Hanhou

It rained heavily for two full days, the sky seemed to open up, the rain poured into waterfalls, and the water level of the rivers in Shaling County soared, even overflowing some farmlands.

On the third day, the dark clouds finally dispersed and the sky began to clear up.

Qing Zhuang inspected the livestock farm and found seven or eight streams running across it, and the feeding troughs of cattle and sheep were full of rainwater.There are large and small puddles hidden under the tall grass. The shallow ones are just above the soles of the feet, and the deep ones can reach the knees. Adults will sprain their feet when stepping in, let alone children who have just passed the wheel.

Mrs. Sun and the women told the children to be careful when going out, to avoid puddles and not to be playful and curious.

Xiong Bo took people to clean up the threshing ground, transported the millet out of the warehouse in batches, and dried them in the sun.The women cleaned the mill and the mill, and took out the mortar and pestle, which they planned to use with the mill, all for pounding grain.

There are five stone mortars in total, all of which are chiseled from a single block of big stone, and it takes two or three strong men to lift them up.The stone pestle is as tall as a person, shaped like a stone hammer, and weighs quite a lot.

Seeing that Mrs. Sun lifted it effortlessly, Zhao Jia was driven by curiosity and tried it himself, but in the end she almost slipped to the waist, which caused the women to burst into laughter.

"Lang Jun, there is a trick to pounding grains." A healthy woman stepped forward, grabbed a stone pestle with both hands, and pounded it face to face.

Seeing Zhao Jia's surprised face, the woman put down the mortar, pointed to the roller and stone mill not far away, and said with a smile, "Fortunately, there are these, otherwise when the millet and wheat are harvested, the pounding will take a lot of energy, and the work of taking care of the cattle and sheep will be delayed." .”

Joking aside, the woman did not stop with her hands and feet, and successively took out dustpans and sieves woven with rattan from the warehouse, and placed them side by side in the sun for use in removing chaff and sifting corn.

The largest dustpan was more than one meter long and half a finger thick. Zhao Xin and Gongsun Ao could easily pick it up, but Wei Qing and Santou Shen couldn't do anything about it.

Seeing this, Zhao Jia picked out a piece of wooden stake from the warehouse, let Qing Zhuang split it into thin slices, drilled a hole in the middle and embedded hemp rope, then tied two wooden sticks with hemp rope, and clamped the wood piece, it was a large fan .

"Leave it in the sun, and I can help you sieve the grain later."

The children were very excited. They each grabbed a fan and started to shake it vigorously. After a few blows, their arms became sore.Looking around, I found that my companions didn't let go, one counted as one, and they all puffed up their cheeks and refused to admit defeat.

"Okay, save your energy and help move the fodder." The women smiled and called the children to load the large bundles of fodder onto the trailer.In addition, there are two barrels of boiled bean dregs, piled on wooden boards and pulled by hemp ropes, which saves much effort than carrying them by hand.

At noon, there was no cloud in the sky, and the water vapor on the grass had been evaporated, making it uncomfortably hot.

Qing Zhuang and Gong Geng took off their shirts, and held a wooden shovel to raise the valley in the field.

The strong chest and arms were tanned, and the sweat continued to slide down the neck and back, and was evaporated by the sun, leaving white spots.

For several days, the millet is dried in batches, and after drying, it is spread on the roller or poured into the stone mortar. As the roller is pushed, the stone mortar falls and the chaff begins to separate.

Standing against the wind, the teenagers put the milled corn into the dustpan, and kept waving it up and down to sieve out some impurities.The children stood beside the sifted corn, holding wooden fans with both hands, and they fanned together to help blow away more chaff.

At this time, the corn still has some impurities, which need to be scooped into a round sieve with a wooden spoon for further separation.Originally there was no such step, but Zhao Jia insisted that Xiong Bo let craftsmen make these utensils.

It’s not that Zhao Jia is too fussy, and it’s not that he doesn’t get tired of food, it’s that the corn that is simply sifted often has stones and husks, which creak in his mouth, and he has to worry about teeth being knocked out when he encounters large stones. , I really can't bear it.

The weather is beautiful, the wind from the prairie brings more coolness, the weather is no longer as hot as before, young adults and servants work harder, and the hulled corn and milled wheat are sent to the barn in batches and carefully stored stand up.

The last batch of corn was put into storage, and everyone was a little exhausted.With a wave of Zhao Jia's hand, he asked Xiong Bo to slaughter a steer to reward the young and strong and the farmer.

"Lang Jun is kind, we can eat enough every day and have wages, there is really no need for this." Chang Bo said.

After plowing in spring and planting in summer, everyone realized the benefits of ox farming, and also regarded bullocks as extremely precious.Zhao Jia said that he wanted to slaughter a cow, but most of them stopped him with words.

"No problem, there will be a new cow soon." Zhao Jia laughed.

After the autumn harvest, he will devote himself to going out of the fortress.

There are team leaders and guards sent by the prefect's mansion. There are not many things he has to do, mainly arrange some people to travel, carry the drawn maps, modify and supplement along the way, and mark the nomadic tribes in specific areas.

"Trouble Uncle Xiong with the matter about the livestock farm. I'll go to the city to meet Mr. Wei tomorrow, and make arrangements for the trip." When Madam Sun led people to cook the beef, Zhao Jia informed Uncle Xiong of his plan.

"Has the candidate been decided?" Uncle Xiong asked.

"It's fixed." Zhao Jia nodded and said, "Both Hu Bo and Ji Bao will go this time, and Ji Xiong will stay at home. Elder Sister will also send some help."

"Miss Wei also wants to send someone out of the fortress?" Uncle Xiong was surprised.

"Naturally." Zhao Jia leaned back on the railing and smiled, "I might not have been able to build a livestock farm without my sister's support. Now that I'm going to the Grassland City for cattle and sheep, I should ask my sister to join me."

When mentioning those years, Uncle Xiong couldn't help but fall silent.

"It's a pity that Miss Wei has to support the family. If not, she is really a good match for the husband."

Zhao Jia was taken aback for a moment, then laughed loudly, waved his hands and said: "Impossible, my sister regards me as a younger brother, and loves me even more than my mother. Uncle Xiong should be careful not to cause trouble for my sister."

Wei Qing'er wanted to recruit a wife, but things happened one after another, and there was no suitable candidate, so it has been delayed until now.

Thinking of what the girl said at the time, Zhao Jia couldn't help shaking his lips.

Wei Qing'e said clearly that as long as the child is honest, the child's father is honest. If she is not honest, if she is in a good mood, she can roll the ball, and if she is in a bad mood, she will probably disappear immediately.

Mrs. Sun's craftsmanship is excellent. The chopped beef can be grilled or boiled. Even if the seasoning is simple, the fragrance is still lingering when it comes out of the pot, making people swallow.

The beef bones are also cut off and put into clay pots for stewing.The bone marrow has been boiled into the soup, and there is a layer of oil floating on the surface of the soup.

When you see beef soup, you can't help but think of beef noodles.

Zhao Jia walked up to Mrs. Sun and said something gesticulating.Aunt Sun was dubious, so she took the flour according to what Zhao Jia said, kneaded it with water, and then cut it into chopstick-thick strips.

It is the first time to cook, and the skills are not familiar, so it is difficult to stretch the noodles.After several attempts to no avail, Mrs. Sun simply cut the noodles into pieces, pressed them into thumb-length pieces, and put them directly into the boiling soup.

Although the noodles have become noodle soup, the taste is not bad anyway.

Zhao Jia then asked Wei Qing and San Tou to fetch eggs from the storeroom, and asked Mrs. Sun to break them into the soup.Accompanied by the gurgling sound of the hot soup, the white and fat poached eggs are floating in the noodles, and some shepherd's purse and shallots are added, which will stimulate the appetite and make people salivate.

"It smells so good!" Wei Qing and the three of them lingered by the stove, staring at the clay pot with big eyes, reluctant to leave.

When the broth boiled again, Mrs. Sun sprinkled in salt and sauce, scooped it up with a wooden spoon, asked the woman to fetch a wooden bowl, filled a large bowl with soup and noodles, added a poached egg, and spread a few large slices to bake Add some sunflower seeds and send it to Zhao Jia.

"Lang Jun, taste it."

The wooden bowl contained hot soup, which was quite hot.

Zhao Jia used a cloth towel as a cushion, blew on the hot soup, took a sip, and then picked up a piece of dough and put it in his mouth.The noodles are wrapped in broth, cooked just right and chewy.Paired with beef and sunflower, it is indescribably delicious.

Hululu finished half a bowl, Zhao Jia temporarily stopped the chopsticks, asked Mrs. Sun to pour out the noodle soup, shared a bowl for each of Wei Qing and the three-headed body, and then cooked some more for Qing Zhuang and the servants to eat. Can have a taste.

Mrs. Sun moved neatly, poured out the noodle soup, and divided it into eight or nine wooden bowls.

Wei Qing and the three of them were not afraid of the heat at all. Holding the big bowl with one hand and the chopsticks with the other, they stood by the stove and started to eat.

"Hiss—delicious!"

Gongsun Ao and Zhao Xin just came to deliver the rattan baskets, smelling the fragrance in the air, they couldn't help sniffing.

"What is this?" Zhao Ponu asked curiously.

Wei Qing raised his head from the bowl, picked up the noodles with chopsticks, and said, "I've made new ones for you to eat."

Seeing that there was still some in the earthen pot, the teenagers were not afraid, poured the noodle soup into a big bowl, picked up a pair of chopsticks each, and ate the whole bowl of noodle soup and two poached eggs.

The wooden bowl bottoms out quickly and is so clean that it hardly needs to be washed.

The teenagers licked their lips, feeling unsatisfied.

"Don't worry, you can fill your stomach with soup and cakes today." Zhao Jia said.

"Thank you sir!"

Seeing the joyous teenagers and children, Zhao Jia couldn't help shaking his head and laughing.Thinking of the way I ate just now, I feel that there is not much difference.He doesn't know when soup cakes and noodles came out, but he can be sure that in Yunzhong County, his own is definitely the first one.

After dinner, Zhao Jia told the eldest uncle that he would tidy up the warehouse tomorrow, make sure everything was in order, and pay wages the next day.

The domestic servants were very excited, feeling that they had done too little work, they picked up tools one after another and repaired the wooden houses and fences in the livestock farm.By the way, I checked the sheep pen and cattle pen, shoveled the tall grass, and blocked all suspicious holes.

Several servants also carried stones, and circled around the sheep's pen.

After Zhao Jia saw it, he was amazed at the servant farming's craftsmanship, and then he couldn't help but look around. In this vast grassland, where did they find so many stones of similar size?

The night was getting dark and it was inconvenient to travel, so Zhao Jia decided to rest at the livestock farm.

Before going to sleep, light the torch, call Wei Qing and the three-headed body, test their learning, and tell stories after the test.

Zhao Jia had read a lot of classics in the prefect's mansion, especially the history of Zhao Wuling Wang Hufu riding and shooting, Li Mu defeating the Xiongnu and Meng Tian sweeping the grassland.

The children listened very carefully, and even Gongsun Ao, Zhao Xin and Zhao Ponu were attracted to gather around Zhao Jia, listening very engrossed.

After the story of the previous dynasty was finished, Zhao Jia talked about the siege of Baideng.

"Emperor Gaozu was trapped on the mountain for seven days and seven nights."

"Xian Hou came up with a plan, bribed the Xiongnu Yan family with gold, pearls and jade, and provoked them with beauties, and the siege was solved."

"After the siege of Baideng, there was no marriage. However, the Xiongnu were greedy and brutal, and breaking the contract was a common practice. Every time they sent troops to the south, they plundered livestock and goods, and harmed the border people..."

Speaking of this battle, Zhao Jia was not under any pressure.

At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Huang Lao was inaction, and the atmosphere was free. Confucian scholars and Huang Sheng debated about the Tang and Wu revolutions, refuting each other on the basis of "whether the great ancestor is right or not", and did not see any adverse reactions from Emperor Jing and Queen Mother Dou.As long as you are not overheated, you don't have to worry about being punished for your words if you shout something like "The prince and general are kind, I want to rebel".

Of course, like Yuan Gu, who spoke too aggressively before Empress Dou and dismissed Taoism as useless, it is no wonder that he was thrown into the wild boar pen by others.

However, throwing it all away, Dr. Yuan did not die after all, and was reused by Emperor Jing after the fact, and he was promoted and raised in the court.

Following Zhao Jia's narration, the children and teenagers fell silent.

"Lang Jun, one day, I will smash the Xiongnu, so that they dare not go south!" Wei Qing raised his head, and his big black eyes reflected fire.

"Kill them all!"

The teenagers and children made great wishes, and Zhao Jia couldn't help but feel excited. Thinking of galloping the horse, sweeping the grassland, and flattening the court of the Huns, he couldn't help but clenched his fists and smashed hard on the ground.

On that day, the lights in Zhao Jia's room were kept burning until late at night, and were only extinguished near dawn.

After sleeping for less than an hour, Zhao Jia was awakened by voices outside the house.Thinking of going into the city today, he cheered up quickly. After washing up, he had a simple breakfast, then took Ji Bao back to the village, took the bamboo slips he had written before, and drove all the way to Yunzhong City.

When I arrived in the city, I found that the official temple posted a notice, and many people gathered around the notice to listen to the young official's recitation and explanation.

"The Empress Dowager's order, the selection is made in the palace. Anyone with a clean family background, who is not in the seven disciplines, is not a witch, a doctor, a craftsman, a merchant, or a family of craftsmen. Any good girl can be selected."

Hearing what the young official said, Zhao Jia's heart skipped a beat.

Choice in the palace?

In the prefect's mansion, Wei Shang had a face-to-face meeting with the eunuch from Chang'an, and then handed over the matter to the five officials and the chief bookkeeper.The eunuch didn't care about it, and asked the master book to check the household registration, and all those who had military merits and titles were among the first to be excerpted.

"Sha Lingwei's daughter has been divided into clans, and has no parents or siblings," said a scribe.

"His father has military exploits?"

"Have."

"So, let's make a side note for now."

The eunuch is not unkind, knowing Wei Qing'e's family background, he inevitably moved with compassion and made some changes within the rules.If there is no accident, Wei Qing'er should not be included in the list of entering Chang'an.

It's a pity that things in the world are always not as expected, and turbulence is inevitably hidden under the calm water.

The notice was posted in all counties, and the members of the Wei clan after the division of the clan soon learned of the news.

For them, this choice is not only a bad thing, but a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.After several clan elders met, all clan members who had women of the right age at home were called, intending to choose the best-looking one and send it to Yunzhong City.

"It's the good fortune of my whole family if I can enter the palace and be favored by the emperor. Even if we send them outside the Great Wall, we will also have merit!" The old Wei clan looked respectable, as if sacrificing a girl in the clan was a matter of course.

At this moment, a voice suddenly rang out: "Elder, the Shaling Wei family also has good women."

As soon as this remark came out, the room suddenly fell into silence.

"The Shalingwei family has already split their clan." A thin-faced man with prominent cheekbones turned his head and looked at the person who spoke, "Stop mentioning this matter again!"

"Why didn't you mention it?" The voice sounded again, adding a bit more irony than before, "Fenzong belongs to Fenzong, after all, they are all surnamed Wei. Wei Qingmo is not filial or fraternal, but his father has military exploits. If you report his name, Definitely will be selected."

"Shut up!" the skinny man shouted immediately.

Zhao Jia's warning words are still in his ears, he doesn't want to offend this vicious young man and be locked up in the sheep pen again.

"Wei Ji, if you don't agree, you have to ask the elder what he means." The person who spoke stood up, and it turned out to be a woman with a scorched complexion and sinister eyes.Her husband and Mother Wei were in cahoots, plotting against Wei Qing'e's family property, and instead died with Mother Wei without a place to bury her.She didn't think about her own mistakes, she only hated Zhao Jia from the bottom of her heart, and even more hated Wei Qing'e.

With the color of Wei Qingmo, it is rare to get a title in the palace. After spending more than ten years, it is luck not to die of old age in Yongxiang.If she went out with her relatives and died on the grassland, it would be more suitable for her.As for the family property left behind, it happens to be divided among the clansmen, and it should be regarded as compensation for her killing someone!

Wei Ji secretly thought something was wrong, turned his head to look at the other clansmen, his expression changed immediately.

Looking at the reactions of several clan elders, it is clear that they have already been tempted!