Return to the small mountain village in 1986

Gao Mingcheng met his group of ducks and five goats over there in the pear forest.

After the time has entered May, the bleakness of winter has long since left, and the earth has changed into green. The powerful weeds grow vigorously, one day at a time, quickly occupying large areas of territory.

Weeds have deep roots and are extremely good at competing for water and nutrients. Therefore, they are the enemy of fruit trees. It is definitely unrealistic to rely on manual weeding. No, Zhang Chengyuan drives sheep and ducks into the mountains every day. , letting the sheep and ducks eat the excess weeds.

During the Chinese New Year last year, Gao Mingcheng slaughtered cows and caught fish, but did not touch the goats. Today, the five goats are still alive and kicking, bleating and eating fresh green grass.

"Brother." Seeing Zhang Chengyuan, Gao Mingcheng smiled and said hello.

"Hey." Zhang Chengyuan responded dully, then remembered something and said immediately: "Ming Cheng, two ewes are pregnant!"

He had a smile on his face and his tone was more excited than usual.

As early as when Gao Mingcheng got the goats back, Zhang Chengyuan felt that these goats were both male and female, and he could breed more lambs by himself. When Gao Mingcheng wanted to kill the goats, he always urged Gao Mingcheng not to kill them.

Now, under his careful raising, two ewes in the flock are already pregnant!

The gestation period of goats is usually five months. When he found out, the goats were already one or two months pregnant, which meant that by August or September, the two ewes would give birth to lambs!

Gao Mingcheng was very happy when he heard the news. He had never raised a pregnant ewe before, and he was afraid that Zhang Chengyuan wouldn't understand either, so he asked Zhang Chengyuan to call the veterinarian from Junling if anything happened.

If the ewe at home is giving birth to lambs for the first time, if you don’t understand it, you would rather pay a veterinarian to look at it and ask about the things to pay attention to, so that you will have experience when the ewe gives birth to lambs next time. .

As long as you are not afraid of spending money, everything will be easy!

Zhang Chengyuan did not come up with the money himself, so Zhang Chengyuan promised that in order to ensure that nothing happened to the sheep, he would go find a veterinarian when needed.

Gao Mingcheng looked at the dozen ducks again. The ducks actually preferred to forage in the water, but after being driven to the mountains, they were quite at ease. They were scattered in the woods and grass, leisurely devouring their favorite grass, and quacking from time to time. The screams added excitement to the silent forest.

The peach blossoms bloom early. When the peach blossoms are about to finish blooming, it is the turn of the pear trees to bloom.

There are still a few peach blossoms on the peach trees, but there are no pear blossoms on the pear trees. Because the pear tree he planted was an early-maturing variety, the Jinxi Honey Pear.

Jinxi County, the county next door to them, has a long history of planting honey pears. As early as the Song Dynasty, the honey pears planted were called tribute pears.

It's just that they were planted on a small scale in the past, but last year, Jinxi County had developed more than a thousand acres of southern high-quality early-maturing pears such as Huanghua, New Century, and Cuiguan, and the planting area will gradually expand in the future.

Gao Mingcheng bought these pear trees from Shimen Village, but Shimen Village used to buy saplings from Jinxi, mainly two varieties, Huanghua and Cuiguan. Now Gao Mingcheng is planting these two varieties.

Compared with Huanghua, Gao Mingcheng prefers Cuiguan pear. He thinks Cuiguan pear tastes sweet and refreshing, crisp and tender, without any residue!
Last year, these pear trees did not bear fruit, but this year they started to bear fruit!

This is normal, because these fruit seedlings are not native species, but grafted! Grafted pear trees have a short planting cycle and high yields. They usually bear fruit in two years and become normal in three years.

Gao Mingcheng recalled the taste of Cuiguan pear, his eyes passed over the short pear branches and looked at the small pears hanging on them.

The tree is not big, but it grows many small pears. However, Gao Mingcheng has to pick the fruit with his hands!
This is the first year that the pear tree bears fruit. Naturally, you cannot leave too many fruits on the branches. As the saying goes, if you bite off more than you can chew, if there are too many fruits and the pear tree does not provide enough nutrition, then all the fruits will not grow in size. If it doesn’t grow well, the taste will be much worse.

In fact, he had already handed over the matter of fruit removal to Chen Dasong.

Chen Dasong is a very serious person in his work, but he is too stingy and always reluctant to thin the fruit. Why should he pick the fruit that he thinks is good? If you don’t pick it off, you’ll be able to eat one more fruit when it’s ripe!

Therefore, Chen Dasong usually only picks off the obvious secondary fruits, and cannot take action on the fruits that look good.

Gao Mingcheng had no choice but to do it himself when he encountered it.

No, when he was killing him, Zhang Chengyuan pursed his lips and seemed to want to persuade Gao Mingcheng not to pick so many.

But in the end, his words remained unsaid.

Gao Mingcheng happily thinned the fruits and felt relieved when he saw that there were only eight or nine fruits hanging on each pear tree.

In the first few years of planting pear trees, the main thing is to let the trees grow well, and the results are secondary.

He looked at the open space between the pear trees and remembered that in his previous life, someone planted some vegetables in the orchard. These vegetables were mainly used as green manure to improve the soil.

Now that the pear tree is still small and there is enough light in the open space, Gao Mingcheng thought for a while and said to Zhang Chengyuan: "Brother, do you still have soybean seeds at home?"

Zhang Chengyuan said: "There are still some."

When Gao Mingcheng heard this, he asked Zhang Chengyuan to scatter some soybean seeds in the pear forest. There was no need to carefully plant them. When fertilizing and watering the pear trees, he could just take care of the beans. The rest of the time, let them fend for themselves.

Zhang Chengyuan listened to his thoughts and was silent for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

But he is different from Gao Mingcheng. He is actually very serious about his work. Since he wants to plant, he must turn over the soil, sow the seeds, water and fertilize, and he must not really ignore it!

Fortunately, the pear forest is on the hillside, not far from the pond at the foot of the mountain, so it is easy to carry water.

Gao Mingcheng didn't know Zhang Chengyuan's thoughts. Since he had started working, he would continue to work. He would not do anything else but thin fruit!

The peaches and pears are already hanging on the branches. It's a good time to thin the fruits. The bayberries are also hanging quietly, but now they are small and still green in color. They are hidden among the lush branches. If you look carefully, you'll miss it.

If you don't care about the bayberry tree, it will grow taller, and picking bayberries will become a chore.

Therefore, Gao Mingcheng asked Chen Dasong to tie the branches of the bayberry tree with a rope. The other end of the rope was tied to the boulder, and the branches were pulled downwards by the pulling force of the boulder. Over time, the branches could be finalized.

When the time comes, the branches will spread out in all directions and the tree will be relatively short, making it easier for people to pick fruits.

Some low branches could be reached by Gao Mingcheng. For taller ones, he could climb onto the branches. He picked out some bad bayberries.

Xiaofushan is too big for Chen Dasong to take care of on his own. Although he takes his two sons and Zhang Chengyuan to work together when fertilizing and pruning diseased branches, it is still not enough.

For example, in this bayberry forest, Chen Dasong didn't have time to thin the fruits. Of course, Gao Mingcheng can't force others to do anything. Chen Dasong can take care of the huge orchard, so that's fine!

Later, if there is more work to be done, invite a few more people.

Speaking of which, it’s time for Chen Dasong’s youngest son, Chen Duoxi, to become a regular employee of Xiaofushan!

Chen Duoxi had helped a lot before, but she didn't get a decent salary.

So when Gao Mingcheng met Chen Dasong again, he mentioned it to Chen Dasong and said that starting from this month, Chen Duoxi would be paid.

After hearing this, Chen Dasong was naturally overjoyed.

In big cities, the wages of ordinary workers are mostly more than three hundred. But in a small place like theirs, wages would naturally be lower. Gao Mingcheng paid Chen Dasong and the others according to the wages of local factory workers, which was one hundred and sixty-eight yuan per month.

Of course, Chen Dasong has to sleep in the chicken coop at night, which is equivalent to keeping vigil. This is additionally subsidized.

In addition, during the New Year and holidays, Gao Mingcheng would also give some things. For example, if he hunted a wild boar, he would also share some meat with Chen Dasong's family and Zhang Chengyuan's family.

Speaking of which, while wages have increased, bride price has also increased! Nowadays, if you want to marry a wife, you have to pay more, and any family with better conditions will start to pay attention to the sense of ceremony. For example, the bride will rent a wedding dress and put on makeup, the groom will wear a brand new suit, and a photographer will be hired to record the whole process!
The cost of a wedding is quite a lot of money.

When Gao Mingcheng married Duomei, he had little money. At that time, at least in the village, wedding videos were completely unheard of.

When Deng Wanwan and Wang Xun got married, the wedding dress, suit, and wedding video were all ready!

But fortunately, for most families in the village, getting married is just a celebration of wine!

At least Chen Dasong's wedding for his eldest son was just a banquet, and all he had to do was invite relatives from both families to have a drink and witness it together.

Of course, you have to go to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get your marriage certificate!

Thinking of this, Gao Mingcheng said: "Uncle Chen, if you give Duofu some free time, go to Uncle Shouwang and choose two sets of clothes, one for him and one for the bride, as my gift to the newlyweds. "

When the acquaintances around Gao Mingcheng got married, they all gave them clothes. Now that his employees are getting married, of course they have to give them too!
It would be a bit troublesome to take people to the county to choose clothes. It would be more convenient to choose them in Xing'anling!
He would just tell Gao Shouwang when he turned around and ask Gao Shouwang to record the clothes in his account.

Chen Dasong knew that Gao Mingcheng was a generous man and did not refuse hypocritically. Instead, he happily agreed.

"Hey, that's okay. I'll ask Duofu to pick out clothes tomorrow, and then I'll send new clothes to Mei Lin!"

Chen Dasong's daughter-in-law, named Huang Meilin, looks pretty good, but is a little short. When she stands next to Chen Duofu, she has the cutest height difference.

After getting busy in the mountains, it was already noon.

Chen Dasong was preparing to go down the mountain with his hoe, and Gao Mingcheng followed him down the mountain.

During this period, Chen Dasong called Gao Mingcheng to go to his house for dinner, but Gao Mingcheng did not agree because he had already agreed to go to Grandma Xixi's house for dinner.

So after going down the mountain, he took twenty eggs from the chicken coop, drove the tractor and led the five dogs to the old village.

He didn't come back for a long time, and the dogs followed him closely.

When we arrived at the old village, people who had been working in the fields all morning were now returning to the village to prepare for dinner. When they saw Gao Mingcheng and his five dogs, they looked impressive, so they all came up to talk to him.

Gao Mingcheng could chat with everyone, and he was having a good time all the way, until someone said that his eldest brother had been beaten.

Gao Mingcheng looked at the person who spoke. As if he was encouraged, the person told what happened.

It turned out that when Gao Mingpeng was buying prefabricated panels outside, he was passed off as inferior quality. Then Gao Mingpeng would definitely not do it, so the two sides had a conflict, and Gao Mingpeng was also beaten.

"After Mingpeng came back with a bruised nose and a swollen face, we asked what was going on. After hearing this, everyone felt sorry for Mingpeng! Later, Mingpeng led a group of people to find the person who was shoddy and put it there. Give me a beating!"

The speaker's tone was quite cheerful, and he obviously felt that he was not at a disadvantage, so he was very proud.

But another person said: "Although I gave him a good beating, he also said that he would not let Mingpeng go! In the past few days, Mingpeng has been in the village and did not dare to go out. ”

"Yeah, it's not a problem if you don't go out all the time. Mingpeng is going to take a bunch of brothers out to pick up jobs! Mingcheng, you are a good fighter. Why don't you help your elder brother? People over there will keep watching you. Brother."

"Yes, yes, Mingcheng, go over there and beat him up again to convince him!"

Speaking of this matter, everyone in the village tried to persuade Gao Mingcheng to stand up for Gao Mingpeng.

This is not only about Gao Mingpeng alone, but also about the face of the entire village!
These days, if villages compete for water and land, the whole village will fight with real swords and guns!
The collective honor of the village is quite strong among people these days.

Standing up for others and helping others in fights is such a clever thing! He had done this a lot before!
But he didn't agree in one breath. Instead, he was going to ask Gao Mingpeng carefully to see if he was really being reasonable. If he was being reasonable, he would definitely come forward.

This is how the human society works. Not to mention that it was his eldest brother who was in trouble, but also other people who were closer to him in the village. When they needed his help, he had to show something.

"Okay, I'll ask my elder brother about this first. Let's go home and eat first. I'm hungry too!" Gao Mingcheng said to everyone with a smile, and then hurried to Grandma Xixi's house.

Before I even stepped into the yard, I smelled the aroma of vegetables, which lured the gluttons in my belly to roar.

"Brother Mingcheng!" When Gao Zhuang saw Gao Mingcheng, he immediately ran to Gao Mingcheng's side. He missed Gao Mingcheng after not seeing him for so long.

Gao Zhuang has been Gao Mingcheng's follower since he was a child. Later, when he grew up and married his wife, things got better, but they could see each other from time to time. Unlike this time, he hadn't seen anyone in more than a month, and he knew Gao Mingcheng. When Cheng went to the capital, he naturally missed him even more.

Gao Mingcheng was in a good mood when he saw Gao Zhuang. He reached out and patted the tall and strong shoulder, and said with a smile: "You are stronger!"

"Hehe." Gao Zhuang grinned and quickly called Gao Mingcheng to come in and sit down. (End of chapter)