vrcanaries Chapter 182 Accidentally Saving the Village Chief
Chapter 182 Accidentally Saving the Village Chief
"Yes, from the time I took the grain home from the county government office to the time I distributed it to the people of Hedong Village, I didn't even touch the sacks. I don't know how it turned out like this!"
But now it seems that not only the people of Hedong Village, but even the supervisors are convinced that he is the one who did it. Even if Zhang Changzong has a lot of mouths, it is difficult for him to prove himself.
At this moment, Luo Xiaoran secretly pinched Zhang Changzong's arm, winked at him, and then said loudly:
"Village chief, are you too busy today? Aren't the rations for corvée labor in my carriage?"
After saying that, Luo Xiaoran turned around and looked at the people from Hedong Village, "We made a mistake just now. Push the cart over here, unload the sacks on it, and then come to my carriage to load the grain!"
Luo Xiaoran used her own food to make up for the shortfall, and the storm was settled. Zhang Changzong was still muttering to himself, not knowing what went wrong.
Luo Xiaoran pulled Zhang Changzong aside and asked, "Village Chief, has there ever been a mistake in the corvée rations in Hexi Village?"
"No!" The wrinkles on Zhang Changzong's face were squeezed into walnuts:
"I don't know how it turned out this way this time. You even had to use your own grain as collateral. Don't worry, since I didn't keep it properly, I should bear the responsibility. When the corvée is over, I will return the grain to you."
"We'll talk about my grain later. I just want to ask the village chief, have you figured out why there was sand in the sacks?"
There was a deep meaning in Luo Xiaoran's eyes, and Zhang Changzong was stunned for a moment.
Suddenly, he remembered that a few months ago, Luo Xiaoran had warned him to be careful that County Magistrate An would hate Hexi Village because of An Ruquan's death. He didn't believe it at the time, but now it seems...
"Are you saying that Magistrate An deliberately mixed sand into the grain?" Zhang Changzong asked carefully in a low voice.
Luo Xiaoran narrowed her eyes, "Isn't this obvious? They asked us farmers who work on the land to build the lime road, but they didn't give us any lime. This is really making things difficult for us. Compared to this, tampering with the food is nothing!"
"So, you specially drove the carriage to bring food here today?"
"I'm not a prophet, but you said, Village Chief, that the food provided by the county government is not enough, so I brought some more with me."
Zhang Changzong thought of the cakes he brought with him, and suddenly felt how wealthy Luo Xiaoran was.
When coming to Yangliupo this time, Luo Xiaoran originally planned to empty the grain, vegetables and meat in her home cellar, but she was afraid that two horse-drawn carriages would not be able to load them all, and she also had to free up some space to help the villagers share some of the burden, so she only loaded a portion of the cellar's reserves.
At the beginning, Luo Xiaoran asked Wang Dandan to help her build a cellar in order to store grain and feel at ease.
She was really afraid of being hungry. She had been starving in the apocalypse before she traveled through time, and she couldn't get enough to eat when she fled from famine after she traveled through time. Now that she had the conditions, she always thought that the more food at home, the better, so she bought a lot of food and piled it in the cellar.
The purchase of food was completed before the purchase of Uncle Xiang's family. Luo Xiaoran did not specifically tell Uncle Xiang's family about the food in the cellar. Even Luo Xingchen only knew that there seemed to be a cellar at home, but he had no idea what was in the cellar.
So during the period when Luo Xiaoran was kidnapped and taken to Changzhou by Zhu Jingxing's men, without Luo Xiaoran's money, Uncle Xiang's family used the monthly allowance that Luo Xiaoran had previously given them to support their lives.
After Luo Xiaoran came back, she not only compensated Uncle Xiang's family for the monthly salary, but also told them about the cellar at home.
Because Uncle Xiang would catch a cold when he went out to buy groceries in the winter, Luo Xiaoran told Uncle Xiang to buy more vegetables and meat at a time and store them in the cellar. After all, the temperature was low at this time of year and the food would not spoil.
Seeing that only a small amount of food was pushed out from the county government office that day, Luo Xiaoran took some more food with her just in case, and thus accidentally uncovered An Luhai's conspiracy.
Otherwise, Village Chief Zhang might be charged with embezzling government grain.
……
After the people of Hedong Village got the grain, they first opened the bags and checked them. When they saw that they were full of wheat without anything else mixed in, they felt at ease to set up the big pot to cook.
Zhang Changzong forced a hesitant smile on his face and walked cautiously to the head supervisor, "Master Tu, what happened just now was just a misunderstanding. We will prepare breakfast quickly and will not let you go hungry."
The county government ordered that the meals for the four supervisors should be taken care of by Hexi Village. Now that I think about it, isn't it all targeting Hexi Village? Zhang Changzong couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart.
Grandpa Tu looked at the drama between the two villages and seemed to have thought of something. Finally, he sneered, "Hurry up, we don't have much patience."
According to custom, the women in the team gathered together to form a team, which was mainly responsible for logistical support work such as transportation and cooking.
Nowadays, every married household is required to send one person to perform labor service, so half of all the elderly couples in the village came.
If both husband and wife are present, the person who comes is usually an old man. If an old woman comes, it is probably that her husband has passed away.
No matter they were old men or old women, most of them were very weak and shivering all over. They tried desperately to shrink their bodies into dirty and old cotton-padded clothes that did not keep out much of the cold, leaving only a weather-beaten face exposed.
Zhang Changzong put all the old people, women and unmarried girls into one team and appointed Luo Xiaoran to be in charge, mainly to do some logistical work.
The representatives of young girls are Luo Xiaoran, Qiu Niang, and Du Kongqing, while most of the women are like Li Xinghua, whose husbands are not at home or have passed away.
When Luo Xiaoran saw these old people, she felt troubled. The weather was still not warm enough, and it would be good enough if they didn't catch a cold here. How could they still do hard labor?
OK! Anyway, we haven't started the construction yet, so we should mobilize the strong laborers in the village to do some work. If they get tired from building the road later, we may not be able to use them.
"Fellow villagers," Luo Xiaoran said in a loud voice, "My logistics team is full of people who can't do anything. Please help chop wood, fetch water, build stoves, and set up pots. I'll give you guys extra meals later!"
Niu Shubao's grandfather was also in Luo Xiaoran's logistics team. Of course, he was willing to endure some hardship himself so that his grandfather could relax a little, so he took the lead in taking out an axe to chop wood.
The others who had elderly parents in Luo Xiaoran's team had the same idea as Niu Shubao and also scattered to work.
As for those whose parents had passed away and who had no relatives in the logistics team, out of respect for Village Chief Zhang and the temptation of Luo Xiaoran's "extra meal", they also started working.
Under the arrangement of Luo Xiaoran and Village Chief Zhang, everyone in Hexi Village started working enthusiastically. Soon they built several earthen stoves and placed big pots on them.
At the same time, Luo Xiaoran led the women and girls in the team to knead dough and steam buns. As for the elderly, she asked them to light the fire in front of the stove. This not only helped them but also allowed them to warm themselves by the fire, killing two birds with one stone.