The worst time travel, surviving seven years of famine

The ramie was swaying in the wind, and the ramie was still growing.

"Swish, swish, swish, swish."

On the edge of the Gu family's field, Gu Liang and his sister Gu Dani were beating a bunch of plants up and down with bamboo sticks, beating them until only the bare stems were left.

It's not for fun, but now their family is harvesting hemp.

Near the fifth month of the lunar calendar, after the plum season, everything starts to grow wildly, not only the crops, but also ramie.

This is the first batch of ramie this year. Although it has not grown to its highest level, if you want to harvest three branches a year, now is the most suitable season to start harvesting.

Use bamboo poles to remove excess leaves, then cut them with a sickle and peel them, and the skin will get the most primitive coarse hemp strips.

The harvest of ramie begins, which means the season for weaving summer cloth has arrived. Clothing ranks first among food, clothing, housing and transportation, which shows the importance of weaving, and ramie is the most common among cloths, so weaving ramie is important to farmers.

Fresh ramie strips cannot be used for weaving immediately, and must be processed many times.

Gu Liang and Gu Dani first remove the leaves, and the old man Gu peels the skin in the ramie field. After peeling the skin, he bundles the ramie, and then Gu Changping carries it back home. And the second uncle Gu Changan is responsible for removing the sticky outer skin and inner stems from the roughly peeled ramie at home. This step is called scraping ramie, which is to put two iron sheets together and leave a thin gap. Then pass the fresh ramie skin through this gap, and pull it, and all the impurities on it will be removed, leaving only the tough ramie fiber.

At this time, the Gu family formed an assembly line, everyone had work to do, and everyone was responsible for a part, just like a family workshop.

The men of the Gu family finished their work, and the rest of the women of the Gu family came on stage.

The skinned hemp was hung in the sun to dry, then watered and dried, and repeated several times. The fresh green hemp strips turned yellow-white under the sun.

Second Aunt Li and Old Lady Gu separated the dried hemp into strands of hemp thread, and then twisted them into real hemp thread through the process of soaking hemp.

At this point, the ramie plants growing in the field have become common hemp threads. It can be used to weave hemp ropes and other practical items.

But to make cloth and clothes, there is still a last step - weaving. This step is usually done by Gu Liang's mother, Chen.

It was raining outside that day. Li and Old Lady Gu were sitting at the door soaking hemp and twisting thread.

Li complained, "Mom, can you rub it in two days? I've been rubbing it all these days and my hands are all blistered."

Old Lady Gu didn't even raise her head, and continued to rub the hemp in her hands and said, "If you don't want to rub hemp, switch with your sister-in-law. Go sit on the loom for a while."

Li glanced at her sister-in-law Chen, who was threading and warping on the loom. The dense and fine hemp threads had to be arranged neatly on the spinning wheel one by one.

Although Li had done weaving before, it was a very tiring job. Most people would not do it if they could avoid it. They would avoid it as much as possible.

There is a word called "trouble", which comes from this.

When Li heard that Old Lady Gu asked her to change jobs, she quickly shook her head like a rattle to express her refusal.

Old Lady Gu looked down on her second daughter-in-law's laziness and was too lazy to let her really weave the cloth, fearing that it would be damaged.

Normally, the whole family should be involved in weaving. Farmers only change one or two sets of clothes every one or two years, and they don't use so much cloth in a year, but Gu Liang's mother is basically on the loom all year round.

The reason why she keeps weaving is because there is a cloth tax. Every household has to pay a certain amount of cloth every year, the so-called "adjustment". In addition, this linen can also offset part of the population tax, so naturally the more you weave, the better.

Chen, who had just finished her "classics", asked: "Mom, I heard that our family is going to plant cotton from the south this year, right?"

"Yes," when Mrs. Gu heard the voice of her eldest daughter-in-law, she immediately raised her head and said with a smile: "This cotton is a good thing. I heard from the town that this cotton is stuffed into the quilt, and it is warm and soft in winter. This year, our family planted an acre of land and replaced all our quilts in winter."

Li had also heard of cotton, but had never used a quilt, so she asked: "Mom, is this quilt really that good? If it is really that good, why do I hear that the landlords use silk quilts?"

"This silk is fed by people, and this cotton is grown by people. Things that can grow in the land are naturally 'cheap'." Mrs. Gu said.

Mrs. Gu said to her eldest daughter-in-law who was spinning hemp: "This year looks good. Your son made a lot of money selling Ganoderma lucidum and Acorus calamus a few days ago.

Some money. With this money, life at home will be better. You can save some cloth to make a summer dress for Gu Liang this year. "

Hearing her mother-in-law take the initiative to make summer clothes for her son, Chen's heart is now warm. As the saying goes, those who are covered in silk and satin are not silkworm breeders. Even if she weaves day and night, the linen she weaves can only barely cover the head tax and other miscellaneous taxes.

At this time, Li muttered in her heart, thinking that the old lady was very partial. She still has two little ones, and her clothes are patched. Why didn't she make a set for my two daughters?

"Hey, mother, the Dragon Boat Festival is in a few days." Li rubbed the hemp in her hands and suddenly remembered the colorful rope. According to the custom, this is the one to be tied on the Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragon Boat Festival is a big festival. Li felt unhappy at home, so she wanted to go back to her parents' home, so she asked tentatively: "I want to go back to my parents' home in two days during the Dragon Boat Festival. Can I? "

Actually, Mrs. Gu was reluctant to let Li go back to her parents' home. Every time Li went back, there would be fewer things in the house, such as rice, flour, grain, and oil. Sometimes pots, pans, and bowls would disappear. This was because her daughter-in-law took them back to her parents' home. But Mrs. Gu's parents' home and Li's were from the same village. If she didn't let her daughter-in-law go back to her parents' home, she was afraid that her daughter-in-law's parents would gossip about her in the same village. Mrs. Gu could only agree with all her heart, but she asked Li to promise not to go back for the next festival.

Li naturally agreed. This time was this time, and next time The next festival is next time, and we can find a way next time.

Seeing Li's smiling face, Mrs. Gu thought that she had to pack up all the things in her house and move them to her room a few days in advance, otherwise a lot of things would disappear again.

Speaking of Li's desire to go back to her parents' home to visit relatives, Mrs. Gu thought of her youngest son, Gu Boxi. The last time they met was during the Chinese New Year, and it has been almost half a year since they last met.

Thinking about it, Mrs. Gu sighed and said, "Although you are married, you can go back to your parents' home whenever you want, but I gave birth to a son, but I can't see him even if I want to."

Li had just been allowed to go back to her parents' home, and she was very happy at this time. Seeing Mrs. Gu's expression, she comforted her and said, "Mom, this third brother is going to learn skills, so don't think too much. If he succeeds, our family will benefit from the third brother, and the third brother will be filial to you. "

After hearing this, Mrs. Gu felt less upset. However, although her youngest son was working as an apprentice, he did not bring back a penny in the past three years. He also had to give gifts to the kiln factory master every time he went back home during the holidays!

This is equivalent to having a laborer in the family who not only does not do farm work, but also has to take things from home every time he comes back. If there are more such things, the married people in the family will naturally have opinions, and over time, resentment will naturally arise.