Divorce with three kids? I'll build a house and eat meat, driving my in-laws crazy.

Chapter 175 Why don’t you go and grab it?
Hai comforted him, "Village head, don't worry. Not all the wheat has sprouted."

Chen Laosan said, "If the wheat in the low-lying riverside fields collapses, then it's hard to say. But the wheat on the higher hillsides is still doing well, so all things considered, at least half of the losses have been mitigated."

Lu Dagang felt like the sky had collapsed, but now he realized that only half of the sky had collapsed.

He clutched his chest for a long time before finally saying, "It's better than nothing, it's better than nothing."

Thankfully, God didn't kill them all; at least He left them a way out.

Half a harvest is enough to keep us from starving, and as for the taxes, we can always squeeze them out.

But the days ahead are probably going to be tough.

Many people in Chenjia Village have been eating wild vegetable porridge for a long time, just waiting for this batch of grain to get through the winter.

Now that this has happened, they are all extremely anxious.

A flurry of panic erupted in the crowd. "Village head, could you talk to the higher-ups about reducing or exempting some of this year's taxes?"

Taxes are usually paid on one-third of the normal harvest. Now that half the harvest has been lost, it means that after paying taxes, they will only have one-fifth of the grain they used to have.

The yield of grain in Datang is not high; one-fifth of an acre of land cannot even hold a few bags of grain.

The harvested wheat still needs to be threshed and ground into powder, and its weight will only decrease in the end.

The village head nodded and said, "I understand."

He could only try his best, but whether the higher-ups would agree or not was another matter.

Chen Laosan patted him on the shoulder and said, "Old Lü, many people in the village have already started harvesting wheat. If your family is going to harvest, hurry up and take advantage of the sunny weather now."

As soon as Chen Laosan finished speaking, the number of people in the courtyard had decreased considerably, with many running around urging their family members to hurry down to the fields.

Lu Da looked at Chen Laosan and said, "Go ahead and take them, my family will take them too."

If you don't harvest quickly, you'll lose half of your harvest; harvesting is the best way to stop the loss.

Suddenly, Chenjia Village, which had been quiet for a long time, became unusually lively.

People were busy in the mountains and fields, as the wheat fields were flooded after several days of heavy rain.

With one step, my shoes and trouser legs were soaked, and when I lifted my foot again, my shoes sank into the mud.

The wheat ears, wet from top to bottom after the rain, felt dull and heavy when cut with a sickle.

When the weather is hot, an adult male can harvest about one acre of land per day.

But now, they have to pull on their pants to find their shoes with every step they take, and they also have to stop to sharpen their sickles.

It took a long time to harvest even a single inch of land.

Even so, the people of Chenjia Village stubbornly refused to let go of a single ear of wheat.

The adults cut wheat in front, while the children followed behind, carrying baskets to pick up the ears of wheat.

If there's any advantage to harvesting wheat right now, it's that the weather isn't hot.

A gentle breeze was blowing, and the weather was cool, unlike in previous years when the sun was so strong during the wheat harvest that people would peel off their skin.

Li Ruru's family didn't own any land, so naturally they didn't need to harvest wheat.

At this moment, three men were standing in her yard: Chen Dagang, He Dajiao, and Wang Tieniu.

Chen Dagang spoke first: "Third sister-in-law, you don't have any fields or an oxcart, so you probably don't need it, right? Quickly lend it to me, we need to haul wheat."

Fearing that Li Ruru would refuse, he added, "The road is all muddy, and it's impossible to pull by manpower. Anyway, your oxcart is just sitting idle, so stop dawdling and let me borrow it."

Li Ruru never expected him to be so shameless. He sold her daughter back then, and now he still has the nerve to come to her door to borrow things.

She asked, "The field is all muddy, you can't pull the cart, right?"

A handcart is a traditional human-powered means of transportation, usually made of wood, consisting of a frame, shafts, and wheels.

The frame, also called the carriage, is generally rectangular and can hold various items.

The shafts are two long poles extending from the front of the cart, usually made of wood, of moderate thickness for easy gripping and operation. A rope runs through the middle of the shafts, which can be hung on the shoulder. With the help of both hands pulling on the shafts, a cart full of goods can be pulled forward.

If the load is too heavy, or if the road is broken, the handcart will have difficulty moving.

Without oxen, any farm work that requires physical exertion is difficult to do.

Seeing that Li Ruru was willing to talk to him, Chen Dagang assumed that she had forgotten what had happened before and nodded, saying, "Yes, it's impossible to pull, it's exhausting."

Li Ruru took a step closer and stared at him, coldly saying, "I'll tell you three numbers. If you don't leave, I'm going to unleash the dogs."

Chen Dagang said speechlessly, "Why are you so petty? That incident happened so long ago, why are you still holding onto it? Huh..."

Before he could finish speaking, Qiqi rushed out and bit his thigh.

Chen Dagang ran out the door in terror, his legs shaking as he ran, screaming wildly as if he had gone mad.

Qiqi followed it for a while, but then got bored and stopped.

Seeing that one less competitor had emerged, He Dajiao quickly spoke up, "Li family, I didn't..."

He wanted to say that he hadn't done anything to wrong her family, but he changed his words to, "I've never sold your daughter. We have no grudges against each other, we're just neighbors. Is it wrong for me to borrow your oxcart?"

Li Ruru clasped her hands in a fist and said, "There's nothing wrong with that."

He Dajiao jumped for joy, "I knew you were a good person! Where's the cow? I'll go get it right now."

Li Ruru's cows and horses were kept in the backyard, so he naturally didn't see them when he scanned the yard.

Li Ruru rubbed two fingers together and said, "If you want to use my oxcart, pay first. Two taels of silver a day."

"You want to pay more? Two ounces a day? Why don't you just rob someone?" He Dajiao jumped up and down again.

Li Ruru smiled sinisterly and said, "I'm robbing you right now. Business isn't about forcing anyone; if you don't want to give it, then please leave."

He Dajiao was about to shout something when he suddenly saw Qiqi staring at him with her big, blinking eyes.

It was as if if he said one more harsh word, or even just spoke, it would rush up and bite him.

He Dajiao shut her mouth, cursing under her breath, but didn't dare to say a word, and left Li Ruru's house directly.

Seeing that Chen Dagang and He Dajiao had left, Wang Tieniu immediately took out two taels of silver from his pocket.

"Aunt Li, here's the money. I'll borrow your oxcart for a while."

Li Ruru smiled and waved her hand, saying, "No need to pay, you can use it."

Xiao Yishan had already fed the cow and led it out from the backyard. Wang Tieniu took the cow rope and said gratefully, "Thank you, Aunt Li."

His mother said they needed to hurry up and harvest the wheat, and the family donkey had fallen ill, so he had no choice but to come to Li Ruru.

Seeing that he was about to leave, Li Ruru casually asked, "Where will you dry your wheat after you harvest it? What if it rains again?"

Normally, the harvested wheat is brought to the threshing ground, where it is dried on a relatively hard surface and then threshed by threshing with a flail.

A flail consists of a long handle and a set of parallel bamboo or wooden strips, about 1.5 to 2 meters long, making it easy for people to hold and operate.

The operator holds the long handle of the flail, swings it to make the bamboo or wooden strips draw an arc in the air, and then strikes the wheat heavily.

By repeatedly striking the wheat, the grains will fall from the ear of wheat.

Mature, dried wheat is easy to thresh, but the wheat is still wet, and the ground is wet too.

Firstly, there's nowhere to dry them, and secondly, it's not easy to thresh them.

Furthermore, if it rains again, the harvested wheat will probably sprout and won't survive.

Wang Tieniu scratched his head and said, "Auntie, do you have any good ideas?"

She figured that since Li Ruru had asked him, she must have a way to deal with it. Her mother said that Aunt Li was smart and told the two brothers to listen to her more.

(End of this chapter)