Reborn as a Landlord-Chapter 764 - 391 Harvest Corn_1

As the morning dew had just settled, the team for harvesting corn at Lian Manman’s family had already arrived at the field’s edge. Zhang Qingshan, having received the message from Lady Zhang, only left Lady Li at home with the children to tend to the house. He himself, with his eldest son Zhang Qingnian, his eldest daughter-in-law Lady Wang, his second son Zhang Liunian, his second daughter-in-law Lady Hu, and his eldest granddaughter Zhang Caiyun, had arrived the night before.

All the able-bodied workers from the Zhang Family had come. Apart from their own cart pulled by two large green mules, Zhang Qingshan had also borrowed another large cart.

Wu Yugui and his son Wu Jiaxing had also hurried over with a large cart.

Following them were the six members of Lian Manman’s family, the three members of Lian Shouli’s family, and the small ox cart from Lian Manman’s family.

"After the harvest, I’ll need to discuss with your grandfather about getting us two big green mules and changing to a larger cart," Shouxin said, eyeing the other three large carts with some envy, speaking to Manman and Xiao Qi by his side.

This seemed to be the first time Shouxin had taken the initiative to plan for spending money on a significant household investment, causing Manman to refrain from smiling.

The group didn’t immediately start work but stood at the edge of the field talking. Manman occasionally turned her head to glance down the official road, waiting for those sent by Shen Liu according to the message he had replied. They needed to wait for the people sent by Shen Liu to arrive before they could begin harvesting the corn.

"Did he say what time they’ll arrive?" asked Zhang Qingshan.

"He just said they’re coming, didn’t mention a specific Chinese hour," replied Shouxin.

In the note Manman had sent, she had only set the date, but as for the exact hour, that was hard to pinpoint. After all, Prefecture City was not a short distance from Thirty Mile Camp. If they followed the tenant farmers’ custom of starting work early in the morning, the people from Shen Liu’s side would have to wake up in the middle of the night to arrive in time, assuming they traveled by a fast horse or cart without any stops.

For example, during Shen Liu’s last visit to check on the sweet potato harvest, he had arrived just before midday. From what Fatty Shen said, they must have set out from Prefecture City after midnight.

Given Shen Liu’s status, with household and official duties so numerous they were almost beyond counting, the timing of his arrival had to accommodate his convenience.

While everyone was chatting, they saw a cloud of dust billowing on the official road. A horse team of about a dozen riders swept into view and were quickly upon them.

"Here they come, they’re here," called out the group spontaneously.

As the horse team neared, they slowed down, then turned off the official road onto a small path that led to the field. In a short while, they arrived and dismounted one after another.

The group of about a dozen men were all strapping youths in their twenties, dressed as military school cadets. The man in the lead came over to greet Shouxin.

Only then did Manman recognize that this person was Shen Liu’s confidant, as he had been seen accompanying Shen Liu on several occasions.

"...Sixth Master was suddenly called away on urgent business and cannot come today, so he sent us to help with the corn harvest," he said.

Zhang Qianhu conveyed Shen Liu’s orders, explaining that Shen Liu had suddenly been detained by urgent matters and would not be able to visit until five days later, during the corn threshing. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Manman thought it over and felt that this arrangement was also good. Shen Liu’s concern about the corn yield was the reason for his planned visit, and since the exact numbers would not be available during the harvest, it would be more convenient to calculate during the corn threshing when they could weigh the yield.

The arrangement for Zhang Qianhu to bring men to help with the corn harvest was very considerate. With the sudden addition of over a dozen strong workers, what was expected to take several days might be completed in just one.

Zhang Qianhu further explained that he didn’t understand how to harvest corn and would listen to all of Shouxin and Manman’s instructions.

Since Shen Liu had sent strong laborers, Manman had no intention of being polite. She divided everyone into four groups: the first group was responsible for chopping the corn. Each person in this group carried a burlap sack and walked along the furrows, each person taking care of two rows, cutting the corn cobs off and putting them into their bags.

When the sacks became too heavy to carry, they emptied the corn into a designated pile, leaving it for the next group to handle.

The second group did not have to follow the rows. Their task was to process the corn cobs that the first group had cut. That is, they stripped the corn of its husks leaving only the bare cobs, and then sorted the cobs into categories. Good-quality cobs were separated from those of lesser quality, such as under-filled or small cobs, and then they bagged them up for the third group to collect.

The third group was in charge of driving the carts to transport the bagged, unhusked corn cobs to the Lian Family’s threshing ground.