allonlinenovel Chapter 311 Natural Disaster
Chapter 311 Natural Disaster
From January to April, some major grain-producing provinces in the north suffered severe spring drought, affecting the growth of 1 million hectares of crops. In some places, the drought depth reached 4 inches to 300 inches, which is rare in history.
Frost in April and May caused more than 4 hectares of farmland in North China and Northeast China to be affected.
In contrast, from February to June, the south suffered three flood disasters, with floods in the Pearl River, Yangtze River and Huaihe River basins, causing more than 2 million hectares of farmland to be submerged.
From March to June, wind and hail disasters occurred again in the eastern coastal areas and North China.
As summer approaches, droughts and floods begin to reverse.
From June to August, a severe drought occurred, mainly in the Yangtze and Huaihe River basins. By late July, the affected area had reached 6 million hectares. Continued until early August, the drought expanded to the north of the Yellow River and the southwest inland, with the affected area reaching 8 million hectares.
In late July, heavy rains hit the northern region and flash floods occurred, flooding more than 7 million hectares of farmland.
From July to September, the southeastern coast was hit by five typhoons, the highest of which reached level 7, affecting 9 million hectares of farmland.
In addition to drought, frost, floods, wind and hail, there were also plagues of locusts, armyworms and rats.
Influenced by the "great harvest" in agriculture in various regions in 58, the State Council made arrangements to reduce the grain planting area in the grain production plan for 59.
Compared with 58, the total sown area decreased by 9.1%, of which the sown area of summer grain decreased by 20% compared with the previous year, that is, a decrease of 1 million mu. A large amount of grain was exported in exchange for foreign exchange, which aggravated the food shortage crisis...
There was a lot of rain in the first half of the year, which had a great impact on Zhoujiawan's early rice and vegetable bases, resulting in reduced yields.
The yield of early rice per mu is less than 500 catties, which is still considered good. In many places, the yield per mu is only to catties. In severely affected areas, there is not even a single harvest.
Zhou Chuanjing knew that there would be floods in the first half of the year, so he led his fellow villagers to dig many drainage canals in advance and barely managed to maintain the output.
When Zhou Chuanyi held a production meeting at the beginning of the year, he told Zhou Chuanyu the expert's weather forecast.
There are also leap forward targets this year. Zhou Chuanyu was worried that natural disasters would really happen and affect grain production. Not only did he ask all the team leaders to take precautions, such as digging ditches and ponds, he also reported this suggestion to the county.
Because there was nothing unusual in the weather at the beginning of the year, many people thought he was exaggerating and that digging ditches and ponds was a deliberate attempt to amuse everyone. The county leaders even asked him to call the expert over and produce the evidence.
Zhou Chuanyu didn't want to implicate Zhou Rong, so after being scolded by the county leaders, he remained silent...
When the heavy rain continued to fall and the farmland was flooded, it was too late to dig ditches to drain the water.
All I can do is watch the seedlings rot in the fields...
After the early rice was harvested, Zhou Chuanyu replaced all the team leaders who did not obey his orders and dig ditches.
Even if the team leader was replaced, the problem of poor grain harvest could not be solved.
In those production teams with insufficient food reserves, the food in the public canteens became less and less abundant day by day. The villagers all complained and often cursed the production team leaders.
The production team leader was also helpless. There was only so much food in the warehouse and the harvest in the fields was not ideal. What could he do?
The hungry villagers can only find ways to solve the problem on their own.
Purslane, bamboo grass, poplar leaves, willow leaves, locust flowers, elm leaves, corn husks, corn bones, sweet potato vines, etc., anything that can be stuffed into the mouth is food for everyone...
During the Great Steel Production Campaign, all families had to hand in their iron pots and shovels. Now, to buy these things, one needed industrial tickets, but no one had any and was reluctant to spend the money, so they cooked in clay pots...
Zhou Chuanjing told all the villagers in Zhoujiawan that there was too much rain in the first half of the year and there might be drought in the second half of the year, so it was hard to say how much grain could be harvested from the fields.
Everyone has to plan well how to eat their food, otherwise they will be the ones starving because no one will have extra food to help them.
In order to save food, many families eat two meals a day, with breakfast and lunch around 11 o'clock and dinner at four or five in the afternoon, and dinner is mainly porridge and sweet potatoes.
Whenever they have free time, the women and children in the village go to the mountains to dig wild vegetables and make food reserves...
The farmlands in Yanglinpo were also flooded. Although Lin Dahe listened to Xu Dayong and led the villagers to dig some ditches, the farmlands were located in a low-lying area and the water could not be drained out. They could only watch the seedlings being drowned.
The early rice harvest at Yanglinpo was almost a total failure.
Because of the excessive eating and drinking in the public canteen, the food in the warehouse had long been exhausted, and they had been relying on wild vegetable soup and sweet potatoes to survive.
We thought we would have food after the early rice was harvested, but we didn't expect to encounter a flood and lose everything.
The food in the cafeteria was not enough to fill their stomachs, so Lin Dahe and his family had been relying on hidden food to fill their stomachs for nearly half a year.
He did not anticipate that the early rice harvest would be a failure and that there would not be much stored grain.
Now the food he had secretly stored at home was almost gone. He didn't want his family to starve to death, but he was also worried that the villagers would cause trouble due to lack of food, which would affect his position as production team leader.
Lin Dahe reported the situation in Yanglinpo to the brigade, hoping that Xu Dayong could allocate some relief food from the brigade.
Xu Dayong bluntly stated that the little reserve grain of the brigade management office had to be reserved for the public canteen and could not be allocated to Yanglinpo.
Lin Dahe had no choice but to go to the commune to find Zhou Chuanyu in person and told him that Yanglinpo had run out of food and all the wild vegetables that could be dug up on the mountain had been dug up. Without relief food, the members would starve to death.
People have starved to death in the jurisdiction, and it is difficult to explain to both the superiors and the subordinates.
Zhou Chuanyu replied to Lin Dahe that the commune did not have much grain reserves and many disaster-stricken production teams needed assistance, so they could only allocate 1000 kilograms of rice and 3000 kilograms of sweet potatoes. The remaining gap would have to be solved by Lin Dahe and his fellow villagers.
1000 kilograms of rice can only yield 500 kilograms when ground into rice. There are nearly 300 people in Yanglinpo, so how can it be enough?
In order to survive until the autumn harvest, Lin Dahe had to order the public canteen to use one pound of rice for each meal, mixed with wild vegetables to make porridge. Each adult laborer was given a bowl of porridge, plus two sweet potatoes, while the others were given half a bowl of porridge and one sweet potato, and only two meals a day were provided.
If you don’t have enough to eat, go to the mountains and find a way to get something.
Some people expressed dissatisfaction, saying that the country collected tens of billions of kilograms of grain last year, and if 100,000 kilograms were allocated to them at random, they would not have to starve. They wondered if Lin Dahe did not report the matter to his superiors, which led to the grain not being approved.
Some people even started to make a fuss, saying that if Lin Dahe was unwilling to report to the commune and the county, they would go there themselves.
Lin Dahe said in a cold voice: "If you want to report it, go ahead. If you get caught and locked up, don't blame me for not reminding you.
The grain collected by the country is not for you alone. Many places are suffering from drought or floods this year. There are so many people in the country. Who do you think you are? You can ask for as much as you want?
It's already good that the commune can approve thousands of kilograms of millet and sweet potatoes. If you are not satisfied, get out of Yanglinpo and save some food for others!"
Everyone was stunned by Lin Dahe's words. They had heard about the situation outside. In many severely affected areas, people were eating tree bark and some were selling their children.
They just can't understand why, after having a bumper grain harvest across the country last year, there is suddenly no food this year?
Since we can’t ask the organization to allocate food, we can only rely on our own abilities to find food in the mountains…