Chapter 401 - 401 390 Going to the County

Words : 1544 Updated : Oct 13th, 2025

401: Chapter 390: Going to the County 401: Chapter 390: Going to the County Although Yang Heshu had only taken office over a month ago, he had already visited every village in Luojiang County and had gained a rough understanding of the situation in each place. He had also finally understood why Luojiang County was merely a lesser county. Because it was truly poor! In Yang Heshu’s opinion, not to mention the privately owned cattle by each household, shouldn’t there be at least ten cattle within a li? If ten households shared one cattle, it would greatly alleviate the pressure of spring ploughing. But taking Qili Village for an example, they only had one cattle per li, and every year only thirty-three households would take turns using it, each time ploughing only three mu of land, and then moving on to the next household after three mu. And with a hundred households per li, this meant that a household would only have the chance to use the ploughing cattle once every two years, ploughing three mu of land each time. This time, with the remaining cattle, there should be one for every li, which would at least double the efficiency of cattle ploughing. Calculating this way, Yang Heshu finally felt a bit better. He had given up a bright future in the capital to come to this lesser county to be a County Magistrate, not only to accumulate political capital but also to get things done. He wanted to know if he really had to be an official as his father had said. Old Zhou’s family had gotten a cattle, but they were still very interested in the cattle shed at the County Governmental Office, so as soon as the cattle were distributed, they knew about it. The next day, when Old Zhou led his cattle to plough the fields, someone asked if he regretted it, “If we had known that the County Governmental Office was going to distribute cattle so that we could use them for free, who would have bought one?” Old Zhou lovingly stroked his favorite Niu Niu and put a rope harness on it. Hearing the comment, he said, “Can those be the same? By the time it gets to you from the Land Officer’s hands, who knows when that will be. Moreover, at most you can only plough six mu. With my cattle, I can plough as long as I want.” The other person was lost for words at his reply. Looking up and seeing Old Zhou’s affectionate manner, he couldn’t help but ask, “Have you taken a liking to it? Why do I feel like your gaze is so penetrating? You’re even more affectionate than when you first became a father looking at your son.” Old Zhou said, “My Niu Niu is much better than Dalang and the others.” Now, the cattle held a place in his heart that had long surpassed his sons, and was almost rivaling Manbao’s position. There was no choice, the cattle was too handy and saved so much effort. However, it was still young, so Old Zhou didn’t dare to overuse it, and let it rest every once in a while after ploughing. Old Zhou also was very attentive to what it was fed, besides letting it freely nibble on the young grass in the fields that had sprouted not long ago, he also sent some kids to cut various kinds of lush green grass between the ridges of the fields, and even mixed the leftover soybean pulp from tofu making at home for it to eat. There was soybean pulp left from making tofu, and before May last year, if there was excess tofu and consequently, excess soybean pulp, Old Zhou’s family would eat some and give the rest to the chickens. But ever since the water disaster, the soybean pulp had been saved, not wasted at all, and all had been transformed by Junior Ms.Qian into various edibles. Either frying it dry or steaming and drying it before storing it well. Now, the soybean pulp leftover from tofu making, a small portion went into the Zhou family’s stomachs, but most of it was saved for the cattle. Old Zhou had specifically gone to ask for advice from Manor Head Bai, who said that during the busy farming season, the cattle had so much work to do that boiled bean feed should be given to the cattle to prevent harm. Only if it ate no less than a person could it do even more work than a person. Giving bean feed and such, Old Zhou actually still found difficult to part with, but for soybean pulp, he had no scruples. Of course, he didn’t dare to overwork his precious cattle. Manbao was reminded by Old Zhou every day to look after the cattle, so much so that she also took great interest in the three cattle at the small manor. One day, she even ran over to the manor to check on the three cattle and only after touching them and making sure they were very strong, did she feel relieved. The spring rain was falling gently, intermittently stopping and then floating down again without knowing when it would come next. But the villagers of Qili Village didn’t have to wait for the rain to stop before working; the sowing time of spring was very limited, and missing it would have a great impact on the crops. So, apart from the lazy people, no one would delay the farming season. With Old Zhou and Ms.Qian at the Zhou Family, the brothers didn’t even have the chance to be lazy. After Old Zhou’s family prepared a patch of field by harrowing and spreading manure and sowing rice seeds, other families in the village began to gradually get down to their fields, following the lead of Old Zhou’s family in the rush of spring sowing. Then the Zhou Family started to plough the land for sowing beans. With cattle, their speed was much faster, but not faster than Manbao and her group. After Old Zhou said they would start planting beans, Manbao informed her two little friends that it was time to plant the beans, and then Manor Head Bai only let the word out, and the farming women who had helped them plant wheat last time came before the short-term male workers. Manor Head Bai still liked to use them because they were fast and meticulous in their work, not inferior to the men. Only in physical strength were they somewhat less than men. But for ploughing there were cattle, and with one cattle for each of the three long-term workers in the manor, they could start ploughing, so Manor Head Bai hired them and began the grand plan of planting beans energetically. By the time the short-term male workers came looking for work, the beans in the Little Manor were nearly planted, but Manor Head Bai still kept a few to start ploughing the land. As for the farming women, they went on to plant ginger. Manbao and Bai Shanbao chose a location not far from the clay house at the foot of the mountain to plant ginger, a little further ahead was the large irrigation channel. They fenced off nearly two mu of land for ginger, hoping to sell it at a high price in the winter, as Manbao and Bai Shanbao both earned a lot from selling ginger every year. Only Bai Erlang was squatting by the water channel, bored, teasing the little insects in the water. He thought they were fry, but Manbao insisted on telling him, “These are tadpoles, they are frogs.” Bai Erlang didn’t believe it, “Frogs have legs, you can tell these are fish at a glance.” But Manbao believed Keke wouldn’t lie to her, so she also insisted, “These are frogs, let’s take them back and raise them to see.” Actually, she was also curious about how these things turned into frogs. “Sure.” So the task of watching ginger planting turned into catching tadpoles for the three of them. When County Magistrate Yang once again came to this field with everyone, what he saw was the three children crouching by the water channel catching tadpoles. Their actions were clearly unskilled, and without good coordination, they kept splashing water on themselves and each other, leading to screams from one another. Yang Heshu stopped everyone from calling out to them and curiously crowded around to watch. They didn’t bring a net, so they were using a large tree leaf to catch the tadpoles. But holding the leaf with both hands was always unstable. After catching them, a shake of the hands and the water and tadpoles would fall back into the channel. After a few tries, Manbao got annoyed and yelled at Bai Erlang who was squatting in the most advantageous position, “Why are you so clumsy, don’t shake it!” Bai Erlang shouted back, “It was clearly Bai Shan shaking.” Bai Shan said, “I was holding the bucket, how could I shake?” “It’s because you shook the bucket and didn’t catch the fish I scooped up, that they fell into the river.”

Chapter 401 - 401 390 Going to the County

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