Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 648 Autumn Harvest
In the golden autumn of October, the rice grains turn golden, marking another year of bountiful harvest.

From one end of the village to the other, along the main road, there are vast expanses of golden rice paddies in Lujiawan. Red flags flutter in the wind in the rice paddies, but there is hardly any sound in the vast fields.

On the main road, only Chen Fan was riding a small horse, holding the reins and teaching it professional running techniques.

Changing his running, walking backward slowly, changing direction, taking a sideways step, walking quickly in place, spinning... to outsiders, it would seem like Xiao Ma was just playing around, and they would never guess that Chen Fan was getting restless.

Xiao Ma was at an age full of energy, and he was not only not annoyed by Chen Fan's instructions, but also very interested in doing these actions, and even enjoyed it.

The mare stood beside her, curiously imitating her, and looked quite convincing.

Not far away, Zhang Wenliang shouted loudly, "Do you all understand your mission?"

Dozens of farm machinery operators stood in front of him, shouting in unison like the soldiers, "Understood!"

Well, it's not wrong to call them soldiers, because these people are basically militiamen.

When selecting farm machinery operators, Zhang Wenliang was in charge, so he naturally gave priority to selecting from the militia.

I must say, among the more than 4000 people in Lujiawan, including men, women, and children, the militia members are the most qualified in terms of physical fitness and discipline. These people were definitely the right choice.

This also includes 12 female farm machinery operators.

This was of course obtained by Zhang Wenliang's wife, Yang Xingxiu, who worked hard to secure it for her husband.

Now that life in Lujiawan is better, we must fight for the labor rights of our female comrades, with one spot for each team, leaving no one behind.

After the "house-building boom" around the Spring Festival at the beginning of the year, the number of households in the entire brigade quickly increased from 586 to more than 900, and the number of people also increased slightly, mainly due to a new batch of babies, bringing the total number of people to more than 4000.

The reason for the large increase in the number of households is that many people took the opportunity to separate their families and occupy more homestead land.

Previously, there was no money to build houses, so about 10 people lived together in cramped conditions. Now that there is money to build new houses, and considering that Team 5 doesn't have enough space to build new houses in the old location, they could only fill in a patch of land to create a new residential area, and Company Commander Zhang moved in there.

Without a doubt, in the future, homestead land will only be available at the bottom of the slope.

In the Jiangnan region, there is a lot of rain, and the lower the terrain, the more easily it is flooded, so everyone wants to secure a location on the slope.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to build a new house, the family naturally divided up the land first and then claimed the foundation.

With more households and improved living standards, the team leaders also became more ambitious.

Previously, they were afraid that the brigade would transfer people to work, which would affect the production schedule of their teams. Now, they are worried that their teams will be left out, so they want to send people to the brigade headquarters.

Leaving aside the quota for male farm machinery operators, each team went to great lengths to secure the one and only female farm machinery operator position, with everyone using their own unique skills and talents. Only the most outstanding female comrades were qualified to become farm machinery operators.

In the end, it was the female militia members who were elected.

At this moment, these female comrades stood next to the male comrades, ready to go into battle at any time.

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

At Zhang Wenliang's command, all the farm machinery operators quickly ran to their machines.

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

There's no way around it; the format is very important. This mobilization meeting before the autumn harvest campaign is a must.

Once everyone was in position, Zhang Wenliang raised a rifle and pulled the trigger towards the sky.

With the crisp sound of gunfire, the harvesters parked on both sides of the main road started up almost simultaneously, the roar of diesel engines echoing throughout the entire Lujiawan area. They then headed east or west, crossed the stone bridge over the irrigation canal, and rushed towards the bountiful fields.

Each agricultural machine is followed by a small team of five people. The harvester harvests in front, and the team follows behind to bundle the straw and then deliver it to the nearest threshing machine to thresh the rice.

Uh... please forgive this harvester for being rather primitive. It harvests as soon as it's told to, and it absolutely does nothing else besides harvesting; that's what other machines do.

(A harvester that does nothing but harvest)
Zhang Wenliang watched for a while, then turned to his father-in-law, who was also the brigade secretary, and walked up to him, saying, "Dad, judging from this, it seems like we can collect most of it today."

Yang Yizhong put down his binoculars, grunted twice, and said, "This time we're launching a major campaign, deploying 48 harvesters at once, with four for each team. We're also equipping each team with one diesel threshing machine and three pedal threshing machines. If we can't harvest these 3000 mu of land in a day, what's the point of buying all these machines?"

Just look at him now, and you'll know what arrogance really means.

With over 3000 mu of paddy fields and 48 harvesters, each harvester can only cover 6 or 70 mu. Even horse-drawn harvesters can only go this fast, so how could diesel-powered harvesters be any worse?!
(Horse-drawn harvester)

Standing beside him, the team leader Zhang Changjiang stood with his hands on his hips, his face full of regret. "There's still not enough land. More than 3000 mu of land isn't enough for these agricultural machines to operate effectively."

Xiao Liewen held up his pipe in one hand and pressed his lower back with the other, humming as he said, "Hmm, I agree."

Then he looked at Ye Shubao, who was rolling toilet paper next to him, and said, "You too, you could have just bought some cheap cigarettes, why do you have to roll your own? Don't you find it troublesome?"

Ye Shubao didn't even look up. "Hmph, the cigarettes I bought aren't strong. The tobacco leaves I grow myself are much better."

Although Zhang Wenliang was used to their conversations going off-topic, he still couldn't figure out how they got from talking about harvesting to talking about tobacco leaves.

After chatting for a while, Xiao Liewen first stubbed out his pipe, wiped the bowl with a cloth, and without saying much, got on a bicycle and left.

Seeing him leave, the other three didn't say anything, just waved to each other, got on their bikes, and headed to their respective posts.

Although the harvesting method has changed, some things remain the same, such as the brigade leaders assigning responsibilities to each team and supervising the harvesting of the squads.

Zhang Wenliang turned his head and looked around. At this time, most people had already gone to the fields. On the main road, apart from the threshing machines and the commune members running around, there was only Chen Fan with two horses, two dogs, two birds, and two sheep...

He couldn't help but pat his head and walk over to say, "You're the most idle person here. Fine, you're idle, but can you at least lock all your livestock inside? You're busy everywhere, aren't you afraid people will say you're an eyesore?"

Chen Fan turned his head and looked at it. "Who said that?"

Then, pointing to a spot not far away, he said, "Aren't there people sitting around doing nothing there too?"

Zhang Wenliang looked in the direction he was pointing and was immediately speechless. "How dare you compare yourself to a child?"

Chen Fan clicked his tongue. "Hey, Lao Zhang, the autumn harvest doesn't require that much manpower, so why is the school still on holiday?"

Zhang Wenliang choked for a moment, "Uh, other teams are releasing people, even the schools in the commune are releasing people, so let's release people too."

"Crooked."

Chen Fanyi said righteously, "Other people give students a holiday so that some of them can go home and participate in the autumn harvest. We don't even have enough adults here, so we don't need their help."

He paused for a moment, then pointed to the farm machinery and said, "Besides, after we finish harvesting, these machines will go to help other teams. In my opinion, there's no need for the school to have a holiday. On the contrary, while the fields are being harvested, the school has to give each student a few sets of test papers to take exams. It's a great harvest, after all."

Zhang Wenliang looked dejected and didn't want to talk to him.

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

Seeing Chen Fan galloping forward, Zhang Wenliang couldn't help but laugh and exclaim, "Hey, you still remember the Yunhu Daily?"

The year is almost over, and Chen Fan hasn't written a single news article yet. As a result, even though Lujiawan is much stronger than last year, the chances of it being published have dropped significantly. The few articles he has published were only because reporters from the local daily newspapers approached him on their own initiative.

Chen Fan ignored him, waved his hand to disperse the animal group but forbade them to eat the grain, and then took his camera and took pictures everywhere.

However, after only a couple of takes, a squad leader would call out to them by chance, and they would dismount to smoke and chat with someone, and the morning would pass by in a leisurely manner.

Around noon, he happened to wander between Team 1 and Team 12 at the very top. Since Team 1's food arrived early, he ate there for free.

Since it's a major campaign, we should eat in the "big canteen".

The last time the village had a large canteen was in 58. After that, the large canteen was abolished, and only a small canteen for entertaining guests was kept at the brigade headquarters.

In other words, now that all the production teams are doing well, the early and late rice harvests this year have been bountiful, especially the late rice, which is all hybrid rice, with yields significantly higher than in the past. This gives the production teams the confidence to open large canteens during the autumn harvest.

The food at the group meal was pretty good: a pot of duck stew with potatoes, a pot of braised rabbit stew with radishes, a pot of braised pork glistening with oil, and finally rice served in a steamer and vegetable and egg soup served in a wooden bucket.

Each person gets a large enamel bowl, and they can fill it up as much as they want, as long as they can eat it all.

Actually, the food in Lujiawan was pretty good that year. Not to mention eating meat every day, they could eat it at least once every ten days or so.

Even though many elderly people are used to being frugal and are reluctant to eat meat, they know that children need to eat more meat to be healthy, so they don't stop them.

Some families without elderly members would eat this once a week. If it weren't for the food station's ample pork supply this year, and the lack of meat coupons for them, they would mostly have to eat the chickens, ducks, and geese they raised themselves.

I dare not eat the pigs I raise. They are easy to eat but too difficult to raise. Besides, I have to meet my quota at the end of the year. If I don't meet my quota, it will affect my feed allocation for livestock...

Therefore, even though each household had a high income from sideline businesses, no one dared to ignore the production tasks assigned by the production team. Grain was very cheap, far less than raising chickens, so no one dared not grow grain or raise pigs.

In addition, the guidance of the production team is needed to allocate sideline resources based on production contributions, so that the members do not lose sight of one thing and become confused.

Life has improved. Although the food is very good today, most people don't show the courage to eat until they're exhausted. Instead, they eat as much as they can, without going hungry or wasting food.

Chen Fan eats quickly. He ate a bowl at Team 1 and then ran to Team 12, which wasn't far away.

When I went over, the food was similar, but instead of duck, there was a large bowl of venison.

Chen Fan immediately nodded, "This is good."

It's not that the meat is good, but using wild game for meals doesn't affect the profitability of farmed animals.

He also had a big bowl of rice here, then returned the bowl to Team 1. After a short rest, the roar of the machines started up again.

Chen Fan stopped riding his horse and let both horses return on their own. He then walked back slowly, as if to digest his food.

The autumn harvest is certainly not just about reaping.

After the rice is harvested, it is threshed on the spot using a threshing machine, and then it is the turn of the carts to come out.

After threshing, the millet is shoveled into baskets and then the baskets are lifted onto a cart.

Some carts had mules, donkeys, and horses for labor, while others had people doing the labor. One by one, the carts wound their way along the road leading to the various teams.

(A basket for carrying rice)
Chen Fan went over to take pictures and also took a look at the rice.

Unlike the golden rice grains that are still ears of rice in the morning, threshed rice grains still have a lot of green at the bottom, which means that the grains are not completely dry.

After the rice is transported back, it needs to be dried to evaporate the moisture before it can meet the grain depot's storage standards.

In addition to the grains, there are also many rice ears and even straws inside. These impurities need to be processed multiple times to clean them thoroughly.

So, the autumn harvest is just the beginning; there's much more to come.

Compared to before, farm work is now much easier.

In addition, the autumn harvest is not just about rice.

In other words, the autumn harvest used to mainly involve harvesting rice and a small amount of other grains, but now in Lujiawan, in addition to rice, many cash crops are also planted on some of the slopes.

Jute, tobacco, melon, corn, ...

The portions are small, but the variety is plentiful.

This was also influenced by Chen Fan.

After Chen Fan's new house was built last year, he searched all over the commune for various fruit trees and useful seedlings. Later, everyone followed suit, and each team found some things to plant on the slope. With the things they had planted before, there were naturally many varieties.

Regardless of the quantity, all ripe crops must be harvested. Even if they are not sold, the production team will make unified arrangements.

Chen Fan wandered from one end of the village to the other, and then back again. Before he knew it, the day had passed, and only a touch of sunset remained in the western sky.

He stood at the crossroads at the entrance of the village; going east meant going home, and going west meant going to the brigade headquarters.

Standing in the middle of the road, head bowed in thought, he pondered carefully.

I returned on the 16th and ate at home. On the 17th, I ate at Captain Yang's house. On the 18th, I ate at Zhang Wenliang's house. On the 19th, I ate at Captain Tang's house in Team 7. On the 20th, I ate at Captain Qi's house in Team 8. On the 21st, ...

Oh, today is the 21st.

Even with agricultural machinery harvesting today, the work will continue until very late. The brigade headquarters will likely have to cook dinner, otherwise everyone will be starving by the time they get back to eat.

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

He turned his head and looked around. On the distant embankment, two horses were still frolicking. He immediately whistled, and the sound carried far and wide. The two horses galloped toward him.

He then adjusted his straw hat, dusted off the dust from his homespun jacket, shook off his straw sandals, put his hands behind his back, and strode towards the brigade headquarters.

(End of this chapter)