Chapter 358: The farming season cannot be delayed
After June, good news came frequently, and Weisen State's final victory was the general trend.
Cities continued to surrender, and the enemies who resisted were quickly defeated. The voice of the announcer on the village radio flew over the undulating waves of wheat, and could also be heard in the vine pavilion next to the drying field.
The situation is good in the front, but a dark cloud is rising in the rear.
Lizi Village has now become the promotion base of the Agricultural College of Weissenburg University. Many new crop varieties were first promoted here, and the villagers are therefore proud of themselves.
The vine pavilion planted by Matthias back then is still growing vigorously, with the top extending two to three meters. It is now a place for villagers to rest and discuss matters.
There were many people sitting under the pavilion. What was different from the past was that most of the people who came to discuss matters today were women. Except for the village chief, there were only a few men.
Wesson's army was attacking the city at the front and mobilized a large number of strong laborers from the rear. Lizi Village was like other villages. Many men either went to the battlefield to serve as backdrops or were engaged in logistics and transportation.
This year, the village is planting relatively early-maturing winter wheat, which can be harvested in early July. However, the number of strong laborers in the village is much smaller, especially tractor drivers, who were recruited in the first batch.
In addition, in recent years, there is no need for so many people in the fields. Many tenant farmers have gone to the city to work as workers, and the population in the village has decreased a lot.
Now the village is dominated by old and weak women and children, and we don’t know when the men will come back. The farming season cannot be delayed, and we can’t hire people from the surrounding villages to work. They are also short, which is worrying.
The village chief said with a sad face: "It would be great if the tractor could be driven. If you turn on the light at night and work a little longer, you can grab the wheat."
A villager shook his head: "But None of us know how to drive a tractor. In the spring, the tractor in Chickpea Village was stolen and fell into a ditch before leaving the village."
Many people around nodded in agreement. This incident was a big deal at that time. It was so big that the villagers of Lizi Village also picked up folding shotguns to participate in the search. As a result, the criminals ate the sprouted potatoes that were ready for sowing while hiding. They were already cold when they were discovered.
Some people suggested that everyone should light up lights in the fields to work more, but this is not possible. After the wheat harvest, sweet radish must be planted in the field. The wheat straw needs to be broken and returned to the field, and the smelly water from the biogas tank should be poured on it to speed up the decay before other treatments are applied. Fertilizer, and finally deep plowing to 30 centimeters of soil. When harvesting wheat, I was exhausted and couldn't work anymore.
Especially deep plowing can only be done with a tractor. If the plowing is not deep enough, the sweet radish will not grow well.
"What should we do?" A villager thought and said, "How about we go to the city and hire some outsiders?"
The village chief immediately said: "No, our village's When the wheat is harvested and weighed, it needs to be reported to Baron Mathias. The outsiders are so clumsy and worried.”
“What if we screw up and Baron Mathias doesn’t plant good seeds in our village in the future. ?”
The surrounding villagers nodded together.
In the spring, when the tractors in Chickpea Village were out of service, they hired outsiders to do the work. However, the outside farmers were not like the old Wesson farmers who had scholars come to take classes every year. The work was very rough, the village chief said. I was so angry that I lay there for several days.
"I'll learn to drive a tractor."
The villagers looked at the speaker together. It was a sixteen-year-old girl named Angela. She had been smart since she was a child. The child was in the sixth grade of elementary school when he was preparing for the graduation exam. He got caught in the rain and had a fever on the way to school and failed to pass the high school exam. Later, he went to an agricultural technical school to learn vegetable cultivation for three years. After graduating last year, he planted cabbage in the vegetable field of the village.
There was laughter in the vine pavilion. A village girl smiled and said: "Angela, it would be more practical for you to find a son-in-law for your family who can drive a tractor." In the midst of even greater laughter, Another village woman counted her fingers and said disdainfully: "Do you think it is so easy to learn to use a tractor? Can you count how many poles there are on it? Do you remember which poles and when to use them? Do you know how to tell when to add water?" Do you know what to do if the gear stops rotating? Do you know how to tighten the belt if it is loose? ”
She paused for a final moment, then pretended to remember something and said, "By the way, it's not cheap to learn how to tractor and get a driver's license. Do you have that much at home?"
She is from the village. The tractor driver's sister used to make noises in front of the villagers after hearing her brother talk about tractors.
Angela just pursed her lips tightly and said nothing.
Driving a tractor in Wesson requires a driver's license. The agricultural technical school where she went to school had a training and examination center. She helped correct homework and test papers during her work-study program, so she knew all about this.
It’s just that the status of Angela’s family in the village is a bit embarrassing because of Angela’s father, so she rarely brags about what she learned when she was studying outside.
What left Angela speechless was the tuition fees. Agricultural technical schools also required tuition fees. Although the family had savings in the past, they had almost spent it. The registration fee for tractor learning was enough, but it might not be enough for rent and living expenses.
At this time, a decadent man sitting next to her asked: "Angela, do you really want to learn?"
Angela bit her lip tightly for a moment. Then he nodded and replied: "Yes, father."
"I understand." The man stood up, "If you want to learn, just go and learn. Don't worry about the tuition."
He stood up and turned around to leave. A woman with a long tongue sneered and said: "Oh, it seems he received gold while collecting compost."
Amid the laughter of the villagers, Angela also left the vine pavilion and followed her father home.
When she got home, she saw her father digging the ground in front of the fireplace with a hoe, taking out a clay pot with a lid sealed with beeswax from a elbow deep, opening the lid and taking out a pot with an oilcloth inside. Wrapped wooden box.
The wooden box is as big as a palm and is coated with a layer of wax on the outside. When opened, there is a copper ring inside. The ring surface is the coat of arms of the Wesson family, and a roll of parchment is inserted in the middle of the ring.
Angra heard her father say slowly: "Your grandfather used to be a soldier of Weisenburg. He made some contributions when he exterminated the bandits. In addition to letting him and me take care of the mill, the old count also gave this to If you take it to the castle, you can get help when you are in trouble."
"You can take it to Weisenberg to find the butler Afu. If he is not there, you can go to old Baron Franz. They are all here. Know this.”
Angela did not expect her father to have such a skill. She only knew that ten years ago, her father was the mill manager. Later, he was demoted to the material collector of the compost site by Duke Wesson for doing something wrong. His mother chased him for a long time with a pitchfork. Later, he became a It became the joke of the whole village.
“Let’s go.” Angela’s father put the wooden box into his daughter’s hand, “I was the one who caused you trouble, otherwise you wouldn’t have had to get wet in the rain if the carriage had waited for you a few more minutes that day. Maybe it’s raining now. Study at Weisenberg University. "
"It's better to learn tractors or find other jobs. It's best for you to make your own way in the future. It's best if you don't go back to this village and don't have to be implicated by me anymore."
(End of this chapter)