Farmer's wife: My husband came back and the house was in chaos

Chapter 226: Rat plague? All the food has been eaten up

The next morning, when Yao Qing started to read, he heard Liu Shuyue cursing, "Damn rat."

"Mom, what's wrong?"

"Qing Nian, most of our food has been eaten by rats. What should we do? Oh! I came to the warehouse to check it last night, but I didn't expect it was still eaten by rats."

Yao Qingnian ran to the warehouse and saw that, as expected, all the food in the sacks had been eaten up by mice. Except for the sealed jars, everything else had been eaten up! This was also Yao Qingnian's fault, as he had not remembered to move the food to the space last night.

Fortunately, there is food stored in the space, otherwise I would have starved this winter. There are so many refugees gathering in the city that it is impossible to go into the city to buy food.

"Mom, it's okay! Find a way to collect the remaining food."

Liu Shuyue thought that only their family was in such a mess, but when she went out, she found out that it was not just their family. The whole village was in an uproar. Most of the villagers' food had been eaten by rats. In the worst cases, all the food was eaten up, and those families were almost collapsed.

There wasn't much food to begin with, and it barely lasted until after the New Year. Now it's all gone! How can we live like this?

Overnight, the whole village was attacked by rats.

The village chief heard about this and went from house to house to count the food supply. Suddenly, someone ran over and shouted, "Village chief! It's bad! Someone in the Sun family hanged himself!"

"What? How are the people?"

"The rescue was timely, and the person is fine, but he is still dying. What should I do?"

"Come on, I'll go over and take a look."

The village chief led his men to the Sun family's home. As soon as they entered the courtyard, they heard Old Lady Sun wailing in the yard with a pale face: "Why did you want to save me? There is no food left. It's no different from death. Woo woo... Why is my life so miserable!"

"Mom! What are you doing?" Old Lady Sun's son and daughter-in-law advised.

"That's right, Sun family, it's not just your family's food that has been eaten by rats, everyone's food has been eaten by rats." A villager sighed.

Alas, now even if I have money I can’t buy food, what can I do! Why are there so many rats all of a sudden? !

"Sun family, think positively. Even if the food is gone, there is still life. There will always be a way."

The village chief went to count today and found that almost every household in the village had suffered serious losses. There were so many rats that the granary sacks were easy for them to eat.

Except for the rice jar that was impossible to chew, nothing was spared, even poultry were bitten.

The most important thing right now is to protect the remaining food. The village chief asked everyone to keep all the remaining food safe. If all the food has been eaten up, come to register with him first, and come to the village every day according to the population to receive the public grain to eat, and then slowly find a solution later.

Rats were too rampant, so they had to find a way to get rid of them. So the village chief organized the men in the village to make mousetraps, distributed them to the villagers, and placed them near their own granaries.

Yao Qingnian heard about this and was worried about the outbreak of plague, so he quickly went to the space to prepare disinfectant and asked Lu Huaijin to send it to the village chief to distribute to the villagers. He also asked him to inform the villagers that the captured rats must be destroyed in a centralized location, and this was no joke.

She had read in a book that droughts occurred frequently in the late Ming Dynasty. There were three droughts during the Wanli period alone. One year there was a severe drought that lasted for four years. The result was a decrease in grain production and a large number of refugees fleeing famine. Rats, because they had nothing to eat, followed the refugees in their migrations, and the viruses that parasitized on the rats were transmitted to the people, leading to the outbreak of the plague, with more than 10,000 deaths every day.

The sudden appearance of rats made the villagers panic. They had heard that a large number of refugees had gathered in the county town, causing all the shops in the city to close.

The villagers thought that it would be fine if they didn't go to the city, since they would have enough food to last until the New Year. But now, rats have come again and eaten most of the food. They have to live frugally to get through the whole year, and all of a sudden, everyone hates rats to the core.

Yao Qingnian was disinfecting the yard, Lu Huaijin went out to help the village chief and others deal with the rats, and Yinuo was reviewing his homework in the yard. The sound of his reading aloud broke the tranquility in the yard.

Jiang Jingyi sat on the swing, bored. Life in the countryside was too comfortable and boring. She wanted to go back to the capital, but she heard that there was a snowstorm in the north and she couldn't go back even if she wanted to. So she thought about finding something fun to do.

"Kids, let's play pot tossing, shall we?"

"Tou Hu? I haven't finished reviewing my homework yet." Yinuo was studying seriously, but was suddenly interrupted by her and put down the book.

"Reading is so boring! Tossing pots is fun. I'll go get ready first. You wait." Jiang Jingyi jumped up and down and prepared to go.

After spending a few days with Jiang Jingyi, I found that apart from being a little impatient and having princess syndrome, she didn't have any other major problems.

After a while, she found the arrows for throwing pots. Since there was no pot, I don't know where she found a vase to replace it.

"Okay, let's play! You start first!"

“Just throw the arrow in?” Yinuo had never played this game before and found it quite strange.

"Yes, it counts as long as it goes in. Ten arrows in total."

After understanding the rules clearly, the game began. Yinuo thought that it should not be difficult as it was just throwing arrows in. As a result, he tried his luck and didn't throw any of the ten arrows in.

"Hahaha, you are so stupid! Watch me." It was Jiang Jingyi's turn. She easily threw all ten arrows in. She looked at Yinuo proudly.

"Come again!" Yinuo was a little unconvinced. Why did she seem to cast so easily?

"There are skills to pitching a pot." Jiang Jingyi and Yinuo talked about the skills and key points of pitching a pot. The second time, Yinuo really threw a little more in.

The two had fun playing in the yard.

It was too cold that day and there was no way to eat in the yard, so the family moved to the main room, warmed themselves by the fire, ate dinner, and talked about what had happened that day.

"The Sun family's food was eaten up by rats, and the old lady almost hanged herself. Fortunately, her son found her in time and saved her. How pitiful!"

"It's also strange this year. In such a cold weather, the rats don't stay in their holes to overwinter, but run out to harm the people. This happens only once in a century." Lu Mingchuan echoed.

"Who says it's not? Alas!"

"Hanging oneself for a bite of food! Wow, this is the first time I've heard of it." Jiang Jingyi thought it was too exaggerated when she heard that someone hanged himself for food.

"You are a young lady in the capital, you have no worries about food and clothing, of course you can't hear it. Here, food is the life of the people. Losing food is equivalent to losing their lives. The whole family depends on this little food to survive the winter!" Yao Qingnian said lightly. Jiang Jingyi has been living a life of luxury since she was a child, so how could she know the sufferings of the world...