Farmer's eldest sister becomes rich

Chapter 267 Consulting with the Villagers

At this time, it was already the end of the Chen hour.

The village chief walked to the gate of the yard and saw villagers gathered all around.

He saw An Yue standing outside the gate, waved at her, and motioned her to enter the yard.

Qin was standing in the yard. As soon as An Yue walked into the yard, she hurried to An Yue: "Girl Yue."

An Yue walked up to Qin, took her hand and asked, "Aunt, why do you look so much thinner these past two days?"

Qin smiled and pointed to the east room, saying, "Aren't we going to the fields to harvest wheat?"

An Yue walked towards the east room and took a look, then turned around and asked, "You collected so much in just two days?"

"We've only harvested half of it. Has the girl's wheat been harvested yet?"

An Yue was about to answer when the village chief Li Huairen suddenly walked up to her and said, "Yueyue, regarding the early harvest of wheat and storage of grain and digging of deep wells, I will be the first to speak up when everyone is together."

"At that time, there will certainly be many villagers who will refute. If necessary, if Yueyue has any ideas in her mind, she can speak freely. It is also for their own good to persuade them to harvest early."

An Yue hesitated and said, "But..."

The village chief interrupted, "Don't worry, little girl. Your uncle is here, so you can speak without worry."

Seeing the village chief's firm attitude, An Yue nodded and said, "Okay then! Uncle, don't worry, harvesting wheat ahead of schedule is urgent. Yueyue will do her best to persuade the villagers."

The village chief looked at An Yue approvingly and said, "Then I will gather everyone to discuss this matter."

After saying this, the village chief opened the gate of the courtyard, and he and Qin walked towards the place where he had gathered the villagers last time.

When the villagers saw the village chief coming out of the yard, they followed him closely.

Soon, the village chief and his wife came to a spacious place beside the road, and the villagers automatically looked at the village chief.

After the village chief stood still, he cleared his throat and said loudly: "Dear villagers, I called you all here today because I have something important to discuss."

"As everyone knows, since the drizzle in the first month of the year, there has not been a drop of rain for nearly four months."

"The drought has become a disaster, so I have called everyone here today to discuss the top priority we need to do next."

"There are three main things to do. Everyone, please listen carefully."

This was a matter of great importance to the entire village, so everyone listened carefully.

"The first thing is to remind everyone to harvest wheat in advance. Locusts are rampant now. I am afraid that the drought has not ended yet and the locust plague will come again."

When the news of harvesting wheat early was announced, everyone was shocked.

"The second thing is to dig deeper wells. We don't know how long the drought will last. Just in case, we have to dig deeper wells in the village."

"The third thing is the same as the first, just two words: store food."

"The situation is complicated right now. As the head of Baili Village, I suggest that every household harvest the wheat in advance, dry it, and store it in the warehouse. If you have money, you can think of ways to store some salt."

As soon as the village chief finished speaking, a middle-aged man in the crowd stood up and said, "Village chief, the wheat is not yet fully mature. Will harvesting it early affect our harvest?"

Then, the people off the field began to talk to each other, and the scene was very noisy.

Because according to traditional customs, farmers wait until the wheat is fully mature before starting to harvest.

"Quiet! Quiet!" The village chief shouted for everyone to be silent.

Everyone slowly stopped talking and looked up at the village chief.

At this time, An Yue, who was standing aside, said to everyone: "Dear village elders, the drought is severe everywhere now. The wheat in the fields has no water source and can no longer grow."

"Some villages near us have been swarmed by locusts, forming a locust plague. A locust plague is more terrible than a flood or a beast. Wherever the locusts pass, not a single blade of grass can grow."

"So before the locust plague reaches our Baili Village, we must quickly harvest all the wheat in the fields and bring it home. If we wait until the locusts pass through, we will have nothing to harvest."

After hearing this, everyone looked panicked and started discussing again.

The middle-aged man from before stood up again and said loudly: "No, you are a half-grown little girl, why do you stand up and say such things? Have you ever farmed?"

The man pointed at An Yue with a dissatisfied look on his face, and continued: "How can you have the right to speak here? You are just a little girl, I'm afraid you can't even hold a hoe steadily, what are you talking about here! Go away, go play somewhere else."

Qin walked up to An Yue, held An Yue's hand, frowned and reminded the middle-aged man: "Li Ajiu, we are discussing important matters. As a villager of Baili Village, she naturally has a say. So what are you doing?"

"Aunt, you are so protective of her. She is just a little girl. She should be embroidering handkerchiefs and doing needlework at home."

Immediately, the village chief Li Huairen shouted angrily: "Li Ajiu, don't mess with me here in front of everyone today!"

The middle-aged man saw that the village chief was a little angry, and his momentum weakened a little.

A woman stood up from the crowd and said, "Let's put aside everything else and talk about the early wheat harvest. The government collects taxes on time. If our harvest is low, after paying the taxes, there will be no surplus food at home. Wouldn't the whole family starve?"

Qin said loudly: "Although the yield of wheat is lower if we harvest it early, at least we still have some life-saving food. Generally speaking, it is better than having no harvest at all, right?"

A man in the crowd echoed loudly, "That's right! The drought is severe now, the government should understand the people's feelings and relax the tax collection conditions."

Li Ajiu opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but the person next to him pulled his clothes.

At this time, An Yue, who had been silent, spoke up: "My dear uncles and grandpas, I know how you feel right now, but I'm afraid you won't believe me, so my family and the village chief's family have already harvested the wheat."

"If you really don't believe it, you can go to the nearby villages and see that the situation in the villages is much more serious than we imagined."

The village chief said to everyone with a serious face: "Now in other villages, people have died of thirst due to lack of water. In our village, on the other hand, everyone worked together to dig a deep well in advance. Although the drought continues to this day, no one has died of thirst in our village."

"So now we propose to harvest wheat ahead of schedule. I hope everyone will pay attention to the drought situation and work together to overcome this difficulty."

Everyone was silent for a few breaths, and everyone nodded.

A few words came from the crowd: "Yes! Our village is indeed much better than other villages. We should listen to the village chief."

Another woman responded: "Yes, yes, what the village chief said makes a lot of sense."

……

Everyone was talking at the same time and the scene was in chaos.