The county magistrate's daughter only wants to farm

The carriage rumbled towards the city, and Gu Yin rested her chin on her hand and looked at the scenery outside the window.

"Little Li, stop the car." Gu Yin suddenly shouted.

"Miss, what's wrong?" Pearl blinked her round eyes, looking confused.

Gu Yin pointed to an old man not far from the roadside and said, "Little Li, go see what's wrong with that old man over there."

Little Li responded loudly, and returned after a while, saying:

"Miss, he said that all his rice seeds were washed away by the flood. He is crying now."

Gu Yin was silent for a moment, then turned to Zhenzhu and said:

"Come on, let's go down and take a look."

"Uncle, I heard that your rice seeds were washed away by the water. What happened?"

The old man heard the crisp question coming from the side, and hurriedly wiped away his tears with his sleeve. He looked up and saw a pretty girl looking at him with concern. Thinking of her previous question, his cloudy eyes seemed to darken a little, and he sighed deeply and said:

"I planted the rice seeds late. Just two days after planting, it rained heavily. The rice seeds hadn't taken root yet, and now they were basically all washed away."

As he spoke, his voice choked up a little.

"Then don't you have any extra rice seeds? It's still not too late to replant now."

"There isn't much rice to begin with, so where can we get extra rice seeds? I don't know if we can survive this winter..."

Gu Yin quickly said a few words of comfort and said that she wanted to visit his home.

The carriage stopped in front of a shabby little courtyard. Unexpectedly, the old man lived in Gutian Village and his surname was Gu. As soon as he got off the carriage, Grandpa Gu shouted into the courtyard:

"Old lady, a guest has arrived."

"Who is it?" Her house was so poor that the roof was leaking. How could there be any guests coming?

When she opened the gate to the courtyard and saw a pretty girl, the old lady smiled immediately:

"Oh, what a distinguished guest! Please come in."

"I'm so sorry, we didn't even order any tea to entertain such a distinguished guest." The old lady brought out two bowls of boiled water, her face full of apology.

"You're too polite, Auntie. Boiling water is enough." Gu Yin said politely.

"Uncle and Madam, are there only two of you at home?"

As soon as Gu Yin finished speaking, a child's tender voice rang out from outside the yard: "Grandpa and grandma, I'm back."

Then I saw a boy of five or six years old rushing into the old lady's arms like a cannonball, and then a man with a stick walked in. He looked to be about twenty years old and had a tough face.

The man was stunned when he saw two girls in the house.

"There are four of us at home. This is my youngest son." Uncle Gu said to Gu Yin.

After saying hello and getting to know each other, Gu Yin found out that the old man and old woman originally had two sons, both of whom had been on the battlefield.

Unfortunately, the eldest son died in the battlefield, and the youngest son also lost a leg and only returned from the military camp at the beginning of the year. After the eldest daughter-in-law knew that the eldest son was gone, she left her son and left.

Gu Yin then realized that the little boy was the son of their eldest son, whose name was Gu Shu.

"I don't have any rice seeds here, but there is a crop that can fill your stomach if you grow it. I wonder if you would like to try it."

Gu Yin looked at the system and saw that a lot of sweet potatoes had appeared out of nowhere. She thought about sharing some with them and said.

“Plant, plant, plant…”

When the old couple heard that Gu Yin could provide crops that could fill their stomachs, they quickly agreed. They had no hope of getting rice this season, and the crops provided by Gu Yin were simply their lifeline. They had to give it a try no matter if it worked or not, and it couldn't be any worse.

They were willing to plant the potatoes, so she didn't need to persuade them. She explained the planting method and precautions to them in detail, and someone would deliver the sweet potatoes tomorrow.

"Brother, are you good at carpentry?" Looking at the ancient tree that was sitting there without saying a word, Gu Yin couldn't help but ask.

"Yes." The ancient tree nodded decisively.

"Then you can make a cane yourself, so that it will be more convenient for walking."

As he spoke, he used his hands and feet to describe the appearance of the crutch. The more Gu Shu listened, the brighter his eyes became, and a look of surprise gradually appeared on his face.

"Thank you, Miss!" Gu Shu stood up and clasped his fists towards Gu Yin in gratitude.

*

When we returned to the county town, the water had almost receded, but what was left on the roadside was hard to describe.

Various animal feces, bones, fish scales and other household garbage can be seen everywhere, and the smell is naturally not very good.

Looking at the houses on both sides, they were all washed clean by the rain, but the older and more dilapidated ones were not so lucky. Some of them had a large section collapsed, and some had the entire roof fallen off.

Many people were standing on the ruins cleaning up debris, their backs looking depressed and heavy.

Seeing all this, Gu Yin felt very upset. She had originally wanted to solve the problem of food first and then slowly promote the construction of the county.

Now it seems that plans cannot keep up with changes...

"Let's go to the county government office to find my father..."

When I met the county magistrate again, this middle-aged man no longer looked as relaxed as the last time I saw him. His brows were furrowed and worry was written all over his face.

"Sir, what happened?"

"Miss," the county magistrate stepped forward to salute, sighed, and then replied, "Due to this heavy rain, many farmers' rice seeds were washed away by the water. Just now, the village heads came to the county government for help. But the county government doesn't have any extra rice seeds... Alas..."

"This...natural disaster is ruthless. Try to find a way to save it."

"Master, please go ahead and do your work. I will go ask my father."

After Gu Yin finished speaking, she turned around and walked inside. The county magistrate shook his head helplessly behind her. The rice seeds were all gone. How could they be saved? It was not as if rice seeds were dropped from heaven.

"Dad, I've heard about the rice seeds. What are your plans?" Gu Yin asked directly.

Seeing that it was his daughter, Gu Huaiyi's face relaxed slightly and he asked:

"Does Yin'er have any ideas?"

"I asked first. Tell me about your plan first." Gu Yin was speechless. Her father was indeed an official. He always wanted to trick others.

"The rice seeds are not easy to solve. We can only ask around among the noble families to see if they have any extra." Seeing Gu Yin getting anxious, Gu Huaiyi said slowly, "But I don't think there will be many even if they do."

Don’t even think about other counties. The situations are similar for everyone, and it would be a waste of effort to send people to inquire.

After a moment of silence, Gu Huaiyi continued, "The most urgent issue right now is not the rice seeds. After all, only the seeds that were planted late were washed away. Most families' rice seedlings are still safe."

"The flood destroyed many dams, and the next problem is farmland irrigation. Not to mention that the river is rushing and it is not easy to build dams, even if the water level is low, farmers are busy ploughing the land, and then they will have to plant rice, so where can they find people to build dams?"

We can take care of the farmland but cannot build a dam. We can build a dam but the farmland is not developed and the seedlings cannot be planted. What is the use of the dam? It is really a dilemma.