Chapter 329 Village Chief Qin's Decision
Chapter 329 Village Chief Qin's Decision
As September approaches, the harvest season is quietly approaching.
This should have been a time of joy and anticipation, with people in the city looking forward to the upcoming new food.
But people in rural areas are shrouded in anxiety and worry.
In the village meeting room, the atmosphere was unusually heavy.
The old man sitting in the first seat had wisps of green smoke coming out of the pipe in his hand, and his eyes were deep and worried.
He slowly exhaled a puff of smoke and broke the silence: "Everyone is here, Secretary, please tell us the situation first."
The secretary to his left said worriedly, "Village head, the situation is not optimistic. The crop yield this year is at least half of last year's."
"This year's harvest may even be less." The worried secretary shook his head helplessly, seeming to stop talking.
This year's crops are not as good as in previous years, and the recent heavy rains have made the situation even worse, making the already scarce food even more scarce.
Village chief Qin thought back to last year's bumper harvest and couldn't help but lament his bad luck.
He sighed and said firmly, "Okay, stop sighing here."
"We are the leaders of the village. This is our root. We cannot sit back and do nothing. Please speak up about your thoughts."
After hearing what Village Chief Qin said, the three or four leaders just frowned and remained silent, unable to think of any solution.
If I had known this situation would happen, I should have made plans earlier, but there is no medicine for regret in the world, and no matter how much I say now, it’s useless.
Village Chief Qin had already made a plan. He stood up and said with a firm look.
"Since there is none, then let's do it my way. We can only take a risk."
Suddenly, several people looked up and looked at Village Chief Qin expectantly.
Village chief Qin already had plans for what to do next. He had been planning this for more than two months and could only succeed and not fail.
"This year's harvest is not good, so we definitely cannot hand in last year's rationed grain. Otherwise, some people will starve to death by the end of the year, not until next year."
"We are all from the same village. I don't want anyone to starve to death. You have experienced hunger before. Now you should do as I say."
Hearing this, several people nodded, looking as if they were listening attentively.
"Captain, you should lead the villagers to harvest some of the crops in the east overnight. No matter whether they are ripe or not, you should harvest them immediately. It is best to finish harvesting them in the next few days."
"After harvesting the crops, make the fields look like they were flooded by heavy rain. Be careful not to let anyone see any flaws."
"Also, I had someone dig a cellar in the northern slope some time ago. When the time comes, put all the harvested grain in here. Send someone to guard it strictly to make sure it is not discovered."
"Yes." The captain responded quickly.
He also knew about this cellar. He didn't understand why Village Chief Qin did this at first, but it turned out that he was making plans for today.
After giving instructions to the team leader, Village Chief Qin looked at the secretary again.
"Secretary, your mission is very important. We must not let the leaders know that we are hiding the grain."
"You must make the villagers shut up and stop them from gossiping and leaking the matter out. Otherwise, I don't need to tell you what the consequences will be."
When the secretary heard this, his face became serious, "Don't worry, village chief, I will definitely not let the villagers talk nonsense."
The village is so small that it is impossible to hide this news. We can only try our best to keep everyone quiet.
Village Chief Qin shook his head. "It's not safe to just keep silent. You and everyone else should coordinate your statements and make sure they are the same or similar."
"We also need to tell everyone about the consequences. If the leaders find out that we are doing this, we will not be able to pay less food when the time comes, and everyone's rations will be fined."
“If someone is exposed and someone starves to death, don’t blame me for being heartless and not giving food to save them.”
The secretary didn't expect it to be so serious, and his eyes immediately became serious. "Don't worry, Village Chief, I will do my best."
If you leave surplus grain and conceal it without reporting it, or if you have surplus grain and don't sell it, you will be sent to jail.
But at this time, he might not even have to go to jail, but could be shot directly to save food.
Village Chief Qin continued, "I'm sorry to bother you with these matters. Please pay more attention."
"Before the food ration is determined, I will go to the grain station leader to ask for mercy and see if I can pay less food."
"If we can leave more food, the village will be better off."
After the meeting, Village Chief Qin and the leaders left the meeting room and started to get busy.
Grain station.
Village chief Qin came to the grain station and went straight to Ning Hongsheng's office.
"Dong dong!"
"Stationmaster Ning, I hope I did not disturb you at work?" Village Chief Qin pushed open the door with a warm smile on his face.
Ning Hongsheng looked up and saw that it was Village Chief Qin, so he put down the documents in his hand and said with a smile: "Village Chief Qin, you are here. What can I do for you?"
His eyes inadvertently fell on the fat native chicken in Village Chief Qin's hand.
Seeing this, Village Chief Qin mentioned the chicken and said with a smile, "Hey, isn't it that there are too many chickens in the village?"
"I thought you worked hard, Stationmaster Ning, so I brought one for you to try."
"This is not a gift, I'm just trying to taste the chickens raised in our village. What do they taste like?"
"Old Qin, you are not telling the truth!" Ning Hongsheng pointed at Village Chief Qin and smiled.
It's obvious that they are here to give gifts, but they say they are here to taste the food. In this way, it's not a 'bribe' anymore."
The two looked at each other and smiled, and the atmosphere suddenly became much more relaxed.
Ning Hongsheng asked directly: "Okay, we are old acquaintances, just say whatever you want to say, no need to beat around the bush."
The two met because Qinjia Village had always been a bumper harvest. Every time they paid public grain, they were not only the first to pay, but also ensured quality and quantity.
This is like being a good student who displeases the teacher.
Village chief Qin would not come to visit you for no reason, and he even brought a chicken. He knew the current situation, so he must have something to ask for.
Village Chief Qin sighed and said, "Isn't it almost autumn harvest time? Stationmaster Ning, you also know the situation of the crops here."
"This year, I'm afraid our village won't be able to deliver grain on time and in the same quantity as before. Do you think it's possible to deliver less grain?"
Hearing this, Ning Hongsheng was also embarrassed and shook his head: "Village Chief Qin, I'm really sorry, I'm sorry I can't agree to your request."
Village Chief Qin was unwilling to accept the result: "Stationmaster Ning, this is not that difficult. You know the crops in the fields right now. With the steelmaking and heavy rain, a lot of food has died."
"You are the head of the grain station. If we really continue to harvest grain the same way as last year, many people in our village will starve to death. Is this what you want to see?"
Ning Hongsheng was helpless: "Of course I don't want to see the villagers starve to death, but now it's not up to me to decide how much grain you have to pay. It's up to the higher-ups to decide."
"Leaders above?" Village Chief Qin frowned. "Stationmaster Ning, please don't lie to me. Didn't you always make the decisions before?"
Ning Hongsheng explained: "It used to be, but not now."
"At a meeting two days ago, the city leaders said they would send people to the countryside to inspect the situation in each village and then decide how much grain to collect."
Ning Hongsheng patted Village Chief Qin on the shoulder and said helplessly: "Old Qin, if it were really up to me, I would definitely give you less because of our friendship."
But I am not the one making the decision now. It is useless for you to talk to me. You have to find them."
Village chief Qin stared at Ning Hongsheng's eyes, trying to see something from his eyes.
Let’s see if what Ning Hongsheng said to him is true.
After staring for a while, Ning Hongsheng's eyes did not move, and Village Chief Qin understood that what Ning Hongsheng said was true.
Village chief Qin stared at Ning Hongsheng's eyes for a while, and seeing his firm look, he knew that what he said was true.
He then asked, "Why did the leaders above suddenly come down? This never happened before."
Ning Hongsheng replied, "Yes, I don't understand either. But they will come down in two days and then they will inspect each village."
"Two days? There's still time. We need to go back and make arrangements."
Village chief Qin murmured to himself that two days was enough time to harvest the grain, so his trip to the grain station was not in vain.
"Okay, Stationmaster Ning, thank you for your help. I will go back now."
Ning Hongsheng nodded and looked at the chicken that was left behind. "Hey, Lao Qin, you should take this chicken back. I can't accept it."
"Stationmaster Ning, you must accept this chicken. It is a token of our village's appreciation."
After saying that, Village Chief Qin put the chicken on the table, turned around and left the office.
Seeing this, Ning Hongsheng didn't say anything more. He was also a human being. He hadn't eaten meat for a while, and his family members were also craving for it.
Although he failed to achieve his goal, by leaving this chicken behind, Ning Hongsheng would not sit idly by if anything went wrong during the harvest.
I will say a few words for him anyway.
Not long after Village Chief Qin left, the village heads and secretaries of each village came to plead for mercy and asked them to pay less grain.
In the end, Ning Hongsheng used the decision of the superiors to fight back, and everyone returned empty-handed.
Return to Qinjia Village.
Village chief Qin called the team leader over immediately.
"Village chief, what's the matter?" the captain asked in confusion.
"Captain, you must immediately gather all the men in the village and go to the east to harvest the crops!" Village Chief Qin said in a firm tone, leaving no room for doubt.
The team leader was a little confused and asked, "Village head, didn't we agree to harvest at night? What if the villagers see us harvesting in broad daylight?"
Village Chief Qin: "It's too late to worry about so much. Ning Hongsheng from the grain station said that the leaders above may come down at any time. We can't wait."
"You must harvest all the crops before they arrive, otherwise it will be too late. You must go now, time is running out!"
"Yes!" the captain responded and hurriedly took people to harvest the food.
Afterwards, he called the secretary and asked him to arrange for the villagers to give their testimonies in order to ensure that no information would be leaked.
Qinjia Village is now racing against time, they must make all preparations before the leader arrives.
After a day of intense harvesting, the grain in the eastern fields was successfully harvested, and three to four thousand kilograms of grain were carefully stored in the cellar.
Next, Village Chief Qin and the villagers began to "fake" things.
Create traces of crops being flooded by heavy rain and then cleaned up.
To achieve this effect, flooding and sun exposure are required.
But time is running out. If too much water is applied at one time, the fields will not be dried in time, and people will see that the crops are being destroyed. Now we can only apply small amounts of water multiple times, while the sun is still there, to flood the fields.
Wait until the water is almost dry before watering again.
This process is repeated many times until the farmland shows signs of being flooded by heavy rain.
Village chief Qin looked at the busy figures of the villagers, feeling both grateful and anxious.
He couldn't help cursing himself: "Why didn't I ask Ning Hongsheng earlier? If I had asked earlier, wouldn't I have been able to prepare earlier? Now it's really too rushed."
Just then, the secretary came over and said, "Village Chief."
"I've told everyone everything, right? Nothing's been revealed, right?"
The secretary nodded heavily, "Don't worry, it's all settled, everyone takes this matter very seriously, when the leaders above come, the old man will take the children and hide away, and won't come out."
"Neither the man nor the woman spoke. I will arrange a few more people to answer the leader's questions. I guarantee there will be no mistakes."
Hearing this, Village Chief Qin breathed a sigh of relief. Now everything that could be done had been done.
From now on, it all depends on luck and whether I can deceive the leaders above.
A few days later, the leaders from above arrived as scheduled, and the first stop they inspected was Qinjia Village.
Ning Hongsheng accompanied a leader to Qinjia Village. Just when they were about to ask someone to find Village Chief Qin, Village Chief Qin came to them first.
"Hey, Stationmaster Ning, why are you here? Who is this?"
Ning Hongsheng introduced the two to each other.
"Director Xia, this is the head of Qinjia Village."
"Village Chief Qin, this is Director Xia Xiaonong, a leader from the city who came here specifically to conduct an inspection."
Village Chief Qin quickly extended his hand and shook hands with Xia Xiaonong enthusiastically, "Hello, Director Xia, welcome to Qinjia Village."
Ning Hongsheng: "Director Xia, don't underestimate Qinjia Village. Qinjia Village is a high-yield village in our grain station. This village pays the most out of all the villages."
Village Chief Qin waved his hand modestly and said, "Stationmaster Ning, I appreciate your words. It is our village's duty to pay the grain."
"It's just that things are different now." He sighed, seeming to find it difficult to speak.
"What's the matter? Does Village Chief Qin have any difficulties?" Xia Xiaonong asked.
Village Chief Qin paused for a moment and said, "Alas, the grain situation this year is not good. Director Xia, you will know if you look at the fields."
Xia Xiaonong followed the guidance of Village Chief Qin and looked at the crops in the fields.
At first glance, there seemed to be a lot of crops, but a closer look revealed that they grew sparsely, and in some places there was nothing at all, just a wasteland.
Summer:
"What's going on? Why is the situation in the field so bad?" Xia Xiaonong looked at the situation in the field in shock.
Ning Hongsheng didn't know how to respond, so Village Chief Qin immediately explained the reason to Xia Xiaonong and also complained about his grievances in secret.
"Is the situation really so serious?" Xia Xiaonong asked seriously.
Village Chief Qin nodded solemnly, "As Director Xia saw with his own eyes, this is the case."
Xia Xiaonong looked at the situation in the field with a serious expression, and said to the staff behind him, "Go to the field and take a look, calculate the number and report to me."
Several staff members immediately dispersed, holding notebooks, carefully observing and counting the amount of crops in the fields.
"Director Xia, who are they?" Village Chief Qin had noticed them a long time ago.
"They are here to count the crops in your fields," Xia Xiaonong explained.
"The higher-ups have taken into account the bad situation this year and have decided to collect grain according to the actual conditions of each village. There is no need to worry about over-collection."
After explaining Village Chief Qin's doubts, Xia Xiaonong looked at the situation in the field with a frown. It was far worse than he had imagined.
He was sent down by the leadership to inspect in order to prevent the stationmasters of various grain stations from falsely reporting grain production and deliberately raising the actual output of this autumn harvest.
Other areas were already short of food and the situation was bad. But I thought that since this was a village near Sijiu City, the situation wouldn't be that bad.
He thought that this year's grain was about the same as last year, but he didn't expect that it was not just slightly different, but a lot different.
"Fortunately, fortunately the leader sent me down to conduct an on-site investigation. This is much more serious than falsely reporting grain production!" Xia Xiaonong thanked in his heart.
In fact, this change was made possible by the cut-word letter given by Li Kailang.
Because of the value of this letter, the leaders above attached great importance to this autumn harvest and sent people to conduct an on-site inspection.
Originally, Xia Xiaonong came to put an end to the false exaggeration of grain production, but now the situation is so bad that it would be good enough if the production was not reduced.
"Is this the only place in the village for growing crops? Are there any other places?" Xia Xiaonong asked.
"Yes, Director Xia, come with me." Village Chief Qin took Xia Xiaonong and Ning Hongsheng for a walk in the fields.
The situation they saw was getting worse and worse, and their brows were getting more and more furrowed.
"Why isn't there a single place where crops are grown well? They're all grown in a sloppy manner. How can we deliver the full amount of grain?" Ning Hongsheng asked.
Village Chief Qin immediately complained, "Stationmaster Ning, it's not that we don't want to, it's just that the situation this year is not good, with steelmaking and heavy rain."
"The crops in the fields have survived until now, and everyone has done their best. During that time, everyone slept in the fields."
Hearing this, Ning Hongsheng frowned. If this was the case in every village, how could he complete the task assigned to him?
There is not much grain to begin with, and if we really have to pay the public grain according to last year's grain production, one can imagine how many people would starve to death in each village.
But he was the stationmaster of the grain station and had to complete his task first. As for who would starve to death, it was not his concern for the time being.
Ning Hongsheng didn't think about it for long before the staff who went to the field to investigate came back.
They handed Xia Xiaonong a piece of paper with a string of numbers written on it - this was the amount of grain that Qinjia Village should hand in for the autumn harvest.
But this figure is far below the standards of previous years.
Xia Xiaonong frowned, very surprised by the number, "Are you sure? Is this number too small?"
The leading staff member nodded solemnly, "Yes, that's the number. We checked it three times and this number is the most reasonable."
Ning Hongsheng leaned over to take a look at the numbers. There were only a little over 3 jin, at least half less than last year.
For a large grain-paying village, this amount is far too little.
It is conceivable that other villages pay even less than Qinjia Village.
"Comrade, did you calculate it wrong? Why is it so little?" Ning Hongsheng couldn't help but ask.
The staff member said seriously: "It is impossible to make a mistake. We have come up with this number based on the condition of the crops in the fields and the basic living needs of the villagers after the grain is delivered."
"After much consideration, we unanimously agreed that this number is a reasonable estimate. I personally think that this number is a bit too high."
"Commissioner Qian, do you really think so?" Xia Xiaonong asked seriously.
Commissioner Qian nodded heavily. This number may seem like a cold number, but in fact, it contains a lot of content.
If the number is larger, we have to take food from the farmers. Even though they live in the city, the more food we send to the city, the better.
But someone has to grow food. If no one grows food, how can we eat? The ultimate result will be to drain the pond and catch all the fish.
Xia Xiaonong frowned and thought for a while, then he suddenly made up his mind and looked at Ning Hongsheng, "Stationmaster Ning, I know your grain station has its own autumn harvest mission."
"But for this autumn harvest, your grain station should first follow my figure. If there are any problems or responsibilities, I will take full responsibility!"
Ning Hongsheng nodded: "Okay, I understand. I will collect the grain according to Director Xia's request."
Since someone was willing to take the blame, how could Ning Hongsheng refuse?
If the grain harvest was really to be based on last year's harvest, Qinjia Village would have to hand in at least 5 kilograms of grain. Now that there is 2 kilograms less, how can the harvest be collected?
"Village Chief Qin, please take me around again."
"Okay, Director Xia, follow me." Village Chief Qin continued to walk with the two of them.
When Village Chief Qin heard that only 3 kilograms of grain would be collected, he felt relieved instantly. His original plan was to collect at least 4 kilograms.
Now it is over 3 kilograms, plus the 3 kilograms or so of grain he embezzled, there are still about 1 kilograms left in the village.
In this way, the villagers' lives are guaranteed.
After removing seed grain, reserve grain, feed grain and other grains, each person can get about 300 kilograms of food rations.
This is raw grain, that is, wheat without husk, corn including cob, etc.
Before they knew it, they had arrived at the farmland in the east.
Xia Xiaonong looked at the scene in front of him and couldn't help but frowned: "Village Chief Qin, what's going on with this land?"
Village Chief Qin's heart tightened instantly. The time for falsification was too short and the difference could be seen at a glance.
But he quickly calmed down and made up an excuse: "This land was indeed flooded by heavy rain before, and all the crops died."
"After everyone pulled the crops out, they never took care of them again. Until now, there is no farm work, so no one is too lazy to come and check on them, and this is what happened."
Although Xia Xiaonong and Ning Hongsheng found it a little strange, they did not delve into it. They simply asked about the situation in the village and then continued on their way.
"Let's go somewhere else."
Hearing this, Village Chief Qin breathed a sigh of relief and secretly felt lucky that he had escaped.
Village chief Qin hurriedly led everyone away from here to avoid the cellar being discovered.
After a while, Xia Xiaonong finally finished inspecting Qinjia Village.
They were going to inspect the next village and give the amount of public grain to be paid for the autumn harvest.
With the bad start in Qinjia Village, Xia Xiaonong and Ning Hongsheng had a psychological bottom line and had high hopes for the upcoming autumn grain harvest.
What Village Chief Qin didn't know was that it wasn't just Qinjia Village that was secretly stealing food, other villages were also stealing food.
Everyone’s methods are different, but their goals are surprisingly consistent.
"Huh——" Village chief Qin watched them leave, let out a long breath, his legs and feet went limp, and he couldn't help but sit down on the ground.
"Village chief, are you okay?" The secretary immediately supported him.
"It's okay, just help me go back and rest for a while and I'll be fine."
Everyone helped Village Chief Qin go back to rest.
(End of this chapter)