Reborn in 1977

Chapter 648 Autumn Harvest

Golden autumn in October, the rice is golden, another year of harvest.

From the village entrance to the village end of Lujia Bay, along both sides of the main road, are large golden rice fields. In the rice fields, red flags flutter in the wind, but there is little sound on the vast fields.

On the main road, only Chen Fan was riding on his pony, pulling the reins to teach it professional running movements.

Changing pace, slow backward steps, changing direction, diagonal steps, quick steps in place, rotating… Outsiders would think the pony was just playing around, and would never imagine that Chen Fan was a little restless.

The pony was at the age of vigorous energy, and following Chen Fan's instructions to do these movements, it was not only not annoyed, but also very interested and a little tireless.

The little mare stood beside her, curiously following along, looking quite like she knew what she was doing.

Not far away, Zhang Wenliang shouted loudly, "Is everyone clear about their tasks?"

Dozens of agricultural machinery operators stood in front of him, shouting in unison like soldiers, "Clear!"

Well, in fact, it is right to say that they are soldiers, because these people are basically militiamen.

When selecting agricultural machinery operators, Zhang Wenliang was in charge, and he naturally gave priority to selecting from the militia company.

Not to mention, among the 4,000 people in Lujia Bay, including men, women, old and young, in terms of physique and discipline, the militiamen are the most qualified. There is absolutely no mistake in choosing these people.

Among them are also 12 female agricultural machinery operators.

This was of course Zhang Wenliang's wife, Yang Xingxiu, who tried her best to fight for it with her husband.

Now that the days in Lujia Bay are getting better, it is even more important to fight for the labor rights of female comrades. One quota for each team, no one is left behind.

After the "house building craze" before and after the Spring Festival at the beginning of the year, the entire brigade rapidly increased from the original 586 households to more than 900 households, and the number of people also increased slightly, mainly due to a group of small babies, with a total number of more than 4,000 people.

The reason why the number of households has increased so much is because many people took the opportunity to separate their families in order to occupy a piece of homestead.

In the past, there was no money to build houses, and a dozen people lived together. Now that there is money to build new houses, and thinking about the 5th team, there is no place to arrange new houses in the old location, so they can only fill a piece of land outside as a new residential area. Even Company Commander Zhang has moved there.

Then there is no need to think about it, in the future, the homestead can only be obtained from the place at the bottom of the slope.

There is a lot of rain in Jiangnan, and the lower the terrain, the more easily it is flooded, so everyone wants to fight for a position on the slope.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to build new houses, of course, we should separate the family first and occupy the foundation.

With more households and a better life, the team leaders of each team have also become more ambitious.

In the past, they were afraid that the brigade would transfer people to work, which would affect the production arrangement of the team. Now they are worried that their team will be left out, so they want to stuff people into the brigade headquarters.

Not to mention the quota for male agricultural machinery operators, for the only quota for female agricultural machinery operators, each team can be said to be using all their skills. Only the most outstanding female comrades are qualified to become agricultural machinery operators.

In the end, those female militiamen were elected.

At this time, these female comrades stood next to the male comrades, ready to fight at any time.

On the main road, 48 harvesters were lined up on both sides of the road, ready to go.

With a shout from Zhang Wenliang, all the agricultural machinery operators ran quickly to their machines.

Well, those who are far away have to ride bicycles.

There is no way, the form is very important, this mobilization meeting before the autumn harvest battle is a must.

When everyone was in place, Zhang Wenliang raised a rifle and pulled the trigger into the sky.

With the crisp sound of gunfire, the harvesters parked on both sides of the main road started almost simultaneously. The roaring sound of diesel engines resounded throughout the sky above Lujia Bay, and then they rushed to the harvest fields to the east or west, crossing the stone slab bridge over the irrigation canal.

Each agricultural machine was followed by a 5-person squad. The harvester harvested in the front, and they followed behind to bundle the straw, and then sent it to the nearest threshing machine to thresh the rice.

Uh… please forgive this harvester for being relatively primitive. It only harvests and absolutely does nothing other than harvesting. That is what other machines do.

(Harvester that only harvests and does nothing else)

Zhang Wenliang watched for a while, then turned to look at his father-in-law and brigade secretary, who was holding a telescope and looking around, and stepped forward and said, "Dad, I think at this rate, we can harvest almost everything today."

Yang Yizhong put down the telescope, hummed twice, and said, "We are conducting a big battle this time, dispatching 48 harvesters at once, with 4 in each team, and equipping each team with a diesel thresher and three pedal threshers. If we can't take down these more than 3,000 acres of land in one day, what did I buy these machines for?"

Looking at him now, you know what it means to be arrogant.

More than 3,000 acres of paddy fields, 48 harvesters, each with a task of only 60 or 70 acres. The horse-drawn harvester is only this fast, can the diesel engine be worse?!

(Horse-drawn harvester)

Brigade leader Zhang Changjiang put his hands on his hips, his face full of regret, "There is still too little land, more than 3,000 acres of land is not enough for these agricultural machines to play to their full potential."

Xiao Liewen held a dry tobacco pipe in one hand and pressed his lower back with the other, humming and saying, "Yes, I agree."

Then he looked at Ye Shubao, who was twisting rolling paper next to him, "You too, even if you buy economic cigarettes, it's okay, you have to roll your own, aren't you afraid of trouble?"

Ye Shubao didn't even lift his head, "Hum, the cigarettes you buy are not strong enough, it's better to smoke the tobacco leaves I grow myself."

Although Zhang Wenliang was already used to them going off topic while chatting, he couldn't figure out how they went from harvesting to tobacco leaves?

After several brigade leaders chatted for a while, Xiao Liewen first knocked out the dry tobacco, wiped the pipe with a cloth, and without saying much, rode a bicycle and left.

Seeing him leave, the other three did not speak, but just waved to each other and rode their cars to their respective areas of responsibility.

Although the harvesting method has changed, some things have not changed, such as the brigade leaders dividing their responsibilities and supervising the team's harvesting.

Zhang Wenliang turned his head and looked. At this time, most people had already gone to the fields. On the main road, in addition to the threshing machines and the frequently running commune members, there were only Chen Fan and two horses, two dogs, two birds and two sheep…

He couldn't help but pat his head, walked over and said, "You are the most idle here. It's okay if you are idle, can you put all the livestock you raise in the house? Everyone is busy, aren't you afraid of being said to be an eyesore?"

Chen Fan turned his head and looked, "Who said that?"

Then he pointed not far away, "Aren't there people who are idle there too."

Zhang Wenliang looked in the direction he was pointing, and was immediately speechless, "Are you embarrassed to compare yourself to a child?"

Chen Fan smacked his lips, "Hey, Lao Zhang, now that the autumn harvest doesn't require so much labor, why is the school still on holiday?"

Zhang Wenliang choked, "Uh, other teams are on holiday, even the schools in the commune are on holiday, so we will also have a holiday."

"Nonsense."

Chen Fan said righteously, "People take holidays to let some students go home to participate in the autumn harvest. We don't even need all the adults here, so why do we need their help."

He paused, then pointed at the farm machinery and said, "Besides, after we finish our own harvest, these machines will have to go help other teams. As I see it, there's no need for the school to even have a vacation.

Quite the opposite, while the fields are being harvested, the school should give each student several sets of test papers. Consider it a bumper crop, too."

Zhang Wenliang wore a long face, not wanting to talk to him.

Chen Fan took out his camera from his bag, grinning, "I'm not going to chat nonsense with you. I'm going to take some photos and submit them to Yunhu Daily."

Watching Chen Fan shamelessly flatter, Zhang Wenliang couldn't help but laugh and shout, "Oh, you still remember Yunhu Daily?"

The year was almost over, and Chen Fan hadn't written a single news article. As a result, even though Lujiawan was much stronger than last year, the opportunities to be featured in the newspaper had decreased significantly. The few articles that did appear were because the newspaper reporters took the initiative to come to him.

Chen Fan didn't bother to pay attention to him. He waved his hand to dismiss the animal team, but forbade them from eating the grain. Then, he took his camera and went around taking pictures.

However, he couldn't take more than a few pictures before he would be stopped by a team leader who had "coincidentally" met him. He would dismount, smoke, and chat, and the morning would pass by leisurely.

At noon, he just happened to stroll to the boundary between Team 1 and Team 12. Since Team 1's food arrived early, he bummed a meal there.

Since it was a major battle, of course they had to eat at the "big canteen."

The village's last big canteen was in 1958. Afterwards, the big canteen was abolished, and only a small canteen was kept at the brigade headquarters to entertain guests.

Now, each team was well-off, and both the early rice and late rice harvests this year were bountiful, especially the late rice, which was all hybrid rice. The yield was much higher than before, so the production team had the confidence to open a big canteen during the autumn harvest.

The collective meal was pretty good, with a pot of duck stewed with potatoes, a pot of braised rabbit stewed with radishes, and another pot of glistening braised pork. Finally, there was rice served from a steamer and a vegetable and egg soup served from a wooden bucket.

Everyone took a big enamel bowl and could take as much as they could eat. As long as they could eat it, there was no limit, and they could take as much as they wanted.

In fact, the food for each household in Lujiawan this year was pretty good. Not to say that they ate meat every day, but at least every ten days to half a month, they could have a meal with meat.

Even though many old people were used to being thrifty and reluctant to eat meat, they knew the principle that children needed to eat more meat to be healthy, so they didn't stop them.

Some families without elderly people would even have a meat dish once a week. If it weren't for the sufficient pork supply at the food station this year, they wouldn't have had so many meat coupons to eat, and in the end, they would mostly only be able to eat the chickens, ducks, and geese they raised themselves.

They didn't dare to eat the pigs they raised. It was easy to eat them, but too difficult to raise them. Moreover, they had to hand them over as a task at the end of the year. If the task wasn't completed, it would affect the forage ration for raising poultry...

Therefore, even though the sideline income of each household was very high, no one dared to ignore the production tasks issued by the production team. Grain was very cheap, far less profitable than raising chickens, but they didn't dare not grow grain or raise pigs.

With the guidance of the production team, and the distribution of sideline resources based on production contributions, the commune members didn't lose sight of the bigger picture and become confused.

Also, since life was getting better, although today's food was very good, most people didn't show the courage to eat until they were lying down, but rather ate as much as they could, not going hungry, and not wasting food.

Chen Fan ate quickly. After finishing a bowl at Team 1, he ran to Team 12 not far away.

When he went over, the food was similar, but instead of duck meat, there was a large pot of roe deer meat.

Chen Fan immediately nodded, "This is good."

It wasn't that the meat was good, but using wild game for the food wouldn't affect the sale of farmed animals for money.

He also devoured a bowl here, then returned the bowl to Team 1. After a short rest, the roar of the machines sounded again.

Chen Fan didn't ride his horse anymore. He let both horses return on their own, while he walked at a leisurely pace, treating it as a way to digest his food, and slowly walked back.

Of course, the autumn harvest wasn't just about harvesting.

After the rice was harvested, it was threshed on the spot with a thresher, and then it was the turn of the carts to come on stage.

The threshed rice was shoveled into baskets, and then the baskets were lifted onto the carts.

Some carts had mules, donkeys, or horses doing the hard work, while others had people doing the hard work. One cart after another wound along the roads leading to each team.

(Baskets for carrying rice)

Chen Fan went over to take pictures and took a look at the rice.

Unlike the golden ears of rice in the morning, the threshed rice showed a lot of green at the bottom, which meant that the rice hadn't completely dried.

After the rice was transported back, it needed to be dried in the sun to evaporate the moisture before it could meet the grain depot's storage standards.

Moreover, in addition to the grains, there were many rice ears and even stalks inside. These impurities also had to be processed several times before they could be cleaned.

So, an autumn harvest was just the beginning, and there were many things to do afterwards.

It's just that compared to before, the farm work now was many times easier.

In addition, the autumn harvest wasn't just about rice.

Or rather, the previous autumn harvest was mainly about harvesting rice and a small amount of miscellaneous grains, while now, Lujiawan, in addition to rice, also planted a lot of cash crops on some of the slopes.

Hemp, tobacco, melons, corn, ...

The quantity wasn't large, but there were many varieties.

This was also influenced by Chen Fan.

After Chen Fan's new house was built last year, he went to the whole commune to find various fruit trees and useful seedlings. Later, everyone followed suit, and each team found something to plant on the slopes. In addition to what they had planted before, there were naturally many varieties.

No matter how much, the mature crops had to be harvested and brought back. Even if they weren't sold, they had to be arranged uniformly by the production team.

Chen Fan wandered from the village entrance to the village end, and then from the village end to the village entrance. Unknowingly, the day passed by like this, leaving only a sunset glow in the western sky.

He stood at the crossroads at the village entrance. To the east was the way home, and to the west was the way to the brigade headquarters.

Standing in the middle of the road, he lowered his head to think. He thought carefully.

He came back on the 16th and ate at home, the 17th at Captain Yang's house, the 18th at Zhang Wenliang's house, the 19th at Captain Tang of Team 7's house, the 20th at Captain Qi of Team 8's house, the 21st...

Oh, today is the 21st.

Today is a major battle, and even with farm machinery harvesting, the later work will be done very late. Most likely, the brigade headquarters will be cooking meals, otherwise, if he waits to go home to eat, his stomach will be flattened from hunger.

Well, then let's go to the brigade headquarters.

He turned his head to look. In the distance on the dam, the two horses were still frolicking. He immediately whistled, and the whistle carried far away. The two horses immediately galloped towards him.

Then, he adjusted his straw hat, dusted off the dust on his homespun jacket, shook the straw sandals on his feet, put his hands behind his back, and strode towards the brigade headquarters.