He Qiudi picked up a sweet potato from the basket and looked at it carefully.

She looked at the stall owner and asked, "Where did you get this? Why haven't I seen it before?"

The stall owner explained, "I bought this from a caravan after the autumn harvest last year. The caravan owner said that the sweet potatoes came from Southern Chu and the Later Song. During the spring ploughing season, you plant the sweet potatoes in the soil, and when they sprout and grow vines, you can plant the vine seedlings. The vine seedlings can grow as long as there is water, and you can harvest a lot of sweet potatoes in the autumn. Young lady, do you want to buy some? Here are more than twenty sweet potatoes. If you want them, I'll sell them all to you for thirty coins."

"This thing is not delicious." Old Lady He came over, snatched the sweet potato and put it on the ground. "What can we harvest if we plant things grown in the south in the northwest? Besides, these sweet potatoes cannot be stored for a long time. They will freeze to death in cold weather, rot in heat, and sprout in moisture. The northwest winter cannot keep these sweet potatoes. Look at these sweet potatoes, they all have spots on them. They are rotten and cannot be eaten, so he is selling them."

"Sweet potatoes are also hard to swallow, and they make your throat greasy and sour. The more you eat, the more upset your stomach becomes. They also cause you to pass gas easily, which is disrespectful in front of others. They also use up a lot of land. The land in the Great Zhou is not as fertile as that in Southern Chu and the Later Song. In the past, someone in the southern part of the Great Zhou experimented with growing sweet potatoes, but within a few years, the land turned into saline-alkali land, and you could no longer grow food."

The reason why Old Lady He knew that sweet potatoes were unpalatable was because she had eaten them when she was in exile when she was young.

It was a memory she didn't want to think about anymore.

Sweet potatoes are only grown in warm and barren places. They consume a lot of nutrients from the soil and can easily turn fertile farmland into alkaline soil. In the Great Zhou, which was richer and more densely populated than Southern Chu and Later Song, no one grew sweet potatoes as a serious food.

He Qiudi wanted to buy it.

Unimproved sweet potatoes are the coarseest of coarse grains.

But the food stored in her small building includes a lot of improved sweet potatoes, which are high in sugar, delicious and filling.

Moreover, it can also be planted in the northwest.

She can take the opportunity to replace the sweet potato seedlings.

Sweet potatoes have a high yield per mu. Although eating the improved version of sweet potatoes will cause a lot of fart, it is definitely a holy grail to save people from famine.

Sweet potatoes are drought-resistant. As long as they take root and sprout, a cup of water can keep them from dying of drought for half a month.

Even if the drought continues this year, there is no need to worry that Shiliu Village will not be able to harvest food and the whole village will have to flee the famine due to war.

Let’s just get through this year and next year’s disaster years first, and not worry about whether it is saline-alkali land or not.

"Mother," He Qiudi said, "When I was in the city, I heard people say that sweet potatoes can be used as dry food after being dried, and can be used to feed chickens and ducks after being cooked. The sweet potato vines can be dried to make pickles, and can also be used as fodder for cattle, sheep, donkeys and mules. Let's buy some and go home to try. It's only thirty cents. Give me half a piece of land and I'll plant it."

Afraid that Old Lady He would not agree, He Qiudi pulled Old Lady He's sleeve and acted coquettishly: "Mother~"

Old Mrs. He waved her hands and said, "Alright, alright. What a nemesis. You said it yourself, take care of the sweet potato field yourself. Don't let your enthusiasm fade away and you leave the sweet potato farming job to me."

He Qiudi promised solemnly: "I promise to do the work myself and not leave it to you."

When He Qiudi saw that Old Lady He agreed to give her the land to grow sweet potatoes, she took out thirty cents and bought all the twenty or so small sweet potatoes.

After jumping onto the donkey cart, He Qiudi leaned on the grain bag and felt sleepy.

The yield of sweet potatoes per mu is two to three thousand kilograms. Old Mrs. He agreed to give her half a piece of land to plant it, or at most two or three mu of land.

She wanted to grow more.

Then I can only wait until I get back and find a way to buy more land in the village.

From last year to this year, there has been little rain in the village.

A lot of dry land has been abandoned, so I guess we can buy a lot of land.

In the original owner's memory, there was a large piece of wasteland near the mountain in the village, and she could save money to buy it from the village.

*

In room number one of Yunlai Inn.

Guard Yang Ba packed up Yan Shi's luggage and specially took out the brocade box that He Qiudi had given to Yan Shi.

"Sir, where should I put the brocade box that the lady from the He family sent me?"

"Put it by the bed." Yan Shi thought for a moment and said to him, "You can open it and take a look."

During the banquet, Yang Jiu and I opened the carriage and looked at the things inside. It was just as He Qiudi said, two precious swords that could cut hair with a gust of wind and slice iron like mud.

It’s just that the knife sheath doesn’t fit well, and it’s easy to accidentally hurt yourself when carrying it with you.

Yang Ba opened the brocade box and saw two short knives covered with cowhide inside. He picked up the short knives and pulled them out. He looked at the shining silver blades and was dumbfounded.

This was the first time he had seen such a short knife with a shining blade.

Subconsciously, I wiped the blade with my thumb to test its sharpness.

"careful!"

Yan Shi tried to remind him, but it was too late.

Yang Ba's thumb was instantly cut deeply by the dagger, and blood gushed out.

This is a sharp weapon that can kill with one blow!

"Master!" Yang Ba knelt down with the knife in his hand, "I deserve death for letting my precious knife see blood."

"It's okay. It was unintentional. Go find a doctor to bandage your wound. Ask a craftsman in the city to come over and make two knife sheaths that are more convenient to carry."

"promise!"

*

The donkey cart was shaking and it took us until about eleven o'clock before we arrived at Shiliu Village.

Before I got off the bus, I heard someone's voice saying in a sad voice, "Village head, this old well doesn't produce much water anymore. Could it be that it's going to be dry from now on? This year will be a severe drought. What should we do?"

"That's right. The other two wells in the village have been dry for a long time. After we got up early to draw water from the old well to water the vegetables, there was no water in the bottom pit anymore. Unexpectedly, there is not much water coming out of this old well."

Some people almost cried.

"Yes, head of the village. It didn't rain after the spring plowing and harvest last year. The hot summer hasn't passed yet, and the water from the old well is not enough for the whole village. Until the autumn rain, we have been transporting water from Liushu Village and Taohua Village for drinking. Since the beginning of this year, God has sent two small rains around the Qingming Festival, and then no more. Will it never rain again? Will we be without water again this year?"

He Qiudi got off the donkey cart. Old Mrs. He took her grandchildren home to clean up, while she ran to the old well under the old locust tree at the entrance of the village to watch the fun.

The villagers who came after hearing the news all stood above the well.

This is an old well formed naturally in a low-lying area.

I don’t know how many years it has been in Pomegranate Village, and it has been repaired by successive residents.

The shape of the ancient well is like an upright egg with half of its shell knocked off. The dome and the surrounding areas are paved with large and small green bricks, supporting a solid space. The body of the egg crosses a green brick step.

Villagers climbed up the steps to get water from the well.

When the well is full, water will overflow from the small hole chiseled in the blue brick.

The other side is also built with blue bricks and paved with blue stones, separating and dividing several water storage areas from top to bottom.

When there is plenty of well water, the area next to the well is used to wash vegetables and handle chickens, ducks, etc. The water in the next pit is used to wash clothes and diapers. Finally, the water that flows into the puddle decorated only with pebbles and gravel is used to water the vegetables and wash manure buckets and toilet buckets. Any excess water flows along the ditch connecting the puddle into the irrigation pond at the entrance of the village.

My second and third brothers wanted to pump water from this reservoir to irrigate their crops.

Today, the villagers carried water from the puddle to water the vegetables as usual. Many people came together to carry water, and all the water in the puddle was carried away.

In the past, the water in the puddle at the end was drawn away, and it was soon filled with spring water flowing from the well.

As a result, there was less and less water in the puddle today, and even the water level in the area where clothes and diapers are washed has dropped a lot.

The villagers draw water from the old well. After queuing up to fetch water all morning, the water level in the drinking water area of ​​the old well dropped and has not increased much since then.

The villagers, who had suffered from last year's drought and had almost no harvest, knew that bad things were going to happen.

Thinking about the fact that groundwater is about to dry up and the crops planted this spring may not be harvested in the fall, everyone has a sad expression on their face.

An old woman with a bad mentality was already kneeling on the ground and crying.

"God, please open your eyes and sneeze towards our Ningyuan County and Shiliu Village and pour us some water to drink."

Villagers came to the village entrance one after another. The old woman's desperate cry infected the villagers. Many women and elderly people with bad mentality followed suit and cried and knelt down towards the direction of the well.

"Old locust tree, please show your power and save our village."

It is unknown how many hundreds of years old this old locust tree is. It is like a compassionate old man, protecting Shiliu Village with its body.

The villagers have an inexplicable sense of trust in this old locust tree.

"God, please make it rain, I will kill a pig to thank you~"

"Mother, last year, Pomegranate Village relied on the imperial court for relief. Will the imperial court still care about us this year? I heard that the entire Yongning Prefecture is suffering from drought. Will our family not be able to survive this year?"

"In the neighboring Willow Village, many families have sold their daughters..."

"Wow, grandma, don't sell me. If you don't sell me, I will eat less and work for the family."

"I went to the county seat yesterday and heard from my escort friend that a village in Lan County, which is next door to Xirong, has already begun secretly organizing villagers to flee the famine."

"People are worthless when they leave their hometown. I don't want to flee from famine. Even if I die, I want to die in Pomegranate Village!"

"Dad, if there is no water in Liushu Village this year, we will go to Lihua Village. If there is no water in Lihua Village, we will go to the county town to carry water. We will not flee from the famine. We will stay in Shiliu Village and not go anywhere else. We will definitely survive."

Soon, the villagers burst into tears.

The villagers' dark faces were filled with confusion, despair and helplessness.

This depressing atmosphere felt like a needle prickling pain to He Qiudi.

She was born under the red flag and grew up safely, healthily and happily.

Later he became a special agent, whose duty was to serve the people and defend the country.

Seeing this scene, she felt very sad.

Try to help them in any way you can.

She thought about walking to the bluestone of the well, and she tried to see if she could pour the water that was in various containers last night into the two or three bodies of water on the ground.

It would be great if we could connect the tap water directly to the old well.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like