Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

The next day, the family started making goods. Mrs. Chen led her two daughters-in-law and Jingya to brush ginseng, steam sticks, etc. The old man and the two brothers Zhixin mixed loess into this year's new ginseng soil. There was too much black soil in the ginseng soil, so some loess had to be mixed in. So the three fathers and sons carried the loess to the ginseng field one by one.

Jinghan and Wenhan went to do a job they had never done before, which was to stop the stick. In the village, everyone comes to participate in the ginseng ceremony on the same day, and they have to hand it in as soon as possible. Generally, each household has one or two male laborers, and some families have to rush to finish the work in one day, so many of them just go there once and have no time to go back and look for it again. This ginseng grows in the soil. It is inevitable that it was buried in the soil when it grew up, either as ginseng seeds or as smaller sticks. If the person picking it up is slower, he may drop it.

Therefore, looking for the fallen mallet from the field where the mallet was lifted is called blocking the mallet. Generally, a four-tooth hammer should be used because the four-tooth hammer has one more tooth than the three-tooth hammer and will be denser than the three-tooth hammer. Moreover, the teeth of the four-toothed one are much thinner and lighter than those of the three-toothed one, which is perfect for stopping sticks.

There are two four-tine knives at home, and Wen Han and Wen Cheng each have one. Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Wenhan told the restaurant that the weather was getting colder and they would no longer deliver fish to the town. The two brothers held a four-tooth pick and dug up the ginseng field bit by bit, looking for fallen ginseng. This is a job that requires eyesight and physical strength. It is not easy to hold the four teeth for a day.

Wenhan dug a few times and found a big white beard in the ground. He quickly picked it up and threw it into the basket. "Little sister, look, I really found a ding beard." Wenhan shouted excitedly.

Jinghan nodded, "Brother, I saw it. You dig slowly and look carefully. There are a lot of them in the land. Especially near Chibangzi, you must pay more attention. Some people don't dig well enough. It's easy to fall behind." Jinghan wasn't too excited. She had seen it in her previous life. From that time on, stick-stick families would hire many people. I was very careful when I was getting up, and I would definitely stop at my house after I was done. Then the people who watch the ginseng will stop you a second time, and finally some people from outside can come in and stop you a third time. Even so, there will be people who can stop you. This is their first time to stop, so there should be a lot of hammers falling. Jinghan is still very confident about this.

Sure enough, not long after, Wen Cheng shouted over there, "Little sister, I picked up a stick tree." His voice was full of excitement and surprise.

Jinghan felt relieved when she saw that both brothers had gained something. "Brother, second brother, please stop me here. Jingwan, Wenxuan Wenchang, I went to pick mushrooms in the forest. We can't pick up these four teeth, so we can't do this job. You should be more careful. "Don't worry, there will be a lot of them here." After saying that, Jinghan took Jingwan and the others out of the venue.

Now the leaves have begun to fall in the forest. A gust of wind blows, and the leaves all over the sky are flying in the wind and falling. "We have to hurry up and try our best to pull things home. When the snow falls, we won't be able to get anything." Jinghan lowered his head to pick up walnuts and said to Jingwan and the others behind him.

"Second sister, we all listen to you. We will do whatever you say." Wen Chang followed Jinghan and said in a very dogged manner. He has finally seen what the second sister is capable of. As long as the second sister takes action, there will definitely be surprises. I estimate that this year I will earn a lot of money just by blocking sticks, not to mention that I have brought home so many good things.

Jinghan smiled slightly, "Okay, let's quickly pick up walnuts. If you see rotten basswood, look to see if there are winter mushrooms on it. At this time, the winter mushrooms should be out. Anyway, we just don't care. If it's useful, just bring it home. It will come in handy when the time comes. It's much more convenient for us in the mountains than in the village. Let's work hard and try to get the eldest brother and the second brother to go to town this year. To go to school, you still have to have a scholar." Jinghan now understands why in the past, when reading ancient stories, children were required to study and take the imperial examination, because this was the only way out for the poor, and only if someone in the family had an official career. Only then can we hope to change poverty.

Everyone agreed with this, so no one said anything anymore, but looked down to find something they could take home in exchange for money. Before morning, everyone had picked up two baskets of walnuts, one basket of winter mushrooms, and another basket of mountain grapes. The mountain grape cake Jinghan made that day was not completely dry, but the half-dried one was more delicious. The children in the family all tasted some and found it sour and sweet. They really liked it. I saw another rack of grapes today, and everyone said they wanted to cook some more. Who can have too much delicious food? So they picked a basket of mountain grapes and agreed to come back in the afternoon to pick the rest.

The four people carried baskets on their backs and walked home bent over. After all, they are still small, and even the baskets they carry are made according to their sizes, but they are not light. Fortunately, it was very close to home, so it didn't take long to get back to Shenchangzi. As soon as they arrived, everyone quickly put the baskets on the ground, and then couldn't help but rub their shoulders with their hands.

At home, Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Xue were brushing ginseng. When Mrs. Chen saw the looks of the children, she felt a little distressed. "Look at you, why do you have to get so much? We can't just point you to pick these up. You should go back and get more. After waiting for a while, let your father, your third uncle and the others go together, adults. It’s so fast, and I’m not tired yet. Look at these tired examples.”

Jinghan smiled when she heard what grandma said, and while rubbing her shoulders, she said, "Grandma, it only takes a few days. Autumn will pass soon, and when it snows, there will be nothing left to get back." "Grandma, it's okay. Let's have a good rest at night and get some sleep."

Mrs. Chen shook her head helplessly, "You, I don't know what kind of temper you have, why are you so obsessed with money? Can't you wait for everyone to do these jobs together?"

"Mom, you don't need to say anything. Jinghan won't listen. That's just her temper. It's better this way. It's rare to catch a child like this." Mrs. Zhu persuaded from the side. She was also very fond of Jinghan. I like it, and I have always told my two daughters to let them spend more time with the two sisters from their uncle's family.

The ladies saw that it was almost noon, so they hurriedly went to cook. After a while, the three old men and the two Wenhan brothers all came back. The Wenhan brothers were the last to come back. As soon as they arrived at the door of the house, they shouted, "Grandpa, grandma, look, we have brought something back."

The old man was resting in the house, and it was a bit strange to hear his eldest grandson shouting like this. This Wenhan has always been very steady. He hasn't been so frizzy yet. What made him so excited? Looking towards the door, he saw Wen Han and Wen Cheng both carrying baskets and entering the house. In that basket, there were actually some sticks and a few complete sticks. "Wenhan, where did you get this?" The old man was very surprised. Isn't the mallet finished? Where did you get the mallet?

"Grandpa, I found this from the field where someone finished lifting the mallets. Don't you know? It turns out that after they finished lifting the mallets, there were still some left behind. Look, Wen Cheng and I found this all morning. Look. It must be at least five or six pounds. If you dig through all the ginseng fields, you can find a lot of them." Wen Han excitedly explained the origin of these sticks.

The old man and Zhixin looked at each other, and they were shocked. They didn't expect that ginseng had such benefits. He had never experienced it before, so he didn't understand it at all. I'm afraid the old Liu Tou didn't know it either. He drank all day long, so how could he care about anything else. "Wenhan, who told you this? Did you come up with it yourself?" The old man already guessed who it was, so he just asked.

"It's not us, it's Jinghan. Jinghan thought of it and asked us to try it." Wenhan's excitement was not over yet. Although his arms were so tired, he was still full of joy. If you can lose five or six pounds in one morning, what about that day? They only dug a few dozen feet of ginseng field in the morning. This year, a total of 1,500 to 600 feet of ginseng field has been harvested. If they were all blocked, how much would it cost? Why don't you have one who weighs 180 pounds?

The old man and Zhixin also thought about it. The old man was the first to speak, "Zhixin, I think it's like this. Let's seize the time to stop the attack in the past few days. I think the loess over there is almost mixed, and what's left is If it's two feet, don't worry. If you calculate it this way, I'm afraid it will cost more than our own family. Although it's usually a lot of money, it's still money. Okay, that’s it, we still have a few tridents at home, let’s just use the tridents, adults are not afraid of getting tired.”

Zhixin and Zhiming also agreed that this is a good opportunity to make money. Will we give up? "Dad, do you need to talk to the village chief and others about this?" Zhixin was afraid that someone would be jealous.

The old man shook his head, "No need. In previous years, when our family had a stick, didn't they just get up and go home in a hurry? How could there be time to stop the stick? After that, it was just like that, and no one said anything. This time Needless to say, if you are in the ginseng field and have a stick, it has nothing to do with the ginseng household."

During lunch, everyone knew about the blockade. The old man couldn't help but ask Jinghan, "Jinghan, how did you come up with the idea of ​​blocking the stick?"

Jinghan smiled, "Grandpa, when we were planting in the spring, didn't you see the seedlings sprouting in the ground? Those were the leftovers from people's ginseng harvesting. At that time, I thought, it would be a pity to leave them like this. If someone could look for it again, wouldn't these sticks be wasted?"