Describes a state of extreme poverty and hardship, where basic necessities like firewood and rice become exceedingly scarce and precious, comparable to rare cassia wood and gold due to their high cost or unavailability.
在那段饥荒岁月里，对于村民来说，每一粒米都珍贵如金，每一捆柴都稀有如桂，真是薪桂米金的境地。
During those famine-stricken years, for the villagers, every grain of rice was as precious as gold, and every bundle of firewood was as rare as cassia wood, truly a situation of extreme poverty.
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