Ang Lee knew that he could not persuade the old man in front of him. The old man was in his fifties or sixties, and his views on various things had long been ingrained. It was unlikely that he would change his views. If someone told him that the work in the workshop would never be finished, he would not believe it. He was an old man who had experienced many hardships. He had walked on more bridges than ordinary people. He was an old man who had experienced many vicissitudes of life. This kind of person was often the most stubborn and liked to judge things based on their own experience.
The old man in front of him might have experienced a lot of twists and turns in his life. He had seen too many miserable tenant farmers, and he had also seen many large grain farmers who had enough food and clothing. Therefore, he instinctively and stubbornly believed that the more land one owned, the more comfortable and carefree one would be. Only digging for food in the mud was the safest and most reliable way to make a living. Any other way of making a living was not proper work.
Of course, it would be better to study and pass the imperial examinations. Unfortunately, his children and grandchildren were not good at studying and did not like studying. The old man naturally understood that his genes were not good enough. His children and grandchildren did not have such a fate, and they did not ask for knowledge to change their fate. Therefore, he would not deliberately cultivate his children. In his opinion, his children and grandchildren should be able to peacefully farm. They did not need to pursue other things and did not need to waste time.
"Old man, there are machines now. How tiring it is to work! Have you ever thought of using machines to harvest wheat? "
Ang Lee saw the harvester in the distance. Although it was far away, he could still see it.
The old man grinned and shook his head. "That is used by rich families. Our family only has more than 20 mu of land. We can use sickles. We don't need those things. It's a waste of money."
What a simple answer. What the old man said was reasonable. Machines were very scarce now. Even the big families had many machines that they could not use, let alone ordinary people like them. Even if they were willing to look for them, when people heard that it was only 20 mu of land, they would not care at all. Although the processing fee was charged per mu, if a family only had 20 mu of land, it would not be enough of a hassle. The machines that came from other places would consume a lot of oil, and the processing would be finished in a few hours. No matter how one looked at it, it was not cost-effective enough. Only a business with a few thousand mu of land was worth it.
"Old man, you are busy. We will meet again if fate wills it."
Ang Lee greeted him with a smile and said goodbye to the old man.
The old man also said goodbye to Ang Lee with a smile and then continued to work.
Although this large family was poor, because they did not have high aspirations, their life was still quite happy. This kind of bland happiness could only be enjoyed by such an ordinary family. The rich family, on the other hand, could not enjoy this kind of ordinary happiness.
The spring harvest had just begun. There were not many laborers in the fields.......................................... of them........... but..........................
Soon, Li An arrived at a field where wheat was being harvested on a large scale. Harvesters were used here, but at the same time, there were also 50 to 60 people harvesting by hand.
Obviously, because the number of machines was limited, it was not feasible to use machines to harvest. They could only use temporary labor to assist in the harvest.
These hired people were all relatively young and strong laborers. Obviously, the employer was not a fool. He would not spend money to hire laborers with poor physical strength. Spending the same amount of money, naturally, the more capable people would be more popular. Those who could not work would naturally not be popular.
There were only three harvesters in total, and the wheat field in front of him was endless. How much of it belonged to this big family needed to be asked.
The three machines had already run far away. Naturally, it was not convenient to ask. The fifty to sixty people who were working were distributed on both sides of the road. Most of them were bending down to harvest, and a small number were collecting bundles of rice that others had harvested. Then, these rice were transported to the big cart on the side of the road. As long as the cart was full, these rice would be transported away.
This method of harvesting was to harvest the rice seedlings together. After harvesting, only a short section of rice seedlings would be left on the ground. Before the spring plowing, these rice seedlings needed to be disposed of. The best way to dispose of them was to burn them. Although this was suspected of polluting the atmosphere, there was no better way. The biggest advantage of burning them was that they could quickly dispose of these stalks. At the same time, they could also replenish the soil with potassium fertilizer. The benefits were really quite a lot. Otherwise, the ancestors wouldn't have done this. However, the biggest problem with this method was that it would pollute the environment. The pollution to the environment was really not small.
In the later generations where there were airplanes, this kind of pollution was fatal. In the era of the Tang dynasty, although burning would also pollute the environment, the impact was much smaller. After a few days, it would not be a problem.
Burning was a very dangerous thing. If it was not controlled well, it would cause a big problem. Therefore, every time it was burning season, the relevant government offices of the imperial court and the relevant people in the villages would take action. They would patrol around on horseback according to their areas of responsibility. As long as they found that the fire was not right, they would immediately mobilize people to deal with it to prevent the burning of straws from becoming a terrible fire.
Normal straws burning would not cause any big problems as long as it was controlled properly. The premise of burning safety was to carry out a unified plan. For example, all the crops must be harvested in a set time so that there were not many straws left on all the land. If there were some fields that had not been harvested when the straws were burned, it would not only cause a loss of food, but the fire would also burn very fiercely, and the consequences would be more serious.
The food must be harvested in time, and there must be a strict date for setting fire. It was absolutely impossible to set fire to the straws after one's own family had finished harvesting all the food. Otherwise, once the sparks flew to other people's fields, it would kill them and even cause a terrible fire.
According to the laws of the Tang dynasty, casually setting fire to crops would be imprisoned, even if it did not cause serious consequences. After all, in the ancient farming society, crops were the lifeblood of an empire. Nothing was more important than food. Any behavior that dared to threaten the safety of food would be severely punished.
Golden wheat seedlings that had lost their moisture were very flammable. Therefore, since the wheat seedlings turned golden, all the patrols in the capital had been busy. All kinds of necessary fire fighting water carts were on standby. Once a fire broke out somewhere, the rescue forces would arrive very quickly. At the same time, the responsibility area was distributed to every villager. If anyone's fields caught fire, no matter what the reason was, they would have to bear a certain amount of responsibility. Even if it was not their fault, they would have to bear the corresponding responsibility. Sometimes, the law was so ruthless.
Looking at the water carts parked not far away, Ang Lee felt that these water carts could not play a big role, or it could be said that they were more of a psychological comfort factor. Because once a big fire broke out, the amount of water these water carts had could not solve any problems. Once the fire spread, its momentum would not be ordinary. Even if there were ten times more fire extinguishers, it might not be able to solve the problem. Once the fire in the wheat field spread, it would be no different from a terrible forest fire. It might even be no less dangerous than a forest fire.
The arrival of Ang Lee and his party quickly attracted the attention of a small steward. These stewards were all shrewd. With just a slight glance, they could roughly guess the identity and status of the people who came.
"Are you here to buy grain or?"
The small steward asked tentatively.
Ang Lee opened his mouth and replied, "Not to buy grain. We just came to take a look and understand the situation. The weather this year is good, and the crops have been harvested. Looking at these wheat fields makes people happy! By the way, whose family are you working for? How much land is there in this field? "
The small steward looked at Ang Lee's manner of speech and knew that Ang Lee was not an ordinary person. In addition, Ang Lee's request to understand the situation was very much like a high official visiting incognito. This made the small steward attach great importance to it, and at the same time, he was also quite nervous.
"I am the small steward of the Du family. This field is more than five thousand mu, and it belongs to our Du family. Alang said that there is a lot of land in the family, so we need to find people to work early, in case it can't be finished by the time."
The small steward said.
"More than five thousand mu, that's a lot! Can these people finish it? "
Ang Lee opened his mouth and said.
According to the speed at which ordinary workers harvested wheat by hand, they could only harvest a little more than one mu a day. The best of the best could harvest two mu a day, and it was already very good. Any more than that was impossible.
The small steward found all the able-bodied laborers. Even if they were the best of the best, they could only harvest one hundred mu a day. Five thousand mu would take a full fifty days to harvest, and this obviously could not be done. They had to finish harvesting within half a month. Otherwise, it would affect other families who set fire to the straws. When the time came and the straws were really burned down, they could not blame others. Who told them to harvest so slowly?
"Aren't there three harvesters? These machines are much faster than these people. If they work in shifts, the three harvesters can harvest two hundred mu of wheat a day."
The small steward said.
According to the speed of the machines and the manpower, they could harvest 300 mu of land in a day. Five thousand mu of land could be harvested in less than half a month. There was still time. With these machines, the efficiency of harvesting wheat had increased. If they could get two more machines, the fifty to sixty laborers would not be needed. That way, the efficiency would be even higher.
"Haha! It turns out that the three harvesters in the distance also belong to your Du family. Three machines are twice as efficient as fifty to sixty people. If the Tang dynasty had more of these machines, harvesting wheat would be too easy in the future! "
Ang Lee said with a smile. This was already within his expectations. The three machines were not far from the working people, so it was very likely that they belonged to the same family.
The small steward frowned and said, "Oh! These machines are very difficult to buy. There are too many people who want them, but they can't buy them. If you can buy them, it's worth it even if you have to pay twice as much. "
After he finished speaking, he kept smacking his lips. Obviously, he felt that the supply of machines was too little and not enough for the big grain farmers. Fortunately, they were from Guanzhong and had a unique advantage. The pavilion closest to the water enjoyed the moonlight first. In the areas outside Guanzhong, machines were even less popular. It would be even more difficult to buy a harvester.
After all, the Tang dynasty was still a big agricultural country. The entire Tang dynasty had a total of three hundred million mu of land, and this did not include the new land that had been acquired in the past ten years. If these new lands were included, there would be more arable land. No matter how many machines were built, it would not be enough. The imperial court had a lot of things to do, so it was unlikely that they would invest too much in one area. They had to carry out balanced development. Therefore, it was naturally impossible for them to produce harvesters on a large scale.
Ang Lee walked to the pile of wheat that had been harvested. He casually broke off an ear of wheat and rubbed it hard until all the wheat grains were rubbed out to check the growth of this family's wheat.
"Not bad, not bad. The wheat grains are very plump, and they are all of high quality."
Ang Lee could not rub them with all his strength. This was enough to prove that the wheat grains were developing well and could be harvested.
Because these hired laborers were all paid to work, if Ang Lee went over to chat with them, he would delay their work. Therefore, after thinking about it, Ang Lee gave up. After saying goodbye, he continued to walk along the road.
The day of the real large-scale harvest was very close. If he came at the same time tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, he might see a different scene. The number of people and machines in the wheat field would increase exponentially, which would be a very beautiful scenery. Ang Lee would definitely come to see this scenery tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
Not far ahead was Old Du's residence. He did not know if this guy was at home. After being the chief editor of the Tang dynasty newspaper for so long, Old Du's life had obviously improved a lot. He was living a good life. It was said that he had recently taken in a young and beautiful concubine. This guy even pretended to say that he did not want to take in a concubine, but he could not resist the repeated requests of his colleagues and friends, so he had no choice but to take in a concubine. It was like a man in the future who went to give alms to a girl on the street. After being caught, he said that he did not do it on purpose, but the girl held on to him and refused to let go. He only did it after being forced to do so. But who would be convinced by this reason? If he did not have such thoughts at all, even if he was forced by a group of people, he would not do such a thing. Even if he had such thoughts, he was still too embarrassed to do it. After being forced, he just went with the flow and agreed.
After all, it was his nature. No matter what, Old Du was a man with normal development. When his family was poor, he naturally did not have the mind to think about taking in a concubine. But once his living conditions improved, his restless heart became restless. From time to time, he would want to find some fun for himself to improve his boring life.
In this case, as long as someone understood his thoughts and introduced him to a concubine, Old Du would accept it without hesitation. Then, he would pretend that he did not want it very much and accepted it because of the strong recommendation of his friends.
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