Wu Chao: Take the whole family to escape the famine

Chapter 7 Fear of Locust Plague
Now it is mid-May, and there is only half a month left before the normal harvest time.

Jiang Zhiyue thought about it and didn't think about the reason why Chen Zhicai and the people of Jiangjia Village started fleeing together in the original plot, whether it was an earthquake or a flood, or something else, but no matter what, it must have been before the grain harvest. left, so the grain must be harvested in advance.

In the end, she still made up her mind to call the Jiang family together, and suggested with a heavy tone: "Grandpa, let's collect the grain in advance."

"Receive the grain? The grain will be harvested in half a month. Why do you want to collect it now?" Sun asked with a puzzled expression.

Although there is only half a month left before the harvest, it will cost a lot of food, at least [-]% to [-]% less. Thinking about it, Sun feels distressed.

Jiang Yuan thought of something, and asked Jiang Zhiyue: "Did the old man in the dream tell you something again?"

Jiang Zhiyue shook her head, she didn't know about this matter, if she said anything about what the old man told her, she would reveal her truth.

She thought about her words: "It's because I feel uneasy these days, and always feel that something big is going to happen."

"We haven't had rain since the beginning of winter last year. Even the river behind our village is now almost touching the ground. Locusts are easy to breed in large numbers in this kind of weather. If..."

The Jiang family was shocked. If there was a plague of locusts, there would be no harvest!
"Granddaughter, are you sure?" Mrs. Jiang asked in a panic.

After asking, she slapped her hands angrily. She was asking some stupid things, how could her granddaughter know if it happened or not.

But now that the food is harvested, although [-]% to [-]% will be lost, the remaining [-]% to [-]% will be saved.

What Mrs. Jiang thought of, the rest of the Jiang family naturally thought of it, and finally they unanimously decided to collect grain in advance, and start tomorrow.

The Jiang family doesn't have many fields. There are five or two acres of fertile land and three acres of dry land. The Jiang family has a lot of land, and they will start harvesting tomorrow in less than two days.

After deciding this matter, the Jiang family fell into another kind of entanglement, whether they should tell the villagers about it.

In the end, Mr. Jiang and Jiang Yuchao went to Hengrong's house to talk about it. If they asked about the reason, they would put it on Jiang Yuchao, saying that it was his deduction from the book, and Yue girl should not be exposed.

The three sisters-in-law of the Jiang family will each go back to their natal homes tomorrow morning and try their best to persuade them to collect food in advance.

……

At Heng Rong's house in Jiangjia Village, they had just had dinner and were about to go back to the house to rest when they heard a knock on the door.

"bang bang bang~"

"I'm coming."

It was Jiang Ziwen, the eldest son of Jiang Hengrong's family, who came to open the door. When he saw the people outside, he quickly turned sideways to let them in: "Uncle Xingde, Brother Yu Chao, why are you two here at this time?"

Mr. Jiang's name is Jiang Kangcheng, and he is of the same generation as Jiang Hengrong.

He said: "I have something to discuss with your father, is your father at home?"

"I'm at home, I just went into the house after dinner, I'll call him." After Jiang Ziwen finished speaking, he hurried into the house.

Jiang Hengrong's main house.

Mr. Jiang and Jiang Hengrong sat together, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then entered today's topic.

When the whole room heard the news brought by Mr. Jiang and Jiang Yuzhao, it was definitely a bolt from the blue for them.

"Brother, I'm sure about this matter. We don't dare to let you know about the big things." Jiang Hengrong asked tangled.

"I'm only [-]% sure. After all, it's just my boss who has studied the books for several years. I really dare not give any guarantees."

Mr. Jiang said: "But the big guys are all from the village. We decided to collect the grain in advance and we have to tell everyone the reason. Those who believe it can also collect it together."

"You have already decided!" Jiang Hengrong asked in surprise.

I thought they thought of this possibility and came to ask for opinions, but they even made a decision.

With only a [-]% certainty, they would dare to collect the grain. Could it be that they got some news in the town, Jiang Hengrong was a little shaken.

"I'll tell the villagers about this early in the morning, but we can't control what they do." Jiang Hengrong replied.

"What Uncle Heng Rong said is that we can just tell the story. As for what they do, it's up to them." Jiang Yuchao said.

Jiang Ziwen sent Mr. Jiang and Jiang Yuchao outside the door, and when he entered the room, he heard his mother talking about this to his father.

"What do you think they think about this? Now that the food is harvested, how much less will it be?" Jiang Hengrong's mother-in-law twitched her lips, thinking that Jiang Yu was probably crazy to treat them, and said that a scholar is not as smart as her.

Jiang Hengrong squinted at his mother-in-law and ignored her, still at war between heaven and man.

He didn't believe that Jiang Yuchao dared to collect the food without any certainty.

After Mr. Jiang and Jiang Yuchao came out from Jiang Hengrong's house, they went to the house of Mr. Jiang's elder brother Jiang Kangde. They didn't believe the news, but seeing Mr. Jiang's serious look, they couldn't help but feel a little nervous, and finally decided to follow Mr. Jiang A piece of grain is collected in advance, after all, there is still some food collected, what if there is nothing left if you don’t collect it?

……

Early in the morning of the second day, every household heard the sound of the gong before they had breakfast, and the village would only strike the gong when they wanted to announce something.

On the threshing ground, the villagers of Jiangjia Village stood together in piles, whispering to each other to find out what happened.

"Why did Heng Rong call us over? I haven't had breakfast yet." A woman asked the person beside her.

"I don't know, just wait for Hengrong to talk. We can't call us here because of nothing." The person who was asked answered.

Heng Rong stood on a relatively high stone platform in front of the crowd, knocked on the gong in his hand to signal them to be quiet.

"Big fellow, I called everyone out today because I want to talk about a life-threatening event!" Jiang Hengrong said seriously.

Hearing that life was at stake, the people below all looked over, and the voice of gossip was gone.

"What's the matter!" Someone asked anxiously.

Heng Rong beat the gongs and drums again before saying: "Jiang Xiucai came to my house yesterday to tell the news that we may have a locust plague here, and now we are talking about this matter to let everyone think about harvesting food in advance."

This was what Jiang Hengrong thought up last night. Even if there was no locust plague, the people who harvested the food in advance would not be able to blame him. But if there was a locust plague, he would have said it.

"Collect the grain in advance, what are you kidding, now you will lose [-]% of the grain."

"Yes, yes, how could there be a locust plague?"

"I want you to accept it, but my family won't accept it."

Sure enough, as soon as they heard the news, the crowd exploded. They had everything they said, and most of them didn't believe it.

Suddenly someone asked: "Hengrong, where did Jiang Xiucai hear about the locust plague? You can't just say that for no reason."

Jiang Hengrong repeated what Jiang Yuchao said yesterday.

After hearing this explanation, there were different opinions among the crowd. Some said that Jiang Yuchao was the master of the town who must know more than them, and some said that Jiang Yuchao had spread rumors.

Jiang Zhiyue originally wanted to see how the news was notified here, so she came here with Mrs. Jiang, and heard that many people in the crowd pointed the finger at her father.

Mrs. Jiang also heard the words slandering Jiang Yuchao, and immediately shouted loudly: "What, my son put a knife on your neck to force you to collect food, or what?"

The old lady who was pissed off by Mrs. Jiang was stunned. She is of the same generation as Mrs. Jiang, so whoever is afraid of a quarrel.

The old lady pinched her waist and said: "Who told your son to spread rumors that there will be a plague of locusts. We have lived here in peace all our lives, and we have never heard of such a thing."

Jiang Zhiyue looked calm and didn't have much fluctuation in her heart, but the Jiang family's willingness to tell the news was because of their consideration, and she couldn't let them spread rumors.

She said: "We are only speculating about this matter, and we can't give any guarantees to the villagers, but we are willing to speak out because of the neighbors and neighbors. It's just an ugly word first. If something really happens, come and ask us to borrow food." If not, don’t say that our family is cold-blooded and disregards the friendship in the village.”

Jiang Hengrong originally wanted to sit back and let the villagers turn the fire on Jiang Yuchao, but he didn't expect Mrs. Jiang and his maid to come.

I can only bite the bullet and add embarrassingly: "Jiang's girl is right, we just tell the big guys about it, are you willing to watch everyone yourself, we don't force it, we don't force it."

Jiang Zhiyue gave him a cold look, don't think she doesn't know, what Heng Rong said just now was to lead the blame to their house.

The crowd was silent for a while, and someone said again: "The girl of the Jiang family is right. Jiang Xiucai told us about it out of good intentions. As for whether you want to accept it or not, that's not your business."

Some people thought what he said was right and quickly agreed.

Zhou Shi and Jiang Zhilan stood at the edge of the crowd, and when they heard that everyone started to praise Jiang Yuchao, they felt very upset, because the villagers avoided her mother and daughter like snakes and hated them because of what happened a few days ago.

Zhou said: "Then we harvested the food in advance, so you have to ration the loss to the big guys."

Zhou's words hit the hearts of most people, and they were also hesitant in their hearts. If they didn't accept it, they were afraid of locust plagues, and if they accepted it, they were afraid that there would be no locust plagues. If Zhou said this, wouldn't they all be avoided!
Immediately, a few people agreed, Song Furong couldn't see it, pointed at those who said that the Jiang family should pay the loss, and said: "It is said that people are shameless and invincible in the world, I think you are shameless, why do you have the nerve to say this?" In other words, why do people pay you for food.

Whether you like it or not, my family will follow suit anyway, and when the famine really comes, you will regret it. "

After Song Furong finished speaking, she walked over and walked out of the crowd holding Mrs. Jiang's hand. She had to ask a few more questions to see when their family would receive grain, so she had to follow closely.

The son of Song Furong's family, Jiang Nian, was also studying with Jiang Yuchao at the school in the town. Every time he came back, he praised Mrs. Jiang for how great he was, and she had a good relationship with Mrs. Zhang.

……

The sisters-in-law of the Jiang family also went back to their mother's house to tell the story. Jiang Yun accompanied Xiao Wang to Zhangjia Village next door early in the morning.

Mrs. Zhang and Mrs. Wang went well, and they were willing to gamble with the Jiang family, but Mrs. Sun suffered a lot from her natal family.

Zhang's family...

"I don't come back once in eight hundred years, and I just take this little thing when I come back." Du Mudan stretched out her hand and snatched the basket that Mrs. Sun was carrying with a mean face. When she opened it, she saw a lot of eggs and dozens of unidentifiable things. Fruit, said still dissatisfied.

Mrs. Jiang thought that Mrs. Zhang and his three sisters-in-law might not be home for a long time, so she took the same number of eggs and loquats with her.

Zhang's and Xiao Wang's natal families both felt that their daughter had a good life at her in-law's house when they received the gift, so only Du Mudan, who sold her daughter as goods, disliked that she brought back few things.

Even though he said that, Du Mudan still let Mrs. Sun go in after collecting the things.

Du Mudan walked behind with a basket on her shoulders and asked, "What are you doing back here?"

"We've been in a drought for a long time. My man and his brother are afraid that there will be a locust plague in the future, so I asked you to come back and tell you." Sun said lukewarmly.

If she hadn't cared about that little affection, she wouldn't have wanted to come back at all. Back then, when she married Jiang's family, she was half-married. In order to ask for a few taels more money, she was even forced to sign the deed of sale.

But later, Mrs. Sun was very fortunate to have this contract of sale. After she got married, Du Mudan brought her son to visit her every now and then to beat the autumn breeze, but the Jiang family firmly blocked her back on the grounds of the contract of sale.

In the end, the Jiang family took a full ten taels of silver, and her second sister who was sold to Yuanwai's mansion in the town only had thirteen taels of silver.

She knew that the Jiang family almost spent most of their belongings at that time when they married her in. This is also the reason why Jiang Yuchao missed the second chance to participate in the second time after she failed the ranking, so most of the reasons for Jiang Zhiyue's favor are also to compensate the big house. .

"You've been kicked by a donkey. It's a plague of locusts. Why doesn't he say that money will fall from the sky?" Du Mudan mocked.

Seeing that Mrs. Sun had nothing else to say, Du Mudan began to push people away: "Okay, if you have nothing to do, you can go, eating lunch here is a waste of food, remember to bring more eggs next time, your brother loves them this."

Sun's eyes were red with anger, she clenched her fists and rushed in front of Du Mudan, snatched the basket from her hand, didn't care if the eggs in it would break, and fell to the ground.

"If you like eggs, let your good son earn it with his ability." After speaking, he strode out of the courtyard with a basket in his hand.

Du Mudan also didn't expect that Mrs. Sun, who used to be beaten and scolded before, dared to come up to grab the basket, and she really got it easily. After realizing it, she wanted to beat her like before, but when she saw the broken eggs on the ground, she quickly squatted down Holding the eggs and yelling and cursing non-stop, Sun also took the opportunity to walk out of the yard.

"You damn bitch, see if I don't beat you to death next time, I should have strangled you when I gave birth to you."

Du Mudan's scolding still echoed in Sun's ears after walking out of the yard.

Sun felt that all the good luck in her life was used to meet the members of the Jiang family. Fortunately, her mother-in-law was sensible at the beginning. After hearing about her mother's reputation and asking for so much money, she resolutely asked for a letter from her parents. He also wrote a deed of sale saying that he had nothing to do with the Zhao family anymore.

Poor her second sister, she died not long after being carried to Yuanwai's mansion, and Du Mudan only felt that she hadn't gained any more benefits when she heard the news.

No longer thinking about it, Mrs. Sun wiped away her tears and left angrily, and she will never have this mother in the future!

In Jiangjia Village, the crowd gradually dispersed after Song Furong and Mrs. Jiang left.

Some people hurried home to discuss it, while others dismissed it as absolutely impossible.

Regardless of everyone's opinions, the Jiang family rolled up their sleeves and started harvesting. When Sun returned to Jiangjia Village, he adjusted his mood and went to help with a sickle.

The property side worked together and worked in full swing. The people watching couldn't sit still for a long time, and saw that Heng Rong's family had started to harvest, and many people also ran home to get sickles.

(End of this chapter)