While Huang Dazhi was busy making various efforts to get married, Gao Mingcheng was already standing on Xiaofu Mountain and making a complete plan for the entire mountain.
Three hundred acres of mountainous land may not be considered big, but it is definitely not small if it is said to be small.
I have planted a batch of sugar oranges before, and some died, but most of them are still alive. As the weather gradually warms, they will come to life again.
As for the planning of Xiaofushan, we have already roughly planned it before. Now that we are about to plant trees, we have to make the plan more carefully.
Then he started looking for people to work for.
The person he was looking for was the same person who had worked for him before. Before the spring plowing, the entire mountain was cleaned up again. Some large rocks, dead tree roots, etc. had to be picked up.
Then, terraces must be dug on the steep slopes to facilitate tree planting and subsequent fruit picking.
Someone was invited to prepare the land, while Gao Mingcheng himself took the ax and headed towards the remaining fir and pine trees.
These trees have grown here originally and are good timber. Therefore, last year, because he was not in a hurry to plant fruit trees, Gao Mingcheng did not cut down these trees.
But now that a large number of fruit seedlings are about to arrive, these trees will have to make room.
He kept the fir wood for making furniture, and the pine wood could be chopped into sections for planting Poria cocos.
After the tree is cut down, it is necessary to peel the bark and remove the branches, and then move the trunk to a shaded place to dry in the shade. The branches and other things are piled in the woodpile and slowly dried in the sun before being burned as firewood.
After finishing these tasks, Gao Mingcheng took a shovel and sieve to the place where the seeds of Polygonatum japonica were previously hidden in the sand. He dug out the soil inside and then used a sieve to sift out the seeds.
The cultivation of Polygonatum japonica is more troublesome. When the seeds mature in autumn, they need to be stored in sand to keep them moist until late March of the next year, and then the seeds are screened out and sown.
These Polygonatum japonicas are not planted in the mountains, but on the flat land at the foot of the mountains. You need to dig out the furrow first, then spread evenly into the shallow furrow on the furrow with a row spacing of about 15 cm, cover it with about 1.5 cm of soil, press it slightly, water it, and finally cover it with a layer of grass to keep it moisturized.
After doing this, you can leave it alone for the time being and just wait for it to sprout. If you notice that it is about to sprout, you must quickly remove the grass covering it to make it easier for the seedlings to grow.
After that, it’s not much different from growing vegetables, that is, thin out the seedlings if they are too dense, shade them if they are afraid of the sun, and they can be transplanted after a year.
Wild Polygonatum likes to grow in the shade of trees, and the planted Polygonatum naturally needs to meet the shady conditions. If it is later, you can cover it with a black sunshade net.
But now, let alone whether there is one, even if there is, Gao Mingcheng won't need it for the time being, because he only got so many seeds, and the planting is not large-scale, so there is no need to pull up a sunshade net, he only needs to plant some taller ones on the border. Plants will do, and corn is a good choice. Not only can it provide shade for Polygonatum sibiricum, but it can also harvest a batch of corn, which is two birds with one stone.
While Gao Mingcheng was busy with these things, Gao Zhuang also came over to help from time to time.
Seeing him coming over again, Gao Mingcheng put down what he was doing and said, "Gao Zhuang, have you thought about what I told you last time?"
As soon as Gao Mingcheng came back, he told Gao Zhuang that he wanted to take him to the city to do business.
Because this decision needs to be made early, before spring plowing, rent the land at home to others. Otherwise, it will be difficult to rent after spring plowing, and you will have no choice but to continue farming.
Then it will drag on for another year.
When asked about this matter, Gao Zhuang had a tangled look on his face. He sat down on a stone and said: "My grandma asked me to go to the county with you to do business to make money, but she still has to stay in the village to farm. .As for Xiuman, my grandma wanted Xiuman to stay in the village and take care of the child, saying that the child is still young and not easy to run around."
Gao Zhuang's daughter was just one month old, so she was indeed still young. If he followed him to the county, he wouldn't be able to help for the time being, but if he didn't, the couple would be separated again.
"Brother Mingcheng, my grandma and Xiuman want to stay in the village. I thought about it and decided not to go to the county." Gao Zhuang said his decision firmly.
Who doesn't want to make money? But Gao Zhuang cannot make this money.
His family has a small population, so he is really worried about leaving his grandma and Xiuman at home to take care of their children and farm.
Besides, he couldn't bear to be separated from his precious daughter. Gao Zhuang, who had just been promoted to a nanny, really liked taking care of children. If he didn't hold the baby for a day, he would feel unhappy.
After listening to this, Gao Mingcheng said, "Let's do this. I'll go to your house for dinner in the evening and talk to Grandma Xi about this matter again."
Gao Zhuang looked at him and after thinking about it, he didn't refuse.
That night, after Gao Mingcheng finished working in the fields, he went to Grandma Xixi's house with a small basket of eggs.
When he was in the county, Zhang Chengyuan helped take care of the chickens and sheep at home.
Zhang Chengyuan did not lay the eggs laid by the chickens, but put them all in the drawer of the cupboard. When Gao Mingcheng came back, he found that there were already many eggs.
When Gao Mingcheng carried the eggs over, the food had just come out of the pot and was still steaming on the table.
Seeing him coming, Grandma Xi greeted with a smile: "Mingcheng, wash your hands and come to eat!"
"Hey, okay." Gao Mingcheng responded and went to wash his hands.
On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, ice particles rained for a while, and then it rained lightly. Although there was not much rain, it moistened the dry earth to some extent.
The old well in the village also has more water gushing out.
At the dinner table, Gao Mingcheng praised Grandma Xi's cooking skills, including a dish of bitter tofu fried with garlic leaves, which tasted very good.
In their village, there is a custom of picking Kuxiu seeds and making Kuxiu tofu. This Kuxiu tofu is often eaten as a vegetable in winter when vegetables are scarce.
After eating, Gao Mingcheng and Grandma Xi analyzed how much money they could earn in a year by farming in the countryside, and how much money they could earn in a year by doing business in the county.
Just tell the amount of money and compare the two, which is heart-pounding.
Gao Mingcheng said: "My grandma, you are getting old. There is really no need to stay in the village and farm. Otherwise, even if Gao Zhuang goes to the county, he will not trust you."
"Besides, if Gao Zhuang goes to the county to do business, if he is the only one, he will have to be busy and very tired!"
"I was doing business in the county. Not only did I bring Duomei and Shufang with me, but I also recruited a girl. Only then was I able to run the business. If you let Gao Zhuang do business alone, how would he do it? You can't do it in the village. If you want to farm the land, let Gao Zhuang spend money to find someone to help you, right?"
"Listen to me, if you really want to do business in the county to make money, then go with the whole family! Rent a bigger house to live in, and when the business makes money, buy a house in the county to live in!"
"Just rent these lands in the village to people you know well and let them be responsible for paying the public grain."
What Gao Mingcheng said was so reasonable that Grandma Xi and the others were a little moved, but also a little hesitant.
Some people cannot see the current situation clearly and cannot seize opportunities. Maybe many years later, I will sigh with emotion, for example, if I had gone into business earlier, it would have been better; if I had bought a house earlier, it would have been better; if I had traded in stocks earlier, it would have been better.
Only when they completely miss a good opportunity will they wake up and feel regretful.
In his previous life, Gao Zhuang followed him all over the world, but in fact it was not Gao Zhuang who wanted to do this, but just followed him instinctively. He did it, and Gao Zhuang followed suit.
But the situation is different now. Both he and Gao Zhuang have married wives respectively and have their own families. Gao Zhuang can no longer follow him unconditionally and obey his orders like before.
Even if what he asked Gao Zhuang to do was good for him, Gao Zhuang still needed to take care of the emotions of Grandma Xi and He Xiuman.
At this time, Grandma Xi said with a face full of embarrassment: "The land is the root of farmers. I have cultivated the land all my life. If I don't cultivate the land, I will feel sad. Besides, the people in the village are very smart. If you rent the land to them, they will I don’t know if he will be able to cultivate it well, but once he rents it for a long time, the land will definitely become his family! Even if he doesn’t occupy all of it, he will occupy it bit by bit.”
Grandma Xi has stayed in the village all her life, and has experienced times of domestic turmoil and times of prosperity. She has been poor and hungry, and her feelings for the land are beyond the understanding of ordinary people.
Another thing, deep down in her heart, she was afraid of going to a strange county.
She didn't express this clearly, but Gao Mingcheng saw it in her eyes.
So he stopped persuading.
There are plenty of opportunities to make money. If you can't do it now, you can go there in the future. As long as you have his help, it's never too late to go to the county to make money!
He looked at the baby in He Xiuman's arms again and said with a smile: "Okay, the baby is still young. It's okay to focus on raising the baby now. After a few years, when the baby is older, he can go to the county to do business." It’s not too late.”
When he said this, Gao Zhuang breathed a sigh of relief.
A trace of regret quickly flashed across He Xiuman's face, but she didn't say a word.
She looked down at the child, and her eyes were filled with the cute appearance of the child. In addition to raising this child, He Xiuman was actually planning to give Gao Zhuang another son when her body recovered!
Yes, although neither Gao Zhuang nor Xi Nainai expressed the idea of preferring sons over daughters, He Xiuman herself comes from a family that favors sons over daughters, which makes her more eager to have a son than Gao Zhuang.
Only giving birth to a son can give her enough sense of security to live her life with her back straight and not be afraid of the opinions of the people in the village.
Of course, because the child was still young, she kept this idea deep in her heart and never told Gao Zhuang.
Gao Mingcheng failed to persuade Gao Zhuang and others to go to the city to do business, and he felt somewhat regretful in his heart. He always felt guilty that he had become prosperous but had not helped his brothers.
He soon adjusted his mood and no longer mentioned this matter, but talked about spring plowing.
"Grandma, you should help me raise the seedlings and potato vines this year! Then I will just come back and plant them! By the way, you don't need to ask someone to borrow oxen to plow your fields, I will plow them with a tractor!" Gao Ming! Cheng said that he had already bought the plowing machinery. When the time comes, he would just remove the tractor body and install the plowing tools.
Although Gaojia Village is a small mountain village, it is home to famous squire families. At the foot of the mountain, there are seven to eight hundred acres of fertile land connected together.
In ancient times, all fertile farmland belonged to landlords.
(End of chapter)
