Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

In the next few days, Jinghan and the others went up the mountain to prick the buds, and then Zhiming took Wenhan to the town to sell them. By the way, I buy some things for home use. Sometimes, Wenhan will also buy some delicious food. There are a total of eight children in the family, and they contribute a lot every day, so they naturally need to be encouraged.

The thorn shoots can be sold for only eight or nine days, but they still saved more than two taels of silver. Mrs. Chen took Ms. Xue and Ms. Zhu to the town for a day to see Huixin. Of course she brought some things with her, but nothing else, just two hens and more than twenty eggs.

After returning from Tao's house, Mrs. Chen had a smile on her face. It can be seen that the Tao family treated Huixin well because she had a child. In addition, the mother-in-law's family is also pretty, and so much firewood was given to them. Huixin was pregnant and took things to see. How could there be any fault with the Tao family? So it's okay for Hui Xin and there's nothing difficult for her.

Zhiming went to town in the past few days and found out from the drug store in the town that they could collect some medicinal materials, so Zhiming took the time to go into the woods to dig for medicinal materials. Jinghan asked curiously, and then Zhiming began to teach Jinghan how to identify medicinal materials. In fact, there are many medicinal materials that Jinghan knows. She has lived here since she was a child and has heard of many, so Jinghan learns very quickly. It was as if Zhiming had discovered a treasure and he had to teach Jinghan how to learn medicine. Jinghan thought about it, anyway, it would be better to learn a little if he had too many skills. Farmers seldom call a doctor when they are sick. They just deal with it at home. If they can understand a little, it can be of some use. As a result, Jinghan had another chore every day, which was to learn medical skills and dig up medicinal materials with Zhiming.

At this time, the only things that can be dug in the forest are caladium and ginseng, and the rest of the medicinal materials are not very good and cannot be counted. Moreover, the poles of caladiums will turn yellow and fall over after a while, so Jinghan seizes the time to dig more caladiums. The dug out medicinal materials have been dried in the sun, and when enough are accumulated, they can be sold.

It was time to weed the Bangchui field. Zhixin and Zhiming led Wenhan and Wen Chengdu to do the weeding. This is the most tiring job. Kneel on the surface of the pool, and then use your hands to remove the grass between the sticks. It is also necessary to crush all the soil and garbage on the surface of the pond with your hands, otherwise it will affect the growth of the stick, especially if the pond is not well cultivated, it is necessary to loosen the soil well. All the people in the village came to work, and the Xu family naturally gave everyone hot meals and other things. Naturally, everyone was very grateful. Some people would bring some things from home, which were just green onions and leeks. Yes, the Xu family doesn’t have these this year.

One day, Lin Jiaxing brought his daughter-in-law and Zixuan to gather grass, and unexpectedly brought five goslings to the Xu family. They were just born, and the goslings were covered in fluffy, swaying, and extremely cute. "Sister-in-law Xu, these are the five goslings that my family brought out for you. There is a lot of grass on the mountain, and it is not difficult to raise them. When the time comes, you will kill the males and eat them, and keep the females to lay eggs." Zixuanniang said.

When Mrs. Xue saw the goslings, they were all very energetic and very happy. "Oh, how much do these five little geese cost? Just wait, I'll get you the money." At this time, one gosling costs about ten cents, and five is a lot. Can take advantage of others.

"Okay, sister-in-law, it's just a few goslings, nothing. I know your family doesn't have any. If your family does, I won't give them to you. It's not easy for you to live in the mountains. I don't want your money." Xuanniang was determined not to.

Seeing this, Mrs.

Zixuanniang hurriedly followed Jiaxing to weed the grass. The Xu family had already finished the work, so Jinghan and Wenhan went to help the Lin family. Zixuanniang looked at it and quickly refused, "Wenhan, Jinghan, you'd better not get involved, this work is very tiring."

"Aunt, it's okay. Haven't we finished the work at home? I have nothing to do when I'm free. I'll help you do a little bit to save you from being unable to finish." Wen Han said.

"Okay, then do it slowly, especially Jinghan, you are a girl, don't be too tired. This job is not easy." Zixuanniang warned.

Jinghan nodded. When the family was weeding, she also went to help. Besides, in my previous life, I had done all kinds of ginseng work, and I was very familiar with it. While kneeling down on the edge of the pool, he quickly picked up the weeds growing on it with his small hands and loosened the soil at the same time.

Although Wenhan and Jinghan were both children and did not work quickly, the addition of two people could be regarded as some help. So the Xu family did their work very quickly today. In one day, they collected about twenty feet. Judging from this, it will take less than three days to collect them all.

Before leaving, Zixuan told Wenhan that he had memorized all the things his teacher taught him, as well as the questions he asked. Ask his father to bring it to Wenhan next time, so that Wenhan won't be left behind too much. After hearing this, Wenhan was naturally very grateful to Zixuan. "Zixuan, thank you. I'm afraid I won't be able to go back to school for a while. With these things you mentioned, I won't be left behind too much." Wen Han is actually very reluctant to leave school. These days, he also can't go back to school. He would take time to study and teach his younger siblings how to read every afternoon. In this way, the children would have something to do.

As the days passed, the children's lives gradually became regular. They practiced martial arts with Zhixin every morning. After breakfast, they went into the woods to pick wild vegetables and dig up medicinal materials. After eating at noon and taking a nap, they had to learn Chinese characters with Wenhan. , read books, and live a fulfilling life every day. Jinghan was already illiterate, so she focused more on learning medical skills from her third uncle.

This morning, Wenhan saw that his brothers and sisters were all there, and said, "Let's go to the riverside. At this time, the fish are biting. Maybe we can get more fish back." The Xu family saw This ginseng field is very close to a river, maybe three or four miles away, and it is a big river. Jinghan and the others didn't know about it at first, but later they discovered that there was no well in Shenchang, and Zhixin had to fetch water in the morning. After asking, I found out that there was actually a river here.

Jinghan naturally likes to go to the river to play. It just so happens that Xue has soaked a lot of clothes and wants to wash them. So everyone carried the basin, dock and other things together and walked towards the river.

When they arrived at the riverside, Jinghan and Jingya helped their mother and aunt wash their clothes, while Wenhan led Wencheng and Wenxuan to fish. The most fun thing is washing clothes by the river. Find a few big flat rocks, and then hit the clothes hard with a wooden stick. These clothes have been soaked in plant ash water, which is almost equivalent to being soaked in washing powder. At this time, there was no soap, washing powder, etc. People usually washed their clothes by pouring boiling water into plant ash, and then when the water cooled down, they kept the water on top to soak the clothes. This way you can wash your clothes, but it's more troublesome and you have to soak them in advance.

Jinghan held a mallet in her hand and beat her clothes over and over again, causing the dirty water to flow into the river bit by bit. After beating it, give it to Mr. Xue or Mr. Zhu and let them pass it through the river water several times and wring it dry. The weather is good today. It won't take long to dry on the big rocks by the river. So the rocks by the river were covered with clothes hanging to dry.

"Sister-in-law, the Dragon Boat Festival is just around the corner. Didn't my mother tell me how we will celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival this year?" Mrs. Zhu asked while working.

"I didn't hear what she said. I guess this year's Dragon Boat Festival will be like this. How can we prepare anything delicious when our family is like this now? Let's deal with it. Let's wait until it gets better in two years." Ms. Xue Shaking his head, life is pretty good now. At least he has a place to live and there is no shortage of food and drink, which is good. As for celebrating festivals, I don’t even dare to think about it.

"Oh, it's all us who have caused trouble to everyone. Otherwise, how could our family have reached this point?" Mrs. Zhu always felt sorry for her family, which caused her family to sell all their houses and land, and the whole family ran away to this barren mountain. Come and see the ginseng.

"Okay, Yingzi, I don't blame you for this. We are all a family, we don't have to think about that." When Mrs. Xue saw Mrs. Zhu's appearance, she quickly comforted her. Jingwan, who happened to be on the side, also pounded a piece of clothing and handed it to her mother. Zhu took the clothes and rinsed them back and forth in the water, so she had no time to think about it anymore.

After all, there is strength in numbers, and it didn’t take long for the clothes to be washed. Looking at the clothes hanging on the big rocks, everyone felt a great sense of accomplishment. When Jinghan had some free time, she ran to the shallow water and kicked the small stones with her feet. Unexpectedly, she found a cricket in the water. "Mom, there are crickets here. Come on, let's catch them. You can go home and cook them, or you can make crickets tofu." People here already know the crickets, and they all know how to eat them. , that’s why Jinghan said this.

Xue also lifted up a stone, and sure enough, there were crickets under the stone, one by one, quite small in size. "Okay, grab some and take them back. It's good to cook and eat." In fact, these things are the children's favorite. The children haven't seen many meat stars these days. This one is meat after all, so it would be nice to have some to satisfy their cravings. As he said that, he started turning over stones and catching crickets.

There are really a lot of crickets in the river. It didn't take long to catch a whole basin. "Okay, let's just catch these today. It's enough to eat." Xue said.

Jinghan looked at the cricket in the basin. It was really big. She could never see one like this in her previous life. In previous lives, due to excessive trapping and extensive use of pesticides, wild cockroaches in many rivers have completely disappeared. Only a few deep mountains and old forests and a few rivers can see wild cockroaches. It is really a joy to be able to eat such a big cricket again. Jinghan recalled the delicious smell of cricket tofu in her memory and couldn't help but drool a little.