Chapter 530: Disaster Situation

The few people present all shook their heads like pellet drums; no one knew what was going on, but they had no choice but to continue waiting in the office. Every department had a few such people, and in terms of proportion, the Ministry of Rites naturally had the most, with half of their staff present, so they didn't even notice anything unusual.

Baifeng was in no mood to pay attention to this now. The road was full of people with sorrowful faces, hurrying toward their own fields; no matter what, they all wanted to try and salvage something.

The people from the Ministry of Agriculture had all been dispatched to observe every type of crop and the disaster situation in every area. Geng naturally wasn't with Baifeng; his legs were already covered in mud, and he was draining water out of the rice paddies. If it weren't for the poor visibility at night, he would have started working through the night.

Fortunately, the rice was still in its growth period and hadn't headed yet; even if the leaves were beaten up a bit, the yield wouldn't be reduced too severely this year. As for the wheat, he had already roughly scanned it on the way; rather than focusing on the wheat, it was better to go save the rice, so that the losses could be minimized.

Baifeng wouldn't put on airs about getting dirty at a time like this. He saw a wheat field that had lodged quite severely, so he stepped directly into the field, which was still a layer of silt, to see if there was any possibility of saving the still-green wheat.

The wheat stalks were not yet yellow and were basically still crisp and green, and the wheat had only recently finished filling. This rain was of no help to the continued plumpness of the wheat. The hail had struck the wheat, and many leaves had rotted, but the wheat ears weren't too severely damaged. If this had been wheat that had already turned yellow, last night's rain would have been enough to make Huaxia's investment go completely down the drain.

Baifeng tried to prop up the lodged wheat. After the wheat was propped up, it actually stood steadily. The heart that had been hanging in Baifeng's chest also dropped a little. This type of wheat, which was still somewhat wild, had relatively strong lodging resistance because its stalks were relatively short and very low; the longer the wheat, the lower its lodging resistance.

Others also wanted to follow suit and prop it up, but Baifeng hurriedly stopped them: "Don't come in, otherwise this field will be trampled away by you all. Wait for the sun to shine a bit more, and this wheat should be able to stand up on its own. It's just been beaten a bit hard; a reduction in yield is certain, but it's not considered too bad."

Only then did the group give up on entering the fields, and their gloomy faces finally showed some change. However, there was crying everywhere in the fields, and some people had already started manually propping up the wheat. These people didn't have much experience, so to prevent them from doing more harm than good with their good intentions, Baifeng hurriedly had the Ministry of War organize people to go and spread the word, telling them not to prop it up themselves, as it would be fine once the sun shone on it.

Although the people from the Ministry of War didn't know why this task was handed to them, they went to arrange the manpower without hesitation.

Baifeng took a general look at the dry land and could only say that the grain in these fields this year might see a yield reduction of at least half, and the disaster situation varied from place to place, which was very normal.

Based on Baifeng's own experience in later generations, let alone the same town, even in the same village, the intensity of a rainstorm differed between the bottom of a mountain, the hillside, and the ridge. Perhaps the rain was heavy on the ridge, while at the foot of the mountain it was just a light sprinkle. This community was wiped out by hail, while the next community just had a bit more wind. Now, information didn't flow smoothly, and one could only rely on walking to see. In later generations, with a phone call or a video, it would be crystal clear which family was hit hard and which family was unaffected.

The worst-hit area was the buckwheat field. The leaves were already relatively large, the plants were short, and they grew densely, and it just happened to coincide with the flowering period. After a round of hail, Baifeng took one look and thought, "Forget it, just plow the field over." It was still in time to rush-plant some vegetables; there wouldn't be any harvest of buckwheat this year.

As for the experimental fairy rice, because Baifeng wasn't clear about its vitality or growth cycle, although the leaves had been beaten up a bit, Baifeng didn't think about destroying the field to replant. It was better to wait and see; in any case, the planted area was only that small.

With Geng in the paddy fields, Baifeng was quite at ease, but he still had to go over and take a look. When Baifeng arrived, the accumulated water in the fields had been drained quite a bit, and Geng was still doing it personally while loudly directing everyone to work.

Baifeng looked at the leaves; it shouldn't be a big problem, as they would continue to grow after all. Even if there was a yield reduction, it wouldn't be too much. But Baifeng was afraid that this kind of weather would come in succession. Last night's event showed that the confrontation between cold and warm air currents was quite intense, and with the rain, the ground humidity was high. Not to mention a few days later, it might happen again this afternoon.

As long as it rained twice in a row, the rain would probably be an everyday occurrence. Baifeng's heart didn't relax at all; he only hoped that if it rained, it would just rain, and not hail again.

After a busy day of disaster relief and inspections, the reports from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Agriculture came in one after another. The Ministry of Revenue said that some families had their roof tiles blown off, causing some leaks, which had already been repaired.

The disaster situation in the farmland was almost identical to his own judgment. Geng placed his greatest hope on the soybeans because the soybeans were almost unaffected, and the planting area was large enough; even if other grains were a total failure, just eating beans would be enough to hold out until next year.

Geng even wrote this down. Baifeng truly covered his head and smiled bitterly. Geng, soybeans can be eaten, but you can't just boil them and eat them directly. Bean dregs or roasted beans as snacks are fine, but as a staple food, it's very difficult. I'm afraid that after eating them for a winter, the city of Huaxia would stink to high heaven.

It is precisely because beans are not easy to eat directly that there are a hundred varieties of bean products: tofu, soy milk, bean curd sheets, dried bean curd sticks, bean curd pudding... but this also precisely shows that beans are suitable as a supplement and garnish for a diet, and are not suitable to be used directly as a staple food.

The situation in Lema City was much better. Although there was a rainstorm, the hail was only the size of rice grains and ended after a short while, with almost no disaster damage. This was the best news Baifeng had heard.

In order to prevent panic, Baifeng told everyone to report less of the bad news and more of the good news when issuing announcements, and to say that there was still plenty of grain in the Grain Storehouse.

However, the news sent to Baifeng by the intelligence officer made him somewhat unhappy, because a portion of the people already felt that this was because Baifeng had killed the Bear Priest yesterday, angering the Giant Bear God and bringing down a natural disaster.

Baifeng wanted to explain this kind of thing, but there was no way to explain it. The timing was too coincidental. Let alone ordinary people or even students, I'm afraid that in the entire Huaxia, only Baifeng's family of a few people could understand this, because the subject of Geography was not taught in school at all. Baifeng couldn't even explain the theory that the Earth is a sphere to them, because it would involve a series of problems. There were many things that Baifeng himself couldn't explain, because things that don't follow the laws of Heaven are simply Geography.