Gu Yanzhang had actually been awakened by hunger long before Chen Xuanxuan woke up.

As soon as he saw Chen Xuanxuan sitting up from the straw bed, he immediately closed his eyes.

After discovering that his wife woke up, she stared at him closely, without moving, and he felt particularly nervous.

At that moment just now, he felt the heart on his left side beating very fast.

However, when he noticed that his wife woke up, she stared at the front closely, without moving. But there was a mysterious smile on her face. She laughed out loud from time to time.

Gu Yanzhang didn't know why, but he felt it was particularly weird.

"Wife, what are you doing?"

Chen Xuanxuan couldn't help but hide the two things in her hands into her arms when she suddenly heard his voice.

She stood up from the bed and spoke to him seriously.

"It's getting late, we should get up. I have to cook for you."

After saying that, Chen Xuanxuan ran to the kitchen next door and started to prepare food for the day.

200 grams of salted fish with black beans, and 100 grams of instant noodles... Chen Xuanxuan put them all into the earthenware pot.

After putting all the two packets of instant noodles seasoning in, Chen Xuanxuan also added a pound of soybeans and a ladle of water.

Everything in the earthenware pot was boiled into a paste. The salted fish, instant noodles, soybeans, taro, etc. were all invisible. Chen Xuanxuan then invited the whole family to eat.

"How do you feel about today's meal?"

Gu Yanzhang heard it and sniffed it twice. "Wife, it tastes great. It's so fragrant!"

Without Chen Xuanxuan's words, the others didn't want to raise their heads at this moment.

Seeing them gulping down the porridge in their bowls,

Chen Xuanxuan smiled and first gave Gu Yanzhang a full bowl. Then she gave her six children two full spoonfuls.

The porridge in the pot could not be scooped out. Chen Xuanxuan poured some more water into the pot, and then said to her parents-in-law, "Father-in-law, mother-in-law, there is still a little soup left in the pot. You can have a few more sips later to warm up your body..." After

the meal, Gu Yu'an and Qiao's pale faces had some more color.

After they nodded heavily, they said to Chen Xuanxuan, "Wife, we know everything."

When Gu Yanzhang saw Chen Xuanxuan start to pack up and clean the floor at home, he stood up from the stove and took out the pair of straw sandals he had made yesterday.

"Wife, I made these straw sandals for you. Would you like to try them?"

Straw sandals wear out quickly and are not durable.

In this family, Gu Yanzhang and Gu Dazhu have to make a few pairs of straw sandals for the family members every ten days or half a month.

And this is how Gu Yanzhang honed his craft.

Just when Chen Xuanxuan was sitting on the straw pile trying out new shoes, they suddenly heard the sound of heavy rain outside. It was crackling, and you could tell it was heavy rain.

It wouldn't stop for a while.

"Wife, fortunately we renovated the thatch on the roof last fall. Otherwise, we really wouldn't have survived until this time..."

"..."

Seeing Gu Yanzhang's thankful look, Chen Xuanxuan smiled and nodded.

"That's right."

"This year's late spring cold seems to be more severe than usual..."

"If our family hadn't paid to renovate the roof last year, we would have been frozen to death in the spring this year."

Thinking of this, Chen Xuanxuan couldn't help but hug the black quilt that was already shiny black and completely covered with pulp.

After shivering violently, she asked him seriously.

"Master, how many acres of land do we have in total?"

After Gu Yanzhang paused in his weaving of straw sandals, he replied with a guilty conscience, "Only three, three acres of dry land."

"And the half-acre vegetable plot in front of our house..."

Hearing that this family only had three acres of dry land, Chen Xuanxuan immediately calculated the bill for herself.

There was no super hybrid rice in ancient times.

There were no pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

Therefore, the yield of grain crops per mu in ancient times was still quite low.

Planting one mu of wheat, harvesting once a year, can only yield more than 180 kilograms per mu.

The yield of more than 180 kilograms per mu is still based on the premise that there is no drought, no pests and diseases, and it is based on intensive farming.

As for planting rice, it depends on how many harvests there are in a year. Of course, even if rice is planted, the yield is not high if there are no mu here.

Three mu of land are all planted with wheat.

At the end of the year, the maximum harvest is 550 kilograms of grain.

550 kilograms of grain had to be used to pay land tax, grain tax, head tax, etc.

, and they could still have 300 kilograms of grain left for their whole family, which was already quite good.

300 kilograms of grain was enough for 12 months a year.

In other words, their whole family of 10 people could only eat 10 kilograms of wheat a month?

My God!

With this calculation, it is no wonder that the farmers in ancient times all used coarse grains as their staple food.

Because if the farmers all ate white flour made from wheat, then their whole family would die.

Chen Xuanxuan knew what kind of coarse grains the farmers in ancient times ate every day.

For example, soybeans, peas, taro, sorghum seeds, black beans, mung beans, and red beans, which have a slightly higher yield...

During the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, as well as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, whether they were civilians or slaves, they basically ate bean rice every day.

The so-called cooking is rice cooked with beans.

There was no oil or salt, and there could be no side dishes. The beans were cooked and eaten like that.

As for things like meat, civilians and slaves with bad conditions should forget about it.

The slave dynasty was like this.

The feudal dynasty was not much better than them.

Because the productivity level of this era is so low.

...

Noticing that Chen Xuanxuan looked a little unhappy, Gu Yanzhang thought about it and then told her seriously.

"It's spring this year, and the weather has warmed up. I will take Dad and Dazhu and Erzhu to the dock in the county town to carry bags, just like I did before. I can earn eight cents a day by myself!"

"Although Dad is old, he can still earn five cents a day. And Dazhu and Erzhu are not young anymore. They are in their teens and are adults too. The contractor can give them five cents a day." "

So, the four men in our family can earn 23 cents a day by carrying bags at the dock. 23 cents a day, that's more than 600 cents a month..."

Hearing his calculations, Chen Xuanxuan felt sad and couldn't help but retort to him.

"Do you think you are made of iron?"

"After you go there, don't you eat?"