"The millet on the west battlement has sprouted, hurry and get the baskets to collect it!"
"What are you still covering for? Hurry and grab it. If a jin of grain is washed away, our rations for next year will be less by a jin. Anyone who dares to slack off today, don't blame me for not being lenient when we distribute the grain later."
Heavy rain poured down. In less than half an hour, the muddy ground of the threshing ground began to flow. Shen Fuguo was so anxious he wished he had eight hands to rush to collect the grain.
"Those who haven't been flooded yet, hurry and pour the grain into the plastic sheeting of the temporary granary. Those who are starting to flood, immediately use baskets. If you use baskets, the grain won't be washed away."
Chen Yang was already drenched in rain, as was everyone else present. They had all become drowned rats.
This time, no one argued with Chen Yang anymore. Everyone was desperately collecting grain.
If it weren't for Chen Yang's foresight and Shen Fuguo's decisive decision to mobilize everyone in the village, the losses they would face today were unimaginable.
However, even so, nearly a third of the four to five hundred thousand jin of grain on the entire threshing ground had not yet been properly stored.
The rain was too heavy and too sudden, leaving them with very little time!
"Branch Secretary, we're out of plastic sheeting. The temporary granary can't be sealed anymore!"
After another ten minutes of frantic collection, all the plastic sheeting from every household in Shenjiaba Village was finally used up.
"Then pack all the grain on the ground into baskets. If baskets can't hold it, use winnowing fans. If winnowing fans can't hold it, use your clothes to wrap it!"
"This is the grain we worked hard for half a year to grow. We can't let this damned sky take it all away."
In this era where people counted grains of rice for every meal, many people valued grain more than their lives. Seeing the grain on the very edge of the threshing ground being washed away, Shen Fuguo felt his heart bleeding.
"Everyone hurry and grab it. The more we save from the rain, the more rations we'll have next year. If you don't want to starve, then pack with all your might!"
Chen Yang also joined in without hesitation, grabbing a nearby basket and pouring the grain, already wet by the rain, into it. Even so, in just over ten minutes, everything everyone had that could hold grain was filled to the brim.
But the rain showed no signs of stopping. The sky was as dark as midnight, with occasional low rumbles of thunder.
Everyone could only watch helplessly as the remaining grain on the ground sank completely into the mud, and then was washed into the ditches by the flowing muddy water and disappeared!
After nearly an hour of frantic collection, all available containers were used. A rough estimate showed that at least one-fifth of the grain had been washed away.
This meant that the grain washed away by the rain was probably eighty to one hundred thousand jin. What did this concept represent!
You must know that Shenjiaba Village had over eight hundred people and more than a thousand mu of paddy fields. The average yield was just over four hundred jin per mu, totaling around four hundred thousand jin.
Of this four hundred thousand jin of grain, twenty-five percent was to be handed over as public grain, and fifteen percent was to be sold to the state reserves.
Furthermore, in this era, to compete for honor and to secure quotas for seeds and fertilizers for the next year, the brigade would usually inflate production figures. The actual amount of grain handed over could reach a staggering fifty percent.
This meant that nearly two hundred thousand jin alone had to be handed over. Of the remaining two hundred thousand jin, nearly one hundred thousand jin were washed away, effectively losing half of the grain supply for the entire Shenjiaba Village. Who wouldn't be heartbroken!
Even though the remaining one hundred thousand jin seemed like a lot, when divided among everyone, it was only a little over a hundred and twenty jin per person. This meant less than three liang of grain per person per day.
And this was still grain. One hundred and twenty jin of grain would likely yield only seventy to eighty jin of rice. That's less than two liang of rice per person per day!
Even with normal harvests, if the grain wasn't washed away, each person would only have about two hundred jin of grain, which translated to just over one hundred jin of rice. In such times, everyone was often eating rice mixed with wild vegetables.
One could imagine the difficulties Shenjiaba Village would face next!
And this was after Chen Yang had given advance warning and urged everyone to try their best to collect. If it had been like his previous life, where more than half the grain was washed away.
For the entire Shenjiaba Village, even handing over the public grain would be a problem!
As for the villagers' rations? Chen Yang vaguely remembered that the year he returned to the city, not only did the old branch secretary pass away from illness, but many elderly people in the village also passed away, almost half of them!
Most of the elderly were reluctant to eat the already meager rations at home, because they knew better than anyone that if they ate one more mouthful, their sons and daughters-in-law who were the breadwinners would have to eat one less.
The grandchildren, who were already as thin as skin and bones, would have to go hungry. So, they could only find ways to dig for wild vegetables, and they had probably tried every edible plant.
With irregular meals for a long time, how could the bodies of the elderly endure!
Clearly, no one at this moment could accept such a result.
They had worked hard for half a year, and their rice had been lost by more than half. Everyone's heart was bleeding!
"Old Branch Secretary, fellow villagers, now is not the time for sadness and grief. The grain has been washed away. Even if we break our hearts, the millet won't come back."
"We can only think of other ways and replant the grain. Otherwise, it will be a very difficult year until the next harvest!"
Chen Yang looked at the group of people with bloodshot eyes, standing in the pouring rain. His heart also ached. This was just a group of farmers who wanted to eat!
All they wanted was not to starve. As for eating well, they didn't even dare to think about it. Being able to eat their fill was their greatest wish.
But even such a small wish was ruthlessly shattered by the heavy rain!
"You say it so easily. One hundred thousand jin of grain, how do you expect us to make it up?"
Chen Yang's silence was better. As soon as he spoke, everyone looked at him with red eyes.
They didn't hate Chen Yang. It was just that faced with this situation, they truly had no solution. They were just farmers who relied on the weather for their livelihood. When the heavens sent down heavy rain and smashed their rice bowls, they could do nothing but grieve!
They could only watch helplessly as the grain they had worked hard to grow was washed away by the water, mixed with mud, and disappeared!
"Fellow villagers, even though the washed-away hundred thousand jin of millet can't be recovered, it's all in our fields."
"Given the situation in our village this year, we naturally cannot hand over surplus grain as usual. Besides the public grain, we will take out some of the remaining grain to be used as seeds."
"This crop of millet will sprout in our fields. In the less fertile areas, we will add some seeds. In previous years, we didn't plant a second crop of rice, partly because the entire village had to go to repair the dikes as required by the commune in the second half of the year."
"Secondly, due to the climate in our Hanjiang Province, there is always no water in the second half of the year, and rice cannot grow millet. But if we keep a portion of people in the second half of the year from repairing the dikes, and instead connect all the ditches and canals in the village, and water the rice in the fields whenever we have time."
"Even if we carry it by hand, even if we use shoulder poles, I don't believe we can't irrigate enough water for the rice to grow!"
"Even if the harvest is only half of the usual, it will be enough to make up for the hundred thousand jin of millet we lost today."
Chen Yang's words were sonorous and powerful. For a moment, everyone looked at him in silence.
In previous years, it wasn't that no one had considered planting a second crop of rice. But as Chen Yang said, it was partly due to the climate, and more importantly, the commune's orders. When there was free time, everyone had to go to work on construction projects.
Repairing dikes was a project assigned by the commune that Shenjiaba Village was responsible for. In this era, who would dare to outwardly comply and inwardly resist the commune's assignments!
"Chen Yang, you silly boy, how dare you speak such words? Hurry up and apologize."
Before others could speak, Zheng Weiguo immediately covered Chen Yang's mouth. If these words of Chen Yang were leaked to the commune, he would never be able to return to the city.
...