested before the frost comes.
In previous years when the weather was good, a harvest of around three stones from a medium-sized field was already a blessing from God, not to mention the wasteland in a disaster year. The villagers who had already prepared for a dismal harvest were stunned.
"This! Is this weighed correctly?" I originally only prepared three small sacks, but this time they are not enough!
An old man couldn't wait any longer and rushed over, picking up the sack with both hands. After weighing it a few times, he knew the weight. They had been farming for a lifetime, so their hands could tell the weight of the grain better than a scale.
His mouth was wide open, "That's right!"
This one acre of barren land, meticulously tended by the experienced farmers, unexpectedly yielded three dan and six dou of grain in the first year! Even though it was still wet and unhusked, once it dried, it would yield about three dan of edible rice! Two acres of land, that's six dan!
The situation was similar with wheat, which yielded much more than they expected!
At this moment, they were only thinking about surviving, not even thinking about taxes. They were starving to death, and the government hadn't done anything to help the victims. And yet, they still wanted to collect grain taxes from the people? They were afraid they wouldn't even be able to enter the village before being overrun by the villagers!
Everyone couldn't help crying when they saw the golden food.
"We're saved! We won't starve to death anymore!"
"Mom! Did you see that up there? My son has food to eat!"
Every household burst into tears and felt really sad. They just wanted to have enough to eat, so why was it so difficult?
Now that the Jiang family had given them a way to live, they all came to the Jiang family's door and kowtowed to express their gratitude. Jiang Yue accepted it without saying much, just taking it as a way to reassure them.
As for the grain sent by the village chief, she only collected two kilograms each, as if she was collecting the seeds.
As for the original yield of the grain seeds she gave, let's not talk about it. This is affected by many factors such as climate, soil, fertilizer, etc. Don't just say it out of thin air to give people high expectations, otherwise they will regret it when they can't grow it themselves.
On the day when the grain was dried and stored in the cellar, the village chief asked everyone to put two more handfuls of rice into the pot.
Although it was still porridge, you could see plenty of rice grains in the soup, and the aroma of new rice was strong! Every household licked their bowls clean, not even needing water to wash them. The children even drooled in their dreams.
Not only them, but even the bandits received a few bowls of rice porridge and were so moved that they burst into tears...
The villagers carefully gathered the straw, which was useful for starting fires and keeping warm. As for the roots of the seedlings in the fields, they burned them to fertilize the soil. They would have to continue planting next year, so they definitely needed to take good care of the land.
The Fang family in Fengtian City was also secretly doing something big.
The land in their yard wasn't fertile or large enough, just enough to grow some vegetables. There was already a well in the yard, so they didn't attract attention if they stayed indoors.
But Fang the butcher had an idea. He took his eldest son out and secretly cleared a small piece of land on Tianxia Mountain. He used two mu of land to grow wheat and the rest of the land to grow beans.
For fear of being discovered by others, they always take great pains to cover their tracks and block the way with weeds.
Every two or three days they had to go up the mountain to water the fields. Fortunately, the soil in the mountains was moist, not as water-scarce as outside. The only major drawback was that it was an easy target for insects and rats, and if they weren't careful, they'd be easily eaten.
When the harvest was about to begin, Fang the butcher gritted his teeth and went up the mountain to stay there for a few days, eating and sleeping there, for fear that anything might go wrong.
Even after the wheat harvest, he refused to leave the mountain, insisting on waiting until the beans were ripe. With no more land or produce to trade for food, he lived in the mountains, unkempt and like a wild man.
As August arrived, the sun became even more intense. The adults in Changle Village built a roof over the fish pond to provide shade and covered it with large leaves.
Despite this, the children visited the pond daily and always saw dead fish. They cried every time they saw a baby fish turn upside down. The earth was cracked, and with no water, the dragonflies in the pit were no longer growing. Some had become shrunken corpses.
Even the adults felt sorry for him because he looked so depressed, but there was nothing they could do as the weather was controlled by God.
The village head's wife looked at the chickens in the henhouse with a heartache. She had hatched these half-grown chicks and cared for them like her own children. For the first two months, they were still cheerfully eating insects and growing rapidly.
But it has been wilting for a while now, wishing to soak in water and not move, and is not even very active in eating.
She had to mix her food thinner and check it three times a day, fearing she'd die of thirst or choking. It was almost time for the eggs to lay, and she couldn't afford to let anything go wrong.
The rest of the place was maintained normally, except for the fields, where there was a problem. The old farmers in the village didn't know how to take care of the potatoes and sweet potatoes, so Jiang Yue had to keep an eye on them for a few more times.
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