Shocking! My Rugged Husband is the Hidden Tycoon in the 70s Novel-Chapter 254: Achieving Agricultural Mechanization Ahead of Schedule

Chapter 254: Chapter 254: Achieving Agricultural Mechanization Ahead of Schedule

In the afternoon, Jiang Xingye dispatched a few people to wait for the remaining parts for the threshing machines that were being made.

Jiang Baohua organized production.

The elderly and children stayed in the village using the threshing machine, women began to harvest corn, the wheat had already been harvested, and the able-bodied workers rushed to harvest the remaining rice.

The neighboring teams, New United Team and Liaozhong Team, due to opposition from team members, symbolically requested a harvester, used it for less than two days, and returned it, relying entirely on human labor for harvesting.

These two harvesters were taken by Shangjiang Team, giving Shangjiang Team three harvesters, with Jiang Baohua being bold, as he took two harvesters on credit from the commune, intending to repay at the end of the year.

Seeing Shangjiang Team quickly finish their work, members of New United Team and Liaozhong Team felt they were fools.

"There’s always so much work, and the work points are always the same. Finishing so quickly, will the commune allocate additional work points at the end of the year?"

"I heard their production team even built a threshing machine factory, intending to sell threshing machines later."

An esteemed elder from New United Team knocked his dry tobacco pipe, "What’s so novel? Our ancestors have farmed this way for generations, but they insist on some peculiar tricks. When households have no work points left and face starvation, let’s see how Jiang Baohua runs this team."

Jiang Baohua walked briskly every day, with the position of secretary still vacant, serving as both secretary and overseeing production, while the team’s accountant had to recalculate work points, busily working without a moment’s rest.

The production team enlisted ten young adults with certain knowledge levels to form a production factory to start assembling threshing machines.

Xu Qinghuan and Jiang Xingye devised a design for the corn threshing machine, and Jiang Xingye spent several nights perfecting it and creating parts diagrams. Recently, he was busy in the county with matters of the corn threshing machine.

Tang Quantong led a group of cadres to the countryside. Without prior contact with Jiang Baohua, they directly rushed over to the threshing yard where there was a lively bustle mixed with the rumble of machines.

"Let’s go take a look!" Tang Quantong waved his arm, and the cadres hurriedly followed, each excited as if invigorated.

"Did the threshing machines get made?" someone speculated.

In the threshing yard, three threshing machines were lined up, one for wheat and two for rice. A glance showed that all the workers were elderly and children.

Young children dragged bundles of rice or wheat ears to the threshing machine, while kids aged seven or eight opened the straw heads to feed the machine.

Beside each threshing machine stood an elderly woman, holding a pitchfork, piling up the straw chaff to the side, while several old men bundled the chaff.

Several people stood by the grain outlet, dragging bag after bag of grain, tying them with strings, and stacking them neatly aside.

Well, this is indeed a lineup of the elderly and children!

The cadres were all stunned.

Threshing and harvesting are paramount tasks for any team. Besides using oxen to pull stone rollers for crushing, older people are assigned, while the rest involves spreading out rice or wheat, flipping the straw midway, shaking out grains, and bundling the straw distinctly meant only for sturdy laborers.

This age-old tradition, passed down for thousands of years, was now broken by Shangjiang Team.

Every task from start to finish was taken on by the elderly and children.

The only work left that required able-bodied workers was transporting the grains to the warehouse for proper stacking, but this didn’t take much time.

The rush to harvest was laborious not just because of the heavy work but also due to time constraints.

Shangjiang Team progressed much faster than other teams due to having three harvesters, and now with three threshing machines, many more laborers were freed.

"Isn’t Shangjiang Team progressing too fast? Did they thresh everything harvested today?"

"Probably not, but at their current pace, they might save half the time for this year’s autumn harvest."

"Machines are indeed great; did Shangjiang Team already achieve agricultural mechanization ahead of schedule?"

The commune could report this as an achievement, adding to their accolades. Seeing this scene in front, even cold hearts would heat up.

Tang Quantong was already overwhelmed with excitement, especially when seeing a face that was unfamiliar yet familiarly nostalgic. He hesitated briefly and then hurried forward, "Jiang... Jiang... Old Leader!"

He saluted promptly.

Old Jiang waved his hand, "I’m no leader, just an old man now."

Tang Quantong was tearful, "Old Leader, is your health better?"

Jiang Chengfa and several other old men and women were responsible for bundling the rice and wheat straw, having worked hard for quite a while. Feeling a bit tired, he stood aside for a break.

"Much better, no longer useless," Jiang Chengfa leaned on a pitchfork, gesturing toward the threshing machine, "This thing is useful, quick, and clean, cleaner than using oxen to pull stone rollers."

Before bundling straw, they would shake it vigorously with pitchforks to dislodge any grain. While there was some, the quantity was very minimal.

Only a few kernels stuck to the rice and wheat straw, mostly hollow shells upon inspection.

"It’s a great tool!" Tang Quantong remarked, "How much labor it saves, and it’s all thanks to Comrade Jiang Xingye."

Old Jiang laughed proudly, "It’s not just his credit. It’s mainly thanks to Comrade Xu Qinghuan."

Tang Quantong complimented, "Comrade Xu Qinghuan is also Comrade Jiang’s fiancée, part of the family, becoming your granddaughter-in-law."

At the mention of Xu Qinghuan, old Jiang’s face beamed with joy, "Family is family, but credit should still be shared."

Tang Quantong said, "This credit must be recorded by the team for Comrade Xu Qinghuan. She insisted on keeping the threshing machine technology for the production team and didn’t want the commune to take a share."

Dong Gensheng heard this and said, "Deputy Director Tang, isn’t our production team a part of the commune? Comrade Xu Qinghuan, after all, isn’t doing it for herself. The city youngster didn’t say she wanted to use this huge credit to return to the city. How come we begrudge her even a bit of recognition?"

"Indeed, what can our production team offer? A volunteer coming here is not local, wholeheartedly working for the area. The commune shouldn’t be stingy."

After dealing with youth workers and local members for years, Xu Ruiyang was seeing for the first time such support from local members for a youth worker.

He laughed, "Harvesters and threshing machines are good, but other teams refuse to use them."

Members didn’t know how to respond to that, though they heard other teams refused, knowing the reason was fear of machines consuming work points, leaving none for them to earn.

They had asked Jiang Baohua about this, to which the team leader had shouted for them to hurry finishing the work, as more work was waiting.

Besides, fearing sudden weather changes also urged the workers.

Upon hearing this, who cared about future concerns, especially when the production team was set to open a threshing machine factory and furniture factory, grabbing their attention.