Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

After Jinghan talked with Wencheng, Wencheng felt that the road in front of him seemed to be much wider. He also told Zhiming what Jinghan said, and Zhiming was even more touched. After Zhiming thought about it for a few days, he talked with Jinghan for a long time. He was originally a doctor, but because of the strife within some big houses, he became a victim and could not continue to practice medicine in the county, so he came to the mountains to farm and see ginseng. Although my life was okay, my studies were useless and I ended up feeling depressed and frustrated. After listening to Jinghan's words, a door opened for him. Yes, even if he doesn't practice medicine, he can still deal in medicinal materials and prepare medicinal materials. These are what he is best at, why not find another way and start his own business? This kind of ginseng farming is not his strong point after all.

Since then, Zhiming's mind has become much more stable. In addition to working in the fields every day, the rest of the time was spent digging for medicinal materials with Wen Cheng. Then we found some places and planted the medicinal materials to observe the habits of the medicines in order to facilitate large-scale planting in the future.

Although Jinghan also wanted to study medicine, she had too many things to do, and after all, she was not as focused as Wencheng on this. So Jinghan gave up her thoughts on studying medicine and focused on making silkworm cocoons. This silkworm cocoon probably needs to be heated for more than forty days before it can emerge into a moth and then lay eggs.

Jinghan started putting the cocoons in the house to warm them up on March 10th. It was not until April 20th that the cocoons finally started to move. This morning, as soon as Jinghan entered the house, she saw two or three silkworm moths in the house. This made Jinghan extremely happy. He quickly called Wencheng and Zhixin to help sort out the diseased moths, and then separate the males and females. This is not difficult to judge. Female moths are generally slightly larger than male moths.

Silkworm moths emerge from the cocoons one after another. The ability of these moths to fly is extremely poor, so it is easy to catch them. Everyone carefully put the silkworm moths into the baskets that had been prepared long ago. The ratio of males to females was of course one to one, so that the males and females could mate before laying eggs.

Jinghan made about a thousand silkworm cocoons last year, but the ones that actually emerged from the cocoons were probably eight or nine hundred, and the rest were silent. Among these silk moths, there are more males, so in the end, only about 300 pairs succeeded. In the afternoon, everyone began to unpair the silkworm moths and put the female moth in a basket alone so that the female moth could lay eggs. This basket was specially prepared. The branches used for weaving the basket were not peeled off, but were left on so that the eggs could be laid on them. In addition, the outside of the basket is covered with a layer of the thickest paper so that when the ant silkworms hatch, they will not crawl away.

At night, the female moths have basically finished laying eggs, and all the female moths that have laid eggs have to be taken out of the basket, and then the basket is re-covered, and the room continues to be heated to hatch the ant silkworms. This temperature and humidity must be guaranteed. Jinghan lives in this room, constantly monitoring the temperature in the room, and sprinkling some water on the ground from time to time to maintain the humidity in the room.

After more than ten days like this, the silkworm eggs in the basket finally turned into some small black bugs. These are ant silkworms.

The ant silkworms hatched successfully, and then they had to quickly get the ant silkworms up the tree. It happened that the weather outside was very good that day, so Jinghan asked her father to help her carry the basket to the large forest to the north. I found a slightly shorter oak tree and let its branches extend into the basket. These little black bugs seemed to sense the fragrance of the oak leaves, so they climbed onto the tree one after another. At this time, the leaves of the oak tree were only more than an inch long.

The weather in the north is colder, so the trees germinate later. When raising tussah silkworms, you naturally have to follow the growth time of the tussah tree in order to determine the various stages of tussah silkworm growth.

Jinghan kept changing branches and putting them into the basket, and these little guys gradually climbed up the tree. Jinghan and Wencheng had already cleaned up the nearby woods and cleared away all the ant nests on the ground. Otherwise, the ants would not let these silkworms go.

"Okay, the ant silkworms have already climbed up the tree. From now on, we have to cut branches and move the silkworms frequently. Otherwise, the silkworms will gradually grow up and the leaves on the tree will not be enough to eat." Jinghan looked at the densely packed small black insects on the tree. , said.

"We don't understand these either, so just do it as you say." Wen Cheng and Jingwan Jingxian also came to help. Jingwan finally overcame her fear of these bugs and came forward.

"Okay, that's it for today. We'll come over to remove the silkworms the day after tomorrow. By the way, during this period, we may have to come over often to watch, otherwise, the birds in the sky will eat up all these silkworms. Second brother, starting from tomorrow, we have to prepare more slingshots and rocks. When we see the birds coming, we have to chase them away. "Birds are the natural enemies of the tussah. If we don't watch them, I'm afraid we will lose a lot by then." of.

Everyone went back to find the slingshot, and then went to the river to pick up a lot of small stones. The stones by the water are generally rounder, which is good for making projectiles.

From then on, every morning, Jinghan and the others took their slingshots and ran to the forest to watch the birds in the sky. This tussah silkworm is a very delicious thing that everyone can eat, not to mention the bird in the sky, it is simply a delicious temptation. So every morning, Jinghan and the others were able to shoot down a lot of birds, and now they were happy. All these birds entered the children's stomachs.

Jinghan and the others were busy looking at the tussah silkworms every day, moving them, hunting birds, sprinkling water into the forest, etc. They were very busy. The adults, on the other hand, are busy with the ginseng fields and crops. This year, only Wen Cheng is at home among the boys. He is also busy delivering fish to the town and helping Jinghan, so the work here is slower.

Wen Han and Peng Cheng Zixuan both passed the county examination, so they both went to Fucheng to take the prefecture examination. The government examination is held in April. It has been completed by this time, and I may be heading home. Mrs. Chen was thinking about Wenhan and said a few words every day. She wondered how Wenhan would do in the exam and whether he could pass or not.

It was almost the Dragon Boat Festival, and Chen's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were making rice dumplings there. Mrs. Xue was holding rice dumpling leaves in her hand and was putting glutinous rice in them. After listening to her mother's words, she couldn't help but smile and said, "Mom, Wenhan is only fifteen. He's just a little kid. If he can't pass the exam this year, he can just take it again next year." . I remember you were not so worried during Zhixiang’s exam.”

"Can it be the same? How old is Zhixiang? When Zhixiang took the government examination, he was also sixteen or seventeen, right? Besides, the grandson and the son are always different. Don't they say they are close to each other in the next generation?" Chen Shi knew that he was a little too worried, so he couldn't help but smile. "Oh, this man is old. He is just nagging. I wish all my sons and grandsons were here."

The ladies were chatting, and there was movement outside. It turned out that Qingnian and Huixin were back with their children. Together with Tongde's family, Jingya, Wenxuan, and Wenchang, everyone got out of the car together. Qingnian and Zhide unloaded the things from the car, and then Qingnian paid the fare to the coachman, and the coachman drove the carriage away.

Huixin carried Jinghui and came to Chen, "Mom, we are back for the festival." Jinghui also knew Chen, and opened his little hand for Chen to hold.

Mrs. Chen quickly hugged Jing Hui and kissed his soft little face. "Call me grandma."

Jing Hui called out obediently, "Grandma." His pronunciation was not accurate yet, and grandma's voice sounded like he was talking, but everyone could understand it.

Qingnian carried a larger amount of things and handed them to Xue, "Sister-in-law, please put the things away. There's nothing good, just some food."

Mrs. Xue took the things and quickly put them in the old lady's room.

When Mrs. Chen saw it, she said, "It's great if you can come back. What else are you getting? We don't lack anything in the mountain. Don't buy it in the future. It's unnecessary to spend the money." Mrs. Chen still held Jinghui in her arms. Not letting go, Jing Hui also obeyed and let Chen hold her, with his two little arms still around Chen's neck.

"Mom, we don't come back often. We just have some snacks and the like to eat on the mountain. It doesn't cost a lot of money." Huixin was fatter than before and looked better. She smiled and took the scene from Chen's hand. Hui hugged him back. "Mom, let me hold it. This little thing is heavy. Don't tire yourself."

Xiao Jinghui left Chen, but quit. He twisted around and kept looking back at Chen. When Mrs. Chen saw her grandson like this, she felt very happy and quickly took him back. "Okay, let's not torment the child. I can still hold him, and I will give it to you later when he gets over his energy."

Zhide also came over to talk to his parents. This time he was considered successful. Zhide also came back with something in his hand. "Mom, Dad, I don't have anything good. I bought you some meat and a few packs of snacks. Let's keep them for you to eat." Since the last incident, Han's attitude towards the Xu family has also improved a lot. , no longer like before.

"It's great that you can come back. What do you want to bring? Wenxing and Jinghe are getting older. There will be many places to use money in the future. Save as much as you can. Don't lose your children then. ." Mrs. Chen asked Mrs. Xue to take the things and save the meat for cooking at noon, while the snacks were placed in the room.

"Mom, it was us who did something wrong in the past. Thank you, my second elder, for not blaming us and treating us like before. We all understand. Those things don't cost much. They are just the thoughts of Zhide. You, the second elder, don't think they are too little. ." Han led Wenxing over, "Wenxing, call grandma."

Wenxing was still a little nervous, but he managed to call out, "Grandma." Then he hid behind his mother.

Mrs. Chen looked at her little grandson and said with a loving expression, "Good boy, come into the house quickly. Your brothers and sisters have all gone to the woods to the north and will be back soon. Maybe we can shoot some birds again." If you come back, you will be happy."

While they were talking, Jinghan, Jingwan, Jingxian and Wencheng came in from outside, holding many birds in their hands, "Grandma, we can roast the birds for lunch today." Jinghan raised her hand and shouted happily road.