Chapter 523: Could a Daoist’s Words Be False?
“This year, the wheat ripened too late...”
“Not just late, the yield was poor. In some places, the wheat dried up completely. I couldn’t find any work at all.”
“This damned weather...”
These were the voices of the wheat reapers—migrant laborers who traveled to harvest wheat.
The economy of Great Yan was highly developed, offering many labor opportunities. The northwestern regions were rich in wheat production, but wealthy landlords who owned vast farmlands often lacked the manpower to harvest it all.
So, every year during the wheat season, countless farmers traveled thousands of li to Longzhou to work as reapers. They earned meals and meager wages in exchange for their labor, making it a temporary but vital livelihood.
These seasonal workers were called wheat reapers.
Before coming here, Song You had never seen such a system of migrant labor, even after traveling across Yizhou and dozens of other regions.
This was an eye-opening experience for him.
Some wheat reapers were locals of Longzhou, but since their own region did not grow wheat, they became seasonal laborers when harvest season arrived. Others came from neighboring provinces, traveling over a thousand li from farm to farm, racing against time to earn what little they could before moving on.
But this year, things were much worse.