The fact that the county government was collecting wet grain had already defied everyone's wildest imaginations.

The villagers of Xujia Village were shocked, as were the two officials from the granary and a group of laborers.

They looked at the pile of corncobs in front of them, their brows furrowed, and they shook their heads like rattles: "No, no, no, this is absolutely not going to work."

If it weren't for the fact that Dejin seemed very familiar with the locals, especially since he kept calling the village chief "Auntie," suggesting a close relationship, the two grain depot clerks would have slapped him across the face.

It's already a great favor of the county magistrate to let you pay wet grain, yet you dare to pay with corn that hasn't even been husked. This is outrageous!

Xiang Dejin also felt uneasy looking at the corn cobs.

Although the county government granary has a large drying yard and a dozen or so laborers responsible for turning and drying the grain, it would be too much to ask these laborers to sit and husk corn...

Jiang Zhi also felt that she shouldn't make things too difficult for people, so she asked everyone in the village to gather at a few households and bring tools to help with shelling.

Xu Gensheng, Wu Yang, and several others were responsible for delivering corn cobs to various collection points.

With more people, they eat and work faster. By nightfall, all the corn was husked, loaded onto the truck, and they returned overnight…

After two whole days of hard work, the wet food that had been causing everyone a headache was finally delivered.

Anyway, the granary is empty now, and the laborers are idle. As for how much dried goods can be dried, Xiang Dejin said he would help keep an eye on it.

Xiang Dejin praised the practice of paying taxes in advance, saying, "Magistrate Zhang said that taxes are being reduced or exempted everywhere, but only here can you pay taxes. This righteous act should be publicized to the people so that everyone can learn from it."

It's all about righteousness again!

Jiang Zhi pouted, realizing that she hadn't gotten anything she wanted, and all she got were empty promises.

And forget about the so-called "learning" activities. Most of the time, it's just visiting the cafeteria and learning how to cook. We don't have enough food to feed outsiders.

However, this time Magistrate Zhang did not make empty promises. Apart from publicly praising him, he had Xiang Dejin bring Jiang Zhi and Xujia Village a piece of his handwritten calligraphy: "Great virtue carries all things!"

Although it was far from the calligraphy promised to the King of Zhou, it was still the highest honor for an ordinary person.

Tian Gui and the others were both excited and nervous as they looked at the calligraphy bestowed by Magistrate Zhang. They knelt down to pay their respects.

Jiang Zhi didn't want to kneel, so she stopped the group and said, "Magistrate Zhang is very magnanimous. As long as we do our best to serve the government, we don't need to worry about these trivial matters."

Xiang Dejin didn't care. After they left, there was nowhere to hang the calligraphy, so it had to be placed in Li Laoshi's small room.

Li Laoshi was very proud: "Don't worry, Sister Jiang, I'll offer incense to this character three times a day!"

Ah, what have I done to deserve sleeping next to the magistrate's name? It must be because my ancestors' graves are emitting auspicious smoke.

Now that Xiang Dejin was here, Jiang Zhi brought up the troubles Xujia Village was facing in buying timber: "Dejin, do you think the timber merchants in the county town would be willing to send some over? I don't want to have any unpleasantness with Song, the village head of Lihua Town!"

Old Li, who was listening nearby, rolled his eyes: "Your words are just setting a trap for Song Lizheng. It's clearly the Wang family who's in a difficult position, so why are you dragging Song Lizheng into it?"

However, it was his bad luck that he tried to pick sweet potatoes without asking any questions.

Xiang Dejin nodded: "Auntie, I'll ask around for you when I get back to the city, just don't buy too much."

Because corvée labor will be conscripted to repair the post stations as winter approaches, Magistrate Zhang said the government will provide meals, and many people will definitely come. The government will also send bricks, stones, and timber; you can buy some of those.

Haha, what a great thing!

Jiang Zhi was overjoyed: "Great, great, I'll buy less and wait for the government's bricks and stones. That will save me a lot of trouble."

Low price, good quality, and delivered to your doorstep. They might even bring their own craftsmen and general laborers, so you don't need to find anyone else.

At that moment, her resentment towards the Wang family vanished instantly. She was truly grateful to the Wang family ancestors for blocking her way for months and then delivering such a wonderful gift.

When Tian Gui and the others heard the news, they were overjoyed.

I never expected to receive a piece of calligraphy from the county magistrate, and now I hear this good news. It's truly one happy event after another.

It's like God is playing a joke on us; as soon as the corn that was causing us so much anxiety was dealt with, the rain stopped.

Although the next two days were still overcast, there was no rain, the rice was dry, and there was no worry about it sprouting. We just waited for the sun to shine and the ground to dry before harvesting.

After the corn cobs were harvested, the corn stalks remained in the field, and there were even some corn cobs that had been left behind.

Jiang Zhi then distributed all the corn stalks from her land to the various households in the mutual aid group.

This time, Xu Genqing also benefited.

Naturally, Qin was overjoyed to find something for free. She carried her basket on her back and ran as fast as she could, showing off to the villagers along the way: "This is what my son and daughter-in-law earned by working for others!"

Xujia Village has only twenty households, and almost everyone helps each other with their work. Everyone can cut a few bundles of corn stalks from Village Chief Jiang's field to take back with them.

However, such things always bring joy, so the whole village, as if they were feasting on a tycoon, couldn't wait for the corn stalks to dry completely and excitedly snapped them up, then laid them out outside their own sheds to continue drying.

When the first sun came out after the rain, every household began harvesting and threshing rice.

The mixing bucket and trapezoidal wooden box have a smooth bottom for easy movement in mud.

Several households jointly purchased a mixing bucket. The larger buckets needed to be carried into the fields, but those with greater strength could crawl inside and carry it by themselves.

The mixing bucket was surrounded on three sides by bamboo poles with bamboo mats as a barrier, and a person stood on one side to beat the straw and thresh the grains by force.

At this time, women also go barefoot into the fields and bend over to harvest rice.

Image from the internet: Rice threshed manually

The children shuttled back and forth, carrying bundles of rice from where it had just been cut to the mixing drum for quick threshing.

Jiang Zhi's family and Xiao Man's family also have rice, so they will naturally team up with other families to harvest it.

In the fields of varying sizes in Xujia Village, the sounds of pounding and beating could be heard everywhere.

Once the mixing bucket is full of grains, still covered in their rough husks, it must be immediately scooped away in a basket.

So on the slippery paddy field ridges, men carrying heavy baskets jogged along, the carrying poles swaying up and down on their shoulders, creaking and groaning.

The rhythm and melody inherent in these labors form a song in the mountains and forests.

Jiang Zhi was harvesting rice; she had been here for almost two years.

With her modern childhood memories combined with her innate, skilled muscle memory, she worked swiftly, grabbing the straw with her backhand and swinging her sickle to cut several stalks of rice, leaving Lianhua, who was cutting rice alongside her, scrambling to keep up.

Jiang Zhi would occasionally help her cut a section, but she would still be pulled down.

As Qin Shi was helping the children carry straw, she saw Lianhua fall and began to berate her: "Lianhua, look at you, so young, you can't even have a child, you can't even harvest rice as well as your aunt!"

There were both men and women harvesting rice in the fields. In front of so many people, her mother-in-law said that she couldn't have children and couldn't do any work. Her face turned bright red.

Jiang Zhi straightened up, handed over the sickle in her hand, and glared at her with a frown: "Old woman Qin, stop talking about having children all the time. You've only had one child, and you're even younger than me. How come you're hanging out with kids like Xiao Quan? Come and harvest the rice!"

Qin dared not touch the sickle and quickly backed away, saying, "I can't bend over, my back hurts!"