After traveling to ancient times, I became a superb shrew

Chapter 58 Rice Threshing Machine

end of July.

The sun is still shining and the temperature is still high. Gujia Village has officially entered the autumn harvest.

Not only Gujia Village, but all the villages in Youshui Town and all the towns in Nanzhou also harvested rice in the past two days. The busiest half month for farmers has come.

On a village road in Nanzhou, several carriages were parked, and several men in official uniforms stood beside the carriages.

The 50-year-old at the front, with a majestic face, stood with his hands behind his back: "Drought in the north, floods in the south, Huzhou is located in the middle of the north and south, and it can't be avoided. Fortunately, some counties and towns worked together to eliminate locusts and saved most of the locusts. Paddy fields. Youshui Town, Baiyun Town, Fenghuang Township to the southwest is in good condition, but there are already refugees in the northeast border of Nanzhou, and this year's tax must be increased."

The speaker is the magistrate of Nanzhou, the largest official in Nanzhou, and the governor of the provincial capital. The governor is a Beijing official. For so many years, I have only seen the governor from a distance once, and I didn't see it clearly when I was too far away.

"Go back to the magistrate, the official has asked the master to reset the tax quota. Except for Gujia Village in Youshui Town, the tax revenue of all other villages is between [-]/[-] and [-]/[-]." County magistrate Shen lowered his head and cupped his hands Dao said, "Income has dropped sharply this year, but taxes have risen, and the grain harvested should be the same as the previous year."

More than half a month ago, she had already informed those villagers that any village that needs the county government to solve the problem of locust eradication will raise taxes this year. within the acceptable range.

The other county magistrates stared at Magistrate Shen dumbfounded.

This shriveled boy explained how to kill the locusts, but didn't tell them in advance that they had to raise taxes.

During this bumper harvest, they suddenly forcibly collected more grain, and the villagers in their jurisdiction would definitely not do it, and the village-to-village commotion would be a big headache.

However, one-third of the land in Nanzhou has no food, and it must be handed over from other regions to make up for it, otherwise the refugees will gather together, and the consequences will be even more serious.

County magistrate Zheng bowed his head and said, "Master Zhifu, don't worry, the food in Fenghuang Town will be handed over in full."

The magistrates of the remaining counties and towns expressed their views one after another.

The magistrate touched his beard, nodded and said: "Excessive taxation is also a last resort. This matter must be clearly explained to the people, so as not to cause resistance from the people. Moreover, bandits will be prevalent during the harvest season. Guards and patrols should be strengthened within the jurisdiction. , Also, we must stop merchants from hoarding grain and selling it at high prices..."

A group of county magistrates nodded and remembered all these.

After the magistrate finished speaking, he left in a carriage, and County Magistrate Shen was immediately surrounded by others.

"My sister Shen, if you don't let us know about the tax payment, you will be hurting us." The magistrate Zheng sighed. White."

County Magistrate Shen snorted coldly: "Will you listen to me?"

She also listened to the words of Mrs. Zheng and Mrs. Gu in the Gu family village, and managed to resolve the crisis in exchange for a bumper harvest this time.

County Magistrate Shen got up and got into the carriage.

Behind her, the county magistrate of Fenghuang Town also followed.

The sun is very strong.

The fierce sun was shining directly, and beads of sweat rolled from the forehead and dripped into the rice fields.

This was the first day of the autumn harvest, and even though the shop posted a notice of closure, Gu Qing was still so tired that his whole body was falling apart when the whole family came back from the autumn harvest.

Their family has a total of five mu of paddy fields, eight main laborers, Yang Pei, Tong Shu, a group of childhood, Moli, Tong Aunt, and Tong Hua, and the two groups take turns harvesting.

The other group is responsible for tying up the harvested rice with straw ropes, and picking them home and stacking them in the yard. There will be omissions in harvesting in the field, and some ears of rice will fall on the ground. Tong Juan and Gu Nuo are responsible for removing these. Picking up the rice and taking it back, Gu Yu had a head injury and dug wild vegetables nearby to feed the chickens and ducks.

The people who stayed at home were Zhu Han and Tong Xiu Dong Rong. Zhu Han and Tong Xiu sat beside the rice to thresh, that is, they lifted the rice one by one and smashed it on the side of the wooden basin, and some grains would fall into the basin. However, because the rice still contains water, some grains will not fall off, so I throw these ears of rice on the ground in the yard to dry for half a day.

Next came Dong Rong's work. He beat the rice with a flail, over and over again, until all the grains fell off.

The work efficiency of the two was extremely slow, and it took most of the day to produce a pot of threshed rice. These grains were exposed to the sun at the door, and the husking process could only be carried out after the water was completely dried.

Originally, Gu Qing was also a rice cutter, but after cutting rice for a long time, three blood blisters appeared on the palm of her hand, which hurt so badly when she touched it. When they saw her, they wanted to drive her home.

She ran to collect the cut rice, tied it up with straw ropes, and carried it home with a pole.

The rice field is not far from home, but under the sun, carrying such a heavy thing and walking all the way back makes people tired and out of breath.

When he reached the gate of the yard and put down the rice, Gu Qing felt that his shoulders were also blistered with blood.

She walked into the back room and tore off the collar. Her left shoulder was red and the skin on her right shoulder was torn, which made her grin her teeth in pain.

She hurriedly bought ointment from the mall and applied it on each of her left and right shoulders, as well as on the palms of her hands. It felt so refreshing and comfortable.

Sitting on a chair to rest, she couldn't help sighing that no matter what age, the hardest and most tired are always farmers, and the poorest are also farmers. Farmers are always at the bottom of society.

"Rong'er, come here."

Gu Qing beckoned.

Dong Rong, who was thrashing rice in the yard, walked in and took a sip of water along the way.

Gu Qing took his hand over, and the palm of his hand was also torn. Threshing rice is not so tiring compared to harvesting rice. In fact, it is a physical labor. Need to do this kind of work.

"If you are tired, just sit down and have a rest, and the threshing can be done slowly."

Dong Rong shook his head: "I think it's quite interesting." Besides, Mo Li, who is younger than him and still a scholar, is doing the most tiring work in the fields, so he has no right to complain.

Gu Qing smiled and applied the ointment on him. The ointment came in a very simple outer packaging, and nothing unusual could be seen.

She went into the kitchen, took out several bowls, bought heatstroke medicine from the mall, poured them into the bowls, and handed them to Dong Rong and the others.

"This is boiled with the heatstroke prevention herbs I picked, and I drank it all."

Zhu Han had no doubts.

After all, the Patriarch can get the locust extermination potion, and it is quite normal to have anti-heat medicine, but since the Patriarch said that it is boiled from the herbs she picked, then so be it.

Gu Qing put on a straw hat, took a pole and went back to the field to call everyone back to drink heatstroke medicine. If she fainted in the field, it would be a big trouble.

The whole village is busy, whether it is the elderly or children, they are doing what they can. The rice should be collected as soon as possible, and the rice should be threshed as soon as possible, and the skin should be peeled after threshing...

Gu Qing looked at Zhu Han and the three of them on the ground tossing for a long time before getting out a little rice, and began to try hard to recall the rice thrasher he saw in the field when he was a child in his previous life.

When Gu Qing was a child, he always used a rice thresher to harvest rice at home. One is a semi-automatic rice thresher with diesel fuel, and the other is a manual rice thresher that relies on feet.
Gu Qing got a pen, ink, paper and inkstone and began to recall the appearance of the human rice thresher, drawing while recalling, and only after finishing the drawing did she remember that it was busy farming season, even if she drew it, no one would make it for her.

In the end, after tossing for a long time, I still opened the mall silently and spent 15 taels of silver to order five human rice threshers, and made an appointment to deliver them in the afternoon.

(End of this chapter)