Chapter 15

Autumn came in the blink of an eye. Although beans were planted much later than millet, they matured at about the same time because their ripening period was one month shorter.

The golden ears of corn on the land beside the stream swayed in the wind, and you could almost smell a hint of fragrance.

Wen Yi and his companions had been busy chasing away the birds for over a month. They had tried every possible method and could only surround and drive them away continuously, otherwise their food would be pecked and eaten by those creatures in less than half a day.

There are even more birds in the forest than outside, so they must be monitored constantly. I've considered using nets to cover the trees, but the area of ​​the plantation is too large to accommodate the nets, and the hemp nets I have are too large to keep out smaller birds.

I have also used chicken feathers. I tied them up with thin ropes, in groups of three or five, and then tied them to one end of a wooden stick and let them float in the wind. There were indeed fewer birds in the covered areas, but over time the birds became desensitized and the birds came down in a rush.

In the end, they had to resort to the most primitive method, which was to put up a few scarecrows, and the rest had to be driven away manually, circling around the fields. However, those birds were extremely smart, and after being driven away, they would fall to the other side.

Wen Yi was holding a long pole with a cloth strip tied to it, driving away the circling birds, and watching the figures in the distance begin to harvest the ripe crops.

Just hold on a little longer.

After repeating this sentence for the umpteenth time, Wen Yi started to circle around and drive away.

Last year, the crops we harvested were mainly beans, mixed with some wheat and very little millet. Today, I finally experienced the hard work of farming. When the crops are growing, someone needs to be there to watch over them. Even Amu and the other children were assigned to watch over them during the day, or help bring food and drinks.

Seeing someone passing by, Wen Yi disregarded his demeanor and leaned against the tree in a very awkward manner, shouting to Amu who was carrying a basket not far away:

"Amu, is there any water?"

Hearing the sound, Amu trotted over and poured the remaining half can of water into the pottery jar at Wen Yi's feet, then hurried to the thatched hut not far away that was originally a temporary resting place and now serves as the main residence.

A new stove was also built here to facilitate cooking and boiling water.

Seeing Amu running back again, Shan smiled and handed him a wet cloth to wipe the fine beads of sweat on his forehead, then handed him another jar of warm water with salt.

He turned around and pulled out the plug from the hole at the bottom of the large pottery jar raised with stones. On it was a simple filtering device made by Shi Wenyi, with small stones, fine sand, charcoal, etc. from top to bottom. The water coming out from the bottom looked relatively clean to the naked eye, and then it was boiled on the stove.

Shan accidentally stepped on a stone and sprained his ankle the day before, so today everyone asked him to rest here and help boil water and prepare some simple meals. At this time, he was too tired to eat any exquisite dishes.

After getting more water, Wen Yi pressed his arms and saw that they had become much stronger. He was now able to move a water tank.

Watching Amu running over, the other two children also took baskets and picked up the beans and bean pods that accidentally fell on the ground in the bean field.

“Almost there, almost there…”

Even Yao Wenjun was so tired that he started brainwashing himself. He harvested the ears of corn with the sharpened sickle in his hand, tied them into bunches with hemp rope and put them in the basket behind him, and then started the next round of harvest.

Fortunately, she never slacked off when she was learning martial arts, so she still had enough physical strength. Otherwise, she would have collapsed in front of everyone. Even though she was extremely tired now, she would definitely not be the first to fall. This was her last bit of stubbornness.

Shu, Qingping and others were used to doing farm work. When they saw Yao Wenjun, they just smiled and silently quickened their hands' movements.

The weather has been good these days, so we need to harvest and dry the millet as soon as possible, beat or crush it from the ears, and then collect it as food for the year.

This piece of land was quite fertile, and with the new farm tools, the area of ​​land reclaimed was also quite large. It took several days to harvest all the ears of corn, which were then sent back to the yard halfway up the hill.

The ground over there had been leveled when Wen Yi was burning lime. Now all the debris had been cleared out, and the battle to prevent birds from drying the ground had begun.

"Come on, come on, lend a hand."

Wen Yi carefully removed the upper part of the stone mill, placed it carefully on the ground with the help of Shu, then pulled the wooden handle and began to crush the ears of corn flattened on the ground.

"Slow down, be careful not to crush yourself." Shu saw that Wen Yi's movements in pulling the stone were a little awkward, and he even almost crushed his own feet several times by accident, so he gave him a warning.

Amu beside him also nodded in agreement.

"good--"

After pulling the roller for a while, Wen Yi also found some tricks to exert force. He circled around in the yard and rolled it repeatedly, which was faster than using something like a flail.

During this period, a fine net was woven with a wooden shuttle. The pressed millet did not take up too much space, so it was surrounded by wood on all sides. A net was pressed on top of the wood, and a few stones were placed in the middle to prevent the net from hanging to the ground. In this way, everyone only had to take care of the ears that had not been crushed yet.

After finishing the crops, we waited to level the land again in preparation for planting some plants that could survive the winter. When we arrived here last year, the planting season had already passed, and everyone was busy trying to find a way to settle down. This year, after harvesting the main crops, we had a rare moment of free time.

The amount of wild animals accumulated far exceeded everyone's needs. Even if they were dried or pickled, they would have a shelf life. Furthermore, many farm tools were already damaged. There were also seeds for other crops.

Shan and the others discussed for a while and decided that in previous years there were the most vendors walking around at this time, so it would be a good idea to find a chance to go out and exchange some things.

Wen Yi thought of the wool he had asked the group to find. He wondered what had become of the two merchants. He only hoped they hadn't lost their lives in the earlier chaos.

After deciding what to do next, several people began to divide the work. Shu and Zhongji took some food with them and moved the entrance stone to explore the way. If a caravan stayed overnight, they would come back to report and then make a decision.

The remaining people took advantage of the abundant resources in the mountains to collect wild fruits and delicacies, and set up a few traps to catch some living creatures. Those that could be kept alive had their wounds fixed and were kept alive. Those that could not be kept alive were made into bacon or dried meat as before and hung up.

The kitten, doted on by everyone, had grown into a sturdy, large cat, helping to catch mice and birds, and protecting the food in the yard and warehouse. At first, it had also tried the dried meat, but the high salt content was not to its liking, so it preferred to follow Amu and the others to the stream to catch fish.

It's even only willing to pay attention when people call it Fish Ball. The names that everyone has racked their brains for are all rejected by this little guy.

At this time, the black cat named Yuwan was following Wen Yi with light steps, walking towards the stream below.

Wooden equipment wears out quickly, and the original wheel-shaped waterwheel has gone through several versions, and the amount of water it can lift has also increased significantly.

Wen Yi made a clip on the water trough. In addition to being able to connect to irrigation, it can also be turned to flush into the small waterwheel on the other side, driving the small waterwheel and the shaft connected to it to rotate.

Connected to the shaft was a small stone mill with a diameter slightly longer than the forearm, and a small wooden house was nailed outside with wood.

Wen Yi placed the grain he had carried on his back into the upper entrance, diverted the water flow to make it rotate, and then sat on the stone bench next to it. From time to time, he used a wooden scraper to scrape the grain from above, and then scraped the ground food from below into the pottery jar next to it.

"Fishball, aren't you going to catch fish?"

Wen Yi asked the black-haired cat lying on the stone next to him. Yuwan curled himself up into a ball, ignoring the two-legged beast next to him, and stared at the small waterwheel turning outside the door.

Only then did she discover that the small waterwheel would occasionally bring small fish and shrimps to the pond below. Because the exit was blocked by aquatic plants, many of the small fish and shrimps were trapped inside.

Occasionally, when a larger fish was brought in, Yuwan, who was originally dozing off, would stand up, stir the water with his claws for a while, and the fish would be hooked up with his claws.

So this is how you catch fish?

After this place was built, she seldom came here. It turned out that the little guy followed her because he saw her bringing food and could adjust the direction of the water flow, so she could catch fish.

Zhongji usually does this job while making pottery, so it's no wonder that fish balls always follow him when he goes out.

It's just that today Shuhe Zhongji went out with a small amount of ordinary pottery and food. Wen Yi agreed to grind the food and also prepared to check if there were any major wear and tear that needed to be replaced.

After grinding the grain, he used a ladle to clean the small stone mill, then closed the latch of the sink. The black-haired cat, having eaten and drunk its fill, followed Wen Yi and left.

Obviously, only two people went out, and Shu and Zhongji were not talkative people, but the originally bustling courtyard seemed to have become much quieter.

Qingping just came back. When she saw the wicker basket that Wenyi brought back, she knew that she had ground all the food for the past few days. She asked Wenyi to sit down and have a drink of water first.

"Did Yuwan follow him down again?"

The black-haired cat smelled Qingping's scent, rubbed against her trouser legs, marked the two-legged beast with its own scent, and then jumped into the nest next to the stove to take a nap.

Wen Yi nodded, "I ate a lot of small fish, I guess I'll sleep until night."

Shan and Yao Wenjun took a few children to the mountain to pick fruits. They were the only two left in the yard, and it became quiet for a while, with only the crackling sound of burning wood.

Wen Yi was a little absent-minded, not knowing what was going on with Shuhe Zhongji.

The two people on the other side had already reached the ruins of the original village.

Houses that were left unmaintained and inhabited would quickly fall into disrepair. In addition, there was no fuel in the cold winter, so only some incombustible earth and stone walls remained.

Those earthen walls and stone walls also had new owners. There were figures huddled in the corners, mostly refugees. Seeing Shu and Zhongji, they were a little scared, and some even dropped their things and ran into the woods.

Most refugees would often make looting an instinct. When they saw people carrying packages, they would not run away. Instead, they would rush forward in fear. The two were also shocked at first, but when they saw this group of people running away, they thought that the bandits would still come to visit from time to time, otherwise they would not be so nervous.

The fields are all deserted. This place was originally beyond the jurisdiction of the city, and with the endless wars, it has now become like this.

When passing by his own home, Shu saw several extremely thin figures curled up inside.

When I walked to the edge of the village near the main road, I saw a dark shadow rushing towards this side in the distance. There were actually traveling merchants passing by?

Shu signaled Zhong Ji to retreat first, and the two hid themselves in the lush bushes, quietly waiting for the group to pass by.

They were coming from the direction of Xinyi. When they got closer, they found that there were quite a few guards nearby.

The two were a little disappointed. Anyone who could afford so many guards could not be an ordinary merchant. However, the possibility of encountering a merchant here by chance was not high. The two of them brought water bags and food, and originally planned to wait here for a few days.

The group of figures approached, and the carriages were extremely gorgeous and complicated. The guards beside them were wearing armor and bronze weapons, which further proved that they were of extraordinary status. Ordinary people would take the initiative to avoid them when they saw them to avoid getting into trouble.

It was still early, so the convoy did not stay here, but headed towards Pingyi.

Fortunately, it was already autumn, and there were not many insects and ants in the grass. I also smeared grass juice on my body, ate some dry biscuits, and then continued to wait patiently.