Chapter 145 Obtaining New Farm Tools
The wealthy businessman in Baiyun Town is Qian Hui's brother-in-law. The Qian family are also businessmen and have a certain reputation.
Qian Hui personally gave the order, and his subordinates quickly completed the task, resulting in a perfectly compliant stone roller appearing in Cheng Wanwan's courtyard.
Cheng Wanwan called Zhao Sidan over: "Go to Uncle Da's house and ask him to lend us the ox for a while. We'll lend Uncle Da the stone roller later."
Zhao Sidan immediately went to do it.
With a stone roller, an ox, and a rope, the stone roller tool is ready.
Zhao Sidan led the ox around the field, and the rice, crushed by the stone roller, was quickly threshed, which was much easier than doing it by hand.
Many people from Dahe Village came to watch the spectacle.
“This stone roller is really well made. I’ll go up the mountain and find a stone to have someone make it like this.”
"Stones are not hard to find, but stonemasons are hard to find. Even if we find stonemasons, we can hardly afford to pay them."
"Have you forgotten that grain prices are high right now? A pound of grain can sell for twenty or thirty coins. We use grain as wages, so the stonemasons can't refuse it. If four or five families pool their resources and each contributes two or three pounds, that should be enough."
"I'm not going to say anything more, I need to hurry up the mountain to find round stones!"
Because it was still the autumn harvest season, the adults continued to work in the fields and asked the children to look for stones. Once they found them, the adults in the family would carry the stones.
The stone roller belonging to Cheng Wanwan's family was reserved by Zhao Da, the Zhao family, and the Wang family next door, and even the grain was delivered in advance.
Everyone was praising the magistrate's son.
"Young Master Shen solved a huge problem for us as soon as he arrived."
"He truly lives up to his reputation as the magistrate's son; he's incredibly quick-witted. We old farmers never imagined he could do something like this."
“You old folks have barely even seen a horse-drawn carriage a few times, how could you possibly think of making wheels out of stones? It’s normal that you can’t think of that.”
"..."
Shen Zheng puffed out his chest and said, "My contribution is not small, Aunt Zhao, you must remember to say a few good words for me in front of my father, so that I can go home earlier."
Cheng Wanwan smiled and said, "After the autumn harvest is over, I will personally take you back. Don't worry, I will definitely praise you."
The next few days will still be busy with the autumn harvest.
On the sixth day, all the grain in the field was finally harvested, and at the same time, the rice was threshed using a stone roller.
The stone roller was borrowed by someone else and continued to be used.
Meanwhile, Cheng Wanwan led her family to husk the rice, which was another task that required a great deal of patience.
The rice that has been threshed is first blown to remove dust. Once the dust is gone, it is put into a container and pounded repeatedly with a pestle. The friction of the wooden pestle hitting the stone mortar removes the outer thin skin.
Rice has two layers. The first layer is the husk, which is usually used as tinder because it is very easy to burn.
The second layer that separates out is called rice bran, which is used to feed pigs in modern society. However, in order to enrich the nutrition of modern pigs, most pig farms have abandoned the use of rice bran as feed. In ancient times, when grain was scarce, rice bran was ground into powder and mixed into flour to eat together. The "bran" in the phrase "eating bran and swallowing vegetables" refers to this layer of rice bran.
This year, the rice did not grow well, and the grains were not plump enough. After hulling 100 jin of rice, only about 50 or 60 jin remained. After paying taxes, the family had more than 900 jin of rice left. After hulling, they would end up with about 500 jin. Their yield per mu was relatively high in Dahe Village, while other families had very little grain left.
For the next six months, the villagers relied on these few hundred kilograms of rice for their food, clothing, and daily necessities. They sold the rice to exchange for cloth, oil, salt, and to save money for medicine...
Cheng Wanwan sat at the vent at the edge of the house with a winnowing basket in front of her. She lifted up the brown rice and the wind blew away the husks, leaving only the brown rice, which had to be milled again.
This work needs to be repeated over and over again until all the shells are blown away by the wind.
Her arms were aching terribly, but she couldn't stop.
She really wanted to buy a special hulling tool from the mall, but it was too big, and even if she could afford it, she wouldn't dare to take it out.
They had no choice but to accept their fate and continue working.
After eight or nine days of high-intensity labor, her brain could no longer think properly.
It was not until raindrops fell on her face that she woke up with a start. She looked up and saw that the sky, which had been clear just a moment ago, suddenly began to rain.
“It’s raining!”
"I haven't seen rain for two or three months!"
“It feels so good to feel the rain on me!”
"People can get wet in the rain, but rice can't. Hurry, harvest the rice!"
"..."
The villagers were in chaos, and Cheng Wanwan quickly asked the children to collect all the rice in the yard.
The raindrops of late summer pattered on the roof, dripped down the reeds, and hit the ground, making small puddles. As the rainwater increased, the puddles grew larger and larger, eventually becoming large puddles filled with rainwater. Chickens, ducks, and geese chattered incessantly, while wolves and dogs ran around in the yard, then squatted under the eaves to watch the rain, their tongues occasionally sticking out to scoop up a few drops of rainwater into their mouths.
Cheng Wanwan stood at the door, looking out at the fields. A rain had filled the parched land.
The ratooning rice needs water right now; only with water can it turn green again, and only after turning green can it sprout and tiller. She was worried about how to persuade the village head to dig a canal to irrigate the fields when, just then, it rained. It was truly a stroke of luck. In a few more days, the fields should show signs of change.
"No way, it's leaking!"
Shen Zheng suddenly cried out in surprise and jumped up quickly.
In the very center of the main room, raindrops fell one by one down the reeds, landing right on Shen Zheng's head.
Cheng Zhao said calmly, "It leaks here too."
Not only in these two places, but also near the bedroom, raindrops were falling.
Cheng Wanwan experienced firsthand what it means for it to rain heavily outside and drizzle inside.
The ground was covered with mud, and after the rain, the mud became soaked. Cheng Zhao, Shen Zheng, and Ah Fu were afraid that they would have no place to sleep tonight.
Zhao Dashan coughed and said, "I noted down the location of the leak when it rained in the spring, but I was so busy that I forgot about it. I'll fix the roof when the rain stops."
Cheng Wanwan nodded. The roof did need to be repaired, but building a house should also be put on the agenda.
The rain lessened, and someone came into the courtyard—it was Old Mrs. Zhao.
The old lady came in, found a clean spot to sit down, and asked, "I'm going to town to sell some grain tomorrow. Eldest daughter-in-law, do you want to come with me?"
Cheng Wanwan didn't want to sell grain, but since she was in the local area, she didn't want to stand out too much, so she asked, "How much will you sell?"
Grandma Zhao said, "After paying the taxes, there's not much left. We'll sell a hundred or two hundred catties to keep some money for emergencies, and the rest will be exchanged for cheap old rice and millet. That should be enough to last until the spring harvest."
Shen Zheng didn't speak. In the past, he would have asked why they were exchanging new rice for old rice. New rice was so delicious, while old rice was black and moldy, making it hard to swallow. But now he understood. The harvest from the fields was too small. If the family ate normally, they would definitely not be able to eat until the spring harvest tomorrow. But if they exchanged the rice for old rice and millet, they could eat for a while longer.
If he hadn't come to Dahe Village, he would never have known that rice farmers couldn't afford to eat white rice.
After the old lady finished talking about the grain, she took out a small apron from her sleeve: "This is an apron that Xia Hua sewed from scraps of cloth. She said it was for the baby in Da Shan's wife's belly. What do you think of the embroidery?"
Cheng Wanwan glanced at it and was somewhat amazed. She never expected that Xia Hua's rough hands could embroider such an exquisite bib.
She smiled and said, "Aren't we going to town tomorrow? We can take it to the embroidery shop and ask. If it's worth a few copper coins, Xia Hua can make a living doing this in the future."
Only after receiving Cheng Wanwan's affirmation did the old lady feel relieved. She didn't know when it started, but she began to pay special attention to her eldest daughter-in-law's opinions. If her eldest daughter-in-law said there was no problem, then there was definitely no big problem.
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