Feng Gui, the head of Xihe Village, felt bitter! He plans to follow suit and plow the fields immediately after harvesting rice next year and plant rapeseed and ramie.
The matter of borrowing large animals must be discussed in advance, otherwise other villages will make reservations first and you will have no animals to use.
Why do you need to pay? It would have been better if my village had not collected grain from the rented cattle.
He took a long sip of wine and said, "It's better to live here. Rent... is fine, but you have to leave it for me."
He considered that after the rice harvest next year, there would be enough food, so he gave it.
The head of the village nodded: "It's easy to talk about renting cattle, uh... Feng Laosi! Your Xihe Village is next to the river, can the water tanker be adjusted up and down? Be prepared, in case there is a drought next year!"
The village chief kindly reminded me that if a neighboring village is hit by a disaster, this village will be affected. If someone comes to borrow food, do you want to borrow it?
"There will be a drought next year?" Feng Gui was surprised.
"I mean just in case, you have to have an idea in mind and don't panic when you actually encounter it."
If the village chief doesn't confirm, the well in the village has been dug. How can we grow rice without water?
Rice is always soaked in water from the time it is a seedling until it is harvested.
Feng Gui's gang leader Man Meng said: "That's the truth. I'll talk about it when I go back. Alas!"
He sighed and glanced at the village guard of Xiaqiu Village. He was envious because there were always disobedient people in his village who would not do good things and do all the bad things.
If you want to imitate Xiaqiu Village and raise a village guard, it will be difficult! There are fools in the village, or two!
There is food to eat, and the kind-hearted people in the village help with the leftovers. If there is a big disaster, they can only starve to death.
The other two people from Xihe Village didn't talk much to each other. They just ate the cakes in small bites. They didn't touch the dry ingredients of the soup. They sipped the soup and drank it. They continued to add soup and added some salt and vinegar.
Feng Gui drank two ounces of wine, ate a cake, made soup three times, and finally ate the mutton and haggis: "Yichang, I'm going back now. It's almost the New Year, so busy."
"I won't keep you anymore." The chief stood up, wrapped up a kilogram of mutton, and handed it over: "Take it home for the children to eat."
"How could this happen?" Feng Gui refused.
"It's not for you. You came to drink the mutton soup, but the child didn't get anything at home."
The headmaster forced it on him and sent it to the head of the village. Then he turned around and continued drinking.
Feng Gui held the mutton in his hands, looked back, shook his head and sighed: "What's going on in Xiaqiu Village?"
"Chief, their mutton soup is delicious. The last time I drank it was five years ago?" The person who followed was still thinking about it.
Another echoed: "That's right, there are no wild vegetables in the pancakes."
They were too embarrassed to eat as much as they wanted, so they only ate one pancake and drank a lot of soup.
"Next year, it looks like next year, I'll plant a round of rapeseed, and I'll have everything."
Feng Gui stamped his feet and looked at it early this year. Maybe he could learn from it and harvest it next spring.
In fact, he himself didn't believe it. The rice harvest had just been completed and the people in the village were willing to work again? The land is not his own, so if each family doesn’t cultivate it, how can they be forced with a knife?
They can only wait until Xiaqiu Village collects more before the people in their own village agree.
***
The village chief came back in a happy mood, which was compared to other villages.
"Hanhan, if you give it to others, what will you eat?"
When the head came back, he saw Hanhan tearing the meat off the lamb leg and giving it to the other children.
"Eat, cake, soup." Zhu Wentian continued to divide the meat.
The chief saw the children stop and waved his hand: "Eat, eat! Just a few mouthfuls of mutton."
There was no mutton to eat the next day, but there was mutton soup, and the bones could be stewed.
There is good news for the children. Today, the pig will be killed and tomorrow will be the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month. This year, the twelfth lunar month only has twenty-nine days.
Normally, we should have killed yesterday. Didn’t we kill the sheep yesterday?
Today, twenty pigs will be killed, and five hundred and fifty people will be killed. The meat will be divided according to the head, and one part will be eaten, and the other families will take it back.
Being rich means having confidence. The village now has 30 sheep, 40 cattle, 20 mules, 6 donkeys, and 5 horses, a strong lineup.
Zhu Wentian planned to wait until the end of the New Year to reclaim the wasteland elsewhere in the village, and the newly reclaimed land would be exempted from taxes.
It’s okay, anyway, I’m planting grass. Why should I charge rent for planting grass?
Plant purple flowers in the ground to feed livestock and people eat them.
With him in the village, there is no need to worry about livestock getting sick and dying in droves.
Take the opportunity to start raising livestock in the village. You can eat it if you want and sell it if you want.
Neighboring villages can also help if needed.
If your own village is too wealthy, it is easy to cause trouble and lead the surrounding villages to develop together.
If the trees are beautiful in the forest, the wind will destroy them; if they are piled up on the shore, the current will be turbulent; if they stand above others, they will be rejected by the crowd.
"Brother Hanhan, let me give you some candy." The little girl ran over and handed Zhu Wentian a small piece of rock candy.
I went to Xuancheng to open a road guide before and bought a bunch of brown sugar. Some of it was kept as medicine and some was made into rock sugar.
So the children in Xiaqiu Village realized the freedom of rock candy, five hundred cents per pound of rock candy!
"Hmm! Hey hey hey!" Zhu Wentian put it in his mouth.
"Is it sweet? There are fried noodles at home! I'll get them for you." The little girl jumped up and ran away.
Zhu Wentian was in a happy mood and had a sense of accomplishment.
…
The next day, New Year's Eve, every household fried rice cakes. The locals didn't eat dumplings and there wasn't that much wheat.
The Spring Festival couplets are pasted, and there is also the door god.
In the evening, the bamboo was burned, crackling.
Zhu Wentian grew up here, put on new clothes, and was taken to the sacrificial hall.
The whole village went to perform ancestor worship rituals.
After burning incense, they kneel down on the mat, cry, and tell their ancestors about the situation in the village this year.
Now that the village is rich, they can eat meat as they please. The village guard has enlightened and leads everyone to live a good life. They can plant things in the ground and next year...
The leader cried and said, "It's not easy for others to cry too. It turned out to be such a hard life!" It's time to get through it now.
Zhu Wentian pursed his lips, and his belief became stronger. He wanted to lead the village to wealth. What is hundreds of thousands of coins in a village?
After the village chief finished crying, he took Zhu Wentian over to burn incense, kowtow, and praise him in front of his ancestors.
"Let's go back and eat meatballs, delicious meatballs."
After the ceremony was held, the village chief said hello, and the villagers prepared a big pot of rice outside the sacrificial hall, regardless of the cold weather.
There are many dishes, such as steamed pork with rice noodles, sausages, braised pork ribs, braised pork liver, fried air-dried mandarin fish...
When the villagers saw these dishes, they felt different. It was the first time since they were young that they ate so much meat during the Chinese New Year, and they didn't even spend their own money, it was paid for by the minister.
***
One night passed, on the first day of the first lunar month, everyone was resting at home and would not work today.
Zhu Wentian led a group of children to cut paper in the mountain temple. The paper he bought was large, and he had to practice writing in small regular script.
Cut them out and bind them with thread. After the children can write with wooden sticks, they can switch to writing brushes to write on paper.
The calligrapher Zhu Wentianhui cannot keep up with other great calligraphers, but he is better than ordinary people.
Children do not know that things are meant for them, and reading is too far away for them.
During the war, it was good that the village could avoid the flames of war. There was no place to find people to teach. Xuancheng was far away and it was expensive for people to go there.
Only the headmaster knows a few words and can do arithmetic, so he can ask a smart person to help him.
The imperial examinations and imperial schools will not start until next year. There are only dozens of places in one county, and the villages cannot get them.
Zhu Wentian didn't intend to trick the children in the village into them, he would teach them himself.
