Daily life of farming and supporting a family on the ancient Loess Plateau

As dawn breaks, another day of repetitive labor begins.

After a busy morning, everyone finally got to eat the vegetable dumplings when the sun was high in the sky.

At this time of year, rural people have no right to rest. The weather gets hotter every day, and they have to prepare their harvesting tools.

This year, the Ji family planted 22 mu of wheat, 4 mu of rapeseed, 6 mu of corn, 3 mu of potatoes, and 2 mu of sweet potatoes. Just thinking about the harvest makes them feel exhausted and they'll urinate blood.

But what can be done? Even the hardest work, where every drop of sweat is poured out, can't provide enough food and clothing for the whole family.

If you don't seize the farming season, you'll miss a moment of opportunity, and the land will fail you for a whole year. All you can do is bury yourself in hard work.

Ji Yongling took some multivitamins from the storage room, dissolved them in warm water, tasted them herself, and confirmed that they were colorless and tasteless before serving them to everyone.

When Ji Yongling brought the bowl to Ji Manchuan, he was working on planing wood. When he saw Ji Yongling coming over, he put down what he was doing, took the bowl, drank it all in one gulp, and grinned, saying, "The water my girl brings is still the best."

Ji Yongling thought to herself that her father still had a strong "daughter filter" for her. Looking at the wood and tools filling the cave dwelling, she asked, "Dad, what are you doing?"

Ji Manchuan put down his bowl, smacked his lips, and continued planing the wood, saying, "Making a windmill."

In fact, Ji Manchuan had never formally learned carpentry from a carpenter. He used to visit the carpenter's house in the village and would often help the old carpenter with the carpenter's son, such as sawing, cutting boards, and planing. Through his own exploration, he was able to make many things quite well. For example, the cabinets, tables, and stools in his house were all made by Ji Manchuan.

The wind-driven bellows is a type of "double-acting piston bellows," and its manufacturing principle is not complicated.

A hollow rectangular wooden box with a pull rod running through the middle. The front end is connected to a feather head covered with chicken feathers, and the rear end extends out of the box to connect to a handle. There is a vent at the bottom front and back, and an air duct is installed on the inner bottom. The box has a movable lid.

A vent is located on the side closest to the stove, with a tongue inside. When the lever is pulled, air blows out from the vent. It is by the back-and-forth movement of the lever that airflow is generated, which sends the air under the stove to fan the flames and help the fire burn.

When the windshield in the house broke before, Ji Manchuan tinkered with it and fixed it himself. He actually figured out the principle of the windshield and made one himself. Although it wasn't as fine as a carpenter's, it worked perfectly.

So Ji Manchuan would make one or two wind chimes whenever he had free time and sell them at the market.

Ji Yongling carefully examined the tools scattered on the ground and found that all the woodworking tools, such as planes, chisels, rulers, and ink lines, were present.

While working, Ji Manchuan explained the secrets of making the wind turbine to Ji Yongling: "This thing looks simple, but if no one tells you, you'll have to figure it out for a long time. For example, when choosing materials, you must use paulownia wood. Paulownia wood is soft, wear-resistant, light, and easy to move. Women are the ones who work around the stove at home, and the wood they use is heavy. Where would they find the strength to move it? However, the lever must be made of hardwoods such as jujube wood, peach wood, and pear wood. They are hard, wear-resistant, smooth, and light, and they last a long time."

Ji Yongling listened attentively, nodding occasionally and even considering asking a question.

Seeing that his daughter was listening attentively, Ji Manchuan suddenly wondered if she wanted to learn carpentry. He stopped what he was doing, looked up, and asked, "You want to learn this?"

Ji Yongling nodded. In this era, many things need to be made of wood, so knowing a little woodworking can't hurt.

Ji Manchuan shook his head in disapproval and said, "Although it is true that having a skill is worse than having a fortune, what is the point of you, a little girl, learning this? After your mother finishes her confinement, learn more embroidery and needlework from her. Don't do these things; they are dirty and strenuous."

Ji Yongling smiled and looked at his father with a serious expression, saying, "Dad, there's something to learn in every aspect of life. I don't want to be a carpenter, I just want to learn more."

"Okay, stand to the side and watch, don't get your clothes dirty."

Ji Manchuan was relieved to know that his daughter did not want to be a carpenter. After all, his eldest daughter was known for her stubbornness from childhood. Once she set her mind on something, she would do it, and nothing could sway her.

Looking at the wind turbine that was about to take shape in Ji Manchuan's hands, Ji Yongling asked, "Dad, can we change the manufacturing process? Let's not make a wind turbine all at once, it takes up too much space. How about we change it to an assembly line to make prefabricated parts, and then assemble them when needed?"

"What is an assembly line? What are prefabricated components?" Ji Manchuan looked at his daughter with a blank expression.

“Our wind turbines are basically the same size, so we can make some parts in batches. When someone wants them, we can just install these parts.”

Ji Yongling thought that one way to improve efficiency in the manufacturing industry is through assembly line prefabrication. Although the small woodworking workshop is not the mechanized factory of the future, it is still worth learning a thing or two.

Ji Manchuan pondered for a moment and said, "It does sound like that."

"This way, the parts are all the same size, which is easy to remember and easy to make. You can make multiple parts at once without having to think about the next step after completing the current one. It's simple and fast."

"This is definitely worth a try." Ji Manchuan considered his daughter's idea and felt that it could indeed increase speed without taking up much space, so he was a little excited and agreed.

Without hesitation, Ji Manchuan began processing the parts according to their classification.

So what people saw when they went to Ji Manchuan's cave dwelling where he did carpentry was: boxes, rods, wind tongues, wind nozzles, wind deflectors, sacks of chicken feathers, and all kinds of mortise and tenon joints. Everything was neatly arranged and categorized. The wood chips and planks that used to fly around the cave were no longer seen.

The day before the market day, Ji Manchuan would install several windshields, wax them, and make them look brand new and beautiful, unlike before when, after installing several windshields, the front ones would be covered in dust and look old and worn.

When assembled like this and brought to the market, the wind turbines look brand new, making them sell better than those from other vendors.

This caught the attention of bellows craftsmen from other places, who all praised him and wondered how many people were working in his family to produce so quickly, otherwise why would he always have new bellows to sell at the market?

Of course, in Ji Manchuan's words, "This is because my daughter is clever and came up with this pre-made homework for me."

Actually, what Ji Yongling wanted to say was that her father had pioneered modern system integration.

However, these are later stories.

Just after Ji Yongling and her father finished discussing the reform of the wind turbine production process, her second aunt, Zhao Yunxia, ​​came to visit again.

Unlike last time, when she kept pestering me without getting to the point, this time she came to my door and immediately asked to borrow money, specifically ten taels.

Because she heard in the village that Ji Manchuan had saved a benefactor and received a mule cart, she assumed that the Ji family had quietly made a fortune, so she brought her daughter Ji Yongfei to visit them today.

Ji Yongling stared speechlessly at his second aunt, who had immediately asked Old Master Ji for ten taels of silver. He really wanted to crack open her head to see if it was brain tissue or a tangled mess.