Dahe Village is without water.
Before dawn, someone had already gone to Chengjia Village and returned with two buckets of water.
"The people in Chengjia Village are so stupid! A pound of corn or cornmeal can be exchanged for a bucket of water. This is trying to force people to death!"
"Chengjia Village is better than Guihua Village at least. People in Guihua Village have said that it takes three kilograms of corn to exchange for one bucket of water."
"You can still move without food for a day. On such a hot day, if you don't drink water for a day, it will really kill you..."
"Li Zheng is here, let's see what Li Zheng says..."
Li walked over with a serious expression. He stood on the high ground, cleared his throat and said, "Everyone, please be quiet."
Everyone looked at Li Zheng with hope. He was the pillar of their Dahe Village, and they believed that Li Zheng would be able to come up with a charter.
"A pound of corn and a basket of wild vegetables are a day's ration for a family. If it is sent to Chengjia Village, it will keep the people of Chengjia Village alive. And we people in Dahe Village will be like Zhao Erpo, one after another. Die." Li Zheng said coldly, "Those who starve to death first can still earn a coffin, and those who starve to death later can be rolled up in straw mats and buried..."
Li Zheng's words made many people panic.
Everyone knows that famine kills people, but the death of Mrs. Zhao yesterday made them feel for the first time that someone around them was really starving to death because of lack of food.
Now that there is no water, in addition to some people dying of hunger, more people will die of thirst.
Dahe Village, where our ancestors have lived for generations, will soon be starved to death...
An old man underneath started crying: "People in Dahe Village have never done bad things. Why does God punish us like this? We have committed such sins..."
"Everyone be quiet!" Li Zheng raised his voice, "God is not so heartless and will always give us a way to survive."
Li Zheng had already thought clearly last night. If the trees, wild vegetables and mushrooms on the mountain can survive, and some pheasants and hares are also alive and well, it means that there must be water sources on the mountain. What Dashan Niang said is well-founded. The current Dahe Village , we can only have this expectation.
"If you don't drink water for a day, you will not only feel uncomfortable, but you won't die. Just do whatever you have to do." Li Zheng said slowly, "Before the sun goes down, I will give you an explanation."
The fact that there is water on the mountain has not been confirmed yet, so we cannot reveal too much yet.
Without waiting for anyone to ask more questions, Li Zheng left with his hands behind his back.
Having been Li Zheng for 20 to 30 years, he has great prestige in the village. After saying this, the villagers slowly recovered from the panic.
Cheng Wanwan and her four sons met Li Zheng at the foot of the mountain.
Li Zheng was followed by his two sons, Zhao Anjiang and Zhao Anhe, and the most promising eldest grandson in the village, Zhao Tiezhu.
Zhao Tiezhu was a little older than Zhao Sidan and a little younger than Zhao Sanniu. The three boys hung out together.
Zhao Sanniu scratched the back of his head and said, "Tie Zhu, please teach me how to write my name."
"Zhao Sanniu is too simple." Tie Zhu squatted on the ground and wrote three words. Although the writing was straight, it didn't look good.
Zhao Sidan looked admiring: "Brother Tiezhu, you are so awesome, can you write my name?"
"There's nothing wrong with this."
Zhao Tiezhu squatted on the ground and wrote the word "Zhao Si", but Dan couldn't remember how to write it. There seemed to be a word for "worm", and whether "worm" was at the top or at the bottom, he couldn't remember. ... He originally wanted to draw a circle and use it as an egg, but when he saw Zhao Sidan's admiring eyes, he was a little afraid to do so, mainly because he was afraid of ruining his image...
He looked up at the sky and saw a few white clouds floating in the sky. He immediately changed the subject and said, "Master, the clouds in the sky are so high. Is it going to rain?"
For a moment, everyone raised their heads.
There were indeed scattered white clouds floating in the sky, which seemed very far away, but Cheng Wanwan didn't think this was a sign of rain.
Li Zheng said solemnly: "Based on my many years of farming experience, it should be sunny again today and it will definitely not rain."
"But the book says that when the clouds get higher, it will rain." Zhao Tiezhu said seriously, "What is written in the book is correct, that is, I am wrong, but I don't seem to have missed it. What went wrong..."
Cheng Wanwan: "..."
Silly boy, no one is right, you got the wrong word.
Dahe Village has been farmers for generations. Occasionally, a few promising people go to the town to do business, but there has never been a scholar.
The reason why there are people in Chengjia Village who can read well is because there is an old scholar there who opened a thatched cottage school and admitted many students, including a few good talents.
There is not even a school here in Dahe Village, so even if there are good talents, they cannot be found.
If you want your children to be able to read and learn knowledge, you have to send them to a school in the town. It is said that a month of cultivation costs one or two silver. No wonder the Cheng family exploits their own money. If they want to raise a scholar at home, then It is indeed not an ordinary expense.
More than half an hour later, the group arrived at the valley between the two peaks.
As soon as you walk over, there is cool water vapor blown by the wind, which is refreshing.
Zhao Anjiang strode over. When he saw the water seeping out drop by drop on the stone wall, he was extremely excited: "There is really water! There has always been water here, why has no one ever discovered it! Oh my God , Dahe Village can be saved!"
Li Zheng was shaking all over: "Because there was no shortage of water in the past, no one wanted to come here to look for water. If there was no Dashan Niang, at least half of the people in Dahe Village would have died this year..."
Zhao Anhe stepped forward with a shovel and started digging without saying a word. After digging a small hole, a clear spring gushes out from the ground and the group drank happily.
Zhao Anjiang was very ashamed: "Sister-in-law Zhao, I thought you were deliberately deceiving my father. I'll admit your mistake here."
"We are all a family. If you say this, you will be outspoken." Cheng Wanwan didn't care about being misunderstood. She changed to the topic and said, "If the water here is diverted down the mountain, the rice will be saved."
Li was counting his fingers. According to the normal season, it should be the maturity stage of grain filling now. However, due to the long drought, most of the rice in the village is still heading and flowering. It is the time when a lot of fertilizer and water are needed, so water is diverted down the mountain. Better sooner rather than later.
But the water source is too far away from the bottom of the mountain, and more than an hour passes every time. Even if people are treated as livestock, it is impossible to water all the rice fields in ten days. This matter is a bit tricky.
Li Zheng took two puffs of dry cigarette and said slowly: "Da Shan Niang, do you have any ideas?"
He doesn't know why, but he always feels that Dashan Niang has a good idea. It's not clear where this feeling comes from.
Cheng Wanwan looked at the second child with a smile: "Er Gou, let Li Zheng give you some pointers on the method you came up with yesterday."
Zhao Ergou immediately became energetic: "Our Dahe Village has thousands of acres of rice fields, and it's definitely not possible to carry it on people's shoulders. I was wondering if we could dig a ditch from the mountain to the bottom of the mountain to divert water to the fields..."
Before he finished speaking, Zhao Anhe immediately shook his head: "Er Gouzi, do you know how many miles it is from the foot of the mountain to here? It's more than ten or twenty miles, longer than the flood control embankment..."
