Lucky husband

Mrs. Li's words did have an effect, but the effect was not to make Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Huang pay attention to the possible drought, but when the widow Sun continued to laugh at Mrs. Li under the big locust tree in the next few days, Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Huang The two counterattacked with old man Li's promise of heavy rain.

Therefore, although everyone didn't take the drought that Mrs. Li said seriously, everyone remembered that Mrs. Li was sure about the weather, especially after Bai Sangui and Niu Silang personally confirmed it.

That afternoon, Old Man Li and Old Madam Li really went to the county seat, bought a cart full of grain and came back openly, a bag of [-] catties of white flour, a bag of [-] catties of white rice, two bags of [-] catties of fine cornmeal, and And a few bags of sweet potatoes.

For such a large order, the grain store will send an ox cart to deliver the grain to the customer's home.

The bullock cart walked around Shanghe Village, and successfully let everyone in the village see the grain on the cart, which made everyone have different ideas in their hearts, but no one said it.

After returning to calm, Li Chengshi continued to change places to buy grain in small quantities and many times, and Bai Xiuhe quietly transported it back to Li's house. The grain cellar where Li's family stored grain piled up more and more, and Granny Li's worries gradually subsided.

Time passed slowly and bustlingly like this, and April came.

During the Muxiu at the end of March and the beginning of April, the Li family made another big move after buying grain.

Two brothers, Li Chengzhi and Li Chengshi, went to the head of Baicun's house to borrow an ox cart to the county town, and dragged back two big jars, each of which was as high as the waist of an adult man. The water tanks are even taller.

It was Mrs. Li's idea to buy jars, not to store water, but to pickle some sauerkraut and kimchi.

When the drought intensifies later, and there is no water in the fields, not only will the food not grow, but vegetables and fruits will also not grow. She plans to take advantage of the fact that there are still vegetables in the field, and quickly make some and put them away to eat later.

Before the Li family bought food, not many people paid attention to it, but now that the Li family got back two big jars, the villagers began to be curious.

Several women who have a good relationship with Mrs. Li came to see her directly: "Zhaodi, what are you doing with such a big pot?"

The old lady Li told the truth: "One jar for pickling pickles and one jar for sauerkraut."

Huang Pozi was surprised: "How many pots are you planning to make?"

"You can make as much as you can. Anyway, you can store these two things. When the weather gets hot and there is no food, these will come in handy." Mrs. Li replied while doing things.

The jars just bought must be cleaned before they can be used. Mrs. Li asked Li Chengzhi and Li Chengshi to hold the jars and tilt them down slowly. She poured the boiled water for a while to clean the jars.

"Seeing that you have prepared so much, I also want to go home and make some preparations." Huang Pozi saw that Li's family was making various preparations for the possible drought, and she suddenly felt that she should also prepare some at home. Complicated, she has jars and dishes at home, just need to take some salt.

After hearing Mrs. Huang's words, Old Madam Li took the time to raise her head: "Then what are you still doing standing here, go back and do it, listen to my advice, it's not wrong to be more prepared."

The more she thought about this, the more Mrs. Huang was persuaded by Mrs. Li, she gritted her teeth: "That trick, I'll go back and make some sauerkraut and kimchi, even if there is no drought, sauerkraut and kimchi can be eaten on weekdays , don't waste anything."

Seeing this, Mrs. Chen was also a little moved. Seeing that Mrs. Li and her two sons were busy, they followed Mrs. Huang and left Li's house.

After Mrs. Huang finished making sauerkraut and kimchi at home, she carefully counted the remaining food in the house, and found that because of carrying water and doing physical work every day, everyone ate food much faster than in previous years, and the remaining food was eaten until this year The autumn harvest is a bit reluctant.

Reminiscent of the impact of no rain, Mrs. Huang and her family made a plan and simply took out some money and went to the grain store outside to buy some grain.

With these grains, in case something really goes wrong this year, the family can save a little, and the combination of coarse grains and fine grains will still be enough to last until next summer.

After buying food and returning home, Mrs. Huang also went to Mrs. Chen's house to ask Mrs. Chen to pay attention to the food consumption at home.

So, after Mrs. Li and Mrs. Huang, Mrs. Chen couldn't sit still and bought food and put it home.

Two families in Shanghe Village started to buy food, and the others couldn't help but start muttering whether something would really happen.

Normally, there will be more rain from April, from a spring drizzle to an occasional downpour, and the water level of the shallow river near Shanghe Village will rise accordingly.

But this year, after April, the sky is still clear every day, and there is no sign of rain. The water level of the shallow river has not changed, but the water in the canal has begun to decrease.

It was only then that everyone began to realize that this year might really be a little restless.

However, looking at the shallow river that still has water, everyone always feels that things will not be so bad that it becomes a drought, and they don't want to spend the money they have saved so hard to buy food for their families.

It was at this time that old man Li approached Village Chief Bai again and told him some bad news.

Shocked by the news, Village Chief Bai couldn't help but ask for confirmation: "Master Li, Third Brother Li said that the county magistrate sent someone to the nearby counties and prefectures to inquire, and there is no rain in the farther nearby places, is it?"

"Well, that's right." Old Man Li said with certainty.

This is what Li Chengshi said when Muxiu came back this time. Hearing what he said, old man Li no longer had the last glimmer of hope, and decided to ask his eldest son to pull out the rice seedlings tomorrow and replace them with sweet potatoes.

In fact, old man Li had already cut the sweet potato into pieces and waited for it to germinate, but he couldn't make up his mind to pull out the rice seedlings.

"In that case..." The last time Village Chief Bai discussed with several elders in the village, he said that they would wait until April, and if it still didn't rain in April, they would ask the villagers to prepare to stockpile food.

After hearing what Old Man Li said, Village Chief Bai felt that he might not be able to wait any longer, because Old Man Li also told him that the price of fine grains in the county has risen a bit compared to before. Didn't move much.

Old man Li finished what he should and could say, and left Village Chief Bai's house.

Village head Bai sat quietly at home for a while, then got up and went to the homes of several village elders to listen to their opinions.

This time, the village elders had changed their minds. They didn't need Village Chief Bai to say what old man Li said just now, but they were asking Village Chief Bai if he wanted to call the villagers to discuss whether to stockpile grain.

The elderly are more willing to put more food at home than the young, which will make them feel more at ease.

The idea of ​​the village elder coincided with that of Village Chief Bai. After they had finished speaking, Village Chief Bai said what Old Man Li had said, and everyone discussed how to inform the villagers.

It was the morning after Li Chengshi Muxiu returned to the county government office that the villagers of Shanghe Village finally began to pay attention to the fact that the lack of rain and the possibility of drought might occur.

Village head Bai didn't keep asking everyone to stock up on more grain, but asked everyone to go home first to see how much grain and money they had left, plan how much to spend on grain, whether to buy coarse grain or fine grain, and so on.

After Village Chief Bai called everyone for a meeting, everyone went home to see how much food and how much money they had left in their homes. Only Old Man Li and Li Chengzhi were different, they both went silently with their hoes on their shoulders.

Everyone thought that Li's family had saved enough food and didn't need to buy it. In fact, they went to dig out the rice seedlings in the paddy fields and replanted sweet potatoes that were better in feeding, shorter in growth time and higher in yield.

At the same time, it's not that the Li family doesn't want to buy food. The old lady Li took the money she had prepared long ago, and went to the county town before the villagers bought a lot of food, and bought another truckload of food.

Sweet potatoes were the cheapest, and she bought a lot. Four bags of [-] catties cost a total of [-] Wen, and two bags of [-] catties of fine cornmeal cost [-] Wen, plus all kinds of beans, a total of one tael of silver.

When she and the guys from the grain store transported the grain she bought to Shanghe Village, the villagers of Shanghe Village began to set off for the county seat one after another.

This is the third time that Li's family has sold grain in the eyes of the villagers. Seeing the cart full of coarse grains, everyone finally thinks that Li's previous purchase of grain was right.

On this day, several grain stores in Changping County were emptied of half of the warehouses by the villagers of Shanghe Village. Everyone's behavior made the people living in Changping County start to get nervous, and they took out their family money to the grain store to buy grain.

The shopkeeper of the grain store realized that something was wrong, thinking that it hadn't rained much recently, everyone was afraid that there would be a drought, so they wanted to start hoarding grain.

In the event of a disaster, grain is hard currency, and the shopkeeper cannot sell all the grain that can be sold until this year's autumn harvest in this month.

After sending away the two batches of customers, the shopkeeper ordered the staff to go out and tell the customers who came with the money that there was no more food in the store, and if they wanted to buy food, they had to come and have a look tomorrow.

The movement of people rushing to buy food in the county attracted the attention of Zhao Chengze, the county magistrate. To be precise, Li Chengshi noticed it and reported it to Zhao Chengze.

Seeing that the disaster has not yet begun, it is impossible to start grabbing food at this time. Not to mention accidents, it will cause panic.

So the next day, Zhao Chengze sent people to various grain stores to warn them not to drive up grain prices, and they would be severely punished if found.

The shopkeepers of the grain store had guessed that the county government would soon have such an order. They obediently did not raise the price, but uniformly limited the daily quantity of grain sold.

Before the disaster happened, the food could still be controlled by the government. When the disaster really happened in the later stage, as long as there was food in hand, I was afraid that it would not be able to sell the price.

At the same time, the shopkeepers sent people to remote villages to collect grain. As long as it was not old-fashioned rotten grain, they could be bought back at normal prices and put away.

Most of the grain bought by Li's family through Ming Road was placed by Granny Li in the room where the grain was usually stored, and the rest was piled up with the grain bought secretly for half of the cellar.

Even if the grain store starts to sell grain in limited quantities now, Mrs. Li counts enough grain to feed her family for two years, and she can still sleep soundly.

Author’s gossip: Thank you Meiyan y () for supporting me)