Chapter 629: The True Helplessness

It could be seen that in these 20-plus days, not only was Wang An stifled enough, but Shen Wei was also the same.

This point could be seen from Shen Wei's degree of madness.

After the second time, Wang An originally wanted to slow down and rest for a while, but Shen Wei probably felt she hadn't had enough, so she actively started the third war.

Just like that, Wang An once again experienced a visual feast of breasts flying around and occasionally swinging wildly left and right.

One has to say, this feeling was truly satisfying, damn satisfying! After several times, Wang An and Shen Wei finally calmed down.

After a while, when the two had completely caught their breath, Wang An took the initiative to say:

"Just before I entered the courtyard, I saw you tinkering with the plow? Did you make that plow yourself?"

Shen Wei might still be savoring the beauty just now, so she was a bit dazed, and thought for a while before saying:

"Mm, isn't it time to plant the fields soon? I went to the commune to buy the plowshare just two days ago."

The commune Shen Wei mentioned was actually Xing'an Township. As a township-level unit, although Xing'an Township couldn't compare with the county seat, it had things like supply and marketing cooperatives and restaurants.

Whether it was fur, bear gall, or ginseng, they could also be sold at the Xing'an Township supply and marketing cooperative.

It was just that the scale of the supply and marketing cooperative in the township was relatively small, and for the things sold, if the amount exceeded a certain level, there would be no money.

That is to say, whenever more things were sold, one could only take a receipt home. Although the money wouldn't be short, one could get the money back by going again in a day or two.

But who wouldn't want to see cash when selling things? Besides, who was idle or bored enough to toss back and forth? Besides that, the price suppression for fur and ginseng was also particularly severe. For example, a fox fur that was clearly priced at 60 and could be worth 65 yuan based on size, the township supply and marketing cooperative would nitpick and set the price at 60, or come up with a number like 62 or 63. To be honest, that was damn disgusting! It was truly impossible to understand the purpose of doing this. One had to know that whether selling goods or receiving goods, it was all on the public account, and it had nothing to do with those salespeople.

Perhaps it just fulfilled that old saying:

"With power the size of a sesame seed, one will think about how to make things difficult for others. If one doesn't make things difficult for others, one can't show one's existence."

It was precisely because of this that in Xing'an Township, almost all hunters with more prey wouldn't sell at the township supply and marketing cooperative, but would rather take the long road to the county seat.

After all, one or two furs were fine, and selling them nearby was worry-free; the main thing was that it wasn't worth running all the way to the county seat.

But when the quantity was large, the money sold would be too different. The key problem was that selling for less money and being stifled was real! And the reason Wang An went to the county seat to sell things was also because of this: one step to the end, worry-free and easy, and he didn't have to suffer that bastard's anger.

Hearing Shen Wei's words, Wang An subconsciously laughed, and then said: "What, you want to use your little donkey to pull the plow? Can it pull it?"

The reason Wang An asked this was that when planting fields, at least a cow was needed to pull the plow.

If it was a mule or a horse, it could barely pull it.

But as everyone knows, mules and horses don't have as much endurance as cows.

Therefore, if only one cow or one mule pulled the plow for a day, this cow might not have much of a problem, but this mule might not be able to take it.

Without any special circumstances, this mule would very likely be so tired that it wouldn't eat grass, and it might only take a few days for this mule to be worked to death.

Wang An clearly remembered that the older generation said such things when chatting, which was that before the land was divided, in order to catch up with the progress, they used a single mule to pull the plow. This so-called "catching up with progress" could also be considered a major wonder of that time.

Because that year, the "grain yield" was invincible in the universe! And when planting fields, people rested but the horses didn't. Just like that, after one day, all the mules and horses of the production team didn't eat grass.

But the mules and horses were collective, so they did whatever the village head said, so the person responsible for raising the horses added a bit more feed to the mules and horses, and then they did the same on the second and third days.

Until the fourth day morning, the mules and horses lay on the ground and couldn't get up! Several old mules and horses were in a state of being about to die at any moment, and once this situation appeared, the mules and horses were basically hopeless.

So, a more cruel thing happened: someone suggested giving these old mules and horses that were about to die "black paste."

And Comrade Village Head, in order to catch up with the progress, adopted this suggestion.

One has to say, after this "black paste" was injected into the bodies of these old mules and horses, these old mules and horses quickly became full of life.

That guy, they didn't know what fatigue was, pulling the plow fiercely and quickly.

Unfortunately, this "black paste" could only have a temporary effect, so after being injected three or four times, these old mules and horses foamed at the mouth and died in the fields.

To tell the truth, at that time, in order to "catch up with progress," it was truly a waste of money and manpower.

So generally, the livestock pulling the plow, not counting cows, had to be two mules.

As for the donkey, it wasn't that it couldn't be used, but if it was just one donkey, forget it.

Shen Wei heard this, paused, and said: "I was thinking of borrowing two horses from your house; otherwise, the fields won't be planted this year."

Actually, this was the true helplessness of a widow! Because planting fields wasn't planting a vegetable garden; it wasn't saying you could just take a pickaxe, dig a hole, put in seeds, and fill it with soil. If you planted fields like this, you might not finish planting from spring until autumn.

So in this era, without large livestock, planting fields simply wouldn't work.

Of course, even with large livestock, if the labor force wasn't enough, it was futile.

At the very least, one person to hold the plow, one person to drop seeds, one person to spread manure, and one person to roll the roller.

That was 4 people, and for work that 4 people could do, how could 1 person, and a woman at that, do it??? Besides, chemical fertilizer would soon be popularized, and spreading chemical fertilizer would require adding 1 more person, which meant that if one wanted to plant fields, besides needing large livestock, one also needed 5 people to complete it.

This involved the issue of "partnering to plant fields," which was two families partnering, planting your family's fields today and my family's fields tomorrow; otherwise, no one's fields would be planted.

But like Shen Wei, who only had one person and one donkey, who would partner with her?

Of course, Wang An would absolutely not keep planting fields in this traditional way, because Wang An had been pondering letting Zhang Shuya and Wu Dong and the others help, and buying a crawler tractor or a walking tractor, or a four-wheeled vehicle back.

Hearing Shen Wei's words, Wang An hugged the naked Shen Wei and laughed softly:

"Come, serve me well. Once I'm satisfied, we'll talk about borrowing the horses."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 630 =====