Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

On the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, Zhixin and the old man went up the mountain to plant sticks. Since Wenhan and Wencheng both went back to school, Xue followed them up the mountain and took Jinghan with them. Jinghan sat on the bullock cart and looked at the scenery on the roadside. Winter is coming soon, and the entire mountain forest is full of bare trees, with only some pine trees still a little green. The mountains are undulating and continuous, and there are mountains everywhere.

They kept walking westward, and after walking for less than an hour, they arrived at Shendi. This ginseng field is so large that everyone in the village grows ginseng here, and they do it not just for one year, but for several years. From the looks of it, it is about six to seven thousand feet long.

After unloading the ginseng seeds from the oxcart, Zhixin and the old man carried them towards their home ginseng field. Xue and Jinghan were holding shovels and zhizi at the back. This zhizi is a tool used for planting ginseng. It can make each row of ginseng have the same distance, that is, the row spacing is the same. This thing is made of wood, a wooden square about four and a half feet, which is only one and a half inches thick, with two small wooden squares six to eight inches long nailed to both ends. This is the row spacing of ginseng, and there is a rectangle in the middle. A square plate in which ginseng seeds can be placed.

Put everything on the head of the ginseng, and then Zhixin started to level the ginseng soil with a three-toothed pick. Because the turned ginseng soil has big pointed ridges, the soil needs to be spread out evenly. Zhixin first spread out two to three feet of ginseng soil, and then started planting ginseng with the old man.

This kind of ginseng is the reverse of this kind, that is, use a shovel to open a small ditch directly on the head of the ridge, place the ginseng seeds in front of the ditch, and then place the ginseng seeds into the ditch. Of course, put the reed head up, whiskers down, and put it in diagonally. In this ditch, only twelve plants should be placed on the first road, fourteen on the second road, and sixteen on the third road. Once the trees are placed, it is called a centimeter. Then gather soil from behind and bury the small ditch in front. At this time, press the small wooden squares at both ends of the Zhizi hard into the ground, and then drag it back according to the mark, so as to ensure that the distance is the same every centimeter. Put the seeds in the square plate so that you can take them from the square plate when using them, which is more convenient.

Jinghan helped pass the seeds to the square plate, while Xue helped spread the remaining ginseng soil. In this way, everyone divides the work and cooperates, and the work is done very quickly. At noon, Mrs. Xue brought out dry food. Everyone ate the dry food and drank some water. "Mom, why don't we go to the ginseng watcher's place to eat? It would be nice to ask him to help heat the food." In the previous life, if you brought rice, you would usually ask the ginseng watcher to help heat it up. Anyway, he did the same. Want to eat. Some of them are better at watching ginseng people, and they will also boil some hot water for everyone to drink.

Mrs. Xue looked at Jinghan and said, "Who did you hear that ginseng watchers will help heat the rice? These ginseng watchers are all bachelors. If they can't take care of themselves, how can they take care of us? This old Liu Tou , he gets drunk every day, he won’t give us his efforts in vain.”

When Jinghan heard about it, she realized that this was not a family watching ginseng on the mountain, but some old bachelors from the village who had no work to do, so they asked them to watch ginseng. Something seemed to flash through Jinghan's mind, but she couldn't catch it. Forget it, let's work first and think about it later.

After eating and resting for a while, everyone started working again. Today is the day that the village has agreed to plant ginseng together, so you can see people from the village everywhere. Everyone met, said hello, and then went back to work with their heads down.

Before the time came, they had planted all the 15-foot-long sticks, and there were still some seeds left. They happened to hear someone shouting not far away, "Whose plants are left? I'm still short of it." "Give it to me, go back and give me the money." It's Er Gouzi's father, his family name is Li.

Zhixin shouted over here, "Brother Li, I have it here, come and get it."

The man hurried over and said, "Brother Xu, your family has done well this year. Can we still have these three groups left? When the time comes to pick up the hammer, we still have to be the boss?"

Zhixin smiled, "Take it back quickly and plant it. If you keep talking nonsense, it will get dark."

The man went to the ginseng watcher and brought a steelyard and weighed the ginseng seeds. They weighed five kilograms in total. "Brother Xu, this is five kilograms. Let's pay the old price, two hundred cents per kilogram. I'll give you money when you get back." Then he took the ginseng seeds away.

Jinghan listened on the side, these ginseng seeds were really cheap, only two hundred yuan per pound. One pound of ginseng seeds can produce five or six pounds of ginseng, and some can grow seven or eight pounds, depending on the soil quality. Do the math, these ginseng seeds are very cheap. However, it is understandable that every family actually has ginseng seeds. Generally speaking, if someone has any leftovers, they just go home, steam them, dry them in the sun, wait for them to dry and sell them. The sun-dried ginseng seeds are very good. If you can dry one pound out of five pounds, it is good. After doing this calculation, I feel that I have a balance in my heart.

Zhixin and Xue packed up various tools, and then the family went to the bullock cart and put their things away. Zhixin drove the bullock cart and headed home. It was already the beginning of the Youshi period when we got home. Mrs. Chen had already prepared the meal and was waiting for them to come back for dinner.

After the bullock cart entered the yard, Zhixin and Xue Shi put all the tools back into the warehouse. Jinghan went into the house to wash her hands, and the old man also went in to take a break and smoke. Mrs. Chen and Jinghan Huixin brought all the food to the table, "Hurry up and wash your hands and eat. It's been a tiring day. Eat early and rest." Mrs. Chen meant the old man.

Just as the old man finished smoking the bag of cigarettes, he stood up and went out to wash his hands. When the old man came back, everyone sat down at the table and started eating.

"Jinghan, are you tired from work today?" Mrs. Chen picked a piece of meat and put it in Jinghan's bowl. This old lady loves her grandchildren. Unlike other families, the elder has a straight face all day long, as if everyone owes her.

Jinghan hurriedly said: "Grandma, you better eat it. I'm not tired. This little work is nothing. I've been running around all day and I don't feel tired at all."

Mrs. Chen looked at her little granddaughter. This child had been wild since she was a child, and there was nothing she dared not do like climbing mountains and rivers. Now that he is older, he is still like that, but he is very diligent and carries things around the house all day long. "There's nothing going on these days. Let your mother take you to the town to buy some cloth and cotton. It's time to make cotton-padded clothes for winter. Are you going to make new clothes for a few children this year, especially Jinghan? Don't I always pick up Wenhan's. As a girl, she has to wear something fresh. She always wears boys' clothes. I didn't know, but I thought we had an extra boy in our family. This year, Jinghan and the others brought back a lot of things. Someone today. Come and collect it, I'll sell it. Not to mention, it's really a lot of money from selling things. It's enough to make clothes for the children. Don't feel wronged if you have money. Children. As the children grow older, our family's life will gradually get better." Mrs. Chen took out a few pieces of silver and gave them to Mr. Xue.

Mrs. Xue took the money and said, "Okay, I will go to the town to buy cloth and cotton in the next two days. At that time, it will be time to make cotton clothes and other things." As for the six children in the family, they have to do it together. Can't be biased. Wencheng and Wenchang cannot be left behind.

Zhixin looked at the old man and said, "Dad, while it's not snowing these days, I'll pick up some pillars first. If the weather is good, I'll smash the pillars on, so that we can save some trouble next spring."

The old man nodded, "Okay, just watch and do it. You have been doing this for so many years and you know how to do everything. You don't need to ask me about these things in the future. You can just make arrangements yourself." No matter what kind of job the boss does, he will discuss it with the old man. For a moment, ask the old man for his opinion.

Mrs. Chen suddenly remembered Zhiming's words, "Boss, please take some time in the next two days to go to the county seat and send the sticks at home to Lao San's drug store. Lao San has made an agreement with the drug store manager. Sell ​​it at a 10% higher price, so you can get an extra six or seven taels of silver, and you can keep it for whatever you want."

"Hey, mother, I'll go to the county first. It doesn't matter if I'm two days late." Buying ginseng is a big deal. If I go late, it will be bad if someone else takes it.

Everyone had dinner and went to bed early. Although Jinghan said she wasn't tired, she was still a little lazy and fell asleep soon after lying on the kang.

The next day, Zhixin went to the county town with more than 40 kilograms of dry goods at home, while Xue took Jinghan to the town. It only took half an hour to get from the village to the town. Jinghan looked at the town and saw that there were many more people selling things than in the spring, usually selling cabbage and potatoes. Mrs. Xue led Jinghan to a shop selling fabrics. There were all kinds of fabrics, including cotton, satin and so on.

As soon as the clerk saw Xue and her daughter, he hurriedly came over and said, "Sister-in-law, you want to buy some fabric to make winter clothes. Come and have a look. There are new fabrics here. The colors are bright and the fabric is thick. It is not allowed to be worn. Yes. What we farmers want is durable, right?" The clerk led Xue and her daughter to the cotton cloth and showed them.

Jinghan listened to this guy's words and admired him very much. When buying things, you have to see who sells them. You can't just let others buy expensive ones. The key is to be practical. The fabrics introduced by the clerk are all thick enough and are very good for making cotton-padded clothes, but they are a bit expensive.

Mr. Xue looked at the cloths and said, "Brother, what you said is good, but it's a bit expensive. Can it be cheaper?"

"Sister-in-law, you get what you pay for. Our store is also a long-established one. We never dare to raise prices intentionally. These are real prices and cannot be cheaper. If sister-in-law thinks these are too expensive, I still have some cloth from last year. , even if it has been stored for a year, the color is not so vivid, it is suitable for farmers to wear for work." The clerk said and took out several pieces of cloth from the counter.