Chapter 187 Natural Disaster
After entering May, the weather is getting hotter and hotter.
On May Day, there is only one day off.
It’s not yet the May 1st seven-day Golden Week that everyone misses so much.
But whether it is a one-day Labor Day holiday or a seven-day holiday.
For farmers, this is the time when the crops start to be harvested.
While Zhang An’s family was still busy picking cherries, everyone in the village was already busy harvesting rapeseed in the fields.
Now in mid-May, the entire field looks bare, and the field of vision is extremely wide.
Zhang An looked from the yard and found that in the entire field, there were only crops in his own field.
Other people have already finished harvesting, and the rapeseed stalks and rapeseed husks have been burned.
The ashes are used as base fertilizer for next season's rice.
We just finished picking cherries yesterday, and today the Zhang An family has to rush to the fields to harvest crops.
Wang Fang was anxious especially when she saw that there were only her own rapeseeds in the surrounding fields.
After all, other families have already started to release water into the fields, and they will start plowing the paddy fields in a few days.
Farming is a slow process, so we have to hurry up and keep up with everyone’s progress.
It took two or three days to capture all the rapeseeds in several acres of paddy fields and take them home.
But the good times did not last long. The sunshine was still bright and scorching in the past few days.
The Zhang An family will continue to harvest rapeseed in the fields, but they haven’t left home yet.
Dark clouds began to cover the sky, and there was lightning and thunder.
It is said that on a June day, a child's face will make him cry when he wants to cry and laugh when he talks about it.
But Zhang An feels that it seems to be similar in May.
When I first woke up in the morning, I could still see the sun.
At this time of breakfast, the sun goes off work.
Not long after, the rain began to fall from the sky.
Looking at Zhang An’s posture, the movement of this rain will not be too small.
As soon as he finished talking to his parents, the sky outside immediately turned into a violent storm.
And the most terrible thing is that hail fell from the sky.
In just a few minutes, a layer of ice eggs began to pile up in the yard.
At this moment, it is not just Zhang An's family who is staring outside, countless people are paying attention to the situation outside.
But most people are lucky because their crops have been harvested and returned home.
For a few families, some of their crops were confiscated.
Although this hailstorm was not very heavy, it lasted a bit too long, falling for more than twenty minutes.
I could only hear the crackling sound of hail falling on the concrete floor outside.
Every minute, Wang Fang’s face becomes more sad.
At this time, what she was thinking about was no longer the acres of rapeseed in the field.
Because of such a rain, there will definitely be no harvest of mature rapeseed.
What she was worried about were the watermelons and strawberries in the nest, and the green peaches that had just grown in the peach grove.
After the rain stopped, Zhang An's family went out to the fields to see the situation.
When Zhang An came to Taolin, the ground could only be described as miserable.
The ground was covered with green peaches that had been smashed by hail and heavy rain.
There are still a few sparse peaches hanging on the peach trees.
This can be regarded as a blessing among misfortunes, preventing this peach orchard from losing its harvest.
After seeing the peach forest, Zhang An went to see the nest when he came down the mountain.
The situation of watermelons is not as optimistic as that of the peach trees in the peach orchard.
The small watermelons that have already grown on the ground will grow into big watermelons if they don't stop.
But now with this hailstorm, everyone was beaten to pieces.
Although the strawberries have not set fruit yet, this is the flowering period.
After this hailstorm, most of the branches, leaves and flowers have been damaged.
Coming out of the nest, Zhang An walked to his own land.
When they arrived at Qingjiao, Zhang An saw that his two uncles had arrived in the fields and were checking on the kiwi fruits.
"Second uncle, how is the situation here?"
"The situation is not bad. Fortunately, the vines of Yangtaozi grow quickly. The vines and leaves cover the flowers, so they are not affected much."
Uncle Zhang came here after the rain stopped, and now he has looked at this piece of kiwi fruit.
The two brothers were relieved to see that there was nothing wrong with the sheep and peach tree.
"Anzi, how is your family doing?"
"My dad went to the fields to see the rapeseeds, I guess they are gone."
Hearing this, Zhang An had a complicated expression on his face, with a wry smile.
“Although the peach orchard and melon field at home are not completely harvested, there are not many good ones left. Only the strawberries are still blooming, but they feel crooked.”
Hear this , Uncle Zhang and Uncle Zhang were silent, not knowing what to say.
“Hey, God, I just don’t want to make people feel comfortable.”
"There's nothing we can do about it. Fortunately, the cherries were harvested a few days ago, otherwise I might not have had a good time this year."
Being a man must know how to be content. After all, we have made a lot of money from cherries this year.
At this time, Uncle Zhang and Uncle Zhang remembered that all the cherries in Zhang An’s family were sold.
Second Uncle and the others had no problem here, so Zhang An went up the road to see his rapeseed field.
Sure enough, just as Zhang An thought, nothing was gained.
The peaches on the peach tree can't hold on, let alone the rapeseeds that are about to open their mouths.
Zhang An went down to the ground to take a look. Not even the rapeseed shells were left on the rapeseed pole, they all fell to the ground.
This time it’s really turned into mud and dust.
As for Zhang Jianguo, he was pulling up rapeseed stalks in the field.
Although the rapeseed is gone, these rapeseed stalks still have to be pulled out so that corn can be planted later.
"Dad, why don't you stop pulling it now and come back when it's dry."
It had just rained, and the rapeseed stalk was covered with dew, and it was covered in water when it was pulled out.
Hearing what Zhang An said, Zhang Jianguo also stopped what he was doing.
"How are other places doing?"
"They are not very good, I guess there is no harvest."
As Zhang An walked, he looked at the Taoyuan and the nests. He told his father about the situation in the fields.
Although Zhang Jianguo was already prepared after seeing the hail falling.
But after listening to it now, I still feel a little twitchy in my heart.
After going down the mountain, Zhang An and his son met Mr. Huang at the entrance of the village.
The old man looked sad, probably coming back from the fields.
"Second Master, how is the situation of your plums?"
Second Master Huang's crops have been taken back home a long time ago, leaving only two acres of plum trees still bearing fruit.
So Zhang An knew that the old man must be coming back from the plum field without even thinking about it.
Hearing this, Mr. Huang shook his head.
"It is estimated that half of them were knocked down. The ground is full of plums."
If these half of the plums were all mature, they would weigh several hundred kilograms or even a thousand kilograms.
Even if it costs a few cents per pound, the loss is hundreds of dollars.
"It's okay, Mr. Er, let's just do the second fruit thinning. It's good to have half of it. I may not have even 30% of the peaches."
Originally, Zhang An thought that Huang Er My plums will also suffer heavy losses. But hearing Mr. Huang say that half of it is still hanging on the tree, this is already a relatively good situation.
"Yes, it's a blessing from God that there are so many left."
Although Mr. Huang is a pity, he can understand it in his heart.
“We farmers have always depended on the weather to make a living. The past few years have been so good and we are no longer hungry. God has been kind to us.”
Second Master is alive. At such an old age, many things have long been taken lightly.
The weather has been good these past few years, the crops in the fields have been harvested very well, and everyone has had enough to eat.
This year’s hail is the first one in recent years.
Farmers all know that God is moody and ever-changing.
To be able to give them such a good few years is considered to be kind to the farmers in the mountains.
"The second master is right, but it's not that bad."
Zhang An gave the second master Huang a thumbs up.
"The fishermen at the seaside say that the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish. This time, everyone's fruits will be damaged due to the white rain, and the price will definitely be much more expensive than in previous years."
Huang Erye heard from Zhang An that this year's fruit fair will be held Price increase, some asked in disbelief.
"Anzi, will the price really increase?"
"Don't worry, Second Master, it will be more expensive than last year."
What Zhang An said, It was a reassurance for Mr. Huang.
After all, he believed that Zhang An would not lie to him because of how many plums he had there.
The stalls Zhang An set up were much bigger than his.
Although there is hail this time, the area may not be too large.
But this area of the county is definitely affected.
Although there are fruit merchants now, they only operate in larger cities.
In such a small county in the mountains, most of the fruits are produced and sold in various places.
Especially now that everyone has money in their pockets, the demand for this fruit has also increased.
After the disaster, the production of fruits will definitely be affected, and prices will increase no matter what.
After all, people who eat this kind of fruit also need to eat meat.
Back home, Wang Fang also knew the situation in her own land, and she felt a little depressed.
Zhang An saw this and quickly persuaded him.
"Mom, it's nothing. Even if the peach orchard and the melon field are gone, our family has already made a lot of money just selling cherries."
Zhang An is doing this. I have to persuade my mother quickly. I was very happy when I sold cherries a few days ago.
But now that Taoyuan and Guadili have been hit hard, it is a great tragedy.
Such a mixture of sorrow and joy, if it is not solved, problems may arise.
"Yes, our family has already made a lot of money today. We can't let our family make all the money in the world. What about other people's families?"
After some persuasion from the father and son, Wang Fangcai It finally got rid of the depressed mood.
After all, no matter what happens, life has to go on.
From that heavy rain, it will rain from time to time.
This means that this year has entered the rainy season.
The water level of the river that originally dropped has risen again during this period.
Taking advantage of this period of time, everyone hurriedly plowed the paddy fields, because the seedlings in our rice fields were ready for transplanting.
Zhang An’s family did not plant much land this year.
Just plant a few acres of paddy fields at home and two nearby mountains.
As for other cultivated land farther away, Zhang An proposed to plant it for others first.
At first Wang Fang refused because they had been growing crops all their lives.
I always feel that there is less planting in the land and I feel uneasy.
But now there is too much to take care of at home, and there is really no time and energy to take care of so much land.
And even if you plant them all, you won’t get much profit and it will only be a waste of time and effort.
Zhang An knew that his mother was reluctant to give up, so he used rapeseed that had been knocked down by hail to persuade her.
Wang Fang finally relaxed a little and gave some of the land at home to others.
But not everything is released, at least the paddy field at home and two nearby cultivated fields.
No matter what, Wang Fang wanted to plant it himself and only agreed to release the cultivated land in the distance.
Now is different from the later generations, where many families, including young and old, go out to work.
So all the land in the family was released, but even so, no one could be found to take it over, so it could only be left uncultivated.
It's different now. There are very few people going out to work now.
Everyone in the village, even if they have a little bit of land, must collect it and plant it.
Some people go out to work, and their land is released for breeding, but there are conditions.
Every year, how much food must be distributed to the owner according to the land, because there are still agricultural taxes to pay.
Even so, there are many people vying to plant it.
After learning that the Zhang An family was going to release the land, many families came to inquire.
Although they are all in mountainous areas, no one dislikes them, and Zhang An’s family has no intention of asking people for food.
I thought of giving this piece of land to someone else who is white, as long as it doesn’t go unused.
So everyone wants to ask about such a good thing.
In the end, several acres of Zhang An’s mountainous land were given to two relatives who had a good relationship with each other.
Of course, it is just for them to plant. When the Zhang An family takes it back one day, they will have to return the land after harvesting the crops.
It only took a few days for Zhang An’s family’s paddy fields to be plowed.
The Zhang An family moved some composted farmyard manure into the field and plowed it once before planting rice seedlings.
But I don’t know why this year, everything is not going well.
Some time ago, there was hail when we were harvesting rapeseed. Now, after half a day of planting, it started to rain heavily.
However, even though it was raining lightly, the people in the fields were not ready to call it a day.
Basically all the people who were transplanting rice seedlings had finished planting in the fields despite heavy rain.
In the rain curtain, you can see everyone wearing bamboo hats and plastic sheets.
Because few families have raincoats and coir raincoats, the plastic sheet is made from fertilizer bought at home.
The layer of plastic film in the nylon pocket is used by everyone as a raincoat.
Why not rest, because the saying goes.
Don’t take shelter from the rain when planting rice seedlings, and don’t take a break from the cold when threshing grains.
Because the seedlings growing in the rice fields have to be pulled out and then transplanted into the paddy fields.
During this process, there will be some damage to the seedlings, especially on sunny days, the damage will be greater.
Even if it is planted, there will be a certain period of recovery.
This time in Changqing is called the anti-growth period. If it can recover, the seedlings will be able to take root.
But if it cannot survive, then the seedling is dead and needs to be replanted by the owner.
Many old people have discovered this based on their years of experience in rice transplanting.
Grain seedlings planted on rainy days will take root earlier than those transplanted on sunny days.
Finally, I concluded that if you transplant rice seedlings on a rainy day, the damage to the seedlings will be less.
Therefore, the recovery time after transplanting is short, and roots can begin to grow within a few days and survive.
But weather factors are beyond everyone’s control, and rice transplanting must be done in a hurry.
So when everyone encountered a rainy day on the way to transplant rice seedlings, they would not take shelter from the rain.
On the contrary, I will be very happy and finish transplanting the seedlings in the rain.
(End of this chapter)