Natural disasters in books: I stockpiled goods to escape famine in ancient times

When the farm women get together, they talk about nothing more than which young wife is pregnant, how much food the family has stored, or which family has had a quarrel recently.

The men gathered together to talk about things in the fields. They said auspicious snow meant a good harvest, but there was too much snow during this extreme cold weather. Who knew how miserable the crops would be after the extreme cold passed.

Zhang Wu sat among the group of men, next to Wu Dahai and others. He didn't say much during the whole process and just listened quietly.

Wei Cai took a sip of his pipe, with a bit of worry on his face: "The drought was about to pass, and now it's very cold. I don't know when the snow will stop. I don't think there's any rush for the land. After all, with such heavy snow, the land will definitely not be suitable for planting next year."

The other men look at me and I look at you.

Wu Dahai still couldn't figure it out, so he asked directly: "Village Chief, from what you said, will there be natural disasters in the future?"

Wei Cai glanced at him and said, "I didn't say that. Hey, when people get old, they tend to think about all sorts of things."

The others had bitter faces.

"The drought and the cold weather are already hard enough for God to torment us. God can't torment us any more. It's so cold this year that it's hard to find a job in the city. I have to stay at home all day. I feel uncomfortable lying down."

Wu Dahai smiled at the person who was speaking and said, "What's the matter? You don't want to lie down at home? I think you are really born to work hard."

The man was quite happy to hear this: "That's right, besides, I can still earn money for my family. I lie at home every day, with no income at all, and I have to use up the family's food. I feel bad eating it."

As soon as this person finished speaking, the others nodded in agreement.

Wei Cai turned to look at Zhang Wu and asked, "Xiao Zhang, do you have enough food at home?"

Before Zhang Wu could speak, other villagers on the side rushed to say, "Their family has prepared more food than everyone else. There are only two people in their family, him and his sister. How much food can they eat? Before, everyone went to the city to buy food. I saw that Brother Zhang only brought back two carts of food. Village chief, you are worrying too much."

Zhang Wu looked at the speaker calmly, then smiled and nodded: "There is enough food and firewood at home, so don't worry, village chief."

"It's good that there is enough. Several families in the village don't have enough. I heard that the grain store in the city will be open for a few days, and so will everyone else. If you don't have much food at home, go to the city and buy more while you have time now, so that you don't come to me to complain later."

It was the first time that everyone heard that the grain store in the city had reopened, and they all looked at Wei Cai.

"I just received the news this afternoon. I called you here today to talk about this matter. You can buy whatever you like. But I heard that the price of grain has increased a lot. You should be mentally prepared. After all, it is unrealistic to keep the same price as before under the current circumstances."

Wu Dahai immediately said, "I will go to the city to buy some more tomorrow morning. I will feel uneasy if I don't prepare more food."

Others also said that they would buy some more. It doesn’t matter if it’s a little more expensive, it’s better than having the silver but not being able to buy food.

Wei Cai shook his pipe and continued, "The grain store has not been open since the extreme cold. It opened this time because some people in the city who didn't prepare any grain went to the government to cause trouble. I guess the grain store won't release much grain this time. What I mean is, no matter how much, just buy as much as you can."

"It's up to you."

Zhang Wu frowned when he heard someone was making trouble: "Village chief, if the grain shop doesn't sell a lot of grain, those people who are making trouble won't be able to buy enough grain. Will there be more trouble?"

Zhang Wu's words gradually calmed everyone's excited hearts, especially Wei Cai. When he heard that the grain store was open, he only thought about notifying everyone to buy grain, but forgot about the group of people who had already caused trouble.

Wei Cai lowered his head in silence, and spoke after a while: "I'm afraid those people will cause trouble again. Let's put it this way. If you have enough food at home, don't go, so as not to get involved. If you really don't have enough and want to buy some, I suggest that you go together so that you can take care of each other if something happens. After entering the city, try to avoid crowded places, and leave immediately if you see something wrong."

Most families in the Damo Village have already stockpiled a lot of food. The reason they want to buy more now is psychological. They always think that the previous drought was long and hot, so will the extreme cold last longer and be even colder?

When everyone thought of this, they couldn't sit still and wished the grain store would open right now so they could buy more grain.

As for the villagers, almost everyone did not have much food in stock. They were very happy when they first heard that the grain store was open, but now they were frightened by the people making trouble. They were afraid that they would be implicated by those troublemakers when they went to the city to buy food.

If they even dare to cause trouble to the government officials, let alone ordinary people like us, who knows? They might think you are trying to steal food and beat you up too. Who can say for sure?

But if we don’t buy food, our family will go hungry. The food we bought before can’t even last through an ordinary winter, let alone extreme cold.

Just by looking at everyone's expressions, Wei Cai could guess what they were thinking, so he said, "Anyway, I've laid out all the pros and cons with you. Go back and talk it over with your family. Don't make the decision on your own. You should listen to their opinions."

Everyone should naturally agree.

Zhang Wu returned home and told Song Shiwei what happened tonight. Song Shiwei's reaction was indifferent, and he was not even interested in talking. He just lay on the bed with a notebook in his arms, and told Zhang Wu to go to bed early through the door.

He read until the hour of Hai. After finishing the last page, Song Shiwei put the storybook into his space and prepared to go to bed.

Just as he was about to blow out the candle, he suddenly stopped and looked outside the door with a frown.

The noise sounded like the footsteps of wild beasts, very messy and there were many of them.

Song Shiwei quickly put on his clothes, turned his wrist and a sharp sword appeared in his hand. He walked to the door and listened to the noise outside. He made sure that no wild beasts had crossed the wall before opening the door and going out.

The noise of such a fight was heard by not only Song Shiwei, who had extraordinary hearing, but also Zhang Wu. Not long after Song Shiwei left the house, he also pushed the door open with a long sword in his hand.

"master?"

Song Shiwei's face was serious: "They should be wild animals in the mountains. There are quite a lot of them. It sounds like some of them have gone to the village."

Zhang Wu pursed his lips and looked up at the high wall of his home: "The wall is high, those beasts can't jump in easily."

The slap in the face came so quickly.

As soon as Zhang Wufu finished speaking, a dark leopard suddenly jumped in and landed in the yard nimbly. Its eyes locked onto the two people in the yard and it growled.

Zhang Wu tightened his grip on the knife and moved sideways to stand in front of Song Shiwei.

Song Shiwei patted his shoulder, walked out from behind him, and faced the black panther head-on. He had no intention of dealing with the black panther. He walked towards the black panther with a long sword in hand, saying as he walked: "Go to the kitchen and get the wooden stick and iron pot, and knock them hard to warn others."

"it is good."

With Song Shiwei restraining him, the Black Panther naturally didn't care what Zhang Wu did. He only stared at the two-legged beast walking towards him. He felt that his dignity was challenged, and his growl became deeper and heavier.

Song Shiwei saw such a humane scene in the black panther's eyes, and the corners of his mouth rose: "You know that I've been craving for meat recently, and you specially delivered it to my door. You are a very nice leopard."

"Roar--"