Chapter 61
61 Harvest
After dawn, there would occasionally be a few muffled claps of thunder in the sky, but it would always be dry thunder without rain. Everyone would be happy for nothing.
More than half of the water in Li Yu’s family’s reservoir had been used up. Liu Changmin and Xiao An drove the ox cart and began to go to the river to draw water home to pour it into the reservoir.
Some of the villagers emulated Li Yu’s family and began to dig a pond to store water they fetched from the river. Some began to pour water into the rice fields to prepare for the planting of grains in April.
Li Yu invited Butcher He to come to the house to kill the two pigs. The streaky pork was cut into small cubes and marinated with large ingredients. Then, it was fried with plate oil and a small amount of rapeseed oil. The oil and meat were stored in jars and sealed.
The ribs and lean meat were marinated, steamed, and roasted into jerky for storage.
The rapeseed flowers in the field had already bloomed. The golden rapeseed flowers emitted a sweet fragrance, attracting groups of bees to dance in the flowers.
The wheat seedlings also began to grow. Li Yu, Liu Changmin, and Xiao An began to fertilize the wheat to ensure that the wheat could absorb nutrients in time and prevent it from aging early, causing the grain to decrease and reduce production.
Zhou Jia brought some salt and sugar to Li Yu’s house. He said to Li Yu worriedly, “Xiaoyu, the weather has been drying up like this. No one dares to spend money casually. The business in the shop has also plummeted. Get the aunties to stop work after today’s work is done and wait for our notice to start work. Also, these bags of salt are all distributed by the officials to sell to the shop. The shop hasn’t finished selling them and accumulated them. Pack them up and put them away. If the weather continues to dry up, I’m afraid it’ll be difficult for this year’s harvest. I’ve already informed the tenant farmers that other than paying taxes for food this year, I won’t collect rent.”
Zhou Jia nagged. Seeing his worried expression, Li Yu pretended to smile lightly. “So you’re a kind landlord, not Zhou the Exploiter.”
“Who is Zhou the Exploiter?” Zhou Jia looked at Li Yu’s smile and suddenly understood. He concluded that it was not a good thing and threatened Li Yu, “Alright! How dare you say that I’m Zhou the Exploiter? How dare you be disrespectful to your husband? Watch how I deal with you.”
Li Yu smiled and told Zhou Jia the story of Zhou the Exploiter learning how to crow in the middle of the night. She looked at Zhou Jia and smiled. “Look, I praised you for being a good person, not Nero Zhou.”
After the two of them played around, Zhou Jia felt that he was not so worried anymore. He began to tell Li Yu about the situation in the city. “Xiaoyu, some of the big families in the city have already begun to store water, food, and salt. There are also a few families who have already begun to prepare to migrate. Xia Tao and his aunt are already prepared to wait until the end of the month. If it doesn’t rain, we’ll leave for the capital.”
Li Yu looked at Zhou Jia. “Zhou Jia, after the rapeseed and wheat are collected, do you plan to leave if it hasn’t rained yet?”
Zhou Jia thought for a moment. “Unless it’s absolutely necessary, I haven’t thought of leaving this place to go anywhere else. What do you think?”
Li Yu looked at Zhou Jia and nodded with a smile. “It’s the same for me. I haven’t thought of going anywhere else.”
Zhou Jia looked at Li Yu and gently touched his forehead to Li Yu’s. He said softly, “Yu’er, as long as I am with you, I’m not afraid.”
Li Yu looked at Zhou Jia and whispered, “If you’re not afraid, I’m not afraid either.”
The two of them chatted for a while. When Li Yu sent Zhou Jia to the door, Zhou Jia remembered that he had forgotten to tell Li Yu about the arrows. Zhou Jia whispered to Li Yu, “I’ve already gotten someone to forge the arrows. I also bought two daggers for you and Ah Qing to carry around. I’ll bring them to you in two days.”
Li Yu smiled and nodded. She watched as Zhou Jia got into the mule cart and left with the goods. Then, she went home and picked up a pen and paper to sketch two drawings. One was a crossbow, and the other was a drawing of a sleeve arrow. She drove the ox cart to the blacksmith shop in town.
When Li Yu arrived at the blacksmith’s shop, the blacksmith was forging a long saber. He turned around and smiled at Li Yu. “Miss Li, what do you want to make today?”
Li Yu took out the blueprint and handed it to the blacksmith. “Uncle, I have something to show you. Can you see if you can make it?”
The blacksmith took the drawing. “Let me see what kind of rare thing it is.”
The blacksmith looked at the blueprint in his hand in shock. He looked around and whispered, “Girl, this thing is so exquisite. Where did you get it? Don’t let the government know. You’ll be exiled if you forge these.”
Li Yu looked at the blacksmith and smiled. “Uncle, I came to look for you because I know you’re a good person. I want to make a crossbow and three hidden arrows. Help me make more arrows. Do you know how to make these two things?”
“Aye!” The smith sighed. “Tell me something, lass. I haven’t touched one of these things in years. A hand crossbow costs forty taels, and a sleeve arrow costs thirty taels of silver with the arrow. If you want it, I’ll forge it for you. You can collect it in ten days.”
Li Yu nodded. “The price is fine. I’ll come and collect it in ten days. Thank you, Uncle Blacksmith.” Li Yu gave half of the deposit and returned home.
The villagers still had to carry water ashore from the river in early April to plant the grains.
After ten days, Li Yu went to the town to retrieve the crossbow and sleeve arrow. She went to the forest alone and aimed the crossbow at the tree trunk. After trying it a few times, she felt that it was quite accurate. She tied the sleeve arrow to her arm and carved a mark on a tree. She touched the butterfly piece and activated the sleeve arrow. After the arrow shot out at lightning speed, it hit the spot Li Yu had engraved. Li Yu was satisfied and hid the crossbow and sleeve arrow in her space.
At the end of April, the rapeseed leaves had already begun to turn yellow. The color of the rapeseed sticks had also begun to turn light green. The wheat seeds had also begun to germinate. Li Yu estimated that they could cut rapeseed by the beginning of May and wheat by the middle of the same month.
When the rapeseed was ripe, Li Yu hired Chen Yaohui and his wife in the village, as well as a few other men and women who worked efficiently in the village. It took four to five days to cut the rapeseed and dry it on the sun mat.
After producing the rapeseed, Li Yu realized that there was very little yield. It was only about 200 catties. Li Yu put the rapeseed into the warehouse and began to harvest the winter wheat.
The villagers stood on the field and looked at the 20 acres of golden wheat in Li Yu’s house with envy. Everyone was thinking about planting some wheat this winter.
It took a dozen men four or five days to cut the wheat and bring it home. It took a few more days to dry it before they threshed it.
When the wheat was cleaned and dried, Li Yu weighed it. An acre of land only had a harvest of 500 catties. However, the villagers praised Li Yu’s family for their good harvest and even asked her how to grow wheat.
Li Yu told everyone how she chose and cultivated. Everyone sighed, “No wonder the harvest is good.”
Madam Li also smiled and echoed, “Back then, I was also saying that Xiaoyu’s farming was so meticulous. I wondered how the harvest would be. Looks like her method is still better.”
Everyone was discussing excitedly how to plant the winter wheat this winter and which piece of land to plant. They had temporarily forgotten about the worries of the lack of rain.
Suddenly, Madam Qian pointed at Mount Daqing and screamed, “Look, there’s a black mass in the sky over there. What’s that black cloud?”
The village chief looked carefully for a while and shouted, “Heavens! The locusts are here. They’re not giving us a way out!”
The village chief shouted in panic and ran out of the courtyard. “The locusts are here. The locusts are here. Go get the locust god.”