Chapter 140 Hoeing the Rice at Noon
Hoeing the fields at midday, sweat drips onto the soil beneath the crops.
Large beads of sweat rolled down Cheng Wanwan's face, dripping onto the rice paddy.
She didn't even have time to wipe the sweat off her face. She lowered her head to twist the straw ropes and tie the rice in the field into bundles. She had to be careful not to be too rough, otherwise the grains would fall off. If the rice fell into the field, she would have to pick it up one by one, which was really troublesome.
After she had bundled all the rice, she secretly applied some medicine to her palms before picking up the carrying pole to carry the rice back.
Looking up, I saw Wu Huiniang walking over from the other side of the field.
The ridge of the field is very narrow, with rice stalks on both sides. If you fall down accidentally, the consequences will be unimaginable.
Cheng Wanwan rushed over and held her daughter-in-law's arm. "It's so hot, and you're pregnant. What are you doing out in the fields?"
Wu Huiniang was somewhat moved.
During the autumn harvest, pregnant women and children alike had to work in the fields. She was also prepared to harvest rice, but her mother-in-law wouldn't let her touch any of the heavy work. When she saw that her mother-in-law's hands were covered in blisters, her heart ached and her eyes reddened slightly.
Cheng Wanwan was startled: "Hui Niang, what's wrong with you? Are you feeling sick in your stomach?"
"No, no, I'm fine." Wu Huiniang quickly put on a smile. "Mom, we have guests at home. They are my cousin's classmates, about eight or nine people."
Cheng Wanwan walked to the edge of the field, stood on tiptoe and looked out, and saw three horse-drawn carriages in front of her house.
She probably guessed what was going on, picked up the rice and walked towards the door.
Wu Huiniang helped pick up the rice ears scattered on the ground and went back with Cheng Wanwan.
As she got closer, she noticed that the yard in front of her house was covered with rice, and three horse-drawn carts were driving back and forth over it.
However, the shaft was too narrow, and even after running over it dozens of times, the effect was minimal.
Cheng Wanwan suddenly remembered that when she was watching TV before, she saw a cow pulling a round stone to grind rice in a rural rice field. The stone was very heavy, and grinding it back and forth could save people a lot of effort. It seemed to be called... a stone roller.
This thing has appeared in history, but it was not popular. It seemed to become truly popular in the 1980s and 1990s, when every household in the countryside seemed to have this thing.
"Auntie Dashan, what's going on at your house? Who's here?" Aunt Wang from next door came home to get a drink of water and was startled to see three carriages and a yard full of people. She quickly pulled Cheng Wanwan aside and asked, "They're all dressed so neatly and nicely, and they're all pretty too. A lot of young women from the village just passed by, and they all blushed with embarrassment."
Cheng Wanwan was ashamed. The people in Dahe Village were really tough.
She smiled and said, "They are all Cheng Zhao's classmates. Come to see him. I'll go in and entertain them first."
She walked to the door, put down the rice on her shoulders, looked up at the yard, and was immediately shocked.
Before she entered the courtyard, she was thinking that Shen Zheng had some ability to get the young master in town to lend him a carriage to thresh the rice. She didn't expect that the seven or eight scholars from the town would not only lend him the carriage and the driver, but also roll up their sleeves and work themselves.
The family had limited farm tools. Ah Fu held their only flail, Cheng Zhao their only pitchfork, and some of the others used wooden basins to thresh the rice, while others simply swiped the rice off the ears with their hands. At first, they were quite efficient, but before they had swiped four or five ears, the palms of these young masters began to turn red...
Cheng Wanwan quickly said, "You can't thresh grains like that, you'll hurt your hands. Quickly sit down and rest for a bit."
After saying that, she glared at Cheng Zhao and said, "Zhao'er, these are all your classmates, right? How can you let them do farm work here? Everyone, please stop what you are doing and sit in the shade to rest for a while."
Cheng Zhao didn't know what to say.
When these people came over, he didn't want to pay any attention to them. It was Shen Zheng who insisted that these people stay to do farm work, so he pretended not to see it.
He went inside and brought out chairs and stools, placing them under the shade of a tree. The group of scholars immediately sat down, rubbing their backs and legs from exhaustion.
Cheng Zhao walked into the inner room with a calm expression.
Shen Zheng strode up to Cheng Wanwan and said proudly, "Three carts should yield about four or five catties of rice. My classmates and Afu together yielded more than twenty catties of rice. Afu and I have completed our task for today, and we've also completed tomorrow's task!"
He puffed out his chest, looking like he wanted praise.
Cheng Wanwan was lost in thought, so he immediately became anxious. "Hey, even though I didn't do it myself, the mission was definitely completed. You're not going back on your word, are you?"
Cheng Wanwan looked up at him and said, "I won't call you 'Hey.' You can call me Zhao Chengshi like your father does, or you can call me Aunt Zhao like Afu does."
Shen Zheng twitched the corners of his mouth and said with extreme reluctance, "Fine, I'll just call you Aunt Zhao then."
Cheng Wanwan nodded and said, "You are good at using external forces to achieve your goals. You are very smart. Just like a strategist is not as brave and skilled as a soldier on the front line, but a strategist can command thousands of troops."
Shen Zheng's eyes widened. Zhao Da Sao actually compared him to a military strategist. Was he really that capable?
He suddenly felt a little elated, and his mouth curled up into a smile.
"It's great that you thought of borrowing the help of your classmates, but they're just scholars. Four or five of them combined are only as good as one strong laborer in the village," Cheng Wanwan said slowly. "It's better to borrow livestock, like oxen and horses, than to borrow manpower. But the wheels on a horse are too narrow. Even after nearly an hour of threshing, they only harvest four or five pounds of rice. The efficiency is too low, and the effort isn't worth it."
Shen Zheng was also thinking about this question, but couldn't come up with an answer.
“If we had a stone that looked like a wheel, we could have a horse drag it across the rice paddies, which would be much more efficient,” Cheng Wanwan reminded him. “Stones are easy to find on the mountain, but it would be a bit difficult to make them into the shape of a wheel.”
“What’s so difficult about that? I’ll find a stonemason to do it, and he can finish it in one night.” Shen Zheng grinned. “Aunt Zhao, if I manage to do this, you have to praise me like you did today when my dad comes next time, okay?”
Compare him to a military strategist and see if his father dares to scold him for being useless in the future.
Cheng Wanwan couldn't help but laugh and nodded: "Of course, you go and entertain your classmates first, I'll go in and make some tea."
Shen Zheng turned around and went to talk to Zheng Wangfeng and others.
Qian Hui was sweating profusely from exhaustion. He said coldly and disdainfully, "The son of a county magistrate actually chatted with a peasant woman for so long."
Shen Zheng sneered, "Scholars, farmers, merchants, and artisans, farmers are secondary. A farmer's wife is much more noble than a merchant's son like you. Qian Hui, Qian Hui, you've worked so hard for me for so long, I was ready to forgive you, but you insisted on mocking me. I still can't let go of this anger. What do you say I should do?"
Qian Hui was furious: "We came to apologize to Cheng Zhao. What does it have to do with me if you can't let go of your anger?"
"Cheng Zhao and I are good brothers, good brothers who sleep together at night. If I don't forgive you, he certainly won't forgive you either." Shen Zheng laughed, "How about this, when you return to town later, find the most skilled stonemason in Baiyun Town and ask him to help make a wheel made of stone..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
