70s Xiao Que Xing

Chapter 157 Collective Hunting
"That's right, tomorrow your father will go to the winery in the county with the people in the village to exchange wine. 6 catties of dried sweet potatoes can be exchanged for a catty of loose wine. You can bring some dried sweet potatoes to you tomorrow, and let your father give it to you tomorrow too." Just change it, and during the Chinese New Year, if your cousins ​​come to your house, you can have wine as well." Mother Xu suggested.

At this time, Xie Xiaonian remembered that every year during the Chinese New Year, people from several nearby communes would organize to go to the winery in the county to exchange food for wine, and the most used food was dried sweet potatoes.

"Okay, then I will exchange 20 catties of bar, which can be used for cooking besides entertaining guests." They don't sell cooking wine here, so during the Chinese New Year, they will use baijiu to deodorize fish and meat.

"20 catties is a bit much, we only exchanged it for 10 catties!" Xu's mother was afraid that Xie Xiaonian would not know the amount of wine, so she would talk nonsense about changing it to 20 catties, so she reminded her aloud.

"Not much, mother, don't you always say that your joints hurt in winter? It just so happens that I dug a lot of gastrodia in the mountains a while ago, so I can make gastrodia wine for you!" Xie Xiaonian said with a smile.

Xu's mother washes clothes by the river all year round and cooks in bitterly cold water, so the joints of her hands will ache in winter.

"Gastrodia elata is so expensive, you can sell it for money, and I feel better this year, so I don't need to waste your medicinal materials." Although Xu's mother is not a Chinese medicine doctor, she still knows the preciousness and difficulty of digging Gastrodia elata with her back on the mountains.

"What is wasted is not wasted. As long as it can cure diseases, I will not waste it. And I am not willing to sell such medicinal materials. It is more cost-effective to keep my own wine or cook." And Xie Xiaonian has never planned to make money by collecting herbs. Well, running for a day to earn that little money is not as cost-effective as hunting for her.

"That day you go out with the marijuana, we come out with the wine, we can't take advantage of your third room." Mother Xu decided.

"Mother, stop arguing. I honor you by ordering medicinal wine. How can I take advantage of it or not? Isn't this what I should do? If I talk about it, I will be born." Xie Xiaonian said coquettishly.

"Okay, okay, then I won't argue with you, I know you are a good and filial child." Mother Xu said with a happy smile, the wrinkles on her face were squeezed together.

Xu's mother knew that Xie Xiaonian and Xu Zhongjun brought back a lot of things from Xie Zhuang, and there was no shortage of dried sweet potatoes in their hands, so she didn't worry about the food anymore, and didn't want Xiao Nian to exchange wine.

However, although Xie Xiaonian was going to exchange for loose wine, he didn't plan to use it to entertain his cousin and the others.

She has a lot of Moutai, Wuliangye and Xifeng wine stored in her space. Although she can't take out all of them, it is still possible to take out a bottle or two to entertain her cousins, and give a bottle or two as gifts for the uncle during the Chinese New Year.

Now Moutai is 16 yuan a bottle, Wuliangye is 10 yuan a bottle, and Xifeng wine is 7 yuan a bottle. Xie Xiaonian feels that even the cheapest Xifeng wine is definitely not willing to buy and drink.

And like Moutai, sometimes you may not be able to buy it even if you have money, especially during the Chinese New Year.

After Xie Xiaonian pulled over the dried sweet potatoes in the afternoon, he saw his elder brother sharpening a knife and a few sharp triangles.

"Brother, why are you sharpening your knives? Why do these look like arrows?" Xie Xiaonian asked curiously.

"Tomorrow morning, the people from Team 2 and the laborers from Team 1 and Team 3 will go hunting in the mountains together. Your elder brother is going too, so he sharpened his knife and arrowhead, and sharpened a wooden stick so that he can walk the mountain road with it. "The sister-in-law who was meeting in the yard replied.

"Hunting tomorrow, sister-in-law, are you preparing dry food for elder brother?" Xie Xiaonian asked.

"Yes, this trip will last for 3 days and 3 nights, and it's so cold in the mountains, so we need to prepare more dry food." Li Suxin replied.

Hunting in the village is organized by the team. In the three production teams, nearly 30 men will go together. If two full-time workers are counted as 2 work points a day, each person can have 20 work points for one hunting trip. work points.

The collective hunting in the team will not go too deep. At most, you can encounter a few wild boars. There is not much danger, and there are hunters in the village with shotguns, so the team usually takes 10 centimeters. I almost always go there, but it’s hard to eat and sleep well in the mountains, and it’s a bit of a pain.

"At that time, will we be able to get a lot of meat? Is there any wild boar?" Xie Xiaonian asked happily.

If she could share some pheasant, hare, or boar meat, she would have an excuse to bring things out later.

"You think it's pretty cool, and you can also hunt small pheasants, hares, and silly roe deer, like big deer and wild boars, which are hard to come by. And the big guys usually come in groups. Yes, it’s too late to run, who dares to fight, unless you can run into an order. And most of the fights have to be handed in, and in the end, each family can share a pheasant and hare, maybe You don't have as many prey as you." Mother Xu said with a smile.

After listening to her mother-in-law's words, Xie Xiaonian thought, well, she took it for granted.

But she wasn't disappointed, it was better to have a pheasant and a hare than nothing.

"By the way, third brother and sister, do you have any nooses for the traps up and down the mountain? If so, take them back in the afternoon. I see that many people have gone up the mountain in the morning to fill in the traps. I'm afraid that the cadres will see them tomorrow. "The silent Xu Zhongming said suddenly.

"It's cold weather, what do you collect? If you see it, you'll see it. Who knows whose it is." Xu's mother didn't want Xie Xiaonian to be troubled by the winter, so she said directly.

"Aren't I afraid of prey!" Xu Zhongming defended in a low voice.

"That's right, then we should go and have a look, we can't take advantage of outsiders." At this moment, Xu's mother also felt that what Xu Zhongming said made sense, after all, Xiao Nian could catch a prey in 3 to 5 days.

"Well, then I'll go to the mountain to have a look now, it just happens that it's still early." Anyway, Xie Xiaonian is fine, so let's go to the mountain to have a look.

When Xie Xiaonian went up the mountain, he found that as the elder brother said, the traps and nooses of the villagers were almost gone.

It seems that all of them are experienced veterans, and they took away everything early, and they also responded to the saying that there are policies and there are countermeasures.

Although Xie Xiaonian chose a better location, she still didn't catch any prey in the past two days, but she was used to it and didn't care. The leaves are filled.

Because there were a lot of people going up the mountain today, Xie Xiaonian didn't bring out the prey from the space, and went down the mountain empty-handed, without even digging up the herbs.

Because years ago, there would be hunting teams entering the mountain one after another, so Xie Xiaonian decided not to go up the mountain again before the year, and the hunting will be discussed in the spring of next year.

Early the next morning, Xie Xiaonian was woken up by loud noises from the road outside.

After Xie Xiaonian went out, he saw a group of people on the road holding hunting tools and preparing to go up the mountain.

The eldest brother Xu Zhongming was also among them. He had two hands full, one holding a machete and the other a wooden stick, and he was carrying a bow and arrow and a cloth bag containing dry food on his back.

In the team, there were two men with shotguns on their backs, who seemed to be hunters from the village.

The men who went hunting were all in high spirits at this time, eager to bring back a lot of prey.

The family members followed behind with worried faces. Although there were no major incidents during hunting in previous years, and at most they suffered minor injuries, the mountains are dangerous after all, and it is impossible for the family members not to worry.

The children who are not yet sensible are jumping up and down one by one, shouting excitedly that they want to eat meat.

"Sister-in-law, it's only getting brighter today, big brother and the others are going up the mountain!" Xie Xiaonian saw the sister-in-law in the see-off team and asked suspiciously.

"Well, I usually set off at this time. When it dawns, I can just walk to the mountains. Your elder brother said that in the early morning, the animals will come out to move around, so I can go hunting directly." The sister-in-law replied.

Because the family members would send the team to the foot of the mountain before returning home, Xie Xiaonian did not follow either.

After the hunting team left, Father Xu would also go to the county in a bullock cart to exchange wine with the villagers.

And Li Suxin also went to the dyeing factory in the neighboring commune to dye the cloth with the villagers.

There is little cotton in the family, and with the thread spun last year, her family has only weaved two bolts of cloth.

Because Xu's mother said in advance that this year's cloth would not be sold, and after the dyeing was done, she would make new clothes for everyone in the family, so Li Suxin felt that her steps were particularly brisk when walking on the road, and she was less worried about her husband.

Their family hasn't made new clothes for 3 years, can you be unhappy?

At this time, the clothes are new for three years, old for three years, and mended for three years, so for most people, it is not easy to make new clothes.

And here, Xie Xiaonian had nothing to do after breakfast, remembering that he bought a lot of vinegar yesterday, he planned to pickle some Laba garlic in the space.

Since Xu Zhongjun likes to eat dumplings, he should also like to eat Laba Garlic. I can send him some when I have a chance.

Because the children of my sister-in-law's family had already had winter vacation yesterday, so after Xie Xiaonian finished pickling the Laba garlic, she was going to make some mung bean cakes and send them to the children.

Although there are mung bean cakes made before in the space, they are all made with homemade sugar. Although the taste is good, the color is not correct, so Xie Xiaonian decided to make it again with white sugar.

Just do what you say, Xie Xiaonian picked out about 10 catties of mung beans and soaked them in a basin.

After soaking in the space for about 10 hours, Xie Xiaonian took the mung beans out of the space, rubbed off all the wrinkled mung bean skins, and then put the peeled mung beans on the steamer and steamed them over high heat. for about 15 minutes.

After steaming, use a spoon to crush the mung beans into mung bean paste, add sugar, stir well, and then it is set.

Because there is no mold, the mung bean cake made by Xie Xiaonian is about 3 cm thick and square.

After Xie Xiaonian took a sip, she found that it was indeed more delicious than those made with sucrose, and the color was much better.

Because Xie Xiaonian made it in the kitchen at home in order to have cooking smoke, so by the time Xie Xiaonian finished it, it was almost noon.

After packing about 20 of them on a plate, Xie Xiaonian packed them in a basket and walked to sister-in-law's house.

Because it was already a holiday, when Xie Xiaonian arrived, the children of the eldest sister-in-law and second sister-in-law's family were all playing together.

Seeing Xie Xiaonian coming, the Wei family hurried to Xie Xiaonian and said: "Auntie, did you bring me delicious food again, I want to eat, I want to eat." After finishing speaking, they looked at Xie Xiaonian anxiously.

When Xie Xiaonian saw his greedy look, his heart melted, so he said with a smile: "Go home and wash your hands before I can eat them for you!"

As soon as Xu Wei's children heard that they could eat after washing their hands, they stopped playing and ran home immediately.

And several other children also went into the yard to wash their hands.

Only Xu Lanhua, who was taking care of her younger siblings, didn't have the nerve to run home, but stood aside awkwardly. After all, she was a big girl, and she was a little embarrassed to be too greedy.

(End of this chapter)