Traveling through ancient times to survive

The village chief was amused. There was also an old man with a strange personality who lived alone in the village. Others would avoid him, but Zhao Chengchuan would often visit him secretly with prey. The old man had taught Zhao Chengchuan to read and write, and he only knew about this when he accidentally saw him.

The old man was afraid of trouble and didn't want to reveal it. Zhao Chengchuan kept his promise and didn't reveal it even after the old man died. He pretended to be illiterate and didn't even dare to teach his children. Only the village chief knew that Zhao Chengchuan could read. Zhao Chengchuan might not be able to take the imperial examination, but he definitely knew simple idioms. He was just teasing himself.

"You kid, you said Deyan was naughty, but I think he is just cut from the same mold as you."

The two of them understood each other tacitly. After the joke, Zhao Chengchuan made another serious suggestion: "Uncle village chief, the weather is too cold. You have a lot of land at home, and you need a lot of seeds, which costs a lot of money. To be on the safe side, don't sow for the time being. If the weather warms up in the next few days, you can consider whether to sow or not?"

"This is the only way. I will discuss this with the village elders first. If nothing unexpected happens, I will inform everyone in the ancestral hall that sowing will be suspended."

"Uncle village chief, the climate this year is very unusual. You have to prepare early. In addition to the fields, I suggest that you quickly stock up on wood and charcoal at home. Try to stock up enough food for the family to eat for a year. If you have extra money, buy more cotton cloth. You can also prepare some typhoid medicine in advance."

"Thank you Chengchuan for reminding me. I will make more preparations."

Having solved another problem, Zhao Chengchuan was in high spirits, and even the cold wind couldn't dampen his good mood.

Passing by Li's house, Zhao Chengchuan knocked on the door: "Brother Li, are you home?"

Li Heng came out of the study and opened the door: "Hello, Uncle Chengchuan, my father is not here, he went to town."

"You can stay here, the weather has been getting weird lately, in addition to stocking up on food, your family should also prepare more cotton fabrics. If you have money, it would be best to prepare some cold medicine as well."

Li Heng's eyes flashed: "Thank you Uncle Chengchuan for reminding me. I will tell my father when he comes back."

"Oh, by the way, you don't have a woman at home. If you don't mind, you can bring your winter clothes and quilts to my house and let your Aunt Wang help make them."

Li Heng bowed again to express his gratitude.

Ding~, the sound of a distant bell was heard, and the villagers set out for the ancestral hall one after another.

"What's going on? Chenghao, do you know why the bell is ringing at this time?"

The middle-aged man named Chenghao shook his head: "I don't know. I'm wondering about that too."

Someone guessed by mistake: "Hey, do you think it has something to do with the recent cold weather?"

"What does that have to do with anything? I think it's about selling grain."

Someone deliberately stirred up trouble: "Could it be that the price of grain has dropped? This black-hearted woman Liu is spreading rumors again, causing me to lose a lot of money!"

Some people around were displeased, and some said something fair: "How can you blame Aunt Liu for this? She didn't force anyone to stop selling. She just passed on a message. You just don't have to believe it."

Some of those who were dissatisfied with Aunt Liu bowed their heads in shame, while the troublemaker was furious and argued, "If Aunt Liu hadn't said that, would I not sell it? We are all from the same village, and we all trusted her out of kindness, but Aunt Liu treated us like fools! Big Zhao, you are speaking up for her, are you in cahoots with her?"

"Feng Xiaogou, you are talking bullshit! Didn't Aunt Liu sell her own things? How could she play tricks on you? You are so greedy and yet you have the nerve to blame others! It's really unlucky to live in the same village as you!"

"I have a great reputation!"

"You were the one who called me by my nickname first!"

The verbal conflict between the two men escalated into a physical fight, and the villagers who were with them had a hard time separating the two.

In front of the ancestral hall, the village chief stood in front and shouted to the noisy crowd: "Everyone, please be quiet. Are you all here?"

When the crowd quieted down, the village chief began to speak: "The weather has been getting colder recently. I and the village elders have decided to suspend the planting of winter wheat. If the weather warms up in the near future, we will discuss the next step."

Like pouring a cup of water into hot oil, the crowd exploded, all expressing strong resistance.

"How can this be possible? If we don't grow crops, what will we eat?"

"The good land is just sitting there with no harvest. How can we pay the land tax?"

Someone murmured quietly: "Yes, yes, is it possible that the village chief is too old to think straight?"

The village chief had sharp ears and when he heard someone secretly implying that he was getting senile and confused, he suppressed his anger and tried to comfort them earnestly.

"Look at the weather recently. When has the autumn here ever been this cold? It's said that farmers depend on the weather for their crops. The current temperature is extremely unusual. I'm afraid the seeds will freeze to death after being planted! Do we really have to waste seeds? Let's wait and see. If the weather returns to normal soon, we can go out and plant seeds."

The village chief's words persuaded the older generation of the tribesmen, but a few young people and villagers with other surnames did not take it seriously. They felt that the temperature was indeed much colder than before, but who knows if they planted wheat now, it would take longer for the wheat to mature, and they were afraid that they would not have enough time to plant rice next year.

Feng Jun, the troublemaker who had previously regretted not selling grain and resented Aunt Liu, was secretly delighted. Old man Zhao Yuanhong was used to pretending to be the village chief and was not very slick in his work. Now he had finally lost his mind and issued such an outrageous order, which finally gave him a handle.

He took the lead in objecting: "Village head, how do you know that it will get colder in the future? If we delay for a few more days, we won't have time to plant rice next year, and half a year's harvest will be gone. Are you willing to bear this huge loss?"

There are also some villagers from other families who are fence-sitters and think that what Feng Jun said makes sense.

The village chief secretly held his breath and said, "The county has been burning charcoal in large quantities since June this year. Aren't the county elders more informed than us? Look at the temperature that has been dropping every day recently. Let's use our brains and think about it carefully!"

As one of the few villagers with a different surname, Feng Jun had always been a marginal figure among the villagers, most of whom had the surname Zhao. But now he had become the focus of the crowd, and he was so excited that he was almost shaking and his forehead was hot.

He said excitedly, "Master, you didn't say it was going to be a temperature drop. If you start burning charcoal in the summer, can't you just want to save more charcoal to sell in the winter?"

The village chief questioned: "Why didn't you do this in previous years?"

Feng Jun couldn't refute it, he argued: "It can't be that the north is cold, the masters just opened the key and are ready to sell it to the north? Anyway, I don't believe that the masters can predict the weather conditions in half a year!"

The village chief was speechless for a long time. Who would have nothing to do after eating so much that he would travel across half the country just to sell some worthless charcoal?

The village chief did not want to argue with him about whether selling charcoal was reasonable. Once he entered Feng Jun's logic, he would fall into a cycle of his unreasonable talk and nonsense, and then he would refute it, and then he would act nonsense again.

The village chief asked back: "Don't you know that there are strange people in the world who can predict the future?"

"I believe in fortune telling, but I don't believe in astronomical predictions. I've never heard of that. I only know that this is half a year's harvest. If it's gone, we'll have nothing to lose!"