newbobooks Chapter 179: Too Many Monks, Too Little Porridge
Chapter 179: Too Many Monks, Too Little Porridge
After a night of discussion, Lord Pan and County Magistrate Jiang decided on the final plan.
The wording of the memorial was revised several times, and only after confirming that it was correct at almost dawn did Mr. Pan put the paper with dried ink into the envelope.
He also packed a basket of potatoes and sweet potatoes and ordered his men to deliver them to the capital as fast as possible.
Magistrate Jiang and Mr. Qian, who had not rested all night, took a nap for two hours at Lord Pan's residence and then started a new busy day.
The potatoes, sweet potatoes and a bunch of vine seedlings collected from the mountain yesterday have all been moved back to the house where Lord Pan lives.
Just as Magistrate Jiang and Mr. Qian were about to return to the city after breakfast, several county magistrates from Taihe County's neighboring counties arrived in Changhe Village in a hurry with their men.
After Qin Huaisheng led the way for the county magistrates, he hurriedly left and returned to his home.
He is now in a state of confusion. The news that Changhe Village has planted new crops and even agricultural officials have moved in cannot be concealed.
The daughters-in-law of each family in Changhe Village are basically married from nearby villages.
Compared with the villagers in Changhe Village, the lives of the villagers in other villages are only slightly better.
In a word, we are still poor.
Some villages are even worse than Changhe Village.
These young wives who marry into this family always feel sorry for the hard life that their parents live in.
Or perhaps with a bit of showing off in mind, the fact that Changhe Village had planted new crops was inadvertently publicized.
Upon hearing that Changhe Village had a new crop of grain, representatives from other villages who had received the news first hurried over.
I just want to see if I can get some for my own village.
The current situation of planting seedlings is that there are too many people and too little porridge. Planting seedlings for other villages? This is not something Qin Huaisheng can decide.
What made Qin Huaisheng even more annoyed was that when the Qin family distributed sweet potato seedlings, several villagers were not optimistic about them and were afraid of taking risks, so they gave up receiving them.
Now he suddenly regrets it and comes to the Qin family with a shameless face, hoping that Qin Huaisheng will ask the Qin family for some money.
Qin Huaisheng was merciless and scolded those villagers. He drove them away, but several representatives from neighboring villages came again.
Looking at those weathered old faces in the hall, Qin Huaisheng felt very uncomfortable.
Having dug sweet potatoes and potatoes himself in the mountains yesterday, he understood better than anyone the value of these new crops.
Although the batch of sweet potatoes and potatoes brought back from the mountains weighed more than a thousand kilograms, the right to dispose of them was not in his hands.
Lord Pan had already made arrangements for the new crops and food harvested from the mountains, and they would be kept for seeds.
After moving it back from Qin's house, the thing was put into the house and locked with several layers of locks, and someone was specially assigned to watch over it.
Just now when I was leading the way for those county magistrates, they were asking questions in a roundabout way.
When Qin Huaisheng heard this, he knew it was about the new crop.
Qin Huaisheng naturally knew the village representative who came into the house.
Qin Huaisheng's wife is from one of the villages, Mashigou.
"My dear nephew, you are the most knowledgeable village head in our area. We in Majia Village are counting on you to live a good life. Your Changhe Village has new grain crops, so you can't forget us poor folks." Ma Lizheng of Majia Village sighed and spoke with a bitter face.
"Huaisheng, you are aware of the situation in Beipo Village. We are not the kind of people who want to take advantage of others, but we really have no other choice, right? I heard that your village has basically planted , and the folks in Beipo Village are very anxious. Before coming here, we pooled some silver together. I know it is not much, but this is the amount that everyone can gather." Liu Lizheng of Beipo Village shook the copper coins in his silver bag with a guilty look on his face.
Only Uncle Lao Gen, the representative of Mashigou, lowered his head, wondering what he was thinking.
Mashigou is just opposite Changhe Village. The village is not big with only about 20 to 30 households.
The people living here are all outsiders who fled here due to floods in their hometowns decades ago.
Later, the government pointed out a barren hilltop to them and asked them to reclaim the land and settle down there. Decades passed in a flash, and they had already integrated into the local life.
Majia Village has a small population and the land is barren, so life is indeed difficult.
When Uncle Lao Gen thought of the eager looks of the villagers before coming here, he couldn't help feeling bitter.
Regardless of whether this new crop can be grown, it is always a new hope.
It was with this idea in mind that we came to Changhe Village together.
"My dear uncles, this new crop is still in the trial planting stage, and it is still unknown whether it can be successfully planted. Moreover, there are too many people and too little porridge. Even if I want to help, I am powerless. Why don't you wait until next year to see. You should have heard before you came that the seedlings of this new crop do not belong to the village."
Qin Huaisheng sighed helplessly. These villages were all notoriously poor villages in the vicinity, and he really wanted to help these folks.
No wonder Qin Ruo said when he came down the mountain last night that his life might not be so peaceful after today.
It turns out that my niece had foreseen the current situation.
Upon hearing this, Ma Lizheng and Liu Lizheng showed disappointment on their faces, and Uncle Lao Gen lowered his head even more.
They were silent for a moment, then stood up, said goodbye and prepared to leave.
The Zhou brothers and Qin Zimu came pushing a cart filled with sweet potato vine seedlings.
Qin Zimu told Malizheng and others that this batch of seedlings was the last one and was originally intended to be kept for their own planting.
However, when my sister heard that Mali Zheng and Uncle Lao Gen had come to visit, and also considered that their village really needed the seedlings more, she decided to give up her own as a token of her appreciation.
Mountain darkly, vista.
Ma Lizheng and Liu Lizheng, Uncle Lao Gen was overjoyed.
Who in the nearby villages doesn't know the Qin family in Changhe Village? The family has a smart and capable girl who not only makes the Qin family prosperous, but is also blessed by the gods.
Even the new crops were brought back by the Qin family girl.
When they heard Qin Zimu say that these seedlings were specially sent by Qin Ruo and he didn't ask for a penny, Uncle Laogen and the others were very grateful.
They swept away their depressed expressions, gathered around the cart, and kept expressing their gratitude to the Qin family.
"All of you fellow villagers are family. My sister just wants to do her part for you." Qin Zimu said with a smile.
Qin Huaisheng breathed a sigh of relief. After helping to distribute the seedlings, he asked Qin Zimu to explain to them the planting methods.
Qin Huaisheng then hurried to the Qin family to discuss other matters.
In the hall of Lord Pan's house, Jiang Daoling almost lost his temper when he saw the magistrates from several nearby counties who gathered around him and asked for seedlings of new crops.
This kind of seedlings should be given to Taihe County where they live. How could it be their turn?
Which of these county magistrates governs a county that is not richer than Taihe County? How did they fight for it?
Lord Pan sat in the main seat with a serious expression, and was obviously troubled by the scene before him.