Chapter 37: Sharing Sweet Potatoes

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"Oh, I'm not talking about that. What I mean is, many teams this autumn don't have enough grain, and we've harvested so many sweet potatoes. I'm worried that higher-ups will make us contribute surplus grain."

"Contribute surplus grain? Didn't we already contribute enough for the summer grain? Our late rice crop hasn't even been harvested yet. Besides, we've never had to contribute sweet potatoes in previous years," Long Jiusheng said, puzzled.

"We didn't have to contribute sweet potatoes in previous years because we didn't face such disasters," Long Wanqiu felt that Long Jiusheng was still a bit inexperienced, only looking at past years and not the current situation.

"So, what should we do?"

Long Jiusheng remembered that in the first half of the year, they had clearly reduced production, but they were pressured by Zeng Shuji to report a major disaster year with guaranteed crop yields, leaving him uncertain.

If the higher-ups really demanded their production team to contribute grain, it would be difficult for them to bear. But if they did contribute, their team members would have no food to eat.

"It's better to distribute it early," Long Wanqiu suggested.

Since last summer, the production team had been eating at the large canteen, so they naturally didn't think of distributing sweet potatoes.

Yes, if they distributed the sweet potatoes directly, even if the higher-ups demanded contributions, they wouldn't have to worry about not being able to provide grain. The members of the production team would take care of their own emergency food.

Indeed, experience counts for a lot. But would this be considered an act against the higher-ups?

"Alright, I'll have the accountant calculate it tomorrow. We'll keep the sweet potatoes we used in the large canteen and the seeds, and distribute the rest," Long Jiusheng said.

The accountant's calculations were completed. Longtou Village had a total of 722 mu of paddy fields and 181 mu of dry land. This autumn, they planted sweet potatoes on 460 mu of paddy fields and 63 mu of dry land, harvesting over 1,569,000 jin (Chinese units) of sweet potatoes.

In fact, they had planted sweet potatoes in the past, but the yield wasn't as high as this year. This year, they used sweet potato seedlings stimulated by Tang Ailian's well water, which was much better in terms of yield.

Long Jiusheng decided to distribute one million jin of sweet potatoes to the households, keep over 60,000 jin for planting, and retain 500,000 jin for the large canteen's supply this year.

Sweet potatoes were different from rice. A person could eat one jin of rice per day to be full, but if they ate sweet potatoes, they would need to consume half a jin or even a whole jin for one meal. The Longtou Production Team had 683 people, so if each person consumed two jin of sweet potatoes per day, they would need 1,366 jin per day, or 40,000 jin per month. This calculation didn't even account for chickens, ducks, pigs, and cattle.

Half a million jin of sweet potatoes could only last them until the end of the year.

Of course, Long Jiusheng also left himself a way out. If the commune required them to contribute public grain, they would take it from these 500,000 jin of sweet potatoes. They also had some early rice, which could be kept for consumption next year. According to Tang Ailian's prediction, next year would also be a year of severe drought, and who knew if there would be such a large sweet potato harvest next year?

Households still had a million jin of sweet potatoes. Even if they didn't harvest any grain all year, a million jin of sweet potatoes would be enough for the whole village to eat until the next summer harvest.

"Let's distribute the sweet potatoes, everyone line up for the distribution."

"Quick, help me bring a basket to line up."

"My dustpan, help me get in line with one."

In rural areas, when distributing goods, people didn't typically stand in line themselves; instead, they used tools to line up. The entire Longtou Village was buzzing with excitement. Everyone was so thrilled that it felt like a festival, as they brought various containers to collect their share of sweet potatoes.

The distribution of sweet potatoes followed the same system as the distribution of rice in the past, with half allocated per capita and half based on work contributions. It took three full days for Long Jiusheng to finally distribute the one million jin of sweet potatoes to the members.

Upon learning that there might be another severe drought next year, the members were anxious. They all knew that apart from their production team, most other teams hadn't harvested enough grain this year, and they were afraid that the grain they had collected would be taken away by higher-ups, leaving them with nothing to eat.

So, even though they had a bountiful harvest of sweet potatoes, their hearts were still uneasy. But now, with a large quantity of sweet potatoes distributed, and food in their hands, everyone's worries finally subsided.

Unfortunately, they had relaxed too soon.

Tang Ailian's family received almost 10,000 jin of sweet potatoes, and several people spent an entire day carrying them back. Tang's elderly lady decided to use one-third to make dried sweet potatoes, spread one-third unwashed directly on the floor in the back room, covered with sand to keep them fresh. The remaining one-third was washed and air-dried on the upstairs floor, which would be consumed immediately.

(End of this chapter)