Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 54 0051 [Wheat Harvesting]

Shangbai Village has no knowledge of the movements of Heifeng Village.

Even the bandits didn't know that every time they went down the mountain to plunder, in order to prevent the news from leaking, they only informed a few leaders in advance.

Zhu Guoxiang's village school has not yet opened, because the busy season of farming has arrived.

At this moment, Zhu Ming is bending over to cut wheat with a sickle in his hand.

The wheat he cut was tied up with hemp rope by Grandma Yan.

The child Bai Qi was not idle either, following behind Zhu Ming, carrying a bamboo basket to pick up the fallen ears of wheat.

After tying up the wheat, Grandma Yan also turned to harvest.

Not long after, Zhu Guoxiang came over with a pole on his shoulders, and picked up the wheat that Grandma Yan had tied up.The brazing pole is an extended version of the shoulder pole, with iron points at both ends, which can be picked up by inserting into the bundled wheat pile.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law cultivated it by themselves, and only this acre of wheat land was rented out to the villagers.

Picking the wheat back home and spreading it out in the courtyard dam, Zhu Guoxiang picked up the flail and began to threat the wheat that had been dried two days ago.

Shen Yourong was also working. She swept the wheat that she threshed before into baskets and packed it.At the moment, he is using the windbreaker to separate the debris from the wheat grains, his forehead is covered with fine sweat, and the skin on his face is also much tanned.

The two were working and chatting gossip.

Shen Yourong asked: "The taller the maize planted by my husband, the taller he is, he must be able to harvest a lot of grain. Can wheat be interplanted with corn?"

Zhu Guoxiang replied: "It is possible. The wheat should be set aside in the empty row, and the crops should be interplanted in the empty row. It is best to plant garlic. First, the month is just right, and second, garlic can repel insects. Wait until one or two months before the wheat is harvested. Replace the garlic with corn and plant it. After the wheat is harvested, the wheat row is replaced with beans and sweet potatoes. On the same land, five crops can be grown, and the growth and harvest periods are completely staggered, so they will not be idle all year round. But not in the mountains , the fertility can’t keep up, the wheat field of my wife’s house is just right.”

"That's very good. There are five types of crops planted on one piece of land." Shen Yourong smiled happily, and began to imagine the bumper harvest next year.

Zhu Guoxiang said with emotion: "It's a pity that no matter how much food is grown, it is not enough for the government to expropriate."

The smile on Shen Yourong's face suddenly disappeared: "A lot of our land is occupied by the head households in the village. They also have to pay more taxes this year, so I'm afraid they won't be able to collect the rent. Yesterday Angkor came to look for me and said that he He is no longer the main householder, and sold all the few mu of land in the family. He wants to sell all the land to our family, and come to be our customer, and asked the husband if he would take it in."

"Accept it." Of course Zhu Guoxiang was willing to accept it. This was the first step towards becoming a big landlord.

Shen Yourong said: "If you accept clients, you won't be able to be a fifth-class household. Our family will have to pay more taxes next year."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "If you pay more taxes, you have to accept them."

Once the customer is accepted, the account book must be changed, and the customer information must be added to it.

The only thing that is very strange is that normally speaking, even if the villagers want to vote for the landlord, they should vote for the old white members, but Wu Er actually came to vote for the Zhu family and his son.

It seems that the old Bai Yuanwai has really damaged his reputation!

Tax reminders are normal, every year.

But this year too much has been urged, which has exceeded the capacity of farmers.The five Baiford brothers who were pushed out to be villains ran away again, and the old white members had to go off in person, and used the Baojia method to make a bunch of reminders.

Of course the villagers had resentment in their hearts, so Wu Er and Zhu Ming got along well, and even gave Zhu Ming a bamboo tube of loose tea.This time I don't plan to be the main householder, Wu Er would rather be cheaper than Zhu Ming than that old white member.

If things go on like this, the more clients who turn to Zhu's father and son, the more conflicts they have with the old white staff.

The father and son must develop their strength as soon as possible, otherwise, the old white members may turn against each other after reaching a certain level.

The so-called development of strength is not about occupying more land, but about accumulating prestige and raising social status.

For example, making friends with Li Hanzhang and Zheng Hong is to expand the network and make the old white people have scruples.Another example is that he has a close relationship with Zhang Guangdao, and having a bandit by his side is also a kind of reliance.

After winnowing half a basket of wheat, Shen Yourong turned off the windbreaker, went to Zhu Guoxiang's side to help, bowed his head and said, "When the wheat is harvested, my husband will go visit my parents."

"It's my wife's arrangement," Zhu Guoxiang said.

Shen Yourong couldn't help laughing, and said sweetly in his heart, "But bring Dalang along, he's good at learning, my father will definitely like it."

"Yes, he is good at this kind of thing." Zhu Guoxiang said.

The farm work here can be handed over to Shen Yourong, Zhu Guoxiang put down the flail, picked up the pole again, and went to the field to pick the harvested wheat.

Zhu Ming was sitting and resting in the wheat field. When he saw his father coming, he wiped his sweat and complained, "This work of harvesting wheat is really not done by humans. I am so tired that my waist is almost broken."

"Just to temper your temper." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Zhu Ming said unhappily: "You can literally stand and talk without back pain. Come and try bending over to cut the wheat."

"You can't handle this difficulty?" Zhu Guoxiang said, "I can cut it, and you can pick the wheat. But a reminder, if you don't cut the wheat, you will give up and fail to stand the test."

"Grass!"

Zhu Ming picked up the sickle again, stood up and said, "I can hold on!"

Grandmother Yan was used to bickering between father and son, so she just smiled and watched the excitement.She is more and more satisfied with her current life. There are two men in the family, and the farm work is much faster, and the speed of harvesting wheat has doubled.

While cutting and cutting, Zhu Ming remembered something, and suddenly stood up straight: "Dean Zhu, don't pick the wheat, just let the cornucopia carry it back!"

"Yes!" Zhu Guoxiang slapped his forehead fiercely.

Both father and son regarded the cornucopia as a war horse, and never thought of letting the horse do farm work.The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law thought about it, but they were embarrassed to say it, which caused the horse to enjoy the blessing all the time.

It has been almost three months since I picked up the horse, and my physical strength has long since recovered. It is time to let this animal work.

Poor Zhu Ming's big sword was used as a hatchet to cut through thorns and thorns all the way.Now it is a cornucopia again, a good war horse, which is used by the young men to do farm work.

In the evening, when the family returned from work, Shen Yourong had finished cooking and was sweeping the dry wheat grains in the courtyard.

Today's food standard has been improved, with rice, meat dishes, and vegetable soup cooked with lard.

Even the cornucopia that only worked for half a day gave two handfuls of beans more.

Zhu Guoxiang told his son that there were clients who took refuge in him. Zhu Ming said, "This is a good thing. Apart from the old white people, are there many people in the village who have taken refuge in other families?"

Mrs. Yan said: "Eighty percent of them go to the old white members, and the rest go to third- and fourth-class households. I have never seen anyone who goes to our fifth-class households."

"If you have a client under your name, you will definitely upgrade your account when you change your account." Shen Yourong said.

"It's okay." Zhu Ming said.

After eating and drinking enough, Zhu Ming stood outside the courtyard enjoying the evening breeze. His waist was exhausted, and he just wanted to stand for a while.

I saw a few strong men coming, all holding tools in their hands, and greeted Zhu Ming when they passed by, and then continued to walk forward.

When they walked away, Zhu Ming couldn't help asking: "What are these people doing? I saw it yesterday too."

Shen Yourong said: "It's the tea farmers on the mountain, and they are the ones who hold the tea. They also practice spears and sticks in their free time."

Aunt Yan's tone was a bit dissatisfied: "The old white members were shaking their prestige outside, shouted ten or twenty down the mountain, and then wandered around the village. The neighbors in the village were too frightened to talk nonsense."

Zhu Ming understood that it was a private armed force of the old white member.

I usually work in the tea garden, and it is estimated that I will also participate in tea picking, tea making and serving tea trees.These people also rely on these people to escort the tea, conduct military training in their spare time, and use them to frighten the villagers when tax collection.

Of course, it is generally not taken out to avoid arousing the disgust of the villagers.

This time the government collected too much tax, and the old white officials were afraid of making trouble, so they could only show their fangs.

The sky was getting darker and night fell, and the village became extremely silent.

From time to time, a few dogs barked, breaking the silence, but it seemed that the surroundings were even quieter.

Zhu Ming looked up at the night sky: "The moon is really big tonight, why don't I sing a song for everyone."

"Stop!"

Zhu Guoxiang hurriedly stopped him, not wanting to hear his son screaming like crazy.

Zhu Ming said: "It's fine if you don't listen. I used to sing live broadcasts, and I had to receive gifts. But it was strange. When I told stories, there were a lot of people, but when I sang, they all ran away. Only a few irons were left. Fan, send barrage saying 'good singing' to comfort me. Alas, life is as lonely as snow, and few can appreciate my singing voice."

Zhu Guoxiang couldn't help but want to roll his eyes. He knew that his son was exhausted today, and he was talking nonsense to relieve his emotions.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law couldn't understand it at all, thinking it was some custom on Guangnan Road.

Zhu Ming suddenly shouted: "Brother Qi, come quickly!"

Bai Qi was very obedient and ran to his side quickly.

Zhu Ming said: "I'm not going to teach you how to sing today, I'm going to teach you the originator of doggerel."

"What is the originator?" Bai Qi asked.

Zhu Ming said, "It's our ancestors."

Bai Qi asked again: "What is doggerel?"

Zhu Ming said nonsense, "It's you who go to get oil. If you can recite doggerel, you don't need to pay for oil."

"Then I want to learn." Bai Qi was quite active.

Zhu Ming said: "Listen well. Jiangshang is a general, Inoue has black holes. The body of the yellow dog is white, and the body of the white dog is swollen. Do you know what this poem is about?"

"I don't know." Bai Qi shook his head.

Under the moonlight, Zhu Ming began to explain doggerel to the children.

In the Han River, bandits rowed boats and were rapidly approaching Shangbai Village.

(Seeking a monthly ticket, asking for a recommendation ticket, asking for a collection.)
(End of this chapter)