My village can't be like this

Chapter 691: Slaughtering the Cattle
Near noon, Lu Cheng had already brought people over.

This year, the threshing ground has been converted into other facilities by the village and cars can no longer be parked there.

Fortunately, the dam opposite the intersection of Dongli Yard has been built into a parking lot.

These days, the May Day holiday has passed and the place is much emptier, but parking is much more convenient than before.

"You are wasting natural resources, Zhang An."

Seeing Zhang An's family driving Dahei and Taxue to plow the fields, Lu Cheng suddenly felt that it was too luxurious.

If these two fine horses were placed in those horse farms, they would be treated like ancestors.

"What's the big deal? In the countryside, people are destined to work from birth, not to mention cattle and horses."

Zhang An shook his head and said that he was not as distressed as Lu Cheng.

In his opinion, cattle and horses should do the work that cattle and horses should do.

Moreover, the work they need to do is not too heavy, and the food and benefits are not bad.

In another ten or twenty years, the treatment of those cattle and horses may not be comparable to Dahei's current life.

"You can stay in the yard by yourself, or go to the mountain to watch them pick cherries. I have to be busy ploughing the fields today, so I don't have time to accompany you."

Having known each other for such a long time, Zhang An no longer exchanged polite words with Lu Cheng like he did when they first met.

"Just take care of yourself, don't worry about me."

Lu Cheng was not pretentious. Not to mention Zhang An's home, he came to Changqing Village several times a year and was already familiar with the place.

But he didn't go anywhere. After sending everyone to help in Zhang An's orchard, he continued to stand on the ridge of the field and watch Zhang An and his son work the fields.

"Zhang An, why don't you let me give it a try? I've never done this before in my life."

After watching for a while, Lu Cheng felt a little itchy when he saw Zhang An driving the horse to plow the field.

Although he had never done farm work before, he actually wanted to go to the fields to experience it.

"Don't, Dahei has a bad temper and you can't control him. You should find something else to do."

Zhang An refused on the spot because it was dangerous to drive animals to plow the fields.

After all, Yang Laoliu was almost killed by a cow in the field yesterday and is still lying in the hospital.

Although horses are different from cows and do not have horns, the damage caused by horse hooves is no less than that caused by cow horns.

It's just that one is piercing damage and the other is blunt damage.

With the lesson of Yang Laoliu yesterday, even Taxue, who has a gentler temper, would not let Lu Cheng plow the field.

"You are so boring. I finally wanted to experience how hard it is to get food, but you don't even give me face."

Seeing that Zhang An refused directly, Lu Cheng pretended to be unhappy.

In fact, he wanted to give it a try because he saw Zhang An holding the plow and driving the big black plow to plow the fields smoothly.

"My family will be planting rice in a few days. If you really want to experience it, then stay here for a few more days. There will be plenty for you to experience. For example, plowing the field. Yesterday, someone in our village was plowing the field and was pried open by a cow. He just survived and is now lying in the hospital."

Zhang An rolled his eyes. If he wanted to play with horses, then he wanted to play with horses. What was he talking about experiencing life?

If you really want to experience it, then come over during the rice planting season in a few days, and you will definitely be able to experience it.

"What? Cows are so dangerous. Aren't cows said to be very docile animals?"

This was the first time in Lu Cheng’s life that he heard of someone being injured by a cow.

After all, he was used to seeing old cows being led leisurely, and even some children could be controlled.

"Under normal circumstances, cattle are indeed very docile, but even humans have special circumstances, let alone livestock."

Zhang An had an impression of the water buffalo in Yang Laoliu's family. It was a very docile old buffalo. Usually, their children would ride it alone to go to the mountains to herd buffaloes.

There must be a reason why he suddenly attacked and pried Yang Laoliu away this time.

If it wasn't mad cow disease, then it was just a shock.

But what the real reason is, probably only their family members know.

"In fact, if you have so many fields, you can buy a plowing machine. Many places are using it now. It is more efficient than livestock and more convenient."

Lu Cheng thought about what he saw outside, all they saw were machines, and then when he came back and saw all they saw were animals, it felt like two extremes.

"Forget it. We only have a few acres of land. It's not worth buying a plow."

Zhang Anke didn't have such an idea in the short term, because domestic agricultural machinery is just starting out, and they are all large-scale machinery. It is not yet time to popularize small-scale household agricultural mechanization.

You have to know that the land in the mountains is not as flat as that in the plains, and those machines cannot handle it.

After all, this is the only province in the country that is known for having no plains. This is no joke.

However, in a few years, when the technology matures and agricultural machinery becomes common in households, we can try that kind of small machine.

Because in later generations, although there were still people farming in the village, few people raised livestock anymore, and all they sold were machines.

. . . . . . . .

It took Zhang An and his son two days to plow the fields in front of their door.

The fields that usually look bare are now covered with rippling water.

The water in the fields has become clear and bright. When the breeze blows, ripples appear in the fields.

That afternoon, Yang Laosan returned from the county town.

But as soon as he came back, he went straight to Zhang An's house.

"Zhang An, this is the money I borrowed from you at the hospital. I'm really sorry that it took so many days to send it to you."

In the past few days, the Yang family has focused all their attention on the hospitalized Yang Laoliu, and it was only today that they were able to return to a somewhat normal life.

When Yang Laosan came back from the hospital, he also took the money and brought it back to Zhang An.

"Third brother, I'm really unhappy with what you said. It's only been a few days and you've already said that. Besides, our family doesn't have much to spend money on right now, so it doesn't matter."

Zhang An knew the situation of the Yang family, so he took the money, but pretended to be unhappy.

"By the way, has the doctor told us how Sixth Brother is doing these past few days?"

"Yes, the doctor told us that Liuzi's condition has completely stabilized, but he will definitely have to stay in the hospital this month, and he can only be discharged and go home to recuperate next month."

Zhang An could be said to be the one who saved Yang Laoliu's life, so Yang Laosan told him everything he knew.

"Then listen to the doctor. Although staying in the hospital costs money, Sixth Brother has suffered a great disaster this time. It is definitely better to stay in the hospital than at home. We must not let the root of the disease develop."

Being hospitalized for such a long time means spending money, and it is not a small amount of money. For rural people, it is like cutting flesh from their bodies, so Zhang An also spoke like others to comfort their family.

"We think so too. We would rather spend more money to cure Liuzi completely. After all, he hasn't started a family yet. If he really gets sick, it will be a problem for him to find a wife in the future." It can be seen that the brothers of the Yang family are quite united and do not want to discharge Yang Laoliu from the hospital early just to save money.

"It's also thanks to you that Doctor Zhang is quite concerned about Liuzi and comes to see him several times a day."

In the hospital, Dr. Zhang would visit Yang Laoliu several times a day, which made the Yang family very happy.

However, the Yang brothers knew clearly that this was probably because of Zhang An.

After all, they saw clearly Dr. Zhang's attitude towards Zhang An in the hospital that day.

"This should be the responsibility of the doctor. It has nothing to do with me. We didn't even know each other before."

Zhang An quickly shook his head and said that even if he knew what was going on, he could not admit it.

Otherwise, if other people in the village find out, and someone goes to the hospital, they will have to ask him to find Dr. Zhang for everything. It would be bad to refuse, and it would also be bad not to refuse.

"Don't worry, we know and won't tell anyone."

Yang Laosan is also a smart man and of course he knows what Zhang An is thinking.

"By the way, Zhang An, can you help contact the butcher in town? Our cow was pried away by Lao Liu this time, so we definitely can't keep it anymore."

At the end, Yang Laosan asked Zhang An about Zheng the Butcher again.

In rural areas, animals that injure people are considered a big taboo and are no longer allowed to be kept at home.

Especially the bull from the Yang family, who almost took away Yang Laoliu this time, so he can't be kept.

So these few days, as soon as their family had settled Yang Laoliu down and had some free time, they started to deal with this matter.

"Third brother, we are all from the same village, so I will be frank with you. I really don't recommend that you sell the cows directly. You won't be able to sell them at a good price, and you will definitely lose a lot of money."

In rural areas, the buying and selling of livestock is completely different if someone comes to your door to buy and if you rush to deliver the livestock to your door.

If you find someone to buy it yourself, they will try to lower your price.

Especially when they knew that the Yang family's cow had injured someone, they were even more ruthless when it came to lowering the price.

This is the same whether it is other people or Zheng the Butcher.

Although Zhang Anjia knows both sides and can help to speak up, this is a matter of blocking someone's financial path, so it is better not to speak unless it is necessary.

“But we have to sell it.”

Mr. Yang was also very helpless, and he knew this himself, but this was a big taboo, and he had to sell it even if he lost money, no matter whose house it was.

"In fact, you don't have to sell it. You can just kill the cow and sell the meat. There are so many people in Dongli Yard, so you don't have to worry about not being able to sell all the meat. You won't lose money anyway. You may even make more money."

The Yang family was planning to sell the cow to Zheng the butcher, so the cow was destined to be slaughtered.

But think about it from another angle, since we are slaughtering and selling the meat anyway, why can't we do it ourselves?

In the past, we sold the cattle to cattle dealers because we were worried that we wouldn’t be able to sell them.

But now, with so many tenants in Dongli Yard, if each person buys a few kilograms, it will be enough.

"Oh, that's right. Why didn't I think of that? I'll go back and discuss the matter of slaughtering the cow with my family."

Hearing Zhang An's words, Yang Laosan's eyes suddenly lit up.

Changqing Village is different now than it was before. There are so many tenants here that after slaughtering the cattle, even if we don’t sell all of them, at least we can sell most of them.

By then, no matter what, the money earned will be almost the same as that from selling the cow.

So he didn't stay at Zhang An's house for long and hurried home to discuss things with his family.

At Zhang An's side, it took two days and they picked nearly half of the cherries on the back mountain.

Lu Cheng was still the same as before, looking at these huge cherries, he couldn't stop smiling.

"Zhang An, I'm going to raise the price of this batch of cherries this year. You're not an outsider, so I'll raise the purchase price as well."

The prices of cherries that were put on the market early this year have skyrocketed compared to previous years.

Seeing that people were still buying Zhang An's cherries even though they were expensive, Lu Cheng thought it would be a waste of resources if he didn't raise the price of such good cherries.

You must know that there is a saying that goes, "If you don't take what heaven gives you, you will suffer the consequences."

However, since the shipping price has increased, he will also increase the purchase price for Zhang An.

If it were someone else, he might not bring up this matter on his own initiative, but since the other party was Zhang An, he was willing to give up some profits.

On the one hand, everyone has a good relationship and gets along well with each other on a daily basis, so he would not do anything to eat alone.

In addition, he wanted to continue to consolidate the channel with Zhang An and continue the cooperation.

If he were Zhang An, with such high-quality products, he would not have to worry about not being able to sell them.

"It is indeed time to raise the price. Prices have been rising over the past two years. If we continue to sell at the previous price, it would be a real bargain."

In fact, even if Lu Cheng didn't take the initiative to speak, Zhang An would find an opportunity to discuss it with him. He didn't want to sell such a good thing at a low price.

Because the prices in the past two years have been changing every day, and will become even more outrageous in the future.

The price of cherries has skyrocketed in the past few years.

That night, the Yang family had already decided to slaughter cattle and buy meat themselves, and specially invited Zhang An and his family.

There was nothing else to do, he didn't have to pick the cherries himself, and the rice seedlings could wait for two more days, so Zhang An readily agreed.

When the time comes, I can sell more beef, which can help the Yang family sell their goods.

The next day, after sending people up the mountain to pick cherries, Zhang An brought Xiao Siqi to Yang Laosan's house.

The person who performed the surgery was Mr. Huang, and not many other people were invited.

After all, the cow is slaughtered for selling meat, and you can't invite a large number of people to it like you do with the New Year pig.

But even so, when the cattle were slaughtered, there were still many people coming to watch.

After all, although the village slaughtered pigs, it rarely slaughtered cows.

And if we don’t count the skinny cow that Zhang An slaughtered last time, this is really the first time.

However, most people came to see the bull's reputation of having stolen a person's property.

A long time ago, this was called pest control, so there were many people watching.

Although Mr. Huang was not a butcher, his hand was extremely steady when he stabbed the cow. The cow did not run around after he stabbed the knife into the cow.

However, it may also be that Zhang An and others tied the cow too tightly, causing it to be unable to move even if it wanted to struggle.

(End of this chapter)