Chapter 72: Set Method [VIP]
In late March, the snow melts and spring comes to the earth.
During this period, mule carts carrying mountain products traveled back and forth between the countryside and towns.
Tian Baolai brought the mulberry saplings that his cousin was going to plant back to the village from Wanhe Township and unloaded them on the wasteland next to the wheat field.
Chen Yao and her uncle are working together in the wheat field.
Chen Yao dragged a dead branch back and forth in the wheat field, breaking and tearing off the dry leaves.
Tanaka Masashi was using a hoe to weed out the wild oats in the field.
This wild oat is mixed in with wheat fields and is difficult to distinguish from wheat seedlings. If it is not removed, its roots and rhizomes will seriously threaten the growth and harvest of wheat.
It will compete with wheat for nutrients.
"Ayao, look at the wheat, it has already tillered. It will probably start to ear in a dozen days, and then it will be ready for harvest in fifty days. Your uncle will come to help you harvest then!" Tanaka was bending over and caressing the wheat fields with great care.
He was smiling, and his words were filled with indescribable excitement.
The winter wheat was successfully planted and had not been eaten by insects. How could he not be excited and happy that wheat could really be harvested twice a year?
Chen Yao hid the dead branches in the maple forest, took out a bowl of sugar water from the basket, and poured a bowl for her uncle and cousin. "Of course, uncle, can you handle it when the time comes?"
After the first month of the lunar year, she asked Liu Chuang to buy two more pieces of wasteland.
One was bought in Wanhe Township, and the other was bought in Xiahe Village for my uncle.
Why did they buy these two wastelands? It was because the newly appointed headman Xue was keeping an eye on them. If they didn't prepare the land deeds in advance, they would probably cause trouble when they built the house, which would be terrible.
These days, her father and uncle have formed two teams, working in Wanhe Township and Xiahe Village respectively.
The wood that had been stored for a whole winter finally came in handy.
The silkworm room and rabbit house were finally built according to the drawings drawn by Yang Jizong, and were built with wood inside and outside.
In addition, the house where silkworms are raised should have windows on all sides, pasted with window paper and hung with curtains. This way, the windows can be opened every time they are fed to let sunlight in. The silkworms will eat when they see the sunlight. The more they eat, the faster they grow and the more cocoons they will produce.
This is something Chen Yao had not considered.
Although the two-story building she had drawn before was novel and beautiful, it could not be built. In Yang Jizong's words, it was against the rules. Unless someone in their family was an official, they would go to jail if they built it.
If Yang Jizong hadn't been here, everyone would have suffered.
After drinking the sugar water, Tanaka fed the wild oats he had pulled to the mule. While stroking the mule's mane, he said to Chen Yao, "Don't worry, your uncle can handle it."
With Tanakamasa's words, Chen Yao would definitely feel relieved.
It was almost noon when Yang Jizong returned home from school. The smell of rice wafted through the courtyard, but there was no sign of anyone.
"Brother, you're back." Yang Wenying put down the embroidery in her hands and went to the kitchen to prepare meals.
Nowadays, everyone in the family eats lunch separately at different places, and everyone is very busy.
But one thing that was unchangeable was that Chen Yao would have dinner with the two siblings at home every day.
Just as her brother arrived home, Chen Yao and the others came back with the mule.
Tian Baolai tied the mule in the shed to rest. When he looked up, he saw his cousin-in-law's attentive look and awkwardly avoided him and his father.
Yang Jizong poured hot water for Chen Yao to wash her hands, looked at the mud on her trouser legs and asked, "Have you finished your work in the fields?"
I know that Yang Jizong only has theory but no practical experience.
So Chen Yao took the handkerchief he offered her and wiped her hands while explaining, "I just finished weeding the wheat field this morning, and I'll be transplanting the mulberry saplings this afternoon. And you, are you tired of teaching in the school today? Did Village Chief Xue come to bother you again?"
Because Zhao Xiaofu's status as a good citizen was restored, and with the help of Yang Jizong's teaching, he took part in the county examination in early February and ranked fifth.
This ranking made the villagers very excited, and everyone paid more attention to the children's studies.
Especially those intelligent children in Luodunzi, they no longer simply learned to read and write, but began to study the Four Books and Five Classics.
Even during breaks on weekdays, they no longer play shuttlecock or other games. After the Chinese New Year, the children seem to have grown up overnight.
Zhao Xiaofu will take the provincial examination in April, so Yang Jizon is under great pressure to teach alone. Chen Yao sympathizes with him very much, but she can do nothing about it.
Hearing Chen Yao's concern for him, Yang Jizong suppressed the corners of his mouth that were gradually rising, deliberately revealing a hint of bitterness, but his heart was as sweet as if he had eaten honey: "Captain Xue didn't come to cause trouble, it's just that my fingers have been a little sore lately."
As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Yao frowned and grabbed his fingers, pinching them while paying attention, but she didn't find anything wrong.
"But are you tired from copying books? Why don't you take a break? Our family is not short of money right now."
Yang Jizong clenched his five fingers slightly, holding the room. If there is time, can we help like last time?
Last time? The scene in Shen Li was silent for a moment, and then he looked up at Yang Jizong and found that his ears were also covered with red. Yu Xin agreed to his request.
After lunch, everyone rested for a while at home.
Yang Jizong used the excuse of stretching his limbs to go to the wasteland with Shen Yao and others to plant mulberry seedlings.
The mulberry trees that Chen Yao asked her cousin to bring back were of similar thickness. Trees like this have a high survival rate, but they grow slowly and are not as fast as those grown by layering.
Two years after transplanting, you cannot pick mulberry leaves or cut branches. If you pick leaves or cut branches, the growth rate of the mulberry tree will be twice as slow.
When planting mulberry trees for the first time, Yang Jizong discovered that although Chen Yao transplanted the trees according to the planting methods in the agricultural book he wrote, he did not do so completely.
For example, planting a tree every ten steps is the method he wrote about, but planting turnips under the trees is not what he wrote about.
"Ayao, why are you planting turnips under this tree?" Yang Jizong was very passionate about farming and was no longer willing to go back to teach.
Chen Yao patiently told Yang Jizong that by planting turnips in the mulberry field, and then releasing pigs to dig up the soil and eat the turnip roots after the turnips are ripe and harvested, the soil can be made loose, and the pig manure can fertilize the fields.
Not only turnips can be grown in mulberry fields, but also adzuki beans, mung beans, etc.
This is the so-called set method.
"Pigs digging the ground? Then why not use a hoe?" Yang Jizong continued to ask.
If you use a hoe to hoe the ground, it will damage the roots of the mulberry trees, which is not conducive to their growth.
Yang Jizong's eyes lit up. He did not ask Shen Yao what the basis for this method was or where she heard it from. His eyes were full of admiration for Shen Yao.
"Cousin, we don't have any pigs." Tian Baolai grabbed a shoulder pole and carried an empty wooden bucket over to act as a third wheel between the two of them. "I'll go get some water first!"
After planting the mulberry trees, they still had to be watered. Although he didn't understand what A Yao said, he knew that when planting anything in the ground, you had to water it plenty the first time.
"Cousin, I'll go with you." Chen Yao urged Yang Jizong to go back to teach quickly. She also wanted to follow her uncle and cousin to the Yan River.
"Ayao, what are you doing by the river?" Yang Jizong looked at her with empty hands and grabbed her without saying a word.
The prisoners in the camp have been hanging around the Yan River fishing lately, so A Yao didn't want to run into them and offend them.
"Pick up the bamboo. Have you forgotten? We need to make paper for the children." Chen Yao raised her other hand and poked his chest hard.
"Come home with me. I will go back to the school and call the students to help. You are not allowed to go." Yang Jizong said sternly.
Tanaka Zheng turned around and advised: "Ayao, don't go. The bamboo has sunk in the water and a little girl like you can't fish it out. Besides, there are too many refugees there. Just listen to Zi'an and go back!"
"Yes, cousin, just be obedient. It will be a wasted trip if you go!" Tian Baolai ran to the front.
Chen Yao opened her mouth halfway, and before she could refute, Yang Jizong took her home.
Yang Wenying sat in the corridor, embroidering and looking after Chen Yao on behalf of her brother, and was amused by Chen Yao's resentful face.
"If you don't want to accompany me, just go and feed the chickens at home."
Chen Yao snorted and stood up from the bench, holding the gourd ladle and clucking to call the chickens to come and eat.
In the school.
When the children learned from the teacher that they were going to salvage bamboo from the Yan River today, they were all very excited.
They all raised their hands to sign up.
Yang Jizong picked a few strong boys and personally led them to the Yan River and found the place where his sister's mouth was soaked in bamboo.
The boys pulled the bamboo out of the water with a roar, and as expected, the noise attracted the attention of the convicts nearby.
Yang Jizong had already seen several fugitives walking towards them.
So he said to the children who were still hesitating whether to carry the wet bamboo on their backs, "Why don't you carry it quickly?"
At the command, the boys quickly carried the bamboos on their backs and headed back to the village.
Yang Jizong fell behind them and was blocked by a first-rate criminal.
Guo Changrong opened his eyes wide in disbelief. The man in front of him wearing an indigo cotton jacket and a square scarf of the same color was really Yang Jizong.
Didn’t they say he went to do hard labor in the quarry?
How come he came back alive?
"Zi'an, it's really you, you're not dead?" Guo Changrong's dark half armor was covered in dirt. He grabbed Yang Jizong's sleeve tightly, like a drowning man grabbing a piece of driftwood.
Yang Jizong's eyes were filled with disgust and hatred that he couldn't hide: "Let go!"
How could Guo Changrong let go so easily? Not only did he not let go, he even leaned forward and asked in a low voice, "Zi'an, seeing you like this, you must be living a very good life. Please have pity on me and give me something to eat. Which family did you marry into? I'll come find you tonight."
Yang Jizong kicked the man half a meter away. Seeing Guo Changrong fall to the ground and cry out in pain, he stepped forward again and crushed his neck with his foot. "If you don't want to die, come find me and try."
Guo Changrong raised his hand and stretched the sole of his shoe, his eyes bloodshot: "What are you standing there for? Beat him up, beat him to death."
The fugitives following him looked at each other and immediately surrounded him.
"What are you doing? Do you dare to bully our teacher?" The boys were halfway there when they found that Yang Jizong had not caught up with them, so they immediately went back to look for him and happened to see this scene.
Without saying a word, the students dropped the bamboos on their backs, picked up the stones and sticks on the ground, and ran to Yang Jizong to confront the convicts.
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