After breakfast, almost all the villagers went out to the fields. Those carrying sickles carried sickles, those carrying rice barrels, and those carrying baskets. Everyone went to the fields together.
When they got to the end of the field, they saw that the prefect was earlier than them and was already waiting.
Seeing the villagers coming, Lin Yuanqiu, who was holding a rare gong in his hand, did not delay. After telling everyone to harvest carefully, he rang the gong to start harvesting grain.
Lin Yuanqiu specially brought this gong from the government office.
It is said that drumming before a war is very powerful.
In his heart, Lin Yuanqiu was preparing to fight today's harvest as a big battle for a good harvest.
By the way, this is the first time that the villagers have to beat gongs to cut rice, not to mention that the person who beats the gongs is the prefect.
Therefore, the villagers who were inspired by the sound of the gong bent down one by one with sickles and quickly harvested the rice.
Because the weight must be measured on site today, every household is harvesting and pounding the grains into rice barrels.
Looking at the heavy ears of grain, Lao Lintou couldn't help it anymore. He rolled up his cuffs and trousers and got down to the ground. Seeing this, the villagers hurriedly said they couldn't do it.
Old Lintou thought to himself that there was nothing he couldn't do, and he was not a wealthy person. Seeing the villagers accompanying them carefully, Old Lintou smiled and said, "What can't be done? Counting three generations up, who's family doesn't grow from the fields?" It is harvested from ground food. Before my grandson became an official, I, the old man, was also an expert at farming."
As he spoke, Old Lintou took the sickle and quickly harvested the rice. This skillful movement showed that he was used to farm work.
Seeing his father get off the ground, Lin Sanzhu hurriedly rolled up his sleeves and trousers and followed him to do something. Help dad carry handfuls of cut rice to the pile of ears.
Lin Sanzhu can be sure that if he makes his father tired today, when he gets home, his mother will definitely hit him with a big broom.
The first person to call for weighing was Zhang Lizheng's family. In order to win today's top spot, Zhang Lizheng not only mobilized his whole family, but also invited five or six relatives living in other villages. No, the more people there are, the faster it goes. It only took an hour to collect all the rice in an acre of land, including cutting and threshing.
Several of his grandchildren and granddaughters were still searching the harvested fields to see if there were any fallen ears of rice.
When other villagers saw it, they also called their children to quickly pick up rice ears. These are all grains, it would be a pity if they fell into the ground.
Seeing more than a dozen bags of rice packed in sacks, Lin Yuanqiu was as excited and nervous as Zhang Lizheng.
Logically speaking, such a sack of rice must weigh more than forty kilograms, but now there are twelve sacks, which means it weighs four to five hundred kilograms.
Thinking of this, Lin Yuanqiu's head suddenly went blank for a moment.
If I remember correctly, the original rice yield from one acre of land was around three hundred kilograms at most.
So it must be a lot better this time, right?
Several yamen cadres were quick and quick, and they quickly carried the big scale used by the government to collect grain taxes and began to weigh the bags one by one.
The first bag was forty-six kilograms, the second bag was forty-two kilograms, and the third bag was forty kilograms. The officials weighed and reported the numbers loudly, while the clerk on the side took a writing brush and entered the book one by one. weight.
The villagers who were still harvesting rice stopped their work after hearing the weight reported by the government official, and quickly gathered around, all eyes fixed on the weighing star on the weighing pole.
After weighing it, the scribes immediately took out the abacus and crackled the beads on the abacus.
"How many?"
"How many did you say?"
After hearing the total number reported by the clerk, the villagers couldn't help but pull their ears with their hands, and they couldn't believe it.
The Facebook clerk smiled and reported again, "Twelve bags of rice, a total of four hundred and twenty-seven kilograms!"
The villagers who finally heard it clearly could no longer contain their excitement and were all pleasantly surprised.
"My God, there are so many!"
Zhang Lizheng was also very excited, "In previous years, the highest harvest from this acre of land was only over 280 kilograms."
Several old farmers nodded after hearing this. It was said that after decades of farming, this was the first time they had seen such a good harvest. This was a full 130 to 40 kilograms more.
And the families with a lot of paddy fields were laughing like wooden fishes. If they all had more than 400 kilograms per acre, then their families would definitely have one or two thousand kilograms more food.
Not only the villagers, but also Gao Tongzhi and Qian Tongpan, as well as the scribes and government officials were also excited.
Especially Gao Tongzhi, who has been in charge of the grain tax of Shizhou Mansion in the past few years, and is naturally very aware of the grain output within his jurisdiction.
If the current rice yield per mu is 427 kilograms, then the field tax per mu of land will be nine to ten kilograms more.
Gao Tongzhi couldn't help but do the math. If he pays so much for one acre of land, then ten acres of land would cost more than a hundred kilograms, and one hundred acres would weigh more than a thousand kilograms. When he thought about the number of acres of paddy fields in Shizhou Prefecture, Gao Tongzhi almost forgot to breathe.
The villagers quickly ran back to their fields.
At this moment, what everyone wants to do is to harvest the rice in their fields as soon as possible, so that the Yamen can weigh it and see if their yield per mu is also the same amount, or even higher than Zhang Lizheng's. a bit more.
At noon, several more villagers had cut an acre of land, and the officials and clerks weighed them one by one.
Four hundred and sixteen kilograms, four hundred and thirteen kilograms, four hundred and eight kilograms, and the family with the most weighed four hundred and thirty-nine kilograms.
Not only did everyone present find it unbelievable, even the villagers themselves thought the weight was wrong.
For the sake of rigor, the officials weighed it again, and the result was still 439, not even a pound missing.
At this time, Lin Yuanqiu's excitement could no longer be expressed in words. By the way, there is nothing more satisfying in this world than to keep people full.
After five days of busy work, the grain harvest in Housi Village was completed.
The entire village has more than 300 acres of land. Except for 26 acres of land, the yield per mu is less than 400 catties, while the rest are all above 400 catties. In addition, the villagers found that this year's rice was much smaller than in previous years.
Lin Yuanqiu still had the same opinion as before. He believed that the reason why rice production increased was absolutely related to the ventilation at the roots of rice.
Lin Yuanqiu carefully recorded the yield of each acre of land, and also listed the difference from last year's grain yield.
And the most important point is that in order to prevent long nights and long dreams, Lin Yuanqiu quickly wrote a detailed memorial about Housi Village's use of new planting methods to harvest high-yield grain and had it sent to the capital.
In addition to drying rice, the villagers of Housi Village are busy plowing the ground to plant radishes.
…
In September, the villagers' houses in the city were basically completed, and all that was left was to dry them and make furniture.
By October, the weather was getting colder, and there was no work in the fields. Villagers began to move into the city one after another.
At this time, the benefits of increasing the urban population became apparent. Whether you are running a bun shop or a shopkeeper selling cloth and clothing, you can clearly feel that business is getting busier.
Furthermore, there are more businesses selling vegetables in the West Market than before. For example, the villagers of Housi Village, after the radishes grow in the ground, they will dig a lot of them at once, bring them to their residences in the city, and then pick them every day. Some go to the West Market to sell.
It is said that radish is eaten in winter and ginger is eaten in summer. For the people in the city, it is natural to be happy to eat fresh radish in winter.
It can be said that the villagers of Housi Village also earned some money by selling radishes throughout the winter.
…
"father!"
When he returned to Houya, Lin Yuanqiu saw his son greeting him through the glass window.
He waved hurriedly to his son, his eyes full of love.
Nearly four months into her pregnancy, Zhong Yurou has become pregnant.
In Lin Yuanqiu's impression, a pregnant woman should be cautious when walking.
But Zhong Yurou is different. No matter when she was pregnant with the baby, or now, she moves freely without any delay.
After seeing his father enter the house, Lin Moyi moved his little buttocks and prepared to get off the kang. Lin Yuanqiu quickly stepped forward and held his son in his arms.
When it was time for dinner, Lin Yuanqiu saw another dish of rabbit meat on the table. It seemed that it was sent by Mr. Hongzao or Guiju and Lianxiang's family.
In fact, it's not just the three of them, others like Xiu'e and others also often send vegetables grown at home.
Wu was in a good mood today. It turned out that when Mr. Gui Ju sent the rabbit over during the day, he told her with joy that Gui Ju was pregnant.
This made Wu and Feng greatly relieved.
From the time they got married to now, more than a dozen of the twenty-seven people have become pregnant, including Hong Zao and Lian Xiang, whom Wu is most concerned about. These two people, plus Gui Ju, are three years old. The oldest one, Mrs. Wu naturally hopes that they can give birth to children early so that they can become mothers.
…
According to regulations, local officials who serve outside the country must return to Beijing to report on their duties after their three-year term. The so-called "duty report" means that foreign officials report on their work during their term of office.
Among them, officials with an official rank of fourth grade and above directly report to the Holy Father. At that time, the emperor will decide whether the official can be promoted, stay in his original position, or be dismissed based on the other party's local governance performance.
As for officials below the fourth rank, they are assessed by the Ministry of Personnel, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Cabinet. The assessment results have three levels, namely competence, diligence, and service. For officials who fail to meet the grade in the assessment, the court will demote them as appropriate according to the actual situation, and some will be dismissed from their posts, and some will even be handed over to the Ministry of Punishment for sentencing.
Therefore, foreign officials are not free horses, and their behavior must be regulated.
Just when Lin Yuanqiu was wondering why there was still no reply to the memorial he had submitted to him, he received the order to return to Beijing to report on his work.
Lin Yuanqiu was a little confused. Although he had been working abroad for three years, he had spent the previous two years in Yongning Prefecture and Dinghu County. After being promoted to the prefect of Shizhou, the term of office was recalculated, so his term as prefect was only one year. Why was he asked to return to Beijing to report on his duties this time?
There was no time to guess the reason, Lin Yuanqiu quickly packed his luggage for going out.
It is now the end of October. From the north of the Great Wall to the capital, even with a light car, it would take more than twenty days, so he had to set off early.
After thinking about it, Lin Yuanqiu also put the brochures on the new rice planting method in his luggage. These brochures record the entire process of rice from seedling cultivation to harvesting, which can be said to be clear at a glance.
…
Chapter 221 Return to Beijing to report on work
In addition to the brochure on new rice planting methods, Lin Yuanqiu also specially packed a small bag of new rice from Housi Village, preparing to present it to the emperor.
In fact, there was something that Lin Yuanqiu had never figured out. He had sent a memorial to the capital in early September to increase grain income. But what was puzzling was that almost two months had passed. Why was there no movement from the Holy Spirit? ah?
Lin Yuanqiu is not boasting. In his opinion, for such a good thing that benefits the country and the people, the imperial court will definitely send someone over to verify it as soon as possible after receiving the memorial. If the situation is true, then the next thing to do is to immediately popularize farming methods everywhere, so that Da Jingchao can comprehensively improve next year's grain harvest.
So, how can you remain indifferent?
However, Lin Yuanqiu soon knew the answer to this doubt after returning to the capital.
After saying goodbye to their families, Lin Yuanqiu and Lin Sanzhu embarked on their journey back to Beijing. The two set out from Shizhou Mansion in early November. They traveled on the road for more than 20 days and arrived in the capital in late November.
Lao Zhangtou and his wife were naturally surprised to see the master and young master coming back, and they quickly packed up their house together with Ping An.
In fact, the yard at home is always tidied up, so it doesn’t take much effort to clean it.
It was already late, and Zhang Ma was busy carrying a basket to buy vegetables. She still remembered that the young master loved fish the most, but she didn't know if the fishmonger had closed his stall.
Before going to the West Market, Zhang Ma first went to Fushi Road and told Zhang Gui about the return of the master and the young master to Beijing.
When Zhang Gui heard this, he hurriedly asked his son Zhang Xin to guard Mo Linxuan, while he hurried to Nanluogu Lane.
Zhang Xin is fifteen this year. Thanks to his father's words and deeds, he is now not only able to help look after the shop, but is also a good hand in business. Speaking of this, I must also mention Zhang Gui's two daughters, namely Xiaohong and Xiaoju. The two sisters had been married by Chunyan and Chuncao respectively a few years ago. Now they both have their own children, and their little life is considered happy. This is a very happy thing for Zhang Gui's family.
After arriving at Nanluogu Lane and kowtowing to the master, Zhang Gui quickly talked about the business in the shop.
