Farmer Fubo is open for business

On this day, Li Zheng and several squires came to Songjia Village for inspection.

Everyone was a little surprised when they saw a large pool of clear water in the middle of the village.

Several women were doing laundry and vegetables in the pond, while the men in the village scooped water to water the vegetable gardens and fields.

The lush vegetable gardens of the villagers are like two different worlds from the dry land outside the village.

"Song Jia, you have such an abundant water source, why can't you distribute it equally to other villages?" A squire asked the leader of Songjia Village dissatisfiedly.

Song Jia sneered: "When I was digging the pond, I didn't ask for help, but they didn't want to do it, so they came over to ridicule me. What? Seeing my pond filled with water, you all want to come and eat for free? No way!"

These guys can stand and talk without hurting their backs. Why should they give their own village water to others? If the water in the pond is drained out one day, who will compensate them for their losses?

Li Zheng coughed lightly and said with a warm face: "It is indeed their fault in this matter, but the drought is serious now and it is impossible to sow seeds everywhere. Brother Song, please just relax and let them tide over the difficulties temporarily. When the fields are planted, Maybe it rains again, but it won’t hinder your villagers’ lives.”

Another old man in blue robe also said: "Brother Song, saving one life is better than building a seven-level pagoda. For the sake of everyone being neighbors, please allow them to come and fetch some water. It is almost April. If we don’t plant seeds, I’m afraid the autumn harvest will be delayed, and I don’t know how many people will starve to death this winter.”

Song Jia was speechless.

According to Sanshun, the drought will last for three years, and it has only been one year. If he opens his mouth, he may not be able to stop it in the future. If the villagers are left without water for this reason, the whole village will probably be scolded to death.

"Let me think about it." Song Jia declined.

Seeing that Song Jia refused to let go, Li Zheng was a little anxious, "Brother Song, the county government has issued a notice asking us to help each other to fight the drought. Several wells have been drilled in each village in Tieniu Town, which has basically solved the water shortage problem. , their fields are basically planted with crops, and they are growing well, but the drought in our township is the most serious, and the county magistrate even asked what is going on in our township."

Song Jia frowned, hesitant in his heart.

Li Zheng said again: "Brother Song, for the sake of your fellow villagers, please pour out the water evenly. How can the villagers not be grateful and burst into tears? This is a critical moment. If there is any trouble in our village, you and I will I can’t bear it.”

Song Jia was silent for a long time, and finally nodded: "Okay, we can equalize the water. If someone steals from our crops again, as long as they are discovered once, no one from other villages will be allowed to enter the village to fetch water."

"Okay, I will ask the village chiefs of Zuo Village and Huaishu Village to interview you about this matter and let them control the villagers."

Li Zheng was satisfied and patted Song Jia on the shoulder: "Brother Song is a righteous man. I will report the truth to the county magistrate."

After a pause, he added: "I heard that there is a man in your village who is very good at digging wells. You might as well invite him here. There are other villages that are seriously short of water. I would like to invite him to have a look. Don't worry, I will never treat him badly. As long as he builds a water well, Wang Yuanwai is willing to pay thirty ounces."

He pointed at the old man in blue robe: "This is Wang Yuanwai. He has two farms and is about to dig a few wells to fight the drought."

Song Jia's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he nodded quickly: "Okay, I'll call someone right now."

After a while, Song Sanshun was called to the front.

"That's him, Song Sanshun, my nephew. He is the best at digging wells." Song Jia introduced.

Li Zheng looked at the lean Song Sanshun and said, "Are you really good at digging wells?"

Song Sanshun had already heard from the clan leader that he could get thirty guans by digging a well, so he immediately nodded: "Yes."

"That's great! Now go to Wangjia Village with me." Wang Yuanwai said excitedly.

Wang Yuanwai is a local squire who lives over there from the market. His family owns hundreds of acres of fertile land, and the entire Wangjia Village villagers are basically his tenant farmers.

The drought was so urgent that he almost hanged himself. When he learned that a rare heavy rain had fallen over Songjia Village, his eyes turned red with jealousy.

But this was God's injustice. No matter how envious he was, there was nothing he could do about it. When he also learned that there was a pond in Songjia Village that would never dry up, he came over to see if it was true or not.

At this glance, it’s not true.

Since the people of Songjia Village are so good at digging wells and ponds, I invite him to come over and have a look. If a few wells or a pond are really dug, my farmland can barely sustain it.

Song Sanshun: "It takes at least five people to dig a well. It's useless for me to go alone. Why not tomorrow? I'll gather a few members together."

He couldn't earn this money by himself, so Song Sanshun decided to set up a temporary well-drilling club and find a few good villagers to join the club. After that, everyone would dig wells together and share the money.

"That's okay. I'll be waiting for you at Wangjiacun tomorrow." Wang Yuan, the patriarch of the Waichao clan, and Song Sanshun cupped their hands and said goodbye.

He was accompanied by a local squire named Zheng Mingzhi. When he saw that Mr. Wang was still hoping to dig wells to fight the drought, he couldn't help but sneer: "It's not like we didn't dig wells last year. How many of them produced water? You still want to think so wildly."

Wang Yuan gave him a white look and walked out of the village with his hands behind his back: "How can you know if it doesn't work if you don't try it? Does Brother Zheng have any other ideas?"

There are no rivers or large reservoirs here. Once a serious drought occurs, there is basically no solution.

Even if every village has one or two water storage ponds, how can it withstand more than a drop of rain falling for more than a year?

Zheng Zhi snorted and walked straight out of the village.

He also has hundreds of acres of fields. He planted winter wheat last year, but the wheat seedlings were so sparse that they were no longer as good as weeds.

Zheng Zhi had no choice but to ask the tenant farmers to plow the wheat fields again and prepare to plant drought-resistant crops, such as soybeans and millet.

But no matter how drought-tolerant the crops were, they had to be thoroughly watered before they could germinate. Even if he dug out all the wells in Zhuangzi, it would not be enough to water all the fields.

Today, when he saw that there was a water source in Songjia Village but was being denied to people from other villages, he was really angry, so he couldn't help but question it.

Fortunately, Songjia Village was willing to share the water, so he asked the tenant farmers to use oxcarts to transport water back to irrigate the fields.

Zheng Zhi thought happily, but he didn't know that the people in Songjia Village were not vegetarians either.

When the villagers from Zuo Village and Huaishu Village came to fetch water, they could tolerate it. When they saw an unknown ox cart driving into Songjia Village to fetch water, the villagers became angry and immediately stopped them from fetching water.

Then they started arguing twice and almost started fighting.

The villagers of Zuo Village and Huaishu Village were afraid that the incident would cause trouble and make the people of Songjia Village unhappy, and they would not be able to carry water by then, so they unanimously shouted that the bullock carts were not allowed to enter.

In this way, the oxcart in Zhengjiacun returned in despair, without getting even a bucket of water.

Chang'an has been watching the excitement outside for the past few days, seeing many people coming to carry water, causing the water level in the pond to drop a lot.

But early the next morning, the dropped water level returned to its original state.

The villagers also discovered this situation and stopped watching people from other villages fetching water.

However, more and more people come to the pond to do laundry, wash rice and wash vegetables.

Not only do people from the three nearby villages use this pond, but people from two or three miles away come to wash it, which makes the village more lively. Many children from other villages also come to play with their families.

Some children were very wild. When they saw a young man in Chang'an leading two dogs for a walk, they picked up clods of soil and hit the dogs with them.

Dahei was inexplicably willing to suffer the consequences of being hit, so he rushed out with a cry and threw a child to the ground.