Chapter 270: The Autumn Levy (Part 35)

Liu Youren was stunned. So, the “land measurement” by Chen Minggang’s gang was a complete fabrication—just as he had suspected. Old Eighth was using it as a pretext.

“Finally!” he sighed. “The matter of the land measurement is over.”

“Third Uncle! The land measurement isn’t over!”

“What?”

“Third Uncle, look, this is the Australians’ ‘Administrative Appeal Response.’ All the landowners who co-signed the petition have one.”

Liu Youren quickly unfolded another neatly folded piece of paper. It was also a printed document. The heading was bluntly written: Liu Youren of Liu Family Village, Lin’gao County.

There was no honorific, just his name. But Liu Youren didn’t care about these things. He quickly read through the response and immediately understood its meaning. He slumped down in his chair, dejected.

According to the response, the Australians’ land measurement was definitely going to proceed. After all that trouble, it turned out the Australians didn’t want Chen Minggang to “measure the land”; they intended to do it themselves!

“Third Uncle, what should we do? Now that Chen Minggang’s gang is finished, there’s no one to negotiate with!” Liu Guangbiao said. “Should we invite Zhou Qi to talk? He’s just been appointed as the Household Office scribe and is now a top favorite of the Australians…”

“You are gravely mistaken,” Liu Youren shook his head. “Zhou Qi is no favorite at all, just a figurehead. If they really wanted to use him, there would be no Grain Collection Bureau.”

The director of the Grain Collection Bureau was the county deputy magistrate, Wu Ya, and the acting director was an Australian. Apart from holding the title of “Household Scribe,” Zhou Qi was completely excluded from grain collection matters. There was no sign of him being favored at all.

“And if you go to him now, I’m afraid he wouldn’t even dare to see you.”

“What should we do then?” Liu Guangbiao was very anxious—this was not an act. The finances of Liu Family Village were in his hands, and the amount of taxable land directly affected his own economic benefits.

Liu Youren was silent. He was also one of the landowners who had co-signed the petition. Should he go to Huang Binkun to discuss it and continue to petition through Liu Dalin?

“I’m afraid that won’t work,” he immediately rejected his own idea. As things stood, the Australians had given enough face to the gentry and large households of Lin’gao. Chen Minggang’s gang had just been punished. If he were to petition again now, the other side would probably not be so polite—thinking of the recent rumors about the Australians’ various “sorceries,” a chill ran down his spine.

Huang Binkun was in the county town and would have known the news much earlier, yet there was no word from him. It seemed the second son of the Huang family was also a little scared and didn’t dare to take the lead again.

What if they followed the same strategy they used with Chen Minggang, reporting some and concealing some? Last time, they had already newly reported two hundred and thirty mu. It was absolutely impossible to report less than that. How much should they report then…

Suddenly, he was startled, remembering: many of Chen Minggang’s gang were now in the hands of the Australians. These people knew a lot about the land situation of the local large households—take Zhou Qi, for example. He knew the exact amount of land in Liu Family Village. This man was now a household scribe thanks to the Australians, and it was highly likely that he would use this secret to curry favor with them.

Fortunately, he had thought of this. Otherwise, he might have become the chicken killed to warn the monkeys.

“Third Uncle, should we invite Chief Xun to talk?”

Liu Youren remembered that the agricultural technician from the Heaven and Earth Society was in his home. He could try to sound out the Australians—but he didn’t have high hopes. The last time he had tried to get information about the “land measurement” from Xun Suji, using various means to probe him, he had gotten nothing. These people were extremely tight-lipped.

“What is Chief Xun doing?”

“He’s teaching the long-term laborers how to use the threshing machine,” Liu Guangbiao smacked his lips. “That thing is really useful…”

Xun Suji’s days were very fulfilling, which meant he was very busy every day. He was the executive vice president of the Lin’gao Grain, Oil, and Foodstuff Corporation, as well as the factory director and chief engineer of the food factory. He also taught a “crash course for chefs” at the National School every week. Finally, he had to provide technical guidance for the Heaven and Earth Society three times a month.

Fortunately, the Heaven and Earth Society was considerate enough to assign him to a large landowner, Liu Youren. He didn’t need to travel around like other agricultural technicians.

Liu Youren had the most land among the Heaven and Earth Society’s clients, and like the school fields of the Lin’gao County School, he was a key client, enjoying dedicated agricultural technician services.

For Xun Suji, being a technical guide for the Heaven and Earth Society was a kind of vacation on his schedule. Liu Youren was a large landowner, and the living conditions in Liu Family Village were very good. Xun Suji was very comfortable every time he came to Liu Family Village, enjoying the treatment of a true landlord, not the kind of treatment a small village landlord like Wanli Hui would offer. Not only was he given a separate small courtyard, but two servants were also assigned to do chores for him.

The most intense and busy stages of sowing and management were now over. The long-term laborers had gradually mastered the new farming methods. Throughout the planting process, Xun Suji had used new technologies and management methods to solve long-standing thorny problems, which had made the farmers trust the “Australian farming methods” of the Heaven and Earth Society. The subsequent bumper harvest had convinced everyone completely.

Liu Youren’s trust in him had also greatly increased. In the past, he always felt that the Heaven and Earth Society’s farm tools were too expensive. Now, he would buy and use anything the Heaven and Earth Society promoted without hesitation. Sometimes, he would even proactively inquire if the Heaven and Earth Society had launched any new agricultural materials.

Before this harvest, the Heaven and Earth Society had organized the farm tool factory to produce a batch of foot-pedal threshing machines. Simple threshing machines had existed in ancient times, but in Lin’gao, people still used the most primitive method of beating the rice ears against the side of a wooden bucket to thresh them, which was not only inefficient but also wasteful. The threshing machine made by the Heaven and Earth Society was based on the design of a rural manual threshing machine from the 1990s: it was a rectangular box. The threshing end had a pedal that drove an iron wheel on the side of the machine via a belt. The iron wheel was on the same axle as the inner drum. The drum had U-shaped curved rings, with the sharp parts nailed into the drum. The two ends of the drum were iron wheels, and in the middle was a row of parallel wooden beams. The rolling U-rings were used to thresh the grain, and it could also thresh peanuts. It was much faster than threshing rice ears directly on a round wooden bucket, and the loss during threshing was also very small.

This machine was not only convenient but also light. Two adult men could carry it. So, at the initial demonstration, the first batch of ten machines was quickly snapped up by the members.

Another piece of equipment was a windmill winnower, which used a small windmill to winnow the grain, replacing the commonly used manual winnowing in the countryside. It was not only fast but also saved labor. Lin’gao’s wind energy resources were quite rich, and small windmills were not difficult for the transmigrator’s industry, which had mastered gear manufacturing.

The two types of agricultural machinery not only had a great impact on the users of the Heaven and Earth Society but also opened the eyes of other farmers. In addition, this year’s autumn harvest, all the clients of the Heaven_and_Earth_Society had achieved a bumper harvest of varying scales, with yields increasing from 30% to 50%. This had a great sensational effect.

“Pay attention to the rhythm, don’t pedal too fast,” Xun Suji, wearing a straw hat, told the long-term laborer who was threshing. The laborer nodded, only half understanding. Xun Suji went over to check another machine—it had broken down, the belt was stuck.

He used the tools from his tool bag to painstakingly repair it. The poor-quality parts made by the machinery industry department had terrible tolerances, and they often had problems during operation. While he was painstakingly correcting the deformed parts and putting the belt back on the guide wheel, he didn’t forget to teach a young long-term laborer next to him the principle of the machine and how to troubleshoot simple faults.

Finally, the belt was back in place. Xun Suji stood up from the ground, sweat dripping from his head. He took off his straw hat and, imitating the laborers in the movies, fanned himself majestically.

“With this look, I should at least be named a model worker or something.”

“Chief Xun, have some tea,” the speaker was Liu Meilan. Since Liu Guangbiao had planned to marry her to Xun Suji, he had been visiting her home every few days, pestering her father. Liu Meilan’s father finally relented.

As for the girl’s own opinion, no one in this era took it seriously. So, Liu Meilan was to marry Xun Suji. To create opportunities, whenever Xun Suji came to Liu Family Village, Liu Meilan was often asked to serve him tea and water, and sometimes she would proactively bring him fruits and snacks to his residence.

The Liu uncle and nephew’s plan was for Xun Suji to take a liking to her himself, and as soon as he mentioned it, they would immediately agree. Unexpectedly, this Xun Suji was like a perfect gentleman. Every time Liu Meilan brought him something, he was very polite, and sometimes the conversation would turn awkward before they could even exchange a few words.

Xun Suji was unaware of this good fortune awaiting him. He didn’t interpret Liu Meilan’s frequent appearances as some kind of marriage proposal signal—on the one hand, otaku are always slow when it comes to romance, and on the other hand, he really didn’t understand the 17th-century way of love.

“Thank you, Miss Liu,” Xun Suji took the tea bowl and drank it down in one gulp. The tea was bitter and astringent, but it quenched his thirst and was very refreshing.

Seeing him drink like an ox, Liu Meilan couldn’t help but giggle. This man was so different from the Australian chiefs she had imagined. He was plain-looking, and although his skin was fair, his mannerisms were not at all like the graceful young masters described in the storybooks. He seemed very rough, and he even did farm work himself! She had always felt that truly high-status young masters would not do farm work themselves. Only a land-owning family like hers would go to the fields with the long-term laborers and tenant farmers.

Her elders wanted her to marry this Australian, and Liu Meilan was not very willing. She had a crush on the young master of a small landlord family in the neighboring village. He was very gentle and had just recently “enrolled in school.” Liu Meilan had seen him a few times at the temple fairs in the countryside and had always held a fantasy about him.