Li Damao frowned deeply as he looked at the howling cold wind and the goose-feather heavy snow outside.
Spring has begun now. According to the situation in previous years, the temperature has begun to gradually rise, and everyone is busy starting spring plowing.
But now there is not even a trace of rejuvenation. It is still extremely cold and the cold wind is howling, just like the twelfth lunar month of winter.
If this continues, this year's spring plowing will be delayed.
"What's going on this year? It's already spring, but it's still so cold."
Li Damao frowned and looked at the calendar.
This winter is really too cold. Many of the pigs, cattle and sheep in his farm froze to death, causing Li Damao to suffer heavy losses. It has been more than 20 years since he immigrated to Liaodong, and this is the first time he has encountered such cold weather.
when.
"Da Mao, it's really too cold this year."
"No, it's cold and snowing heavily. The bugs in the ground are freezing to death, but we are almost freezing to death. It's been a winter, and it's already spring, but the weather still hasn't warmed up."
"Just wait, it will probably get warmer in a few days."
Neighbors are also discussing this matter.
For people in Liaodong, winter is the most comfortable time, because cats often stay at home eating and drinking for several months without having to do anything.
But it’s a waste of time, and people are getting rusty if they stay at home all the time, so they are just counting the days, waiting for spring to start the busyness of the new year.
Dafeng Town, Heitu Province.
Li Da's family gathered together, looking a little sad.
"The temperature is still very low. If it continues like this, this year's spring plowing will be delayed."
"Isn't that right? A lot of cattle and sheep freeze to death in winter. Otherwise, there won't be enough fodder."
"The weather is indeed a bit abnormal. It's too cold. It's not that cold at this time in previous years."
"I heard from the newspaper that it's very cold in all parts of Ming Dynasty now."
"Shandong, Beizhili, Henan, Shaanxi, Shaanxi and other regions within the Guanhai Pass have suffered heavy losses this time. It was too cold in winter, and it has continued to show no signs of warming up. The winter wheat harvest is probably going to fail.
"
"Does that mean the price of food is going to rise? We will soon be able to grow more food this year."
"The price of grain will definitely not increase much. We in the Ming Dynasty now have a lot of grain, and our family still has several warehouses of grain that have not been sold."
"Our Black Earth Province doesn't have a lot of anything else, except a lot of grain. We still have the grain from the year before last. In addition, Liaodong and Hezhong are also major grain-producing provinces, and there is so much grain that we can't sell it."
"So everyone raises more pigs, cattle and sheep to consume the grain, otherwise the grain will just be left to rot."
"This year we still need to grow more grass to raise cattle and sheep. It is better to sell cattle, sheep and pigs, and it is more profitable."
"This era is really changing too fast. There is so much food that no one wants it."
Carpenter Li couldn't help but sigh when he thought about the mountains of food at home, filled with several warehouses.
In the past, when we were in the mountains, food was very expensive, and every household was eager to have more food. Many times, because there was no food to eat, everyone could only go hungry and eat wild vegetables and the like.
But now, the situation of my sons is similar. Every household grows a lot of food, so much that it cannot be sold. Even if the price is low, there are no merchants to buy it.
There is no other way but to engage in breeding and use the best grain to feed livestock. Even so, there is still a large amount of grain left.
Therefore, people were not very enthusiastic about growing grain and began to plant a large amount of pasture, or simply abandoned some fields for rotational cultivation instead of cultivating all the fields.
Daming Pass in Henan Province.
The old farmer Zhang Laosan looked at the wheat in the field and looked sad.
"Dead, all frozen to death!"
"Hey, it's really too cold this winter."
"And it's not getting warmer now. If it gets warmer now, maybe it can slowly revive."
Zhang Laosan has been working in the fields all his life. As an old farmer, he has been working in the fields all his life, with his face facing the loess and his back turned to the sky. The most unsightly sight is this scene in front of him.
All the wheat that we worked so hard to grow was frozen to death, which meant that the harvest was about to fail.
"Well, today's times are good. If it were in the past, I don't know how many people would cry heartbroken."
"I guess everyone will start fleeing from now on."
Zhang Laosan sighed.
Times have changed, and life is much better now than before. Every family has enough food to eat, and they still have savings and money. Even if the wheat harvest fails, it seems that the impact will not be big. At most, it will not cost a few dollars to buy food.
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If it were in the past, the situation would be completely different.
Every household is counting on the new grain after the wheat is harvested to make a living. This winter is going to freeze to death, the harvest will be ruined, and we don’t know how we are going to get through the new year.
Many times, I would selectively flee the famine and go begging in other places. I would spend a few months first.
At that time, there were so many people, every household had a large family, and no matter how much food they had, it was not enough to eat. The key was that there was still very little land, and basically no one owned their own land. They were all tenants of the landlords. The land they could grow was limited, and the food they could produce was also limited.
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If you don't have enough to eat, it will be even worse if there is a famine.
However, times have changed, and a large number of people have immigrated to other parts of the country and overseas. The once lively villages are now deserted, with less than half of the ten households remaining.
Even most of the remaining people have gone to the city and are working in the city. Although they are more tiring, their income is higher. They earn dozens of taels of silver a year. How can they eat all their food?
"It looks like we need to plow the land again and plant wheat."
Zhang Laosan sighed, looked at his wheat field, and then at his village.
It seems that he is nostalgic for the lively scene in the village in the past, and he seems to be recalling the difficult years in the past.
In more than 20 years, great changes have taken place in Ming Dynasty.
It can only be described as earth-shaking, but it also has a huge impact on ordinary people at the bottom like Zhang Laosan. The winter wheat was frozen to death, which seems to be no big deal, and there is not much to be sad about.
Just plow the land directly and then plant spring wheat. You can't plant two crops in one year, but you can plant one season without any problem.
Only this time, the situation is very different from before.
It wasn't until March that the weather began to gradually warm up, but even when the weather began to warm up, abnormal situations occurred frequently.
One of the most prominent problems is that even after March, there are often cold waves. Once the extremely cold cold wave passes, it is no different from the winter. Everything is frosted, which brings new challenges to spring plowing.
A big problem arises. The crops that have just been planted may be frozen to death in an instant.
However, this has just begun. The most terrifying thing is that in the thirty-eighth year of Hongzhi, for several months, there was not a drop of rain in most areas of the Ming Dynasty, and the terrible drought began to spread.
PS: I have a cold, my head hurts like crazy~~Autumn is beginning, everyone should keep warm~