After the imperial examinations, I grew up by farming

Chapter 40

In May, at the beginning of Mao.

The sky has faded from darkness and is covered with a blue veil.

Ning Yu rode Xiao Hongyan, and Zhiman specially replaced it with a bold local horse that is good at climbing mountains and entering water and is not afraid of crossing suspension bridges.

A donkey and a horse walked straight to Lijia Village, more than 20 miles away, in the morning fog.

Li Fangyun heard that her husband said that she would stay with her uncle all day today, and she couldn't sleep all night with anxiety.Xu Ning Chengmao was going out for a run in the mountains, she prepared breakfast for Xiao Siyuan, and waited for others under the willow tree at the bridge head early.

Seeing the person at the other end of the bridge, he hurried up the bridge to greet him, "Xiao Qi came so early, it's not yet Chenzheng."

While talking, he stretched out his hand to lead the donkey rope.

Ning Yu was not polite to her, let her go.

"Before the hour, the second sister-in-law will be here early? My family, the second sister-in-law don't have to be so polite."

It seemed that she didn't expect Ning Yu to chat and laugh with her so easily. Li Fangyun was slightly stunned for a moment, feeling happy and sad at the same time. She couldn't tell what it was like, and finally turned into a simple smile.

"Eh."

Little Siyuan knew that his father was going to the mountains, and his mother was going to pick up Uncle Qi at the entrance of the village. After the little man got up, he fetched water, washed his face and rinsed his mouth, then climbed onto the bench and lifted the lid of the pot to get breakfast.

"There are eggs!" The little face showed surprise.

Wrap the mouth of the bowl with a handkerchief, and carefully take an egg and half a steamed sweet potato out of the pot.

When the adults arrived home, the little ones were sitting in the yard eating breakfast. The eggs and sweet potatoes had already been eaten, and there was still a thin sour cowpea left in the notched bowl.

"Uncle Qi, the sour cowpea made by mother is the best, eat it."

Li Xiaoying led Zhiman, led the donkeys and horses to the bamboo forest behind the house and tied them back, just in time to see his son holding up the sour cowpea and feeding it to the uncle's mouth, and just about to stop him, he saw that the innocent brother-in-law had already put the sour cowpea into his mouth .

Chewed the whole thing.

then……

The uncle frowned.

"Cough cough." Ning Yu coughed twice, gritted his teeth and swallowed the sour cowpea, his tongue, eyes and ears were all on fire.

so spicy!

Did she eat a handful of Chaotian peppers? !

Li Fangyun hurriedly poured water for Ning Yu.

But the more you drink, the hotter it gets.

Tianling Gai is also spicy!
Before the heat was over, the cries of the bear child broke through the air to Li Xiaoying's house 80 meters away.

"Wow, baby, mother, I don't dare anymore, wow——"

Little Siyuan was severely whipped five or six times by her mother with a bamboo whip, and she was punished to sit under the pear tree at the gate of the courtyard to meditate, with a book of Analects on her head.

It's not that Ning Yu doesn't plead for his little nephew, but...

She felt the beating was too light!

She was so hot that her tongue was numb and swollen!

Xiao Siyuan stared resentfully at her mother, Uncle Seven and Sister Zhiman going to Madam Xiaoying's house together——

Don't take him!
Then... suddenly I miss my father.

Li Xiaoying waited at the gate of the courtyard. When she saw someone, she greeted Ning Yu first, and then asked Li Fangyun, "Second Sister-in-law Xu, what's wrong with Xiao Siyuan? You're crying so hard."

My brother-in-law just came for the second time and let his own boy make fun of him.

Li Fangyun was embarrassed to say.

"He lied to the young master to eat sour cowpea, and he was beaten." Zhiman didn't intend to save face for the young master.

When she came back last time, she still thought that the young master was gentle and refined, and he was very different from the second master, the second son, and the fifth miss.

Uh, it turned out to be an illusion.

Li Xiaoying blatantly giggled.

Mr. Xu has a cool demeanor and is usually a gentleman. She also wants to see what Mr. Xu looks like with his hands and feet.

"No wonder Mr. Xu's face is a little red. I have also eaten the sour kimchi made by Mrs. Xu. It's a little...ha."

Li Xiaoying expressed her understanding.

Ning Yu felt the deep "maliciousness" from Lijia Village, and said "hmm" with a sullen face.

Scholars don't have the same knowledge as mountain women.

"Father, mother, Mr. Xu is here." Li Xiaoying invited the guests into the courtyard.

Ning Yu looked at the farmhouse in front of him.

The layout is quite different from that of the second brother's house, but the yard is bigger, but it is not very spacious because of the piles of wood and sand, and a few fruit trees are also planted at the entrance of the yard.

Peaches, apricots, plums, capers...

There is also an old pepper tree whose branches reach halfway to the top of the thatched shed.

The two old men heard their daughter talk about Ning Yu's great feat of destroying relatives. Seeing the real person now, they only felt that Mr. Xu was like a god who came to the world. Kneeling and saluting, he was finally pulled back, but he bowed his hands in a thousand thanks.

Not only did he pray by himself, but he also took his daughter and three grandchildren to pray together.

When the old man calmed down and the tears were no longer in his eyes, Zhiman handed the shopping basket to the old lady, "Old man, old lady, this is a little thought from our young master."

"My lord has avenged Xiaoying, but we haven't repaid him, but let him spend money. What, how did this happen?"

The old lady was flattered and refused to accept it.

"It's just a homemade snack, it's not worth much, so just accept it." Zhiman firmly pressed the basket into the old lady's hand, and quickly backed away.

"Master Xu, this..."

The old lady felt that she couldn't lift the basket that weighed several catties, so she looked at Ning Yu, then at her wife, and then at her own daughter in embarrassment.

Ning Yu's tongue was still a little numb, and she didn't want to mediate too much, so she gave Li Xiaoying a look.

Li Xiaoying understood, and grabbed the basket in the old lady's hand, "Master Xu brought it all the way, but he couldn't take it back. The pressed rice seeds can still be eaten when you are hungry, just right."

"Da Ni, Ermao, come, try one. If it tastes good, you have to say thank you to the guests, and if it's not good, you have to say thank you."

Li Xiaoying took out two pieces of egg yolk pastry, one for her five-year-old daughter, one for her three-year-old son, and none for her eight-month-old daughter.

My sister took the egg yolk shortbread, first bent down to say thank you to Ning Yu, looked back and forth at the yellow shortbread, tentatively bit a layer of skin with her front teeth to taste, her eyes were sharp, she bent down again to say thank you to Ning Yu, Only then did I pick up the egg yolk shortbread and eat it officially.

The little boy was not polite, his sister had just taken two bites, and he had already reached out for the second piece, and his mother slapped him on the back of his hand to be honest.

After exchanging pleasantries, we started to get down to business.

A group of people sat around the brown sand mound, Ning Yu and Li Fangyun sat on either side of Li Xiaoying.

There is a pile of wooden boards stacked behind or to the side of each person.

The board is about [-] centimeters long, [-] centimeters wide, and [-] centimeters thick. Rows of small holes are dug on the surface of the board. Rows of mini planters were dug up.

"Master Xu, Mrs. Xu, let me demonstrate it first, and then explain the profound meaning to you."

Li Xiaoying took a wooden board and started to demonstrate.

I saw that she first spread a thin layer of sand into the holes in the plank, then put two to three rice seeds in each hole, and finally filled the holes loosely with sand.

"We have a surplus of rain in Sichuan, and most of the terraced fields. The seedlings that have just been planted in the fields, when it rains heavily, the fields will swell. As the water gets deeper, the seedlings will easily come off the soil and float to the surface. Once it collapses, the seedlings are washed away."

"For the seedlings cultivated like this, each root system has a small lump of original soil, and the weight of the seedling root system increases, so it is not easy to be washed to the water surface when inserted in the paddy field, and the survival rate is also greatly improved."

"And this soil is not loess, but the sandy soil of the mountains and forests. It is fluffier than loess and has better air permeability. When the seedlings grow on the board, it is easier to move the seedlings. Moreover, cow dung and pigs are added to the soil in proportion. Manure and hay ash, the entire cultivation process only needs to be poured with manure twice, and almost 100% of the seedlings can be achieved."

"Last year, I used the traditional sowing method and this method to cultivate seedlings respectively. The same number of rice seeds can produce more than half of the seedlings compared with the traditional method."

After Li Xiaoying finished speaking, Li Fangyun didn't know what came to mind. She clapped her hands together and said excitedly as if she had discovered a new world: "It's no wonder that half of the seedling fields in your family were green and yellow last year, and half were growing well. It turns out that there is such a board underneath."

"That's the reason, this board has the effect of solidifying fat." Li Xiaoying cast a approving look at Li Fangyun.

But Li Fangyun has new doubts.

"Xiaoying, your method is good, but won't it take too much effort?"

Li Fangyun looked at the wooden boards that filled half of the yard.

My God, a carpenter must work for half a month without sleep.

Uncle Li is a carpenter, but it's okay to say that her family, Ningcheng, is a good woodcutter, cutting wood...

Forget it.

Li Xiaoying smiled faintly, picked up a rice seed and showed it.

"As long as this one seed can grow hundreds or thousands of seeds, it will be worth the effort. When there are enough rice seeds to mass-produce on a large scale, then is the time to pursue high efficiency and labor-saving."

"I have been busy for more than three years, and I only got these two bags of rice seeds. Second sister-in-law Xu, they are more precious than gold."

"That's right, Xiaoying is so precious to these two bags of millet, she won't even touch me, her father, and her in-laws." Mrs. Li laughed.

"What I'm talking about is that if my family has such a good rice seed, I would love it too." Li Fangyun enviously said.

"There will be." Li Xiaoying said firmly: "When the rice of this season is harvested, I will be the first to send two bags of rice seeds to Mrs. Xu's family."

"No, no, I was joking, but I dare not ask for it." Li Fangyun quickly waved her hand and refused.

"Yes," Li Xiaoying continued, "Not only Xu Erxie's family, but next year at the latest, every household in our Lijia Village will have to replace it with new rice seeds, so that they can eat white and fat rice."

"Ah?" Li Fangyun's mouth was wide open, not quite understanding what Li Xiaoying was talking about.

Li Xiaoying was amused.

"It's okay to tell my sister-in-law. This kind of rice is not only big and thin-skinned, but also three-season rice, which is cold-resistant and heat-resistant. It is very different from the single-season rice at my sister-in-law's house. I was still experimenting a few years ago. I was afraid of being coveted by evil people. I planted it in In the field behind Xianggong's house."

Li Fangyun knew about the field behind the old Wang's house. It was less than three minutes away, surrounded by tall bamboo fences, and dense cornstalks were piled outside, making the field airtight.

It turned out that it was planted with gold, no wonder it had to be seen.

"Three seasons of rice means that rice can be harvested three times a year?" Li Fangyun felt that something was about to jump out of her left chest.

Li Xiaoying nodded, "Yes."

"This is really a big deal, Xiaoying, you are so amazing. Your sister-in-law is in charge of your field. Let your second brother Xu come to plow." Li Fangyun was full of energy, and arranged for her husband by the way.

"I'm afraid we'll have to wait for a while to eat white and fat rice. My lord plans to promote Xiaoying's three-season rice throughout the county." Ning Yu said suddenly.

Seeds are not enough, still want to eat?
"By the way, let me tell you one more thing. When these seedlings grow out, they will not be planted in Lijia Village, but in Xu's village. The soil there is more fertile, and the rice from the previous five seasons will be used as rice seeds. The two also moved to live in Zhuangzi, where they are responsible for cultivating rice seeds.”

"Master Xu, when was this decided?" Li Xiaoying was confused.

Ning Yu calmly said: "Now."

　Originally, Li Xiaoying’s character was set as a miserable widow with three children, her parents and in-laws all died, but when she wrote it, it was already miserable enough when her husband’s family was gone. Let her arrange a biological father and mother to help take care of the children. The author is very big Such a soft hearted person...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)