When Zhang Zhaoci got married, Zhang Yu'an was only five years old, and Zhang Zhaochong had just been born. People say that aunts treat their nephews and nieces well, and it goes without saying that Zhang Zhaoci was even better.
The group came from the south, and they weren't dressed very warmly. Zhang Zhaoci opened the trunk last night and found some fabric and cotton. She wasn't very good at needlework, but Granny Lu was skilled, so she asked Granny Lu to help make new cotton-padded clothes for the children. Fearing that Granny Lu wouldn't be able to finish them in time, she asked Granny Zhao to find two skilled seamstresses on the street and make sure they finished making the cotton-padded clothes for the two children today.
Needless to say, when it comes to food, the Zhang family's ancestral home is in Yuhang, and they eat rice all year round. Zhang Zhaoci didn't have much rice stored, so he asked Granny Zhao to go to the grain store on the street and buy the best rice, and as much as possible.
Zhang Yu'an and Zhang Yulan felt a little embarrassed watching their aunt bustling around for them. At that moment, they were with Xu Di, looking for containers that could be used to grow plants indoors.
Xu Di thought about it all night and felt that using earthenware basins was not a good idea, so he finally decided to go to a carpenter's shop on the street and have them make a few wooden boxes for him.
The carpenter worked quickly, and the wooden box he made according to Xu Di's requirements didn't use a single nail. After cutting the required wood to the correct size, he chiseled out a few small notches on the side and quickly assembled the box. This traditional mortise and tenon technique really impressed Xu Di, the research dog.
The box was brought back, and Zhang Zhaoci used the west room of the main house as an experimental site. Originally, the west room was intended to be Xu Rao's study, but Xu Rao really didn't need it now. There was a large kang (heated brick bed) by the window, so it was set up. The windows were covered with paper, which wasn't as transparent as glass, but that was all we could do for now.
Xu Di and Zhang Zhaoci, along with three helpers, marked the seeds and planted them in the box. Xu Di even made a notebook to record the details every day. Only in this way could they better understand the habits of the plants that grew from each seed, so that they could have a better understanding of how to plant them on a large scale in the future.
As for corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, Xu Di did not try to plant them. When he was in the south, he saw many people growing these things, but in some places the location was not suitable, and in others the planting methods were not good. In addition, the harvested crops were only boiled, and no other ways of eating them had been developed. Therefore, not many people planted them.
Xu Di had already planned it out. Next spring, he would find a place near the field where Zhang Zhaoci planted winter wheat to test these things. Once he had successfully tested them, he would promote them. For now, he would focus on getting the things he had on hand planted first.
After two busy days, they finally managed to plant all the seeds. Zhang Zhaoci had complete confidence in Xu Di when it came to these matters. Although she and Xu Di had both worked in the laboratory in the past, with her doing mostly dissections and Xu Di doing some biological experiments, he had also gone down to the experimental fields with her to collect data. In terms of farming skills, Xu Di was slightly better than the couple.
Xu Zhi looked at the extra wooden boxes in the west room. After planting a few seeds, her brother marked each box and then went over every morning to record some things in a notebook. The notebook was placed on the kang table on the kang. Xu Zhi had seen it, but she really couldn't understand what was written in the notebook.
This time, the Zhang family also delivered some cloth and cotton to the garrison at Yanmen Pass. This was purchased by the heir of the Marquis of Jingbei and Zhang Zhaozhi. As for the payment for the goods, it was not paid in cash, but rather deducted by several highly skilled servants of the Marquis of Jingbei's household who were sent to the Zhang family by the heir of the Marquis of Jingbei.
These family retainers had learned martial arts from a young age and were highly skilled. They had helped the Zhang family a lot along the way. In addition, the Zhang family would be doing business with the Marquis of Jingbei's mansion later, so they purchased coarse cloth and cotton from the south and sent it over as requested by the young master.
In winter, the climate near Yanmen Pass is extremely cold. Although the imperial court provides cold-weather supplies, the amount of clothing is simply not enough to keep out the cold. Every year, the Marquis of Jingbei tries to purchase some cloth and cotton and asks the locals to make some winter clothes for the garrison. This also allows the people of Hexi to earn some pocket money from these winter clothes.
Xu Rao was present when this matter was discussed. After all, the people of Hexi would be needed. After making arrangements with the local officials of Hexi, Xu Rao sent people to organize some housewives to start making cotton-padded clothes in a house near the General's Mansion.
While Xu Rao was busy making cotton-padded clothes, Zhang Zhaoci was also taking advantage of the cold weather to give lectures to the garrison's medics. Because of the cold, he even added some information on frostbite treatment. Later, he and the medics and their assistants started making some wound medicine and frostbite ointment. This winter was very cold, and no one knew what would happen next. They could only do their best to prepare for any unexpected events.
After staying in Hexi for a few days, the Zhang family left behind a large number of gifts they had brought and returned to the south.
However, when the Zhang family left, they left behind a few people. Besides two who planned to open a business here, there were two guards who would accompany the Xu family to protect them, and a master who would teach Xu Di martial arts. Xu Di had requested this master from the Zhang family himself. Xu Di felt that although he was already over ten years old and past the best age for practicing martial arts, he would be traveling outside frequently in the future and needed to have the ability to protect himself. Although this country seemed peaceful now, it was not the truly peaceful world he had lived in before. No one knew what kind of accidents might happen to them. What he could do now was to improve his abilities so that he could protect himself when accidents happened.
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