roccoschili Chapter 110 Huaihe County without Water
Chapter 110 Huaihe County without Water
Sanshi Village
Su Bingyi was also very worried at this time. Their village harvested 13 kilograms of sweet potatoes from kilograms of sweet potato seeds in the summer. Everyone who planted sweet potatoes was as happy as if it were New Year's Day after the harvest.
Those who have not planted sweet potato seeds run to the village chief's house every day. They must get sweet potato seeds for replanting after the summer harvest.
Su Bingyi was blocked by people at home every day and he couldn't escape no matter how hard he tried. He had no choice but to exchange his sweet potatoes with people in the village. Those who had some money gave them money directly, and those who didn't had to agree to pay back as much as they borrowed during the autumn harvest.
Su Bingzhong just couldn't get this kind of advantage. Su Bingyi made it clear that if Su He, who was in charge of the sweet potato distribution, didn't allow it, he would never distribute it. The whole village knew about the division of the family, and it was impossible for anyone from the same village to get any share from Su Bingzhong's family.
The Su family could only watch others make money.
Wang Cuicui yelled and cursed at home every day, the first wife followed suit and fanned the flames, the second wife, Su Decai, brought her wife and daughter to listen to the lecture, and the third wife watched coldly. There was never a good atmosphere in this family.
He Nian'er is in a difficult situation now because she deliberately used contraception, which resulted in her not getting pregnant yet. She doesn't care even though Wang Cuicui dislikes her.
If her mother-in-law was too harsh and refused to give her and her daughter food, she would immediately tell Su Decai, "I work hard every day in this house, but I can't even eat. My mother-in-law doesn't like me and Jiaojiao. It's better for us to get a divorce. I'll take Jiaojiao back to my parents' home so that I can at least have something to eat."
Su Decai was surprised at He Nian'er's toughness. Of course, he didn't want to divorce. First, he was very satisfied with He Nian'er, and second, his family would not spend money to help him get married.
Su Decai went to talk to Wang Cuicui in person, and from then on the mother and daughter never went without meals, but they were forced to listen to some unpleasant words every day.
He Nian'er was not afraid at all. She had saved thirty taels of silver this year. Su He had also promised that if they divorced, she would help her find a job. For example, sweet potatoes would definitely be available.
Sometimes she even wished she could divorce Su Decai so that she could grow sweet potatoes herself.
Sweet potatoes are now a treasure, and are sold at a higher price than wheat. The yield is even more amazing. Even if you plant one acre of land, you can earn dozens of taels a year. For families with many fields, they can dream of becoming city dwellers after planting sweet potatoes for a year.
Therefore, during the replanting in June, the fields were almost entirely planted with sweet potatoes.
Just when everyone was looking forward to the harvest, the water supply in the well was cut off, and the people in the village went crazy.
Su Bingyi had only been quiet for two months when his headache started again and he was blocked at home by villagers again.
"Village head, the water level in the well has dropped a little. Now the villagers are queuing up to get water at night. What should we do?"
Several older people were crying. They were about to get the money, but suddenly it was gone. Who could accept this?
Su Bingyi sat weakly on the kang. He had a hunch that the water level would continue to drop. What's the point of taking care of the fields if even drinking water could not be guaranteed?
The same is true for Dahe Village, but Dahe Village is a little better than Sanshi Village in that there are four wells in Dahe Village, and one of them is a deep well. The water level has not dropped for the time being.
Su He has already asked Liu Bai to go to the city to buy a tank and a water bag.
The tank is for use at home, and the water bag is for preparation for the future. In case we really need to move, it is necessary for everyone to have a water bag.
In addition to this, there was oil paper, and Su He spent another 50 taels of silver. This money had to be spent.
As for the tools for escaping famine, she had two horse-drawn carriages, which were just right for the two mules. With the other four cows, she could buy four more carts or horse-drawn carriages. Since Su He had a lot of money, she must have thought of buying a horse-drawn carriage.
Let’s talk about the household belongings and the pots and pans in the kitchen. If you want to follow the simplest approach, just use a big iron pot, a bowl and a pair of chopsticks for each person, and a kitchen knife.
Food should be kept away from moisture and dust. You can wrap it with oil paper and put it in a sealed jar. To prevent flour from getting infested with insects, you can just put some peppercorns and garlic on the side. Try to prevent it as long as possible.
Dried sweet potatoes can be used as both a staple food and a vegetable. There are a lot of them stored in the Suhe space. These were made for her by Juhua and others in more than two months, and she stored most of them in the space.
There was also dried meat. Su He asked Liu Niang to make more than 1,000 kilograms of dried meat in the county. Most of it was stored in the space, and 400 kilograms were placed at home as a sample.
In the past two months, he has produced more than 700 kilograms of sweet potato flour. Now that there is a shortage of water, Su He doesn't want to make it anymore.
The entire corridor is made of three-layer wooden racks, with rows of bamboo winnowing baskets filled with dried sweet potatoes drying on them. They are replaced as one batch is ready.
Half a month later, the water level dropped sharply, and it suddenly reached a point where it was only enough for the villagers to drink, and there was no water at all for irrigating the fields.
We can only harvest it early.
This time the whole village was plunged into sorrow. This batch of sweet potatoes was small in size and had a low yield due to lack of water. The best first-class fields produced more than 2,000 kilograms, while the wasteland produced 800 kilograms at most and only 500 kilograms at least. Although it still had advantages over growing wheat, the villagers who were used to high yields could not accept it.
In fact, they didn't know that the entire Jinyang City was facing a water shortage problem. Other villages originally produced 500 kilograms of wheat per mu, but this autumn harvest was only 300 kilograms, which was their entire year's harvest. Even if the harvest was less, taxes still had to be paid, and the remaining food was not enough to survive the winter. The water in the well had dried up again, and such a predicament left almost no way for these peasants to survive.
This year, Chen Shi personally led a team to collect taxes half a month earlier for the autumn harvest. The taxes were the same as the summer harvest. Everyone was very sad, because you know, more than a thousand kilograms of taxes were collected from first-class fields in the summer harvest.
However, although the people of Willow Village were heartbroken, they still paid the money obediently. Compared with other villages, their village was already very good.
Unexpectedly, three days later, Chen Shi brought people to collect grain again. He wanted to buy it with silver, 10 cents per pound.
But few people were selling. Everyone knew that the grain shops in the county had increased their prices. The price of old rice had risen to six coins per pound yesterday. Many people regretted selling all the extra sweet potatoes during the summer harvest. If they hadn't sold them, they wouldn't have to worry about surviving the winter.
Chen Shi was also anxious at this time. His superiors asked him to transport more grain to the border after the autumn harvest. At this critical moment, grain production had decreased. After deducting the grain tax, he was still short of 10 catties. How could he conjure up catties of grain?
"Sir, you can sell some of my sweet potatoes."
Su He took the initiative to come to the door. She knew very well that it was impossible for everyone to not sell. They had to sell it now. If the officials were to force the collection, there would be nothing they could do.
Most importantly, she wanted to leave herself a way out.
This time, Su He planted sweet potatoes on all 15 acres of land. The fields at home were not affected, and he was able to take care of his uncles' land. Therefore, the Wang family suffered the least loss.
Chen Shi breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Su He's words. It would be enough to have a leader, and he didn't want to make things difficult for these villagers.