flstandardbreds Chapter 150 Picking Cotton
Chapter 150 Picking Cotton
When County Magistrate Wang was escorting the grain cart out of the Qingshan County Government Office, he ran into several colleagues who were hurrying into the city.
Several people looked at the cars following County Magistrate Wang in amazement.
This guy is here so early!
They hurriedly had breakfast and came here, but they didn't expect that there were people who arrived earlier than them.
County Magistrate Wang: Humph, I came out before daybreak.
After saying goodbye in a hurry, the few of them rushed to the Qingshan County Government Office.
After handing in the list of books and checking for correctness, they paid the money, received the deed, and began to count the rice seeds for delivery.
As the sun rose higher, more and more county magistrates arrived.
The county magistrate was accompanied by more and more followers and yamen runners who were transporting grain, and the Qingshan yamen was blocked by these people.
"It is our Marquis and Lord Lin who are really capable!"
"Yes, I recognize their clothes. Lord Lin used to wear the same clothes. They are both officials, and they have something to trouble our Lord!"
"Don't tell me, these days, some of the doorsteps of houses in this town have been trampled down. It seems like they are all stranger matchmakers from other counties!"
......
The people gathered from a distance, whispering to each other.
Some time ago, they had received rice seeds distributed by the county government.
Thinking of some distant relatives with whom they had no contact, who had written to them recently asking for rice seeds, they couldn't help but feel proud.
The rice seeds were distributed from dawn to dusk, until the government office was locked.
However, many county magistrates had not received the letter, and the inns in Qingshan Town were overcrowded.
The county magistrates discovered an interesting thing while staying at the inn.
The people of Qingshan Town don't seem to be afraid of them as officials.
This is a rare phenomenon.
The people under their jurisdiction not only respect but also fear the officials.
However, the people of Qingshan Town showed respect in their eyes, but not fear.
A county magistrate from Jinling City privately asked the innkeeper about this.
As a result, the innkeeper asked back:
"Sir, I am a humble commoner who has done nothing wrong. Why should I be afraid of you? Are you the kind of person who doesn't know right from wrong?"
The Marquis said that as long as we stay safe and sound in Qingshan Town and don't break the law, we can live in peace."
The county magistrate of Jinling City was secretly surprised.
Qingshan Town has such advanced management!
This surprise was magnified the next day.
Shen Tang lived some distance from the government office. When he passed by the street in the morning, the people on the street naturally greeted him:
"Marquis of the County, you're out so early?"
"Miss Green Bamboo, give me some buns, freshly baked!"
"Bring some for Lord Lin as well!"
"County Marquis..."
The tone in which the people spoke to Shen Tang was just like the way they usually greeted their close relatives at home.
The people's love for him is evident from this.
Qingshan County is truly a magical place.
But isn't this what they're after?
When Shen Tang arrived at the county government office early, someone was already waiting at the gate.
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Qingshan County distributed rice seeds to various counties. It took half a month to finally distribute all the rice seeds.
In Lin'an Prefecture, all registered farmers can have one acre of rice seeds.
In addition to Lin'an Prefecture, the prefectures close to Lin'an Prefecture also received a lot.
In the past half month, both Shen Tang and Lin Changshi have lost some weight.
Lin Changshi was busy dealing with matters after the distribution of grain, while Shen Tang was about to start something else.
The cotton is ripe.
In the cotton garden, every flower is white as far as the eye can see.
The weather has been good in recent days, and the sunlight shining on the blooming cotton makes people feel warm just looking at it.
The Tao family originally made tea. Although there is tea in the tea garden now, the quantity is small.
Therefore, the head of the Tao family selected some tea pickers to come to the cotton garden to pick cotton.
“When you pick cotton, be careful not to get leaves or dead branches in, and try to keep the cotton as clean as possible.
Good flowers, pointed petals and fallen cotton are picked separately..."
Shen Chuqing was in the cotton garden, talking with the cotton pickers about the precautions they should take when picking cotton.
The cotton harvesting technology mainly uses the "three clean" and "five points" methods.
The three clean things are that when picking cotton, you should pick those with clean flowers, clean cotton shells, and high-quality clean cotton wool.
The five steps are picking, drying, storage, rolling and selling. The cotton is picked separately. When it matures, good cotton will have snow-white cotton wool, but bad cotton will be reddish, yellowish or even have grayish-white spots.
The picked cotton needs to be dried in the sun to remove the moisture from it.
Cotton of different qualities should be stored and wrapped separately.
Liu and Shen Qingqing had nothing to do at home, so they naturally joined the cotton picking army.
Shen Tang went to the charity hall in town.
Each county government office has a charity hall, which was built when the late emperor was alive in order to pray for the empress dowager.
The charity hall mainly provides shelter for the homeless elderly, weak, women and children. Every year, the county governments give a sum of money to the charity hall. Kind-hearted wealthy businessmen in the county also donate money and food to the charity hall to ensure its operation.
The main reason why Shen Tang came here was that there were not enough cotton seed removers, and a certain number of seed removers were needed to manually peel the seeds.
Now every household in Qingshan Town has rice seeds, and most families no longer have to suffer from hunger in winter.
Shen Tang brought a lot of food into the charity hall.
Although there was funding from the imperial court and wealthy businessmen, there were still many people living there, and everyone lived a very difficult life.
Everyone's clothes were patched, and the sleeves of the older children's clothes were not long enough.
The exposed part of the wrist was slender and red.
The weather had turned cold and the children stayed in the house. The person who came out to greet Shen Tang was a widow named Zhou.
"In the Charity Hall, there are seventeen elderly people, more than fifty children, and five women of my age.
On weekdays, the older children help us with laundry and cooking, while the younger ones help clean the yard..."
Mrs. Zhou is a gentle person. She slowly talked about the situation of the charity hall over the years and the life everyone has lived.
Shen Tang felt a little distressed when he saw the children hiding at the door and looking around carefully.
"Eat this food first, and I'll send some more over later.
I came here today because I have something to ask. I wonder how many girls over fourteen years old there are in this hall?"
In the Great Qi Dynasty, a girl was considered an adult at the age of fourteen.
"There are nineteen girls over fourteen years old. There are more girls than boys in the charity house..."
"I won't hide it either. I've been growing some crops and I'm short of manpower lately. I'd like to find some hardworking girls to help me out."
When Mrs. Zhou heard this, her eyes lit up.
Who is Shen Tang!
But she is a legendary woman in Qingshan Town and even in the entire Da Qi. Look at the people around her. Although they are all girls, they are all extremely capable.
If one or two of the girls in this hall could be favored by Shen Tang, it would be a blessing in their lifetime.
"Marquis, please wait a moment. I'll call the children out."
"The first day, the seventh day, White Dew, Frost Descent..."