Good farming at the foot of Changbai Mountain

Chapter 101 Three years later
Time flies, time flies, and in a blink of an eye, three years have passed.Jinghan is already 15 years old, she is a big girl.In the past three years, the Xu family has also undergone many changes. The first point is that more and more ginsengs have been planted.Last year and the year before last, we had to pay sixty feet of ginseng soil every year, which is a lot, and it is enough to hand in almost all of the sticks for a year.The old man was very distressed, but there was nothing he could do. If he wanted to grow up, he had to invest in it.

The second is that the tussah silkworms bred by Jinghan have been very profitable. The year before last, they sold more than 600 taels of silver, and last year it was even more, with more than 900 taels.This year, Jinghan hatched 300 seed cocoons, and it is estimated that there will be an income of [-] taels by then.Mrs. Chen collected all the money and kept it alone, and it was not mixed into the family's money.Raising so many tussah silkworms is naturally not something that Jinghan and a few people can catch up with.Fortunately, the year before last, Zhixiang sent two families back to his family, both of whom were honest people who left their homes in order to survive because of the drought in the south.

For these two families, the old man did not let them stay at home to serve the family members, but put them all in the Shenchangzi and asked them to work on the mountain.There are four girls in the family, all about the same age as Jinghan, so Jinghan led them to raise tussah silkworms, mushrooms, pigs and geese together.The mushrooms grown by Jinghan also grow very well. The fungus alone can produce two to three hundred catties a year, and Hericium erinaceus can produce more than 100 catties, not to mention the yellow elm mushrooms that are sold in winter.Mushrooms alone can be sold for three or four hundred taels of silver in about a year.

Now there are five or six hundred big geese and six or seven pigs raised on the mountain. The pigs dare not raise too many. After all, these things will eat part of the food.In winter, the ganders are killed and transported to restaurants in the town for sale.The winter in the north is very cold, and the meat can be kept outside for a long time.In addition, Baiweilou and Xu's family have cooperated for many years, so the price they gave is not low, so they can sell some money back.And those plucked goose feathers were kept by Jing Han. She wanted to make some eiderdown blankets or eiderdown quilts, but she was too busy and didn't have time to make them, so she put them there for the time being.

It was March in Yangchun, the season when all things revived, and Jinghan put the silkworm cocoons in the incubation room to heat up and hatch.With the help of those four girls, they are not so busy.

Jinghan was in the room, while fiddling with the silkworm cocoon, she was telling the four girls beside her how to operate it.A person came in outside and saw that Jinghan was still busy, so he said, "Jinghan, why are you still doing this? Tomorrow is the day when the elder sister gets engaged, didn't grandma say that? Let's go down the mountain today and take care of yourself." Get ready, elder brother Pengcheng is coming to hire tomorrow." The visitor was tall and strong, with the boldness and handsomeness of a man from the Northeast.The person who came was of course Wen Cheng, who had become more stable in the past few years.

Jinghan looked back at her second brother, "I see, isn't this turning over these silkworm cocoons? Besides, I have to teach Honglian and the others this work." Honglian, of course, was the name of a girl beside her. up.Of course their original names were not like this, Jing Han thought it was not nice, so they changed it.Now the two girls from the Wang family are called Honglian and Hongshao, and the two girls from the Fang family are called Luping and Luluo.Hong Lian is the biggest one, and she is sixteen this year, so Jing Han will leave the general affairs to Hong Lian.

Yue Pengcheng's feelings for Jingya have not changed, on the contrary, after experiencing all kinds of troubles from Jinghan, he cherishes this emotion even more.Finally at the beginning of this year, the two families agreed on the marriage.In the end, it was agreed that the engagement would be on March [-]th, that is, tomorrow.In fact, the two families have long been happy to see the success of this marriage, and have long planned to settle the marriage for them.But by coincidence, Pengcheng's grandmother passed away suddenly in the winter of the previous year, so Pengcheng had to observe the filial piety period for a year, which was delayed.As soon as the filial piety was over, the two families hurriedly discussed the matter of engagement, after all, Peng Cheng was not young anymore.

"Second girl, you can go down the mountain without worry, we have been working on this thing for a year, and we understand everything. Besides, you won't be able to live in the town for a few days, so it's fine." Hong Lian said quickly.

Jing Han nodded, and had to give a few more instructions before leaving the house, going back to change clothes and preparing to go down the mountain. "Second brother, do you want to go south with third uncle in a while?" Jinghan asked while walking.Wencheng and Zhiming have been traveling between the northeast and the south since last year, transporting some medicinal materials and special products from the north to the south to sell, and then bring back a batch of medicinal materials from the south.Running back and forth like this, I actually earned a lot of money, and the ginseng at home was actually sold at a good price.If you don’t go, you don’t know that the price of ginseng in the south is more than twice that in the north.

"No, this season is not a good time to collect medicinal materials, so my third uncle and I will stay at home for a while, and we will not go out until autumn. It happens to be at home to help with the work in the field." Wen Cheng replied.In the past two years, thanks to the joining of the Fang family and the Wang family, the work on the mountain has become less busy, and it happened that Zhiming and Wencheng had time to go out.

Jinghan went back to the house and changed her clothes, then drove the carriage down the mountain with Wen Cheng.Jing Wan and the others had already gone down the mountain to help the family. Jing Han was only thinking about silkworm cocoons, so she lingered until today before going down the mountain.

The horse-drawn cart was much faster than the ox cart, and it took about an hour and a half to reach the town.The two brothers and sisters came to the door of Xu's house. Wen Cheng knocked on the door, and an old man inside opened the door, "Yo, it's the second young master and the second lady who are back." I couldn't do it either, so I stayed in the town as a porter.After all, the Xu family also has people coming here often, so it doesn't look good without a concierge.Last autumn, Zhixiang was sent an official to a county under the jurisdiction of Anzhou, and became the county magistrate.This is just a step Lu Binghao found for Zhixiang to enter the officialdom. As long as there are no major mistakes, he will naturally have the opportunity to be promoted in the future.So the Xu family's children are called young masters and young ladies, which is nothing.

The two brothers and sisters entered the door and came directly to the residence of Mrs. Chen and the old man. Sure enough, everyone was chatting there.

"Jinghan, you girl, you are finally back. I thought you were going to grow up on the mountain. Your eldest sister is getting engaged tomorrow, so why are you not in a hurry?" The moment Xue saw her daughter, she kept thinking.

"Mother, with you here, what else can I do? It's the time when silkworm cocoons are hatching on the mountain, so of course I should pay more attention. Where's my eldest sister? Why didn't I see her?" Jinghan looked around the room, there was no Jingya.

"Your sister is in the back. Your sister-in-law made new clothes for Jingya, and your sister went to try on the clothes." When Chen saw Jinghan, she beckoned for Jinghan to come to her side. "Come on, girl, come to grandma. You have been on the mountain for more than half a month, right? Be sure to pay attention this year, don't get tanned. It's hard to raise well this winter. You are fifteen years old. It's time to find your in-law's family. When your eldest sister's marriage is over, I will discuss your marriage with Jing Wan. In the past few years, our family has had a lot of happy events." Mrs. Chen took Jing Han's hand, but just in time Feeling the thin calluses on Jinghan's hands, I feel a little distressed.

"Jinghan, you have four girls by your side now, just let them do things if you have something to do. Look at this hand, alas, if you hadn't been so busy these past few years, how could our family be where it is today? It's because of you , look at this hand, it’s full of calluses.” In recent years, because the family has purchased a lot of ginseng soil, basically there is nothing left after the sticks in the field are handed in.Judging from the participation fee and the money for blocking the hammer, it is just enough for the family's expenses.Fortunately, Jing Han managed to get tussah silkworms and mushrooms, which is considered to have saved some money.

Jinghan smiled, "Grandma, why are you talking about this? After two years, our family will be able to turn around. By the way, did my father go to the county town to apply for a deed to buy land?" ?” This year, the village did not make ginseng soil at the place they were looking at, and had already chosen another place.But the Xu family couldn't bear to stay here, so Zhixin and the old man found a forest near the ginseng land and wanted to buy it.The terrain is not as flat as those chosen in the village, but it doesn't take too long to plant sticks.

"It's done. The forest is ten taels of silver per mu, and it can be exempted from taxes for three years in the future. It just so happens that you bought the forest with the money you used to raise tussah silkworms. Jinghan, wait for the family to open it later, and then spend the money on it." Return it." Zhixin said on the sidelines.In his heart, he always felt a little sorry for his daughter. These things were earned by her daughter so hard. They should have been kept as a dowry for her daughter, but now they all bought land.

"Father, you're wrong to say that. The money belongs to our family. Am I not from the Xu family? Besides, if the big guys don't help me, I'm the only one who can earn it Where is the money going? I said at the beginning that there is no need to keep it alone. Okay, don’t talk about it in the future, so what do Jing Wan and Jing Xian think? They both have contributed a lot.” Jing Han has always been I like what family members say. If she meets a family that treats her badly, of course she must hold on to the money in her hand to find a way out in the future.But that's not the case now, why should I care so much about money?Anyway, the family members will not lose me in the future. Looking at it now, when I get married, a generous dowry is inevitable.What more do you want?Would it be impossible to take all the money in the family away?
Jing Wan and Jing Xian on the side laughed, "Second Sister, we have no idea at all. If it weren't for the help of grandparents and uncles, my father would not know what would have happened. He sold the house for this family. Now, if sister Jinghan hadn't told me to go and see Shen, I really wouldn't know where I am now. Now I'm just helping the family with some work, what do you think?"

(End of this chapter)