Chapter 31 Second Update: The Pigsty

Ye Yu performed as usual, relying on his brute force and never falling over. On the other side, Han Jing, Xu Fei and others were also struggling to adapt.

The wheat fields didn't need so many people today. Han Jing and Xu Fei didn't plant wheat. They were transferred to plant soybeans.

Soybeans are often intercropped with sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes. The main purpose is to fertilize the land. The sweet potato and potato fields that need to be intercropped with soybeans have already been planted after the sweet potatoes are harvested, and now only the corn fields are left to be planted.

The reason why corn fields are not planted immediately after corn is that the corn stalks need to be cleaned up before planting soybeans, which is also a big project.

Han Jing and Xu Fei were assigned to clean corn stalks, a job that requires more strength than skill.

But that doesn’t mean that technology is completely unnecessary.

It takes skill to cut straw, and it also takes skill to bundle straw. After drying, straw can be used as firewood. Every household can get some, including the educated youth centers. Even transporting straw requires skill. It is not impossible to rely on strength alone, just like Ye Yu who broke all the obstacles with one force, but their strength is obviously not enough.

Fortunately, his teammates helped him.

Uncle Hong, the leader of the second team, is a man with a vision. He is willing to accept Han Jing and Xu Fei because they are young men after all. Even if they cannot do their job well now, they may still be able to do it well in the future. At their age, they can still work for many years.

In fact, Uncle Hong wanted to be assigned to Ye Yu, but unfortunately Ye Yu was snatched away by the third group.

Why didn't he see that Ye Yu was a potential stock at first and thought she was a delicate person who lived in the city? The main reason was that he was blinded by her appearance when he secretly went to see her on the afternoon when the educated youth came.

When Uncle Hong thought about this, he felt regretful. He felt that he was always smarter than other team leaders, but in this matter, he was always shooting geese and got his eyes pecked by them.

However, since he had already taken over Han Jing and Xu Fei, Uncle Hong was prepared for their poor performance in the beginning, and specially assigned two experienced veterans to guide them.

With the help of the veteran, Han Jing and Xu Fei were much better. They were no longer as clueless as they were on the first day. At least they had a reference and were finally getting the hang of it.

But physical labor is physical labor after all, and the fatigue and hardship cannot be changed.

Han Jing and Xu Fei cut straw for an hour. Their waists were sore, and the corn leaves scratched their faces and hands, making them itchy and painful. There were also unknown small flying insects.

When the whistle sounded, the village accountant made a round inspection. The two of them each earned 3 work points in the morning. This result was not excellent, but it was not particularly lagging behind.

Han Jing was very happy and boasted that he had made a lot of progress compared to the one work point he earned a day. Xu Fei, who was so tired that he sat on the ground, also cooperated and high-fived him.

The villagers didn't understand what they were so proud of. Three points was almost the worst level in the group. Some people were not proud of getting full marks. They were really surprised.

But smart people like Uncle Hong or some of the older generation looked at Han Jing and the others with satisfaction and even appreciation.

Although the work of these two guys is still average, they have open personalities and no bad intentions. They just do their job and study hard. What the team fears most is those who do bad things behind the scenes. Character is more important than anything else.

Compared with Ye Yu, Han Jing and Xu Fei, Hua Feifei's job is much easier, especially because the team leader of the fourth team is Aunt Bai Yun, the women's director of the village.

As a female cadre, Aunt Bai Yun is highly conscious and often rushes around to deal with family conflicts of all sizes in the village. Although she may not always solve them all, she is definitely enthusiastic about it, and she also has a natural sympathy for women.

Hua Feifei is not only a young girl, she is also thin and small like a child, with a cute apple-shaped face. Her mouth is very sweet when she is not facing Ye Yu. Naturally, she receives sympathy from many aunts and grandmothers, including Aunt Bai Yun.

This morning, Hua Feifei didn't even have to go to the fields. She just helped the two aunts feed the pigs. The two aunts were also villagers who were close to Aunt Bai Yun. They were all very enthusiastic and cheerful, and had more kindness than malice towards the educated youth.

All the pigs in the team are raised in one area, about five to eight per year. The exact number depends on the specific indicators allocated to each production team by the commune.

There is no production team that is not happy to raise pigs.

If you raise six pigs and hand in four, all the villagers can get two pigs at the end of the year; if you raise eight pigs and hand in five, there will be three left; if you raise ten pigs, there will be four left.

The more pigs you raise, the more meat you will get at the end of the year.

Of course, raising pigs is not without risks.

Swine fever was the biggest risk. After working for more than a year, we ended up with nothing. To prevent the pigs from getting sick, there were usually only two people feeding the pigs. If a nearby brigade was infected with swine fever, even the people who went up the mountain to cut grass for the pigs were fixed people, and they did nothing else except feeding the pigs.

In addition, there are standards for raising pigs.

All the pigs submitted must meet the standard, that is, weigh at least 120 kilograms. If this is not achieved, the pig-raising target for next year will be reduced. If it exceeds 120 kilograms, the excess pork will be purchased by the Agricultural Science Station at a price of one or even several yuan, and then converted into dividends and distributed to the villagers.

120 pounds may not sound like a lot, but the team couldn’t buy pig feed to ripen the pigs.

Hua Feifei started by learning how to make pig food with her aunts.

The main pig food of this era included wheat bran, bean cakes, and pig grass.

Wheat bran, also known as wheat bran, is a by-product of wheat flour processing as the name suggests; bean cake is the oil cake obtained after soybean oil is extracted.

My aunt said that wheat bran is chewy, and bean cakes are softer and finer than wheat bran, so pigs like them more.

"How did Auntie know that?"

As soon as Hua Feifei said this, the two aunts laughed. She was not stupid and immediately realized that she had made a joke.

Why do people know the taste of wheat bran bean cakes? Of course they have eaten them! Why do people eat pig feed? In times of food shortage, of course, there was not enough food, and it was a last resort in times of famine.

Hua Feifei realized that her question was similar to the historical question "Why didn't Emperor Hui of Jin eat meat?" She rubbed her face awkwardly and said, "Sorry, I made a joke again."

"It's okay, it's okay," the auntie on the other side waved her hand, "You people in the city eat commercial grains, which are all flour without husks. I don't know if the bran is useless."

Hua Feifei would certainly not say anything about the staple food in her hometown, rice and flour were all fine flour, and wheat was nowhere to be found even with a lantern.

Another auntie exclaimed: "This bean cake is not only better than wheat bran, but also more nutritious. Pigs will grow fat if they eat it. It's a pity that there is not enough of it."

Who in the team can produce so much oil? Soybeans are a kind of food.

Moreover, there was no oil press in the village, so people could only go to the Red Flag Brigade or the town to press oil. They had to pay for each press, and there were not many oil cakes left.

Of course, wheat bran and oil cakes alone are not enough to feed the pigs, so pig hay is needed at this time.

Pigweed is mostly wild grass on the mountains.

There are more than one kind, there are mulberry leaves, garlic stems, duck toe grass, sticky cabbage, ghost needle leaves, etc. If it is not enough, add some sweet potato vines, chop it up, chop it and boil it.

There are the most types of pigweed in spring and summer. Not only that, but older wild vegetables, such as Amaranth, Swiss chard, and ground moss, which are edible by humans, can be fed to pigs. Rotten cabbage leaves can also be fed to pigs, but the latter are basically not available.

In autumn, the pigweed on the mountain will become less and less as the weather gets colder, until the cold winter with snow.

At this time, you need to store more dry grass for the pigs, and pay a little attention to the amount of each meal. If they eat too much, there will be nothing left, and if they eat too little, they will not only fail to gain weight, but will lose fat.

The end of the year is also the time to hand in pigs to the agricultural and sideline station. Around the Spring Festival, the village slaughters pigs and distributes the meat. Many children in the village look forward to this day.

After a busy year, there must be some meat on the dinner table on New Year’s Eve. If it is a bowl of braised pork, it is worth showing off all day long.

"There are really people who show off." While chopping pig grass, the aunt talked about funny things that happened in the village.

Many people eat meat during the Spring Festival, but not necessarily during the Spring Festival. After eating meat, they will smear the meat on their mouths, making it look greasy, and then wander around the village for a day.

“Hahahahaha——” Hua Feifei laughed, “We actually have this in our city too.”

Eating meat is indeed something worth showing off.

Chopping and boiling pigweed is indeed not a particularly complicated task. Hua Feifei is not really an expert at cooking. She has good cooking skills.

After the pig grass was cooked, the two aunts took Hua Feifei to the pigpen to feed the pigs.

There are five pig pens in the village, each half a person's height, surrounded by fences. However, three of them are empty and only two have pigs in them, a total of six, which is not a lot.

My aunt said that after the captain took office, he went to look for his comrades in the town. The target was already higher than before. The pigs were well raised, and there was a possibility that the target would be increased next year.

The two aunties poured the pig food into the pig pots respectively and knocked on the pig pots a few times with a wooden stick. Hearing the sound, the pigs came over happily.

They ate so happily and deliciously that Hua Feifei even felt a little hungry and touched her stomach.

Feeding pigs is not difficult for Hua Feifei, but cleaning the pigpen is a bit difficult.

But Hua Feifei's self-hypnosis was much better than pig manure, until she heard that they were also required to carry the pig manure in buckets to the empty field next door, cover it with stream mud, and use rusty iron to pound it into gray piles, waiting for other members of the production team to come and take it.

"…Pig manure is a good thing. It can fertilize crops. All our food comes from crops."

Hua Feifei nodded with difficulty: "I can." She was not an ungrateful person.

Compared to working in the fields, the job introduced by Aunt Bai Yun is really suitable for her. It was specially arranged to take care of her.

And it was because an aunt felt that the work points earned from this job were too few, especially in the autumn when it was impossible to go up the mountain to cut pig grass, so she gave it up. If it weren't for this coincidence, she wouldn't have gotten it.

Hua Feifei spent the whole morning studying and didn't do any work. She only got one work point, but compared with the last time, she was really satisfied.