Seeing that there were only three of them, the common people of ancient times began to mutter.
“It can’t be just the three of them, right? One is old, one is weak—An Ran—and there isn’t even a single able-bodied young adult.”
“Where are the able-bodied young adults in this family? Why haven’t they come back to harvest the wheat? Don’t tell me they’re going to leave the three of them to cut it?”
“Surely not, right? If it’s really just the three of them, they’ll be worked to death.”
“There should be other helpers. They probably went to the fields first.”
“That’s good. If there aren’t enough people and it causes losses, my heart will ache to death.”
But when they saw the fields and found only three people there, the common people were speechless. “There really are only three of them? How are they supposed to harvest everything?”
“No matter how much money they can make from work elsewhere, food is the foundation!”
“The yield must be so high that they don’t care about losing a little.”
“Sigh, what a pity about all that food.”
The common people of ancient times shook their heads and sighed, hearts aching over the wasted grain.
An Ran drove the Electric Three-Wheeled Vehicle to a shady spot, where the three of them waited for the rented Combine Harvester.
Her father had wanted to buy one, but her grandfather disagreed. He said they used it only twice a year, and without regular maintenance, it would break down. Buying one was not worthwhile; they could rent one whenever they needed it. A rental cost only a few hundred, which was not expensive.
She remembered that the last time she had helped harvest wheat at home was in middle school. Back then, harvesters and threshers operated separately. Now there were machines that harvested and threshed in one process. It was convenient!
After waiting for more than ten minutes, a rumbling sound came from afar. An Ran looked over and saw a combine harvester approaching.
Grandfather got up and told the other party which fields belonged to them. After marking off the area, he handed over the prepared bags. Once the operator installed them, the harvester operator began work.
“Rumble—” As the Combine Harvester began moving, rows of golden wheat disappeared into its belly. The machine processed the wheat, and the hulled grain fell into the bags. Before long, one bag was full.
An Ran and the other two went up to lift the bag onto the vehicle, then loaded a new bag. Once the vehicle was full, An Ran drove it back.
The Electric Three-Wheeled Vehicle had been modified for automatic unloading, so An Ran could handle it alone. Grandfather and Grandmother stayed in the fields to keep watch.
They went back and forth like this, and by the time they finished, it was already past one in the afternoon.
After returning home, they were too lazy to cook. The three of them boiled some noodles to fill their stomachs, then went to dry the wheat.
The Common People of Ancient Times had never dreamed that harvesting crops could be so easy. They no longer had to bend over and cut wheat. They only had to wait for the machine to fill the bags, then carry them down. It was astonishingly effortless.
Moreover, the speed was astonishing! With only the labor of the three people shown on the Heavenly Screen, harvesting this way would have taken at least two or three days. Yet the others finished in a single morning without tiring.
“What kind of divine tool is this? Incredible!”
“It’s so fast! It moves forward, cutting and threshing the wheat at the same time. It’s so easy.”
“I want one! With this thing, harvesting crops in the future would be so easy.”
“Exactly. Last year, my husband injured himself trying to finish the harvest quickly so he could go to The Town to work. We spent a lot of money. If we had this thing, we wouldn’t even need him. The two half-grown boys in my family and I could manage it.”
“Exactly. With this thing, the men can work outside and earn money, while we women take care of things at home.”
In the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang watched the Combine Harvester and finally understood why so many people in Later Generations went out to work: the fields did not need them. If two elderly people could complete the task, what did they need the young men for? They could work outside and earn even more money.
With such high yields and machines that made harvesting so easy, no wonder everyone in Later Generations was so wealthy.
To the Common People of Ancient Times, having white rice every day meant being wealthy.
His Qin Dynasty had only recently been established, and every place needed many people. With such a machine, many people could go do other things.
……
In the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin pointed at the Combine Harvester and said, “This is excellent! It’s easy and fast. Have the Ministry of Works study it at once. Maybe we can finish it in time for the autumn harvest.”
The people from the Ministry of Works also stared at the machine on the Heavenly Screen with shining eyes. But when they heard the Emperor’s words, their expressions darkened. How could they possibly develop it in a few months?
Fortunately, the Emperor had not given them a death order or insisted that they make an identical version. They could research and produce an extremely simplified version first.
They agreed and returned to the Ministry of Works with the drawings they had made of the Combine Harvester. Using their memories and understanding, they began studying it piece by piece.
The other emperors naturally would not let such a useful tool pass them by either, especially those of the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty was the most technologically advanced dynasty in Ancient Times, including the invention of movable-type printing, the widespread use of the compass, and the extensive military application of gunpowder weapons. Some technologies were hundreds of years ahead of foreign countries at the time.
Many craftsmen were interested in the Combine Harvester and planned to modify it to see whether they could produce machinery with similar functions.
The Ming Dynasty was much the same. Its advanced technology meant it had many talented people, so it had a far greater chance than other dynasties of developing a substandard version of the Combine Harvester, and doing so more quickly.
The common people lacked the ability to make one. Although they desperately wanted a Combine Harvester, they could only yearn for it. After envying it, they turned their attention to the wheat spread out on the ground to dry.
There was so much! They had never seen so much food in their lives.
And look at the grains—they were so large! Each one was so plump and golden, round and adorable.
They wanted to taste flour made from wheat like this. Would it have a different texture? It had to be delicious!
After seeing the wheat of the Future Era, the Common People of Ancient Times returned to their own fields. Every one of them found their own wheat utterly unsatisfactory.
Even the village’s renowned expert farmer looked at the crops he had been satisfied with a month earlier and found them unbearably disappointing.
It is not failing to recognize good goods that one should fear, but comparing goods with one another. After seeing something good, this no longer looked impressive.
However, when he looked at the even sparser crops in everyone else’s fields, he felt much better.
All right, it was far inferior to the best, but better than the worst. People had to learn to be content!
Besides, being unable to compare now did not mean they would never be able to compare in the Future Era!
The Heavenly Screen had already explained how to research high-quality improved seeds. Wasn’t it a matter of finding two good ones and letting them have offspring? He could try it too.
Although he could not read, he had plenty of experience. Besides, for a farmer, time was the least valuable thing. He could inspect hundreds of thousands of plants one by one. As long as he could increase the food yield even a little, he would be completely satisfied. Even if he could not benefit from it himself, he would be delighted if his descendants in the Future Era could.
After spreading all the wheat out to dry, An Ran collapsed onto the bed, too exhausted to get up.
So tired. She had worked in an office for so long that it had been ages since she had done this much physical labor. She was even more useless than she had been in elementary school.
She remembered that when she was in Elementary School, people cut the wheat in the fields with a Sickle. Although she did not cut the wheat herself, she had to carry the cut wheat and pick up the Wheat Ears that had fallen off. The amount of exercise had been no less than now. Back then, she could work an entire afternoon and still be full of energy.
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