This year's bumper harvest was due not only to favorable weather but also to the use of chemical fertilizers in the fields. Although no one said it, everyone was very grateful to Han Yixian for obtaining the fertilizer permit for the village.
You should know that fertilizer approvals are not easy to obtain; without approvals, you can't buy fertilizer even if you have the money.
Although the water in the paddy fields had long since dried up, vehicles still couldn't get in. The rice was harvested and carried by hand to the roadside, then transported by horse-drawn carts to the threshing ground.
The rice paddies were still quite wet, and a large bundle of rice was very heavy, so it was usually the men who were responsible for carrying it on their backs.
The children would then search for fallen ears of rice in the fields after the harvest. To encourage the children's participation, whoever found the rice kept it—a long-standing tradition in the village.
So during the autumn harvest season, the children would be busy in the fields, and the grain they picked up could also add some food to their families.
Rice is plentiful in the south, and He Yuhan loves to eat rice, which is what she's most satisfied with. In the north, rice is not a common commodity.
Once the rice is transported to the threshing ground, it is threshed and then dried. Only when the rice is completely dry can it be stored. Currently, rice threshing is done by a manually operated machine, commonly known as a manual rice threshing machine, which is very slow.
He Yuhan noticed that the people on the field were threshing rice by the handful, which was incredibly slow. This gave her the idea to design a powered rice threshing machine.
Wheat is another laborious task. After being threshed by hand, wheat still needs to be winnowed to remove the unwanted husks from the grains. This work is not only arduous and tiring, but also extremely time-consuming.
If it rains during the wheat harvest, the wheat is very likely to mold or sprout, resulting in waste. This is why everyone is mobilized to harvest the wheat as soon as the harvest begins.
She can design rice threshing machines, wheat threshing machines, corn threshing machines, etc. When the time comes, wheat and rice can be threshed by machines, which will be much more efficient and will also allow the grain to be dried and stored as soon as possible, reducing grain waste.
In fact, some places already have threshing machines, but Qianyuan County is remote and underdeveloped, so it doesn't have them at all.
Now that Qianyuan County has its own machinery factory, it can completely produce this kind of machinery on its own. The machinery she designs will definitely be better than those currently sold on the market. Even if the machinery factory only supplies domestically, the demand will still exceed the supply.
It's too late this year, but next year she can use her status as a designer to secure experimental machines for Beili Village. At that time, Beili Village will be able to own the machines without spending much money.
With this idea in mind, He Yuhan decided to go back and start drawing blueprints. She also shared her idea with Han Yixian.
Han Yixian was very supportive of He Yuhan's idea, "Although we're living in the countryside, you're still the technical consultant for Qianyuan County Machinery Factory. You can still do design and draw blueprints here. I'll set up a study for you later."
You're too busy and too tired right now. There's no rush to draw blueprints; we can do that after the autumn harvest.
Once you've finished the drawings, send them to Zhengye. He'll know what to do. We're sending him a treasure; he'll be overjoyed.
"It wouldn't be a problem to have their factory provide two machines to Beili Village later. They can bring the two machines here for testing, and you, as the designer, can give your feedback on the spot. The machines can be left as test machines, and we'll just give them a token amount of money."
Han Yixian didn't want to waste his wife's talent; designing some mechanical equipment would be a good idea since she didn't have to work in the county town.
He Yuhan fully agreed with Han Yixian's arrangement, saying, "I will design a wheat threshing machine, a rice threshing machine, and a corn thresher all at once. I will try my best to reduce costs so that most villages can afford them. This will increase the efficiency of grain harvesting and save a lot of labor."
This year or next, Beili Village will need to engage in some sideline businesses, which will provide a source of labor.
Harvesting soybeans also requires careful timing. If the soybeans are too dry, the pods will burst open, and the beans will fall to the ground, resulting in waste. Therefore, soybeans should be harvested before they are completely dry, and it is best to harvest them in the morning.
Because the soybeans were damp from the dew overnight, the pods didn't easily burst open in the morning. However, after a morning of sun exposure, many of the pods were dry, and they would burst open easily if touched.
Therefore, there is a lot to learn about farm work.
Soybean stalks are very hard, and it's easy to prick your hands with them if you're bare-handed. To prevent Han Yixian from getting hurt, and also to avoid standing out from the crowd, He Yuhan donated about a hundred pairs of cotton gloves to the village, which Uncle Gao then distributed to the villagers harvesting soybeans.
Han Yixian smiled as he held the cotton gloves his wife had given him, saying, "My wife is so thoughtful; everyone in the village is benefiting from her kindness."
He Yuhan knew that Han Yixian hadn't done much farm work before and was very worried about him, so she instructed him, "Be careful when you're harvesting beans, don't hurt your hands."
Han Yixian took He Yuhan's hand, looked at it with concern, and said, "Look at your hands, they've become so rough, and you've gotten so dark. You've also lost weight."
He Yuhan said, "No, people are a bit darker, but they haven't lost weight. Everyone is working in the fields, even the children are going. How could I just stand by and watch?"
Besides, we earn too little work points, and it wouldn't look good if we had to pay extra when it came time to distribute food rations. Don't worry, I've been assigned to pick cotton, it's not too tiring.
"Once the rice is stored and the soybeans are harvested, there's no need to rush. These two things can't wait; if you're too late, the soybeans will have already fallen into the fields."
Han Yixian said, "Don't overwork yourself. We don't need those extra work points. You still have to breastfeed the baby, so take it easy. I'll go to the mountains to hunt a pheasant at noon to help you recover."
He Yuhan said, "Don't waste your time. You could rest at noon instead. I'll go with you at noon and catch two from my space. We'll go early and come back early."
Han Yi nodded and said, "Okay, I'll come find you after work."
He Yuhan took out a very common-looking insulated water bottle and put it in a cotton cover she had specially made, saying, "I filled this water bottle with chilled mung bean soup. Drink more when you're thirsty to cool down and hydrate."
Han Yixian asked, "Did you bring it?"
He Yuhan nodded and said, "I brought it."
The couple, dressed in long sleeves and trousers and wearing straw hats, were fully equipped before leaving their home to join everyone else in working in the fields.
The villagers who harvested soybeans were very happy to be given a pair of cotton gloves, and everyone cherished them.
However, with the cotton gloves, harvesting soybeans was no longer a problem as it meant getting pricked, and the speed increased considerably. Gao Shuwen thought to himself that learned people really do have a lot of solutions; these gloves weren't worth much, but they could solve many problems.
When the villagers first started working with Han Yixian, they were all very curious. After all, Han Yixian was a city dweller who had settled in their rural village. Everyone initially wondered if Han Yixian had done something wrong.
But then I thought that if I committed a crime, I wouldn't be able to be assigned to be a cadre in the village.
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