Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

These bean sprouts have a growth cycle, and I don’t know how many they can sell in a day. Therefore, the result of the discussion is to soak the beans every three days, which basically guarantees that they can be sold without too much backlog. Chen and Xue were soaking the beans, and Jinghan, Wenxuan and Wenchang helped pick the beans, so that Chen and Xue could relax.

After the beans soaked for the second time grew, Mr. Xue would pull a sledge to the town every day to sell bean sprouts. He could sell about 30 kilograms of bean sprouts a day, which is about 100 yuan. In this way, soaking the beans once every three days is just enough to keep them busy. Jinghan only followed him to the town for the first few days, but then stopped. At home, she helps pick beans, feed pigs, cook, etc. Chen has to strain and wash bean sprouts. When washing the soybean sprouts, there will be some bean sprouts mixed in the bean sprouts, and you have to pick them out again, otherwise it would be a shame to throw them away. Jinghan would pour the remaining douban into the pig food pot and feed it to the pigs. The pigs would eat very deliciously.

The Xu family only harvested six to seven hundred kilograms of beans this year. They originally planned to sell some and then make some oil to eat at home and save the bean cakes to feed their livestock. Now that the bean sprouts were easier to sell, Mrs. Chen decided to keep the raw bean sprouts. Anyway, those broken beans that were picked out could be used for oiling to make tofu or something like that, so I kept some seeds and used the rest to grow bean sprouts. Naturally, the money for growing bean sprouts must be given to Mrs. Chen. Mrs. Xue doesn't care about this. Anyway, she often buys delicious food from home. Mrs. Chen also agrees. Isn't working to make money just to eat good food.

In a blink of an eye, October is over. Zhixin no longer collects firewood every day. There are already two big piles of firewood at home. Zhixin and the old man were very neat at work. Every day when they brought back the firewood, they would cut it into lengths of one and a half feet with a saw outside, and then split it with an ax into pieces, which are called big pails. All the big pails are stacked up into tall piles. Among farmers, you can tell whether one is diligent or not. Sometimes you can tell just by looking at the stack of firewood. Some families have a lot of big stacks of firewood and straw, and some families wish they could burn today's firewood and there will be no tomorrow.

Now that the firewood was almost collected, Zhixin had nothing to do, so he went hunting in the mountains. It's not possible to hunt every day. Many people in the village go hunting at this time, so if you are lucky, you can hunt something back. It's just hares, pheasants and the like, and sometimes you can also encounter roe deer. This roe deer is also called Silly Roe Deer. It is said that when you see a roe deer, you should shout after it, "Roe Deer." The roe deer will look back at you. In this case, you can hit it with an arrow.

This day Tian Zhixin actually came back with two badgers. These things were rare. When Mrs. Chen saw them, she was extremely happy. "Oh, this is a good thing. The badger skin is in good season at this time, and the hair is dense and shiny. Zhixin, peel off the badger skin and send it to a place where the skin is cooked. I'll keep it. Let's give it to Hui Xin as a dowry. These two skins will give us a lot of face. "At this time, one badger skin should be sold for five taels to eight taels of silver. Put the two skins into the dowry. It's really quite good.

Huixin listened and said no. "Mom, no, it's better to sell it. I don't need this thing. If I sell it, I can add some money to my family. For my marriage, my family has spent a lot of money. How can we, a farmer, have any money? Is it a dowry?"

Mrs. Marry bare."

After hearing this, Huixin was about to shed tears again, "For my marriage, my family has spent too much money. My poor health has affected my family a lot in recent years. Now that I am getting married, it is still the same. Sister-in-law, I will be able to do this in the future. How can I repay your relationship with my eldest brother?"

Mrs. Xue quickly helped Huixin wipe her tears, "Silly girl, why are you crying? When I came to Xu's house, you were only three or four years old. At that time, I carried you and held you all day long. Although you are not me child, but I love you more than Wen Han and the others. Now that you are getting married, your eldest brother and I don’t have much ability. It’s okay to give you two dowries. You can take it with ease. If your eldest brother can still do it these days. If I catch a prey, as long as I have good skin, I’ll leave it all to you.”

Mrs. Chen listened to Mr. Xue's words and couldn't help but nodded secretly. This is the eldest daughter-in-law. If it were the Wei family or the Han family, how could she give such a good thing to Huixin. "Okay, you sisters-in-law don't have to give in here. Jingya is also ten years old. In a few years, we should talk about marriage, and then we will have more wisdom. We are all a family, so what do outsiders do? "

Zhixin didn't care what the women said. He quickly took the two badgers outside and skinned them. Then he turned the skins over and nailed them to the wooden board. He waited for the skins to dry before cooking them. The badger meat was also left. This badger meat is a good thing. It tastes very delicious and has an excellent nourishing effect. Mrs. Chen wanted Mrs. Xue to cook something for everyone to eat. If Mr. Xue refused, the meat of these two badgers could be sold for several taels of silver in a restaurant. They could almost exchange for a pig. How could they be willing to eat like this? ?

When Wenhan and Wencheng came back from school, they were very envious when they saw the two pieces of leather. What boys like most is practicing martial arts and hunting. They surround Zhixin and ask questions.

When winter comes, northerners only eat two meals a day, so it’s time to have dinner at this time. Ms. Xue asked the children to wash their hands quickly and prepare to eat. After dinner, Wenhan and Wencheng taught Wenxuan and Wenchang how to read together, and Jinghan naturally joined in the fun. She can read, but she has to have a legitimate excuse to explain how she knows the words, right? Then no one should say anything.

I don’t know what happened in the following days. When Zhixin entered the mountains, he really met some good things. One day I caught a raccoon dog, and another time I actually hunted two sables. Everyone in the family said that this might be a blessing for her wisdom. I heard that she was going to leave her as a dowry, so she could get all the good things. Without saying a word, Mrs. Xue left all the furs to Hui Xin as a dowry. You know, even if you don't use these things, you can sell them for dozens of taels of silver. Of course Chen didn't object, but Huixin's objection was ineffective. As a result, Zhixin took all the leather to craftsmen who were familiar with it, and all of them were cooked.

Time flies so fast, and it’s the twelfth lunar month in a blink of an eye, and Mr. Xue no longer goes to town to sell bean sprouts. At this time, bean sprouts are particularly susceptible to freezing and are difficult to sell. Besides, the family is very busy. Among Huixin’s dowry, the bedding has not yet been made. On this day, Mrs. Xue and Mrs. Chen went to the town and bought a lot of cotton, as well as quilts and quilts. Then they found a few helpers in the village to help make quilts together.

Ms. Chen was going to give her escort four beds and four covers. The quilts and mattress tops had been prepared a long time ago. They were all decorated with patterns of dragons and phoenixes, unicorns giving birth to children, and pictures of a hundred sons. They looked very festive. While everyone was making it, they praised the quality of the material and the exquisite embroidery, which was very rare. Mrs. Chen was so happy that she couldn't even close her mouth after hearing this. "This material was saved before, and the patterns were embroidered by Hui Xin herself. These things took a lot of effort on her part."

Naturally, these beddings cannot be finished in one day. If you ask someone to help you make beddings, you have to leave them here to eat. So Mr. Xue led Jingya and Jinghan and busied themselves cooking for everyone. Mr. When these helpers eat at other people's houses, they also compare themselves with each other. Which one cooks delicious food, has good dishes, and has more meat dishes is the standard of comparison. Sometimes, if someone’s helper does not provide good service, it will be very difficult to hire helpers in the future. The Xu family has always been willing to work hard on this, so when the village heard that the Xu family wanted help, they were all very willing to come.

After a total of three days of work, the bedding was all done, and Mrs. Xue and Mrs. Chen breathed a sigh of relief.

Next, it’s time to kill the pig. In the next two months, not only acorns but also bean sprouts were added, so the pig grew very fast, probably weighing more than 200 kilograms. The butcher in the town had already come to the village to catch pigs. The Xu family sold ginseng at a high price this year, and the beans were sold with bean sprouts, and the price was much higher than before. So Chen said that they would sell one this year. Of the pigs, kill the other one and keep it for the family to eat, and you also need to take away favors and so on, so that's about it. Jinghan and the others were very happy after hearing this. In this case, they could eat meat openly.

Butcher Zhang from the town came and took the bigger pig, weighing it 220 pounds. This made Butcher Zhang extremely happy. "Hey, Auntie, your pig is quite fat. I have caught a lot of pigs this year, and this is the first one of yours. This kind of pork is delicious." During the Chinese New Year, pork is not It was too expensive, so the price of a woolly pig was twenty cents per catty. Butcher Zhang took out four taels of silver and four strings of copper coins and gave them to Mrs. Chen. "Auntie, that pig of yours is not small. I think you might as well kill half of it and sell the rest to me." He really took a fancy to the two pigs of the Xu family.

"No, save more this year. My two sons are coming back to celebrate the New Year. In addition, my daughter will get married in the next year, so I have to save some meat. When relatives and friends come to visit, I have to prepare some good food, right?" Mrs. Chen He didn't agree, he put the money away with a smile, and then said politely.

Butcher Zhang had no choice but to go out and drive the bullock cart back to the town, pulling the pigs tied up with five-colored stripes.

On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhixin asked Lin Xing's family to help. The two of them caught the pig, tied it to a bench, and prepared to kill the pig. Jinghan originally planned to go out to watch, but Mr. Xue refused, so she had to stay in the house. I only heard the pig wailing outside, and then there was no movement. Jinghan knew that the pig was being killed, so she quickly ran out to see. I saw that the pig was already dead, with a wound under its neck that was bleeding continuously. Zhixin held a basin there, and after a while, he took most of the basin.