Villager of Daming

Chapter 14 Worshiping Ancestors and Carousing on New Year's Eve
The head of Xihe Village, Feng Gui, felt bitter!He plans to follow suit and plow the fields immediately after harvesting rice next year to plant rapeseed and ramie.

The matter of borrowing large animals must be discussed in advance, otherwise other villages will make reservations first, and they will have no animals to call.

Why are you going to pay?Back then, it would have been nice if my own village didn’t collect grain for renting cattle.

He took a sip of wine sullenly: "Yichang, rent... It's also fine, you have to save it for me."

He considered that there would be grain after harvesting the rice next year, so here it is.

The head of the village nodded: "It's easy to talk about renting cattle, uh... Laosi Feng! Your Xihe Village is next to the river, so the water truck can be adjusted up and down? Get ready, in case there is a drought next year!"

The head of the village kindly reminded me that if the neighboring village is hit by a disaster, the village will be affected. If others come to borrow food, do you want to borrow it?
"Drought next year?" Feng Gui was surprised.

"I mean just in case, you have to have an idea in your heart, and don't panic when you really meet."

The village chief didn't want to be sure, the wells in the village had been dug, how to grow rice without water?
Rice is soaked in water from seedlings to harvest.

Feng Gui's gang leader Man Shangjiu: "That's the truth, I'll go back and talk about it. Sigh!"

He sighed, and glanced at the guards of Xiaqiu Village, envious, there were always disobedient people in his village, who refused to do good things and did all the bad things.

It is difficult to learn from Xiaqiu Village to raise a village guard!There are fools in the village, or two!

There is food to eat, and the kind people in the village donate a mouthful of leftovers. If there is a catastrophe, they can only starve to death.

The other two people from Xihe Village didn't talk much to others, they just ate cakes there, and didn't touch the dry goods of the soup.

Feng Gui drank two ounces of wine here, ate a cake, added soup three times, and finally ate the mutton and haggis: "Yichang, I'm going back right away, Chinese New Year is coming, I'm busy."

"I won't keep you." Li Chang got up, wrapped a catty of mutton, and handed it over: "Take it home and feed it to the children."

"How did this happen?" Feng Gui refused.

"It's not for you. You come to drink mutton soup. The child didn't get anything at home."

The head of the village forcefully stuffed it and sent it to the head of the village, Fang turned around and continued to drink.

Feng Gui held the mutton in both hands, looked back, shook his head and sighed: "What's going on in Xiaqiu Village?"

"Li Chang, 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: "Yes, there are no wild vegetables in the noodles."

The two of them didn't have the nerve to let go of the food. They only ate a pancake and drank a full stomach of soup.

"In the coming year, it seems that in the next year, there will be a round of rapeseed, and everything will be available."

Feng Gui stomped his feet and looked at it early this year, maybe he could learn it and harvest it next spring.

In fact, he himself didn't believe it. At that time, the rice had just been harvested, and the people in the village were willing to work again?The land is not his own, and if each family does not plant it, how can they force it with a knife?

Only when Xiaqiu Village charged more, the people in their own village could agree.

***
The chief came back in a happy mood, happy, compared with other villages.

"Hanhan, you give it to others, what do you eat?"

As soon as the chief came back, he saw Hanhan tearing off the meat from the leg of lamb and giving it to the other children.

"Eat, cake, soup." Zhu Wentian continued to divide the meat.

The village chief saw the children stop and waved his hands: "Eat, eat! It's just a few bites of mutton."

There was no mutton to eat the next day, but there was mutton soup, and the bones could still be stewed.

There is good news for the children. The pigs are slaughtered today, and the twelfth lunar month will be 29 tomorrow. This year, there are only 29 days in the twelfth lunar month.

In general, it should be killed yesterday. Didn’t you kill the sheep yesterday?
Today, 550 pigs will be killed, [-] people per person, and the meat will be divided according to the head, and some will be eaten, and the other families will take it back.

To be rich is to have confidence. The village now has thirty sheep, forty cattle, twenty mules, six donkeys, and five horses. The team is strong.

Zhu Wentian planned to reclaim the wasteland elsewhere in the village after the new year was over, and the newly reclaimed land would be free of tax.

It's unavoidable, anyway, planting grass, why should I charge rent for planting grass?
Plant Viola, feed animals, and people eat.

With him in the village, there is no need to worry about the livestock getting sick and dying in batches.

Take the opportunity to start raising livestock in the village, eat as much as you want, and sell as much as you want.

Neighboring villages can also help if needed.

My own village is too rich, and it is easy to cause trouble, so I lead the surrounding villages to develop together.

If the wood is beautiful in the forest, the wind will destroy it; when it is piled up on the shore, the current will be turbulent; if the walking is higher than the people, the crowd will not be against it.

"Brother Hanhan, I'll give you candy." The little girl ran over and handed Zhu Wentian a small piece of rock candy.

Before I went to Xuancheng to open the way, I bought a bunch of brown sugar, some of which were kept as medicine, and some were made into rock sugar.

So the children in Xiaqiu Village realized the freedom of rock candy, five hundred yuan a catty of rock sugar!
"Hmm! Hehehe!" Zhu Wentian said with a smile.

"Isn't it sweet? There's fried pasta at home! Go get it for you." The little girl bounced and ran away.

Zhu Wentian was in a happy mood and had a sense of accomplishment.

……

On the New Year's Eve the next day, every household fried rice cakes. The locals didn't eat dumplings, and there wasn't so much wheat.

Spring Festival couplets are posted, and there are door gods.

Burning bamboo at night, crackling.

Zhu Wentian was at Li Chang's house, put on new clothes, and was taken to the sacrificial hall.

Everyone in the village went to perform the ancestor worship ceremony.

The head of the village offered incense, knelt on the mat, cried, and told the ancestors about the situation in the village this year.

The village is rich, so they can eat meat casually, and the village guards are enlightened, leading everyone to live a good life, planting things in the ground, next year...

The head of the village cried and said, others followed suit, it was not easy, it turned out to be so hard!Now it's over.

Zhu Wentian pursed his lips, and his belief became more and more firm. What is hundreds of thousands of Wen in a village worth if he leads the village to become rich?
After crying, the chief took Zhu Wentian over to offer incense and kowtow, and boasted in front of his ancestors.

"Let's go, go back and eat meatballs, delicious meatballs."

After the ceremony was over, the head of the village gave a greeting, and the villagers, regardless of the cold weather, cooked it outside the sacrificial hall and ate a big pot of rice.

A lot of dishes, tamales, sausages, braised pork ribs, braised pork liver, fried dried mandarin fish...

When the villagers saw these dishes, their spirits changed. It was the first time that they ate so much meat during the Chinese New Year, and it didn’t cost them their own money. The envoy paid for it.

***
One night passed, and on the first day of the first lunar month, everyone was resting at home and did not work today.

Zhu Wentian led a group of children to cut paper in the Shanshen Temple. The paper they bought was in large sheets, and they had to write in lower case when they practiced writing.

After cutting, it is bound with thread, and after the children can write with wooden sticks, they can be replaced with brushes to write on paper.

Calligraphy Zhu Wentian is good at, he can't catch up with any calligraphy masters, but he is better than ordinary people.

Children don't know that things are for them, and reading is too far away for them.

Under the war, it is good that the village can avoid the flames of war. There is no place to find someone to teach, and Xuancheng is far away, and it used to be expensive.

Only the head of the village knows a few words and can count, so a clever person can help.

The imperial examinations and court schools will start only next year, and there are only dozens of places in a county, which cannot be obtained in the village.

Zhu Wentian didn't intend to go out of his way to force children from the village into it, he taught it himself.

　There is one more chapter today, and the zero point counts as today.The code word of the farmhouse is slow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)