Chapter 195: Herding
Rural girls are not that delicate. Li Xiuzhi wanted to help with housework when she woke up in the morning, but Xu Lingjun stopped her. The three-day holiday had not yet ended, so she should rest for the next few days.
"Don't worry from now on. I'll be outside earning money to support the family. You just need to do the housework well. You don't have to work so hard." Xu Lingjun didn't worry at all about not having a good life. He had experienced several worlds and even had some cheats. If he still had to suffer poverty, he would have lived a miserable life all these years.
"You went to school for two years, right? Come back every day and I'll give you some extra lessons. We don't aim to go to college or become cadres in the future, but it's definitely a good idea to learn more skills and broaden our horizons."
Li Xiuzhi is only 19 years old this year, and it is not too late to start learning now. From a small perspective, learning more knowledge will allow her to have more common language with Xu Lingjun. From a big perspective, when Xu Lingjun starts his career in the future, she can also become his good helper.
"I'll listen to you." Li Xiuzhi felt so happy. Xu Lingjun loved her so much, and her life in the future would definitely be easy.
Over the next two days, Xu Lingjun took Li Xiuzhi around the ranch, introduced her to the neighbors, talked about local customs and habits, and what wild vegetables there were to eat on the grassland.
He rode his big chestnut horse with black mane, holding the reins with both hands, holding Li Xiuzhi in his arms, and wandered aimlessly on the endless prairie. When he came across something interesting, he would stop to explain it to her. Such carefree and free days were really fascinating.
This also opened Li Xiuzhi's eyes. "There are mountains everywhere in our area. There are mountains behind the house and in front of the house. I have never seen a place like this before."
Li Xiuzhi is satisfied with everything now, except that she is not allowed to raise pigs. Xu Lingjun is a worker at a state-owned ranch, and according to regulations, workers cannot raise pigs. Li Xiuzhi felt sorry when she found out about it, but she was not discouraged.
"In addition to raising pigs, I also raise chickens, ducks, and rabbits. If there are pigeons, I will raise them too. Let's go buy some chicks and ducklings and raise them. When they grow up, we can save the eggs and exchange them for money."
"All my advice." Xu Lingjun agreed readily. Even if they tried to cut off the capitalist tail, they could not cut off the heads of the chickens and ducks they raised at home. Nowadays, many ordinary people rely on raising chickens at home to lay eggs for money to cover their daily expenses.
Hens lay eggs continuously, and people can sell eggs in exchange for daily necessities, so the process of turning hens' eggs into money is figuratively called "opening a bank in the chicken's ass." It's the same at Li Xiuzhi's home, so as soon as she arrived at the ranch, she couldn't help but want to open a bank.
"I have read some methods of raising chickens in books. We can give it a try. If it works, the chickens will grow much faster and lay more eggs than the old way." Xu Lingjun remembered some methods he learned when he was looking through archives in the Central Government Office.
Nowadays, the families of ranch workers still raise chickens the old way, free-range. They drive the chickens out of the cages every day and let them find food for themselves in the yard. If there are children at home, at most they will let the children take the chickens to the grassland to eat insects.
Chickens raised in this way would be sold at a high price in the future, but now people can’t even fill their stomachs, so why would they pursue better food? Free-range chickens in the grassland are no different from the feed chickens in the chicken farm.
Free-range chickens are good, but they grow too slowly and lay few eggs. Xu Lingjun has not yet escaped poverty, and he has no time to worry about which type of chicken tastes better. To him, it is more important that the chicken grows fast and lays more eggs.
The method he wanted to come up with was the earthworm chicken farming method, which could increase the weight gain rate of chickens, reduce the feed-to-meat ratio, reduce the mortality rate, increase egg production, and it had been developed to a very mature level in later generations.
Li Xiuzhi trusted Xu Lingjun very much and thought that he was an educated man and his methods would definitely be useful. After buying the chicks, she followed Xu Lingjun's method and started to set up several earthworm beds in the yard to raise earthworms.
Guo Zi and others were very surprised. "I've seen people raising chickens and ducks, but I've never seen people raising snakes. What are you doing raising them?"
"Feeding chickens with this will make them grow faster." Xu Lingjun did not hide it. Everyone has been taking good care of themselves. If he finds a way to make their lives better, he will definitely teach them.
Guo Zizi shook his head, not believing it at all. "Why would you have to put in so much effort to feed them? There is food everywhere on the grassland."
"You'll know when my chickens start laying eggs in a few days." Xu Lingjun didn't explain. Free-range chickens will also consume energy when strolling on the grassland. Chickens raised in this way will have firmer meat and better taste, but they will not be as heavy.
After a while, when their own chickens grow up and start laying eggs, they will be able to see the difference between the two methods and will naturally learn them. Who doesn’t want their own chickens to lay more eggs?
The three-day holiday passed quickly, and Xu Lingjun had to work with the herdsmen again. There had been no rain since the beginning of this spring, and the grass on the grassland had not yet sprouted. At this time, the horses had to be driven to the Qilian Mountains where the grass was more lush to graze.
It took several days to go back and forth. Li Xiuzhi was a little reluctant, but she said nothing. She quickly packed clothes and dry food for Xu Lingjun, and then sent him all the way to the intersection. "You can work peacefully. I can take care of the family."
"Mr. Xu, don't worry. I've told my wife to help look after Xiuzhi." Dong Kuan said with a smile. Aunt Dong also came over and held Li Xiuzhi's hand and said something.
Seven or eight herdsmen arrived one after another. They each rode a tall horse and led a horse that was specially used to carry pots, pans, tents and bedding. They shouted and drove all the horses out of the ranch.
Waving whips and blowing whistles, they drove hundreds of horses towards the Qilian Mountains.
The leader, Guo Zi, shouted, "Guys, where are we going?"
Everyone responded in unison, "Let's go to Qilian Mountain!"
“The Qilian Mountains are cold!”
“Bring a big tent.”
“The Qilian Mountains are long!”
"Bring some barley wine."
The heroic horn sound echoed in the blue sky and white clouds, making Xu Lingjun feel a completely different experience from the previous worlds. So this is herding! It is almost more interesting than simply moving bricks and farming.
In fact, any labor activity is very hard, and herding is no exception. Xu Lingjun feels it is interesting now, just because it feels new.
Fortunately, his physique was different from that of ordinary people, so herding was not hard for him. They drove the horses all the way up the mountain, and by noon, they arrived at the first grazing spot.
Everyone got off their horses, took the pots and pans off the horses' backs, picked up horse manure to make a fire and cook. There was still a lot of work to do, so they had to fill their stomachs quickly.
(End of this chapter)
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