Chapter 63 Like New Year's Eve

"If there are girls who want to learn, they can come. There are girls' classes." When Su Bucheng saw Su Ying, he remembered what he had promised Xiaotao and A Lu to study.

"Girls' class?" The village elders hesitated. "Is it also taught by the young master?"

Although they are down and out, the young men of the Su family are all around fifteen, sixteen or seventeen years old, and the age difference is not that big. It is not appropriate for them to stay in the same room. It would be fine if they were men in their thirties.

"I am not very talented, but I can recognize a few words." Su Bucheng pointed at Su Ying.

"Look at our brains!" The village elders patted their heads. Why didn't they think of the girl from the Su family?

How could such a smart, capable and knowledgeable girl be illiterate?

"Since it's a girl teaching, we feel relieved. We'll ask and see how many children in the village are studying. But..." Some village elders had concerns.

"Just what? Just tell me!" Su Bucheng said.

“There are no more spare houses in the village, so where will the village school be run?”

"Yes, where can we find an empty house in a short time?" The village elders thought of the most realistic problem, and they were both happy and worried.

"Let's do it in my yard! We can set up a tent under the sky and hold classes as long as it doesn't rain." Su Ying said.

Setting up a village school is not easy. Besides the venue, you also need desks, blackboards, pens, inkstones, and books...

Things were piling up at once, with busy farming, digging fern roots, kudzu roots, etc., and there was no time even to pick up mountain products.

She wanted to grab everything, but she couldn't grab anything. She had no money, no resources, and insufficient labor. Su Ying felt overwhelmed.

"Well, this is all we can do for now! We can slowly add more when we have free time." No one could think of anything better at the moment.

Everyone was embarrassed to mention the tax. If they really had to pay it, only two or three children in the whole village could afford it. Fortunately, the Su family said they didn't want it.

"That's all for now. Once we have sorted out these things, we can consider other things!" Su Ying said to her father.

"Village Chief, let's split up and send some people to count the children of certain age in the village. The rest will dig up fern roots and kudzu roots. Let's make some today and see how it goes."

Su Bucheng said to the village chief.

"Old Zheng, you and Old Pei should register the school-age children from each family and bring the stone mortars, wooden hammers, filter racks, filter cloths, etc. to my house. We will go and dig fern roots and kudzu roots! Let's get some out today for everyone to see." Old Man Yang arranged.

After leaving the village chief's house, the two groups went their separate ways.

Old Zheng and Old Pei went to the village and notified every household.

Old man Yang took Su Bucheng, Su Ying and others and headed straight for the hillside not far away.

Soon the news spread throughout the village, and soon many women and children came carrying baskets and hoes.

The strong men were all busy turning the soil in the fields and couldn't get away.

There are large patches of dried ferns on the hillside, and it is hard to believe that the roots underneath can produce food.

With a hoe, a fern root as thick as a finger was exposed. "Aying, can you really grind it into powder?"

The women all called her "Aying Aying" affectionately, especially those who had daughters at home who wanted to attend girls' classes.

"Whether it works or not, you'll know when you go back later." Su Ying smiled.

"What Ah Ying said makes sense. We'll know whether it works or not when we get back. It's just a waste of energy. Dig!" The women rolled up their sleeves and worked hard.

Back then, these were all ladies who were lazy and didn’t know the difference between grains. But now, looking at the wild vegetable roots all over the mountains, their eyes light up, they are all treasures!

Fern roots are shallow and easy to dig, while kudzu roots are deep and intertwined, so Su Bucheng and the village elders and other men went to dig them.

They found the kudzu vine with forked leaves and lifted it up, followed the vine to the root, and dug hard, digging a hole more than one meter deep, revealing kudzu roots thicker than an adult's arm. The old men in their sixties cheered like children.

In the past, I only knew that it was a medicinal herb and that kudzu could be used for weaving, but I didn’t know that it could be used as both medicine and food.

When I see the chubby Ge Gen, I want to hug him and kiss him!

The hillside was filled with exclamations, and the men in the fields were itching to join in.

In such a small village, news spread quickly, as if it had wings. Within a few minutes, everyone knew about setting up a village school and making fern root and kudzu root powder.

"Only dig out the thick ones of kudzu root, and keep the ones that have not grown big. We can dig them out next year when they grow big." Su Ying was worried that everyone would get excited and cut the weeds completely.

"It's a lot of money! We still have a long way to go, how can we use it all up at once? We still have to rely on it to peel hemp and weave ramie cloth every year!" the women laughed.

In addition to paying taxes and grain, farmers also had to pay a certain amount of cloth, including linen, ramie, and silk, with the variety and quantity adjusted according to local conditions.

These cloths are not woven randomly. There are requirements for length, width and density. Those that fail the inspection will not be accepted.

At that time, fine silk could be used as currency.

In less than two hours, the backpack filled with fern roots and kudzu roots came down the mountain and fell by the stream.

Gao and another group of women were waiting there and began to clean.

There were so many things that had to be carried back and forth that Gao asked someone to tell her that there were too many to wash.

The people on the mountain stopped working reluctantly, and when they looked up, they saw that a large area of ​​the ground on the hillside had been turned over without them noticing.

Everyone was chatting and laughing by the stream, washing out a small mountain of fern and kudzu roots into a basket and carrying it back home.

Yang Dalang, Pei Sanlang and several other strong men dropped their work and came to help.

The big wooden hammer hit the fern roots in the stone mortar again and again, turning them into a slurry. The roots were taken out and wrapped in filter cloth. Clean water was added to the wooden basin and the roots were rubbed continuously until brown juice flowed out.

Repeat several times until no more brown juice comes out.

The muddy water in the wooden basin is poured into a large water tank to settle, and the rubbed fern root residue can be fermented and used as fertilizer.

The same steps are used for kudzu root, but a filter rack is used when filtering because the kudzu root is too large to be rubbed by hand.

The village chief's yard was crowded with people, just like it was New Year's Day, with adults and children, men and women all there.

"Aying, this muddy water, can it really produce starch?" Everyone looked at the seven large jars full of brown-red juice, afraid that their joy would be in vain.

"Of course. By this time tomorrow, the first round of precipitation will come out, and then you will be able to see the stratification." Su Ying said calmly.

As expected, kudzu vine produces a lot of powder. Seven large vats were used, and only three vats could be made from so many fern roots. The same amount of kudzu vine produced four large vats, and there was still half a vat left. The village chief took out his own water vat to fill it.

"Okay, let time take care of the rest! Tomorrow, pour out the residual water and add clean water to settle it. The day after tomorrow, pour out the water and you can take out the starch below and dry it in the sun.

After drying, they become fern root powder and kudzu powder, which can be stored for a long time.

It can be brewed with boiling water or made into noodles.

Noodles are not easy to break, are durable in storage, and can be used as a dish or a staple food," Su Ying introduced.

"Is it that simple?" everyone asked.

They thought it was a complicated process, but it turned out to be so simple. They didn't know that

Come to think of it, who among the rich would care about the things that poor people eat?

"Of course!" Su Ying nodded. "We can make more vermicelli during the slack season and sell it to make money."

"Is anyone buying this?" Everyone thought it was okay to eat it, but selling it...

The rich look down on it and the poor are reluctant to give it up.

Wouldn’t it be better to dig it up and process it yourself? Who would waste the money?