Era: Retired from the army at the beginning and returned home - Chapter 19 Buying back grain

Rowan, the father in the room, didn’t just chat. The first thing he did was share peanuts. A small plate of peanuts. It’s really not something you can just reach out and grab if you want to eat. I want to eat as much as I want, but I eat faster than my hand speed.

“Come on, come on, it’s rare for us to get together today. The Chinese New Year has not been so lively in the past two years. Children, they have melon seeds to eat, and we will eat these peanuts. Don’t underestimate these peanuts. This is not the same as ours.” The peanuts I roasted before were different, Nariko brought them from the army, and ordinary people can’t eat peanuts like this.”

Rowan said with a smile, also showing off his son’s abilities. He directly divided the peanuts into twenty, and he actually counted them one by one in front of Luo Cheng’s uncle and uncle. Others didn’t think there was anything wrong with it, and it wasn’t so much that they could eat whatever they wanted. They counted the points and didn’t feel embarrassed.

The content of their chat was, first of all, they were complaining about the harvest problems in the fields in the past two years. The harvest was not good. The superiors also requested support for the north, and the amount of public grain handed over did not decrease.

Then the person we talked about was Luo Cheng. This time we got together, it was originally because Luo Cheng came back from the army. When talking about his son, Luo Wen also satisfied his vanity. Being an uncle and an uncle are both compliments, but because he is uneducated, he always comes and goes with the same words, he is promising, he is great, The main thing was the tone and look of his words, which were sincere and serious, not just a few polite words of flattery, which made Rowan, as a father, more satisfied than anything else.

“Nationwide food stamps, you haven’t seen them before, right? These are amazing things, they are worth more than money. They are rare items in the city. People in the city eat commercial grain. You know, right? They are worth every month.” There are rations. You can receive as much fine or coarse grain as you want each month. But that is also strictly regulated, and you can buy whatever you want with the national food stamps. Guess how much food you can buy with a fifty-pound national food stamp. “

After finishing this conversation, we naturally have to return to today’s final theme – food. But talking about the food, what happened in the morning really shocked Luo Wen. To be honest, living in such a big life, when I was a child before liberation, I didn’t have food stamps to buy food.

After the introduction of food stamps, it was actually difficult for farmers to obtain this. Farmers who grew their own grain did not have food stamps. This is the current situation in this era. So to be honest, today’s food purchase was the first time Luo Wen went to the grain station to buy food. In the past, when his family was short of food, he would borrow it from relatives or get some on credit from the brigade.

In the past, when the harvest was good, some money would be given at the end of the year, and with this money they could buy grain. Everyone had a standard, the amount was not much, and they had to register with the brigade. This kind of grain they can buy is called buy-back grain, which is only available when the harvest is good.

If the harvest is good, everyone will occasionally send some money and buy daily necessities, salt and oil. How can they buy back grain? But now the harvest is not good, there is no such thing as buying back grain, and farmers can’t keep any money at home. The rich also went to the pigeon market to buy some high-priced food.

Policies have been implemented to buy back grain, but few farmers actually use it. Even if you have the standards, you still have to apply for this, but farmers at the end of this year are illiterate and have to apply in advance. The result is that even if the village chief or people in the brigade say it, no one remembers it. I don’t know how to buy food either.

But if you say that the grain purchased this time is really useless, then you are wrong again. Even when the harvest is good, rural people can only eat some dry grain at most, and there is no situation where they can eat freely.

If the harvest is good in the future, let’s use Luo Cheng as an example. If he has cash, he can ask his family to go to the brigade to apply for a buyback of grain. Although it is not much, it is grain that does not require food stamps.

Especially after Luo Cheng really joined the work, the grain harvest was good, and he could buy repurchased grain twice a year in the south. It is impossible for people in this city to eat fine grain every day, but if there is repurchased grain, others are reluctant to eat it, but Luo Cheng is willing to do so.

His father, Luo Wen, was trying to make excuses, and the others were cooperating, mainly because they really wanted to know how much food a fifty-pound national food stamp could be exchanged for. They all know that food stamps are very important, but they are too difficult to obtain. There is a breakfast shop in the town, and you can’t buy it even if you have money and no tickets. Being able to have breakfast at the breakfast shop is enough to brag about. Not to mention these fifty kilograms of food stamps.

One hundred and fifty kilograms of sweet potatoes, one hundred kilograms of corn noodles, and the rest also bought some other types of grains.

The stick noodles have been poured into the vat. Luo Cheng’s family has a rice vat, which was passed down from his grandfather when he was still alive. Although it is old, it is very thick and practical. Even if it has not been filled in the past two years, it is impossible to distribute rations to the brigade simply by giving out one kind of ration.

Therefore, even during the food distribution period, the Luo Cheng family’s rice vat was never full. You can’t mix all kinds of grains.

The sweet potatoes are placed in the firewood shed where Luo Bing lives. Even if more than half of them are given to his uncles and aunts later, I plan to put the sweet potatoes there. Luo Bing will have them there at night, so they are safe. There are no worries about mice or anything like that in the woodshed. Of course, it doesn’t mean that he is not afraid of rats. If there are rats, Luo Bing will be even more excited. Maybe he can eat meat for once.

After hearing the numbers Luo Wen said, although sweet potatoes are not hungry and have a lot of water, they are also a life-saving food at this time. There are about two hundred and fifty kilograms in total. Seeing what the elder brother wants, he will give a lot to them to help them.

Although he didn’t say it explicitly, when Luo Bing called them to come, he asked them to bring cloth bags, so this needed to be said directly. It’s just that the size of a cloth bag and how much it can hold. It seems that each family has their own ideas.

“When I bought it, I didn’t know that I could buy so much. When we went there today, we only brought a few small cloth bags. After dinner, I have discussed it with your sister-in-law, and each of you will bring ten kilograms of stick noodles. Go with twenty pounds of sweet potatoes. This way your life will be easier, and this is all the result of your nephews and nephews. You must remember this.”

“Brother, what you said is that Luo Cheng is his nephew and nephew. Even if nothing happens today, if he comes to us for something, it won’t be a matter of a word.”

Hearing Luo Wen’s words, uncle Luo Wu responded that this is also true. The relationship between relatives in this era is more important than that in later generations. Human nature is also simple. If a nephew is in trouble and seeks help, it is one thing not to be able to help. But if he is able to help but fails to help, he will really be stabbed in the back.

To put it cruelly, in this famine year, it was this kind of simplicity that killed many people. Before a famine, there were always some people who were slightly richer and had some food reserves. But just because of the help, others did not help, and the family fell into a situation of insufficient food.

In the end, it is very likely that my family will barely be able to survive without helping their relatives. And because they helped their relatives, the famine continued after the relatives had eaten the food, and then they all starved to death.

Two chapters a day, delivered on time, but the brothers are becoming more and more stingy with their recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Don’t rush to update. You need to catch up on the data on Tuesday, so save it for that day to update. I also save manuscripts as I write and send them out, and occasionally save a little bit.