Reborn in 1965, I can obtain resources just by sweeping the floor.

"Ha! Ha! You old codger, you never tell the truth. It doesn't matter if you don't admit it, someone can deal with you. Let's see what you do then."

Village Chief Huang gave a meaningful smile, which made Yang Dazhuang's heart skip a beat.

"Old Huang, what's going on? Did you get some inside information? Tell me quickly, what's with this bottle of strong liquor?!"

"No, two bottles of strong liquor, plus a roast chicken!"

"No! No, I haven't even had roast chicken yet, and two bottles of strong liquor are all I have left."

"You're not going to lose out at all, are you? Two bottles it is. I'll get some fried peanuts for lunch. I heard..."

Village Chief Huang stopped joking with Yang Dazhuang and simply recounted what he had heard.

"Damn it, what is this called? I have to have a good talk with the Party Secretary and the Township Head later. That land was reclaimed by us with great effort. According to the previous regulations, the wasteland reclaimed in the past did not need to be handed over to the public grain."

After Village Chief Huang finished speaking, Yang Dazhuang slammed his hand on the table and said through gritted teeth.

"Hehehe, there's no written rule about this. Besides, don't you know how serious the food shortage has been these past few years? You're supposed to be the village head, and you can't even understand this little thing?"

Village Chief Huang glared at Yang Dazhuang as if he were a fool.

"Me! Hmph, if the township head doesn't give me a satisfactory answer, I won't agree. At worst, he can remove me. If Secretary Geng hadn't been ousted by them, what right would he have to issue orders on behalf of Secretary Geng?"

The more Yang Dazhuang thought about it, the angrier he became. He wished he could go and have a fight with the township head right now.

"Ahem! Village chiefs and village party secretaries, the main reason I called you here today is to discuss matters related to the autumn harvest."

Just as Yang Dazhuang was sulking, a man in his forties wearing glasses walked in from outside.

He was Jia Mingde, the current secretary of Qinghe Township. At this moment, he was wearing a light gray Zhongshan suit with two pens clipped to his pocket. He stood at the door, coughed twice, glanced at everyone sitting in the meeting room, and then stepped into the meeting room.

"Village chiefs and village secretaries, the main reason I've called you here today is to study and implement the important directives of our leaders. Also, our annual autumn harvest is about to begin, and as our great leader said..."

While Jia Mingde was giving a long, rambling speech, the village chiefs below were whispering amongst themselves, none of them paying attention to what Secretary Jia Mingde was saying.

Sitting on the high platform in the conference room, Jia Mingde was furious. He knew that he had replaced Secretary Geng and that the village cadres were not satisfied with it. However, Jia Mingde did not care about them. They had no choice but to put up with it.

"Ahem! Everyone, please quiet down. Next, we'll talk about the issue of this year's grain delivery. Before we get to that, I'd like to confirm something. According to reports from the villagers, Kaoshan Village planted dozens of acres of high-quality, high-yield wheat this year, which is twice or even more than ordinary wheat. Has the village head of Kaoshan Village arrived yet...?"

Upon hearing Secretary Jia call his name, Yang Dazhuang reluctantly stood up and spoke.

"Secretary Jia, those are just rumors. The yield of that piece of land in our village was indeed good this year, entirely because it was newly reclaimed. I estimate that the yield will drop next year. Besides, according to the regulations of previous years, land reclaimed in the same year does not need to pay grain tax."

“Village Chief Yang, you’ve misunderstood. I’m not saying I want to confiscate your grain. I’m asking where you got those high-quality, high-yield seeds. You should know that buying and selling them without the organization’s permission is speculation. Of course, I believe that Village Chief Yang wouldn’t do something illegal.”

After Jia Mingde finished speaking, he looked at Yang Dazhuang with a smile. He didn't believe that Yang Dazhuang would dare to do things differently from his ideas in a little while.

"This... Secretary Jia, this is completely untrue. Didn't I just say..."

Seeing Yang Dazhuang's face turn extremely ugly, Jia Mingde smiled slightly and nudged the township head next to him with his elbow.

"Ahem, Village Chief Yang, don't be anxious. Secretary Jia is reminding you because he's afraid you'll make a mistake, not because he doesn't trust you."

"However, your dozens of acres of wheat do indeed have a very high yield. In our Qinghe Township, and even in Songshan County, it is among the highest yields. Here's what we're thinking: after the harvest, you should keep enough seeds for next year and hand over the rest. Then the township will distribute them to the various villages."

Liu Xiangyang looked at Yang Dazhuang with a smile. Ever since he learned about the wheat yield of Kaoshantun, he and Jia Mingde had sent people to investigate several times. If the whole township could plant this high-quality and high-yield wheat, next year would definitely be a bumper harvest. Wouldn't that bring Jia Mingde and himself political achievements?

"Village Chief Yang, you're a veteran Party member, don't you even have this much awareness? Of course, we won't let you suffer a loss. So, for the remaining two hundred mu of wheat, you'll hand over 150 jin per mu, and the rest will be left to your village."

"Better to die than to die myself," the village chiefs said. "Besides, the township is doing this to distribute high-quality, high-yield seeds to all the villages. Of course, the other village chiefs and secretaries agree. Why should your village have such a high yield when our yield is so low? When it comes to distributing the grain, you'll get dozens of kilograms more per person than the other villages. Wouldn't that make the other village chiefs look incompetent?"

"Alright, that's settled then. As compensation, Village Chief Yang, I've decided that your village won't be given any quotas after this year's batch of educated youth arrives. Is that alright? Now, let's talk about the grain tax."

Seeing Yang Dazhuang's face turn red and his neck thick with anger, Jia Mingde didn't give him a chance to speak and made the decision directly. However, there was one more thing Jia Mingde didn't say. If Yang Dazhuang knew what he was going to say, he probably wouldn't agree to Secretary Jia's decision no matter what.

Yang Dazhuang sat in the chair, fuming, his mind filled with thoughts of how to explain things to his fellow villagers when he got back.

Yang Dazhuang's expression remained unchanged until the end of the meeting.

"Old Yang, don't be angry. These days, it's impossible to have everything to yourself. To compensate for your losses, I'll tell you some news. I heard that the county agricultural machinery station has two treasures."

After the meeting, Township Head Liu Xiangyang walked up to Yang Dazhuang, patted him on the shoulder, and said mysteriously.

"What treasure? Besides, what does it have to do with our village if the agricultural machinery station gets some kind of treasure?"

Yang Dazhuang angrily pushed Liu Xiangyang's hand away and looked at Liu Xiangyang with a depressed expression.

"Old Yang, don't keep it a secret. Everyone in our township knows you have connections at the agricultural machinery station. Our village is the only one in the whole township with tractors. Who would believe you don't have connections? Let me tell you, the agricultural machinery station got us two threshers this time."

Hearing Liu Xiangyang's words, Yang Dazhuang looked bitter. What was going on? When did he have that ability? It was all Xiao Su who got it, but he couldn't explain it.

"Threshing machine, what is a threshing machine?"

"It's a machine for threshing wheat. It's said to have been brought over from Shandong. Our county only got two sets. Since you have connections, why don't you try and see if you can get one for your village? I heard that thing is much better than..."

After saying that, Liu Xiangyang left the meeting room with a smile.

Even after returning to Kaoshantun, Village Chief Yang's words kept echoing in his mind: one threshing machine is equivalent to dozens of strong laborers.

Instead of going home, Yang Dazhuang went directly to Su Chen's house, briefly recounted what had happened that day, and finally told Su Chen about Liu Xiangyang's news.

"Village Chief Yang, you don't need to worry. They just want some high-quality seeds, right? Just give them to them. Besides, isn't the yield per acre ultimately up to us? You're doing this..."

Seeing Yang Dazhuang's frustrated expression, Su Chen smiled slightly and whispered a few words in his ear.

"Is this...is it okay to do it this way? The township will definitely send a work team to inspect the autumn harvest. It would be troublesome if we were discovered."

"Uncle Yang, don't worry. There's nothing written on the wheat, so they can't figure out which field it grew from. As for the threshing machine, I'll go to the county tomorrow, but it's best not to get your hopes up. After all, our county only got two, and who knows how many eyes are watching."

Early the next morning, Su Chen rode his bicycle to Qinghe Township, and then reversed to Songshan County.

"Station Chief Wang, you look radiant! Is there some good news? This is what we caught in the mountains yesterday..."

"You wouldn't come here unless you had something to say. If it's about the threshing machine, then don't mention it. We already prepared to give it to the farm in yesterday's meeting."