End of July.

The sun is still in full bloom and the temperature is still very high, and Gujia Village has officially entered the autumn harvest.

Not only Gujia Village, but also all the villages in Youshui Town, and all the towns in Nanzhou have also harvested rice in these two days, and the busiest half a month for the Zhuang family has come.

On a village avenue in Nanzhou, several carriages were parked, and there were several men in official uniforms standing next to the carriages.

The forty or fifty-year-old at the front, with a majestic face, stood with his hands in his hands: "Drought in the north, floods in the south, Huzhou is located in the middle of the north and south, and it cannot be avoided, but fortunately, some counties and towns worked together to eradicate locusts and save most of the rice fields." In the southwest, Fenghuang Town, Baiyun Town, and Youshui Town are in good condition, but there are already displaced people in the northeast boundary of Nanzhou, and this year's taxes must be increased. ”

The person who spoke was the prefect of Nanzhou, the biggest official in Nanzhou, and then the governor of the provincial capital, the governor was the official of Beijing, and the imperial court of the capital sent to check and balance the power of local officials.

"Back to the prefect, the lower officials have re-set the tax quota in the main book, and the taxes of all villages in Youshui Town, except for Gujia Village, are three to four tenths of the tax." Shen Xianling lowered his head and arched his hand, "This year's income has plummeted, but the tax has risen, and the grain collected should be the same as the year before." ”

More than half a month ago, she had already told those villagers that any village that needed the county government to come forward to solve the problem of locust eradication would be taxed this year.

Several other county commanders looked at Shen County Orders dumbfounded.

The deflated calf told them how to exterminate the locusts, and did not tell them in advance that they would have to raise the tax.

When this harvest is a bumper harvest, the villagers in their jurisdiction will definitely not do it, and it will be a big headache for the villagers to make trouble between the villages.

However, one-third of the land in Nanzhou has no grain, and it is definitely necessary to hand over the grain from other regions, otherwise the displaced people will gather together, and the consequences will be even more serious.

Zheng County Ling lowered his head and said: "Don't worry, the prefect can rest assured, the grain in Phoenix Town must be handed over in full." ”

The county orders of the remaining counties and towns have expressed their positions.

The prefect touched his beard, nodded and said: "Harsh taxes are also a last resort, this matter must be clearly explained to the people, so as not to cause the people to resist and resist, moreover, when the harvest is good, bandits will also prevail, and the jurisdiction should strengthen guards and patrols, and it is necessary to curb merchants from hoarding grain and selling it at high prices......"

A group of county magistrates nodded their heads to memorize them all.

After the prefect finished speaking, he left in a carriage, and Shen Xianling was immediately surrounded by others.

"My sister Shen, if you don't ventilate in advance about paying taxes, it can be regarded as hurting us." Zheng Xianling sighed, "A group of Diao people in Fenghuang Town still don't know how to make trouble, and my hair is going to turn gray." ”

Shen Xianling sneered: "Will you listen to what I said?" ”

She also listened to the words of Gu Niangzi in the Gu family village, and successfully resolved the crisis in exchange for this bumper harvest.

Shen Xian Ling got up and got into the carriage.

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

The sun is strong.

The fierce sunlight shone down, and beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down his forehead and dripped into the rice paddies.

This is the first day of the autumn harvest, even if the store posted a closure notice, the whole family came back to the autumn harvest Gu Qing was still tired and almost fell apart.

They have a total of five acres of paddy fields at home, 8 main laborers, Yang Pei, Uncle Tong, a group of childhood, a group of Moli, Aunt Tong, and a group of fairy tales, and the two groups take turns to harvest.

The other group is responsible for tying up the cut rice with straw ropes, and then picking it home and piling it up in the yard, there will be omissions in the field harvesting, and there will be rice ears falling on the ground, Tong Juan and Gu Nuo are responsible for picking up the fallen rice and bringing it back, Gu Yu has a wound on the head and digs 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 on the edge of the rice and threshed, that is, they lifted the rice one by one and smashed it on the edge of the wooden basin, some grains would fall into the pot, but because the rice still contained water, some grains would not fall anyway, so they threw these rice ears on the ground in the yard to dry for a long time.

Next is Dong Rong's work, he takes the flail and beats the rice, over and over again, until all the grains fall off.

The work efficiency of the two is extremely slow, and it took most of the day to make a pot of threshing rice, which is placed at the door and exposed to the sun, and the water is thoroughly dried before the hulling process can be carried out.

Originally, Gu Qing also cut rice, but after cutting the rice for most of the day, three blood blisters were ground out of the palm of her hand, and it hurt so much that several people wanted to drive her home when they saw her.

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

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

When he arrived at the gate of the courtyard and put down the rice, Gu Qing felt that blood bubbles seemed to be on his shoulders.

She went into the back room and ripped off the collar of her shirt, her left shoulder was flushed, and the skin on her right shoulder was broken, and she grinned in pain.

She hurriedly bought ointment from the mall and applied it, a little on each shoulder, and some on the palms of her hands, which was cool and cool, and finally felt a lot more comfortable.

She sat on the chair to rest, and couldn't help but sigh that no matter what era, the hardest and most tired people are always farmers, and the poorest are also farmers, and farmers are always the lowest level of society.

"Rong'er, come here."

Gu Qing beckoned.

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

Gu Qing took his hand over, the palm of his hand was also broken, beating rice is not so tiring compared to harvesting rice, in fact, it is also a manual work, if Dong Rong returns to Dong's house, he will definitely not need to do this kind of work in the name of children.

"If you're tired, sit down and take a break, and the threshing can take your time."

Dong Rong shook his head: "I think it's quite interesting." Besides, Mo Li, who is younger than him and still a talent, is doing the most tiring work in the field, what right does he have to complain.

Gu Qing smiled and applied ointment to him, this ointment was very simple packaging, and he couldn't see anything abnormal.

She walked into the stove room, took out a few bowls, bought heatstroke medicine from the mall and poured them into the bowls, and then took them out and handed them to Dong Rong and the others.

"I boiled the heatstroke herbs I picked, and I drank them all."

Zhu Han had no doubts.

After all, the head of the house can get the potion to kill locusts, and it is normal to have heatstroke medicine, but since the head of the house said that it was the herbs she picked, it was right.

Gu Qing put on a straw hat and went back to the field with a flat pole to call everyone back to drink heatstroke medicine, if the heat faints in the field, it will be a big trouble.

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

Gu Qing looked at the three of them tossing and turning on the ground for a long time before they came out with a little bit of rice, and began to try to recall the rice threshing machine they saw in the field when they were children in their previous life.

When Gu Qing was a child, he would use a rice threshing machine to harvest rice at home, one is a semi-automatic rice threshing machine with diesel fuel, and the other is a human rice threshing machine that relies on his feet, the first one obviously doesn't work, so the second one!

Gu Qing found a pen, ink, paper, and inkstone and began to recall the appearance of the manpower rice threshing machine, drawing while recalling, and only after the painting did she remember that the farm was busy at this time, even if she drew it, no one would do it for her.

In the end, after tossing for a long time, I silently opened the mall and spent 15 taels of silver to order five manpower rice threshing machines, and made an appointment to send them in the afternoon.