Chapter 257 Carrying Soil
Fortunately, there are still mushrooms, which are replenished from time to time. The house has also been built, and the stockpiled materials are sufficient, so the whole family has no problem with food and clothing.
With the balance of one million saved last year and the box of gold leaves sent by Bai Manshan plus the money earned, there is no need to worry.
Although the projects of earning money, such as writing brushes and selling rice wine, are gone, after August, Polygonum multiflorum is in the "harvest" season, and it can bring in money again.
And there are two more projects, yam and selling rabbits.
Then, we will develop more real economy - planting sugarcane to make sugar, planting medicinal materials, and expanding breeding.
Form an ecological breeding and planting model and form a virtuous cycle.
In this way, if the mall leaves her one day in the future, it will not affect her life.
Shuiqing is still quite satisfied with the current situation.
You can't become a big fat man in one bite. She has no power, no influence, and no money. The world outside is unstable. The court is busy reducing the vassal states and can't be relied on. It's better to grow up in a low position.
After counting the family property, she took out a few ingots of silver and put them in a cloth bag and handed them to Fan Jin.
A cow costs more than ten taels of silver. A donkey is much cheaper than a cow, but at least seven or eight taels of silver are needed.
I don't know if the price has increased.
There are not many strong laborers in my family, and there are many fields. Before, planting potatoes was separated from the busy farming season of the villagers. I could pay the men in the village to work. This time it won't work. Everyone is planting potatoes. Can't we focus on plowing and sowing first?
Fortunately, Bai Manshan sent a group of people, a total of 23, who are in their prime and are all good at farming.
But people can't be used as if they were not people. Plowing the fields and using animals will not be too tiring for people, and the efficiency is high. When the harvest comes, the animals can still be of great use.
"One leads the plow, and the other holds the plow. Eleven animals are probably enough. We already have a cow and a donkey. Buying nine more donkeys will be enough."
Fan Jin took it, looked at the heavy silver in his hand, and said lightly: "The whole village will be shocked when the nine donkeys come back."
The price of a person has always been lower than that of a cow. Donkeys are not as valuable as cows, but compared with children, especially girls, they are even higher.
If the eldest brother wants to sell Zhaodi, he will set his sights on him.
Shui Qing understood what Fan Jin was thinking.
They want to help Zhaodi, but they can't take the initiative, otherwise the eldest uncle's family will be a bottomless pit! It will never be filled!
They need Fan Qian to take the initiative to set his sights on them, calculate them, and think that he has taken advantage of them.
"Well, things should be done sooner rather than later." Delay will lead to changes, and changes will lead to worries.
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The next day
Fan Jin set out with eighteen men before dawn.
Without pulling a cart, the nineteen people traveled lightly, carrying only long knives, and walked very fast.
The man in charge of guarding the second half of the night yawned as he opened and closed the gate, watching people walk away and waiting for the person who was changing shifts to take over.
After a while, the sky gradually turned pale, and noises came from the houses in the village one after another.
White smoke also came out of the chimney.
On weekdays, we only eat breakfast during the busy farming season, but today we have to go to the distant barren mountains to carry soil to the fields, which is not easier than the busy farming season, so every household has another breakfast, and it is still a breakfast with thin and dry food.
Sun Jinhua also gritted her teeth and made a breakfast.
But it was not thin and dry, it was just pure thin flour paste. Her family did not grow potatoes but winter wheat - last time they stole potatoes from the second brother's field and ate them, and they had a psychological trauma.
Anyway, whoever likes to eat can grow it, and their family does not eat it and does not grow it!
Winter wheat requires higher fertility, so you have to pick the soil carefully, and although the yield of winter wheat is not as good as potatoes, the price must be higher than potatoes.
No matter how hard you take care of it, it may not be much worse.
Other families in the village also attach great importance to picking up soil.
They also grow some winter wheat.
Potatoes are for their own consumption, and winter wheat is for sale.
Wang Guifen got up and cooked a pot of millet porridge, put more than a dozen large potatoes on the steaming rack, fried two small pickles, and scooped out a bowl of pickled chili sauce.
The pickles and millet porridge went into the stomach warmly, and the large potatoes were evenly spread with spicy chili sauce. It tasted fresh, appetizing and delicious.
After a simple, delicious and filling breakfast, the whole family took the tools for picking up soil and went out.
Many people had gathered on the road in the village, and everyone went out together.
The barren mountain is a long way from Shanshui Village. There are few people here, and the nearby hills and trees are enough to boil water and cook, and no one goes to the back to clean up, so it has no owner.
And the further back you go, the more weeds there are, and the more difficult it is to walk.
In the village, except for Fan Jin's family, which has two carts, the only remaining two carts are the old village chief's family.
The two brothers Li Wen and Li Wu pulled the cart and stopped at a place where the cart could not go in. The three brothers took down the shoulder pole, bamboo basket, backpack, hoe, shovel, etc. on the cart and continued to walk in.
Other families did the same.
Wang Guifen gave each person a piece of soft and thick cloth to pad their shoulders - it would reduce the pain when carrying soil later.
Otherwise, the shoulder pole would swing left and right and the weight would make the whole shoulder red, swollen and broken in just half a day!
"Sister-in-law, when did you make it? And it's soft cloth!" Zhao Lan was surprised to hold the cloth that was two fingers thick and as wide as the shoulder pole.
Zhang Hui touched it again and again, and couldn't let it go and asked, "Where did you get such soft cloth?"
The eldest sister-in-law was really willing to make it for each of them.
"Didn't Shuiqing ask me to make clothes for her family before? I gave her some extra fabric scraps, but she didn't want them, so I picked them up and wanted to make shoe fabric. It just so happened that I used them here." Wang Guifen said cheerfully.
It wasn't the fabric she stole, so there was nothing to hide.
The other women following them cast envious glances.
Sun Jinhua felt sour in her heart.
Such good fabric should be kept for shoe fabric. Hu Shuiqing is really a spendthrift, and he actually gave it to Wang Guifen for nothing.
Fan Erzhu and others followed with their shoulders hanging their heads.
Their family didn't have a cart or a wheelbarrow, so they had to carry the soil on their shoulders for such a long distance. I'm afraid they won't even have their shoulders when they go back tonight.
Fan Erzhu remembered the fried noodles that others ate when delivering potatoes, and the raw noodles they ate, and complained to Sun Jinhua: "Mom, everyone else knows how to make these, why don't you know!"
Sun Jinhua wanted to say that she didn't know how to make them? Obviously there was no fabric!
Suddenly she remembered that Zhaodi had brought several sets of clothes back from Hu Shuiqing's house this time, which could be used.
She smiled shamelessly and said, "Okay, I'll make them for you when I get back! It just so happens that your sister has some clothes made of good fabrics." The land is important, and the sons have worked hard, so it's reasonable to borrow some clothes from Zhaodi.
Fan Erzhu and the other two were satisfied when they heard this.
They don't have good clothes to wear, so why should Zhaodi wear them?
This is fair.
Sun Jinhua looked at the head of the family, and he didn't stop her this time.