Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

Mrs. Chen was relieved when she saw that this was effective. "Luckily you came up with such an idea, otherwise, the mallet would have been blind this year."

Jinghan just smiled and didn't say anything else. She just lowered her head and flicked the fire in the stove twice, and then threw in two pieces of firewood. "Grandma, please get out quickly. It's too hot in this room. You're old. Don't make yourself dizzy because of the heat." It's steaming in this room. It must be over 40 degrees, close to 50 degrees. . Jinghan opened the window and let out some moisture. Then he took Mr. Chen out with him. No one could bear the heat.

Since this drying method worked so well, Zhixin didn't care that it was still raining outside, so he quickly returned to the village and told everyone. So every household in the village built a house and built extra fires to dry the sticks. At this time, Jinghan unintentionally spread the idea of ​​drying.

After several days of rain, it finally stopped. Everyone quickly took the sticks out of the house and put them outside to dry in the sun. The color of the sticks dried in this room is really not as good as the color produced by the sun. It lacks such a transparent feeling and the color is a bit dark.

Two days later, the water in the ginseng field also disappeared. Zhixin and Zhiming hurriedly went to work on the ginseng soil. If they didn't get it out quickly, this year's Bangchui would be impossible to plant.

On August 22, Wenhan came back, but he didn't pass the exam. The few people they went to this time all failed the exam. Naturally, everyone wanted to persuade Wenhan. They all said that he was still young, only fifteen years old. How could anyone be admitted as a scholar at such a young age?

Wenhan also realized that he was a little too impatient, so he calmed down and went back to the town to study.

Shopkeeper Yue sent someone over and brought over two pieces of silk satin woven from tussah silk. They were very thick and of good color. The visitor said, "Our master said that this tussah silk is very good, not much worse than mulberry silk. I also ask the second girl of the Xu family to raise more next year. No matter how much there is, we want them all."

This is good news. As long as the tussah silk can be sold, Jinghan can boldly produce tussah silkworms. There are many places suitable for cultivating tussah silkworms here. If it can be established on a large scale, there will be no need to just focus on ginseng in the future. Furthermore, women can do these without any effort from men. Just treat it as a side job, and you can make some income every year.

"This little brother, please go back and tell Uncle Yue that I will leave some more seed cocoons next year. As long as there is a market for Uncle Yue, I will try my best to supply the goods here." Jinghan quickly expressed her position.

The man took Jinghan's words and left.

Mrs. Chen looked at the three little girls at home and said, "In this way, you can earn money by raising tussah silkworms, and grandma won't be able to earn a penny, leaving it to save your dowry. Jinghan and Jingwan are also eleven years old, so they should be When preparing. In addition, grandma will keep the things you pick up in the mountains separately. When the time comes, the money will be sold and kept for you. Our family's life is now relaxed, and we don't have to pay a penny like before. It has to be counted as a middle school student. Jinghan, if you know how to read, write down an account every time you pay me money. "This old lady Chen is really different from others. People want to squeeze money into their hands, but she is different. She never wants to take advantage of her children and grandchildren.

Jinghan understood the old lady's temper and stopped insisting, "Grandma, we'll do whatever you say. Anyway, it's all this family's money, and the meat rots in the pot. If there is any use for the family in the future, even though Just use it, don't worry about us." Jingwan and Jingxian have always listened to Jinghan, so Jinghan spoke on behalf of these two people.

When farmers have no time, they are even busier in autumn. It wasn't until September that all the sticks were planted, and it was a little leisurely. Of course Jinghan couldn't be idle, she was going to start playing with mushrooms again. Zhixin and Zhiming took the time to add an extra room to the two houses and renovated them so that they could put in more mushrooms this winter.

The fungus I planted this year really produced a good crop. The fungus pieces are big and thick, much better than those grown on the mountain. A total of about a hundred kilograms of dried fungus were harvested. It would be great if the output in this first year can be like this. Some hericium mushrooms have also come out, but they are not as good as those from fungus. They can only produce 20 to 30 kilograms.

In autumn, Jinghan also cultivated winter mushroom strains, but this time she had to save the strains first and wait until next spring to plant them. Otherwise, even if the strains were put in in autumn, the weather would be too bad. Being cold is useless.

One day in late September, two people suddenly came outside Shenchang. It turned out that they were people sent by Zhixiang who had come back to deliver a letter. This year Zhixiang's friend is doing well there and is about to be promoted. I have received accurate news that I am going back to a northern state to become the state magistrate. Zhixiang will naturally follow him back. This time it is closer to home and he should be able to come back and stay for a while.

When the old man and Mrs. Chen heard the news, they were really happy. It is said that the old son and grandson are the lifeblood of the old lady. Zhixiang is the youngest son, and it is really scary to think that he has been away from home for three years.

The person who sent the letter told another piece of happy news, that is, Zhixiang's good friend, Mr. Lu, helped Zhixiang arrange a marriage. This time when Zhixiang comes back, he may be planning to get married.

As soon as the news came out, the whole family became happy. Now it's great, there is another happy event at home. After sending those two people away, the old lady couldn't sit still. "Oh, the fifth child is about to have a wife, so we have to prepare quickly. Otherwise, it will be too late to wait for them to come back. Old man, do we have to buy a house? We can't let the new daughter-in-law come. They live in the mountains." The old lady began to think about it.

The old man thought for a long time and said, "You don't have to be too busy. Let's just buy the house first and don't do the rest. I don't know what Zhixiang and the others mean. Besides, where is the new daughter-in-law from and what is her family background? We don't know, it would be bad if people don't like us if we are prepared. "It's better for the old man to think more carefully. "We just need to prepare the money, and the rest will be easy to handle. Adding this year's ginseng examination fee and the money from selling sticks, can we have 500 taels of silver at home?"

"That's right, that's it. The money at home is guaranteed to be enough. Listen to you, let's look at the house first. Wen Han and the others are in town, and it's time to buy a house. It's not good to live in Huixin's place all the time." The old lady The excitement gradually passed and he calmed down. After thinking about it carefully, the old man was right.

Everyone talked about the requirements for the house, and Jinghan said that it wanted a slightly larger one. There are many people in the family, and there are too few rooms to live in. Besides, Jinghan also wants to get mushrooms in the winter. She can't live in the mountains her whole life, right? Buying a house is not like anything else. You can't say you bought it today and then sell it tomorrow if it doesn't look good, so you have to think carefully from the beginning.

The old man thought for a while, and then said, "Boss, go to the dental shop in town to check this matter out. Let's try to buy a yard with two square meters. The children at home are getting older, and it would be better to have more houses. Furthermore, Jinghan's mushrooms can't be stopped, we really have to prepare a place. Originally, I was thinking of building a new house in the village, but now it seems that I really need to buy one in the town first. Dong. Let’s wait until our home is no longer on the mountain.”

Zhixin nodded, "Okay, I'll go take a look in the next few days. It's probably two to three hundred taels of silver according to what dad said. Plus the furniture and other things inside, it's really a lot of money." . This little money at home will not be enough if Zhixiang gets married."

After hearing this, the old man smiled and said, "What are you worried about? When you first got married, your family didn't prepare anything. What's wrong? When you get to Lao Wu, do you have to make it grand? Let Lao Wu worry about these things. If he is capable, he will spend a thousand taels, which is his ability. If he is not capable, it will be enough. It took La'er three years to save up. If we couldn't get married for him, it would be a disaster, right? Now Wenhan and the others are grown up, and we can't ignore the children. Besides, our family has earned all this money. But most of the effort was made. "The old man loves his son, but he is never partial on these issues and treats all his sons the same.

Jinghan nodded secretly after hearing this. She had always been puzzled by the Xu family's behavior. The family said there was no separation, the sons were all away from home. It may be said that the family was divided, but when the third uncle had an accident, the family spared no effort to help. They even sold the house and land, leaving the family with no place to stay. Now it seems that this old man is sensible and can arrange things properly for his sons, so as not to cause fights and quarrels between the brothers for the sake of a small amount of family property. Even the youngest son whom he loved the most did not say where he would go. The house was bought for everyone to live in together, not just for Zhixiang.

Now that everything was discussed, Zhixin went to town the next day to look for a house. After looking at a few places, none of them were very satisfied, I finally settled on one, because it was not in the center of the town, but to the east, almost on the outskirts of the town. There was such a courtyard. The two courtyards have a cross-yard with everything, and there is a back room behind it, so Jinghan has a place to grow mushrooms. And the price was not high, only two hundred and sixty taels. Zhixin was very satisfied with this yard.