allonlinenovel Chapter 275: Land Reclamation Tools
Chapter 275: Land Reclamation Tools
Shen Youyou smiled and said, "Grandpa Li, don't worry about me. First of all, I'm still young and it's too early for me to get married. Besides, my father can earn my dowry, and my grandfather has done enough for us. I have no objection to giving this money to the child who will inherit the Li family's surname in the future."
Shen Luming was confused: "Sister, whose child has the last name Li?"
Shen Youyou blinked twice: "When you grow up, give birth to two children, one with the surname Li."
"What about the other one?"
"The other one must be surnamed Shen!"
Shen Luming: “Oh!”
Shen Zhiqiu looked at Li Jingshu. Li Jingshu had no objection but still had a question: "So what you mean is that the land I bought with my own money is registered under my name, but everyone's land can be reclaimed and cultivated by everyone, but what about the land we bought ourselves? Are we just going to leave it like that?"
Shen Zhiqiu said that this was the second thing he wanted to say: "This is what I think. When the time comes, I will let everyone open up the wasteland, but I will give everyone free farming for three years.
Three years later, if everyone cultivates this land, we will contract it out to everyone and ask everyone to give us 40% of the grain."
Everyone present understood what was said. Everyone helped to open up the wasteland, but the land was given to them for free cultivation for three years, and after three years, they would collect 40% rent.
It can be said that neither side loses out by doing this, and it is indeed a good idea. We can also buy the flat land across the river.
As for the few small hillsides, Shen Zhiqiu was not worried at all, because there were really not many people in ancient times who bought hillsides, and it was not easy to irrigate on barren hills.
They can make some money first and then think about buying those small hills.
"Will the villagers be willing to do this? After all, it's not easy to reclaim wasteland, and they also need to fertilize the land. How can they just plant for three years for free?" Li Quan asked.
"Three years is enough. After all, if we open up the land this year, we can plant it next year. And we start counting from when we can plant the land, so this year's land reclamation definitely cannot be counted."
“But in such a short time, we may not be able to open up all the wasteland.”
Shen Zhiqiu: "Don't worry, I will definitely find a way to help you quickly reclaim the wasteland, but there is one thing: after buying the land, the government will have no money left.
We can’t live in this yard forever. Not to mention that it’s inconvenient to do anything with so many people crowded together, we probably can’t live in Tangjia Village for a long time.”
Shen Youyou was staring at her brother, and when she heard this, she asked, "Dad, do you mean we don't have the money to build a house?"
Shen Zhiqiu nodded to indicate that he indeed had no money left.
"We can also build a rammed earth thatched house ourselves! We don't need to make adobe bricks and wait for them to dry. We can just ram the earth walls directly. Aren't there a lot of weeds across the river? We can cut them and dry them, and they will become thatched roofs, right?"
Shen Zhiqiu's eyes lit up: "Yes, I was thinking about how to make money to buy tiles. In fact, I originally thought about making bricks and tiles myself, but I guess we have to open up wasteland and make bricks and tiles.
I'm definitely too busy to handle it, so I plan to hire some temporary workers to help out. But won't that mean I don't have enough money?
Ramming the earth would save a lot of time compared to making bricks and adobe."
Li Jingshu also advised: "Let's build a thatched house first. At worst, we can build a brick house when we make money. We have to do it step by step. If we don't have money, we can use the moneyless method."
Da Hu, who had been silent the whole time, said, "That's right, son-in-law. After we finish clearing the wasteland, Er Hu and I can go to the county to see if there are any escort teams that need people. We can make money then."
Shen Zhiqiu made Da Hu laugh out of anger. This kid didn't believe that he could help everyone make money, and he actually wanted to be a bodyguard for others.
Not to mention that being an escort is a dangerous profession in itself. Besides, even if you are an escort, you have to reopen the "Qianlima" escort agency of your ancient father-in-law!
But it's too early to say that now, he still needs to figure out the tools for clearing the wasteland.
After they agreed that there was nothing to do, everyone went about their business, while Shen Zhiqiu and his daughter were still in the main room, with Shen Zhiqiu narrating and Shen Youyou drawing the blueprint.
There was no way. Although Shen Zhiqiu knew how to make those tools, his painting was simply abstract. He usually couldn't understand what he was painting.
At the foot of Fangshan, there is wasteland, most of which is covered with tall weeds, so if you want to reclaim the land, you have to cut all the weeds first.
The best one is of course the "shank sickle" used by farmers in the 1960s and 1970s.
In those days, wheat could be harvested much faster using an ordinary sickle.
It has a curved wooden handle with a "net" fixed on it. A rope is fixed on one side of the wooden handle, and one end of the rope is fixed to a wooden handle.
A relatively long and sharp sickle is fixed at the opening of the "saber".
When using it, place the samakara on the right side, hold the samakara with both hands (hold the handle with the right hand, pull the rope with the left hand), and swing it to the left with force. The samakara will cut the wheat one by one in an arc, and the cut wheat will be poured into the bamboo basket.
When the sledgehammer reaches the left side of the body, it "brakes" and lets the cut wheat fly into the air, then starts swinging it a second time, and so on.
However, using a sickle to harvest wheat requires not only strength but also certain skills and balance. It is easy to get injured if you are not proficient in the technique.
Shen Zhiqiu asked his daughter to draw the several parts of the sickle, including the bamboo basket, wooden frame, sickle blade, pull rope, wooden handle, pole and handle separately, and then draw one that was combined together.
However, the blade of the sickle is usually longer, some are even as long as one step, and the blade is thin and curved, like a long crescent. This design makes mowing faster.
It was obvious that the style of sickle blades they had now would not increase the speed much even if they were made into sickles. Shen Zhiqiu decided to buy some pig iron when he settled in the county town and have the iron head made into sickle blades.
Tietou and his brother-in-law can handle most farm tools, but they may be a little busy. However, you can ask the village head. Tangjia Village is so big, there must be a blacksmith.
Watching my daughter use the charcoal pencil she burned herself to draw the sickle on the paper,
Shen Zhiqiu remembered his childhood.
The mellow fragrance of wheat grains created rolling waves in the golden wheat fields.
On the vast yellow land, adults at that time used this tool. Each person occupied a piece of land and cut wheat as they walked.
What followed was the falling of wheat fields, which would have been spectacular if you could see it from the air.
It's not just the sickle. Since this dynasty already had curved plows and matching harrows, Shen Zhiqiu also changed the shovel into the modern one. The ancient ones were really not very useful.
As for hoes and other miscellaneous items, they were already there at this time. The remaining men from Shenjia Village were sharpening hoes, sickles and other items in the yard.
I also have to reinstall handles on some forks and other things that I brought from my hometown.
This is not to escape famine, as it is inconvenient to carry farm tools with you, but people are reluctant to throw away the iron without them, so most families dismantle the iron parts.
His eldest brother-in-law was making a curved plow, so when the time came, he could just install the plowshare he brought from his hometown.
As for the existing sickles, they can be made into shirt sickles first. When new sickle heads come out, they can be replaced one by one without delaying everyone's use.