Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

Chapter 627 The Real Helplessness

It can be seen that during these 20 days, not only Wang An was feeling very depressed, but Shen Wei was also the same.

This can be seen from the degree of Shen Wei's madness.

After the two times, Wang An wanted to slow down and take a break, but Shen Wei probably felt that she was not satisfied yet, so she took the initiative to provoke a third war.

In this way, Wang An once again experienced the visual feast of snowflakes flying up and down, and occasionally swinging wildly from side to side.

I have to say, this feeling is really awesome, so damn awesome!
After several times, Wang An and Shen Wei both calmed down.

After a while, when both of them had completely caught their breath, Wang An took the initiative to say:

"Just now when I came into the yard, I saw you tinkering with the plow. Was that the plow you made yourself?"

Shen Wei was probably still savoring the beauty of what had just happened, so she was a little confused. After thinking for a while, she said:

"Yes, it's time to plant the crops. I went to the commune to buy a plowshare two days ago."

The commune that Shen Wei mentioned is actually Xing'an Township. As a township-level unit, Xing'an Township cannot be compared with a county town, but it does have supply and marketing cooperatives and restaurants.

Whether it is fur, bear bile, ginseng or something else, you can go to the Xing'an Township Supply and Marketing Cooperative to sell it.

It’s just that the supply and marketing cooperative in the village is small in size, and if the amount of money sold exceeds a certain level, it will run out of money.

In other words, if you sell too many things, you can only go home with a receipt, although you won't be short of money and can get it back in a day or two.

But who doesn’t want to see cash when selling something? Besides, who has nothing to do every day and wants to go through all this trouble?
In addition, the price of furs and ginseng is also very low. For example, if the basic price is 60, but the fox fur is worth 65 yuan according to the size, the supply and marketing cooperative in the village will nitpick and give you a price of 60, or even 62 or 63.
To be honest, that's fucking disgusting!
I really don't understand what the purpose of doing this is? You know, whether it's selling goods or receiving goods, it's all public accounts, and it has nothing to do with those salesmen.

Maybe it’s just as the old saying goes:

"With a sesame-sized power, you will only think about how to embarrass others. If you don't embarrass others, you can't show your existence."

It is also because of this that in Xing'an Township, almost all hunters who have a lot of prey will not sell it in the township supply and marketing cooperatives, but would rather go a long way to the county.

After all, it’s okay to just sell one or two furs, and it’s less troublesome to sell them right in front of you. Most importantly, it’s not worth going all the way to the county town.

But when the quantity is large, the money earned from selling will be too different. The key issue is that it is really frustrating to sell for less money!
The reason why Wang An went to the county town to sell things was for the same reason. He could get it done in one go, which saved him trouble and worry, and he didn’t have to endure my wrath.

Hearing Shen Wei's words, Wang An laughed subconsciously, and then said:
"Why, you want to use your donkey to pull the plow? Can it pull it?"

The reason why Wang An asked this was that when farming, at least one ox was needed to pull the plow.

A mule or a horse could barely pull it.

But it is well known that mules and horses are not as strong as cows.

So, if there is only one cow or one mule or horse pulling the plow all day, the cow may be fine, but the mule or horse may be in trouble.

If there are no special circumstances, the mule or horse will most likely be too tired to eat grass, and it may only take a few days for the mule or horse to be exhausted to death.

Wang An clearly remembered that the older generation had mentioned something like this during their conversations, that is, before the land was divided, in order to speed up the progress, a single mule was used to pull the plow. This so-called "speeding up the progress" was also a great anecdote at that time.

Because that year, the "grain output" was unmatched in the universe!
When farming, people rested but the horses did not, so at the end of the day, all the mules and horses in the production team had stopped eating grass.

But the mules and horses were collectively owned, so they had to do whatever the village chief told them to do. So the person in charge of raising horses added a little more feed to the mules and horses, and did the same thing again on the second and third days.

By the morning of the fourth day, the mules and horses were lying on the ground and unable to get up!
Several old mules and horses looked like they were about to die at any time, and once this happened, there was basically no way they could be saved.

So, something even more cruel happened. Someone suggested applying "black paste" to these old mules and horses that were about to die at any time.

In order to speed up the progress, the village head adopted this suggestion.

It has to be said that after the "black paste" was injected into the bodies of these old mules and horses, they soon became full of energy.

That guy didn't know what tiredness was at all. He was pulling the plow hard and fast.

However, the black paste only worked temporarily, so after three or four applications, the old mules and horses died in the field with foam at the mouth.

To put it bluntly, at that time, in order to "catch up with the progress", it was a real waste of time and money.

Therefore, generally speaking, the animals that pull the plow, excluding cows, would require two mules and horses.

As for the donkey, it's not that it can't be used, but if it's just a donkey, it's better to go with Lakiba.

Shen Wei heard this and paused before saying:
"I want to borrow two horses from your house, otherwise I won't be able to plant this land this year."

In fact, this is the real helplessness of a widow!
Because farming is not like planting a vegetable garden. It's not just about taking a pickaxe to dig a hole, putting seeds in it and then filling it with soil. If you farm like this, you may not be able to finish planting from spring to autumn.

So in this era, farming without large livestock is simply not feasible.

Of course, even if there are large livestock, it will be useless if there is not enough labor.

At the very least, there is one person to hold the plow, one person to plant the seeds, one person to collect manure, and one person to roll the eggs.

This requires 4 people, and how can one person, a woman at that, do the work that 4 people can do???
Besides, chemical fertilizers will soon become popular, and one more person will be needed to spread the fertilizer. That is to say, if you want to farm, in addition to large livestock, you will need five more people to complete the task.

This involves the issue of "farming together", that is, two families work together, I plant your land today, and I plant my land tomorrow. Otherwise, no one will be able to plant any land.

But for someone like Shen Wei, who only has one person and a donkey, who would want to partner with her?

Of course, Wang An would never continue to farm in the traditional way, because Wang An has been thinking about asking Zhang Shuya and Wu Dong for help to buy a track tractor, a hand tractor, or a four-wheeled vehicle.

Hearing Shen Wei's words, Wang An hugged the naked Shen Wei and smiled softly:

"Come on, serve me well and make me satisfied, then we can talk about borrowing the horse."

(End of this chapter)