HCB Chapter 169 Su Wanwan's Plan
Chapter 169 Su Wanwan's Plan
"It will rain, otherwise the court would not have detained all the refugees in Tongxu County and prohibited them from going south. But we have to be prepared for the worst. We have to think of a foolproof plan."
Shen Yuan also looked at the sky.
"Our county magistrate is quite capable. He has managed to hold on for so many days."
Su Wanwan also admired him very much.
When she traveled through time, some people had already fled to Tongxu County. There must be more refugees in the county now. She wondered how County Magistrate Xu solved the problem of food and clothing for the refugees.
In all these days, I haven't seen a single refugee passing through Daliushu Village.
Shen Yuan thought of the young county magistrate.
He is indeed capable.
I heard that he was the third place winner in the imperial examination last year.
It just so happened that the new emperor had been carrying out reforms in the past two years and had dealt with many corrupt officials. There was a shortage of local officials, and those who passed the imperial examinations and had no background were basically sent to local areas.
When Xu Huaiyuan took office as a new official, he encountered a famine, which was both an opportunity and a danger.
If you do well, promotion is a piece of cake.
If you don’t do well, you might lose your job.
Judging from the current situation, he should be a capable person.
Shen Yuan didn't know that Xu Huaiyuan was in a state of panic at this moment.
Before the relief grain arrived, he emptied the county treasury and went to several neighboring counties in the south to buy grain, but he was helpless as food was in short supply everywhere and he could not buy any even with silver.
Besides, the treasury is running out of money.
Helplessly, he took out the beans from the granary and used them.
The beans were for seed, and some were stored as feed for border horses.
The horse feed at the border cannot be moved, and there are special people in charge of it. Even if he is the county magistrate, he cannot move it without orders from above. He is almost running out of bean seeds.
I heard that some households in Tongxu County had run out of food and had to eat the bean seeds they had stored at home as an emergency measure.
The wheat harvest is almost over, and the Imperial Astronomical Observatory says there will be rain in June, but all the seeds have been eaten. What crops should be planted in June?
Despite this, Xu Huaiyuan never regretted it.
He also came from a farming family, and many of those refugees were his fellow villagers, so he couldn't just ignore them.
Moreover, he had already submitted many memorials, requesting not only disaster relief grain, but also appropriation of funds from the court to buy seeds, to see if he could borrow the batch of beans used as horse feed at the border.
The imperial court asked him to intercept refugees, so it was no wonder that he opened the warehouse. If they really wanted to blame him, he would admit it.
On this day, the Agricultural Bureau reported that the wheat harvest in Daliushu Village had been completed, but the yield was only one-third of that in previous years, and he was also worried.
This is the first village to finish harvesting wheat. Of course, it is also possible that other villages have also finished harvesting but have not yet reported it.
The Agriculture Department has sent people to check it out.
The only village that took the initiative to report it was Daliushu Village.
Xu Huaiyuan knew what the villagers below were worried about.
It’s not easy to collect the costs, and they still have to pay taxes. They want to delay it as long as possible.
Now the policy has come down from above that the tax grain collected from all disaster-stricken people will only be one-third of that in previous years.
Even so, no one is willing to pay.
After all, if all this grain is kept, it will not last until the autumn harvest, not to mention that part of it will have to be handed over.
Seeing that her son had not yet gone to sleep, Old Mrs. Xu brought him a bowl of tea.
She also knew what her son was worried about.
Their family's land had no harvest this year, but fortunately their son came to Tongxu County to take up his post and it was close by, so they rushed over in advance.
The son had finally passed the imperial examination and became an official, but he encountered this kind of thing.
There's nothing they can do to help. To be honest, they only eat two meals a day now and try to save as much as possible.
"It's not easy for farmers either. Don't blame them. One-third of the tax is also costing them their lives."
The old lady sighed.
"Mom, I know everything. But if we don't collect the tax grain, the county's granary will be empty. We are about to run out of food. If the refugees move south, with so many refugees, I don't know if the farmers will be able to protect themselves. I'm afraid they won't be able to defend themselves. Wouldn't that cause chaos?"
Xu Huaiyuan had a terrible headache.
The wealthy households have donated all the grain they should have donated, and all other methods have been tried. If nothing works, they can only use the beans that were to be sent to the border.
However, these days, war horses are more valuable than human lives.
If the border is unstable, the people of the entire Daxia Kingdom will suffer.
"Since some villages have already harvested wheat, son, why don't you go down and see it with your own eyes? Don't let the issue of tax grain cause discord between officials and the people. God bless, it must rain in June."
The old lady suddenly clasped her hands together, as if she was really begging God.
Xu Huaiyuan put down the document in his hand and nodded:
"Mom, that's what I was thinking. Daliushu Village is the most active, and they have also made some new farm tools. I can go and see them myself tomorrow."
The old lady opened her eyes:
"I'll go with you tomorrow. I'm not used to staying in the county government office doing nothing every day. When this disaster is over, your eldest brother and I will go back to our hometown to farm."
Old Mrs. Xu has been a farmer all her life and is not used to having some free time. Even though she still helps to make porridge every day, she feels sad when she sees her fellow villagers and wants to go out for a walk.
She also realized that being a county magistrate was not an easy job.
"Mom, I know you can't sit still and you're not comfortable here. Let's talk about the future later. Let's take Duoduo with us tomorrow. He's almost suffocated. I'll have someone prepare something."
Xu Huaiyuan felt a little guilty. His studies had brought honor to his family and should have allowed his family to enjoy the good life, but now his family had to suffer with him and worry about him.
The next morning, Daliushu Village became bustling with activity because they were going to prepare a pig-killing meal.
Feng Gang brought the finished product over early in the morning, which was the wooden part of the curved plow, and he also installed the plowshare.
Su Wanwan did not join in the fun. She looked at the curved plow and put it into the space first.
The piglets needed to be fed. Fortunately, there were cows at home, and the little guys had stored a lot of fodder a while ago, so we fed the piglets first.
Shen Yuan couldn't sit still, even if he could only sit, he was still chopping grass.
Su Wanwan took out the drawings she had drawn and explained them to Shen Yuan.
"Shen Yuan, I've made up my mind. Farmers can't get rich just by farming. I want to open a factory, what you call a workshop, to produce yuba and bean products."
Shen Yuan immediately became interested.
He had eaten yuba before. It was made of beans and could be eaten in hot pot, cold dishes, stir-fried, and in many other ways. It could also be stored for a long time.
If we can make it, we won’t have trouble selling it even in Beijing.
"I think now is the best time to build a workshop. While everyone is idle, let's build the workshop first. When the disaster is over, we will buy beans from farmers and recruit villagers to work."
"We don't have to go to the town or county, we can do it right here in our village. You see, this is an ecological industry chain. We buy beans from farmers, and then we can feed pigs with bean dregs and swill, and the pig manure can be used as fertilizer and then used in the fields."
"Families can work without affecting their farming. Those who want to raise pigs can do so. As for sales, we don't have to worry about it. There are so many capable people in the county. As long as the reputation is spread, people will come to buy, and we can sell yuba all over the country."
Su Wanwan talked for a long time, and Shen Yuan was also attracted by the drawings in her hand. The more he looked at them, the brighter his eyes became.