Traversing the good life of a peasant woman

Chapter 92

Wen Yue glanced at Li Shi's unchanged clothes without leaving any traces, "It feels very hot today, and I want to go back to the house and change into thinner clothes." Li Shi said with a embarrassed smile.

In order not to embarrass Mrs. Li, Wen Yue did not expose her, but asked curiously: "Mom, the children miss you, and they don't see you at my place. What are you busy with today?"

"No, I'm not busy with anything. Look at me here and there, and I don't know what I'm busy with." When Li Shi heard that the child missed her, she felt guilty all over, and wanted to go out while speaking, " You come to me, who will watch the child?"

Wen Yue followed behind her with a smile and said, "Da Chuan is here." She bit her lip lightly, stepped forward and took Li Shi's arm and said, "Mother, don't lie to me. Received a letter from a friend?"

Li's body froze, and he said nervously, "You child, you don't know if I have friends. Besides, I can't read. Who can write me a letter."

"Then...Wen Yue still wanted to ask, but Mrs. Li said to herself: "It was sent by someone from your fourth aunt Sun. It contained three hundred Wen. She borrowed it from me at the beginning. Now the relationship between our two families is like this." Yes, of course I have to ask for it back. "

"Oh." Wen Yue nodded. Listening to Li Shi's reasons full of loopholes, Wen Yue became more curious about what the letter specifically wrote. It's a pity that Li Shi tried so hard to conceal it, and she couldn't find out if she wanted to ask. .

Seeing that Wen Yue stopped asking questions, Li on the one side was also relieved. She really didn't know if Wen Yue continued to ask, would she slip away? All of this was Fang Tongye's fault, why did she just Don't want to let others have a few days of quiet life.

In the following days, Li Shi, who had been vigilant that Fang Tongye would continue to write letters to cheat money, did not receive another letter from Fang Tongye as time went by. Back to normal.This made Wen Yue, who had been secretly observing and trying to figure out what happened to Li, couldn't help being a little disappointed. Her curiosity was not satisfied, and Wen Yue complained to Fang Dachuan. Fang Dachuan said with a smile: "Mother It's better to be fine, but I'm afraid you'll get some answer, you, it's not good to make you worry less."

On the contrary, what Wen Yue said was very boring, and I also felt that she was too gossip. Suddenly, she missed the Zixun era in her previous life very much. It is also very interesting to look at the gossip posts every day.

In the continuous rainy day, the rainy season lasted for half a month without stopping. The light rain that should have been light rain also appeared in the form of daily torrential downpours. The mountain torrents mixed with mudslides buried the grains planted on the slopes that were about to mature, and no field in the entire Luoshui Town was spared.

Fang Dachuan, who got up early in the morning and went to the field to observe the flooding situation, came in with rainwater all over his body. Seeing his serious face, Wen Yue couldn't help but feel depressed, "How is it, is it bad?"

Fang Dachuan nodded, and said without energy: "The rice will not be harvested this year, but our family is lucky. The mudslide only buried half of the sweet potato field, and the rest is fine. Landlord Li's family will suffer a lot. , almost all the slopes of his house were buried in mud.”

"Is this sweet melon field good enough?" Wen Yue's heart ached when she heard this. This was the first time she deeply felt what it means to watch the sky and eat.For the peasants at this time, no matter how hard a year is, as long as God does not reward them, all their efforts will be in vain.

"No." Fang Dachuan saw that Wen Yue's complexion was not good, so he hurriedly continued: "Although the sweet potatoes were buried, they are almost healed at this time, and the millet is also fine. I discussed with Uncle Shi to organize tenants to snatch them up in the past few days. Take a moment. Our corn is still standing, as long as there is no strong wind, it should last until it matures."

When Fang Dachuan said this, he couldn't help but feel lucky. When he planted the fields in the spring this year, because Mr. Ge Dong told his ears about the disaster in their hometown, he kept his eyes open and spent more time on the Banpo land. Planted some bracts.Fortunately, it was planted on a sloping field. If you look at other corns in the village that are on flat land, they are all submerged and only a small section is left outside. I don’t know if there will be a harvest.

Wen Yue breathed a sigh of relief after hearing that there could still be some harvests: "Fortunately, our family has a lot of slopes, so we can finally collect something."

"Don't worry, even if there is really no harvest at all, we also have food in our house, so we won't be hungry." Fang Dachuan comforted Wen Yue because he was afraid that Wen Yue would be worried.

"I'm not afraid that we will starve. I'm afraid that we'll be hungry. I've been tenants of our family for so long. If I really hear that someone died of starvation, I won't be able to bear it. Come on, Dachuan, you too." Don't delay, just go to them now, sooner is better than later, if you can grab more, you will be less hungry." Wen Yue pushed Fang Dachuan who had just sat down, and walked out the door.

Fang Dachuan didn't resist either, and moved forward with Wen Yue's strength, and comforted her by saying, "Don't think too much, we have a lot of people, and we will take them back soon."

Wen Yue was also in a bad mood, and said softly: "I see, you must also be careful, don't get hurt, isn't there a flowstone?" Wen Yue thought of the mudslide on the mountain, and didn't want Fang Dachuan to leave, she was really afraid of him Something happened again.

Fang Dachuan suddenly smiled, "It's really not me taking pleasure in others' misfortune. You know why Landlord Li's house encountered a landslide? Didn't he cut down all the trees on that hillside in order to make more money and sell it himself? It’s unlikely to be like this. Our family’s land has also been implicated, and he is probably crying at home right now, and he deserves what he deserves.”

Fang Dachuan has always disliked the style of Landlord Li’s family. Other families and tenants share four or six cents, and the main family also pays the grain tax. However, Landlord Li’s family is unwilling to bear the tenant’s taxes even though they are also four or six cents. Calculated in this way, it is basically three to seven points.The tenant farmers are really at a disadvantage, but the Li landlord's family occupies most of the land in the village, and many tenants can't do without his family's land, so they can only endure it.For Fang Dachuan, who has suffered from poverty, how can he get used to this kind of rich and heartless people.

After the tenants of the Fang family heard that their master organized them to grab grain together, they all went out in coir raincoats very actively, and it didn't take long for them to gather in front of the Fang family's door. Even the women came out.Fang Dachuan didn't talk too much nonsense, and arranged for them to go to the fields separately to collect them.

Looking at the submerged paddy fields, several women were already crying bitterly. Their tenants are all paddy fields, and it is definitely impossible to have a harvest.If there is no harvest, it is impossible to share food with the owner. Without food, how will they survive the next year?
"Why are you crying? Don't work fast. Maybe the boss will give us some food for our help. What's the use of crying." A man in the crowd yelled at the crying women.

With a lot of people and strength, it only took half a day to collect all the millet except for the sweet potatoes buried in the mud.Just looking at the rainy day, everyone felt worried again. Without sunshine, the millet would not be dried. If it is piled up wet, it will be fine for a short time, but if it takes a long time, it will definitely all rot.

But even so, there is no other way to think about it, I just hope that the day will clear up sooner.After all the sweet potatoes were taken back, Fang Dachuan said to the frowning tenants: "I don't know when this day will be better. If it is really a disaster year, everyone should go to the town early to buy some grain and come back to save it, so as not to worry about it." After a while, the price of food has risen. After the sweet potatoes are all returned, I will share some with everyone, and this is the only thing I can do for you."

In the crowd, an old man interjected: "My boss is right. Over the past few years, refugees have often passed by us. What does this mean? It means that the world is not peaceful. Maybe this disaster has moved to Luoshui Is it coming? Although our Luoshui has always been in good weather, who can guarantee that this time it will not be affected? I don’t think everyone should count on those corns. The old saying is that after a big flood, it is likely to be a severe drought. If so, alas!"

"Uncle Wu is right." Fang Dachuan echoed, "Although hoarding food may cost everyone some money, don't panic if you have food in hand. It's better to save some."

Fang Dachuan didn't know how many people in the tenant's family listened to his words, but Wen Yue pulled him into action, actively preparing to go shopping in the town.Fang Dachuan kept only rice and corn. When she thought that she would not be able to eat delicious food due to natural disasters in the future, Wen Yue felt a little depressed. Although the staple food was enough to eat, it would be too monotonous to eat only these two things.

Taking Fang Dachuan to the town, what Wen Yue saw was a completely different atmosphere from the countryside. Maybe it was because she couldn't see the scene of the disaster, so the people in the town didn't feel any tension, but they could clearly feel There are more refugees than usual on the streets.

As for what to buy, of course, there is no food in the store. After walking around the town, the carriage is already half full.When passing shopkeeper Mo's place, Fang Dachuan also went in and told him about the situation in the countryside. Shopkeeper Mo seemed to have a premonition, and said worriedly: "I've heard about this, and I've prepared food and so on. No, you don’t have to worry about me. Dachuan, let me tell you, a new batch of refugees has come over recently. I heard that the capital can no longer accept them. Now these people are wandering around, you have to guard the door .”

Fang Dachuan didn't expect the matter to be so serious. He looked at shopkeeper Mo worriedly and asked, "Uncle Mo, is my house okay? The courtyard wall that was just repaired a few months ago is solid, or you can go to my house too." Then avoid it!"

Shopkeeper Mo looked at Fang Dachuan's concern without a trace of faux pas, and said with relief, "Thank you, Dachuan, there is nothing wrong with my family for the time being. If I really can't hold on anymore, I will go to you."

Coming out of shopkeeper Mo, Fang Dachuan took Wen Yue to his store. Originally, he thought about taking only half of the goods in the store and keeping the rest for sale.But now after hearing the information from shopkeeper Mo, Fang Dachuan decided to move all the goods in the store home, so as to avoid losses if someone really caused trouble.

I gave monthly money to the waiter in the store in advance, gave them some food, told them the truth about the disaster in the countryside, told them to go home early to prepare, and closed the store.

Maybe there is only one benefit of flooding, that is, there are more fish in the river suddenly. Fang Dachuan will occasionally go to the river to catch some fish when the rain is light.After eating all steamed and braised in soy sauce, Wen Yue simply made the boiled fish that she had always wanted to eat but had never tried, thanks to the big bag of peppercorns that Ge Shi brought from her hometown.

Everyone sweated after a meal of boiled fish, which dispelled the moisture accumulated in the body due to the rain these days, and also let everyone release a little bit of their dull mood.Maybe it was God's care. When another ordinary morning came, people were pleasantly surprised to find that the rain had stopped.

This is good news. Fang Dachuan's first reaction was to take all the uneared millet stored in the warehouse to the sun. When everyone was worried that the weather would repeat itself, the weather was very good and it was sunny for a week.Then everyone found that things were not as good as they thought. The scorching sun scorched the earth crazily every day, and the river surged rapidly due to the heavy rain. The rice is like a large scar under the sun.

The leaves of the corn that I thought could be harvested normally turned yellow day by day, and I became less and less energetic. Fang Dachuan and the tenants went to the field almost every day to see the growth of the corn.Finally, when it was mid-October, looking at the sticks of dry corn and the dead corn stalks, everyone could only collect them back in advance.

This year is destined to be a famine year.

But this is not the most serious thing. Although it is a disaster, the family still has some harvest after all, so it is not a big problem to survive this year.The biggest problem facing the houses in Luoshui Town now is the ragged and starving refugees. At first they were still begging everywhere, but later, they simply developed to looting along the street.

The county magistrate of Luoshui Town is a somewhat stupid official. Several towns close to Luoshui Town have implemented martial law early on, strictly controlling the entry and exit of refugees. I began to think of martial law in the whole city.In this chaotic situation, in order to protect the interests of the residents in the city, he mobilized the yamen servants to drive away those homeless people. However, he was also smart, knowing that there was not much food now, and he was determined not to arrest anyone.

The expelled refugees scattered to various villages. Although they knew that Luoshui Town was affected by the disaster, they were already tired and hungry, and they had no ability to go on their way.And they also know that no matter where they go, they are unwelcome people, so why not just stay here, eat and drink enough to save enough energy to leave a life and talk about other things.

They all thought clearly, but they suffered from the surrounding villages. Although they were affected by the disaster, the kind-hearted villagers would give them some food at the beginning because they couldn't bear it.But with the passage of time, these refugees who had tasted the benefits actually set up some sheds at the head of the village to live in. The villagers were saving money to help them. After helping them, they first knocked on the door and begged for it, and then stole it until it developed into a room to rob.

(End of this chapter)