The worst time travel, surviving seven years of famine

As the last rice seedling was felled by the sickle, it also meant that the biggest event of this year's autumn harvest came to an end. After being beaten or crushed, the golden rice ears fell one by one, gathering into the source of life. Before the grains were stored in the warehouse, they had to be exposed to the sun to remove excess water so that they could be preserved for many years without getting moldy or rotten. Therefore, in Lanxi Village, every open and flat place was covered with a layer of golden carpet, and the hustle and bustle was close together, which seemed particularly "lively". At this time, the Double Ninth Festival had just passed, and the festive atmosphere did not dissipate. Instead, it became more lively with the banquet organized by the Gu family. That afternoon, the grains in the threshing ground were cleared out in advance and used as the venue for the banquet. For this banquet, everyone had already made preparations in advance. The seats for the banquet were contributed by each family, and the rice was also the rice newly harvested by each household this year. Not only is the new rice whiter in color than the old rice, but the rice made from it is also sweeter and softer than the old rice. More importantly, the new rice has a natural fragrance that comes from the rice itself. This fragrance is something that the old rice cannot have, and time will gradually dissipate this fragrance.

There is a saying that new rice is naturally fragrant when cooked, and people can eat three bowls even without vegetables.

The main dish of the banquet was a pig brought out by the Gu family. His family has a lot of distiller's grains and raises a lot of pigs. The pigs that grow up eating leftover distiller's grains every day not only grow faster than other families, but also are fatter and stronger, black and fat, and their shiny fur looks like a black coal ball in the sun.

With a miserable pig howl, a pot of hot boiling water was poured, and the pig-killing time began.

Fried pork intestines, fried pork liver with leeks, twice-cooked pork with garlic sprouts, stewed pork ribs with lotus root, braised pork head with pickled cabbage, red meat, braised pig's trotters... As the sun gradually set, the pig-killing dishes began to be served on the table. Some of these dishes were made according to local methods, while others were made by Gu Liang to the old lady Gu and others.

The popular thing in Lanxi Village is the flowing banquet, which is not to serve all the dishes at once, but to serve one dish after another, and only one dish is always left on the table. Doing this not only reduces the pressure of cooking in the kitchen, but is also the best way for the common people to entertain guests in their poor days. After all, in many places, a village cannot get together to satisfy a table of more than a dozen dishes and more than a dozen tables at a time.

Many parts of a pig cannot satisfy so many people in Lanxi Village, but it can ensure that everyone has meat to eat and has meat, so no one minds these. More importantly, not only did they not need to bring gifts, but they could also drink the most famous "Lanxi wine" in Lanxi Village.

The people eating at the banquet were all from the same village. They would see each other all day long, so they were not restrained and naturally had a lot of fun chatting. Moreover, with the wine, the lively atmosphere could be promoted.

There were not many topics that the villagers could talk about openly. Basically, they were about the increasing price of chicken, duck, fish and meat, and who had a baby, and who had a girl of age. The most talked about thing was naturally the theme of the banquet. They asked each other about their harvest this year, how much more they had harvested than in previous years, and how much grain they were going to sell.

Although the King of England increased the tax by half this year, it did not affect the lives of the villagers too much because Lanxi Village had a high output this year.

Due to the influence of taxes, even though the harvest was still good this year, the price of white rice was a little higher than last year. So many people in the village wanted to take advantage of the high price of grain and sell all their excess grain and exchange it for copper coins.

After three rounds of drinking, as the representative of the Gu family, who were the main contributors to the banquet, Old Man Gu naturally received much attention, and people kept coming to toast him.

The climax of the banquet was naturally when the whole village toasted Old Man Gu, and Old Man Gu naturally had to say a few words.

Old Man Gu first said a few compliments, thanking the villagers for their help. Then he changed the style and said to everyone present: "Fellow villagers, today should be a day to celebrate the harvest and a day to reward us for our hard work throughout the year. I shouldn't talk about this at this time, but today is the time when all our villagers are together. Out of conscience, I should also tell everyone about this."

The people present were originally chatting lively, and when they heard Old Man Gu's incomprehensible words, they were confused for a while, and didn't understand what was going on. At this time, the lively scene suddenly became quiet, and several children who were playing were covered by their parents' mouths, trying to hear

Listen to what Old Man Gu wants to say.

"This year, our village has ushered in a rare grain harvest in more than a decade, which is a very happy thing. I also know that everyone wants to take advantage of the surplus grain this year and want to sell the grain for money." Old Man Gu continued: "Recently, my family got a message that there may be famine in the next few years. Although this news may not be true, since it has been spread, we can't treat it as empty news. I just hope that all the villagers will make preparations and store some grain. Even if there is no famine, there is no such thing as too much grain."

When Old Man Gu finished speaking, the place below was boiling instantly, and everyone was talking about it.

First of all, they must be surprised. They don’t understand how the Gu family got the news and why they haven’t heard it before. Secondly, they doubt whether this news is true. After all, few people can predict what will happen in the future. Could it be that Old Man Gu was deceived by some half-immortal?

Afterwards, the reactions of each family were naturally varied. Some were dismissive, thinking that the Gu family was cheating them, that the Gu family didn't want them to sell grain, and hoped that they would remain poor. Some people wanted to continue to confirm the authenticity of the news. After all, natural disasters are a big deal and must be made clear. They also fled from Lanxi Village more than a hundred years ago, and they could hear the old people talk about those life-threatening experiences of fleeing famine.

Some smarter ones silently calculated in their minds how much grain they could have left this year, and whether they could survive until the autumn harvest the year after next if they didn't sell it and had no harvest next year.

The words of the Gu family were like water poured into a frying pan, making the voices of the crowd talking about this matter louder and louder, as if they were going to overturn the entire threshing ground.

Compared with the heated discussions on the adults' side, the children's side was much more silent. They didn't understand the famine or anything, they only knew that the adults suddenly stopped eating, so they could eat more meat. One by one, they stretched out their chopsticks from under the adults' arms with difficulty to grab the fattest piece of pork skin in the bowl. Such shiny fat meat is a delicacy that they can't easily eat during the Chinese New Year.

Seeing that the situation was about to get out of control, Old Man Gu hurriedly called a halt and said that hoarding food was just a suggestion to everyone. It was up to everyone to believe it or not. Life is for themselves.

Until the end of the banquet, the topic was still not over, and everyone continued to talk about it.

However, everyone talked about it, but they had already made a conclusion in their hearts. Probably less than a quarter of the people believed the Gu family's words and prepared to hoard food for emergency use. More people were hesitating, preparing to sell some first, and then buy it back if they had spare money.

Some people just sneered at this, thinking that the Gu family was exaggerating. The days were getting better and better every year, so how could there be a disaster year. Especially Wang Lizheng, he felt that this banquet and the news he said this time were all directed by the Gu family to win the hearts of the villagers, just for the hat on his head.