Besides Zhengkang and Zhengjun, the one who had changed the most was Wang Danna. After harvesting wheat for twenty days in a row, Wang Danna's originally fair face had turned several shades darker.
If she hadn't been a girl who loved beauty, she would not only wear a straw hat but also wrap her neck with cloth when harvesting wheat. I guess she would be even darker than she is now.
After harvesting the wheat, the team began to cut the wheat stalks, cutting each stalk into four and six parts.
The part connecting the wheat ears is shorter. After drying them, they are thrown onto a roller using the traditional threshing method to knock the wheat ears off.
Of course, you can also pull the roller and roll it over the spread ears of wheat again and again. The wheat grains can also come down, but this method is faster. Most of the team uses this method.
After the wheat grains have fallen, they start using wooden winnowing machines to winnow out the excess husks.
Then it is dried again, repeated two or three times, until the wheat is very dry and crispy when bitten in the mouth. It is then considered truly finished, and the wheat is then bagged and stored in the warehouse.
At this time, Wang Shouren had already returned to the county town to continue working. Their grain and oil bureau had started to get new grain on the market, and they were all busy.
Fortunately, Zhengguo and Zhengkang had finished their exams at this time and officially started their summer vacation.
Qian Shulan urged them to join the work team.
Now the team members are harvesting food from their own private plots.
Most people grow sweet potatoes and potatoes in their private plots.
Occasionally, some people would plant cotton, corn, etc. But they would only plant them when they needed them. Most people would choose to plant crops with higher yields.
Lao Wang's family grows half sweet potatoes and half wheat.
Because the Wang family has many people, their private plot of land is as large as one acre and three fen.
Each person in the team was given one mu of land on average. When the private plots were distributed, their family was given one mu and a half mu of land in total.
The other two points are in front of and behind their houses, where they grow seasonal vegetables and the like.
Although their family was allocated one mu and three fen of private land, which seemed to be a lot, the land was too poor, so the yield was extremely low. In total, they only harvested more than 800 kilograms of sweet potatoes and more than 40 kilograms of wheat. This was the result of their careful care.
After harvesting the grain, even though Qian Shulan had space, she couldn't rashly put all these things into the space, right
What if my family finds out
So Qian Shulan still asked them to store the food according to previous practices.
The cellar was cleaned thoroughly by them, and quicklime was especially sprinkled around.
Qian Shulan felt relieved when she remembered that the sweet potatoes had not rotted.
After that, the team started the next step of summer planting.
This time everyone in the team will plant sweet potatoes.
In the past, their team mainly grew soybeans, sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn.
But because the next thing to do was to carry out the Great Leap Forward and the Great Steel Production Campaign.
Qian Weihan was worried that something bad might happen, so he suggested that the production team decide to plant all sweet potatoes. Although Wangjia Village was too high, the team members would have to water the crops more often, but in order to avoid going hungry, they had no choice but to persevere.
The team members had no objection to this.
It would be better to grow sweet potatoes so that they can have enough to eat.
Instead of distributing all the soybeans to them as before, seven taels of that stuff was equivalent to one pound of grain, so the weight was a lot less.
Many people complained that they simply did not have enough to eat.
But the land in the team is too barren and there is no fertilizer, so they can only grow soybeans to fertilize the fields. If they don't grow soybeans, they will starve to death. There is nothing they can do about it.
Now when the team members heard about planting sweet potatoes, they were completely excited.
The people above don’t care what kind of crops you grow.
So it was settled quickly.
Because planting sweet potatoes requires ridges, the strong laborers began to go to the fields and dig ridges.
The women began to grind the soybean stalks into pieces, and then mixed them with human and animal manure and fallen leaves to make artificial fertilizer, and spread it on the fields.
This method can make the land much more fertile.
In the past, one acre of land could not even yield 60 kilograms of soybeans. Later, it gradually got better, and now one acre of land can yield 100 kilograms.
This is the case without pesticides and fertilizers. If there were pesticides and fertilizers, there would be more.
Zhengkang and Zhengguo were still minors, so they worked with the women. They were all assigned six centimeters of work. Qian Shulan was afraid that they would tire themselves out if they did more. Even so, the two were exhausted. They would always go home several dozen minutes later than others.
After dinner, everyone had no time to rest and went to the fields to earn work points. Summer planting also depends on the weather. If you plant the sweet potatoes before it rains, you can save some effort on watering.
Only Qian Shulan, Zhengjun, and Xiaolian were at home. Since the harvest of grain from her private plot, Qian Shulan had not gone to work in the fields. She stayed at home to dry the wheat and look after the children.
Qian Shulan took the dishes and chopsticks she had eaten to the water tank to wash them, while Zhengjun and Xiaolian sat under the eaves playing with stones. Wheat was spread out in the yard to dry.
Suddenly someone outside shouted, "The water is coming."
Zhengjun quickly got up from the ground, picked up his small net, and rushed out. Xiaolian saw him running away and ran out after him.
When Qian Shulan came to her senses, Zhengjun and Xiaolian had disappeared.
Qian Shulan was very anxious. She seemed to have heard "water coming" just now. Could it be that the two children went to play in the water? She was immediately frightened.
Qian Shulan quickly closed the door and went out to look for someone.
As soon as she went out, she saw many children aged six or seven in the village carrying small nets and running towards the village entrance.
"What is this for?" Qian Shulan asked a child.
"The water has been released into the river, go catch some fish." The child was so anxious when he was stopped by someone that he said this quickly and ran away.
Qian Shulan guessed that Zhengjun and Xiaolian should be going to the ditch at the entrance of the village, so she hurriedly followed them.
Unexpectedly, not long after arriving there, I heard Xiaolian's panicked cry, "Zhengjun fell into the water. Zhengjun was washed away by the flood."
This scream almost scared Qian Shulan to death. Without thinking too much, she immediately ran towards Xiaolian.
When she came to her, Xiaolian's face was covered with snot and tears. Seeing her was like seeing her backbone. Xiaolian pointed to the small ditch next to her and said, "Zhengjun was washed away by the flood."
Qian Shulan hurriedly ran forward along the creek. Although the speed of the water was not particularly fast, it could rush dozens of meters in a short time.
Qian Shulan looked forward and saw a dark little head popping up from time to time in front of the ditch. His arms kept flapping, obviously choking on water. It must be Zhengjun! She ran forward with all her might.
After hurrying for a long time, I finally caught up with him, but I couldn't find anything useful to stop him.
It seemed that Zhengjun had stopped struggling and just stood there motionless, letting the water plants poke at his face.
Qian Shulan's heart sank and she jumped into the river.
He picked up Zhengjun, stood him up, and leaned him against the steep slope.
The river was more than two meters deep. Qian Shulan tried to hold her breath and lift the man up, little by little. When she was sure that the man was not floating on the water, she began to float up.
Carrying the regular army up step by step.
At this time, the children also ran over and scrambled to hold Zhengjun's arm to prevent him from being washed away by the river.
There were more than a dozen children, and although each of them had little strength, with so many children, they were still able to pull a child weighing less than 40 kilograms.
Seeing that the children were able to pull, Qian Shulan hurriedly climbed out of the river and together with the children pulled Zhengjun out of the water.
Seeing that Zhengjun's face was ashen and he seemed unconscious, Qian Shulan immediately laid him flat, stretched his legs, bent his arms forward, and tilted his head to one side. She raised his abdomen and gave him mouth-to-mouth artificial resuscitation.
Soon Zhengjun woke up coughing.
Qian Shulan was so tired that she collapsed to the ground.
The other children were also frightened.
Some timid children started crying.
Xiaolian cried out of breath, knelt on the ground, and cried to Zhengjun, "Zhengjun, Zhengjun, it's all my fault. If you hadn't pulled me up, you wouldn't have fallen into the water. Are you okay?"
Zhengjun, who was almost choked to death by the water, felt very uncomfortable at this moment. After he fell into the river just now, a lot of river water was poured into his mouth. His whole body was sore and uncomfortable, and his stomach was even more bloated, as if he had eaten too much. His nose was even more sore and uncomfortable, and he wanted to cry. So he didn't bother to reply to Xiaolian's words.
When he came to his senses and saw that his grandmother was soaking wet, he knew that it was his grandmother who saved him. He was so grateful that he threw himself into his grandmother's arms and said, "Grandma, I was almost scared to death." As he spoke, a lot of water came out of his mouth again.
Qian Shulan got up from the ground, patted his back and started to help him wash the water, scolding, "You two kids, why didn't you tell grandma when you wanted to go out to play? Look, you almost lost your life!" At the end, she was so angry that she slapped him on the back twice.
Zhengjun was almost drowned and was naturally very scared. Thinking about the scene of himself struggling in the water just now, he immediately burst into tears.
Seeing that he knew he was wrong, Qian Shulan did not teach him a lesson.
Qian Shulan looked at so many children helping and said with a smile, "You are all good children. It is because of your help that Zhengjun was rescued today. I have candy at home. Come on, follow me home and I will reward you!"
When the children heard that there was candy, they waved their hands happily and jumped after Qian Shulan.
Qian Shulan dragged Zhengjun home while comforting the crying Xiaolian.
When she got home, Qian Shulan didn't even bother to change her clothes and went to her room to get some fruit candy.
Each child grabbed a handful, and then reminded them, "Don't go into the water, you see how dangerous Zhengjun was just now!"
The children were still frightened, so they took the candies and ran home without delaying any longer.
Qian Shulan went to the big house first to find some clean clothes for Zhengjun.
He went back to his room and changed his clothes.
When the workers came back and heard that the general had fallen into the water, they were all terrified. The most exaggerated one was Wang Shouren, who almost fell to his knees. He had finally come back from a day off, and he encountered this incident, which almost scared him to death.
Sun Daqin, with a pale face, hit Zhengjun twice in a rage, "Why are you trying to be a hero? How old are you? You went to save people. You almost lost your life, do you know that?!" She glared at Xiaolian, whose eyes were swollen like peaches from crying, "You little girl, a money-loser, you are not worth saving. Are you stupid?"
Qian Shulan's face darkened, and she suddenly pulled Sun Daqin away, pointing at her and yelling, "What nonsense are you talking about! Is this how you teach your children? Zhengjun is brave, he is doing what is right, and you don't praise him, you scold him, is there something wrong with your brain?"
Sun Daqin saw how angry her mother-in-law was, and then she thought that it was she who saved her son, so no matter how unwilling she was, she swallowed it.
Qian Shulan wiped Zhengjun's hair with a towel. He tilted his head and looked at Qian Shulan aggrievedly. The pitiful look melted Qian Shulan's heart. She touched Zhengjun's head and said seriously, "Zhengjun, saving people is good and brave, but you also have to consider your own abilities. Look, you are younger than Xiaolian. How could you save her? Wouldn't it be better if you called an adult for help?"
Zhengjun thought about it carefully in his mind, nodded, and scratched his head a little embarrassedly, "Grandma, I saw Xiaolian almost fell into the river, and I didn't have time to think about it."
At that time, Xiaolian was standing by the river. Zhengjun saw her about to fall into the river, so he subconsciously reached out to pull her. However, when Xiaolian fell, she grabbed a small tree by the river in a hurry and did not fall. But Zhengjun was unlucky enough, he missed and fell directly into the ditch.
Qian Shulan touched Zhengjun's head and said, "Well, grandma knew that Zhengjun was a good boy."
Xiaolian stood in front of Zhengjun with a face full of shame, "I'm sorry, Zhengjun, it's all my fault!"
Zhengjun blushed and waved his hands, "Look, I'm fine."
Everyone else walked out of the main room.
Sun Daqin glared at Li Chunhua fiercely, and Li Chunhua lowered her head guiltily.
After Qian Shulan wiped Zhengjun's hair, she went back to the house and got a piece of cloth.
He called a family meeting and handed it to Li Chunhua, "This is my reward for Zhengjun. Our Zhengjun is a good boy. Although his way of saving people is wrong, he is brave and kind. Chunhua, you have to make this shirt well and embroider a five-pointed star on the right side with red thread. This is an honor. Our Zhengjun is a good boy under the five-star red flag."
Zhengjun blushed as he heard his grandmother praising him like that, and immediately straightened his chest.
Perhaps because of guilt, Li Chunhua made the dress very quickly.
The gray shirt with a five-pointed star on the right is very bright and beautiful.
When Zhengjun put it on, he looked so beautiful that he kept asking adults and children, "Does it look good?"
Adults usually praise it by saying, "It looks good."
But the kids were a little jealous. Some said, "It's so ugly," while others said, "It's just so-so. It would look better if I wore it."
But Zheng Jun was not angry at all, because he could clearly see the jealousy on their faces.
When the food in everyone's private plots was all dried, the sweet potatoes also sprouted. The team began to arrange for the team members to plant sweet potatoes.
The women used pickaxes to dig small holes one by one on the sweet potato ridges. Then they planted the sweet potato seedlings that were distributed to them. After planting the seedlings, they poured water. After pouring the water, they filled the soil with their hands.
They worked in groups. For a piece of land, one group dug small holes, one group planted the seedlings, and one group poured water and filled the hole with soil.
Qian Shulan was responsible for digging small holes. She was in the elderly group, so she couldn't bend over all the time. Zhengguo and Zhengjun were responsible for watering.
After a day of work, her waist was so sore that she couldn't even stand up straight. While Qian Shulan was digging the pit, she would occasionally watch Zhengkang's movements and found that he secretly wiped his tears with his sleeves several times.
But Zhengguo was extremely excited, and no one knew what he was so excited about!
The author has something to say: Please speed up the timeline a bit, otherwise when will we be able to write about the famine!
Oh, the next chapter is about grandma’s alternative way of educating Zhengkang, which is a bit weird… ╮(╯▽╰)╭