Bianshanhan [farming]

As soon as Li Qingzhuo came back, he sat in the house for a long time, talking to his mother, sister, aunt, sister-in-law and aunt. It happened that two mares had foaled today, and a group of people went from the house to the stable.

The last time Li Qingzhuo came to the border town was four years ago, and there is not much change in the camp now, but there are more people visible to the naked eye, and it looks a bit crowded.

The outside has changed a lot. Rows of houses are neatly arranged, and the front and back of each house are full of piles. Naturally, the firewood pile is the tallest and the largest. On the pulling line, there are mushrooms, medicinal materials and dried fish. Below is a flock of chickens. Go around the haystack looking for bugs to eat.

The men were working in the new city, and the women were not idle either. In June, they went to the forest in the south, and every household picked a cart full of mushrooms and came back.

The mushrooms in the border town are plump, and if you add some stewed meat, adults and children can't help but eat half a bowl of rice.

The people outside came here from the famine, and in a short period of time, they took root in the border town and lived a happy life, even better than before.

As early as in the letter, he knew that his family had picked up a lot of horses from the wild, but when he saw the long stables with his own eyes, Li Qingzhuo was still a little surprised. In Si's letter to him, he feeds the horses every day.

The mares with cubs have been taken care of very well in the past few months. It is not the first time for them to give birth. They lay on the ground and were touched by Lao Xingtou. They gave birth to two strong fillies smoothly.

Surrounded by a group of people, the white mare came out of its mother's belly, its four wet short legs bouncing on the ground, kicking on the ground, and stood up tremblingly.

Horses, donkeys, and mules are like family members in the farmhouse. After the two foals were born, everyone was very happy. Li Maoyu brought over the warm water that had been prepared all along, and the two mares drank for a while with their heads down. touched his own child.

The mare and foal stay alone in the spacious pen. The mare needs to be taken care of carefully for a while, and the foal is also carefully looked after during this period. It will not return to the shed until the mother and foal are fine.

A few puppies with short legs tentatively moved towards the foal, and Mao Mao pressed them to the ground with his paws, barking a few times in a low voice.

Taozi, who was disciplined by her sister since she was a child, also called out to them in a pretentious manner, warning them not to mess around.

The little fur ball escaped from under its paws, shook the fur on its body, and rubbed against Li Qingwen's feet, making a particularly aggrieved "squeak".

Li Qingwen resisted not hugging them, but stroked Mao Mao's head, "Well done, thank you for your hard work."

He has to give Maomao a prestige, otherwise these few will make a lot of noise, and Maomao can't control them.

The few fur balls that were not appeased staggered towards Li Qingzhuo's feet. Li Zhengliang hugged them up, pointed his mouth at their flexible fur ears, and whispered: "Don't go to my second uncle, be careful that you carry me on my back." Hundreds of surnames..."

Li Zhengliang glanced at Li Qingzhuo secretly, he felt that his uncle was scarier than his father, his father only knew how to spank, but his second uncle made him carry those messy things.

Fear seemed to be contagious, and the pups trembled, not daring to look at Li Qingzhuo again.

Li's family still has the most chickens, because they can't take care of them, so there are three people who help to shovel and feed the chickens.Chicken manure is the most stinky. If the manure is not filled with soil and shoveled in time, the sun will suffocate people to death.

In addition, thousands of chickens also eat a lot. Chicken food alone is enough to keep people busy, not to mention the need to guard against the beating and biting of big hens and roosters to pick up eggs.

The manpower on the chicken coop is not fixed, anyone who owes Li Qingwen's family a helper will come if they are free.

Because my uncle's house burned bricks, the chicken pens of Li Qingwen's house were made of green bricks, and a piece of wood was smashed every other piece. A net pulled by hemp rope was hung between the wood and the wood to prevent the chickens from flying out and making trouble.

At the beginning, Mrs. Chen didn't want to raise so many chickens. The family's mules and horses couldn't manage it, and they couldn't worry about raising so many chickens.Li Qingfeng was unwilling, he felt that raising thirty or fifty chickens was not enough to eat, unlike now, with so many chickens, he could catch a few if he wanted to eat, and the border town was big enough, so he could raise more if he wanted to.

Of course, that's not what he said. Li Qingfeng said that our family has few people, but Jiang Cong and the others have a lot of people. They have forty or fifty big men, and they need a dozen chickens for a meal. If they are less, they will not be enough. food.

Of course, Mrs. Chen knew what her son was thinking, but thinking that Jiang Cong and the others often went out, they really couldn't raise these living things. If they raised more at home, it would be convenient for them to eat, so they agreed.

Because the taste of the chicken rings was not very good, Li Qingfeng didn't let younger brother Yao and second brother stand too far.

Li Zhengyan was in Li Qingzhuo's arms, and the little girl held her second uncle's face in her chubby hands, spitting bubbles, "Get down, get down..."

Li Qingzhuo touched the small shoes on her feet, and seeing that they were well worn, he squatted down and put her firmly on the ground.

Li Zhengyan learned to walk, she let go of her little hand, hurriedly walked to the side of the pit, squatted on the ground, squeezed out something from the rotten grass, walked back, and handed it to Li Qingzhuo, "Second Uncle, here it is!"

As soon as Li Qingzhuo lowered his head, Li Zhengming next to him screamed, "Ah, earthworm, earthworm!!"

The little girl was holding a long earthworm in her hand, and her slender body was still wriggling. Li Qingwen's goosebumps came out, but he was older and had a better complexion than his little nephew.

Li Qingzhuo took out his handkerchief, took the earthworm and threw it into the chicken coop, then wiped his little niece's hands, "This thing is dirty, don't grab it with your hands in the future."

Li Zhengyan nodded obediently, showing her small white teeth: "Understood, second uncle!"

Inside this soil kang are earthworms raised on rotten leaves of weeds, which are specially used to feed chickens. Aunts and grandmas in the village say that eating this hen will lay eggs more frequently.

"Zai'er taught the big guy how to raise earthworms." Li Qingfeng said proudly.

Li Qingwen held his little nephew's hand, and the uncle and nephew walked away from the earthworm kang.

The eggs are really fragrant, and the earthworms really don't dare to look at them.

They had just passed the chicken coop when a group of children from the village ran over. They greeted Li Qingfeng and Li Zhengliang, but looked at Li Qingwen and Li Qingzhuo.

When this group of big and small mud monkeys saw Li Qingzhuo, they were inexplicably afraid to move forward.

In this way, a group of people went to see the wild ducks. Without Li Qingfeng asking, the children automatically went to the grass on the bank to find wild duck eggs, and piled them one by one in the straw basket next to them.

It's too hot in July, and the wild ducks don't lay eggs. They swim among the aquatic plants one by one, looking much more at ease than the people on the shore.

"This place used to be a bag of earth, but after the city wall was rammed, a piece of it was hollowed out..." Li Qingwen explained to his second brother, "It just happened to be used to raise ducks."

Li Qingfeng is a man of his word. He caught all the ducks and eggs from the south here, and brought back many duck eggs from the birch forest. Now there are a lot of wild ducks in this area. When they call together, every household in the village can hear it. .

There is a piece of shallow water to the north of the place where the ducks are raised. After walking in the sun for a long time, everyone sweated a lot. Li Qingfeng took the lead in going down to the river to take a bath, and guided a few children to swim by the way.

Li Qingwen and Li Qingzhuo were sitting on the grass by the river, the two brothers were talking together, Mao Mao blocked Li Zhengyan from going to the river.

Until Li Qingyun came to tell them to go back for dinner, Li Qingfeng drove the children ashore like ducks, Li Qingwen counted them one by one, and after one was quite a few, a group of people headed back against the sun.

Fearing that Li Qingwen would get sunburned, Li Qingzhuo put his coat on his head, and he only wore a thin shirt.

In the past few years in the capital, although studying hard and tiring, but after all not working under the sun, Li Qingzhuo was shining brightly, Li Zhengming squinted his eyes when he saw his second uncle, and muttered: "Dazzling..."

Li Qingwen couldn't stop laughing while listening to him.

On the way back, Li Qingzhuo carried his little niece in his arms and carried a heavy straw basket full of eggs, walking briskly.

Li Qingwen was very envious. His second brother didn't do strenuous work, but he still had a lot of strength. Now he was exhausted holding his little nephew and panting. He had to exercise slowly.

The three brothers returned home with their nephews, nieces, and big dogs, and found that the side rooms and small sheds were full of vegetables, fish, eggs, and rice grains. After asking, they found out that these were sent by the villagers. Make up for Li Qingwen's body.

In their area, if anyone is sick, close people will come to visit, and they will not empty their hands, and bring some supplements.

When Li Qingwen came back yesterday, many people were not ready, no, they were all delivered this morning.

Not only their village, but several other villages have also come. Although they didn't know each other very well before, they all settled down in remote border towns. If each family wants to live well, they must help each other. The Li family usually helps the big guys a lot. At this time, there is no need to inquire about each other, and we will come early.

There are so many dishes that can't be eaten, and it will be ruined if they are dried out in the sun. Mrs. Chen sent a cart to Mrs. Fang, and sent some to the kitchen.

When Li Qingwen arrived home, Jiang shi poured washing water for them with his big belly, Li Qingzhuo quickly took it, Jiang shi supported his waist, and asked his two boys to stand back, and waited for Li Qingwen and Li Qingzhuo to finish washing before letting the two mud monkeys come over.

Li Zhengyan didn't need to do anything, her second uncle wiped her hands and face with a handkerchief after washing her face.

The puppy looked to the side, and stretched out its front paws to Li Qingwen. Li Qingwen caught it, moved it up and down, and asked it, "Do you want to wash your hands too?"

The puppy barked twice, Li Qingwen smiled, pulled the small bench next to him, took a piece of sackcloth by himself, asked the little nephew to pour water on the cloth, and then wiped its paws with a damp cloth.

After wiping one, Puppy put down his left front paw in satisfaction, and raised his right front paw.

Li Qingwen watched his paw that had just been wiped step on the fluffy dust unscrupulously. Although he knew that his efforts were wasted, he still leaned on it and wiped the paw on the right as well.

Satisfied, Gou Zai Zai ran to play with his brothers and sisters.

Li Qingwen stood up, washed the cloth first, and then washed his hands again.