Reborn to be rich

Chapter 20 Wheat Milling
When Zhang Chenglin came home in the evening, there was a brand new shelf bike tied to the back of his bicycle. Everyone in the second team greeted him after seeing it.

"Dad, I bought it back!"

"Well, the wheel is 55, and the frame is 26." Zhang Chenglin got off the bicycle, Zhang Guodong stepped forward to support the bicycle, and Zhang Guodong took the frame bike off the rear frame.

This wheel will not be worth 50 yuan in future generations, and the frame made of smooth poplar, with no steel nails all over the body, is seamlessly connected, and it is only worth 25 yuan. At this time, the labor value is pitifully low.

By the next day, harvesting had already started in Zhaojiayuan Village, but there was still no one in Zhangjialing. Zhang Guodong and his father had sharpened all the sickle blades, and the wheat harvest would start tomorrow morning.

Zhang Guodong took 100 yuan from his mother, saying that he was going to a neighboring village to find out about the purchase of silver dollars, so he rode a bicycle and drove north with dry food.

There is a special thing about collecting antiques, that is, you can't collect them near your home anyway. Zhang Guodong rode for more than an hour, walking along the Xigou road, and soon left Ganjing Township.

When he came to a small village, Zhang Guodong didn't know anything about it, so he shouted at the top of his voice when he got out of the car: "The price is high... silver dollars, gold dollars, ingots, antiques!"

At this time, every farmer’s family will have some gold and silver gadgets. Most of these things were hidden by local tyrants in the past. Generally, it is not easy to recognize people. But now the national policy has been relaxed, and the previous things are no longer there. After all, many people will quietly sell their things when they are too poor to live on.

"Young man, do you accept silver dollars? How much do you pay for how many of them are there in my family?"

"Ordinary silver dollars are 2 yuan. If you have more, I will give you two yuan. If it is Sun Yat-sen-Earth silver dollars, Guangxu Dingwei Shuanglong and other precious silver dollars, I will collect all 100 yuan here."

The silver dollars that Zhang Guodong said are relatively rare in China, but Sun Yat-sen-earth silver dollars can be more in Qin Province. This kind of silver dollars, known as the four kings of silver dollars, will gradually become famous after 98, but at this time the price Already much higher than ordinary silver coins.

"Two yuan is too little! The cash register in the county is 2 yuan."

"Master, who did you hear that, I don't know if there are 5 quick bucks in the county, but a few of them have actually been sold. If you sell them sincerely, I'll give you three yuan each."

Many rural people have never been to the county town in their lives, and they are asked to sell silver dollars in the county town, not to mention whether they have the guts. Fear is earned over and over again.

"Okay, young man, wait for a while, I'll go home and get silver dollars."

In the 80s, those who dared to go to the countryside to collect silver dollars did not fail to make a lot of money. Seeing that there was a silver dollar collector in the village, many villagers asked all the way to go east and west.

"Young man, do you want to accept the painting? My family has a calligraphy and painting handed down from the child's master. It was painted by a great painter who has been admired by everyone." Zhang Guodong was quite curious. When the aunt took it out of the house, it was a painting from the late Qing Dynasty. Imitation, no trace of collection value.

"Auntie, I only accept silver dollars. This painting is not bad. Wait for someone who knows how to paint to come and show it to him! It must be worth a lot." Auntie took back her treasured painting a little unhappy.

The villagers have unique gadgets in every family, but most of them just ask and don’t intend to sell them. Occasionally, some people take out one or two silver dollars and Zhang Guodong finally accepts them for 3 yuan. This price is considered very high in the village. up.

After staying in the village for an hour, Zhang Guodong managed to collect 12 ordinary silver dollars. Zhang Guodong pushed his bicycle out of the crowd, stepped on the bicycle and left the village under the expectant eyes of countless villagers. At the entrance of the village, he found a locust tree to stop the car. You have to be skilled in collecting things, and the skill is the next thing.

Zhang Guodong saw some villagers chasing him out of the village just now. After seeing him resting under a big tree in the distance, they all turned their heads and went back. After half an hour, a woman in her 40s came over, covering her pockets with her hands. position, walking towards him in a panic.

"I have 16 silver dollars here, and a gold one, how much can you give?" the woman asked cautiously.

"The silver dollars are well preserved. I'll give you 3 yuan for each one. The total is 48 yuan. The gold dollar is 30 yuan. How about I give you a total of 80 yuan?" Zhang Guodong took the small gold dollar and confirmed that everything was fine. Speaking later.

"Okay, eighty is eighty!"

After taking the money, the woman counted it twice, and left on a bicycle. Zhang Guodong had disappeared when an old man caught up with her. There is a rule for collecting treasures. A village can’t sell any big things, otherwise it will definitely cause trouble. arrival.

Already ready for today’s grain failure, Zhang Guodong did not expect that 100 yuan per hour would be enough. The silver dollar antique market has not yet opened in the remote areas of Qin Province. Be careful. He can do a small silver dollar business for a few years. of.

This cash register business is like this. If you are lucky, you can earn a few months a year. If you are unlucky, all unexpected things may happen.

Zhang Guodong came out today to investigate the situation. Now that the task has been completed, let's go home!

When he got home, it was just after two o'clock, and the family hadn't eaten yet, so he brought back the untouched biscuits.Knowing that Zhang Guodong collected enough silver dollars of 100 yuan a day, Zhang Chenglin and Hu Yuee were very happy that the plan for their son went well, but at the same time they felt a little apprehensive. They knew nothing about this industry. Since the eldest son made a decision, they would unconditionally support him.

On June 6, Zhangjialing finally started harvesting wheat. Before dawn, many people went to the field to harvest wheat with kettles and dry food. Rural people did not have enough sickles and carts at home, so many people could only live together with several families. This way, it will be faster to give the tools to the strongest labor force.

Zhang Guodong's family had already arrived in the field before the moon disappeared, and even the younger brother was brought out.

The 18 mu of wheat was kept in the past when Zhang Guodong was not at home. It would have been good to harvest it in one week and dry it in the sun for two weeks. My sister specially uses a shelf cart to deliver the cut wheat sheaves to the wheat field.

When the sun slowly rises from the intersection of Guanlu, there are people harvesting wheat everywhere in Zhangjialing. At this time, no matter how your family is doing, you are always happy in your heart.Zhang Guodong, father and son have harvested more than 2 mu of land, and their mother and younger sisters have piled up a lot of wheat sheaves for the wheat farm. People who pass by the wheat farm road can't help but praise their family's fast harvesting speed.

Rural people can see the labor force of a family from the speed of harvesting wheat every year. If a family harvests wheat too slowly, the villagers will think that the family has less labor force and weak people, so everyone will try their best at this time. rush in the harvest.

"Guo Rui, you pick up all the ears of wheat behind your second brother." The mother guided the younger brother, and little Guo Rui picked up the ears of wheat that fell in the field.

"Dad, let's grind the wheat today? Otherwise, the wheat field won't fit!" Zhang Guodong watched the large pieces of wheat being harvested and piled up in the corner of the wheat field, and his mother had to pile them up one by one, otherwise the wheat sheaves would not fit in the back.

"Well, the wheat sheaves piled together for a long time will also get damp. After cutting at noon, we will grind this field of wheat." It is unaffordable for ordinary families to grind while harvesting. Milling is worse than harvesting wheat. Severe physical work cannot be done without hard work.

At ten o'clock in the morning, my mother went home and brought back the breakfast prepared in the pot. Although Zhang Ping and Zhang Xiaoyue did not pack a lot of wheat in a cart, they did not rest.

It's hard to imagine that children at this time can help the family with so many things in such hot weather. Children living in big cities in later generations will suffer even a few minutes in the sun.

Zhang Guodong ate breakfast, a big bowl of porridge with two steamed buns and steamed buns. The steamed stuffed buns are vegetarian steamed buns made by him. Recently, he used him for noodle buns at home.

"Why don't we have any wheat customers from other places in our village? When will we have so much wheat? I don't feel so tired when I go out to harvest wheat for others. Why is it so tiring to harvest wheat for my own family?" Zhang Guotao took his mother with him after breakfast. He brought the straw hat, and chattered about it while cutting the wheat.

"If there were wheat guests from the village last year, would our mother be willing to invite them?" Zhang Guodong tied a wheat sheaf and put it on the ground.

"Our place is pretty much the same. The sheaves of wheat are incomparable to the wheat near Chang'an City. Alas! Why do we have such a hard life here!" Zhang Guotao once went to the outside world, which had a great influence on him. , Zhang Guodong also gradually discovered his desire to escape from this impoverished land, but in this life, when brother comes back, you don't even think about leaving.

"How can you say that life is hard? I think our village is very good. To the east is Guanlukou, the end of Xida Road in Ganjing Township, and to the west is a ravine, where cattle can be grazed. What a beautiful scenery!"

"Forget it brother, don't say it, and pretend I didn't say it?" Zhang Guotao hastily raised his hands in surrender.

Zhang Guodong knows that the second brother's current thinking is actually the thinking of most aspiring young people. They stay here doing nothing every day, listening to how beautiful the outside world is. These people will be the main force of China's economic development in the future and the pioneers of China's miracle.

"Second brother, do you know why I want to go back to our village?" Zhang Guodong suddenly asked his brother.

"What?"

This problem has always troubled Zhang Guotao. He knew that his brother's ability to leave the village would definitely accomplish a lot, but it seemed that he didn't want to leave here.

"No matter how good the city is, it's not my home. If we think our family is poor, we can just try to make him rich. Do you believe that I can make our village rich?"

It was the first time Zhang Guotao saw his brother speak so confidently. It seemed that everything was easy. He suddenly envied his brother. What's wrong with doing everything for his hometown? How would he know that he must be worse than others if he didn't fight? .

"Huh!" Zhang Guotao pulled his nose like a ghost who believed in you, until Zhang Guodong knew that his brother's heart had calmed down.

At around 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the mother took the fourth sister and the younger brother home to rest. They were young and tired after a long day of work. Others unloaded the last cart of wheat bundles and threw them in the middle of the wheat field to form a circular shape. , and then use iron slits to loosen the wheat sheaves, and the moisture in the wheat sheaves is quickly evaporated by the sunlight.

After lunch, Zhang Guodong and his son pulled over the stone rollers beside the wheat field, which meant that the wheat was about to be milled.

After harvesting the wheat in rural areas, all the wheat is crushed more than ten times with stone rollers, and the crushed wheat ears are spread out while the crushing is continued until finally the wheat and wheat ears can be removed from the wheat stalks together. , The labor is extremely hard, and the process is also complicated. It is not the harvester of later generations that only harvests wheat grains. There is no big difference between one or two acres and dozens of acres.

The stone rollers in the countryside are all pulled by people, and a small part of them are also pulled by cattle. The disadvantage of cattle pulling is that the cattle defecate everywhere, and it is difficult to clean up in the wheat pile.

"No one in our village has a tractor. If there is a tractor, we don't have to work so hard to pull the pole!"

The big roller weighing more than 500 kilograms rolled over the wheat straw, and Zhang Guodong and his second brother were sweating profusely.The parents and the third younger sister still use iron forks to lift the wheat straw from time to time to shake off the wheat grains and husks inside.Zhang Guotao was exhausted, and in the end it was basically Zhang Guodong who was working hard alone, and it lasted for more than 40 minutes before the wheat sticking ended.

"Next year, next year, our village will have tractors, and our family will not be able to buy them." Zhang Guodong pulled the roller to the side of the wheat field by himself, and the iron fork in his mother's hand turned over the wheat.

In fact, buying a tractor at this time is a good idea. It is not a problem to earn a few hundred for a summer harvest. Usually, the tractor can also help the family with a lot of farm work, and it can earn thousands of dollars a year.

Hearing the elder son's words, Zhang Chenglin felt relieved for a while. He was very proud of being able to grind a round of wheat on the first day of harvesting.Zhang Guotao also knows that if the village wants to buy a tractor, most of them can only be bought by his brother, and he can win money if he gives him time.

The wheat straw that has been rolled for the first time is not considered clean, and many farmers will grind it twice or three times.

The family of five labored and spread all the wheat grass on the edge of the wheat field. In the middle of the wheat field, there was only a mixture of wheat grains and wheat husks. Zhang Chenglin took this wooden lifter and threw the grain into the bar relying on the blowing force of the wind. It is a technical job to blow out the short wheat husks and short straw sections, and the wheat grains cannot be separated even if they are thrown badly several times.

Fortunately, after 3:[-] p.m., the wind was still moderate. After more than an hour, all the hard workers were basically lying in the middle of the wheat field, and the mother took a dustpan and a sieve to teach the third sister how to separate the few grains from the wheat husks. Every grain of human summer is extremely precious.

"Dad, how many catties do these weigh?" Zhang Guodong looked at the grain on the ground and asked. This is the happiest moment of the farmers' hard work all year.

"I think it can be about 1200 catties. This is 4 acres and 2 sub-divisions. If the harvest is finished this year, it will be about 5400 catties. The second time the wheat straw is milled, it can harvest more than 200 catties." Zhang Chenglin looked at the wheat on the ground and thought. want to say.

Those who have worked in the countryside all their lives can roughly estimate the harvest of a year just by looking at the condition of the ears of wheat. Zhang Chenglin estimated that the wheat harvest would be 5600 jin, and the error would not be greater than [-] jin. After hearing this, Hu Yue'e couldn't help showing a smile .

(End of this chapter)