Good farming at the foot of Changbai Mountain

Chapter 100 Tussah Silkworm Harvest
After eating the dumplings on New Year's Eve, Jinghan became one year older.Children like Chinese New Year the most, they don't have to work, and there are delicious food.However, the children of the Xu family still insist on practicing martial arts with Zhixin every morning, not for the sake of good kung fu, but for strengthening their bodies.

There is nothing to do in the first month, it is just a time to visit relatives and friends.This year, she was in the town, and it was conveniently close to the village. She had nothing to do this day, so Chen took her family back to the village to play.First went to the old man's cousin's house for a sit-down, and then Jing Han led Jing Ya and the others to the Lin's house.It has been several years since I saw Yumei, and Jinghan misses her a little.

Coincidentally, Yumei happened to be at home today, and when the little girls met, they chatted endlessly, making it a joy to chat.

When Yumei saw Jinghan, she was naturally extremely affectionate, and she held Jinghan's hand without letting go. "Jinghan, you've grown a lot taller again. You look better than before, but you're not too white. Is the wind on the mountain too strong?"

Jinghan is speechless, why do people say that she is black when they see her?Could it be that he is really dark? "Sister Yumei, am I really dark? Why do you always say that when you see me?"

Everyone laughed when they heard Jinghan's words, and Yumei laughed the most, tears came out. "Jinghan, it's not that you are dark now, but it's not as white as before. In fact, your complexion is very healthy now, don't worry, we also care about you."

Jingya also pursed her lips and smiled, "I told you to pay attention, you have to run outside all day, how are you doing now?"

Yumei's mother came in from the outside, holding candies, melon seeds, hazelnuts and other things in her hand, "Come on, Jingya, Jinghan, eat something quickly. It's really rare to see you since you went up the mountain. It's noon today You are not allowed to leave when you are eating at my aunt's house." After speaking, he put his things on the kang and went out to prepare meals.

"Auntie, don't be too busy, we're going to eat at Grandpa's place later." Jinghan shouted.If they come back, if they don't eat with grandpa, the old man will be very unhappy.

After hearing this, Yumei Niang said without looking back, "Let your grandparents eat there, and your little ones eat here. Zixuan and Ziwen ran out to play, and they will be back in a while. Call a boy to come over together, and the children will be more comfortable together."

Just as Jinghan was about to say something, she heard Zixuan's voice in the yard, "Wenhan, Wencheng, you should eat here at noon today. I guess Jinghan and the others are here too. I'll go tell Grandpa Xu later, We juniors eat together and don't mingle with their adults."

While speaking, people had already entered the room, Zixuan smiled when he looked into the room. "How is it? I said that Jinghan and the others must be here. All right, let's eat at my house at noon. Mom, prepare something delicious for lunch. Wenhan and the others come here very rarely."

Yumei Niang over there hurriedly agreed, "Okay, I've started to prepare. I just said, let them stay here, and Jinghan won't do it."

Zixuan smiled and said to Jinghan, "Jinghan, stay here, it's rare for us to have a meal together. Didn't Ziwen and I often eat at your house before?"

Jinghan had no choice but to nod, "Okay, brother Zixuan, then I will listen to you. Brother, tell my grandfather later that you won't eat at the grandfather's place at noon." But go and tell others of.

"Okay, then I'll go over and talk." Wen Han is also willing to be here, the children are so lively together.Wen Han went out, and the rest of the people talked in the room.Jingya saw that Yumei Niang was busy in the kitchen, so she went over to help, and Jinghan and the others also went over.

"Okay, you all hurry up and play, I can do this work myself. They are all ready-made, and they will be ready in a while." Yumei Niang didn't use them, and drove Jinghan and the others back.

Since there is no need to help, Yumei took out Galaha, and then everyone played Galaha together.The boy didn't play with these things much, so he ran outside to build a snowman and have a snowball fight.For a moment, the entire small courtyard was filled with children's laughter.

After lunch, Zhixin came over from his cousin and called the children away.Before leaving, he specially told Zixuan to live in Xu's house after the school started.Yumei Niang heard what her man said, so she readily agreed.

Xu has a large family, so everyone used both the ox cart and Zhixiang's carriage.The men were all in the ox carts, while the women were in the carriages, wandering back to the town.

Lu Binghao wanted to arrive in Anzhou before the sixteenth day of the first month, so Liu Zhixiang left with Wanting and his servants when the first month came out.On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, the Xing family led Zixuan to the Xu family, and Zixuan lived in the Xu family from then on, with Wen Han and the others.

Logging started on the 30th of the first lunar month in the village, and the old man led Zhixin, Zhiming, Wencheng, Xue and Zhu back to the mountain.Not only are they busy logging, but they also need to gather more firewood.For the remaining children, the boys all went to school, and the girls stayed at home to look after the mushrooms.There are not many mushrooms produced after the new year, and more than [-] catties can be picked every other day. It just so happens that the business of the restaurant is not so hot, but it is just enough.

Time passed in a flash, and it was already March in a blink of an eye.After the Qingming Festival, Jinghan and Jingwan also went up the mountain, and Jinghan was going to warm the tussah cocoons to hatch.This year they made a lot of cocoons. At that time, there were [-] seed cocoons left. Jing Han wore all those cocoons and hung them all over the room.

The hatching of this kind of cocoon is very critical. Last year, because she didn't know if this thing was worth raising, Jing Han didn't pay too much attention.Knowing that this thing can be paid for this year, Jinghan is more attentive than last year.She and Jingwan live in this room, watching the temperature in the room every day, and carefully tending these silkworm cocoons.

At the beginning of May, the silkworm moths finally broke out of their cocoons, and the whole family came to help Jinghan separate the male and female silkworm cocoons, then put them into baskets and hug them.This year's hatching is good, and basically all of them have come out.Since Jinghan was very careful when picking cocoons last year, the ratio of males and females this year is relatively good, basically reaching one to one.Basically, five hundred pairs of silkworm moths are stored in one basket, so ten baskets are required.Fortunately, Zhixin knew that there would be a lot of baskets this year, so when the spring began, he made a lot of big baskets for him.

After about ten days of incubation, the laid eggs will be hatched, and the little ant silkworms will emerge from their shells.The weather this year was fine, so Jinghan started to tie the baskets early and moved all the ants and silkworms to the oak forest in the north.

When the silkworms climbed the tree, they had more work.To prevent all kinds of birds and beasts from eating tussah silkworms, it is also necessary to ensure that the humidity in the forest is corresponding, and at the same time, the silkworms must be constantly removed.Ant silkworms hatched in one basket have to be moved to more than 200 trees.

One day in early June, Zhixiang came back to see the silkworms that Jing Conserved.During the Chinese New Year, Jinghan once talked about raising silkworms.When Zhixiang followed Lu Binghao to Anzhou, he happened to be in charge of farmland water conservancy.Zhixiang went to the small village below to see it. It was much warmer than his hometown, but many places there were rocky mountains, and the soil was very thin. The output of growing food was not good at all.

Lu Binghao was very anxious. He tried his best to make life easier for the people here.Zhixiang suddenly remembered the kind of tussah silkworms that Jinghan mentioned. He heard from Jinghan that tussah silkworms can grow twice in a slightly warmer place.There are a lot of oak trees in the villages near Anzhou, and the weather is warm early, so it should be possible to raise tussah silkworms.

Zhixiang mentioned this matter to Lu Binghao. Lu Binghao was overjoyed and asked Zhixiang to go back to his hometown to see the specific situation of Jinghan raising tussah silkworms.That's why Zhixiang came back.

When Zhixiang came back, he also brought back good news that Wanting was pregnant.When Mrs. Chen heard the news, she was very happy, and hurriedly prepared a lot of things for Zhixiang to take back.

Zhixiang lived on the mountain for more than 100 days, and finally saw tussah silkworms cocooning.The Xu family worked hard for five or six days before they collected all the cocoons.This year Jinghan paid more attention than last year, so she was able to leave a total of more than 01 million silkworm cocoons.Now, it's not a matter of 30:[-], the spectator hall is full of large baskets containing silkworm cocoons.Looking at the somewhat yellowish cocoon, Zhixiang was quite puzzled. "Jinghan, can this thing really pull out silk? Can the silk be used?" He didn't know what to do.

"Little uncle, just wait and see. I have already told the Yue family that they will come to collect the silkworm cocoons. By the way, didn't I show you the silk made of this kind of tussah silk? How much worse. Also, this spring, those cocoons that came out of silkworm moths couldn’t spin because the silk was bitten off by the silkworm moths. It's very warm." Jinghan talked a little bit about the usefulness of tussah silk. "This kind of silk is not as white as mulberry silk, and the silk is thick, so nothing else matters."

Zhixiang has seen the piece of silk that Jinghan mentioned, so he still believes in it.He asked questions about the number of eggs laid by silkworm moths, and Jing Han answered them one by one. Finally, Zhixiang decided to order [-] seed cocoons from Jing Han.It's only the end of June now, and it's still very hot in Anzhou. If we get it back, we should still be able to raise a crop of autumn silkworms.

When the Xu family heard this, of course they supported Zhixiang.So I helped pick out [-] seed cocoons overnight, put them in a big basket, and covered them with some grass.Twenty thousand seed cocoons filled three full baskets.

Jinghan also kept 280 seed cocoons this time, and sold the rest to the Yue family for ten cents a catty, a total of [-] taels of silver.

Zhixiang still couldn't understand the key to breeding, so he had no choice but to ask Jinghan to follow him to Anzhou to help teach the technique.This is a good thing, the old man and the others all supported Jinghan in the past, so Jinghan followed Zhixiang to Anzhou.

(End of this chapter)