Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

The family had a reunion festival in the town, and on the morning of August 16th, the old man took his family back to the mountains. Wenxuan and Wenchang both went back to school, but Wenhan had nothing to do for the time being and it would be some time before he went to the county school, so he followed them back to the mountain. People have already arrived at the venue. Today is the day we have agreed to get up, so of course we have to go early.

The Xu family also got up today. As soon as Zhixin came back, he led the male laborers of the family to Shendili. Now that the family has enough manpower, the children can actually do it without their intervention, but the children of the Xu family will never be idle without work. Besides, this stick is the biggest harvest of the year, how can the children miss it? So Mr. Xue and Mr. Zhu were left to look after the house, and the rest of them all went to Shendi, including Mingyu.

When Mingyu saw the fat white ginseng dug out of the soil, he was simply stunned. "Oh, sister Jinghan, is this ginseng? It's so cute, white and fat, really like a little baby." Mingyu held a ginseng tree in his hand that weighed about three taels, which was very strange. fiddling with it.

Seeing Mingyu's look, Jingxian said a little hard to understand, "Brother Mingyu, can you please stop making such a fuss? Look at this large field of ginseng. It's full of ginseng. Are you going to take that?" Can you keep a ginseng plant until dark?" She forgot that she had been used to it since she was a child, and Mingyu was a child who had never even seen a crop, let alone a ginseng growing in the ground.

Mingyu smiled sheepishly, holding the ginseng but reluctant to put it down. "Then where do I put it?"

Jingxian pointed to the sack in front of her, "Just put it in there. A lot of them will come out in a while. Can you still hold them all in your hand?"

Mingyu reluctantly put the ginseng in the sack, and then he picked up the ginseng from the soil with everyone else. He was wearing old clothes from Wenchang. When doing farm work, he couldn't still wear clothes of good material. Seeing everyone kneeling on the ground, Mingyu followed suit and knelt on the ground, and then asked why.

Jingxian told Mingyu about the hard work involved in ginseng. You have to kneel down all year round to handle ginseng. When Mingyu heard this, he realized that the ginseng farmers had worked so hard to get this fat and white ginseng. Later, Jingxian also talked about the imperial court's exploitation of ginseng farmers, and Mingyu became a little angry. "Damn it, isn't this too harsh? Just a small amount of ginseng soil, but you have to hand over so much ginseng. The ginseng farmers have been working hard for three years, but they have to hand over nearly 30% of the ginseng. Is this acceptable? Is the person alive?”

Jinghan over there heard the small conversation between the two, couldn't help but smile, and then said, "Mingyu, the affairs of the court are not ours to talk about. Please don't say that again in the future. This year our family If you buy the land yourself, you don't have to hand it over. However, you have to be careful. No one has done this before. If the bad guys find out, it might be troublesome. Who knows if they will do this to us specifically in the future. What kind of laws will they come up with?"

After hearing this, the two little ones said nothing more and lowered their heads to pick up ginseng.

The Xu family has 45 kilograms of goods this year, and they don't have to hand it in, so they can probably lift more than 800 kilograms of hammers. In the afternoon, looking at the nine sacks full of sacks in the field, everyone felt sweeter than drinking honey.

The old man looked at these sticks and felt so beautiful in his heart, "I didn't expect that when I get older, not only will my family buy so much land, but I will also be able to build these older sticks. I have never dreamed in my life." Oh, won't there be more and more goods from now on? This is the beginning of good times. "The old man has been working hard all his life, and in his heart, nothing can compare with this reality.

People from the yamen have been guarding the gate of Shenchangzi for a long time. They have a book in their hands, and in the book is written how many sticks each household should pay this year. The villagers had no choice but to hand in the hammers as required before leaving the venue. To be honest, everyone who has handed over the stick will inevitably curse in his heart. This is the hard work of the ginseng farmer. How can anyone not feel sad if it is handed over like this?

When the villagers had almost finished handing in the hammer, the leaders of the guards asked, "Where are the Xu family's? Why didn't the Xu family come to hand in the mallet this year?"

Village Chief Zhou, who had been standing nearby, quickly said, "Master Cha, the Xu family is not asking for soil this year, so there is no need to call Bangchui."

The man's eyes widened, "Why don't you stop adding soil? His family takes good care of the ginseng field and grows sticks. Isn't it good? Why don't you stop adding soil?"

The Xu family here are not far away, so they come over quickly, including Zhixin, Zhiming, and of course Wenhan. Wen Han stood in front of his father and cupped his hand towards the guard, "Brother Cha, our family will not be ginseng this year. The ginseng field will be moved from this year onwards, and our family will have to stay here for another two years. We don’t have enough manpower at home, and it’s too far away, so I don’t want to ask for anything anymore. I wonder if Brother Chai has anything else to ask?”

When the officer saw Wenhan, he was a boy of eighteen or nineteen years old, wearing very shabby clothes. He said contemptuously, "You little brat, go ahead and let your adults speak."

Wenhan didn't move, smiled, and said, "Brother Cha, I am the eldest grandson of the Xu family. I can do these things, Lord. If you have anything, you can tell me."

The guard was a little anxious and said something unpleasant, "You little brat, I told your adults to come. Didn't you hear me? Get out of here, or I'll kick you in the ditch." Go inside.”

Wenhan's expression changed, and just as he was about to speak, he heard someone next to him say, "If you have the guts, give it a try, and we'll go to the county government office right away to beat the drum and file a complaint. Don't tell me that I'm talking to you, a dignified scholar." , even when you meet the magistrate, you don’t have to kneel down. How about we go to the magistrate for review?”

When everyone turned around, they saw Jinghan and the others coming. Jinghan looked at the officer and smiled contemptuously, "Brother, you have the reputation of being a scholar, so what? When you came back from Fucheng that day, didn't you go to the county government office? How could you still be like this? The blind thing doesn’t know you?”

A guard next to him also recognized Wen Han at this moment, and hurried to the leader to say a few words. After hearing this, the leader's face changed drastically, and he hurriedly came to Wen Han with a smile on his face, "I'm so blind that I didn't recognize it was Xu Xiucai. Please forgive Xu Xiucai for my bad eyesight. Damn it. The little one accepts the punishment.”

In fact, a scholar does not have much rights. At most, he does not have to do corvee, he can meet officials without kneeling, and there is nothing else. However, when Wen Han and others went to visit the magistrate, there happened to be someone who was familiar with the Lu family sitting next to them, so the magistrate knew about the relationship between the Xu family and the Lu family. It just so happened that the guard happened to be waiting nearby that day, so he knew more. Just now he quietly told the leader the matter. When the leader heard this, he thought, this is not bad. Is the Lu family something that ordinary people can afford to offend?

Wenhan had never thought about doing anything with his status as a scholar. When he saw the look of the person in front of him, although he was disgusted in his heart, he did not show it on his face. "What did Brother Cha say? You just want to ask the matter clearly. But Brother Cha must be careful in the future. If one day he makes a mistake and offends someone he shouldn't offend, then you don't know what will happen. ”

The officer kept saying yes and apologizing. Wen Han waved his hand and said, "Brother Chai has been tired enough for the day. Now that all the ginseng has been collected, go back to the Yamen quickly. With so many ginseng, if you go out on the road, If something goes wrong, I can't bear it, right?" Wen Han's tone was a bit cold, he really couldn't bear to deal with such a person.

When the officer heard this, he quickly said goodbye to Wenhan, then arranged all the carriages with everyone, and then drove the carriage away.

As soon as these people left, Jingxian snorted at their backs, and then everyone went back to the house. There are nine large sacks in the room. If these sacks are full, they should be able to hold more than ninety kilograms of sticks. This is the Xu family's first big harvest.

"Grandpa, in order to get more ginseng soil, we had no choice but to hand over so many more sticks. Now it is finally the end of the hard work. In the future, our family will have more and more sticks, and grandpa will be so happy that he can't sleep. "Yes." Jinghan ran to the old man's side and said with a smile.

"Isn't it? I never thought that our family would still have this day. Okay, old man, even if I die, I can close my eyes. The ancestors of the old Xu family, I, Xu Chengkuan, can be regarded as the right one. You guys." The old man was full of emotions for a while. The Xu family has grown ginseng for generations, but no one can grow so many ginseng. This is the pride of a ginseng farmer.

"Grandpa, what are you talking about? What is immortal? You want to live a long life, watch your grandchildren get married and have children, and then watch your great-grandchildren grow up. Our family will get better and better in the future. Grandpa, just wait and enjoy it." Wenhan came to the old man's side and described the bright future to him.

"Okay, okay, grandpa must live a good life. I'll watch you get married and start a business one by one. Grandpa will also have grandsons in his arms." The old man's face was full of joy, imagining the beautiful scene of four generations living under one roof in the future.

Ms. Xue and the others had already prepared the meals, and now they set them all out and greeted everyone to eat. "It's been a tiring day, so come here to eat quickly. We have to make goods tomorrow. With so many sticks, we have to be busy for several days. Let's finish eating quickly and let everyone rest."

Everyone was indeed exhausted. They devoured their meals and then went to rest.