Chapter 106 Horse sled, ice cellar, and competent Liu Dazhu

In the Beijing City Hospital, Director Niu took the letter he received to Director Gao's office.

"Lao Gao, it's done! I'll contact my grandson right away to get the stuff on the train!"

Director Gao was also very happy. Now his promotion was basically secured. What Mingdai provided them was not something that ordinary people could get.

He said, this little girl is very capable!

The couple decided to take a leave of absence in the afternoon, went home, called a donkey, and went to the train station with a cart full of things.

The train rumbled towards the north, carrying the couple's hopes.

There were several heavy snowfalls in Liujiawan again, and every household stayed indoors to prepare for the winter.

The eaves of the small courtyard outside the space were covered with icicles, which sparkled in the sunlight and looked particularly beautiful.

Mingdai was admiring them when Zhou Sinian suddenly reached out, picked one and put it to his mouth, with a crunch.

The icy cold made him shiver and he vomited.

Ming Dai sighed: "Whether it's dirty or not, just eat it!"

Zhou Sinian looked at the sparkling icy sugar and asked her, "Mingdai, why is this rock sugar not sweet?"

Ming Dai pointed to the roof and said, "That's the frozen snow that melted. It's ice, not rock sugar, so of course it's not sweet."

Zhou Sinian was a little disappointed and threw away the melted ice in his hand.

Mingdai looked at the icy ice and thought of the ice cellar in the cellar.

There is a refrigerator in her space, so there is no shortage of ice. Moreover, she can adjust the temperature of the space at will, and making ice only takes minutes.

But these are not convenient to use in summer.

During the busy farming season in summer, no matter who you are, you will have to participate in the tasks of planting rice or harvesting. It is really refreshing to have a sip of iced drink at that time.

In order to be able to drink iced drinks in the summer with a clear conscience, Mingdai plans to take advantage of this time to get some ice and put it in the ice cellar.

Mingdai cleaned the ice cellar in the cellar, took her clingy little dog Zhou Sinian to the team leader's house to borrow a flatbed truck, and went to Yudai River to collect ice.

After hearing her words, the captain was very surprised: "We didn't know there was an ice cellar in that cellar. It costs a lot of money to build an ice cellar!"

Ming Dai nodded: "We discovered this by accident. We thought we would save some while we have ice. When summer comes, we can use it to cool down."

The captain nodded and said, "That's a good idea. It's inconvenient for you to use a cart, so use a sled and bring the horses along."

Ming Dai looked at the horse, which had been trying to hide itself since they came over, and nodded: "That's fine."

Liu Dazhu immediately stood up and called out to his sons in the house: "Oldest, second, and third sons! Come out quickly, harness the sled, and go collect ice with me!!"

Ming Dai: Why do I feel like you are so excited? !

"Captain, you should go too. We don't need so much ice!"

Liu Dazhu rubbed his hands and said, "Well, Xiaoming, the educated youth, can we pick more and bring some ice to the village in the summer?"

Ming Dai thought that the more ice there was, the better the ice cellar would be. She and Zhou Sinian had never done this before, so it would be best to have someone to help, so she nodded in agreement.

"OK!"

The Liu brothers brought a large sled from the backyard, pulled the horse out and tied it to the front.

Zhou Sinian touched the sled out of curiosity, and the three brothers and the horse were trembling!

After cleaning up, Auntie Huang came out with cotton gloves in her hand, cursing: "You are so old, but you can't walk when you see ice. Do you still think you are a youngster? You guys should watch your dad and come back quickly after you are done!"

Liu Dazhu listened with a smile, not angry at all.

Aunt Huang turned to Ming Dai and said, "When the masters go up to collect ice, you should not put your hands in it, understand? What if a young lady falls into it?"

Mingdai quickly agreed.

Liu Dazhui sat on the sled, and the others climbed up one after another. Zhou Sinian was a little excited and sat on it dishonestly, so Mingdai held him down.

With a flick of the whip, the horse started running, and the sled followed smoothly.

Liu Dazhui has good skills and can turn the sled very skillfully.

Once out of the village, the pace immediately increased.

It was Ming Dai’s first time riding a sled. Looking at the scenery passing by quickly, she shouted to Liu Dazhu: “Uncle Captain, this is much faster than a horse-drawn carriage!”

Liu Dazhu cracked his whip and laughed: "Yes, the carriage will not be able to travel in the coming weather. We will have to travel by sled from now on. It will be much faster for you to go to the county town by sled!"

Mingdai nodded. This was indeed more convenient, but also colder. She closed her mouth and said nothing.

Zhou Sinian felt the rush of lightning and excitement surged in his heart. When he closed his eyes, he seemed to be able to see himself flying through the ice and snow.

He opened his eyes and said to Mingdai: "Mingdai, let's make a sled and I'll pull you!"

Ming Dai shook her head in amusement: "We don't know how to do it, we can't do it. By the time we finish it, the snow season will be over!"

Zhou Sinian frowned, a little disappointed.

The three brothers of the Liu family looked at each other.

Finally, Liu Laifu said, "Well, we have a small sled at home that we can lend to you to play with."

Zhou Sinian immediately looked at him, his eyes burning with desire.

Ming Dai pulled his sleeve and said, "Brother Liu, don't you guys need it?"

Liu Laifu avoided Zhou Sinian's gaze and said, "That is a dog sled. It was made when my grandfather was alive. Now that we don't have a dog at home, I have kept it."

Ming Dai looked at Zhou Sinian and said, "You heard it. We don't have a dog at home, so we can't do anything."

Zhou Sinian's eyes flashed: "We have it, I want it!"

Ming Dai was troubled. Where did the dog come from? It was becoming increasingly difficult to manage!

Zhou Sinian looked directly at Liu Laifu: "I want that sled!"

Ming Dai: What kind of bandit is this?

The three Liu brothers nodded frantically: "Give it to you! Give it to you! All of it to you!"

Ming Dai: . . . . .

Well, just be happy.

Zhou Sinian was happy and put on his red headscarf that had been blown askew by the wind.

The three brothers of the Liu family also breathed a sigh of relief. Ever since Zhou Sinian shaved the horse's tail in front of them, the shadow of him had grown even bigger!

Give him whatever he wants!

The sled was indeed very fast, and soon they arrived at Yudai River.

The Yudai River branches off from the main trunk of Songjiang River, meanders along the county seat of Yudai County towards the Daqing Mountain, and forms a bend at Liujiawan.

The river here is also the widest.

The ice on the river bank is now solid, but the ice in the center is not yet solid. We have to wait until before the New Year before people and vehicles can pass through.

Liu Dazhu chose an area to harvest ice. After parking the sled, he asked everyone to get off.

The tools were also brought by Liu Dazhu himself, and they are special tools for harvesting ice.

"Xiao Ming, educated youth, don't look at us as poor now. In the past, every household would collect ice and make ice lanterns at home during this season. If the ice lanterns were good, the family would be prosperous! Now only the fishery will collect ice in winter."

Ming Dai smiled and said, "Then I'll trouble you, Captain Uncle, today!"

Liu Dazhu smiled and said, "No problem, no problem. I have been collecting ice with my father since I was a child. We have ready-made tools, so it is very convenient! We have to choose a place with slow water flow to collect ice. We have to walk a little forward."

After saying this, he called on the three brothers of the Liu family to follow him downstairs.

Ming Dai and Zhou Sinian also followed, they were very curious about this artificial way of harvesting ice.

The ice on the shore was already very thick, and apart from being a little slippery, there was no discomfort when walking on it.

Liu Dazhu chose a place and started drawing lines with his son, crisscrossing horizontally and vertically, just like a chessboard.

Liu Dazhu and three others took chisels and chiseled along the line, separating the upper ice blocks while keeping the lower ones together.

At the end of the long chisel line, the ice surface was divided into large squares.

Liu Dazhu took a break and took his sons to insert the chisel along the chiseled line. Then the four of them hammered down at the same time.

“Bang, bang, bang!”

The sound of the hammer falling echoed on the ice surface, and the ice underfoot cracked. Large blocks broke away and floated on the ice surface.

Zhou Sinian watched for a while, then stepped forward and snatched the hammer from Liu Laifa's hand.

Liu Lai looked at his father with a bitter face. Liu Dazhu was having fun and had no time to pay attention to him.

Mingdai walked over and looked.

Zhou Sinian placed the chisel according to Liu Dazhu's example and started to smash down together.

“Bang, bang, bang!!”

“Crack, crack, crack!”

For a moment, everyone on the ice was afraid to move, and everyone looked at Zhou Sinian who was holding the hammer.

How strong are you!!!

"Don't move!"

Ming Dai stopped Zhou Sinian from hammering down and looked at Liu Dazhu: "Captain, do you want to stop?"

Liu Dazhu swallowed and looked at his feet: "It's okay, it's not cracked, just don't hammer it like this anymore."

Mingdai nodded quickly and asked Zhou Sinian to return the hammer to Liu Laifa.

Zhou Sinian reluctantly handed the hammer over and bared his teeth at Liu Laifa.

Liu Laifa took the hammer and ran away quickly, and then continued to work after he was far away.

Mingdai pulled Zhou Sinian to stand aside and watch, listening to Liu Dazhu singing the ice-picking song, and the three brothers of the Liu family joining in the response. It was more interesting than the folk performances they had seen in the previous life.

After all the ice blocks were pried up, Liu Dazhu took out a few long hooks and gave one to each person.

Zhou Sinian's great strength was put to good use. He swung out a long hook and inserted it into the top of the ice block. Liu Dazhu and the other three hooked the other corners and pulled up together.

As long as the ice blocks entered the ice surface, they were easy to deal with and could be pushed directly to the shore. Mingdai held down the wooden board and they pushed the ice blocks up.

Only three blocks of ice can be transported at a time.

Liu Dazhui took them back and opened Mingdai's cellar. The ice cellar had been cleaned up and could be used to store ice directly.

There is a wooden slide in the cellar. I don’t know what it was used for before, but it has been left there all the time. Now it is put to use.

The ice blocks slid down and were pried along the wooden board to the ice cellar.

Fortunately, the ice was not at its thickest at this time, otherwise they really would not be able to move it.

It took them a whole day to collect more than a dozen blocks of ice and put them all into the ice cellar.

The captain was exhausted and sat in Mingdai's yard.

Mingdai made ginger tea for everyone to keep warm.

Liu Dazhu looked at the entrance to the ice cellar and asked Ming Dai: "Xiaoming, you are knowledgeable about medicine. Do you know what snake venom serum is? Now that our village has an ice cellar, can we apply for it?"

Ming Dai was stunned: "You mean the anti-snake venom serum? It's very difficult to apply for it. Most large hospitals don't have it."

Liu Dazhu was a little disappointed: "Is that so."

Mingdai was curious. How did he know this when anti-snake venom serum is not yet widely available?

Liu Dazhu took a puff of his cigarette bag and said, "Last year, two children in our village were bitten by snakes while playing in the mountains. The snake medicine didn't work, so we rushed them to the county hospital. One child died before the treatment, and the other one died when the hospital said it couldn't cure him because they didn't have the serum.

These days, it’s not easy to raise one child, and having two is a pain in the ass.

There aren't many poisonous snakes in our mountains, only one or two occasionally, but the kids like to go to the mountains in the summer, so I thought it would be nice if I could apply for one."

Mingdai looked at Liu Dazhui who was surrounded by smoke and felt that Liujiawan was lucky to have a captain like him.

"I can't get this, but I have a good snake medicine recipe. I'll make it for use before spring comes. It should be effective."

Liu Dazhu was delighted and looked at Mingdai: "I really have a sharp eye. I picked you out from the educated youth right away."

Ming Dai smiled and did not expose the fact that the captain actually disliked her at that time.

At night, Zhou Sinian pried a piece of ice from the ice cellar and gave it to Mingdai: "Mingdai, I want to eat rock sugar, cold sugar."

You have quite a lot of ideas!

Ming Dai asked him to put the ice down: "You are still taking medicine and taking medicinal baths, so don't touch such cold things. Rock sugar is not made of ice. I will make you candied haws when I have time."

Zhou Sinian immediately put the ice in the sink, looked at Mingdai with burning eyes, and followed her around.

"Tanghulu!?

What is Candied Hawthorn?!

Is it delicious? !

When are you free?!

Can't I do it when I don't have time?!

Mingdai, I want to eat candied haws... "

Ming Dai: I want to poison him, really!