Qin Official

In mid-August, the autumn air is crisp, and in the clear blue sky, Yunmengze welcomes the first batch of geese returning south. Under the formation of geese, there is a layer of hoarfrost on the ground, and there are withered and withered vegetation.

But around Liju where there are people and activities, there is no desolation at all. Outside the five-acre house, the children drooled and watched eagerly as the apricots on the trees turned yellow; in the fields, the golden ears of rice swayed and danced in the breeze.

In the sunset in Yunmeng Township, on the open land next to the farmland, you can see villagers hunched over and busy working everywhere. This is the harvest season and the busiest time of the year for farmers. There is no idle person in the whole place.

Hei Fu, who had already injured most of his leg, couldn't sit still anymore and wanted to step out to help. He stood beside the soft, cool paddy field. His nose was filled with the fragrance of ripe rice. He was reminded of the chases and fights in the past few days and the licking of blood from the knife edge. The day seems to be further away from him.

At this moment, Brother Uncle and Sister-in-law Qiu, together with several mediocre cultivators employed by their family, were cutting grain in the paddy field with their backs to the sky and sickles in their hands.

Since Heifu became an official, their family's life has improved a lot. Even the farm tools have been replaced with copper and iron. Looking at other families nearby, there are actually some who use stone sickles...

Even with an iron sickle, it is still not very fast to cut rice stubble. This work is very tiring. At the end of the day, my waist is almost broken.

But it won't work if you don't harvest it quickly. After the rice matures, it can't be left in the ground for too long.

Alas, this is the disadvantage of having too much land. Now three people in the Heifu family have titles. Although the families are nominally divided, the land is planted together. At the beginning of August, my uncle only helped Heifu harvest half of the 100 acres of millet fields that had been fertilized with compost. There were still 100 acres of millet fields fertilized using the old method and 100 acres of rice.

Having said that, farm work cannot be rushed, and the Heifu family is not a heibapi who forces the long-term workers to survive. Seeing that the mediocre farmers are tired, they ask them to sit on the ridge of the field. He put down the sickle in his hand, took off the bamboo hat on his head, dusted his sleeves with both hands, drank a few mouthfuls of water brought by the woman, ate two mouthfuls of rice steamed by Heifu's mother, and chatted for a while.

The faces of the landowners were filled with joy, and the farmers were also very happy. After all, as agreed in advance, the more the harvest, the more food they would receive.

Heifu watched for a while and couldn't help but want to go down and help, but he thought he was injured and was not allowed to go to the paddy field. So Heifu volunteered and took over the threshing work with his younger brother Jing.

The cut millet is stacked in bunches on the field ridges. The weight of each bunch is just right. If there are too many, it will be too much to finish, and less time will be wasted.

Although Heifu's nephew "Yang" is only seven years old, he has already begun to help. The child squats obediently on the edge of the field and helps carry the bundles of millet from the field ridge to the threshing area. He comes down several times and runs He was sweating profusely, but under the praise of the adults, the child was very happy, but his face was scratched by the straw, which made people feel a little distressed.

Their threshing tool is actually just a large wooden barrel, called a "fill bucket" or "half bucket." Its working principle is very simple. It is to hold the lower end of the mature rice tightly with both hands and beat it hard against the inner wall of the barrel, so as to achieve the threshing effect.

There is also a circle of densely woven bamboo strips around the barrel. In this way, even if the threshed rice is knocked out, it will be blocked by the bamboo strips and fall into the barrel.

Heifu grabbed a handful of millet with both hands and raised it high above his head. The sound of the grain breaking through the air and the impact of the grain hitting the four walls of the bucket were pleasant to the ear. Then he saw the golden rice leaving. He picked up the straw and jumped into the bucket.

"If a barrel rings half full, there will be ten thousand taels of gold. If you have food in your hand, you will not panic."

For some reason, Heifu remembered this old saying from his hometown in his previous life. In the past two thousand years, the farm work of Chinese farmers has not changed much.

In addition to the simplest wooden barrel, Heifu found that there were also people using flails nearby. The thing consisted of a long handle and a set of flat bamboo strips, like a large nunchaku, which could be used to beat millet. , rice, hemp, etc., to make the grains fall off.

Heifu was thoughtful and calculated the time secretly. In fact, whether it was a half bucket or a flail, it was both time-consuming and tiring. Moreover, the harvested grain was not clean and had to be blown clean before it could be used to pay the rent or pick it home. Store in warehouse.

"It's too late this year. Wait until next year, maybe I can ask my sister-in-law to try to make a foot-operated wooden threshing machine. That thing is much more efficient than a half-bucket and a flail."

"Brother Zhong, you still have a dull pain in your leg. Please rest for a while. There isn't much grain left. I'll just come."

The one who threshed grain with Hei Fu was his younger brother Jing. Jing was 16 years old. It was the time when he was growing taller. In half a year, he actually grew a few inches taller. Surprisingly, after being inspired by Hei Fu last year, he has become a lot more sensible. In the past few months, Hei Fu arranged for him to go to the countryside to learn reading and literacy in preparation for entering the school next spring and becoming a disciple. I heard that in the countryside, Li is very diligent and can already write complete sentences. He only goes home to help when the farming is busy.

Part of the reason why Heifu wanted to be a Qin official was to allow Jing Jing to become a disciple, exempt from military service, and avoid the war between Qin and Chu. But now that what happened has happened, he is really not sure whether he can keep his position. Even if he can keep it, he heard that the county right lieutenant will be transferred soon. Without a backer, Heifu is in the lieutenant system. It's not easy to mix.

"You can't put all your eggs in my basket. Qin's laws are too strict. To prevent me from committing a crime and being dismissed from office one day, I have to find other ways out..."

As Heifu thought about it, he sat next to Zhong and listened to his brother-in-law chatting with the neighboring farmers. Over the past year, as their family has become increasingly prosperous, his eldest brother is no longer the dull person he used to be. Of course, although he is supported by his neighbors, he may also be afraid of the black husband and deliberately try to please him.

Seeing this situation, Heifu couldn't help but make a plan!

…

After a few days of busy work, the once full ears of rice in the fields disappeared, leaving only short-cut stubbles alone in the paddy fields.

At this point, Heifu and his family's rice and millet fields have been harvested. By the way, there are also more than ten acres of sugar cane planted in spring, which are growing vigorously, but they will not be harvested until winter, when the sugar cane is at its sweetest.

After harvesting the millet, the farm work does not end there. After picking the millet back home, they have to spread it out on wide bamboo strips overnight to ensure that the millet is ventilated and exposed to moisture to avoid mold. During the process, the rake will be continuously raked over the surface to turn the millet over to promote drying.

On the second day, it can be exposed to the sun - the government does not collect wet grains, and when collecting rent, the volume is measured, not the weight, to avoid unfairness caused by uneven dryness and wetness of the grains.

At this time, the millet is still mixed with a lot of impurities, hulls, and broken husks, which must be removed one by one.

The sieve is endless, so Heifu discovered that he used dried banana leaves as a fan. The force should not be too heavy or too light, but it should just blow away the light impurities, leaving only the full grains.

Fanning the fan boredly, Hei Fu thought to himself: "Until next year, I can ask my sister-in-law to make a hand-operated windmill. That thing is not only a powerful windmill, but it will also come in handy when grinding millet."

Looking along the way, Heifu discovered that the productivity of this era is really too backward. Not to mention the farming process, but also the harvesting process. In the eyes of a layman like him, there is a lot that can be improved in almost every step. The place.

At the same time, Heifu also borrowed the "stone" used to measure the volume from Li Jianmen's house, which was actually a large hollow wooden barrel. He poured the dry millet harvested from each acre into it. After some calculations, then One hundred acres of millet fertilized using the old method still produced less than 2 shi per acre.

As for the 100-acre "test field" where compost fertilizer was used to apply manure, Heifu was worried, so he selected more than ten acres of harvested millet and weighed it one by one. He found that it was exactly what Zhong said a few days ago. Produced nearly 3 stones...

"The millet seeds are the same, and the original land is adjacent. There is no difference between watering and weeding. The only difference is that the fertilizer used is different. In this way, compost retting is indeed more effective than fresh excrement!" Holding a stone full of grains, Hei Fu said.

Not only was the result like this, but Zhong also recalled the process of tending the fields. The crops that had been fertilized with compost did indeed grow plumper and had more ears. Those old farmers who laughed at his family for piling excrement and urine at the beginning of spring have been marveling at him these days, and are trying their best to find out the secrets of his farming.

"Smart old farmers have already guessed the reason. They will definitely follow suit next spring. This secret is no longer a secret."

But Hei Fu was not worried at all, and said with a smile: "My leg has recovered, and I must go to the pavilion to resume my post. In this way, tomorrow is the day to go to the countryside to pay the rent, so I will go out with my uncle, just in time to meet you Let’s meet Tianbe Zuo from Yunmengxiang.”

At this time, Heifu and his sister-in-law passed by and asked strangely: "In previous years, the rent payment was handled by the village officials. Why do you have to go to see Tabe Zuo this time?"

Zhongze understood: "Brother Zhong, don't you want to tell Tanabe Zuo about the method of composting and ask him to help donate it to the government? A method that can increase the yield per acre by so much is indeed a powerful tool for farming. My family can't Hiding something private..."

The eldest brother is still too honest. Heifu laughed: "Brother, it's not me who is doing it, it's you who should do it! If this happens, my uncle will definitely be rewarded. Who knows, the government will even grant you an official position." Woolen cloth!"