Chapter 157 Reward

Everyone was stunned. They were so happy that they forgot that food is the foundation of everything.

It's only been a few years, how could you have forgotten the hardships of troubled times? A bowl of porridge in times of famine is worth a thousand ounces of gold in times of prosperity.

"Yes, yes, yes! Ah Ying is right! If we want to get rich, we must first grow crops! How could we be so short-sighted?" Everyone slapped their heads in embarrassment.

So everyone started to discuss how to grow sugarcane based on the existing arable land.

Whether it's farming or nomadism, everything is useless without food.

Su Ying did not participate in the discussion anymore. She had to go back and store the sugarcane tips.

"Village chief, I'll ask Manager Zhu to bring some cotton and coarse cloth next time so we can count and see how many people need them." He whispered to Old Man Yang before leaving.

"Ah?" Old Man Yang was momentarily unresponsive. "A Ying is really quick-witted! I had completely forgotten about this."

In previous years, I only went to the market in town during the Chinese New Year and used the money I had saved for a year to buy one or two things. Due to inertia of thinking, I never thought of buying something to keep warm so early.

The Su family had nothing, but other villagers had some, so it wasn't as urgent.

But now every household has extra money, so they will naturally not miss the opportunity to buy new things. Who doesn’t want to have enough food and warm clothes?

"Two hundred kilograms of cotton, twenty rolls of coarse cloth, and I'll take the rest." Su Ying said, "I have something else to do. Could you please have someone do the statistics?"

"Okay! I'll get the statistics in a while!" Old man Yang ran quickly to the village to notify every household.

"Sister!" Atang came running over from a distance, holding a piece of sugarcane in his hand.

"Is Atang well behaved at home?" Su Ying moved the little girl's head.

"Be good!" Atang nodded.

"Have you studied hard and learned to read?" Su Ying asked with a smile.

Atang was stunned for a moment and nodded. The characters taught by her brothers were very difficult and she didn’t recognize any of them, but she studied hard.

"Well, not bad! Atang is so good!" Su Ying praised in time.

"Sister, have some sugarcane!" Atang handed the sugarcane to Su Ying.

There are many people in the family, and Su Ying distributed two sticks to the family, so each person only got a piece.

Atang was reluctant to eat, and when he heard that his sister had returned, he waited by the roadside.

"Atang, eat it. I ate a lot and my cheeks hurt now!" Su Ying pushed the sugarcane back.

"Aying, what should we do with these sugarcane tips?" Mrs. Du looked at the bundles of sugarcane tips in the yard and felt worried. Could they be kept until spring?

A few Li people came in carrying sugarcane tips, threw them down and left without even taking a sip of water, saying that they were seeds that Ah Ying had sent over.

"Don't be anxious, mother. Get some wood ash first and process it before storing it." Su Ying smiled.

Mrs. Du didn't understand what was going on, so she followed her daughter's advice and got some wood ash.

Su Ying dipped the cutting edge of each sugarcane tip into wood ash, tied them into bundles and stacked them in the ditch, with each pile half a meter apart. She filled the piles with wet soil around them, covered them with sugarcane leaves, and then covered them with soil.

"Is this all right?" Mrs. Du looked at him doubtfully.

"Alright!" Su Ying patted the soil in her hands. "As long as it's not soaked by water, dig it out in the spring and plant it in the fields. Then we'll have sugarcane to eat every year!"

In the yard, Atang, Xiaotao, Zhaoyan and Bingyan were nibbling on sugarcane. It was their first time eating it, so they were reluctant to finish it all at once.

The sweetness of sugarcane is different from that of honey, and it is extremely precious to children who have difficulty eating sweets.

Su Boyan and his group of young men taught in the morning and worked in the fields in the afternoon.

A large area of ​​wasteland has been basically hoeed, and now we have to start cultivating the land and digging the rotten soil.

Farming and studying, farming and studying. Now Su Boyan and his friends are farming and studying, they both study and farm.

After several months of hard work, the boys are no longer as gentle as before. They all have rough hands and are much stronger in body.

Mrs. Du and Mrs. Wei brought out their bamboo beds and started sewing bedding.

"Burp, burp!" A piglet cried out from the corner of the yard.

"Oh, I forgot to feed the piglets!" Mrs. Du suddenly remembered that she tends to forget things when she is busy.

The family was given three piglets. Although they were small, they were very hungry. Even if we fed them three times a day, they would start crying soon.

The main reason is that there is no fine bran. Feeding only leaves is not enough to satisfy hunger. It is like people who only eat vegetables without meat. They will get hungry quickly.

Before Mrs. Du could take any action, Old Madam Su had already stood up and went to feed the pigs with the cooked pig feed.

Now the Su family has cows and pigs. The three brothers Su Bucheng worked overtime to build a bamboo shed, and they live a decent life.

Several little kids came over to watch. The piglets burped and grunted, and ate while making slurping sounds.

"Wow, they eat so much! They seem to have gained a lot of weight!" Xiao Tao found it interesting. It was her first time raising pigs, and the piglets looked different every day.

"Yeah, I think so too. You've gained weight compared to the past two days." Bingyan also thought so.

Now, apart from studying, the main task of the little ones is to collect grass for pigs.

Pig food is not difficult to find. There are plenty of vines and tender leaves, and children are everywhere picking grass for pigs.

"Let's go and pick some grass for the pigs!" Bingyan called out after watching the piglets eating.

"Okay!" Xiaotao and Zhaoyan carried the small backpacks and went out.

Atang was carrying a big backpack, but she was short, and the backpack was almost as tall as her, so she stumbled as she walked.

"Atang, why are you carrying such a big backpack? Didn't I weave a small one for you?" Bingyan was amused and chased after him with a small backpack.

"No!" Atang said with disgust.

The mini backpack can only hold a little bit, and the strong woman Su Tang doesn't like it.

"You are stupid! This backpack is heavy, you can't carry it!" Bingyan grabbed Atang, forced the small backpack into her hands, and went to grab the big backpack to carry it himself.

As a result, I couldn't grab it and couldn't pull it away even if I pulled it hard.

"Atang?" Su Bangyan looked puzzled. Why couldn't he pull it?

"Atang, be good and give the big backpack to your brother!" Su Ying saw it.

"No! Sister, I can do it!" Atang refused.

"Atang, be good! You are a child now and don't have that much strength!" Su Ying came over, squatted down and coaxed him softly.

Atang stared at Su Ying blankly, not understanding what she meant.

"Just watch what A Tao does, and do the same! Don't let anyone know how strong you are!" Su Ying leaned closer and whispered.

"Okay!" Atang understood and stopped being stubborn, and put on the small backpack.

"Sister, are you picking grass for the pigs too?" The little kids had not walked far when they heard footsteps behind them.

"No! My sister picked pepper flowers to make wine yeast." Su Ying pointed to the roadside.

"Sister, what is the koji used for? To make wine?" Bingyan asked.

"Let's make fermented glutinous rice, sour and sweet fermented glutinous rice. Do you want to eat it?" Su Ying asked.

"Yes!" The little kids were overjoyed when they heard it.

No one is in a hurry to pick grass for the pigs, but instead picks water pepper flowers.

Now that life is better, Su Ying has the leisure to do something good to reward her family.

"Hey, Aying, what are you doing?" Zheng Niangzi, Yang Chunhua and a group of widows came back carrying fern roots and kudzu roots.

It is difficult to mine raw materials now, and we have to walk a long way. We have to travel in groups of several people for fear of encountering wild animals.

"To make distiller's yeast, for fermented glutinous rice!"

"Oh, you can also make wine yeast?" Madam Zheng was surprised. "Use this to make wine yeast?"

"Yes, sister, don't tell me you can't!" Su Ying joked.

"I really don't know how! Not only me, but they all don't know how! How to make fermented glutinous rice wine? Teach me!" Madam Zheng didn't leave either.

Yang Chunhua and others also stopped and listened to Su Ying talk about how to make wine koji and how to make fermented glutinous rice.

These former nobles had eaten it before, but no one knew how to cook it.