"mother!"
As soon as Xu Errui got home, he wiped the water off his face and hurriedly went to find Jiang Zhi, who was inspecting the rice seeds.
"Mother, Uncle Tian asked what we should do. The rice can wait at most three to five days, but the corn can't wait at all. Some of it has already started to sprout."
Jiang Zhi has been thinking about this matter these past few days. In any case, the grain must be brought into storage.
After thinking it over, Jiang Zhi decided to rush to harvest the grain first: "The rice seeds on the mountain are dry, so let's go down the mountain and start harvesting. We don't need the corn husks, just the ears."
Xu Errui said anxiously, "Mother, we can hang them up to dry with the skin on, but in our warehouse, they're all piled up and will get moldy."
When grain is brought home still damp, it must be immediately spread out in a thin layer in a well-ventilated area.
The village was full of shacks, and no one had a bright and well-ventilated place to dry their clothes. The only place with ventilation was under the warehouse shed.
There's not enough room for just corn, let alone rice.
Jiang Zhi couldn't think of a place like Xujia Village, but rather the county town. She still needed to discuss the specifics with the group of eight.
As she descended the mountain, the eight-person mutual aid group gathered under the drying shed. Tian Gui and Xu Genyou raised the same issue: the weather wouldn't clear up anytime soon, and the corn and rice needed to be harvested as soon as possible, otherwise they would sprout and reduce yield.
If there were only one type of grain, it would be better, but now that late-season corn and rice are coinciding, things are becoming increasingly complicated.
Fortunately, the villagers had dried and bagged their corn a month in advance, and all of this second-crop late corn belonged to the Jiang family.
Losses are inevitable; now we can only salvage what we can.
Jiang Zhi didn't immediately share her thoughts, but instead encouraged everyone to brainstorm together.
Xu Genyou said, "We can only start by picking corn, shell and all, and hang it up wherever we can under each family's shed."
Xu Gensheng immediately shook his head: "A shack is only a small place. Even if you give up all the beds, it won't be enough."
The pillars supporting the shack were as thick as an arm; if one fell on them, the whole shack would collapse.
Xu Genyou fell silent. Summer downpours had once destroyed the thatched hut, and the wooden frame inside couldn't support the corn hanging there.
It's been raining continuously, and the thatched roofs are already soaked with water. Hanging corn on them will only cause them to collapse again under the weight.
Tian Gui said, "Could we ask Inspector Zhang for help? We used to have a kang (heated brick bed) set up in the medical shed; could we borrow it for a few days to dry our grain?"
“No way! Inspector Zhang won’t agree.” Jiang Zhi immediately rejected the idea.
Jiang Zhi had thought about this problem while he was on the mountain. The rice seeds grown on the mountain were grown using a heated kang (a traditional heated platform), which was the most reliable method.
But that was the kang (heated brick bed) where the entire patrol and inspection division slept; it wasn't a table or bench that anyone could just borrow.
There was plenty of grain down the mountain, and it couldn't be dried in a day or two. So people gave up their kang (heated brick bed) and didn't sleep for days.
There's no such thing as "the military and the people are one family" here!
It's one thing to trouble Zhang Juntou alone, but this involves raiding the entire inspection team's headquarters. Why would they help you?
When faced with something that required experience, Errui, Xiaoman, Wuyang, and Xia Xiucai all remained silent.
In fact, even Xiaoman and his family only have two options in this situation: air-dry or dry in an oven.
Seeing that neither of their opinions were satisfactory, Old Li scratched his head and looked like he wanted to speak but dared not.
Xu Gensheng nudged him: "What do you suggest we do?"
Li Laoshi chuckled: "My method is very simple. I just set up a frame here in the drying shed and pile up the corn."
You say ventilation is useless? Don't worry, have everyone in the village come here and use palm-leaf fans to fan themselves, from morning till night, standing shoulder to shoulder..."
Before he could finish speaking, Xu Gensheng jumped up: "No, no, if there are too many people, the wind will be blocked, and there won't even be a place to stand."
Besides, if you fan yourself and I fan ourselves, but the directions of our fans are different, won't the winds clash?
Can the wind from a fight dry corn? What if the corn doesn't dry and the person gets chilled first...?
Li Laoshi: "...?" Is there such a strong wind?
Xu Genyou: ...There's only this one room. They put up a wooden frame to pile up corn. There's nowhere for anyone to stand.
Tian Gui and the others looked at each other in bewilderment: Was the wind going to fight?
Seeing that things were getting more and more outrageous, Jiang Zhi cleared her throat and said, "Let's harvest the grain first, and leave the professional stuff to the professionals."
This year, Magistrate Zhang is exempt from taxes, but taxes will be due next year. We're striving to be outstanding taxpayers and are paying our taxes a year in advance.
The group was dumbfounded again. They had been going to the countryside every year to collect taxes, but no one was willing to pay their taxes in advance.
Moreover, the magistrate was willing to accept even wet grain that had not been dried.
And what does the saying "professionals do professional things" mean?
Jiang Zhi explained, "If we're talking about the place that dries the fastest and is the most spacious, it should be Magistrate Zhang's granary. It's so empty now that mice can run around in it."
"There is a place for drying, which is the Huo family's medicine shop."
To ensure the drying of various medicinal herbs and the preparation of medicines, the pharmacy has professional drying racks and staff.
As for whether Magistrate Zhang was willing to accept it... Jiang Zhi thought he was.
Although wet grain is more troublesome, Pingchuan County, which is short of both silver and grain, has no shortage of manpower.
The shortage of grain here is not a big problem, and it can also alleviate the county government's financial difficulties. More importantly, it can set a good example.
Taxes will be levied sooner or later; it's unavoidable. Those who run ahead will reap the rewards, while those who lag behind will be punished.
These corns all belong to Jiang Zhi, so she has the right to decide.
Tian Gui and the others had no other way to solve the problem, so they had to do this.
However, before delivering the grain, Jiang Zhi asked Zhang Juntou to send a message to the county government, saying that the road was difficult to travel and that if Magistrate Zhang refused the grain, he couldn't have made a wasted trip.
"You want to pay taxes in advance? Or use wet grain?" Zhang Juntou was stunned by this strange idea and didn't know what to say for a moment.
They said she was a good person for paying taxes in advance, but what she was using was wet grain that hadn't been dried.
If Magistrate Zhang does not accept wet grain, then tax grain will have to wait until next year to be stored in the granary.
For several granaries, wet grain is not a big deal; it dries in just three to five days and is still grain.
Moreover, this tax was paid a year in advance, so Magistrate Zhang should give him a compliment.
This village woman is incredibly cunning, trying to gain both fame and fortune!
Zhang Juntou also wanted to see how Magistrate Zhang would deal with the village woman, so he sent someone on horseback to deliver the message to the county government in the rain.
The news came back quickly, and just as Jiang Zhi had predicted, Magistrate Zhang wanted to collect it, and as much as he could get.
The dehydrated weight is determined using small-sample measurements as the standard.
When Tian Gui and the others heard the news, they were also happy for Village Chief Jiang, as this would reduce their losses.
So, taking advantage of the break in the rain, the whole village mobilized again, eating from the same pot, doing collective work, and starting to pick corn while wading through the mud.
Everyone was thrilled: paying taxes in advance and using wet grains—something they had never seen before.
However, things are different now. Even a hero can be brought down by a single penny. If there were good grain, Magistrate Zhang would certainly not want to go through such trouble.
What Jiang Zhi didn't expect was that Magistrate Zhang, as expected, wanted to make a big fuss about it and actually had the county granary send a grain cart to pick it up.
When Jiang Zhi saw Xiang Dejin arriving in a car, she felt as if the sky had cleared up.
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