Chapter 297 The Cement is Ready
In the morning, the vermicelli factory makes soy milk, and each family brings a pot or bowl to make soy milk.
"Sister! Add some sugar!" Su Ying came in with a bowl of brown sugar.
"Aying!" Madam Zheng was heartbroken. "Take it back quickly. If you like sweet food, take it back and add it yourself!"
All the children stared at the candy in Su Ying's bowl, especially the children from the Zhou and Song families, who were yellow and thin.
"It's okay, sister. Today's work is heavy, so let's treat everyone to something good!" Su Ying put sugar into the soy milk.
The milky white soy milk quickly turned brown, and the sweet aroma of brown sugar wafted out.
"Come, try it!" Su Ying fed a small piece of sugar residue at the bottom of the bowl to Chunbao in Yuan's arms.
The woman from the Zhou family’s surname was Yuan, and the child Chunbao in her arms was one and a half years old.
The child had never eaten brown sugar before, and his eyes widened when he ate it for the first time.
"Drink slowly, be careful not to get burned!" Su Ying reminded the children while making soy milk for them.
The children sat around the table with a bowl of soy milk and a big steamed bun and ate slowly.
The Zhou and Song families paid some food rations and also ate at the vermicelli factory.
Even though it’s just a big white steamed bun and a bowl of sweet soy milk, this is the best meal I’ve had this year.
They actually eat candy here! Are they poor people? Yuan felt that she couldn't understand Huanggou Village.
It is clearly a village composed of a group of fugitives, poor people wearing cloth clothes and short jackets, but many things that even rich families may not have are common here!
"Come on, you two have to work every day, so give us an extra steamed bun!" Su Ying gave Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang a steamed bun each.
"That's enough, Mr. Su!" The two teenagers quickly refused.
"Here, you are the masters. You will have the strength to work only when you are full! Our soy sauce still depends on you to steer the ship!" Su Ying stuffed the food into the two brothers' hands without any explanation.
"Thank you, Mr. Su!" The two brothers' eyes were red. "We will definitely make the best soy sauce!"
"Have the children finished their meal?" Su Ying asked.
"We're done eating!" the children said in unison.
"Well, we have two main tasks today!" Su Ying looked at the children, "The first is to pick mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms, and the second is to go to the fields in the afternoon to catch the flowers."
"Chasing the flowers?" The children, including the village elders, looked at Su Ying in confusion.
"During the past two days, the rice has been heading and flowering, and we use ropes to force the rice to flower. Two people form a team, one at each end, and stand on both sides of the field.
"By pulling a long rope horizontally along the ridge of the field, it creates waves of rice, promoting pollination and ensuring a high seed yield and full grains," Su Ying explained.
"Good!" The children didn't quite understand, but when they heard that there was a lot of grain, they knew it was a good thing.
The village elders looked at each other in confusion. Was the land they had cultivated in vain?
"Aying, why does it have to be noon? Can't we do it at other times?" asked Old Man Yang.
"Well, this period is the best time for flowers to pollinate!" Su Ying replied.
The men also wanted to go, but the production of soybean oil, bean cakes and soy sauce in the oil mill required manual labor, and it was all physical work.
So the old, weak, women and children hurried home to pick mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms, and at five minutes past nine they came to the field with long ropes to meet up.
Two people work in a group, starting from the village head, pulling a long rope to drive the rice fields into bloom one by one. The air is filled with the fragrance of rice.
The children were running around in the fields, laughing and pulling long ropes. It was fun and they could do some work.
It took more than an hour to check all the rice ears.
"Aying, is this okay?" The village elders looked at the rice ears with pale yellow flowers, their hearts filled with pride.
"We still have to rush two or three times. We will work hard these two days and reap a lot of rewards!" Su Ying joked.
"That's not hard work at all!" the village elders laughed. "Compared to plowing, hoeing, planting rice, and threshing, this is the easiest job!"
"Sister!" Diexiu came over and seemed to have something to say.
"What's the matter?" Su Ying asked.
"That, that..." Diexiu was very embarrassed. Several girls from the same village not far away looked at Diexiu with anxious expressions.
"Do you want to go back and pick the flowers?" Su Ying guessed.
"Hehe..." Diexiu laughed awkwardly, "The rice over there is also in bloom. Let's go back and tell Grandpa and we'll be back."
Who doesn’t want to produce more food at home?
"No need! I'll go there on horseback in a while. It will take you a long time to walk!" Su Ying smiled.
I thought of catching up with the rice flowers when I saw the rice heading. I also had to write letters to County Magistrate Hu, the provincial government, and my third uncle, hoping that I could catch up with them next season. I really didn't forget it on purpose.
After returning, he wrote a few letters, rode to Heifeng Township, handed them to Zhang San, and asked him to deliver them to County Magistrate Hu.
After receiving several letters, Zhang San did not wait for any guests. Instead, he whipped his ox cart and drove to the county government office to deliver the letters.
Su Ying then rode towards Jinfeng Village.
Halfway along the way, I saw villagers tamping the earth. They could see each other from both ends. There was still one or two miles to go before the junction. The whole road was made of bamboo strips.
"Aying, why are you here?" Yang Dalang asked.
"I'm going to Jinfeng Village to find grandpa!" Aying said with a smile.
"Looking for Chief Ade? Look, he's just in front!" Yang Dalang pointed.
Ade was on the Li people's side, and Ah Hei was out studying. Ade personally took on the work at the construction site with several village elders.
"Grandpa!" Su Ying walked over.
"Aying, what's the matter?" Chief Ade looked darker, thinner, and more energetic than before.
"The rice is in bloom these two days. You should quickly arrange people to use long ropes to drive the flowers away, so that the harvest will be plentiful and the grains will be full." Su Ying gestured.
"?" Ade looked at Su Ying. Is this how you farm?
"Remember, you should chase the flowers at noon these few days, once a day, and it will take three or four days!" Su Ying smiled and did not explain.
"Oh, okay, okay!" After saying that, Ade turned around and went back to the village.
"Aying, do we need to hurry up the flowering process before the rice ears form?" Yang Dalang was surprised to hear this.
"Yes, we only have these few days, we have to hurry!" Su Ying looked at the long empty road that hadn't been filled yet, "Hasn't the cement come out yet?"
"I haven't gone to see it yet! I don't know what the situation is!" Yang Dalang wiped the sweat from his forehead.
The weather is getting hotter and hotter. In another month, the first season of rice harvest will begin. I wonder if the road will be repaired by then?
"I'm going to Qingshi Mountain to take a look!" Su Ying turned her horse's head.
The development of cement still requires a steady supply of iron slag. I wonder if Lord Lu has managed it?
It is convenient now that the road has been repaired. Su Ying rode her horse on the village road and quickly turned from the fork in the road to Qingshi Mountain.
From afar, you can see thick smoke billowing from Qingshi Mountain, and there is a smell of dust in the wind.
A group of gray, masked men squatted on the ground, their heads put together, surrounding a cement sample for inspection.
"It's done! It's done!" Su Ying saw a dusty man jumping up and dancing excitedly. Judging from the voice, it should be her second uncle.
"Second Uncle!" Su Ying called.
"Aying! Come on, the cement is done! It's done! Come and see!" Su Laoer waved his hands, speaking incoherently, with dust falling off his body.
A piece of poured cement on the ground was hammered with many holes, and bamboo strips were used as reinforcements inside.
This time the finished product was smashed dozens of times before it began to break into large pieces, connected by bamboo strips.
Unlike the previous one, it shattered into pieces with one hit, leaving only a bamboo net.
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