Chapter 3178 Harvest
Luojiang County's autumn harvest was before Beihai County's. Zhou Lizhong had actually brought back quite a few rice seeds the year before, hoping to get the county magistrate to promote them. However, the magistrate was unwilling to take the risk, so he planted most of them himself and distributed some to the villagers. The rest was basically divided up by Mr. Bai.
The first person to plant the rice was Qian's uncle. He had always thought that the rice was growing well this year and had been keeping an eye on it.
When the rice turned yellow, he harvested it without delay. When he weighed the rice ears in his hands, he felt that this year's harvest was excellent.
After harvesting one acre of rice, he didn't even want to leave the rice ears in the field to dry, but tied them up and took them home to thresh them. He didn't even weigh them. He just widened his eyes when he saw so many sacks full of rice.
Uncle Qian didn't have time to wait until all the rice was harvested, so he ran to Qili Village.
The government office gave officials a holiday during the busy farming season and asked them to go home to harvest crops. Zhou Lizhong was wearing a straw hat and harvesting rice in the fields. His family started harvesting rice today.
Uncle Qian ran straight to the field, pulled the man out, and asked him, "Can we keep these new rice seeds? Or do we need to buy new rice seeds from you next year?"
Zhou Lizhong perked up and said, "No need to buy. Just pick the good ones yourself. I've tested them and they're very stable for seed. Grandpa, have you harvested them? How much can you get from one acre of land?"
Uncle Qian said, "It's raw rice now. I threshed and weighed it today, and it's over six stone!"
He said, "If it's dried, it will yield at least five dan, right? It's more than double the yield per mu before."
Uncle Qian held his hand tightly and said, "Lizhong, your family is blessed. Smoke must be rising from your ancestral graves. The new wheat seeds were planted by your family before, and now you have planted new rice seeds."
His eyes sparkled, and he was so excited that he couldn't help but slap his thigh. "It must be your uncle who is blessing you. Apart from him, no one else in your family is capable. Hurry up and go burn incense for your uncle. Oh, I want to plant all new rice seeds next year."
His voice was so loud that the villagers passing by asked with a smile, "Isn't this Uncle Manbao? Why are you here now? What are you so happy about? Tell us so we can have some fun too."
Uncle Qian asked, "Didn't you plant the rice seeds that Li Zhong brought back this year?"
"You mean Datou? He planted two acres. And the rice there is growing better than the others. I don't know if it's because of the better water, the fertility, or the seeds."
The villagers who heard this immediately said, "The seeds must be good. Haven't you noticed? The rice from the new large-headed rice seeds planted in the village this year is better than other varieties. The village chief was talking about it in the fields just two days ago. I'm afraid this is the same as the new wheat seeds we planted earlier."
"Is this true?"
"Of course it's true. We've looked at several plots of land. The rice ears there are so long and tall. They're all planted with new rice seeds. Look at Datou's fields. They're all much taller than the others. The rice ears are so heavy. If I had known that they were going to change to new rice seeds, I shouldn't have changed just two acres. I should have changed all of them."
Uncle Qian said, "I threshed the rice today, and there are six stone of raw rice, nearly half an acre."
The villagers were stunned when these words came out. "Is this true? Manbao's uncle, you must be seeing things, right?"
"Could I be mistaken? I weighed it twice."
That would be shocking.
One person was spinning in circles. "My harvest is still not quite there yet. It's not quite ripe yet. I have to wait at least seven or eight days before I can harvest it."
"My house should be ready for mowing. How about I go and do it?"
"Forget it, I think it's still quite green. Leave it for two more days. The sun is good these two days, and it will turn yellow in a few days."
"Manbao's family planted the rice seedlings early this year, so they should be able to harvest them now, right?" Someone looked at Zhou Lizhong.
Zhou Lizhong nodded blankly and pointed to the fields not far away. "It's all right. We're harvesting today. My second and third uncles are all in the fields."
When everyone heard this, they immediately said, "We don't have anything to do today anyway, why don't we go and help out?"
"That's fine, that's fine, let's go and help."
Zhou Lizhong reached out to stop him, "How can you trouble the uncles?"
"Oh, what's the trouble? It's only natural for villagers to help each other. Let's go back and get the sickle. It's still early today. Let's weigh it after we finish harvesting."
Everyone rushed back home to get sickles, said hello to Zhou Erlang and Zhou Sanlang, and went into the fields to start sickling.
Zhou Sanlang was stunned. "They just finished harvesting beans, and the rice in their fields will be ripe in two days. Why don't they take a break and come to harvest rice for us?"
Zhou Erlang also stood and watched for a while, then bent down to cut the rice. "They want to weigh our rice, let them do it. Since we have time, let's cut all the yellow rice nearby."
Zhou Erlang took advantage of everyone with a clear conscience. After the rice was harvested, everyone helped to bring it back to Old Zhou's yard.
But it is impossible to thresh the rice because it has not been dried in the sun and is not easy to thresh at all.
Uncle Qian was just too impatient. He had just harvested an acre of rice and there were many people in his family, so he brought people out.
Uncle Qian was in no hurry to go back. While helping them spread out the rice to dry, he said, "You don't have to rush to thresh it. It's too raw and hard to thresh. I asked your second and third uncles to help a little today, and now your third uncle is holding his hands and crying in pain."
Zhou Lizhong nodded repeatedly and whispered, "Grandpa, it's getting dark. You should stay here tonight."
Uncle Qian thought about it and nodded, "Okay, I also want to ask where you got these new rice seeds, and if you have any other new seeds."
No one knew better than Zhou Lizhong where the seeds came from. He said, "My aunt-in-law allocated some of her official land in the capital to use as experimental fields, specifically for testing new seeds."
Uncle Qian was surprised, "So this new rice seed is..."
“We grew it.”
"Great, great," Uncle Qian patted him on the shoulder and said, "We've been farming for a lifetime and still haven't been able to grow new rice seeds. But you've managed it at such a young age."
Uncle Qian turned around and said to Zhou Erlang and Zhou Sanlang, "This must be the smoke coming out of your ancestral graves. Otherwise, they are all farming. Why can't other people grow anything? Whether it's wheat or rice, it's all growing in your fields?"
He said, "Hurry up, before it gets dark, bring some food and go burn incense for your uncle."
Zhou Erlang: "...Uncle, this is different from the wheat seed. I've seen their experimental fields, and it's very complicated. The rice plants have to be selected one by one and marked. When they bloom, sometimes Li Zhong has to plant the seeds himself. Some plots can't be interplanted and have to be separated. It's very complicated anyway. It took him years to grow this one seed."
(End of this chapter)
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