Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

Time flies, and the years fly by. In the blink of an eye, three years have passed. Jinghan is already fifteen years old and is a big girl. In the past three years, the Xu family has also undergone many changes. The first point is that more and more ginseng is planted. Last year and the year before that, we asked for 60 feet of ginseng soil every year, which is a lot. Almost all of the sticks for a year are enough. The old man feels terribly distressed, but there is nothing he can do about it. If he wants to develop in a big way, he must invest.

The second is that the profits from the tussahs raised by Jinghan have been very good. The year before last, they sold for more than 600 taels of silver, and last year it was more, more than 900 taels of silver. This year Jinghan hatched 40,000 seed cocoons, and it is estimated that she will have an income of 1,230 taels by then. Mrs. Chen collected all the money and kept it alone. It was not mixed with the money at home. Raising so many tussah silkworms is naturally not something Jinghan and the others can keep up with. Fortunately, Zhixiang sent back two families to his family the year before last. They were both honest people who had left their hometowns in order to survive due to the drought in the south.

For these two families, the old man did not let them stay at home to serve the family, but put them all in the field and let them work in the mountains. There were four girls in the family, all about the same age as Jinghan, so Jinghan led them to raise silkworms, grow mushrooms, and raise pigs and geese. The mushrooms Jinghan grows also grow very well. Agaric fungus alone can produce two to three hundred kilograms a year, and hericium mushrooms can produce more than one hundred kilograms, not to mention those elm yellow mushrooms sold in winter. Mushrooms alone can be sold for about three to four hundred taels of silver a year.

There are now five to six hundred geese and six or seven pigs raised on the mountain. The pigs dare not raise too many, as these animals must eat part of the grain after all. In winter, the ganders are killed and transported to restaurants in the town to be sold. The winter in the north is very cold, so meat can be stored for a long time if left outside. In addition, Baiweilou and the Xu family have been cooperating for many years, so the price given is not low, so you can get some money back from the sale. Jinghan kept the plucked goose feathers. She wanted to make some eiderdown mattresses or eiderdown quilts, but she was too busy to make them, so she left them there for the time being.

It was March in spring, the time when all things revived. Jinghan put the silkworm cocoons in the incubation room to heat them up and hatch them. With the help of the four girls, they were not so busy.

Jinghan was in the room, flipping through the cocoon and telling the four girls next to her how to operate it. Someone came in outside and saw Jinghan still busy, so he said, "Jinghan, why are you still doing this? Tomorrow is the day for the eldest sister's engagement. Didn't grandma say that? Let's go down the mountain today. Get ready, brother Pengcheng is coming to hire you tomorrow. "The man is tall, strong, and has the ruggedness and handsomeness of a man from the Northeast. Of course the person who came was Wen Cheng, who had become more and more stable in recent years.

Jinghan looked back at her second brother, "I see, aren't you turning these cocoons? Besides, I have to teach these tasks to Honglian and the others." Honglian is naturally the name of a girl next to her. . Of course their original names were not like this. Jinghan thought it didn't sound good so she changed it. Now the two girls from the Wang family are called Honglian and Hongshao, and the two girls from the Fang family are called Luping and Luluo. Honglian is the eldest and is sixteen this year, so Jinghan leaves all the normal things to Honglian.

Yue Pengcheng's feelings for Jingya have not changed. On the contrary, after experiencing all kinds of troubles caused by Jinghan, he cherishes this feeling even more. Finally at the beginning of this year, the two families agreed on the marriage. Finally, it was agreed that the engagement would be held on March 18th, which is tomorrow. In fact, the two families have long been happy to see this marriage come to fruition, and have long planned to settle the marriage for them. But it just so happened that Pengcheng's grandmother passed away suddenly the winter before last, so Pengcheng had to observe the filial piety period for one year, which was delayed. As soon as the filial piety period passed, the two families quickly discussed the engagement. After all, Pengcheng was not young.

"Second girl, just feel free to go down the mountain. We have been working on this for a year and we understand everything. Besides, you won't be able to live in the town for a few days, so it will be fine." Honglian said quickly.

Jinghan nodded and gave a few more instructions before leaving the house and going back to change clothes and prepare to go down the mountain. "Second brother, are you going south with your third uncle in a while?" Jinghan asked as she walked. Wencheng and Zhiming have been traveling between the northeast and the south since last year, transporting some medicinal materials and specialties from the north to the south to sell, and then bringing back a batch of medicinal materials from the south. Running back and forth like this, I actually made a lot of money, and the ginseng at home was actually sold at a good price. If you didn’t go there, you wouldn’t know that the price of ginseng in the south is more than twice that in the north.

"No, this season is not a good time to collect medicinal materials, so my third uncle and I will stay at home for a while and wait until autumn before going out. We just happen to be at home to help with the work in the fields." Wen Cheng replied. In the past two years, with the addition of the Fang family and the Wang family, the work on the mountain has become less busy. It just so happens that Zhiming and Wencheng have time to go out.

Jinghan went back to the house and changed her clothes, and then she and Wen Cheng drove the carriage down the mountain. Jingwan and the others had gone down the mountain a long time ago to help with household chores. Jinghan was thinking about the cocoons, so she delayed going down the mountain until today.

The horse-drawn carriage was much faster than the ox-cart. It took about an hour and a half to reach the town. The two brothers and sisters came to the door of Xu's house. Wen Cheng knocked on the door. An old man inside opened the door, "Hey, it's the second young master and the second young lady who are back." The one who opened the door was an old man from the Wang family. He was older and other I couldn't do it, so I stayed in the town and worked as a concierge. After all, the Xu family often has visitors, so it wouldn't look good without a concierge. Last autumn, Zhixiang was assigned to a county under the jurisdiction of Anzhou and became the county magistrate. This is just a step that Lu Binghao found for Zhixiang to enter the officialdom. As long as there are no big mistakes, he will naturally have the opportunity to be promoted in the future. So it doesn't matter that the children of the Xu family are called young master or young lady.

The brother and sister walked in and went directly to the residence of Mrs. Chen and the old man. As expected, everyone was chatting there.

"Jinghan, you girl, you are finally back. I thought you were going to grow up in the mountains. Your eldest sister is getting engaged tomorrow, why aren't you in a hurry?" Ms. Xue started to mutter as soon as she saw her daughter.

"Mom, what can I do if you are here? It's the time when silkworm cocoons are hatching on the mountain, so of course I have to pay more attention. Where is my eldest sister? Why don't you see her?" Jinghan looked around the room, but there was no one there. Jingya.

"Your sister is behind. Your sister-in-law made new clothes for Jingya. Your sister went to try on clothes." When Mrs. Chen saw Jinghan, she waved Jinghan to come to her. "Come on, girl, come to grandma. Have you been on the mountain for more than half a month? You must be careful this year and don't get tanned. You have managed to take care of yourself well this winter. You are already fifteen. It's time to find your husband's family. After your eldest sister's marriage is completed, we will arrange your marriage with Jingwan. There have been many happy events in our family in the past few years. " Mrs. Chen took Jinghan's hand, but it was just right. Touching the thin callus on Jinghan's hand, she felt a little distressed.

"Jinghan, you are surrounded by four girls now. Just let them do what you have to do. Look at these hands. Alas, if you hadn't been so arrogant in the past few years, our family wouldn't be where we are today. It's just a pain for you. , look at these hands, they are all calloused. "In recent years, because the family has asked for a lot more ginseng soil, there is basically nothing left after handing over the sticks in the field. Judging from the participation fee and the money spent, it is just enough to cover the family's expenses. Fortunately, Jinghan got tussahs and mushrooms, so he saved some money.

Jinghan smiled and said, "Grandma, why are you talking about this? In two years, our family will have a stick, won't we turn over by then? By the way, has my father gone to the county town to apply for the deed to buy the land? ? "This year, the village did not collect ginseng soil at the place they were looking for, but had already chosen another place. But the Xu family couldn't bear to part with it, so Zhixin and the old man found a forest near the ginseng field to buy. The terrain is not as flat as those chosen in the village, but there is no delay in planting sticks and other things.

"It's done. The forest costs ten taels of silver per acre. It will be exempt from taxes for three years in the future. It just so happened that all the money you spent raising tussahs was used to buy the forest. Jinghan, wait until things get better at home, and you can use the money again. Come on." Zhixin said on the side. He always felt a little sorry for his daughter. These were her hard-earned things and should have been kept as dowry for her daughter. Now he bought all the land.

"Dad, what you said is wrong. This money belongs to our family. Am I not part of Xu's family? Besides, if the big guys hadn't helped me, how could I have earned it all by myself?" Where's the money? I said it didn't need to be set aside separately. Okay, don't talk about it anymore. What do you think of Jingwan and Jingxian? "Jinghan has always done nothing. She likes what her family members say. If she meets a family that treats her badly, of course she has to hold on to the money in her hands to find a way out for the future. But that's not the case now, so why should I care so much about money? Anyway, my family will not be short-changed in the future. Looking at the situation now, when I get married, a generous dowry will be inevitable. What else do you ask for? Do we still have to take away all the money in the family?

Jingwan and Jingxian on the side smiled, "Second sister, we don't have any ideas. If it weren't for the help of my grandparents and aunt, my father would never know what he would be like. We sold all our houses for this family. Well, if sister Jinghan hadn’t told me to go see ginseng, I really don’t know where I would be now. Now I’m just helping with some work at home, what do you think?”