In July, as the roads between Beihai Town and Fuldan City were about to be connected, a large number of manpower was released from the road construction site. Before many people can take a breath, they have to start preparing for the wheat harvest again.
For this year's wheat harvest, Chen Qingsong led the agricultural department to start preparations one month in advance. Every household in Beihai Town and Fuldan City has entered the state a long time ago. Everyone knows that all the previous hard work and preparations are just for this harvest. The wheat harvest is both a tough battle and a gluttonous festival in Beihai Town.
The agricultural machinery team is inspecting and maintaining equipment every day; due to insufficient equipment, the workshop made a large number of sickles in advance and distributed them to various households; the livestock team, a dozen heavy-duty draft horses and hundreds of Mongolian horses were fed The fat made him fat and strong; the agricultural department also mobilized a large amount of white sugar from the warehouse and asked the women in the cafeteria to make candy cubes to be distributed during the wheat harvest to replenish physical strength.
Zhu Dagui had been sharpening his sickle over and over again all morning. After each time he sharpened it, he felt uneasy again after a while, so he took it out and continued to sharpen it on the whetstone a few more times. He then went out to test the sharpness of the sickle with some grass. He would not stop until he felt that it was comfortable.
His wife silently watched him go back and forth all morning, and she no longer scolded him like she usually did. Every day when the food was ready, she always followed Zhu Dagui to eat first. This tense atmosphere has been spreading for two or three days. Except for the workers in the workshop, everyone else seems to be possessed and indifferent to other things.
Some people from Henan and Shandong still follow the old method and estimate that there are still ten and a half days until the wheat is mature, so they are ready to start plowing the wheat field. They told the clerk of the agricultural group about their idea, and Chen Qingsong quickly agreed after receiving the news. Wheat harvesting needs to be done as quickly as possible. If it can be completed in a day or two, any method will work.
So these people first cut off a piece of wheat on the edge of the field, plowed away the wheat stubble, and then leveled the land cleanly. This piece of land became a wheat field. Because there was no time to make a drum, they used big rocks tied with ropes to pound the ground until the ground in the wheat field was completely compacted, as solid and hard as the old road that had been walked for many years.
For these farmers, the upcoming wheat harvest is more important than the sky falling! Waiting is always the most painful thing. The most feared thing at this time is a strong wind and heavy rain. If the food is not put into the warehouse for a day, it will be uneasy.
At this time, all the preparations have been completed, and we are simply waiting to harvest the wheat. The large canteens in Beihai Town and Fuldan City sent people to set up awnings on the edge of the fields, stacked large tanks of drinking water, and set up stoves to prepare food on the spot.
The impatient hearts were temporarily calmed down, and everyone took every opportunity to rest. At this time, the entire Beihai Town became slightly calmer.
As the old saying goes, "It takes a while for the silkworms to grow, but it takes a while for the wheat to be harvested." This is the case with wheat. In the mature season, it may not be ripe in the morning, but it may be ripe in the afternoon.
As the leader of their residents' group, Zhu Dagui makes almost eight trips a day these days. On the sixth day of July, he went to the fields again after lunch. Looking at the endless waves of golden wheat, Zhu Dagui habitually rubbed an ear of wheat, blew it with his mouth, picked up a grain and threw it into his mouth.
"Is it ripe?" Zhu Dagui was stunned, and then he quickly realized what he was doing. He shouted and ran back, shouting: "The wheat is ripe! The wheat is ripe!"
As the news of the ripe wheat spread more and more widely, the whole Beihai Town suddenly became excited! The originally peaceful residential area was like a wild beast that came to life. Whether they were from the island country, Henan, or Shandong, every man, woman, and even the elderly came out with red eyes and sickles in hand. They walked in groups to the fields they were responsible for, waiting for the person in charge of civil affairs to issue the order to cut the wheat.
Food! After collecting these, I’m afraid I won’t go hungry again this year!
The civil affairs clerks finally arrived. They each held an electric horn and found the block they were responsible for. Facing the people who were rolling up their sleeves and looking like crazy people, they held up the horn and shouted: "Open the cutting!"
boom! Everyone rushed into the fields with sickles in hand to start working.
In the distance, the agricultural machinery unit that had been notified drove out in a 9620RX with a harvesting unit! The roar of the motor attracted the attention of many people.
"Dad, that big green guy came out again. One, two, three, four, four!" Zhu Dagui's wife looked up and exclaimed.
"Hurry up and do your job, no matter what!" Zhu Dagui swung his sickle to cut the wheat without raising his head. Thanks to the food provided during road construction during this period, his physical strength was obviously improved. "Masters, big is better than big, small is better. The weather is getting faster at this time, and it might rain in the night."
"I heard that a few days ago, oh, the clerk said that the machine can harvest, thresh, and winnow out the husks. When it comes out at the end, there will be bags of clean wheat grains."
"You're being pretentious when you say you don't understand, that's called combine harvesting!"
Old people say that women are afraid of confinement and men are afraid of harvesting wheat. Harvesting wheat is definitely not an easy job, but in order to save time, everyone does not care about anything.
In July, the sun is blazing, and the temperature is more than 30 degrees Celsius. People are sweating just standing in the shade of the trees. Zhu Dagui, like many others, simply took off his obstructive coat and worked hard under the scorching afternoon sun; his wife followed behind, tying the cut wheat. Scenes like this can be seen almost everywhere. In every house, men are in front and women are behind.
Harvesting, bundling, reaping, bundling, this kind of action is repeated over and over again, no one even bothers to look up.
At around two o'clock in the afternoon, after receiving the news, Wang Yuanfang and Wu Siyu ordered all battalions to dispatch. Regardless of new recruits or veterans, they crossed the river by boat in company units and joined the looting army.
The school also gave the children a holiday. Many children who did not understand the hard work of harvesting ran to the fields laughing. He followed the adult with a bag and kept picking up some fallen ears of wheat. The sensible ones ran to the awning at the edge of the field, fetched two bowls of cold water and gave them to their parents. The most important thing to do when working in such hot weather is lack of water, otherwise you will definitely suffer from heat stroke.
"Eh~! Why are you here?" Zhu Dagui asked with some reproach as he took the water from his son.
"The teacher asked us to come. He said that by helping with the farm work, he would let us know the hard work of farming and cherish the food." Eight-year-old son Xiaoshun explained with a smile.
"I don't need your help, just study hard for me and become a scholar in the future!"
"What's so good about being a scholar! My husband said that if you learn mathematics, physics and chemistry well, you won't be afraid of traveling all over the world. I will follow the big ship to travel all over the world."
"What?! What's in the book? There can be any gossip in the book, it's all truth! Our old Zhu family is a single generation of three generations, and I hope you will get ahead. If you dare not study hard, I won't be able to beat you to death!"
"I won't tell you anymore, and I can't explain it clearly." Zhu Xiaoshun took the water bowl dissatisfied and asked his mother behind him: "Mom, what are you having for dinner?"
"Eat shit! Are you busy if you don't look at it? Who has the heart to cook!"
While the mother and son were talking, Zhu Xiaoshun saw a civil affairs clerk holding a loudspeaker and shouting as he walked: "Listen! You don't have to go home to cook at night. The big cafeteria has prepared pancakes, rolled meat and oily stalls. Eggs, open them and eat them!”
"Oh!" Zhu Xiaoshun jumped up happily while holding the bowl.
It is said that the biggest difficulty in manually cutting wheat is bending down and manually cutting the wheat stalks with a sickle, which causes back pain and leg cramps. By dusk, many people were too tired to stand up straight. What's more, it took only half a day for a layer of skin to peel off in the sun, and the body was scratched one by one by the wheat leaves, and even the wheat awns were pierced into the flesh. When I stopped, I felt the stinging discomfort, and inadvertently All scratched.
With a mouthful of hot noodle soup and a mouthful of pancake-wrapped meat, Zhu Dagui and his family squatted on the field ridge and ate a very delicious meal. Around them, many people squatted densely, all eating.
While some people were eating, they raised their heads and said to the woman serving dinner in the cafeteria: "Sister-in-law Wanjia, what are you going to eat tomorrow?"
The woman in charge of distributing the food was Wan Zao's wife. She said with a smile: "Stewed venison and white-faced steamed buns. The master gave instructions before he left that we must eat well for everyone."
As soon as he finished speaking, the people around him burst into laughter.
At night, Zhu Dagui and his wife dragged their tired bodies back to the tent with their children. In more than half a day, he harvested less than an acre of land. After the family hurriedly washed up, snoring soon began to sound in the tent.
At this time, in the fields outside Beihai Town, four 9620RXs were still under the light, busy going back and forth in the wheat fields. The four machines harvested a total of forty hectares this afternoon and evening, covering a total of 600 acres of land.
In Beihai Town alone, 5,000 hectares of land have been reclaimed in the past two years; as for Fuldan City, it is more than 1,000 hectares, nearly 20,000 acres. This battle has just begun...
On July 20, the fifty-first year of Qianlong's reign, when Zhao Xin and the others arrived at Flower and Bird Island on the Thunder God at the agreed time, they found that the person waiting for them was not Liu Quan.
"Why didn't Liu Quan come?" Zhao Xin asked strangely, looking at the man in his fifties and of medium build in front of him.
"Your Excellency must be Mr. Zhao. Manager Liu told me about you, and you really have the air of a general!" The old man stroked his beard and smiled, then bowed his hands and saluted. "My surname is Ma and my first name is Ruilin. I am the steward of He Mansion. As for the two people behind me, they are also from He Mansion."
Ma Duanlin, nicknamed Ma Eighty-three, is the third most powerful person in Hefu after Liu Quan and Khushtu. This man was 18 years older than He Shen, and he was scheming. Although he was not as arrogant and unrestrained as Liu Quan and Khushtu in his daily behavior, he was very calculating.
After Ma Ruilin finished speaking, he raised his hand and introduced one of them: "This is Wang Ping, who is responsible for Guangdong affairs in Hefu. This time Mr. Zhao lands in Guangzhou, and he will go with the ship."
This man named Wang Ping is a middle-aged man in his forties, not tall, with a chubby figure and a kind face. He saluted Zhao Xinshen, cupped his hands and said, "I am Wang Ping, from Baoding. Master Zhongtang asked me to accompany you to Guangzhou. Sorry to bother you."
As for another thin man in his thirties, his name is Hu Da, who is also from Baoding.
The three of them, Ma Ruilin, looked at the Thor on the ocean in the distance, feeling extremely shocked. They heard Liu Quan say that there was a big ship in Beihai Town, but they didn't expect it to be so big, like a hill. Moreover, the appearance of this ship is so weird that it doesn’t even look like a human thing.
At this time, Ma Ruilin invited Zhao Xin and others to talk in the banquet tent. After Zhao Xin, Liu Sheng, and Liu Zheng were all seated, Ma Ruilin ordered his men to serve tea and apologized with a smile: "We are short of time, so I hope everyone can say hello." Poor, poor greeting.”
When the tea was served, Zhao Xin continued to ask expressionlessly: "Mr. Ma, you haven't answered my question yet. Why isn't Liu Quan here?"
"Well, it's a long story. A major event happened before I left the capital. Butler Liu had to stay in the capital to deal with it, so Master Zhongtang sent a villain here."
Zhao Xin raised his eyes and glanced at Ma Ruilin, and said calmly: "It must be Cao Xibao."
Ma Ruilin and the others suddenly felt a thump in their hearts, and their expressions changed drastically. They thought, "Why does this person even know about this?" It seems that these rebels must have spies in the capital!
Liu Zheng took a sip of tea, praised "Okay", and then asked strangely: "What is Cao Xibao? What does this have to do with Liu Quan?"
"Mr. Ma, He Zhongtang can ask you to come here instead of Liu Quan. You must be He Zhongtang's confidant. Could you please tell us?" Zhao Xin squinted at Ma Ruilin and the other three, with a smile on his face.
Ma Ruilin thought to himself that this person was really good at tricks, and he calmly controlled the conversation. His tone seemed to be teasing, but he inadvertently hit the point.
He thought for a while and said: "Mr. Zhao is really powerful! This matter was made by Cao Xibao out of thin air with the intention of framing Butler Liu."
Zhao Xin chuckled and said, "Mr. Ma, when did you leave Beijing?"
Ma Ruilin said: "I received the instructions from Master Zhongtang. The three of us took a boat from Tongzhou and went south along the canal. We didn't dare to delay at all. It took a month to get here."
Zhao Xindao: "Oh, that's right. Then before you leave, has there been a big change in the Liu family's mansion on Xinghua Temple Street?"
Ma Ruilin and the other three were shocked, wondering why he even knew about this? It’s only been more than a month! Just as the three of them were doubtful and their expressions were changing, Zhao Xin laughed, cupped his hands and said, "It's just a joke, don't be nervous." After saying that, he motioned to the guards behind him to bring the things over.
"The three of you are here today as promised, so can I consider that from today on, Flower and Bird Island will be used by Beihai Town?"
Ma Ruilin said quickly: "Mr. Zhao, as far as I know, your usage period is only five years."
"Of course. In that case, these things will be given to the three of you as a meeting gift. As for the goods, may I ask, have you brought any money?"
Ma Ruilin was startled by Zhao Xin and felt very uncomfortable. He didn't care to look at the gift, took out an envelope from his arms, and said to Zhao Xin: "The banknotes are in full, where is the goods?"
"Okay! Let the sand ship dock next to our ship, and someone will naturally be responsible for handing over the goods."
"This..." Ma Ruilin looked hesitant, thinking that if you robbed the sand boat, I would have no place to cry.
Zhao Xin patted Liu Zheng beside him on the shoulder and said to Ma Ruilin: "Since Mr. Wang wants to go with the ship, I will ask Mr. Liu to take two guards to your sand ship and accompany you to hand over the goods. "
Ma Ruilin thought that this was all he could do, so he handed it over and said yes.
Liu Zheng hasn't been out for a long time since he last went to Yangzhou. At this time, he was also a little excited. He waved to the two guards, followed Wang Ping and got on the firewood boat, and moved towards the sand boat.
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