Good farming at the foot of Changbai Mountain

Chapter 82

The most important thing about handling a mallet is kung fu, especially in this age without herbicides and pesticides, it is all manual.The Xu family has always lived on the mountain, and Mr. Zhixin would go to the ginseng field to clean up whenever they had time, so the Xu family's sticks this year are better than last year's.

A lot of big mallets were dug out from the ground, and this year everyone paid attention to them, and when they encountered big ones, they put them all away separately.Jinghan secretly smiled while picking up the mallet, but it's a pity that people in the village can't do this, otherwise it would be fun.

Like Jing Han and the others, Peng Cheng knelt on the ground in old clothes, picking up sticks.As he picked it up, he exclaimed, "Oh, it's amazing to have such a big mallet."

Jinghan raised her head and glanced at Pengcheng, "Brother Pengcheng, please keep your voice down, you're afraid that people won't know how big our sticks are? The big ones are for sale and cannot be handed over. "

After hearing this, Pengcheng understood, nodded quickly, and said in a low voice, "I'm sorry, sister Jinghan, I understand."

Seeing Pengcheng's cautious look, everyone couldn't help laughing. "Okay, it's all normal, don't be so careful. We picked up our own sticks openly and aboveboard, and we didn't come to steal them. Why are we being so careful?" Mrs. Xue said with a smile while picking up the sticks. "Jinghan, don't scare your elder brother Pengcheng."

Jing Han stuck out her tongue, stopped talking, and lowered her head to pick up the club.

There were many families in Xu, and it was over at the end of the day. Zhixin and Zhiming stopped it again with four teeth, and then everyone walked back with sacks on their shoulders.The children followed behind with all kinds of belongings, Jinghan and Wenhan still hid the big ones, and let Wenchang and Wenxuan watch from afar.

When we came to the gate of Shenchangzi, some villagers had already handed in their sticks and went home.There are still some in line there.Seeing that every household handed in so many sticks, Jinghan felt distressed.Xu's family asked for 120 feet of ginseng soil this year, so they had to hand in a [-]-jin mallet. Now, Jinghan's heart was bleeding, and she gritted her teeth watching her family's hard-earned mallets hand in just like that. .Jinghan secretly vowed that one day, she would have to buy woods for her own family, and then she would not pay so much.

The people in the yamen had been busy all day, and at the beginning of Youshi, they drove back with a long car.Jinghan looked at the backs of those people, thinking a little mischievously in her heart, if only she met robbers on the way.Hehe, these sticks can be sold for quite a bit of silver.However, it is estimated that no robber can do such a thing. The key is that these sticks are too eye-catching, and they will be known by the Yamen once they are sold.Alas, I was just thinking about it.

When the people in the yamen and the village had left, Wen Han retrieved the sticks they hid.This year, the 290-foot sticks weighed 120 catties in total, and 170 catties were handed over, leaving [-] catties left for my family.The old man was feeling a little disappointed, after all, he paid forty catties more than in previous years.However, thinking that there will be more and more in the future, the old man feels better.

Jinghan understood what Grandpa was thinking, and moved close to Grandpa and said, "Grandpa, don't be sad. When we earn more money, we can buy a forest and plant sticks at home. That's just paying more taxes. Use so much for them? Besides, the land bought by my family can grow other things at that time, unlike this one, it will not belong to us after one crop.”

Hearing what Jing Han said, the old man's eyes lit up, and then darkened again, "You are quite right. Buying forests is not something that can be done with little money. Our family has not reached that point yet. That's fine, we can Don't think so much, let's hurry up and make the sticks, and do it step by step."

The next day, the family started to make goods, and Yue Pengcheng gained knowledge again this time, and all his thoughts on this trip were over.He has been in Xu's house for seven or eight days, so on August [-]th, he will go back to town.Zhixin asked Wenhan to drive the ox cart to send Pengcheng back, and prepared some things for Pengcheng to take back.

"Uncle Xu, you don't need to bring me anything. Life at home is not easy, so it's better to save some money. You see Jinghan and the others are so young, it's not easy to keep busy with each other." Peng When Cheng saw that the Xu family had prepared a lot of things, he said.

"These are not for you, but for your parents. We mountain people don't have any good things, they are just some local products. You take it back, it is also a little bit of our thought. When you are free in the future, we will come to play again , This time, I asked you to work with us, really." Zhixin put the things on the car one by one.

The Xu family prepared ginseng that was newly harvested this year. The Chen family picked out four big ones, each of which weighed more than three taels.Then there are the deer whips, deer tendons, and the pair of antlers left that day, as well as two fox skins and a deer skin.The rest are some mushrooms, fungus, small fish, etc. Anyway, I have prepared a lot.

Pengcheng declined repeatedly, but finally accepted.Wen Han drove the car, Wen Cheng also followed, and they sent Peng Cheng back to the town together.

Because last year I tasted the sweetness of the stick, this year everyone unanimously decided to go to the stick first, and then make the ginseng soil. Anyway, the ginseng soil is almost done.So Zhixin Zhiming, together with Mrs. Xue, Mrs. Zhu, and even the old man went to Shendili to stop the stick.Wen Han and Wen Cheng inevitably got involved, and they were all busy in the fields.This year is almost the same as last year, with a lot of sticks and beards being blocked. Now, the old man finally smiled.

After stopping the club, Wen Han and the others should go back to town to study, and Zhixin drove the two children back to town in a bullock cart.Since Wen Han and Wen Cheng lived with Hui Xin, Mrs. Chen had prepared a lot of things for them to take with them. They couldn't just use Tao's, right?So a lot of food, vegetables and so on were loaded into the car, and the car was full.Zhixin discussed with the old man and the others, and after they planted the stick, they sent Wenchang and Wenxuan to the town to study.These two children are not young anymore. Wenchang is nine years old and Wenxuan is eight years old. They should go to school.

The old man discussed with everyone about buying a house in the town. Jinghan thought about it and felt that it was too early to buy a house now.Firstly, I don’t have that much money, and secondly, I’m in the town in winter, and I have to come back in summer, and I have to be idle after selling the house, which is not worthwhile.Besides, Jinghan also wants to get mushrooms and things like that, which are simply not available in the town, and there is not such a big place, so I told everyone about these things.After hearing what Jinghan said, the old man thought it was right, so he decided not to buy it this year, and wait until later.

Jinghan took the time to ask her father to tidy up the inside of the two houses, removed the kang, and then changed it into two fire walls in each house, so that the space would be more spacious.The fire wall occupies a small area and can be used for heating, so there is no need to worry about heating in winter. Anyway, there are plenty of firewood on the mountain.After finishing all these, everyone moved the wood into the house, and Jinghan tried to pad up all the wood.In this way, the layers are stacked up, and there is still a gap in the middle, so the mushrooms will not be affected.At this moment, Jinghan is thinking about the technique of growing mushrooms with mushroom bags in her previous life, which can actually be done, but the taste is definitely not as good as that made on wood.

This is the first time to do this this year, and I really don't know what it is like, so Jinghan first experimented with this.If it really works in the future, it may really be necessary to use that method.After the wood was moved into the house, Jing Han paid special attention to it, going to check the temperature and humidity every day.As the weather gets colder, the house starts to light a fire in the morning and evening to keep the temperature inside.

After all the sticks were dried, Zhixin went to the county again and sold all the sticks.This year's output was not as high as last year's, so naturally, the sales were not as high as last year's. Even those blocked sticks were sold for a total of more than 180 taels.There are quite a few of these, how can there be so many in previous years?The family still had some silver left over from last year, and this year's expenses were basically enough for Youzhixin and the others to hunt and sell fish in Wenchang.In this way, the family has saved some money.

Jinghan and the others still haul things home when they have time, and most of these pine nuts and walnuts are sold to the people in the town who specialize in collecting them, and some of them are kept for free.In September, the villagers came to plant ginseng seeds, and the ginseng fees were also collected, which was about the same as last year.Mrs. Chen counted the money at home that day, and there were more than 250 taels, which was unthinkable before.

"Let's save up money for a few years. When the time comes, we won't be looking at the site, so let's buy a piece of forest. Just like what Jinghan said, we don't have to pay too much sticks, and we can use those lands for other things. , it would be more suitable than this." The old man looked at the silver, not to mention how beautiful it was. "I didn't expect that in less than two years, we would be able to pay back the famine and save money. At that time, I was thinking, the house is gone, the land is gone, and we still have to beg for food. Done? How could I have thought that this step is the right one, much better than what we have done in the past few years." The old man recalled the past again, and sighed there.

"Who lives without ups and downs? Don't think about those things in the past. Now we just look at this place and save some money. After two years, we will buy a house and buy some land. When the fifth child gets married, I don't have to worry about anything, and we can just live our lives according to our wishes." The old lady said over there.Zhixiang has been away for a year and a half, but he sent two letters back. The letters only said that it was good to be outside, so that the family members don't have to worry, and didn't say much about the rest.As an elderly person, no matter which children are not around, they will always remember them in their hearts.The old lady has been talking about Zhixiang all the time.

(End of this chapter)