The growth of the eldest daughter-in-law of the farm gate

Chapter 333 New Year's Eve Reunion (Part )

On New Year's Eve in Shiyang County, Li Mingren was busy.

In the north, people are used to eating dumplings on New Year's Eve, so Li Mingren made arrangements a few days in advance. He wanted to treat the people of Shiyang County to a meal of dumplings on New Year's Eve. Although he couldn't feed all the people in the county, after all, there were so many people, he could ensure that everyone could taste the dumplings and share in the festive atmosphere.

Looking back, this year feels particularly long. A war broke out at the beginning of the year, causing considerable trauma to Shiyang County. Under the leadership of the county government, the whole county worked together to make changes and restore the vitality of this small county. But even so, at the end of the year, you can still hear the fear in the voices of the people when they talk about the war.

Because of the war, grain and oil shops in Shiyang County are doing very well this year. This is not only the case in Shiyang County, but also in several small towns along the border. People who have some extra money want to store grain at home. The price of grain can still rise if it is not a famine year. Li Mingren put pressure on grain merchants several times to prevent the price of grain from soaring too high.

Then Li Mingren led the county government to rectify the various bad things in Shiyang County. One by one, everyone was exhausted, not to mention that the common people were forced to enter this rhythm of change, which was even more tormenting. After all, it was really difficult to change the living habits of so many years.

Fortunately, the people can feel that Magistrate Li is doing practical things. Although the process is bumpy, it has not aroused public resentment. The yamen runners of various departments have also tried their best to cooperate with the county magistrate. Now we can see some results. The most obvious one is that when walking on the streets of the county town, you will not smell the stench or see the mess.

When visiting the countryside, the runners would meet enthusiastic villagers who would take out local specialties from their homes to entertain them. This was not the case when they first arrived. When they first arrived, the villagers would hide away whenever they saw the runners.

In addition to the improvements in the city streets, the country roads are no longer littered with human and animal feces. Walking along them, all you can smell is the fragrance of soil, grass and unknown wild flowers.

After all these things happened, I came up with the idea of ​​inviting all the people in the county to eat dumplings, not only to clear away the haze of the past year and take away the uneasy emotions. As a parent official, I also want to take the whole county government to thank everyone for their active cooperation in rectification this year, so that everyone knows that life after change is better.

"By the way, let's kill a few more sheep and cook some mutton soup for everyone. You can add more ingredients to the soup to make sure it has flavor. This time, we will still follow our previous model of helping farmers, giving priority to poor families. In addition, we will choose a wide and conspicuous place outside the city gate to set up a shed. The government will arrange the staff and make sure to maintain order. After the task is successfully completed, I will personally give a small red envelope to everyone who participated in this event."

Li Mingren arranged things one by one. Chen Yiqing felt a little conflicted. This was a lot of money. He was obviously from a farming family, so why was he so loose when it came to spending money?

"Sir, can we not have the mutton soup? We don't have much money in the government office. We still have to prepare for spring plowing after the New Year, and there are still some places that need maintenance. There are expenses everywhere."

Li Mingren was silent for a while.
"Then the money for the mutton soup will go into my private account, and the money for the dumplings will be split in half between me and the county government."

"This, sir..."

Li Mingren seemed to have made up his mind to accomplish this task. Without giving Chen Yiqing a chance to refute, he directly asked He Wen to go back and ask Madam Cui for money.

"Hurry up and find Old Xie to arrange some staff. Ask all the aunts and sisters-in-law who are willing to make dumplings to come to the county government office to sign up. I will pay them, but they must be honest and not cheat. Don't let the people in line get to eat before all the people making dumplings go home. Hurry up and get busy. Send some people to the countryside to notify them."

On the 30th, the entire yamen was ready to go, and the selected women and aunts followed the team to the sheds outside the city early.

At this moment, some people have already arrived at the sheds outside the city. Some of them don’t quite believe it, so they come early to see if it is true. In this way, if they are cheated, they can go home early without delaying anything.

Some people believed it, so they lined up early in the morning. Now they saw several large pots had been set up, and the officers were carrying buckets of water. Two lines of women were walking towards the table next to the pots. They saw bags of flour being opened by the women and poured onto the table. Only then did those who lined up and those who did not line up believe that eating dumplings was real.

"Sanwazi, go back quickly to call the people in our village. I'll queue up here first." An old man instructed the young man next to him. Those who were queuing with companions also arranged for them to go back to the village to notify them.

Someone in the crowd shouted, "Ask your mother and the others to bring some pickled vegetables for everyone to share."

The crowd seemed to have been touched off. “Yes, take some pickles from home and let the official have a taste of our food.”

"I have a few jars of radish strips at home. I'll go back and get them. The official said everyone can have dumplings. I'll take my family to line up later."

People came and went, left and came again. There were many people coming and they brought many dishes. Soon a large open space was filled with people.

The officers who were maintaining order were also seeing such a situation for the first time, so they quickly sent someone to report it to Xie Tou.

"Thank you, sir. We need more manpower over there." The man ran all the way with sweat all over his forehead.

"What's going on? Are there any troublemakers?" Xie Changwang asked as he arranged for the men to take them out. "You two teams, follow me."

"No, thank you. There were too many of them at once, and they brought a lot of food with them. They filled up the place. You'll know if you go and see for yourself."

"Food?" Xie Changwang had just led two teams to the gate of the yamen when he ran into Li Mingren who had just returned from outside.

"Thank you for being in such a hurry, what's the matter?"

"Sir, there are not enough people outside the city. I will take some people to take a look." Xie Changwang clasped his fists, "Why don't you come with me to take a look, so that we can make arrangements."

For a moment Li Mingren thought that someone was causing trouble and that it was all over as something bad had happened the first time. But then he thought that Xie Changwang was just walking in a hurry but his expression was calm, so this shouldn't happen.

"Well, what's going on?"

"Your Excellency, those people brought some food from their homes, saying that they would like to take this opportunity to let you and our county government have a taste of it."

Li Mingren was still a little confused at this moment, until he saw the spectacular scene outside the city gate, then he understood.

People were crowded around, and from the sounds they seemed to be talking excitedly about something. There were the sounds of children playing, the sound of someone scolding a child who had been found covered in mud after a long search, the sound of children crying after being beaten, and the sound of cows mooing.

Then there were baskets and backpacks on the ground, filled to the brim. Yamen runners were interspersed among them to maintain order and make room, while the women at the desks were kneading dough, cutting vegetables, and chopping meat, each one more energetic than the other.

Li Mingren smiled knowingly at Xie Changwang and breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

"Let me say a few words so that everyone can be quiet for a while."

The two new teams of officers received instructions and walked toward the crowd, beating gongs and drums.

"Quiet down, quiet down, the county magistrate is here and wants to say a few words to everyone."

……

After maintaining order for about a quarter of an hour, Li Mingren found a relatively high place and made a loudspeaker.

"Everyone has worked hard this year. I just want everyone to have fun today, so I came up with the idea of ​​eating dumplings. I hope everyone can take away all the unhappiness with today, and we can happily welcome the new year. Next year, we will continue to work hard together to make Shiyang County stronger and richer. I hope that next year we will not only have dumplings and mutton soup, but also fish, meat, and acrobatic performances."

Just when he was talking about this, a group of villagers came with gongs and drums, which just livened up the atmosphere. This group of villagers usually played musical instruments and sang at weddings and funerals in the villages.

"Stop, stop, stop. Can't you see that the adults are talking? What are you making so much noise for?" A bailiff stepped forward to stop the noise.

The leading man was frightened by the scolding of the yamen runner and hurriedly took a step back. The sounds of suona, drums, clacking and gongs all stopped.

Li Mingren had noticed the noise and shouted, "Wang Da, bring them here." The people were all quiet. The gong and drum team was as quiet as chickens, walking behind Wang Da with their heads down. It was not until they reached the front and listened to the county magistrate's words that they regained their surprised expressions.

"You guys will be in charge of the performance today. I will double your usual rate today."

"Ah!" The older suona player looked up.

"how?"

"Your Excellency, we have never received any money on weekdays. The host always gives us a meal and a bowl of wine."

Li Mingren paused, and couldn't help laughing: "Okay, I'll serve you the first pot of dumplings and mutton soup today, and I'll pay you, but my requirement is that you play festive music today and liven up the atmosphere for me."

Everyone in the gong and drum team quickly knelt down, "Little ones, more adults."

"Get up, work hard today. If you do well, I will come to you for work in the future."

"Yes, my lord."

Everyone looked at this scene and couldn't help but make sounds of envy, but they were also happy for the people in the gong and drum team, because most of the people in the gong and drum team came from poor families, and they learned this skill in the first place in order to save food for their families.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

"Be quiet." Li Mingren pointed to the stage next to him. The gong and drum team understood and started to "clang clang clang".

"Now everyone should line up according to the villages and streets and make room. We will still follow the old rules for the autumn harvest, giving priority to those in need in the village. The head of the village and the heads of the villages have already arrived to maintain order, and each household should arrange the vegetables they brought."

When the conversation was over, all that was heard was: "Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang."

After Li Mingren finished speaking, he went to the stove. When the women who were making dumplings saw him coming, they stopped and wanted to greet him. Li Mingren quickly waved his hand and said, "No need to greet today. You are busy. I will come to see you."

He looked at the growing crowd, then looked at the people making dumplings, then turned around and whispered a few words to Xie Changwang.

A quarter of an hour later, Xie Changwang and two yamen runners set up a small table nearby, and a small team of yamen runners shuttled among the crowd, calling out to recruit women to make dumplings and cook soup.

The crowd gathered again, the atmosphere was hot again, and everyone was dancing in unison!
Seeing that everything was in order, Li Mingren quietly left the place while no one was paying attention and returned to the county government office alone. When he was free in the front office for a while and was about to go back to the backyard to see his daughter and son, Cao Yingfa came.

"My Lord, I have come to deliver good news."

"Look at your sweaty face. Where did you come from? The flesh on your face is puffed up from smiling." Li Mingren handed over a sweat towel.

Cao Yingfa took the towel and wiped his sweat while saying, "Hey, sir, I just came back from Yuelai Restaurant and met a few people. Can you guess who they were?"

"If you want to say something, say it quickly. Don't delay me from going back to see the kids." Li Mingren said and wanted to leave.

"Hey, sir, I met a few wealthy businessmen in our county, and they said they wanted to donate some grain to the outside of the city."

"really?"

"real."

"Haha, good, this will save a lot of money."

"Sir, they just have a small idea." Cao Yingfa paused and said quickly after receiving the signal: "They want to let the people know that they donated grain this time."

"Okay, satisfy them. You go and make the arrangements. Then find an old singing master with a loud voice to go outside the city and sing for everyone. Make sure everyone can hear it clearly." Li Mingren was very happy. Looking at Cao Yingfa in front of him, he felt that he was just like a fortune-bringing boy.

"Okay, sir."

"Well, it's not just food. If anyone is willing to donate sheep, they can send a few."

"Okay, sir, I'll do it right away."

"go Go."

But when I returned to the backyard with a happy heart, I heard the sound of my little girl crying.

"What's the matter, our little Qing'er?"

"Master, the young lady has been looking for the lady since she played with the young master for a while today."

"Where's Ruiwen?"

"The young master is in the study."

Li Mingren took Xiao Qing'er and said, "Good boy, let's go find brother and see what he is doing, okay?"

Qing'er nodded while sobbing, hugging Li Mingren's neck, her eyes red.

When I entered the study, I saw Ruiwen lying on the table with a few papers beside his arms. I walked in and saw that some of the papers had one person on them, some had two people on them, and some had three people on them. They were Yunlan, Yunlan holding Ruiwen, Yunlan holding Qing'er and Ruiwen standing next to her.

"Rui Wen, hurry up and wake up. It's not ok to sleep here. You'll catch a cold soon."

Hearing the sound, Ruiwen, who had been lying down for a long time, could only slowly raise his stiff neck. His eyes were still a little red, and there seemed to be traces of crying on his face.

Li Mingren's heart softened when he saw the child's appearance. "Qing'er, let's touch our brother together."

Qing'er touched her brother's head obediently, and Ruiwen's tears, which had been held back, seemed about to overflow again.

At night, the father and his two sons stayed up together to celebrate the New Year. When Qing'er fell asleep, Li Mingren found out why the two little guys had been crying during the day.

Ruiwen was painting in the study. Because he missed his mother so much, he painted a portrait of his mother. Qing'er came to play with her brother and saw the painting on the table. She reached out to pick it up and play with it, but Ruiwen refused to let her. He also thought that his sister had forgotten their mother. Then Ruiwen kept talking about it. Qing'er seemed to understand, but she finally cried and asked to find her mother. The more Ruiwen thought about it, the angrier he became and the more he missed his mother. After his sister was taken away by Aunt Cui, he cried quietly in the study alone.

"I just have one request, that you paint me in your portrait in the future." Li Mingren only said this after hearing the whole story. But in his heart, he was thinking, I miss Yunlan too, when will Yunlan come back?