The wealthy businessman in Baiyun Town is Qian Hui's brother-in-law. The Qian family is also a businessman and has a small reputation.
Qian Hui personally ordered the people below to quickly handle the matter, and a very compliant Shi Yu appeared in the yard of Cheng Wanwan's house.
Cheng Wanwan called Zhao Sidan: "Go to Uncle Da's house and ask him to lend the cow to our family for use. Then we will lend the stone roller to Uncle Da."
Zhao Sidan went to do it immediately.
Once you have the stone roller, the oxen, and the rope, the stone roller tool is ready.
Let Zhao Sidan lead the cow around the field, and the rice crushed by the stone roller will be threshed quickly, which is much easier than human labor.
Many people from Dahe Village came to watch the fun.
"This stone roller is so well made. I also went to the mountain to find a stone and asked someone to help make it look like this."
"It's not hard to find stones, but it's hard to find a stonemason. Even if we find a stonemason, it's hard for us to pay for it."
"Have you forgotten that the price of food is soaring now? A pound of grain can be sold for twenty or thirty cents. We use grain as wages. There is no way that the masons will not want it. Four or five families can chip in. Each family should pay two or three pounds. enough."
"Stop talking, I have to go to the mountain quickly to find round stones!"
Since the autumn harvest was still in progress, the adults continued to work in the fields and asked the children to look for stones. When they found the stones, the adults in the family were asked to carry the stones.
Cheng Wanwan's family's stone rollers were ordered by Zhao Da, Lao Zhao's family, and the Wang family next door, and even the food was delivered in advance.
Everyone was praising the county magistrate's son.
"Master Shen solved a big problem for us as soon as he came here."
"As expected of the county magistrate's son, he has such a flexible mind. We old farmers never thought that he could be like this."
"You old guys have never even seen a carriage a few times. How can you think of making stones into wheels? It's normal that you can't think of it."
"..."
Shen Zheng puffed up his chest: "My contribution is not small, Aunt Zhao, please remember to say a few more good words to me in front of my father, so that I can go home early."
Cheng Wanwan smiled and said: "When the autumn harvest is over, I will take you back in person. Don't worry, I will praise you well."
In the next few days, it will still be busy autumn harvest.
On the sixth day, all the grain in the fields was finally harvested. At the same time, with the help of stone rollers, the rice threshing work was also completed.
The stone roller was borrowed by others and continued to function.
Cheng Wanwan took his family to shell the rice, which was another task that tested his patience.
The previously threshed rice is first dusted and then put into a container and pounded with a mallet. The friction between the wooden pestle and the stone mortar can remove the thin outer layer.
Rice has two layers. The first layer is the husk. The separated husk is usually used to ignite fire and is easy to burn.
The separated second layer is called bran, which is used to feed pigs in modern society. However, in order to enrich the nutrition of modern pigs, most pig farms have abandoned the use of rice bran as feed. In ancient times, there was a lack of food, so the bran would be ground into powder and mixed with Add it to the flour and eat it together. The "bran" in eating bran-pharyngeal vegetables refers to this layer of bran skin.
The rice did not grow well this year and the rice grains were not full enough. After shelling one hundred kilograms of rice, only about fifty or sixty kilograms were left. After the family paid the tax, there were still more than nine hundred kilograms of rice left. After all the shells were shelled, they finally got rid of it. The amount they brought was about five hundred kilograms. Their family’s yield per mu was relatively high in Dahe Village, while other families had very little grain.
In the next six months, each household in the village relied on these few hundred kilograms of rice for food and clothing. They sold the rice for cloth, bought oil and salt, and saved money for medicine...
Cheng Wanwan sat in the air vent on the edge of the house, with a dustpan in front of him, lifting the brown rice. The wind blew away the outer shell, and what was left was brown rice, which had to be ground again.
This work needs to be repeated over and over again until all the shells are blown away by the wind.
Her arms were sore, but she couldn't stop.
She really wanted to buy a special threshing and shelling tool from the mall, but the thing was too big, and even if she could afford it, she wouldn't dare to take it out.
I can only accept my fate and continue working.
After eight or nine days of intense work, her mind could no longer think clearly.
It wasn't until raindrops fell on her face that she suddenly woke up. She looked up and saw that the sky, which had been clear just a moment ago, suddenly started to rain.
"It's raining!"
"I haven't seen rain in two or three months!"
“The rain feels so good on my body!”
"People can get wet in the rain, but rice can't. Hurry, harvest the rice!"
"..."
The village was in chaos, and Cheng Wanwan quickly asked the children to collect all the rice in the yard.
The late summer raindrops pattered on the roof, dripped down the reed poles, and fell on the ground, making a small pit. The rain became more and more, and the pit on the ground became larger and larger. Slowly, the small pit turned into There was a big pit where a lot of rainwater accumulated. Chickens, ducks and geese were chirping non-stop. Wolves and dogs were running around in the yard. Then they squatted under the eaves to watch the rain. From time to time, their tongues would stick out and roll a few drops of rainwater into their mouths. .
Cheng Wanwan stood at the door and looked at the fields. A rain filled the dry fields.
Regeneration rice needs water exactly when it needs water. Only when it has water can it turn green, and only when it turns green can it sprout tillers. She was worrying about how to convince Li Zheng to open a canal to irrigate the fields. At this time, it started to rain. God help her. If she waits a little longer, In a few days, there should be changes in the fields.
"No, it's leaking!"
Shen Zheng suddenly exclaimed and jumped up quickly.
In the middle of the main room, raindrops fell one drop at a time along the reed poles, falling right on Shen Zheng's head.
Cheng Zhao said quietly: "It also leaks here."
Not only in these two places, but also near the bedroom, there were raindrops falling.
Cheng Wanwan finally experienced what it meant to rain heavily outside and light rain inside.
The ground was covered with mud. After the rain, the mud turned into a soup and became wet. Cheng Zhao, Shen Zheng and Ah Fu probably wouldn't have anywhere to sleep tonight.
Zhao Dashan coughed and said: "When it rained in the spring, I took note of the location of the leak, but then I was so busy that I forgot about it. When the rain stopped, I repaired the roof."
Cheng Wanwan nodded. The roof did need to be repaired, but building a house also had to be put on the agenda.
The rain had subsided, and someone came to the yard. It was Mrs. Zhao.
The old lady walked in, found a clean place to sit down, and asked, "I'm going to the town tomorrow to sell some food. Boss and wife, do you want to go with me?"
Cheng Wanwan didn't want to sell food, but she just followed the locals, and she didn't want to be too out of the ordinary, so she asked: "How much will it cost?"
Old Mrs. Zhao said: "After paying the tax, there is not much left. I sell one or two hundred kilograms to keep some money on hand for emergencies. The rest will be replaced with cheap old rice and corn. It will not be a big problem until the spring harvest. "
Shen Zheng didn't say anything. In the past, he would have asked why he had to exchange new rice for old rice. The new rice was delicious, but the old rice was a little black and moldy and difficult to eat... But now he understood that the harvest in the field was too high. If the family ate normally, they would never be able to eat enough for tomorrow's spring harvest, but if they replaced it with old rice and corn, they would be able to eat for a while longer.
If he had not come to Dahe Village, he would never have known that the rice farmers could not afford to eat white rice.
After the old lady talked about the food, she took out a small bib from her sleeve: "This is the bib that Xia Hua girl sewed with rags. It is said to be for the baby in Dashan's wife's belly. Look, Look at this embroidery work, how does it look?"
Cheng Wanwan took a look and was a little surprised. He didn't expect that Xia Hua's rough hands could embroider such a delicate bib.
She smiled and said: "Aren't you going to town tomorrow? I just want to take it to the embroidery workshop and ask if it's worth a few copper coins. Xia Hua can make a living specifically in the future."
After receiving Cheng Wanwan's affirmation, the old lady felt relieved. She didn't know when, but she began to pay special attention to the opinion of the eldest daughter-in-law. If the eldest daughter-in-law said there was no problem, then there would definitely be no big problem.
