Happy Farmer's Life

After Jingyuan left, life returned to the usual way, but it still didn't rain. Du Weiming used the leftover water every day to water the olive tree behind the house. The olive tree was fine, but this year's harvest was doomed to be hopeless.Fortunately, some fields have been replanted with potatoes and sweet potatoes, otherwise the harvest may really fail.

The villagers had a precedent of the river drying up, and the high-ranking official from Kyoto also emphasized that well water should not be used for irrigation, but the villagers did not dare to use it, they just brought a small amount of water to irrigate the vegetable fields and so on.Everyone is now living on food reserves. Generally, the grain harvested in autumn is taxed, and the family’s rations for one year are left behind. There are not many people who can sell the leftovers for money.The villagers work hard all year round to get enough to eat.

The village chief went to the town once and brought good news to the villagers. Because of the drought, the imperial court reduced or exempted taxes, and Sanqing Village could not pay taxes for two years.But the problem is also coming one after another. If the seeds are removed, everyone will not have much food in their hands.It was a few years ago when the weather was good and the weather was good. Most families had some grain and copper coins, but seeing that this year's harvest was hopeless, many people in the village started to go to the town to buy grain.The price of grain in the town is also rising steadily. The prices of brown rice and white rice have almost doubled, and the supply is still in short supply.Several nearby villages were hit by disasters, and everyone went to buy food.

Du Weiming saw that the villagers went to the town to buy food one after another these days, but many people still couldn't buy it.It seems that some unscrupulous rice merchants have piled up the grain, so these days everyone rushed to the rice store to buy grain early in the morning, but many people returned empty-handed.If things go on like this, there must be problems.

The rice in Du Weiming's house can still be eaten for a while, last time he bought a lot of brown rice, and when Jing Yuan came, he also bought a lot of white rice.It's just that Du Weiming felt a little uneasy in his heart. If the most basic food and clothing problems cannot be solved, riots will definitely happen.

Sure enough, some disaster victims appeared in the village not long after. They escaped from the nearby counties and counties. Along the way, locusts passed through the border, and they ate all the leaves and grass roots.But there are not many who can really escape to Sanqing Village.Because Sanqing Village is relatively remote, it is still a long way from Pingfu Town, so there are really few strangers who usually come to the village.That's why everyone was so curious when Liu Jingyuan appeared.

The village head looked helpless. There were about 30 to [-] victims, but there were more young and middle-aged people, either children and women, and only two elderly people.The village head proposed to let them live in the square for the time being, and it was still hot, so they built a few thatched huts for them to live in temporarily.If these people are hungry and can do anything, the old people in the village will shake their heads repeatedly when they see this situation.The government has not distributed relief food until now, and the village itself does not have enough food, so it is impossible to support so many people.

It was the old man in the village who suggested that if every family has the ability to produce the food first, the crops in the field, such as corn, must have no hope. If they want to, let them cook some of this, which is better than eating grass roots and leaves. Bar.The most important thing is that if you don't have anything, you may have to go to the village to steal or rob, and the situation will become even more difficult to control.

Some people in the village objected to this and were unwilling to provide food, but most people still agreed with this approach and more or less brought out some food. Du Weiming also asked Zhou Wen to bring 3 catties of brown rice over.Finally got some together.The village chief took it and handed it to the leader among them, Lian Da, who is quite capable.Seeing the village head doing this, I guarantee that these people will not go to the village to do bad things.Every day, Lian Da asked the two women to cook some porridge and add some wild vegetables. The elderly, children and women were given to eat first, and the young adults were the last.It’s not enough to just sit and eat the mountain, so I took some young men to go hunting in the mountains. I didn’t go to the back mountain of Sanqing Village, but went to a farther place, and I also hunted some pheasants and hares back.Sometimes when Da Lian went hunting, he would meet Wang Wu and talk to him, and when Wang Wu came back, he would also talk to Du Weiming.

It's just that there seem to be more and more victims, and there are more and more grass sheds on the square.There are less than 200 people in the village, but there are as many as 50 to [-] refugees.For those who came later, the villagers didn't donate any more food, and they didn't have enough food for themselves, so how could they have any leftover food for others.The more victims there are, the more problems there will be.With so many mouths waiting to eat, it was discovered that someone was stealing vegetables from the villagers' fields.It was okay at first, only a small amount, and the villagers didn't say much.It also failed later, when the potatoes and sweet potatoes in the fields were dug out before they were fully grown, and now the villagers quit.Everyone is still counting on these grains.

Conflicts inevitably occurred. The villagers asked these victims to move out of the village. They are not welcome to live in the village anymore.The conflict also gradually escalated from a small-scale quarrel to an armed conflict, and the village chief was also powerless. He went to the government office to ask for a messenger, but he didn't care.There are also many disaster victims in the town. Recently, theft and robbery have also happened from time to time. There are only so many people in the yamen, so how can they manage it.

The villagers also don't want to be able to guard the fields day and night, which makes the villagers worry.The conflict escalated day by day. Even Da Neng was in charge of his brothers, but he couldn't control the victims who came later. Those victims were really hungry and crazy, and they rushed to grab whatever they saw.The field in Du Weiming's house also suffered. The small piece in front of the house was fine, and he hadn't dared to steal it to the front of the house.The fields in the distance suffered heavy losses.A lot of potatoes and sweet potatoes have been dug up, and the cucumbers and other vegetables grown at home are almost gone.Wang Wu jumped angrily, wanting to settle accounts with them.But people act at night, and you haven't seen who stole it. You can't arrest people randomly. To catch a thief, you have to catch the stolen goods.

In the end, the villagers had no choice, so they organized a group of young men, ten of them, to wander around the village in turns every night to protect the crops in the field, until finally there were ten people wandering around during the day.In this way, the behavior of stealing food was finally stopped a little bit.But the back mountain suffered disasters, and the number of wild vegetables and game on the mountain decreased sharply.

There are more and more disaster victims in Pingfu Town. The county magistrate can't sit still. He has reported to the court, but there is no practical solution yet.Seeing that if the disaster victims don't deal with it, something big will happen.In the end, the imperial court dispatched officers and soldiers to directly arrest the victims of the crime, and the rest were concentrated in several places. The imperial court allocated some food to appease them first.Things finally got resolved.

Most of the victims in Sanqing Village also went there, only Lian Da brought some people to ask to stay in the village.If you go to the government, you will most likely be sold as a slave in the end. This is almost always the case during droughts and floods.The behavior of Lian Da and the others got the approval of the villagers, so they agreed to stay, but the square is not suitable for long-term residence.They built a few thatched huts at the entrance of the village to temporarily settle down, ensuring that they would not affect the lives of the villagers.

The life of the villagers has finally returned to normal. During the days when the victims were there, every household was in fear. They were afraid that someone would rush in in the middle of the night, and they would not be able to sleep well at night.The county government also distributed some relief food to Sanqing Village. This relief food was usually dregs, with some brown rice left over, and it was distributed according to the population, and no one received much.Most of the villagers have used the chaff to feed the livestock at home, and the brown rice can still be kept.The relief food didn't relieve much, so it's better than nothing.

The weather gradually cooled down, and a heavy rain finally fell in people's expectation.It has been almost half a year without rain, and the villagers are overjoyed that it finally rained.It has been raining heavily for a whole day, and it seems that it has not stopped, and the cracked fields have also been relieved.Du Weiming stayed at home these two days and didn't go out.The rain will either not fall, or it will rain cats and dogs, and you will get wet all over when you go out. It is useless for you to use an umbrella.

After dinner, everyone went to bed early.Suddenly I heard continuous knocks on the door, "Dong dong dong, dong dong dong" who would come so late.Du Weiming was really about to open the door, Zhou Wen and Wang Wu got up to see it first, but it was Lian Da knocking on the door with a child in his arms.

"Quick, don't stand outside, come in with the baby first."

"Zhou Wen, go and boil some hot water."

Even the child in Da Bao's arms was blushing, and his forehead was hot, and he could tell he had a fever.Thinking of such a heavy rain, their thatched hut is probably not good, but this child seems to have been burned for a long time.Du Weiming asked Wang Wu to find some clean clothes, and even Da's body was completely soaked.If he didn't change his clothes, he might catch a cold too.

After the hot water was boiled, Zhou Wen and Du Weiming carefully wiped the child's body, took off the wet clothes, and put on clean clothes.Du Weiming found his own clothes and changed them for him. His clothes were small at home, and they looked too big for the child.

"Zhou Wen, go get a basin of cold water." Just like Wang Wu had a fever at that time, Du Weiming found two clean handkerchiefs and put them on his forehead in turn.But it seems to have little effect.It is not realistic to go to the town to find a doctor in such a heavy rain. The old method is to wipe it with wine.Since Wang Wu had a persistent fever last time, he wiped it with shochu, Du Weiming also bought two cans of shochu at home, and now it just comes in handy.Let Zhou Wen carefully wipe him with shochu. Du Weiming remembered that there seemed to be some herbs in the house, but after thinking about it, he still didn't dare to give it to the children.Du Weiming went to boil some mint water and fed some to the child with a spoon.Mint seems to have the effect of clearing away heat and detoxifying, so let's drink it first.

Lian Da had already changed his clothes and entered the room at this time.Lian Da actually didn't want to bother Du Weiming, but this village is considered to be acquainted with his family now, and the other villagers don't like them, and Lian Da usually doesn't have much contact with them.Now that the baby has a high fever, there is no other way to come to ask for help at such a night.