The struggle between humans and nature for survival has never ceased.

It is endlessly joyful to fight against Heaven, endlessly joyful to fight against Earth, and endlessly joyful to fight against Man!

This was a major issue concerning the food supply for both families, and a good solution had to be found immediately. So everyone gathered at Xiaoman's house.

Not only Qiaoyun came, but even Xu Dazhu leaned slightly against Xiaoman, paying attention to things at home.

Everyone shared their opinions.

The first to speak was the experienced Grandpa Xiaoman. The old man had lived a long life and had heard more than anyone else.

"Now is the time when the beans are sprouting. If one seedling is destroyed, it will ruin the whole season. We can't afford to be careless!" Grandpa Xiaoman said with great distress.

The early discovery was entirely thanks to the old man's daily morning rounds. Now he recognizes almost all of those seedlings, and he can spot even the missing one.

"Rabbits reproduce a lot and eat a lot; a whole bunch can grow in the blink of an eye. We need to hurry!" Grandma Xiaoman added.

At this moment, she spoke through gritted teeth, wishing she could immediately tear down the rabbit pen in the corner of her yard.

Xu Errui said, "Let's make more scarecrows, both to scare away the sparrows and to guard the land!"

This is the most commonly used and most effective method.

Xiaoman nodded: "Errui is right, we're going to make straw figures today."

Rabbits are timid, especially when foraging for food; they panic at the slightest disturbance.

Setting up more scarecrows in the fields and hanging some cloth strips that rustle and move in the wind can help drive them away.

However, this only works temporarily. Once you encounter a rabbit that is bold and thick-skinned, and after a few more tests you find that those ferocious scarecrows are just fakes, the tricks stop working.

On the kang (heated brick bed), Xu Dazhu, who rarely spoke, said, "Let Xiaoman and the others find the rabbit hole and the rabbit's old path first, so we can set a trap!"

This is standard practice; catching rabbits protects crops and provides food.

Everyone was chatting animatedly, and even Qiaoyun mentioned that her family used dogs to chase rabbits.

Jiang Zhi remained silent. Born in the countryside, she had some understanding of the dangers and habits of wild rabbits.

Previously, wild rabbits were protected by law as a "three-protected" animal, but that's not the case here. If they try to take food from people, they'll die.

Rabbits are timid and nocturnal, feeding on tender seedlings and causing widespread damage in a single night.

If left unattended, the soybean and sorghum seedlings on the hillside will be gone in ten days at most, and the wheat and vegetable seedlings next to the houses will also be threatened.

Given the large area and long duration, relying on manpower or dummies would be an enormous undertaking, so Jiang Zhi devised a plan that could be implemented on a large scale.

Fight fire with fire!

It is said that rabbits eat all kinds of grass, but there are some grasses that will kill them if they eat them.

Rabbits are most afraid of the following grasses: potato seedlings, tomato seedlings, larch, golden lotus, white-headed anemone, deciduous rhododendron, wild ginger, delphinium, castor bean, white-flowered snake tongue grass, aconite, buddleja officinalis, black fairy, belladonna, water taro, camel thorn, and datura.

Simply crush these herbs into juice and sprinkle it on the bean sprouts, and any rabbit that eats it will die.

However, this method is too vicious, destroying the seedlings and killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of your own, resulting in mutual destruction and the death of both the rabbit and the seedlings, which is not worthwhile.

Besides poisoning, there are other methods.

Jiang Zhi said to Xiao Man and Xu Errui, "Go find some mugwort today, crush it, mix it with water, and sprinkle it on the hillside where rabbits frequent."

Only using mugwort? That's a bit surprising.

Grandpa Xiaoman had never heard of this method either. He asked, "Rabbits eat all kinds of grass, can mugwort work?"

Jiang Zhi said, "Rabbits can eat mugwort, but they don't like the taste of mugwort leaves. If there are other foods they can eat, rabbits will definitely not force themselves to eat something they don't like; they will choose to leave."

Our priority now is to protect the seedlings. Whether we use scarecrows or snares to catch rabbits, those can be done later.

Seeing that everyone was still a little skeptical, Jiang Zhi said that this was easy to solve. Nini was raising rabbits, and they would know whether it would work or not after just one try!

Artemisia is a wild grass, easy to find, and now it is in its prime with tender branches and leaves, full of sap.

Xiaoman found some mugwort leaves and threw them into the rabbit pen. The rabbits, who were originally hungry and begging for food, sniffed them twice and then hopped to a corner to groom themselves, completely ignoring the green mugwort leaves.

Seeing that it was effective, Xiaoman and Errui immediately carried baskets on their backs and went to find mugwort.

Grandma Xiaoman smiled and fed her rabbits a handful of grass: "If you do the right thing, I'll give you more of your favorite milkweed every day from now on."

Beside her, Nini nodded her little head vigorously: "Great-Grandma, Nini knows where the milkweed grows the most!"

She's about to use the basket her great-grandfather wove to cut grass for the rabbits.

Everyone was busy protecting the crops. Xu Dazhu lay on the kang (a heated brick bed): "Grandpa, get me some palm fiber!"

Grandpa Xiaoman asked, puzzled, "What do you need the palm fiber for?"

Xu Dazhu said, "I'll teach Xiaoman how to use palm fibers to make thin ropes to trap rabbits!"

He used to work as a charcoal burner in the mountains, staying there for a month at a time. When he had nothing to do, he would set traps around the area to catch rabbits, pheasants, and other animals to take home.

With careful attention and patience, one or two can always be caught to take home and eat.

But when a person is paralyzed, their heart is dead, and their craft naturally falls into disuse.

Hearing that his eldest grandson was willing to do something, Xiaoman was overjoyed and quickly went to find his raincoat.

There are palm trees on the mountain, but Xiaoman went out to cut mugwort and there's no time to look for them now, so I can only take off my raincoat and use the palm fibers on it for now.

That evening, Jiang Zhi and the others sprinkled strong mugwort juice on bean sprouts, melon seedlings, and sorghum seedlings with straw bundles in the direction where rabbits might appear.

They also randomly placed a few stones in the field, brushed them with white lime water, and made them shine brightly under the moonlight, which could startle any rabbits that wanted to steal a bite.

Jiang Zhi's method worked. The next morning, several people came to check and found that no more seedlings had broken.

Next, Xiaoman began to set up rope snares outside the rabbit holes, which Xu Dazhu taught her step by step.

Unexpectedly, the newbie gift pack is also here. Xiaoman caught a live one in her trap that day, which is enough to feed everyone. Xiaoman and Errui were so happy that they went to set traps every night.

With Xiaoman's meritorious service, Xu Dazhu regained some confidence and would ask Xiaoman every day where the trap was, how to place it, and point out what was right and wrong.

We also taught them how to handle rabbit skin, and their spirits improved more and more.

By May, the wheat seedlings had grown to a foot tall. Thanks to the abundant fertilizer, the seedlings were tall and strong, much to Xiaomanye's delight, whose face was filled with anticipation.

Judging from the current situation, there is bound to be a bumper harvest. He never expected that a year of famine could turn into a year of plenty.

It's a pity there's not enough land. If we had planted ten or eight acres, it would have been enough for two families to eat their fill for several years.

Jiang Zhi felt that these wheat seedlings were just average. After all, she had seen a lot of hybrid varieties and wouldn't get excited just because she saw ordinary wheat seedlings.

She's starting to cultivate seedlings again now; it's the perfect time for corn and cotton seedlings.

Actually, Xiaoman and she have always had conflicts when it comes to farming.

According to the custom of Xujia Village, there is no spring wheat, but now spring wheat has been planted, and the corn should have been planted in March, but Jiang Zhi delayed until May.