Chapter 131: Hope for the Future
Seeing his guilty look, Su Tai couldn't help laughing and agreed with him.
In the next two days, except for delivering pot cakes, Chen Yi stayed in the wasteland next door. Since there was no need to pick up stones in the hot weather, no one would come to their place specially, which made it convenient for him to do many things.
This guy completed the foundation of the wall in just two days, and then he measured the area himself and built the foundation of the house.
The river rocks that seemed to have piled up into a mountain actually didn't have much left after the foundation was completed.
When the foundation was almost dry, Shen Yi covered it with soil, and continued to find people to help pick up river stones, and gradually built the wall.
In the blink of an eye, it was September, and the mountains seemed to have changed their clothes overnight.
The wall of the courtyard next door was already ten feet high, and the villagers should have grumbled that something was wrong, but because Shen Yi was boiling the frog in warm water, and the autumn harvest was approaching, everyone focused all their attention on the land, and no one continued to stare at Shen Yi's one and a half acres of land, let alone gossip.
Shen Yi took this opportunity to quickly get the soil on the foundation of the house, and asked Su Tai to buy a bunch of bricks, so as to build the prototype of the house as quickly as possible.
Su Tai did not hold him back. She traveled through time and space to order 10,000 bricks and 10,000 sand, gravel and cement. The rest was left to Chen Yi to figure out on his own.
At this time, Xu called back the people who had been doing spring plowing, and everyone gathered in the Shen family's yard to discuss the arrangements for the autumn harvest.
Su Tai is due to give birth in more than a month, and her energy is limited. Xu's own housework is too busy for her to help, so she can only entrust everything to Huang Xinghua, "Aunt, you know the situation in our family. Chen Yi can only go to the fields for half a day at most, and I have to trouble you to watch over him for the remaining half a day.
I won't let you work in vain. So, starting from the beginning of the autumn harvest, I will pay you 60 cents a day until the end of the autumn harvest. During this time, you will help me keep an eye on the crops in the fields and arrange for everyone to harvest them. Is that okay?"
"No problem! Leave it to me." Huang Xinghua smiled from ear to ear, suppressing her inner excitement.
Su Tai also raised the wages of the remaining people to 40 cents a day. This was definitely a big surprise for the working villagers, and they all expressed that they would do their best.
Before the autumn harvest, Su Chunlin was worried and came over to take a look. Seeing that Su Tai had arranged everything, he went back with peace of mind. Their family had an additional 60 acres of land this year, and they simply couldn't take care of it all, which could be fatal.
When the gong sounded for the autumn harvest, all the people in Shenjia Village came out in droves. Nine out of ten houses were empty, and everyone was buried in the ground.
Su Tai stood on the ridge of her own field and looked out. Seeing that no one was slacking off, she turned around and went back to the yard.
The autumn harvest of more than half a month is like a battlefield without the smoke of gunpowder. The farmers’ enemies are the unpredictable weather and their physical strength that cannot keep up with their mentality.
At home, Su Tai often heard that someone had fainted in the fields, or someone was injured and exhausted, and she couldn't help feeling anxious.
She can't help others, but she can provide everyone with the best working conditions, such as food, under limited conditions.
What people in this era lacked most was money and fuel, so Su Tai invested heavily and made big pots of dumplings for everyone every day, steamed a large basket of steamed buns, and cooked a pot of pheasant and vegetable soup.
Every morning, anyone who came to her house to get farm tools could eat a steamed bun and drink a big bowl of chicken soup.
At noon, I can come to her house to eat a steamed bun and drink a bowl of chicken soup, and in the evening after work, I can get another steamed bun.
Even the village chief Shen Ying envied this meal and couldn’t help but say to Shen Yi: “If we didn’t have work to do in the fields, I would definitely come to your house to help!”
Shen Yi smiled bitterly and said modestly: "My wife was afraid that the busy aunts and aunts would become tired and thin, and it would be difficult to explain to their families, so she prepared more food."
Shen Ying waved his hand, "Come on! Who doesn't lose weight during the autumn harvest? Your wife is a noble woman, and she's generous, but she's too loose. Fortunately, you know how to make money."
He now regretted not having the foresight to decide on such a good man like Shen Yi first.
However, this thought only flashed through his mind. After all, Shen Yi had no parents and few relatives, so he was somewhat wary of him. Moreover, Shen Yi could make money but also spent money in many places, which made him feel uneasy.
The autumn harvest ended in such a chaotic and busy environment, and Shen Yi's family's grain was successfully harvested. After paying taxes, they still had nearly 23,000 kilograms of wheat, 10,000 kilograms of peanuts, and more than 6,000 kilograms of soybeans.
This year, more people in Zhaohua County planted high-yield wheat. The county magistrate Liang Qiushi did not visit every county in person, but asked the town officials of each town to assign the task. The township heads and village heads collected the high-yield wheat and prohibited the sale of inferior goods as good ones.
Because Shen Yi's family only had high-yield wheat, the village chief did not pay attention to it and only focused on other villagers' homes.
When it was Shen Yi's turn, Shen Yi had already packed the grain to be sold to the county government, "Village chief, here are 16,000 kilograms of wheat, please check it carefully."
Shen Ying was very surprised, "Shen Yi, I remember that your family only has six acres of fertile land, and the rest is the output from the wasteland?"
Shen Yi nodded honestly, "Although this is the first time we have planted crops on our wasteland, we have taken good care of it in the spring, and Aunt Xinghua and the others have taken good care of it, so the harvest is not bad."
"What do you mean the harvest is not bad? It's very good!" Huang Xinghua, who followed, said excitedly, "Village chief, I am in charge of the crops over there in the wasteland. The grain yield per mu is definitely not low. I didn't calculate the exact amount, but every grain is plump. It is definitely a good variety of grain."
Shen Ying and the yamen runners who collected grain opened it and took a look, and found that the grain seeds of Shen Yi's family were indeed very good, which made people happy at a glance.
"Good! It's really good." The yamen runner said with satisfaction, and weighed all the grain. There were 16,000 kilograms of wheat, and one kilogram was fifty cents, totaling 800 taels.
The yamen runner gave the silver to Shen Yi on the spot and asked him to put his hand print.
After the wheat seeds were sold out, another group of yamen runners came in the afternoon, this time to collect peanuts and soybeans.
Their family also needs to do business, and Shen Yi doesn't want to sell at all, but he has to sell it. He can only allocate 5,000 kilograms of peanuts and 3,000 kilograms of soybeans. This amount is normal compared to the per-acre yield of other families.
The yamen runner did not suspect anything. He took the things and went to the next house.
Shen Yi got another two hundred and sixty-five taels.
This autumn harvest, their family made a net profit of more than one thousand taels.
Chen Zhuang and Xu also earned more than 400 taels from selling their crops. This money made the family of four very happy. They smiled at everyone they met. If everyone hadn't made money, they would have been very jealous!
Apart from the Shen Yi and Shen Zhuang families, the happiest ones were the families who helped Shen Yi.
Originally, they were short of land, and they worked hard all year round but could not even fill the family's stomachs. This year, because they farmed for Chen Yi, those who had more like Huang Xinghua actually saved up nearly seven taels, and those who had less like the aunties and grandmas who only came to help with spring ploughing and autumn harvest also earned nearly one and a half taels.
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