Chapter 363 Changes in the Village

Cui Qingci looked at the heavy snow and said, "If it snows heavily tomorrow and the mountains are closed due to the snow, our store may be temporarily closed for the day tomorrow, and we can only save the brown sugar for the day after tomorrow."

The young woman was also surprised when she saw that it suddenly snowed outside. "Is it snowing again?"

Many people in the store were browsing the shelves when they felt the cold wind blowing in from the store entrance. They looked toward the door and were surprised to see it snowing.

“It’s snowing!”

"The snowflakes look pretty big!"

"It looks like it's going to snow heavily tonight."

"If this is anything like the heavy snow at the beginning of winter, there will be a thick layer of snow and it will be impossible to walk."

"Of course not. It's so cold, and no one wants to go out. They'd rather stay home and keep warm."

When it snows heavily and the weather is freezing, everyone likes to stay at home to keep warm.

"It's a bit cold if you go out."

When the weather is cold like this, people who are well-off can keep themselves warm by heating the kang or lighting a charcoal fire at home.

The villagers all chopped more firewood in advance as preparation.

When it's cold, burn firewood as much as possible.

Fortunately, there are many mountains and forests nearby, and there is plenty of firewood, so everyone can use more firewood to heat their kangs.

The kang was warm and everyone didn't feel cold anymore.

When the weather is cold, the villagers will hide in their quilts on the kang.

They would put corn and peanuts in a winnowing basket and place them on the quilt. While everyone was covered with the quilt to keep warm, they would peel the peanut skins and corn kernels with their hands.

So it doesn’t affect everyone’s work at all.

I will do more things when it is cold in winter.

Because when spring comes, everyone will go to the fields to work.

But Donghe Village is different.

The people in Donghe Village work diligently every day to cook and make brown sugar even when the weather is cold.

However, everyone is also worried that there won’t be enough bamboo in the forest by then.

Many people spontaneously planted some small bamboos and planned to plant beets in the wasteland on the mountain.

Because Jiang Zhiluo told everyone that beets can also be made into brown sugar.

Whenever people talk about it, their words are full of gratitude towards Jiang Zhiluo.

Liuhe Village, Mrs. Zhao's home

Old Mrs. Zhao sat in front of the stove, burning firewood while muttering, "Dalin, go get some more firewood from the yard and pile it inside. It's snowing outside, and the firewood is wet from the snow, so it won't burn well."

Zhao Dalin nodded and handed the spoon to his brother, saying, "Erlin, help stir it."

Zhao Erlin took the spoon and stirred the sugarcane juice in the pot carefully bit by bit.

As soon as Zhao Dalin walked out of the door, he felt a chill rushing up his neck.

He shivered, shrank his neck, and hurried to the corner to move firewood.

The cold wind was blowing, and when it snowed, it could blow up a layer of flying snow.

Some snow blew into Zhao Dalin's neck with the wind, bringing a hint of coldness.

He quickly carried a pile of firewood into the house.

The firewood in the corner of the yard was tied into piles with hemp rope.

At that time, we chopped firewood from the mountain, piled it together, and then placed it in piles on a cart to push it back.

This way you can chop more firewood and bring back more.

Of course, now the villagers will go to Xingshan Village to order carts from Jiang Zhiluo’s father.

A small cart costs one hundred coins.

In the past, people didn’t have enough to eat and were reluctant to spend a penny.

I would rather work harder than buy a small cart.

But now everyone can make money by making brown sugar. Last month, Zhao Dalin calculated that his family earned more than 1,600 coins.

He, his grandmother and his younger brother were all very happy.

This is a number they dare not imagine.

If you earn this much every month, you can save a lot of money in a year.

As their lives improved, they ordered a small cart and a bellows to be made to order.

Now almost every household in the village has a bellows.

Only after actually using the bellows did everyone understand how useful they were.

Just a slight pull and the fire will burn very vigorously.

The first family in their village to buy a bellows was the headman's.

The village head's wife, Mrs. Zhu, came out and said how useful the bellows was.

On ordinary days, it doesn’t matter whether you use a bellows or not, but when you are making brown sugar, using a bellows can save firewood, and the brown sugar can be cooked faster in the same amount of time with a strong fire.

So when everyone had a little more money, they all bought bellows.

Originally, Jiang Xiangchuan was too busy to handle it.

Jiang Xiangchuan has received a lot of orders.

Some merchants went to the blacksmith shop and saw how useful the bellows were. They saw business opportunities and ordered some bellows from Jiang Xiangchuan.

When the foreign merchant went to Jiang Xiangchuan's house to order a bellows, he saw the umbrellas displayed in Jiang Xiangchuan's yard and thought they were very good, so he also ordered a batch of umbrellas.

This deposit is quite a bit.

Jiang Xiangchuan was too busy, so he took in some apprentices.

Some half-grown boys and strong young men in the village began to learn these skills from Jiang Xiangchuan.

Everyone called him "Master" and studied hard and respected Jiang Xiangchuan.

Jiang Xiangchuan being a master does not mean that he just teaches his apprentices and lets them work for free.

He sincerely taught his apprentices the techniques of craftsmanship.

He would give his apprentice a commission for the bellows or umbrellas he made.

Get some commission for each order.

Everyone was able to make money, and they were more grateful to Jiang Xiangchuan and studied more seriously.

Of course, Jiang Xiangchuan did not accept disciples in vain.

He has lived in Xingshan Village for so many years that he knows every family's situation and every person's personality very well.

He selected some people with good temperament, diligence and good moral character as his apprentices.

Of course, these people’s parents and family members also know what is good and what is bad, and they are all sensible.

So after Jiang Xiangchuan taught his disciples, these families were also grateful to Jiang Xiangchuan.

Whenever the Jiang family has any work, these families in the village will actively help with the work.

Before dawn, the water tanks in Jiang Xiangchuan's house were full.

Every day before Ye started working, Jiang Xiangchuan's apprentices would help clean the yard and rush to do the work.

Ye was also willing to teach them how to cook.

They never thought that they could learn cooking from the master's wife.

Cooking is also a survival skill.

Everyone is grateful, so studying hard is a natural thing.

At this time, Zhao Dalin felt that the cart was very useful and took the firewood into the house.

“It’s really cold outside!”

Mrs. Zhao said, "It's cold when it snows."

"In a few days, there will be a market in Yangliu Village. If it doesn't snow, we can go there and buy some cotton to make thick cotton-padded clothes and quilts, so we won't be cold anymore."

In the past, how could Mrs. Zhao be willing to spend money?

They never go to the market to buy things.

Eat only food grown in your home fields and use only things that were previously in your home.

Use them carefully, the clothes are all patched up.

Now she is willing to buy some things before the New Year.

Zhao Dalin smiled and said, "Grandma, it's okay. It's not cold in the house. We've been making brown sugar all day and heated up the kang. We won't feel cold at all sleeping on it at night."

This is true.

I spent the whole day in front of the pot boiling brown sugar and burning the fire, and the house was warm.