Crossing the farm gate, the whole family reunites in the disaster year

Uncle Mazi was waiting in the shade not far from the city gate. The woman in the car with him had been waiting in the car early. When the three Lins arrived, they heard her talking happily.

"...I got lucky today! All the eggs I brought were bought by the restaurant. Before, I couldn't sell many eggs in a single trip. Now, the remaining eggs at home are definitely sold too. I have to come back again tomorrow."

Lin's heart skipped a beat. Restaurants all have fixed suppliers. In order to ensure the quality of the food, they would not easily buy bulk goods from farmers.

I'm afraid it's just as the old man in the poultry house guessed, that fowl plague has broken out in all the nearby poultry houses.

Among the people who went into the city together, only Widow Qin had not returned yet, and everyone was waiting for her.

Silang said quietly, "Aunt San, I want to come back and sell again tomorrow."

Lin was thinking about the chicks that the village head had just bought. When she saw them yesterday, the chicks in the cage were listless. She wondered if they were sick.

Worried about the three chicks at home, she didn't pay attention to what Shilang said and just replied "hmm".

Silang counted on his fingers, "To farm, you need at least a hoe and a rake. A hoe costs two hundred wen, and a rake is fifty wen more expensive than a hoe. I just paid a fifty wen deposit, and I'll need three more trips to make the rest."

Seeing him counting the money with a bitter face, Cui Chengliang said, "You can buy the farm tools on credit. I'll pay the rest after the harvest."

Si Lang shook his head. "No, my second brother said that if you can't afford iron, just carve a hoe out of wood."

My mother sold the land on credit in exchange for grain. If she couldn't pay the grain next month, the land would belong to someone else. My second brother said that they couldn't live beyond their means like my mother, and should live according to their ability.

Although he felt that his elder brother was too rigid, he secretly calculated that after selling the remaining pottery, he could get at least 300 coins, which was enough to make a hoe.

Uncle Mazi waited until noon but still didn't see Widow Qin, so he hurried back.

When they returned to the village, they were all sweating profusely.

There was no shade on the oxcart, and it felt like there was a fireball on my head during the whole journey, and my scalp was sunburned and itchy.

"Hey, look at that ox cart, isn't that Widow Qin?"

A few hundred meters away, an ox cart was swaying from the west. Widow Qin was following beside it and directing the direction. Judging from the direction of her finger, it should be heading towards Widow Qin's home.

The woman in the car spat angrily.

"A dead man doesn't have to talk dead. He didn't even tell us he didn't want to take the car, and made us wait for a long time."

Uncle Mazi also looked displeased.

Shi Lang's eyes suddenly widened: "It's Uncle Wang."

Every time he bought broken pottery from the brick kiln, it was given to him by Uncle Wang. He definitely didn't recognize the wrong person!

Lin squinted her eyes and looked over. At this moment, something rolled down from the ox cart. It looked like a bowl.

Unfortunately, it broke into several pieces, and Widow Qin hurriedly picked it up after following behind.

Si Lang was as if facing a formidable enemy: "Aunt San, look, it seems that Widow Qin also bought a cart of broken pottery."

Mrs. Lin watched as Widow Qin carefully protected the ox cart, her eyes calm.

The method of selling defective products at low prices can be easily copied. Once other villagers see that they make money, they will definitely follow suit and buy goods. She foresaw this situation from the beginning.

"It's okay, don't worry about her."

Their selling point is gum repair. If Widow Qin had not learned this technology, they would not have posed a threat for the time being.

"No." Shiro jumped off the ox cart. "I'll go check it out."

After saying that, he ran away in a hurry.

Uncle Mazi drove the ox cart to the big locust tree, and before it stopped, the village head came up to him in a hurry.

"Something big has happened, come and see."

Lin hurried to catch up. Cui Chengliang glanced at the empty bamboo basket on the ox cart, then looked at Lin's hurried back. He gritted his teeth, picked up the empty bamboo basket, and chased after her with a clang.

The village head ran all the way back to his chicken coop and pushed open the door, gasping for breath.

"Mother Jingwen, look at what's wrong with these chickens. Several of them died overnight, and the rest don't want to move."

A few of them cost only a few dozen coins, and they were gone in an instant.

Lin's brows were furrowed, things were heading for the worst.

Cui Chengliang looked at the chicken coop, his face turned pale, and he took several steps back while grabbing Lin's collar.

Lin was caught off guard and almost fell to the ground.

"what are you doing?"

Cui Chengliang hurriedly explained: "This chicken is sick, don't get too close."

Although he couldn't tell what the disease was, he could smell something wrong in the chicken coop, and the chicken droppings had turned green.

A group of chickens all have the same symptoms, which might be an infectious disease.

The village headman was furious: "Only a blind man can't tell that it's sick. If it wasn't sick, I wouldn't be in such a hurry to call you here. The key is how to treat this disease."

In addition to farming, villagers also raise chickens, ducks and pigs to increase their income. If the chickens and ducks have some minor illnesses, they are cured with folk remedies.

For example, if the patient has diarrhea, feed him ground ivy. If chickens and ducks are injured in a fight, feed them mugwort to stop bleeding.

When he discovered something was wrong in the morning, the village head sent Youxi to the mountain to look for motherwort, but he couldn't feed it at all. He asked several experienced chicken farmers in the village to take a look, and they all said they had never encountered such a situation.

His only hope now is Jingwen Niang.

Lin reached out to straighten her collar and slowly repeated what she had seen in the poultry house and the old man's words.

The village head couldn't believe it: "Is it really that serious?"

The poultry house was helpless against the disease, so the chickens and ducks at home could only wait to die.

This is one or two taels of silver!

The head of the village felt dizzy, staggered two steps, and sat down on the ground.

Lin and Cui Chengliang rushed forward to support him. The village head stood up with a wry smile and said, "I'm fine. Fortunately, I only bought a hundred. If it had been a few days earlier, every household would have raised dozens of chickens and ducks. I really wouldn't be able to face people with my old face."

Besides being sad, I was also somewhat relieved because he almost became the sinner of the whole village.

The method of raising chickens and ducks to control locusts was proposed by Cui Chengliang. He felt bad when he saw the chickens and ducks lying in the chicken coop.

If he hadn't mentioned it, the village head wouldn't have suffered such a great loss.

"I'm sorry, Uncle Lizheng. I didn't expect this to happen. I'll compensate you after I buy the grain during the autumn harvest."

The village head waved his hands and said, "This is not your fault. If you have to blame someone, blame God for blocking our road so tightly."

The village head sighed and staggered back home.

Lin and Cui Chengliang left the headman's house in silence.

"I wish I hadn't said it. How could it be such a coincidence that it coincided with the outbreak of fowl plague?" Cui Chengliang hit his head in frustration.

Although the village head is in charge of more than a hundred households in the village, their lives are not much easier. Apart from the annual salary of several dozen kilograms of grain from the county, the family also has to rely on farming to make a living.

One or two taels of silver is also a huge expense for the headman's family.

Lin looked at the thriving farmland in the distance, his brows furrowed for a long time.

Plant in spring and harvest in autumn, plow in summer and store in winter.

Behind these eight short words is the hardship where the effort and reward are disproportionate. They are the most hardworking group, but they are the least resistant to risks. Food fattens merchants and officials, but leaves poverty to farmers.

What should they do next?