Bianshanhan [farming]

Li Qingwen, who was far away in the border town, didn't know what happened at home. He was trying his best to plan the people under the snow in the forest.

Dozens of steps behind him, several cauldrons were burning, the white smoke was faint, and crushed oil fruits were boiled in them, and the tent was already full of candles.

After the autumn harvest, they lay in the house for a few days, almost rested, and went to the ground to squeeze sorghum juice.

This year all the sorghum is planted is sweet sorghum. Before Li Maoxian left, he made several sugarcane beds, and three or four people started to squeeze the juice together. Although Li Maoqun and the others looked at the piles of sorghum scum and felt very fast, Li Qingwen knew this method to squeeze the juice. It is very backward, and it cannot be seen when the number of acres is small, and the shortcomings of the hundreds of acres of land are particularly obvious.

If there are tens of thousands of acres, it will be squeezed like this... I dare not think about it.

He has seen three pillars with gears, rolling around, stuffing a dozen sugarcanes, and squeezing them in a few breaths, cows and horses, and people just stuffing sugarcanes into them.

So, this year he's going to pull some more wood back and try to do it.

Li Qingwen wanted to do a lot of things, and juicing was a bit time-consuming, so he went to Guo Dayong and asked them to help squeeze the juice and pay the same wages.

Guo Dayong and the others are worrying that there is not much work to do in winter, so they are naturally very happy.

Li Qingwen had no money, so he originally wanted to pay with leather, but Jiang Liping and the others rummaged through their own pockets and baggage, and scraped together two taels of silver.

Old Xingtou was surprised, how they were so poor, he really couldn't see it, he took out a bag of copper coins from his rags, counted them, and there were more than 1000 copper coins.

The big guy was also stunned when he saw how many copper coins he had, and asked him how much money he received as a soldier, Old Xingtou said: "The money is all exchanged for wine, I won these by betting with others."

Old Xingtou is an orphan. He grew up eating a lot of food. He had no house or land. He became a soldier to make a living. He was a single old man. He had no marriage or children. .

Of course, now that he is being watched by so many people, he may not have had a drink for a long time, and Li Qingwen is now familiar with the kitchen staff, and he also told the kitchen staff not to give him alcohol.

"Gambling is allowed in the camp? You guys are so brave!"

"I have won so much, is there any tricks, teach me too!"

Jiang Liping swollen the heads of those who clamored to learn, if they don't learn well!

Speaking of this, Lao Xing patted his thigh, went to the kang to dig for a long time, and grabbed a handful of broken silver. Since Li Qingwen and the others came to the border town, he was only busy with eating meat, so he saved money for drinking.

Everyone looked at the pile of broken silver and remained silent for a while. Unexpectedly, among them, the richest person was Lao Xingtou!

Old Xing was also a little dumbfounded looking at the money, he had never saved money, and he didn't know that he had so much money!

There is no place to buy things in the border town, and I put the money there every month when I receive it...

In fact, when Lao Sun and the others were soldiers in the government, the amount of money was similar to that of Lao Xingtou, but they either had a large family to support or subsidized the family, and the family still didn't have enough money to spend, let alone save.

Everyone was still in a daze, Li Qingwen climbed to the top of the kang, shook Lao Xing's shiny black hair off the pillow skin, and a few silver beads fell out.

"Lend me a few for now." Li Qingwen said.

Old Xingtou waved his hand, "Take them all, I'm useless."

Li Qingwen borrowed five taels, and found a bag for him to pack the rest and put them away.

Guo Dayong and the others were ashamed to accept the money, they lived in the third house now, and after the autumn harvest, they were separated from Li Qingwen and the others.Although they ate sorghum and rice casually every day, they could not eat meat or vegetables. They gradually realized how rich they had been in the past.

After autumn, I ate salted fish a few times, and it was still delivered by Li Qingwen.

It's not that they haven't thought about going hunting, but they didn't even see a rabbit when they walked for more than ten miles, and they didn't dare to run far.

Guo Dayong refused to accept it, so Li Qingwen insisted on giving it to him. If he helped out in the village, he might be able to take care of the meals, but they traveled thousands of miles to earn money, so they couldn't use people for nothing.

After handing over the work of squeezing the sugar, they got on the sledge and went to the forest. First, they went to see the ginseng. Thank God, it was still growing there.

But they came late, and the soil was frozen solid. If they dug forcibly, the ginseng tendrils might be broken. That would be a pity, so we had to wait.

After reading it, I buried it with snow and waited until the weather was warmer.

Then they went directly to the oil fruit, set up camp beside the fruit forest, picked it, cooked it, and made candles at the same time.

This is very good, you don't have to take the fruit back, and the remaining husk dregs are fertilizers, which can be used to fertilize the forest.

More importantly, by making candles here, Li Qingwen can spend a winter in the forest looking for what he wants.

Of course, what he was looking for was not medicinal materials, but he just came across it, and it would be a pity if he didn't dig it...

He thought so in his heart, but Zhou Yao let out a puff of white air, and said mercilessly: "You are getting into the eyes of money."

Li Qingwen smiled, now he wished for ingots to drop from the sky.

This time Zhou Yao also followed, not sneakily, but aboveboard.

She didn't rest this year, and made a lot of medicines, and gave some to Lin Tan. She said she wanted to make more medicines, so she could collect them in the forest.

Lin Tan knew that the Zhou family had good medical skills, so he nodded, and told her that if there was anything missing, just ask, and he would send someone to buy it and send it to the border town.

When Li Qingwen heard what Zhou Yao said, he was very envious. A good doctor is a great doctor. No matter where he went, he was always polite.

Lu Gang was probably the only one who dared to play rough with the life-saving doctor, so he died.

Although he died under the bear's claws.

Li Qingfeng and Mayongjiang came back with baskets covered in snow, and the baskets contained mistletoe with green branches and red fruits.

Mistletoe is a plant that parasitizes on trees such as poplars and pine trees. The stems and leaves can be used as medicine.

Li Qingfeng was the first to discover this kind of thing. He thought it was a bird's nest, so he climbed up to see it, and found that it was a bunch of things that could bloom and bear fruit in winter.

There are many medicinal herbs that can parasitize on trees, and the one that Zhou Yao sees most is Sangjisan.

It is useless for parasitic medicinal fruits to fall to the ground. Most of them rely on birds to disperse the seeds. After the birds eat the fruit, they stick the core to the tree, or swallow it in their stomachs, and then the bird feces fall on the branches. After three to five years, It may only absorb the nutrients of the branches and grow slowly. (Note 1)

After the wax oil was cooked, Li Qingwen returned to the tent, and Jiang Cong was already sitting there dipping a wooden stick into it.

"Brother, Big Brother Zhou told me that if you offer the candle recipe, you can be free." Li Qingwen sat on a wooden block beside him, "Why don't we try it, and it will be convenient if we can rescue a few of you and go out to do something. .”

Originally, he wanted to tell Jiang Cong about this matter, but various things delayed him, and he was not free until now.

Jiang Cong took out a wooden stick dipped in wax oil, hung it upside down, and said, "Drinking on New Year's Day, Mr. Zhou mentioned it. However, he later said that the current court is in turmoil, and several forces are complicated. He himself is afraid of it." Being tainted, I ran here to avoid the limelight. Those people are fighting with each other, red-eyed, no matter who we find, we may get into trouble, so we might as well wait a little longer."

Zhou Fengnian didn't say too much. Jiang Cong and Jiang Liping knew that when they were staying in the capital, they heard that the current emperor was old and weak, and more than a dozen princes were fighting openly and secretly. These years have become more and more fierce. Zhou Fengnian, the glory of his ancestors All of them must avoid their sharp edges, and these people have to clamp their tails even more.

"Little boy, don't be in a hurry." Jiang Liping said, "We are grateful if you are willing to part with the prescription. Now that the brothers live here, life is no worse than before. It’s not about home, it’s nothing to stay here for the rest of your life.”

Lao Sun also said: "Yes, when we were soldiers in the government, we used to run around and couldn't return home a few times a year. If you bring us money and a letter, we will be satisfied knowing that there is nothing wrong at home."

Hearing what they said, Li Qingwen gave up his thoughts and sat next to him to wrap grass stems on wooden sticks.

While talking, there was a barking of a dog in the distance, and then someone outside said, "Ah, it seems to be Liu He."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and came out of the tent. A dozen big dogs came running from far to near. Behind the dogs were pulling a snowmobile. The person sitting on the snowmobile was not Liu He.

The leading dog came straight towards Li Qingwen, walked up to him, and stopped.

With Liu He's permission, Li Qingwen touched the furry dog's head, squatted down, and couldn't help rubbing his face against it.

The big dog squinted at Li Qingfeng, but Li Qingfeng ignored it.

"Why did you change two?" Li Qingwen asked, there were two dogs he had never seen before.

"One just gave birth, and the other was hit by a wild boar's leg." Liu He responded.

Hearing what he said, Li Qingwen couldn't help but glanced at Jiang Cong's legs, and asked, "Is it serious?"

"It's broken, I have to raise it until spring."

Meeting here, both sides are very surprised.

"When did you come here?" Liu He took off his hat, followed the others into the tent, and said, "I just went to see the ginseng, and it's still growing there. Did you find a place?"

After Liu Qingwen agreed to keep the ginseng, he and the people in the clan went to see it every once in a while. In autumn, the ginseng had all lost its seeds, and Li Qingwen hadn't come yet. Liu He thought something unexpected happened.

"Don't mention it." The crowd sighed, "The autumn harvest was almost fatal, so why bother digging ginseng, when you recover, the snow is knee-deep, and the ground is freezing hard, so what else do you dig?"

A group of paupers were drooling over ginseng, but they were not willing to dig it.

If you think about it carefully, would that ginseng be worth something in those houses of sorghum? !

However, no matter how they think about it, land harvesting cannot be delayed at all. If food is wasted on the ground because they have not harvested in time for other things, they will regret it for the rest of their lives.

Qi Min brought a few more braziers into the tent, and pulled down the thick curtain at the door, and it was very warm inside.

"I saw six or seven seedlings next to that ginseng root. Could it be that they grew out just after falling this year?" Li Qingwen handed hot water to Liu He, "It's too fast."

"Ah, what seedling, why didn't I see it?" Zhou Yao asked him.

Li Qingwen said: "Just a dozen steps away from that ginseng, I told you, don't step there."

Everyone shook their heads, expressing that they did not remember this.

Liu He looked at Li Qingwen, "It certainly didn't grow from the seeds that just fell this year. I only saw two trees, about a hundred years old."

The people in the tent were stunned for a moment, and they all said happily, "Oh, that ginseng's son, samson, has come out."

Everyone is no longer surprised by Li Qingwen's inexplicable good luck.

"You arrested the prince of Puju?" Liu He asked after taking off his thick robes, drank a sip of water.

Everyone nodded and asked him how he knew, Liu He said: "As long as it happens in this forest, everyone in our tribe will know."

It was also a little familiar, and someone couldn't help but booed twice, he couldn't see the ginseng that Li Qingwen could find, so he was talking big.

Liu He didn't mind either, and said, "In the spring of this year, there was an earthquake in the forest, and wild animals jumped up. The elders of the tribe made divination, and the divination indicated that something would happen."

"Earthquake?" The big guy was taken aback, "Why didn't we notice it?"

Earthquakes are earthquakes, and this place is hundreds of miles away from the camp. It stands to reason that if there is a tremor, the camp in the border town should also have a sensor.

Liu He shook his head and said he didn't know.

He didn't delay making wax while talking, Liu He saw it and asked, "What is this?"

Everyone was happy to hear that, well, it seems that this guy was not a rich man when he was in Daliang, and the candle didn't even know it.

Qi Min brought over the remaining half of the candle that was burned last night, and lit it for him to see.

They made a lot of candles here, and the more they made, the less distressed it would be to light them.

After pulling down the thick curtain at the door, the light in the tent relied on a few pots of fire, and after lighting candles, it became much brighter at once.

Liu He stared at the bright flame, amazed.

Seeing that he likes it, Li Qingwen thought about waiting for him to leave, and packed two bundles. Anyway, there are a lot of materials here, but it will take a little effort.

Ma Yongjiang couldn't help but said: "You have stayed here for so long, and you don't know how useful this fruit is?"

"What kind of fruit?" Liu He asked with a confused face.

Li Qingwen took one out of the basket next to him and handed it to him, "This is it."

This fruit is no stranger to Liu He. There are many in this forest. It can be burned, but it is not as good as pine cones. In their tribe, pine cones and pine cones are burned more.

"This, this can make a candle?" Liu He was very surprised. This candle burns brightly and has no smell. It is a good thing for lighting. It is impossible to think that it is made of such a small thing.

Li Qingwen nodded, and Liu He said bluntly, "I'll use fur and medicinal materials to exchange more candles with you."

Being able to change out the candle here without having to pull it back, everyone nodded their heads and wished for it.

The days are short in winter, and after talking, it will be dark outside. Liu He got up to go back, and everyone carried candles and loaded him on the snowmobile.

Generally speaking, both parties exchange things with each other, and it is not necessary for Liu He. He has seen ginseng many times this year and has not picked it. He is very disciplined.

"We're going to Nuanhe to take a bath in a few days." Li Qingwen hugged the dog's neck and said, "Are you still coming? Let's go together then."

"Okay." Liu He agreed happily, "I'll come to see you in three to five days."