The county magistrate observed the situation in the village along the way. Sure enough, as the Yamen servant said, the rice straw was piled into haystacks, and the rice grains were drying in the yards of every household. Some people had already dried the rice and started to bag it.
"If all farmers can achieve this speed, there will be no delay in transplanting new seedlings." The county magistrate sighed.
Qinghe County can grow two crops of rice every year, but some families miss the best planting time because they are too busy.
The subordinate hurriedly responded: "My eldest brother is in Huangshan Village. Yesterday he told me that half of the rice has not been threshed. He has been busy threshing these days. I am afraid that if it rains, it will be difficult to dry."
While talking, I walked to the door of Li Zheng's house and saw Li Zheng limping back from a distance.
"I have met the county magistrate." Li Zheng ran out of breath. When he arrived in front of the county magistrate, he quickly bowed and saluted.
Since Magistrate Liu took office, he has only seen this gentleman three times.
Every time the county magistrate summons them all to lecture them.
After all, this was the first time he had spoken to the county magistrate alone.
I felt very panicked.
"Why, don't you invite us in for a glass of water?" Magistrate Liu spoke first to resolve the embarrassment at hand.
"Please, sir, please come in!"
Li Zheng opened the door, bent down and invited the old man into the house.
Li Zheng's wife also ran back now, boiling water to make tea, and took out the white tea that Li Zheng had treasured for a long time and brewed it.
Magistrate Liu didn't waste any time. After sitting down on the stone bench in the courtyard, he got straight to the point: "I heard that you made something good that can speed up the autumn harvest?"
Hearing these words, Li Zheng's hanging heart finally relaxed from his throat.
"So that's why you're here, sir." He rubbed his hands slightly nervously.
"Our village did make a threshing equipment, but it was not made by me. It was tinkered with by the second son of the Xiao family. It happened that all the villagers in the village had used it and returned it yesterday. If you want to see it, sir, I will Have them send it over.”
"Why bother? I'll go to his house with you, just in time to see the person who made the things."
Hearing this, Li Zheng hurriedly sent someone to Xiao's house to deliver the news, while he took the county magistrate to Xiao's house.
"You just said that this thing was made by the son of the Xiao family? Is he a carpenter?" the county magistrate asked on the way.
"No, no, he is a mountain runner. He usually goes to the mountains to collect some herbs to support his family. I don't know what happened this year, but he suddenly came up with this thing. It is very useful."
While talking, several people had already arrived at the door of Xiao's house.
After Xiao Changhe got the news, he rushed back from the fields with his family and placed the threshing machine in the center of the yard.
The magistrate saw it as soon as he entered the door.
"Is this it?" he asked, pointing to the thresher.
"Yes!" Xiao Jing replied.
As the only scholar in the family, Xiao Jing was pushed out to answer the county magistrate's questions.
When the county magistrate saw that the answer was a child, he asked, "Did you come up with this farm tool?"
"No, it was my second sister-in-law who came up with it!"
It was a woman who came up with this thing?
"Where is your second sister-in-law?" he asked quickly.
"Common woman, see you, sir." Ye Luoxin stood up and gave a slight salute to the county magistrate.
The county magistrate looked at Ye Luoxin. Although she looked delicate and dignified, she still dressed like a peasant woman in the village.
He was slightly disappointed.
He thought it was a young lady from a wealthy family who was in trouble, but it seemed that he was overthinking it.
"How did you come up with the idea of making this farm implement?" he asked.
Ye Luoxin bowed again and said, "Actually, my husband and brother came up with this idea because they felt sorry for us because of our hard work. The woman just put forward an idea. The picture was drawn by my third brother. The farm tools were polished and assembled by my husband. They put this credit on civilian women, but civilian women really don’t dare to take the credit.”
Ye Luoxin doesn't want this credit.
In this era where a woman's lack of talent is considered a virtue, if she, a weak woman, stands out too much, it will cause all kinds of inconveniences.
Besides, she's not strong enough yet to show off.
"Is what she said true? The county magistrate looked at Xiao Jing again.
"Sir, yes." Xiao Jing responded.
The picture was indeed drawn by him, and the farm tools were also made by the second brother.
But it was my sister-in-law who had the idea!
He secretly looked at Ye Luoxin and saw that Ye Luoxin's face was calm and her expression was natural, so he calmed down.
"Can you show me how this thing is threshed?" the county magistrate asked again.
This is a bit difficult.
If the county magistrate had come a few days earlier, this threshing method would have been readily available.
Nowadays, it is not easy to find a handful of unthreshed rice.
"I'm afraid it won't work with rice, but we can use something else instead."
Seeing Xiao Jing in trouble, Ye Luoxin said.
"For what?" Everyone looked at her.
"Just get a handful of barnyard grass from the field. If this thresher can remove the seeds from the barnyard grass, it will definitely be easier to remove the rice grains."
"Sister-in-law is so smart!" Xiao Jing sighed in his heart and went to the field to pull out weeds.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked out of the courtyard, someone had already brought barnyard grass over.
It turned out that when the villagers heard that the county magistrate had arrived at Xiao's house, they all ran over to watch without even caring about the work in the fields.
When I heard that barnyard grass was needed, those with quick feet immediately went to pull out a lot of it.
The county magistrate looked at the scattered barnyard grass seeds, and the joy in his heart became more and more overwhelming.
This is a treasure! He has been an official for so long, but he has never heard that the county made such good farm tools. If he handed over this threshing machine to the prefect, he would have achieved great results this year.
"Li Zheng, are you willing to hand over this farm tool to the county government?"
Li Zheng scratched his head. Being able to make meritorious service in front of the county magistrate was a big deal for him.
But the problem is, he didn't come up with this thing. If you want to borrow flowers to offer to Buddha, it depends on whether Xiao Changhe's family is willing.
Xiao Changhe got a serious look.
He pretended not to see it and turned his head, leaving the decision-making power in Xiao Mu's hands.
Xiao Mu never spoke.
He knew what the county magistrate was thinking, so he said: "It is an honor for the grassroots family to have Ququ farm tools that can attract the attention of adults. However, this thing is also the result of our family's hard work. When making it, we also spent a lot of wood labor." A lot, I don’t know…”
"Bold!" The accompanying Yamen servant shouted loudly, and put his hand on the knife on his waist, "The county magistrate has deigned to come here, humiliate a farmer, and still dare to bargain with the Lord!"
Seeing this posture, the onlookers all exclaimed unconsciously.
The timid one even almost peed.
The second son of the Xiao Changhe family is too courageous, and he dares to make demands of the county magistrate. Now a good thing has turned into a bad thing, and I am afraid he will get into trouble!
"Back off!" Magistrate Liu shouted to his men: "Who allowed you to be so arrogant and domineering!"
After saying that, he turned to look at Xiao Mu again, looked up and down and said: "Of course I can't just take away the farm tools you made with great difficulty. I not only have to compensate you for your wages and materials, but also I commend you! Why don't you tell me how much silver is needed?"
After saying that, he narrowed his eyes and looked at Xiao Mu.
As long as Xiao Mu's asking price is reasonable, it will be worth it even if he pays a few hundred taels of silver.
The villagers did not expect this result.
It turns out that the county magistrate really will give rewards.
All their worries just turned into envy and jealousy. This time, the Xiao family is definitely going to stand up.
If you give him a hundred and eighty taels of silver, it will be enough for several years.
