Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

Yu Qiutang knew what his third sister meant.

It's the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg.

If you want a lot of chicks, you need a lot of eggs from roosters at home, but most of the eggs sold on the market are laid by hens without roosters.

The reason is of course simple.

What people care about in this day and age is the "egg bank". Hens can lay eggs forever, and as long as you take good care of them, you can exchange them for oil, salt, sauce and vinegar.

But the rooster has no other use except being sold at the end of the year and crowing.

So, if people raise a lot of chickens, they may leave behind one or two roosters, but if they raise fewer, they will only raise hens.

If most families want to hatch chicks, they will raise the roosters and hens separately so as not to waste too much time.

But Yu Qiutang had his own plans.

After all, he came from later times, and when it came to hatching chicks, he had long since moved beyond the stage of using hens to sit on nests, and was now able to incubate eggs artificially.

In fact, hatching eggs is not difficult, and the environment is easy to simulate. The most important things are temperature and humidity. As long as you can control these two points, there will be basically no problem.

"Third sister, don't worry about the chicken. I'll find a way. You just need to be prepared for the hard work and don't worry about anything else."

"I'm not afraid of the hard work, but I'm afraid I won't be able to raise the chickens well and kill them, wasting money."

"It's not like I haven't raised chickens before, so why should I be afraid?"

It's rare for the elder sister to take the initiative to talk, and it seems that mentioning raising chickens touches on her professional field.

"That is to say, in addition to chickens, I also brought back a few sheep to get a feel for their temperaments, find out the breeds and habits of the sheep here, and develop an industry based on the mountains near us in the future.

In addition, we still have a few forest musk deer, which can also be used as a special money-making model. As long as we cultivate them well, I can have dozens of them in three to five years. The price of musk is rising day by day, and there will be many opportunities to make money in the future."

Yu Qiutang spoke with great interest, and the others were also very excited to listen. The eldest sister unknowingly slowed down the speed at which she was sewing the soles of her shoes and began to listen to him carefully.

Then he explained to everyone in more detail how to arrange it.

This is also the experience accumulated from previous lives.

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, the breeding industry here began to flourish and became a nationally renowned wool supply base.

He is not an innovator, he is just walking the path that his predecessors have walked in advance.

"Tangtang, what you just said is all very good, but don't we have to wait until next spring? It's so cold in winter now, no matter what we raise, we won't be able to grow well."

Yu Qiujiang is more rational.

"That's right," Yu Qiutang nodded. "We will have to wait until next spring to introduce the seedlings, but we can make some other preparations."

Next, it’s a very detailed matter.

On the second day, Yu Qiutang asked Wang Haofeng to harness a mule cart and took Yu Qiujiang with him to go to the city early in the morning.

When he came back, he had a cart full of wire.

He planned to build a greenhouse for hatching eggs.

After much discussion yesterday, he finally decided that it could be done in several steps, and there was no need to try to achieve everything in one go.

There is often a big gap between ideas and specific practices. You can start by doing something on a small scale and test everyone's ability to do things.

After coming back, he spent the next few days working with Yu Qiujiang, Wang Haofeng and Yu Qiyuan who had nothing to do to build the incubation room.

In fact, incubators have very professional models in later generations. For example, the temperature and humidity are kept as stable as possible, and the temperature is kept unchanged, while the humidity can be adjusted at any time.

But Yu Qiutang does not have the conditions to do so in this era.

Temperature and humidity control is only to increase the hatching rate and reduce the bad egg rate, but it is not absolute.

If it's too harsh, the hen won't be able to hatch chicks.

Even under very harsh conditions, the success rate of hens in hatching eggs is about 80 to 90 percent, with only a few eggs failing to hatch.

It is actually not that difficult to artificially simulate this process.

There were originally several large warehouses built here in preparation for the current situation, and Yu Qiutang renovated one of them.

The transformation method is very simple.

Since hatching eggs requires temperature and humidity, do your best to achieve this.

Generally speaking, the temperature for incubating eggs is about the same as a low-grade fever in the human body, between 37 and 38 degrees, while the relative humidity is controlled at 70 to 80 degrees.

Such conditions can be easily met anywhere in the south, but it is quite difficult to meet them in the Northwest, especially in winter.

The highest temperature in Rongcheng in summer is only over 30 degrees. Even in summer, the temperature for hatching eggs cannot be guaranteed, but the humidity in summer is almost enough.

But in winter, such as these days, the temperature is only minus 20 degrees Celsius during the coldest days of winter. It is not easy to raise it to 37 or 38 degrees Celsius.

The most difficult thing about winter is not the temperature, but the humidity.

The bitter northwest wind will dry up all the moisture.

People who have lived here for a long time often have chapped skin in the winter. If people from the south come to live here, their skin may be torn and they may not be able to live at all.

In this environment, without any equipment to remove humidity, the relative humidity is only about 30 or 40, which is far from the optimal temperature for hatching eggs.

Yu Qiutang did not intend to hatch immediately in winter. He just planned to build the hatchery before spring so that he could hatch earlier when the temperature warmed up.

According to the customs of people here, they like to buy chicks and raise them in spring.

The rooster will start laying eggs in the second half of the year. The best time to raise a rooster is to sell it around the Chinese New Year or kill it for the New Year.

Then you can take this opportunity to sell the chickens and make some money.

Everything depends on quantity. A chick that is only a few days old can be sold for 5 cents. If thousands of them are hatched, you can make one or two thousand yuan.

This business is stable and can be continued forever.

In the future, it can be stabilized and carried out in two parts. One part will continue to hatch chicks, which will not only be used by the general public, but can also be tried to supply chicken farms.

On the other hand, you can also develop your own chicken farm.

According to my memories from my previous life, the chicken farm’s profit curve is very long and it can continue to make money after 2010.

Raising chickens is one of the simplest and most stable types of farming. As long as you effectively prevent chicken plague, it is basically impossible to lose money.

He had an old colleague in his previous life who used to be a cook in a forest farm. Later, he saw business opportunities and went back to raising chickens. He then developed chicken transportation and eventually had assets worth tens of millions.

With the dividends of the development of the times, people who are smart and willing to take the initiative can often make a fortune, and the first person to try something new can get a good one.

The following days were relatively peaceful.

The adults had nothing else to do before the New Year. It was freezing cold and going out would make their lips sticky, so they either sat on the kang or chatted around the fire.

Yu Qiutang found time to go into the mountains twice more and caught some things, but it was not a big gain and he only made a few hundred dollars from them.

This made Yu Qiutang reaffirm his belief that hunting and mountain climbing can be used as a supplement to make a small fortune, but it cannot be used as a means of long-term development and is still worth discussing.

Another half month has passed in the blink of an eye. After the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, the village begins to get lively, and the sound of firecrackers can be heard almost every day.

"Qiu Tang, we have a lot of people this year, do you want to buy a pig and kill it?"

Yu Qiujiang asked Yu Qiutang while wiping his hands with the snow in front of the door.

These days, in addition to going into the mountains, he, Yu Qiutang, and Wang Haofeng have been busy working on the incubation network, which has now basically come to an end.

Yu Qiutang thought for a moment and said, "How about we go to the mountains and hunt two wild boars?"

"Pork raised without eggs tastes good, but it's too rough and not good for children to eat. In my opinion, we should buy a pig. We moved to a new house this year, so we should kill a pig for fun."

Yu Qiutang smiled and said, "Now that you put it that way, it's true. Then let's buy two and keep some for my father and Uncle San."

Yu Qiujiang was stunned. "Then we don't need to buy two. We can buy a bigger one and get at least 200 kilograms of meat. We can keep 150 kilograms and send 30 kilograms to uncle and 20 kilograms to uncle three..."

As for her, since she can't eat meat anyway, can we just give her something else?"

She was referring, of course, to grandma.

Yu Qiujiang basically doesn't call him grandma, but he never shirks his responsibilities as a grandson.

The reason is very simple. He said it was his responsibility to his parents.

No matter how Rui Ermei's grandmother treated their family, she was the one who raised their father. Their merits and demerits cannot be offset. They will still hate those who deserve to be hated, and they will not fail to repay those who deserve to be repaid.

Yu Qiutang smiled and said, "Life was hard before, so we could only weigh a few pounds of meat every year. Now things are a little better, so there is no need to continue to be so stingy.

You can't think about enjoying yourself after you become rich. How many years can a person live in his lifetime? Nothing can be said for sure.

Now that we have the ability, we must always strive for a little happiness.

Please help us find out in the next two days who in the village is willing to sell pigs. The price should be similar to the market price.

If not, we will go to the street to buy it.”

Seeing him say this, Yu Qiujiang thought for a moment and said, "Okay, let's have a good New Year this year."

Seeing that he was still a little unsure, Yu Qiutang added: "Don't worry about the money, Jiang Ge, I still have some money..."

"We're celebrating the New Year together, so how can we let you go out alone?"

"Let's not talk about this. I know you're not reluctant to spend money. You just want to save more for Chunju's medical treatment next year, right?"

Yu Qiujiang moved his lips but made no sound and remained silent.

What Yu Qiutang said was right. In fact, he basically doesn't spend any money. He doesn't smoke, drink, or play mahjong. He basically doesn't do anything that would cost money.

He even only thought about getting married occasionally.

The only thing that concerns him now is to get his sister medical treatment. As long as her condition can get a little better, so that she can live a normal life like other children, he will not complain about any sacrifice.

a long time.

He said softly, "Tangtang, I remember all your kindness to me. I can't speak, but you know that we grew up together, right?"

"Why are you talking about this suddenly?" Yu Qiutang smiled.

"What do you mean?"

Seeing how serious he was, Yu Qiutang stopped smiling and put his arm around Yu Qiujiang's shoulders, "Brother Jiang, why are you saying such polite words? We are not brothers, but we are closer than brothers. Do you still doubt it?

As for this person, when it comes down to it, his life is actually very meaningless.

You talk about making money, how much is the limit, and why do you make money? In fact, in the end, it is all for the recognition of others.

But is it really that important to be recognized by others?

I don’t like and don’t want a person to rely solely on money to gain recognition.

You and I are the same. We both regard family love as more important than anything else. No matter we live together temporarily now or start a family in the future and live our own lives, the love between us will not change.

Compared to our years of brotherhood, this little money is really nothing.

You don't have to worry, as long as you continue according to my plan, we may not become billionaires in the future, but there will definitely be no problem for us to live comfortably.

In the future, don’t talk about this kind of topic anymore.

I am saying this for the last time: talking too much about money between brothers will hurt feelings.”

After Yu Qiutang finished speaking, he looked at Yu Qiujiang quietly.

Yu Qiujiang also watched for dozens of seconds, and finally smiled, nodded, and put his arm on Yu Qiutang's shoulder.

Almost at the same time, the two of them looked towards the rising sun.

"Brother Jiang, our lives will get better and better."

"it is good."

On the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God is sent to heaven.

The custom of celebrating the New Year in Rongcheng begins to accelerate from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month.

The first stop is to slaughter a pig and eat the pig-slaughtering meal.

Because all delicious food needs to be cooked with meat, so on this day, every household that raises pigs starts sharpening their knives.

People here rarely eat beef or mutton.

Beef is expensive and half of the people cannot afford it.

Sheep dislike the strong smell of mutton.

In this era, people had no intention of raising goats. If there were sheep at home, basically every household had sheep.

Sheep are easier to raise than goats. They are not picky eaters, have a higher survival rate, and their wool can be sheared and sold.

But mutton is not as good as goat meat.

Lamb has a strong smell, which is difficult for most people to get used to.

For example, the most famous "mutton soup with steamed bun" was mostly made of mutton in the early years. As a result, guests from other places came here because of its reputation, but they would vomit after taking the first bite.

Later, the seasoning of mutton soup with steamed buns became stronger and stronger, and the meat was replaced with goat meat, which has a lighter taste, in order to solve the problem of mutton smell.

Precisely because of various reasons, pork is still the most mainstream meat for people here. Moreover, pigs at this time are not fed with feed at all. Instead, they are fed with bran, chaff, and various pig grasses. The growth cycle is more than half a year, almost a year.

So the pork tastes especially delicious.

The aroma of the ribs, if only stewed a little in the pot, can spread two miles away.

It is totally different from a lot of pork in later generations, which comes out of the brooding after three to five months. The pork tastes very bland, and if it is not seasoned with various seasonings, it is so bland that it is completely inedible.

On the morning of the 23rd, it was still snowing lightly, but Yu Qiutang and Yu Qiujiang got up early and went out.

They ordered two pigs and prepared to slaughter them at someone else's house. (End of this chapter)