Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 598 Snow Disaster

If the oxen cannot survive this period due to lack of fodder, it will be a big problem for the Ministry of Households to reclaim the wasteland later.

Moreover, even if the oxen finally made it to spring, they would have lost their original youthful strength due to the lack of fodder. A heavy snow would make them no longer have the strength to plow the fields, and the loss would be huge.

So he hurriedly went to find Magistrate Zou and wanted to transfer some forage from the county government office. However, there was not much forage left at the county government office, so he managed to scrape together 11 mule carts of forage to send.

In just a few days, Minister Zhang will become bald.

After hearing Rong Jin's news, Hua Lei thought for a moment, then went to find Uncle Zhongsheng to learn about the fodder in her own rabbit farm.

The news was that the fodder in the rabbit farm was more than enough to last for another five or six months, and there was still a lot left. In addition, there was also a lot of fodder behind Pei Jingyang's house.

Because when they exchanged land with the people who were reclaiming the wasteland years ago, many of them exchanged it for the most easily available weeds next to the wasteland.

Each person brought a handful of grass a day, and when added up, it was a huge amount of weeds. Moreover, these people were grateful for Hualei's kindness, and the grass they sent was very sufficient.

Years ago, Uncle Zhongsheng heard Hualei and Pei Jingyang talk about opening a horse farm the following year, so he thought that these fodders might be useful.

So they picked out and selected the fodder suitable for cattle, sheep and rabbits, dried them well, and stored them in the warehouse of the rabbit farm.

Later, because there was too much hay to pile, they built a lot of thatched sheds with straw against the wall and piled the hay there. There were more than 30 hay piles. One hay pile could hold 12 or 13 mule carts.

After getting the exact news, Hua Lei and Rong Jin went to the county government office together and found Minister Zhang. They told him the news that they had fodder at home and asked him to send someone to the rabbit farm to get it at any time.

Maybe it is impossible to save all the cattle and sheep in Daniu Village, but the farming cattle of the Ministry of Households should be fine. Moreover, the dogtail grass seeds that I collected years ago can also be cooked to supplement the nutrients for the cattle.

When the situation is desperate, the herders can also be fed to fill their stomachs. Grind the dogtail grass seeds, remove the skin, and cook them into porridge. It tastes similar to millet porridge. Although it is not as delicious as rice and flour, it can fill their stomachs and help them get through the snowstorm.

When Minister Zhang heard this, he was overjoyed and said repeatedly that Hua Lei had done a great job. Moreover, the Ministry of Revenue would pay for the purchase at the market price and would never take Hua Lei's things for free.

The next day, the personnel temporarily assigned by Minister Zhang arrived at Hualei's rabbit farm and began to transport fodder to Nanping Village. Rong Jin, Rong Yu, Jiang Yunqi and other skilled people were temporarily transferred to help.

The Ministry of Revenue's oxen problem has finally been solved. As for the wheat covered by snow, it remains to be seen what happens next. Minister Zhang is relieved for the time being.

However, after a few days, the heavy snow continued to fall, with no sign of stopping. More serious problems caused by the heavy snow also followed.

Although Minister Zhang and Minister Li had asked Magistrate Zou to notify everyone a few days ago, they had also sent people to the villages under the county seat.

People were advised to clean the snow off their roofs to prevent them from collapsing and causing injuries. However, this problem still inevitably occurred.

Due to the heavy snow, several surrounding counties were all affected. In Mobei County, there were ten villages where houses were crushed and collapsed.

Especially in some poor villages, more houses collapsed. In the poorest village of Nanxi, there are more than 50 households in the village, and more than 40 households have their houses collapsed.

Some elderly people and children were crushed or frostbitten, and many people fell or were injured. In the neighboring Nan'an Village, many houses also collapsed.

The damage to other villages was also not negligible, with deaths in several villages. Moreover, because houses collapsed, the limited rice in people's homes was also covered by snow, and many people had no food to eat.

Mobei was hit by a severe snowstorm that was rarely seen in ten years.

As a result, all officials who were on leave returned to work and began disaster relief activities. The lantern dance and lantern riddle guessing activities originally scheduled for the 15th day of the first lunar month were also cancelled.

Minister Li of the Ministry of Works has already sent personnel from the Ministry to Nanxi Village to begin rescuing the people trapped in the snow and ice.

Pei Jingyang has also brought a group of troops from the military camp to join the ranks of rescuing the trapped people.

County Magistrate Zou also began to transfer personnel within the county government. Even the stronger women who could be transferred were basically transferred away.

Mobei County was preparing to open its granary to provide relief to the people affected by the disaster. Hualei was also left in the county government office to help with the paperwork for the incoming and outgoing supplies.

In the evening of the next day, the first group of homeless people were brought to the town. Those who were crushed or frostbitten were all sent to several clinics in the town for treatment.

The clinic was short of staff, so Hualei asked Doctor Xiao Xu to go to the clinic to help. The other uninjured people were sent to Diwozi Village in the northern part of the city in batches.

Because many of the people who had reclaimed the wasteland had gone home to celebrate the New Year before the Lunar New Year, many of the dugouts were empty. Therefore, many of the people affected by the disaster were crammed into each dugout.

However, as time went on, heavy snow and accumulated snow caused more and more houses to collapse in other villages. More and more people were affected, and there were not enough places to live.

Earlier, because of the New Year, all the prisoners who originally lived in Diwozi Village were temporarily sent to the county government’s prison to be guarded together.

Now, the jail cells in the county government were also overcrowded, and people basically had to sleep next to each other. However, the dugout they had lived in when they were reclaiming the land was now empty.

So, another group of people were sent to the dugouts originally dug by the prisoners, where they lived crowded and next to each other.

However, in the end, there were still more than 2,100 people left, trapped in the ice and snow, because there was no place to stand in any of the dugouts.

There was no other choice, so Minister Li and Minister Zhang mobilized several wealthy families in the town to help resettle some of the people on their own farms.

Many people also moved into a separate courtyard of the wealthy Xu family. This solved the problem for more than a thousand people. There were still nearly a thousand people who had no place to live.

Hua Lei looked at the people shivering in the snow and ice, and asked Uncle Zhao, Uncle Zhongsheng and others to take out the oilcloth that had been delivered this year from their warehouse.