Chapter Eleven Autumn Harvest

  Liu He also followed to hurry a collection, later all were Dog Dan's father taking two long workers to hurry the market, however not only was it Da Chen village's market, there were other markets as well, every other day they would hurry another market, each time hurrying the market would have an income of 10 or 20 jiao.

  Even Liu He gave Dog Egg's father a death order, every time he had to bring people to eat a meal in the market, but Dog Egg's father didn't want Liu He's one-jiao meal, instead he wanted five-fen meals, what he wanted was even simpler, meatless huǒshāo or wōtóu, so that people could eat more.

  And with the propaganda of these people who came to the fair, people's enthusiasm was even greater. In this more than half a month before autumn harvest, Liu He harvested more than 20 yuan.

  It's time for autumn harvest, Liu He personally went to the market to buy 10 catties of pork and over 20 catties of big bones, spending a total of more than 4 yuan. Let people help him with his work, this man doesn't need wages for his labor, he really can't bear it.

  He had already inquired about it, and these long workers were not completely without wages. At the end of the year, Old Man Li would give each of them dozens of kilograms of grain, so their families would have a foothold for food, and they could even pick up some of Old Man Li's old clothes to wear.

  Liu He didn't know what to say, this Li Lao Cai is really something else.

  "You all go back, bring your wives and children with you, and help me harvest the autumn crops. I'll provide food for everyone every day. For each day that your wives and children work, I will give them two kilograms of grain."

  "The master can't do this, how can we take advantage of you like this?" "Listen to me, or else you won't be working here next year." The long workers returned home with tears in their eyes and called over their wives and children.

  Autumn harvest is a very slow task, especially drying the pumpkins. In the past, we rarely dried them because there were fewer people, and after cutting the pumpkin dry, no one would pick it up, so it was easy to rot in the field when it rained. But this time, a group of children, women, and Dog Dan's father called people from the village, they all work for one day and get two catties of grain.

  Here's a brief introduction to dried pumpkin, which is made by cutting the harvested pumpkin into slices and drying them in the sun. After a couple of days, the dried pumpkin becomes dry and can be stored for a long time. The pumpkins are usually placed directly in the cellar, while corn is also harvested and stacked together to dry before being slowly threshed.

  People in the village live very fast, they don't have much land, only Liu He's is more, this dry season, it's already half a month.

  "Little brother, this method of yours is not bad. In the past, many pumpkins rotted in the ground, and some corn fell to the stalks. Li Lao Cai didn't even let people go into his field to pick them up, what a waste! More than half could be thrown away."

  "Heh heh, Uncle Li, if you hire someone to work for you, of course you have to pay them wages. Since they don't want wages, then giving them grain is also acceptable." Liu He naturally wouldn't say that he would give them a lot of grain either - "a pint of rice begets gratitude, a peck of rice begets resentment" - this was something Liu He understood. Things had to be done gradually, and besides, there were also households with more land that needed to be taken care of, their opinions couldn't be ignored. The poorer the place, the more important these rules became.

  "I say, great-grandson, you've done something unscrupulous. How can you give grain to your long workers? This is a breach of the rules." Just then, before the autumn harvest was even finished, Liu Xiucai came looking for Liu He's gatekeeper.

  "No, great-grandfather, how could I break the rules? I just let them pick up the fallen grains in the field for themselves." Liu He had to tell a lie, but it was just a cover-up. It was just an excuse to get rid of Liu Xiu. In this village, and even in the surrounding villages, everyone knew about Li Lao Cai's reputation for being wasteful, so this excuse went through easily.

  Liu He felt more and more that something was not right, what kind of thing is this? I just did a little good deed, but I encountered opposition. If this were to happen twenty years later, it would be a classic case of exploitation, pure and simple exploitation! And the person being exploited still feels at peace with themselves, if you give them some benefits, they won't even want them.

  Liu He shook his head helplessly, forget it, I'll just go take a look inside then.

  "Uncle Li, is this land going to be plowed now? Can we plant winter wheat right away?" "Young man, winter wheat isn't planted here."

  "Why not plant winter wheat? Isn't it just idle for a season?" Liu He asked curiously, "Little brother, if we plant winter wheat, next year will be delayed, and nothing can be connected."

  "Ah, I see. So, Uncle Li, can you arrange for me to use 50 mu of land for an experiment? In the field, dig a ditch that is 40 cm wide, and plant two rows of wheat at the bottom of the ditch. Then next year, we can plant one row of corn on top of the ditch. What do you think?"

  "Hmm, Master Dong, this might work, but we don't have any wheat seeds." At that moment, Liu Xiong heard the two men's conversation and chimed in.

  "Seeds, that's a problem, I don't know where to buy them." "At the market in Dacheng Village, they usually don't want money, you need to exchange corn for them, five kilograms of corn can be exchanged for one kilogram of wheat seeds."

  "Alright, Uncle Li, you go organize people to husk some corn for me. Calculating 30 kilograms of seeds per mu, 50 mu will need 1,500 kilograms of corn. Try to get more, let's aim for 2,000 kilograms, and do it quickly."

  "Are you sure about this, young man?" "Yes, Uncle Li, we have to try it out. You go, Liu Xiong, go and use those two oxen to plow this ridge as soon as possible."

  "Master, don't you want to fertilize?" "Do we have fertilizer?" "No." "Then it's settled, let's do it this way for now, and I'll see if there's a chance to get more fertilizer later."

  Liu He has calculated that as long as this land can produce more than 50 kilograms per mu, it's a good deal. The labor cost is cheap, otherwise the land would be idle anyway. It's not like this is a viable path either. A person from a later generation, if they can't even cultivate this small piece of land well, might as well go back and forget about it.

  "Master," "what's the matter." Liu Xiong walked over and whispered to Liu He, "Master, are you ready? The bandits from Dongshan are coming down, I saw scouts this morning."

  "What's going on, the bandits are coming down, they're robbing in broad daylight." "Master, all the households ahead, including Li Dongjia's, have given their corn to the bandits. It was only out of respect for Li Dongjia's son that they spared them, but now who knows?"

  "Can't the government do anything about it?" "The government, how can they manage? The county town is too far away from here, more than 100 miles. When the government soldiers come, the bandits hide, and the soldiers don't dare to climb up the mountain either. The soldiers can't catch the bandits, but instead will search for things in our village, so after a few times of finding the soldiers, no one goes to find the government anymore. It's better to just give some supplies to the bandits every year at this time. Besides, when the villagers' homes are robbed, they only go to rob the wealthy households, those very poor villagers they don't like to go to."

  Indeed, I didn't want to go. Liu He saw villagers digging holes and hiding food in the past few days. It turned out that they were hiding from bandits. Even some young women in the village had been sent away early.