The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure
Chapter 306 Drought Situation

Chapter 306: Chapter 306 Drought Situation

Early the next morning, when Wang Yongping opened the courtyard door, he saw that the ground outside his family’s courtyard had been swept clean. The pile of straw near the firewood stack was still there, but Lady Lin was nowhere to be seen.

Wang Yongping thought Lady Lin had already left. Looking at the sky, no one had slept well last night after the disturbance she caused.

He got up a bit late today; by this time, he would normally have gone to the fields. Since the beginning of summer, it had not rained for many days. Even the river at the edge of the village had halved in water level, revealing large stretches of the riverbed.

Now, as the rice was about to tassel and flower, it was the critical time for irrigation. If there was no water in the fields, the harvest would drastically decrease.

For the past few days, Wang Laozhu had been so worried that he had no mind for anything else, his whole focus was on the fields.

When Wang Yongping got up and did not see Wang Laozhu, he guessed that he had gone to the paddy fields and so got ready to leave the house.

He had not walked far when he ran into an acquaintance who teased him with a wink, "I say, Wang Laosi, has your elder brother made up with Lady Lin again?"

Wang Yongping glared, "What nonsense are you spouting? When did my elder brother ever plan to make up with Lady Lin? That’s not happening. Stop blathering, or else be careful of my fist—"

"Cut it out, why pretend? If he hasn’t made up with her, why is she busy working in your Wang Family’s fields early in the morning?"

Wang Yongping was stunned and, realizing something, he ran towards his family’s fields.

The Wang Family’s paddy fields were situated in a lower area. Although it had not rained for quite some time, the water in the fields had mostly evaporated, leaving only a layer of soft, soggy mud.

The irrigation of these fields depended on a ditch beside the river. With the river water level lowered, only muddy sludge remained in the ditch.

From a distance, he saw a frail figure struggling to operate a waterwheel, strenuously trying to pump the murky mud into the Wang Family’s fields.

In the past few days, several water wheels had been erected over the ditch for the family’s fields. But they were not enough. Only at night could they barely soak some water from the river to the ditch, and before dawn, they had to race to pump even a little water into the fields to prevent them from drying out.

Without a second glance, he knew it was Lady Lin. She must have come in the middle of the night. The Wang Family’s fields had a good deal of muddy water, and with the moisture, their own rice plants looked more spirited.

Wang Yongping paused, then took a few steps forward and approached the waterwheel, "Our Wang Family’s fields are naturally our Wang Family’s responsibility. You needn’t trouble yourself!"

Lady Lin did not argue. Seeing that Wang Yongping had come, she didn’t linger; she wiped her sweat, kept her head down, did not return to the village, and headed straight to the mountain.

Wang Yongping opened his mouth to ask what she was up to but held back.

Since Lady Lin had already done the most crucial task of water pumping, Wang Yongping checked the paddy fields once more before returning home for breakfast.

At the breakfast table, he couldn’t help but discuss Lady Lin’s actions that morning.

The others didn’t react much, but Jindou and Jinhoo looked at each other and slowed their pace of eating.

Wang Yongzhu swept her eyes across them and knew what the brothers were thinking. However, she pretended not to notice and looked towards Wang Yongfu.

Wang Yongfu’s expression was placid, "Let her be. It’s just a ploy of endurance on her part. As long as we ignore her, she probably won’t last a few days and will leave."

With Wang Yongfu being so clear-headed, it was even less necessary for others to interfere.

In the following days, Lady Lin would go up the mountain during the day to look for food and return at night to huddle in the straw pile at the Wang Family’s doorway. She helped pump water for the Wang Family in the middle of the night, and when free, she would weed the fields. Whenever she found some rare fruits in the mountains, she would wash them clean, wrap them in leaves, and leave them at the entrance of the Wang Family’s courtyard.

With Wang Yongfu’s stance, the Wang Family acted as if they did not see Lady Lin.

Apart from Jindou and Jinhoo saving a bit of their daily ration to take to Lady Lin each day, they never spoke another word.

The villagers saw it as a joke, and some idle people even gambled on how long Lady Lin could hold out. They were curious whether the Wang Family would be unable to bear Lady Lin’s persistent pleas or if Lady Lin would give up and leave on her own accord.

But after just a few days, the villagers no longer had the interest to bother with such trivial family matters.

As the days grew hotter with not a drop of rain, even the low-lying paddies had stopped receiving water.

The high-ground fields were crackling open.

For the peasant families, there were only two harvests a year, and the whole household depended on this for survival. If conditions remained dry, there would likely be no harvest this year.

Now the most important thing for all the neighboring villages was drought resistance.

Qilidun, which lay next to Dahei Mountain, had the advantage of a river flowing by, and its situation was relatively better. Villages without a river were said to rely on people carrying water to irrigate the fields.

But this was merely a drop in the bucket, futile in the grand scheme of things.

In the past ten years, Qilidun had never experienced such a severe drought. There had been minor droughts, but the whole village would unite to divert water, ensuring that their fields had enough water stored up in the paddies.

This year, with the situation growing dire, the Lizheng had been restless, consulting with the heads of several families and respected elders about whether it was time to fight for water.

Especially since they heard that the upstream villages, which originally had just enough water, were now fearing that they wouldn’t have enough for themselves, so they built a dam across the river to hold the water back. This meant that in the past few days, the downstream water flow had decreased even more.

Once this news spread, Qilidun was up in arms. Blocking the river was akin to a heinous act that cut off their lifeline.

If the upstream villages had enough water, what about those in the middle and downstream?

After arguing all morning, the Lizheng and a few Clan Leaders decided to seize the water!

They planned to go to the newly-built dam upstream under cover of darkness, to dismantle it, and let the water flow down.

They also had to follow the upstream villages’ example by building a dam after the river passed through Qilidun to retain the water. After securing enough water for the paddies in Qilidun, they would then release the water downstream.

Once the plan was set, they started assigning tasks.

In previous years during minor droughts, Wang Yongping, who was strong and fierce, was always one of the village’s main men to break the dams and fight with the young men from the upstream villages in the struggle for water.

He and the other able-bodied young men were responsible for ensuring the water reached their village.

Lady Lin and Wang Yongfu were in charge of securing water for their own paddies. Once the water reached the village, each household had to race against time, digging through their dikes to direct the water into their fields.

They also had to guard against people from downstream who might breach their fields’ dikes to divert the water to their own fields.

These were all grueling physical tasks, extremely demanding. Each night they had to guard the dikes, fearing that others might steal the water in their fields.

But this year, the Wang Family Patriarch arranged for Wang Yongping to do the same as in previous years. And even though Wang Yongfu was not yet able to do heavy work in the fields, he could patrol the dikes to prevent water theft.

As for the task of digging trenches and guarding the water directed into their own fields, it fell to Wang Laozhu, leading Jindou and Jinhoo.