The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 388 Harvesting the Wheat
Even infrastructure projects, which bear heavy responsibilities, must give way to the autumn harvest.

The seventh month of the lunar calendar is the hottest time of the year in Kansai, and it is also the season when spring wheat ripens.

With a shout of "Harvest the wheat!", the wheat harvest in Ganluchuan officially began.

The soldiers' families, who were harvesting wheat, picked up sickles with their right hands and held onto the wheat stalks with their left hands, lined up in a row, and began cutting the wheat one sickle after another.

They worked from dawn until the sun was high in the sky, without ever complaining of being tired or even taking a sip of water.

The scorching sun overhead burned everyone's backs, and sweat poured down their backs.

Their shoulders, arms, ankles, and calves were brushed and scratched by the fine, needle-like wheat awns. Tiny cuts appeared everywhere where the awns touched their skin, but they paid no heed to the pain or itching.
This is the first bumper harvest of the year!

The children followed behind, twisting cloth bags and picking up the scattered ears of wheat one by one.

The old tradition of wheat harvesting in the border town is to strive to bring every grain into the granary.

The harvested wheat ears, still with their stalks intact, were gradually transported back to the drying yard by horse-drawn carts.

Once you get here, you first need to separate the wheat ears from the straw.

The guillotine was tied to the stool.

One person cuts the blade, while another person feeds the loosened wheat ears under the blade and presses them down forcefully, neatly separating them into two pieces.

Wheat straw can be used as firewood, and it can also be woven into various daily necessities such as straw hats, fans, baskets, straw sandals, and shallow plates.

The chopped wheat ears were then spread out in the drying yard to dry in the sun. The person in charge of the drying yard would turn the wheat ears over several times a day with a wooden fork.

With just two scorching days, the moisture in the wheat grains evaporates, making threshing much easier.

After harvesting the wheat each day, everyone focused their attention on the drying yard.

When you harvest the wheat yourself, you can truly feel the weight of the ears of wheat.

I'm so eager to know the total yield of these 30,000 mu of land this year!

Don't tell me yet.

From spring to late summer, the Kansai region hardly experienced any rain.

The earliest harvested wheat was threshed and specific data were obtained after only two days of drying.

After following the entire journey, Commander Gu and the others ran up to Gan Minglan, overwhelmed with emotion:

"General, General, our wheat harvest in Ganluchuan this year is a bumper crop! The average yield is six shi per mu, six shi! And that's all after hulling, net weight!"

"So what you said before, that one acre could feed at least two people, really wasn't a dream!"

"Let alone two people, the fruits, vegetables, and meat from Ganluchuan, along with six shi of wheat, are enough to feed three people—two adults and one child—for a year."

"Not only is the yield high, but the wheat grains are also plump. You don't even need to try it to know how soft and fluffy the steamed buns made from this flour are."

"General, General! Shall we have fresh wheat rice for lunch today?"

General Gan: "."

She wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

Careless.

During the critical growth stages of wheat, she used her supernatural abilities to promote root growth several times.

Unexpectedly, these wheat seedlings transported nutrients from their roots to the ears of wheat.

The yield per mu was six shi!
Converted to modern units of measurement, it would weigh 720 jin.

Even by today's standards, this output would be considered quite high; in this era, it would truly be worthy of being recorded in history.

But the military dependents in Ganluchuan had no idea that there was something fishy going on.

They attributed today's bountiful harvest to the miraculous seeds, fertile soil, and meticulous cultivation.

Everyone was eagerly anticipating the wheat flour being cooked. They couldn't wait, they simply couldn't wait.

The new wheat flour is yellowish in color, but as soon as the steamed buns are lifted from the pot, a rich wheat aroma wafts out.

It is soft, slightly sweet, and slightly sticky.

A steamed bun the size of an adult's fist can be completely devoured by Yuanyuan, a child not yet two years old.

Not to mention the half-grown boys like Lu Ye.

Tiger Head ate eight of them by himself, and almost ate himself to death!

For the next two weeks, the air above the entire garrison was filled with the scent of freshly harvested wheat.

Once the last acre of wheat was harvested, the total yield of the 30,000 acres of wheat fields was revealed.

There are a total of 188,000 shi!

At this year's wheat harvest summary meeting, Gan Minglan said the following:
"We can go and report the good news to General Xiong. This spring wheat harvest in Ganluchuan can feed 90,000 people. Next, we need to deep plow and sun-dry these 30,000 mu of wheat fields, and then apply sufficient fertilizer in the ninth month of the lunar calendar before planting another season of winter wheat."

"hiss"

Anyone who heard this production plan would gasp in astonishment.

Does the harvest of spring wheat mean we can finally relax?
The cotton on 3,000 mu of land will be ready for harvest in another month!

Meanwhile, the thousand acres of dryland rice can also be harvested.

Children and women love all kinds of dried fruit, and they have to start drying them while the sun is shining.

Most importantly, the grape medicinal wine needs to be brewed.

Oh, the snow lotus needed for brewing wine still needs to be picked from the top of the snow mountain by following the Rat King!

Already busy as a bee, how can they have to plant another season of winter wheat?

The work at hand is endless, simply impossible to finish.
But Gan Minglan also said:
"Don't compare our Ganluchuan's spring wheat yield with that of Andingwei, Aduanwei, and Quxianwei! They're lucky if they can get half the yield from their half of the saline-alkali land. How can the grain from those four garrisons be enough to feed over 700,000 people until next year?"

The faces of the crowd visibly paled.

Really.

After more than half a month of wheat harvesting, everyone's skin peeled off from the sun.

If we come here twice a year?
I really can't take it anymore!
In the past, the border town military settlements had tried planting two seasons of wheat for a few years.

However, the soil's fertility simply cannot keep up; the combined yield of two seasons is not as much as that of a single season in Ganluchuan.

Deep down, nobody wants to suffer twice a year.

Gan Minglan spread her hands and presented the facts to them:

"But once the wheat harvest in Ganluchuan is reported to the General's Office, the reputation of this fertile land will resound throughout the entire Guanzhong Plain. Before we can even submit our own winter wheat planting plan, General Xiong and his men will definitely give us the task directly."

The ancient commander gritted his teeth and said angrily:
"We can't just keep exploiting Ganluchuan, our only fat sheep. We only have a little over 20,000 people in total, and we have to allocate a third of them to building houses. We simply don't have enough manpower."

"So, when the time comes, as long as General Xiong makes a request, Commander Gu, you should ask him for 10,000 households to be relocated to Ganluchuan."

“That’s right. Apart from Weilumu, all the other garrisons have immigrants. Why should the military families of Ganluchuan have to do everything themselves?”

General Xiong: "."

They're so easily flattered; all they do is keep urging us to hire them.

But it is really necessary to plant another round of winter wheat!
"Your Ganluchuan has the best geographical location and the most fertile land among all the garrisons. We still need to continue to reclaim wasteland, and at least 60,000 mu of winter wheat should be planted."

Ancient Thousand-Man Commander: "."

The 10,000 immigrant households number approximately 40,000 people.

The cultivated area for winter wheat has actually been required to double!
(End of this chapter)