It took half a month to plant all the tea and fruit trees on the mountain.
Lu Qiqi took the opportunity to select a few plants and planted them in her space, thus giving her a mobile orchard.
From now on, you won't have to worry about not having fruit to eat no matter where you go.
After the fruit trees were planted, Lu Qiqi began to lead the villagers of Lijia Village to make mushroom bags in preparation for planting shiitake mushrooms.
Many trees on the half-mountain planted with fruit trees were felled, but Lu Qiqi kept the good quality timber for future use in building houses or factories.
Those mushrooms of average quality were made into wooden frames by Li Qingshan to facilitate future cultivation of shiitake mushrooms.
Even the lower-quality wood wasn't wasted; instead, Lu Qiqi made the most of it by using it to make mushroom bags.
Turning wood into sawdust takes a lot of time, but luckily we have carpenter Li Qingshan at home.
Li Qingshan led the villagers to plane the wood into shavings, and then grind the shavings into powder.
Looking at the several sacks of sawdust piled up in the corner of the factory, Madam Lu said, "Seventh girl, is this much sawdust enough to grow shiitake mushrooms?"
Lu Qiqi shook her head, saying that this was far from the amount she needed, "Not enough, at least another hundred bags would be needed."
Li Qingshan paused, his hands busy shaving the wood, and looked up at Lu Qiqi, saying, "These few bags of sawdust took two days to make; a hundred bags will take quite a while."
Seeing that a lucrative business opportunity was about to slip away, Mrs. Lu became anxious. "What should we do?"
Lu Qiqi pondered for a moment and said, "Since it's not enough, let's buy more!"
"Uncle, Aunt, do you know where in Luzhou Prefecture there are places that build merchant ships?" Lu Qiqi asked.
Li Qingshan thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he said, "I know, the dock! I can just ask at the dock."
Lu Qiqi said, "Uncle, let's not make the sawdust ourselves, let's just buy it. Building merchant ships requires a lot of wood, so there must be a lot of sawdust too."
Li Qingshan thought Lu Qiqi's method was feasible.
But Madam Lu hesitated and said, "Seventh girl, if we have to buy everything and hire people to do the work, can we really make money?"
It's no wonder that Lu was suspicious, after all, Lu Dahai and Li Changlong had been collecting rice and wheat from the surrounding villages to make wheat bran these past few days.
Li was also extremely busy, buying a lot of coarse cloth to sew the mushroom bags that Lu Qiqi had mentioned.
Mrs. Lu manages the family's accounts, and watching the money go out of her hands every day, how could she not feel heartache?
Lu Qiqi smiled and said, "Auntie, have you calculated how much profit we can make by growing these shiitake mushrooms well?"
Ms. Lu didn't know how to calculate it, so Lu Qiqi explained, "We've grown the shiitake mushrooms, and the fresh ones can be sold to nearby restaurants."
If the yield is high, we can make dried mushrooms.
"Luzhou Prefecture has such a wide canal; we won't have to worry about finding a market. Who knows, we might even be able to sell our mushrooms all the way to Xinjing (the capital)."
The blueprint for mushroom sales drawn up by Lu Qiqi moved Lu Shi deeply, and he nodded repeatedly.
In less than three days, Li Qingshan had brought all the sawdust Lu Qiqi wanted to the factory, filling it to the brim.
The wheat bran and sawdust were all in place; all that was missing was the mushroom bags that Li had been asked to make.
Fortunately, Li did not disappoint. In just seven days, the women of Lijia Village sewed tens of thousands of mushroom bags.
With everything ready, Lu Qiqi and her people mixed the sawdust and wheat bran in the correct proportions and then added diluted spiritual spring water.
The addition of spring water helps the sawdust and wheat bran bind better and also serves to sterilize them.
With many hands making light work, the villagers quickly filled the mixed mixture into mushroom bags.
Next came the cultivation of the microbial spawn, a delicate task. Lu Qiqi took out the spawn she had bought and personally demonstrated how to cultivate it to the Lu family.
She cut four small holes in the mushroom bag, then dug four small holes in the mushroom stick, put the spawn into the small holes, and covered it with a damp gauze to allow the shiitake mushroom spawn to grow mycelium, thus better developing into shiitake mushrooms.
"This doesn't seem too difficult." After watching Lu Qiqi's process of developing seven different types of fungi, Lu remarked with some emotion.
Lu Qiqi looked up at everyone and said with a faint smile, "It's not difficult, it just requires a little patience."
With Lu Qiqi's demonstration, the villagers quickly got the hang of it and finished growing all the shiitake mushrooms in less than half a month.
For the past two weeks, Lu Qiqi has been in the factory every day, watching Li Qingshan and the others spray water on the bacteria.
While shiitake mushrooms do not require photosynthesis, they do have specific requirements for temperature and humidity, which should not be neglected.
To her delight, the fir fungus that Lu Qiqi planted in her space had already grown a batch, allowing her to make a chicken stew with mushrooms.
The shiitake mushrooms are growing well in the space, with mycelium wrapping the mushroom logs. Lu Qiqi has already removed the mushroom bags from the space and is letting them grow naturally.
Before long, she will be able to harvest the first batch of shiitake mushrooms in the space.
Another half month passed.
Lu Qiqi has already harvested a batch of shiitake mushrooms from the space.
The shiitake mushrooms planted in the factory outside had also begun to sprout, so Lu Qiqi organized the villagers to remove the mushroom bags and let the shiitake mushrooms grow naturally.
Every day before dawn, Lu and Li would rush to the factory, afraid of missing any detail of the shiitake mushroom's growth.
However, before the mushrooms could be harvested, the family received devastating news.
That night, the village chief called the heads of Lijia Village to a meeting.
When Li Qingshan and Lu Dahai returned, their expressions were somewhat somber.
Lu Qiqi had just finished eating a piece of hibiscus cake, and her mouth still tasted sweet. She asked, "Third Uncle, Eldest Uncle, why did the village chief suddenly call a meeting? Did something happen?"
Lu Dahai looked somewhat tired as he said, "The village chief said that there is a plague in Heshun Prefecture, and people from several villages have already died."
"Is it that serious?" Mrs. Li exclaimed in surprise.
Lu Dahai nodded. "I heard that in the past few days, several people who were infected with the plague have escaped the control of the government."
Lu Qiqi said, "Luzhou Prefecture is the closest to Heshun Prefecture, so if these people want to escape, Luzhou Prefecture is the best choice."
Li Qingshan said, "The village chief called us to discuss this so that we would not take in people whose whereabouts are unknown."
This is undoubtedly the worst news. If the infected spread to other villages and then come under the jurisdiction of the government, it will undoubtedly be a time-consuming and laborious process.
In this era of underdeveloped medical care, it might bring utter destruction to the village.
The village chief was also thinking of the villagers of Lijia Village, so his actions were perfectly justifiable.
Mrs. Lu was extremely anxious. "What should we do? Xiao Liu, A Yao and the others are still in town. If they really run into those people, how can their small bodies withstand it!"
Lu Qiqi reassured her, "Auntie, once we hear this news, we can prepare in advance. They still have to go to school on Saturday, so just be careful not to wander off. There shouldn't be any major problems."
We'll bring Ayao and Aunt Zeng back first. Aunt Zeng is pregnant, so we need to nip this in the bud.
Upon hearing this, Madam Lu couldn't think of a better solution, so she could only nod in agreement and prepare to go to town the next day to inform them of the news.
What Lu Qiqi didn't expect was that there were far more villagers who had escaped from Heshun Prefecture than they had imagined!
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