33 Chapter 33
◎Grab the first week, rice yields nearly two stone per mu◎
Cheng Mu smiled gently, her eyes kind. After feeling the bones in his hand, she pinched his arm through the fabric. "You're taller than me now. You've been beaten up every day, so your bones and flesh are much stronger than before."
"Sister-in-law..." Caught off guard like that, Mu Yun couldn't help but tremble. He twisted his body and quickly shook off her hand.
"Still shy." Cheng Mu joked, and her attention quickly turned to the things he bought.
There were scissors, paper, pens, books, needles and thread at home, and they asked him to go to the town to buy some elegant things, such as seals, ritual objects, hairpins and rings. Who knew that he also bought weapons and bows and arrows.
I couldn't help but glance at him angrily. "Who uses weapons for their child's "Grand Week" celebration? I'm afraid you didn't just want to play with weapons and bows and arrows."
Mu Yun turned around and left with a flushed face.
"This kid, why is he still angry?"
I don’t have many relatives or friends, so the first birthday party is just with these few people in my family.
The ceremony of grasping the first month of the lunar year was very grand. The sixth and seventh children put on new clothes and sat in the middle of the main hall with a mat spread on the floor.
They laid out in front of them all the meaningful items they could get their hands on.
Cheng Mu squatted outside the mat and smiled gently at Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi. "Come and choose the one you like best."
Xiaoliu was planning to stand up and walk, but after looking at Xiaoqi next to him, he patted him and crawled forward first.
Xiao Qi was drooling and wriggling like a caterpillar.
Xiaoliu picked up the abacus and shook it, the beads clattering. As if she had discovered a wonderful toy, she showed her white teeth, grinned, and performed it over and over for everyone to hear.
Gui'er exclaimed, "Xiao Liu is going to be the shopkeeper!"
Gui'er believed this very much. When she was a child, she grabbed a kitchen knife. Her father originally wanted to put a sword or a dagger, but he had no money to buy them, so he made a wooden sword. She didn't like it and went straight for the kitchen knife.
Yu was so frightened that she took her away. Her father even said, "This child will definitely become a chef in the future."
He failed in the kitchen and can't cook very well now, but he avenged his father with a kitchen knife.
If her father had given her a real sword, Guier would have definitely chosen the sword. She would have mastered kung fu and would have been a hero doing justice everywhere.
Xiaoliu grabbed the abacus, and Cheng Mu was very happy. It was good to know how to do accounting. If she was willing to do business, all the food in the house could be given to her.
At this time, Xiao Qi also crawled up and grabbed a book. This book was a Thousand Character Classic that Mu Yun bought from a bookstore when he went to Puyang City. It was a thread-bound handwritten copy. I don’t know which student copied it, but the handwriting was very beautiful. It was only thirty cents. Mu Yun wanted to practice calligraphy and recognize words, so he thought this book was suitable and bought it.
After Xiaoqi got the book, he held it up and read it very seriously, as if he understood it.
Yu laughed, a rare moment. "Madam Cheng is so lucky! Xiaoqi is going to be a serious scholar. He will pass the imperial examinations and win an imperial decree for Madam Cheng."
Guier continued honestly, "But there isn't a single scholar in this area."
Mu Yun is always asked to write couplets for the New Year.
Yu patted her, blaming her for saying something so untrue. "There's no school nearby in Puyang City. Didn't Master Wen from Muyun pass the exam? Madam Cheng also has a house in the city. It won't be difficult to find a private school for Xiaoqi. If all else fails, we can go to Yanyun City. There are many scholars there."
Gui'er asked, "So, Madam Cheng, are you going to leave from now on?"
"We'll talk about the future later." Cheng Mu happily picked up Xiao Qi and teased him, "Do you want to take the imperial examination in the future? The imperial examination is not easy to pass."
Gui'er said, "That's something for the future."
Yu slapped her hard and said, "Put everything away! It's time for dinner."
Gui'er pouted and looked at Mu Yun who was standing in the distance.
After Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi turned six or seven, it was time to harvest rice.
Wheat harvests rely on rushing, while rice harvests require nurturing. Harvesting winter wheat coincides with the heavy rainfall of early summer, and concerns arise about the wheat becoming moldy from continuous downpours and lodging in strong winds, reducing yields. Therefore, careful weather monitoring is crucial. Rice, on the other hand, matures in autumn, when rainfall is relatively low, allowing the grains to dry in the fields longer without the risk of lodging. While wheat harvests a handful of bran, rice harvests a full granary.
During the Beginning of Autumn, the ground was covered with golden rice. Looking at the plump grains, the five families who sold their land to Cheng Mi were grinning from ear to ear every day, and every family was busy repairing their granaries.
The Cold Dew harvest was a busy time, with careful threshing and winnowing. Once a day was set, every household joined in. Zhao Datian made several more sickles, and with both men and machines, he finished harvesting the entire sixty acres along the Santou River in one day.
They worked until late at night, bundled up all the rice harvested from the fields, and carried it back to the village drying yard in loads.
The fields had a bountiful harvest, and the golden grains looked like glittering jewels, making it impossible for people to sleep.
In order to avoid more trouble at night, several families were urging the grain to be threshed and stored in the granary.
Cheng Mi had two threshers and a cow, all of which helped.
In the drying yard, people were threshing the grains quickly with a thresher, grinding the grains with a stone mill pulled by oxen, and a group of women gathered together to thresh the grains.
The children in the village ran to the fields to pick up grains, not wasting a single one.
After the grains were threshed, the ears were gathered and bundled, and the grains piled up like a small mountain. At this time, the windmills were turned non-stop, and the capable women did not wait, using sieves to winnow the grains in the breeze to remove the debris and the shriveled grains.
After two or three days of busy work, when it was time to divide the millet, although only five families were involved, almost every family in the village came to watch the fun.
County Magistrate Huang had said he would come, but he still hadn't shown up even after the millet was harvested. Perhaps he was delayed by something, so Mr. Zhao stepped in to take charge.
Zhao Afu's family had twelve acres of land and was given six stones.
Zhao Xiu's family had twenty acres of land and was given ten shi.
Zhao Linzi's family had fifteen acres of land, and they were given seven shi and five dou.
Zhao Xiong's family had eight acres of land and was allocated four shi.
Mr. Zhao's family had ten acres of land and was given five shi of stone.
After weighing, every family happily carried the millet back home. The barn had already been cleaned up and was waiting for the millet.
As for the rest of the households, who had given their grain seeds to Cheng Mu, Cheng Mu returned three dou of grain to each household as promised.
The land along the Santou River basically belongs to the Zhao family. Because they were stationed here early, they naturally chose the land closest to the water source, which was the best land a hundred years ago.
If it weren't for the land cleaning and land modification, it wouldn't be just their turn.
Others just watched with envy.
It’s not that no one followed the government’s instructions to dig wells and ditches in their own fields, and to clean and improve the land, but the harvest was far worse. They used to harvest one or two dou, but now they harvest four or five dou. At first glance, it seems much better than before, but Madam Cheng’s land yields nearly two dan per mu, which means that each family can only earn five dou. She earns far more than them.
The families that followed Madam Cheng into success also did some calculations. If they grew crops themselves, they could get about five dou of grain, which might be a little better than other families. The land improvements along the Santou River were very effective, and they could harvest an extra one or two dou.
Zhao Xiu's family was complaining, "If we planted it ourselves, it would be a full twenty mu. If we harvested two more dou per mu, that would be two more dan, two more dan!"
Zhao Xiu scolded his wife for being ignorant. "Twenty mu of land requires hard work. Even if hiring people doesn't cost money, it still costs food. What about the time spent on the land? My three sons work outside, and each earns at least one tael of silver. Those three taels of silver can't even buy two dan of rice."
Zhao Xiujia thought about it and thought, "Could Madam Cheng be a grain smuggler? How come she calculated it just right, not letting you lose or gain? In the end, she always wins."
Zhao Xiu shook her head. "That's hard to calculate. She paid all the people she hired in cash. And all these things, like the sickle, the thresher, and the windmill, were all built with the help of Datian and Shitou. She paid them, and she also bought the wood."
Zhao Xiujia glared, "If she doesn't make money, what's she trying to achieve? She must be making a lot of money."
There were also some smart people in the village who went to find Mr. Zhao to see if they could let Madam Cheng take over his land as well.
Mr. Zhao's wife was complaining, "If I had known, you wouldn't have given the other dozen acres of land owned by Zong'er and Xuan'er to Madam Cheng to farm."
Mr. Zhao ignored her. If he had known earlier, huh, how could he have known so much earlier? If it weren't for the need to show his position in front of the village head and Mr. Huang, he might not have given out the ten acres.
The land in Zhaojia Village can also grow two stone of rice per mu, so what difference does it have with the land in Jin Temple? He felt very proud for a moment, but after listening to what Old Man Zhou said, his pride disappeared without a trace.
Old Man Zhou's land only yielded four or five dou of grain per acre. He was a very attentive person who took care of his crops, and his land always yielded the most.
He imitated the way Mrs. Cheng's family farmed. People can deceive people, but the land cannot. Why did the harvest from her farm be so huge, far surpassing theirs?
"Master Ba, do you still remember the beetle weeds you harvested before? There was no such thing as clearing the land and changing the soil. Even those who planted beetle weeds didn't harvest as much as she did."
“She also grows a lot.”
"Only Widow Xu's family grows the most." After Widow Xu switched to wheat, she planted one and a half acres of wheat and six or seven acres of potatoes.
Mr. Zhao Ba said, "She borrowed the seeds from Boss Cheng and went to return them with great fanfare that day. Didn't you see it too?"
"The key is, can her few acres of land really produce so many hawthorn eggs?"
Mr. Zhao Ba's face sullenly said, "One moment you say Madam Cheng grows better, the next you say Widow Xu grows better. What on earth do you want to say?"
"Master Ba, haven't you understood yet? Her seed is good."
"Didn't we give away all those 20 shi of wheat seeds?"
“Other seeds are fine too.”
"If they grow something, you want to share it, right?"
"No, I just want to ask Mr. Ba to mediate and ask if I can take care of my own village no matter what I grow."
Mr. Zhao Ba chased him away and said, "The wheat seeds were given by Boss Cheng as a favor to Mr. Huang. If you have the guts, go and talk to Mr. Huang."
"Hey, Master Ba, doesn't she have to give you face too..."
There were five or six households that had the same idea as Old Man Zhou. They decided to join forces and take turns to speak to Mr. Zhao.
There are so many people in the village, so it is inevitable that there are all kinds of ideas.
If you ask them to mortgage their land, they will envy others' benefits. Who would be willing to get five dou when they can get two dan per mu?
Mr. Zhao could understand them, but he really didn't have the face to say to Cheng Min, "People give you a bowl of rice, and you want to take away their pot. Is this what a human being does?"
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