Jiang Xi sincerely expressed her regret: "If only there were a stone mill here."
Yan Jing'an, who was standing to the side, took a sip of soup and said, "Yes, it's in the cave. Didn't you see it?"
Jiang Xi immediately perked up: "A cave? Which cave?"
Yan Jing'an looked at her and said, "It's that bell cave, in that kitchen. I thought you saw it but didn't want it."
Jiang Xi was incredibly excited; it was as if her wish had come true.
After sowing the seeds, she needs to fetch the stone mill. She'll grind the dried roots into powder to use as starch; she wonders what the results will be.
Wild vegetables are delicious, but that also means the weather is getting warmer. If we delay any longer, we might miss the best time to plant them.
She told Yan Zheng about her idea of planting, and Yan Zheng agreed with her. Without thinking, he said, "Then let's not do anything else for the next two days and just focus on clearing that land."
Jiang Xi was still unaware of the power of farm work at this time.
She said idealistically, "Dozens of acres of land have been abandoned, but I don't have that many seeds. If the three of us can cultivate one acre, it will be enough."
Yan Zheng nodded and comforted her, "Farming can't be rushed. If this acre of land yields a harvest, then our efforts won't have been in vain."
So, after breakfast, Yan Zheng took out all the rakes and hoes he had found in the blacksmith's shop and polished them again.
Jiang Xi dug up some more shepherd's purse, spread it into pancakes, found a clean basket, wrapped the pancakes in cloth, put them in the basket, and also filled it with two bottles of water and a small pot, which served as her lunch to take to the fields today.
Originally, considering Yan Jing'an's health, Yan Zheng hadn't expected him to do the land clearing.
He felt that his illness was almost completely cured. Occasionally, he would cough a few times if he caught a cold at night, but during the day he was basically the same as a normal person.
Therefore, he would never miss out on this kind of land reclamation and farming.
Before leaving, Jiang Xi fed Xiao Hei some goat milk, then checked on the rabbits and the ewe. She was relieved to find that the rabbits had eaten some of the root vegetables she had given them and had two left. Thankfully, her earlier worries hadn't come true, so Jiang Xi grabbed two handfuls of hay for them.
The ewe's wound showed no signs of festering. After she ate half of the hay she was given, Jiang Xi was relieved, as long as she was eating.
After settling in at home, the three of them went to the fields.
A few days later, the feeling was completely different. Looking out over the vast plain, the soil in the furrows was still moist, but no longer muddy.
This land was well protected by the ancestors, and the crisscrossing ditches in the fields can still be faintly seen.
It had been abandoned for a long time, and the previously withered weeds had all been washed to the other side by the water. In the past few days, the soil has slowly dried, and all kinds of grasses and flowers have sprouted.
Yan Zheng chose a field closest to the ditch. When it rains, all the water on the mountaintop will collect in this ditch, which will make it convenient for watering and fertilizing later.
Of course, he also had other plans in mind. The water flowing down from the spring behind the mountain was all flowing downhill, so leaving it there would be a waste.
Once the busy farming season is over, we'll dig another irrigation canal to bring the spring water to the fields. We'll also build a sluice gate at the entrance to the fields, so we'll have a year-round flowing water source. We can irrigate whenever we want, and the harvest won't be affected by the weather.
If there is enough water later, you can even build a small pond specifically for raising fish and aquatic products.
The first step in clearing the wasteland was to clear away all the boulders and weeds. Jiang Xi and Yan Jing'an used rakes to gather the larger debris, such as withered grass and branches, together.
Then Yan Zheng used baskets and a wooden cart to transport all these things to the ridges of the field and pile them up.
Although the work is not difficult and sounds simple, doing farm work tests one's perseverance and endurance.
In addition, all three of them were city kids, so they were not used to this kind of work. After only half a day, one or two of them were so tired that they were almost suffering from heatstroke.
Jiang Xi had previously thought that one acre of land would be enough, but now, looking at this acre of land, she felt a deep sense of powerlessness.
Yan Zheng's stamina was alright, but Jiang Xi and Yan Jing'an were not. Especially Jiang Xi, whose face turned pale towards the end.
That tiny acre of land was practically killing her.
Finally, Yan Zheng couldn't bear to watch any longer, so he sent the two of them to rest on the ridge of the field and finished the rest of the work himself.
Jiang Xi rested for a while and recovered a bit. They found some stones, built a small campfire, boiled some water, and the three of them ate lunch with flatbread.
She thought that now that the weather was getting warmer and the work was getting heavy, she would have to resume eating three meals a day from now on.
After lunch, they plunged into another round of busy farming activities.
After clearing away the dead branches, fallen leaves, and weeds, the next step is to turn the soil.
Yan Zheng had previously found a plow in a courtyard, but because it had been there for so long, it was in terrible condition and unusable.
Unfortunately, they had no choice but to rely on manual labor to turn the soil.
This job was heavy, so only Yan Zheng and Yan Jing'an could do it. Halfway through, Yan Zheng got so hot that he took off his sweater, leaving him in only a short-sleeved shirt. His taut arms and muscular back were very visible in the sunlight, which made Jiang Xi's face flush.
She fanned herself and quickly found something to do.
Jiang Xi thought it would be a good opportunity to start cultivating the vegetable seedlings.
Grandma always said that raising seedlings is a skill. If you raise them well, they will grow strong and healthy. If you don't raise them well, they will wither and won't bear any fruit.
Jiang Xi first planted the taro she had brought back in the plowed-out field.
Then she chose a space of about four square meters. She found the rough branches and wood she had gathered earlier and used them to enclose the area.
Dig a vertical trench every 20 centimeters; this is for sowing seeds.
First, we planted tomatoes, placing two seeds ten centimeters apart, and planted about a hundred seeds in total.
She wasn't really sure either; it all came down to her childhood memories of how her grandmother always planted vegetables in pairs, saying it would help them resist lodging.
Next are the cucumber seeds. The cucumber seeds are large, so putting one in each hole should be fine.
She counted them roughly, and there were about twenty.
The seeds of sweet cabbage are tiny, like the tip of a needle, so they can't be planted this way. The soil in the ground was damp at the moment, so she sprinkled them directly on the ground and then covered them with a thin layer of soil.
After finishing everything, and seeing that it was already late afternoon, Jiang Xi suddenly remembered that there was a baby at home who needed to be breastfed. Since she couldn't help much anyway, she decided to go home early to cook for them.
She greeted Yan Zheng and then hurried home.
The little black cat in the basket was chirping. Jiang Xi saw that its belly was round and bulging, so she took a clean cloth and wiped its bottom. This was to imitate the action of a mother leopard licking the anus of her cub to help it defecate.
Having done it countless times in the past few days, Jiang Xi has become quite adept at it.
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