Bianshanhan [farming]

The first snow fell suddenly in the border town, and everyone who beat them was caught off guard, and there was not enough fodder for the cattle and horses, so this task naturally fell on the exiles.

Jiang Liping and the others cursed and beat soybeans with flails. The beating was dusty and disheveled.

The dozens of catties of sweet sorghum seeds that Li Qingwen brought last time were planted by Jiang Cong, and more than [-] acres of sweet sorghum were obtained, and the sweet stalks were piled up in the shed.

Li Maoxian used the remaining wood to make a simple sugarcane bed, and several people began to squeeze the sugar juice.

It was the first time Jiang Liping and the others had seen that sugar could be squeezed from sorghum stalks, and they helped squeeze sugar while gaining knowledge.

When there is too much sugar juice, put it in a pot to boil immediately, add lime to clarify, the concentrated sugar liquid is more viscous and translucent than the sugar liquid they got in Yangshu Village, and tastes sweeter.

After reading it carefully, Li Maoxian was amazed. They only heated and put lime water, but nothing changed.

Everyone who farms knows that water and soil have a great impact on crops, some will be better, and some will be worse. No one can predict this.

It is a pity that their sweet straws were frozen when they were harvested, and the amount of sugar juice from the straws squeezed later was a little less. There is really no way to do this.

But there is a lot of sugar juice made from the straw of more than ten acres of land, and there is nothing extra to hold it. Lao Xingtou took out more than 20 large and small empty wine jars, and he didn't know who to ask for. Many, one person will solve this difficulty.

After all, they were still responsible for raising horses and feeding cows. Their new house was not too far away, only a few hundred steps away from the stables, and it was logical for Old Xingtou to move in to live with them.

The original three houses were not empty either, and there were baskets of soil, some of which had already grown green vegetables, some had just sprouted, and some had just planted seeds.

In addition to the vegetables, there are also a few baskets of things that grow like grass and saplings. These are the seeds Li Qingwen left for Jiang Cong. They were planted in the spring and kept watering. After half a year, they were not as high as knees. No one recognized what it was.

The stove in this house cannot be stopped, but there is no need to watch it. After it is burned, it is filled with dry cow dung, and it is enough to watch it once every few hours.

Li Qingfeng and Li Qinghong took the squeezed straw to feed the sheep, and found that they liked to eat it, which was very good. The border town was covered by snow for more than half a year, and the sheep had enough fodder.

After the sorghum was crushed, everyone cleaned up the house again.

Because of the large number of people, the three earthen houses are equipped with Tongkang. The front room is a big long Kang, and the two stoves are in the back room. There are a lot of meals to be cooked. Usually, both stoves are fired at the same time, so that there is no distinction between the two stoves. No matter where you lie, you won't be cold.

This house was built in a hurry, and it was a bit low and dark, but it was much better than the utility room next to the stables. At least the windows were big, and the house was still very bright after the paper was pasted.

Therefore, after moving to the new house, Li Maoxian took out the thick book that had been transcribed.

Li Qingwen took out a pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and spent half a day endorsing and practicing handwriting, all arranged properly.

Knowing that half-hearted and half-hearted will only get twice the result with half the effort, Li Qingwen calmed down and did what he should do seriously.

Seeing that Li Qingwen was still sluggish for a moment, and then he immediately concentrated on picking up the book or pen, everyone admired him, and they would go to other rooms on purpose to try not to disturb him.

Jiang Cong practiced in the morning and evening, and went out to work most of the rest of the time, and occasionally stayed. He was very quiet, and occasionally would grind ink and cut paper for Li Qingwen, and did not take the initiative to speak.

Sometimes when he saw him reading and practicing handwriting for a long time, Jiang Cong would call for a break, Li Qingwen lay sprawled on the kang, and Jiang Cong pressed his wrists.

Li Qinghong watched from the side, and sighed in his heart, this is for outsiders to see, really don't know who and who are real brothers.

When Li Qingwen's eyes were tired, he did eye exercises for a while. This method is simple and can relieve eye fatigue.

He taught others, but the big guys didn't study, so there was no need for this, Jiang Cong took it seriously.

The biggest disadvantage of the large windows is air leakage and coldness. After closing the gaps, you can still feel the cool wind. There is nothing to do during the day, and you hang furs on the windows as curtains when you sleep at night.

In the eyes of the Liu family brothers and Guo Dayong, the snow was heavy. In the eyes of Jiang Liping and the others, it was considered light snow, which was not a problem at all. After the snow stopped, they would go out and continue working without any delay.

The sorghum tassels still had to be threshed, or they would have nothing to eat. After all, the officers and soldiers stopped distributing food to exiles from the beginning of farming, and they had to rely on themselves in the future.

Sorghum tassels are more troublesome than soybeans. They have many grains and are dense. They cannot be removed cleanly once, but they are removed twice.

Here in the border town, there is nothing to do all day long, so we can only use this clumsy method to collect food for the time being.

Even if it was done twice, the tassels could not be completely removed. If you bring baskets of tassels to the mules and horses, they will pick out the sorghum grains and eat them. The rest are best used to light the fire.

Guo Dayong and the others are handy here. They made brooms, cooking brooms, grates and baskets with sorghum straw. In exchange for some white flour.

When Ma Yongjiang heard Li Qingfeng and Li Qinghong talk about Sha Qima, he was very curious and asked Li Qingwen if he could make some for the big guy. Of course, the "big guy" he was talking about was himself.

Jiang Liping and the others are used to refining fat or oil after hunting, and they now have a lot of various oils.

Li Qingwen reconciled the noodles, Jiang Cong went to knead them, cut them and put them in the frying pan. The fried noodles were fluffy and browned, then poured hot sugar on top and mixed, put them on a wooden board and began to press them. A large square piece was cut up and shared among the big guys.

Because it was Ma Yongjiang's instigation, so he was given a bigger piece. Judging from his pouting mouth, he reluctantly accepted it.

Ma Yongjiang was a few years older than Li Qingwen, and he was the youngest among them. He was a military soldier in his first year, and was specially sent to Jiang Liping's camp by his parents, but he fell into it in the first year.

Because of his young age, he is taken care of by everyone, especially Jiang Liping. Although Jiang Liping calls him every day, he will definitely take care of him when something happens.

Ma's family background is not bad, Ma Yongjiang is a little bit arrogant, but he has become much more honest when he came to the border town from Hongzhou. He used to cry every day under the quilt, but now he is much better.

It is not easy to eat sweets in Yangshu Village because of poverty, and it is even more difficult to eat a bite of sweets in border towns.

The noodles are deep-fried, very crispy, and then topped with thick sugar liquid, which is extra sweet.

Some people swallowed it in two or three mouthfuls, while others tasted it carefully. Li Qingwen and Jiang Cong sat across from each other and only took two mouthfuls each. Then they looked up, smiled at each other, and wrapped up the rest.

Before long, Li Qingwen's will be divided into several small pieces, and Jiang Cong, Li Maoxian, Li Qingfeng and Li Qinghong will all get a little bit.

And Li Qingwen will receive more, Jiang Congsai must be the biggest one, and Li Maoxian's leftovers are not small, but they will be searched by Li Qingfeng...Of course, even if Li Qingwen gets it, most of it will fall into Li Qingfeng's stomach in the end .

Ma Yongjiang looked at Li Qingfeng's mouth full of scum, and was extremely envious. He hummed and said, "I don't know which of you two is the elder brother and who is the younger brother."

"Of course I am brother." Li Qingfeng looked as if it should be taken for granted, "I have to eat enough to protect my brother."

What he said was so reasonable, but Ma Yongjiang only felt that he was thick-skinned.

Li Qinghong fell down with a smile.In the past, the family was poor and there was no good food. At the end of summer, my mother and sister-in-law would cut wild fruits into slices and dry them, then collect them and share them with them occasionally.

Li Qingfeng couldn't catch it every time he divided it, because before he divided it, he had already eaten a lot secretly.

After dividing the good things, Li Qingfeng will circle around Yaodi, and in the end, no matter what is in Li Qingwen's mouth or in his pocket, it will fall into Li Qingfeng's stomach.

It was so before, it is so now, nothing has changed.

Li Qingwen read for two hours a day and practiced calligraphy for two hours. He was studying almost when the room was bright.

Li Maoxian didn't expect his youngest son to work so hard. He was obviously unwilling before, so why is he doing this now?

Li Qingwen looked at his father's thoughtful appearance, thinking in his heart, if he doesn't want to, can he still hide?In the past, those little kids had to sit back obediently in order not to go to school.

In addition to concentration, there is something that surprised Li Maoxian - the memory of his youngest son.

There are hundreds of new characters in the book. Li Maoxian wrote them down after asking others for advice. It took a long time to memorize them one by one. He read through several volumes for his youngest son, and then asked him to recite them slowly.

Afterwards, he listened to Li Qingwen recite from beginning to end, and the new words were not bad.

Compared to Li Qingwen, Li Qingfeng is like a wild horse that has run free at this moment, running outside every day. Of course, he will not go too far. When the cooking starts in the house, he will come back by himself after smelling the smell.

He never forgot about learning martial arts, so he asked Ma Yongjiang who was good here, Ma Yongjiang said it was Jiang Cong, Li Qingfeng wanted to go to Jiang Cong, Ma Yongjiang stopped him, saying that he could teach himself.

Li Qingfeng looked at him suspiciously, Ma Yongjiang was very angry, "Our ancestors passed down a set of Majiaquan..."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Qingfeng rushed forward and pushed him down. The two entangled in the snow, and finally stopped because he was afraid that he would cry.

Ma Yongjiang was not convinced, he felt that Li Qingfeng's sneak attack was not done by a gentleman, and he wanted to compete again.

The result was naturally a few more hits.

Lao Sun and the others squatted under the eaves to watch them roll in the snow, and they were overjoyed.

A few days later, Ma Yongjiang stopped yelling, and followed Li Qingfeng, suggesting to him to go to the river to play together.

At this time, the river was not yet frozen, so Ma Yongjiang took a hoe and dug down when he saw holes.

Li Qingfeng was afraid that he would have to wash himself with mud and water, so he hid aside in disgust. He thought it was too childish to dismount Yongjiang, playing in mud at such a young age.

After digging for a long time, Ma Yongjiang called Li Qingfeng to come over. Li Qingfeng reluctantly took two steps forward, stretched his neck forward, saw a long thing in the mud, and exclaimed: "Such a thick snake!"

Ma Yongjiang bent down with a smile, "What a snake, it's an eel!"

There is no river or pond in Yangshu Village, occasionally there are mud pits in heavy rain, and there are small loaches in the mud pits, Li Qingfeng has never seen such things before.

He was very curious, and dug out the eel with Mayongjiang. This thing was slippery, and it really looked like a snake.

An eel is quite heavy, Li Qingfeng asked if it was edible, and after getting a positive reply from Ma Yongjiang, he picked up the hoe.

The two of them dug for a long time, and went back at mealtime, carrying a basket of eels on their backs, but when they got home, the straps of the basket were broken.

Li Qingfeng took off his dirty clothes and shoes, and shivering on the Kang, he asked Li Qingwen if he would do this.

Seeing the fourth brother like this, Li Qingwen couldn't say "no".

Putting down his pen, Li Qingwen walked to the side of the basket, looked at the criss-crossing eels wriggling slowly inside, trembled all over, and took a few steps back.

He really can't see this thing.

In the end, the old grandson went out to slaughter a few eels, remove the intestines, heads and bones, cut them into sections, wash them with water for a while, fish them out, and put them there to drain.

Then Li Qingwen did it. Heat up the oil pan and add scallion and ginger, then pour the eel into it and fry it, add salt and a little sugar juice, the color after stir frying is very beautiful, simmer for a while until the soup is thick, and then it can be out of the pan up.

The more he used the iron pot, the more Li Qingwen felt that it was in his hand, and he was a little uncomfortable turning over to use the clay pot.

The rice field eel is tender and tender, and tastes great after being stewed. In addition, it has no thorns. When it is served in a pot, it will be gone before someone grabs it...

Then, everyone went to the river with their hoes on their shoulders.

Li Maoxian also asked Li Qingwen to go out to get some air.

The snow outside had no ankles, no wind, and it was very cold. Li Qingwen wore thick clothes and rabbit leather gloves on his hands. One look at his attire and he couldn't dig.

When I went there, I called people from Sun's family, knowing that his family didn't have much food, so now I can save more.

The Sun family has been here for more than a year, and they are still not used to the cold weather. The men and women in their family are all thin and weak, as if they could be blown away by a gust of wind.

Mayongjiang and the others grew up by the river, and they are familiar with the habits of eels. They searched for holes everywhere, swung the hoe down ten times, and nine times they were able to catch hibernating eels. Of course, they also caught loaches by mistake.

The landlubbers in Yangshu Village were stunned, and they also went down to dig in the mud.

Standing by the river, Li Qingwen remained unmoved no matter how his third and fourth brothers greeted him. In such a cold day, stepping in the mud would be a heart-stopping pain, and he didn't want to suffer that.

He was thinking very well, but when he was helping to pass the basket, he stepped on the snow on the withered grass, sat down on the ground, slid far away, and lay flat in a muddy puddle.

Because he was standing in a shoal, far away from the river, there was no danger of falling, but his body was dirty.

However, just when Li Qingwen was struggling to crawl out of the mud, his hand touched a pile of cold and greasy living things, and immediately goose bumps appeared on his body.

He scrambled to get out of the mud, panted heavily and looked inside, and saw densely packed loaches rolling in the mud.

Although he knew that this thing could be eaten, the dense appearance made people dare not look at it. Li Qingwen looked pale and called for someone to come and dig it.

The people rushing to hear the sound screamed, such a large area is full of loaches, there is no need to dig, just reach into it, and hold a handful, there are more loach than mud.

Everyone started to catch the loach with bright eyes, without even looking at the dirty Li Qingwen.

Jiang Cong hurriedly put on the clothes for him. Li Qingwen's back was covered with mud, which was heavy and cold. He couldn't stay outside anymore and walked towards his residence without looking back.

He turned his head while walking, and shouted, "Father, I fell and my clothes were dirty."

Li Maoxian kept his hands on, and said: "Go back and change into clean clothes, the clothes are in the cage."

While talking, Li Maoxian didn't even look up at his youngest son...

Li Qingfeng's voice also drifted over with the wind, "I fell and called my father, like a little nephew, why, why do I still want to hug him?"

Li Qinghong grabbed the loach with his hands full of mud, and said loudly: "There are not enough baskets, after changing clothes, hurry up and bring some here, hurry up."

Not getting any worries from his family, Li Qingwen looked at Jiang Cong with a lonely expression, and said, "Brother Jiang, only you are the best!"

What a silly boy, Jiang Cong suppressed a smile and pulled him back to take off his dirty clothes.

Li Qingwen warmed up in bed, and he went to the river to deliver the baskets.

Until it got dark, the crowd caught a lot, and when they came back, everyone had a few catties of mud on their clothes and shoes, clamoring to wash their hands and feet, looking happier than when they were harvesting.

During the autumn harvest, I was too busy to take care of my life, so I am more relaxed now, not just looking for fun.

Jiang Cong washed Li Qingwen's clothes and put them in the room to dry. Li Qingwen huddled under the blanket and said anxiously, "Brother Jiang, I will take care of you in the future."

Jiang Cong paused and said, "Okay."

Li Qingfeng heard this, thought it was a good move, and came over, saying: "Brother Jiang, I will also provide for you, so you can teach me kung fu."

Li Maoqun and the others laughed and slapped Kang, calling Li Maoxian to come over and listen to what your two eldest sons are talking about.

"No need." Jiang Cong said, "I practice boxing in the morning and evening to teach you by the way."

Li Qingfeng was originally insincere, upon hearing this, he nodded repeatedly, "That would be even better."

Not to be outdone, Ma Yongjiang said, "I also snow, I also learn!"

"Have you practiced your Majia Boxing?" Li Qingfeng looked at him and asked.

Ma Yongjiang's face was reddish, and he said bravely, "No delay!"

The two of them were having a good time, opened the door and ran outside, and started fighting with each other. The person in the room sighed: "Young people have strong firepower. I haven't slowed down since I came back from the river."

Jiang Liping looked at it for a long time, and said to Jiang Cong: "You can point them out when you have time, it won't hurt to learn more."

Jiang Cong nodded, walked from the door into the snow, and said to Li Qingfeng, "I heard that if you want to teach you kung fu, you have to beat you first?"

Hearing his tone, Li Qingfeng became excited, opened his posture, and said, "Try now?"

Just as Jiang Cong nodded, Li Qingfeng rushed towards him like a little tiger.

Just shifting his body and dodging Li Qingfeng's frontal blow, Jiang Cong pressed his backhand on his shoulder and pushed him straight on the snow. No matter how Li Qingfeng thumped, his head and upper body could not leave the snow.

Ma Yongjiang smiled like a wild duck.

Jiang Cong withdrew his hand, and Li Qingfeng got up from the ground. He didn't know whether he was snowed or excited, and his face turned red.

"Brother Jiang, I am convinced." Li Qingfeng said excitedly, "Teach me!"

Li Qingfeng was very tempted when he saw it, and said, "Father, what do you think of me learning martial arts?"

"Zai'er, have you ever fought?" Li Maoxian turned to him and asked.

Li Qingwen said: "That's not true. If you want to learn martial arts and want to fight, I can learn it."

The people next to him started laughing, "You haven't fought in your teens, so what are you learning! Just read and practice calligraphy, anyway, you have your father and brother Jiang to protect you."