webnovelvip Chapter 49 Raising Chickens
Chapter 49 Raising Chickens
Many families in the village were not at peace that night. Dashun and Cao'er were arguing endlessly over Zhang Xiaoliu's idea, but they finally reached an agreement.At the village chief's house, Li Xueshui was squatting in the hallway knocking on a pipe, while his wife was also chattering away.
"Brother Bao was going to learn to read, but you refused to agree to it, and felt sorry for the one tael of silver. Look at Brother Liu, who still lives in a leaky house, and he is willing to send his brother in. Everyone has already talked about it for a long time. It's been an afternoon, how many years has it been since no brother in our village has gone to school?"
Li Xueshui was nagged by him for half an hour, and he became a little impatient: "It's just been two days, what is there to say? It's not like there are no friends nearby, and it's not like they went home to embroider clothes in despair. ?”
His brother choked on him, and threw the clothes he was sewing on the ground: "Isn't it two days? If you let Brother Bao try it, why would he still blame me now?"
In another family, Shi Zhu and Dad were sitting at the table, staring at the food on the table.
"Do you want to eat or not? Don't bother with him. If you don't want to eat, just wash up and go to bed." Qiuming glared at his son angrily, picked up his rice bowl and started to eat first.
"Don't be angry Shitou, you even boiled eggs for you today! It's not easy to go to school. Don't say that we couldn't afford the money at that time. How can you rest assured that you were in such poor health when you were young? You walk such a long distance every day?" Zhao's father was still comforting in a low voice, the family has been doing well in the past few years, and they have earned it with great difficulty.At that time, my son was clamoring to go to school, so I had to make up an excuse to coax him.Who knew that after two or three years, Shi Zhu brought up this matter instead.
After hearing this, Qiuming stretched out his chopsticks and picked up a large piece of egg from the plate and put it into his own bowl, showing with action that if the noise continued, there would be no vegetable scum on the table.
"Then I have to go to school now." Shi Zhu finally realized that entanglement in the past would be fruitless anyway, so it's better to fight for the opportunity now.It would be great if I could bring wheat to school every day...
"What school do you want to go to? Tomorrow, you and your father will go to the mountains to cut firewood, and learn how to work hard!" Qiuming sneered and said loudly.He is also helpless, there is only such a child in the family, if he can afford the money, don't you want him to learn Braille?But at that time, the mother in the family held the money, and she was sick all the year round to buy medicines, so how could she squeeze out a few copper coins?
Now that the nanny is gone, he has some savings in the past few years, but for Shi Zhu, it is really too late to go to school.He can only start to hope that Shi Zhu can do something, and that in two years he will be able to make a brother and live a good life.
Shi Zhu almost had tears in his eyes, but he was more afraid of Momo than his father, so he had to lower his head and put the rice in the bowl into his mouth.
Zhang Xiaoliu didn't sleep well that night either. He was just thinking about raising chickens before going to bed, but after falling asleep, he was full of related dreams all night.For a while I dreamed that I was building a shed, and for a while I saw a house full of chickens. I really thought about it every day and dreamed at night.
After dawn, Mai Mai went to feed the chickens first, and Zhang Xiaoliu made breakfast with two dark circles under her eyes.Because Maimai had to rush to school, their breakfast time was a little earlier.But breakfast is easy to make. He occasionally steams two sweet potatoes for each person, or cooks a pot of porridge. He only eats rice as a side dish at noon and evening, which is not bad in the village.Ever since he harvested the rice, he has never cooked rice mixed with bran or other miscellaneous grains.
What I ate this morning was porridge. Put it in a bowl and sprinkle a handful of frosting sugar. Everyone liked it very much.There is no need to worry about tooth decay, after all, sugar is only occasionally eaten here, but it can nourish the body.
After cooking the porridge, the wheat went out first.Zhang Xiaoliu soaked the glutinous rice, and at this time the porridge on the stove had cooled down a bit, and he was about to pick it up to eat when he heard Xiaoguo from Cao'er Momo's family coming.
"Brother Xiaoliu, can I ask you if you are free for a while, can you go to my house and talk to him?" Xiaoguo didn't see anyone outside, and went directly into the house.When he saw porridge made of rice on the stove, he swallowed involuntarily.
"Xiaoguo, have you had breakfast?" Seeing Zhang Xiaoliu, she subconsciously put down the bowl she was carrying, found another small spoon and handed it over, "Let's have some at brother's house first!" Since Lin Cao Er decided to keep Xiaoliu. Their family was also living on a budget, and the dishes on the table were even worse than before. No wonder the child was so greedy.
"No, no need. I'm about to finish everything, brother Xiaoliu, just remember to come here when you have time." Xiaoguo took another look, and ran away quickly after speaking, Zhang Xiaoliu didn't have time to keep her.
Knowing that their family hadn't had breakfast, Zhang Xiaoliu was not in a hurry, and ate slowly, drying the wine jug used last time, and cleaning the clay pot.Except for a small jar of the rice wine brewed last time, I gave it to shopkeeper Huo, and the others are still kept at home.When the wine is ready this time, it will be counted to shopkeeper Huo.
Zhao Zhengze and Xiaosong went to dig water in the field. He was afraid that the water could reach the field. If he didn't come back so soon, he locked the door of the house and went to Cao'er Momo's house.
He thought that if he refused, Cao'er would probably come over and talk to him.Since I let him go, I'm afraid it's tempting, but we still need to discuss the details carefully.
When we went to Lin Cao'er's house, the couple, including Nanny Li and Li Kang, were indeed there.Seeing him coming, let Li Guo hold Xiao Liu and lead the children out to play.
Zhang Xiaoliu greeted them one by one before sitting down beside Lin Cao'er.
"Brother Liu, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, and I think it's the best idea. That's why I want you to come here today, and I'll talk about the specific things in detail." It was Li Nao who spoke first. Nanny, he said as soon as Zhang Xiaoliu sat down.
"That would be the best... Li Mama, what's your idea?" To be honest, Zhang Xiaoliu's eyes are darkened now, and he doesn't know anything.But he clearly remembered that a family in their village built a chicken shed at the foot of the mountain, and within a few years they became the highest-income family in the village.Not only are chickens and eggs sold, but even chicken manure is sold in snakeskin bags.But what I saw at that time, I can't use it here.
"There is no one in our family who is as quick-witted as Brother Liu, and can't think of anything well. By the way, didn't you say that Dashun's family also wants to do it together? Or, call them over to discuss it together?" Li Nanny is not afraid of too much If the family cooperates, the Li family can't afford much money now, and the additional family members can share the initial expenses. If there are any accidents in the future, the losses of each family can be smaller.
"He hasn't told me yet! We can first think about where to raise the chickens and where to buy the chicks. If Dashun will do it together, then we can discuss the results with them." So many, in fact, it is not easy to discuss the results.
"That's right, it's time to think about it." Nanny Li patted her head and said.
"Mammy also knows that we don't have much land in our house, and we may not be able to provide the place we chose to raise chickens..." Zhang Xiaoliu said with some embarrassment.In addition to the cultivated paddy fields and dry fields, many people in the village still have some wasteland for planting trees at the foot of the mountain or at the end of the village.Just like the piece of land that Zhao Zhengze is dividing now, it was originally the wasteland of the Zhao family. After the division, Zhao Datian's father used it to build a house.
"Then this matter has to be calculated with Dashun's family. Our family still has a few pieces of land, but we have to keep it for a few children. Even if we take it out, we don't know if it is big enough..." If we want to raise land in the future With thousands of chickens, the place should not be too small, otherwise it is easy to get sick.
"Mother Li, I also thought about it for a long time last night. At the beginning, I needed to find a place, build a chicken shed, make wooden troughs, and buy chickens. All of these will cost a lot of money. Since we are doing it together, why don't we add up?" Together, whoever provides the space will measure it and convert it into silver and count it as the principal." Such a large space is needed, even if it is wasteland, it is not easy to take it out, so Zhang Xiaoliu came up with this method.What's more, it is converted into silver to measure, and it also avoids what is said in the future.
Under the leadership of Nanny Li, Lin Cao'er and his wife didn't talk much, and only occasionally raised opinions during discussions.After talking like this for more than half an hour, Zhang Xiaoliu went back first because he still had to wait for Dashun to be finalized.
When he got home, Zhao Zhengze and Xiaosong had already had breakfast, and they also learned from them that Dashun also came to look for him just now.
So after talking with them for a while, Zhang Xiaoliu went to Dashun Momo's house again.
Sure enough, although it felt a little difficult, Dashun was not willing to let the opportunity slip away.His thinking was more open than Lin Caoer's. Ever since Zhang Xiaoliu said he wanted to make wine, he thought it was a good business.Now that I can take part in raising chickens, I naturally want to follow suit.
Zhang Xiaoliu discussed with them separately, and in the evening the three families gathered at Li's house to discuss.In the end, Nanny Li suggested that their family still had a bamboo forest at the foot of the mountain, and they could raise chickens by cutting down the bamboo.The chopped bamboo can also be used to build a shed. After all, it is not for people to live in. It is enough to cover the top with two layers of thick spear grass to keep out the rain.
When the matter was settled, Zhang Xiaoliu asked someone in the town to send a message to Zhang Donglai, and the other party replied, asking him to go to the market next time to sign the contract.
Zhang's family doesn't have anyone who can help with raising chickens. After all, he needs Ah Zheng to help him brew wine. Mai has to go to school in one or two years, and Xiaosong is too young.In the end, it was agreed that various initial expenses such as buying chickens were recorded, and the place provided by the Li family was also converted into money. The Zhang family paid [-]% of the silver, and the Dashun family and the Li family each contributed the remaining half.After getting started, the Zhang family will not participate in the feeding, but because it is the buyer contacted by Zhang Xiaoliu, Zhang Xiaoliu will account for [-]% of the final interest, and the other two will each account for [-]%.
The Li family's land was converted into cash, which was enough for them to pay, so they were naturally very happy.Dashun took over odd jobs such as making wooden troughs for chicken feeding, but also wanted to spend less real money.Li Sheng and Uncle Zhao were going to buy chickens, Zhang Xiaoliu brought out two taels of silver at a time, which surprised the other two families secretly.The Zhang family had a hard time before, no one knows better than them.They can earn two or two taels of silver by doing a wine brewing business, which makes them more confident that doing this job with Zhang Xiaoliu will not be bad.
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It is already a well-known posture in the village to survive this rush.Chopping bamboo was easier than chopping firewood. Nanny Li led the eldest grandson, Dashun Meme led the charge with two sons holding hatchets, Zhang Xiaoliu and Fu Lai followed behind and dragged the fallen bamboo aside.
At this time, the weather was hot and the bamboo forest was the coolest. After cutting down the bamboo, Zhang Xiaoliu felt that many insects crawled out from the ground and spread everywhere.
He has never liked such soft things, especially when they appear in groups, he feels the skin on his hands tremble.It's a pity that Uncle Li Sheng and Uncle Zhao went to buy chickens. If there are chickens to eat these bugs at this time...
eating bugs...
A thought suddenly came to him, and he said to Fulai: "Fulai, hurry up and ask you and Nanny Li to stop chopping bamboo, I have something to tell them."
Fulai was a little puzzled, but hearing his eager tone, he stood up and went forward.Zhang Xiaoliu looked around again, and found that the area where the bamboo had been cut was [-] to [-] square meters. It should be no problem to build a shed for keeping the chickens at night.He just suddenly discovered that a natural bamboo forest that has grown for so long is a good place to raise chickens, isn't it?The root system of bamboo is shallow, and many types of reptiles live there, including grass, bamboo leaves, and insects, which can become food for chickens.
Nanny Li soon heard Fulai's words, and came over with Dashun wiping his sweat.
"Brother Liu, what's your idea?" After all, Nanny Li is old and has a lot of knowledge. After discussing these few days, she decided that Zhang Xiaoliu had an idea, so she asked.
"Mother Li, has the bamboo forest in your house been around for at least decades?" Actually, Mother Li had reminded them before they came in just now that there are many mosquitoes in the bamboo forest, so be careful of being bitten, but Zhang Xiaoliu didn't notice it at that time. .
"It was there when I came here, isn't it decades?" They seldom rested when they were working seriously. At this time, they just took a breath, and Li Nanny picked up the water bottle she brought and filled a few sips of water and said .
"I saw a lot of bugs on the ground just now. Don't chickens like bugs the most? Maybe we don't need to cut all the bamboos. Now this place is enough to build a shed." Zhang Xiaoliu expressed his thoughts.
"That's right, I'm so confused. When I was a child, my chickens were all raised in the bamboo forest behind the house!" Da Shun patted his head, and then remembered.
"Is this okay? What should I do when I want to feed the chickens?" Li Nanny looked at the densely grown bamboos with some doubts.
"We still have to cut some, but we don't need to cut all of them. That way the bamboos will be spaced apart, and it will be convenient to feed the chickens." Dashun Momo recalled the bamboo forest behind his house when he was a child, and suggested from the side.
"Yes, we just cut every other bamboo, so that it is easy for people to pass by." Zhang Xiaoliu added.
Nanny Li looked at the bamboo forest and thought for a while, then said: "I think it's okay, it's covered by bamboo, and the weather is not afraid of the heat, chickens are smart, and they will go to the shade of the bamboo by themselves!"
The three of them felt that it was feasible, so they decided to continue to do it.If you feel that you can't do it in the future, it's a big deal to chop up the remaining bamboo at that time.
After reducing the amount by half, they cleaned up the bamboo forest in almost a day.When they came back in the evening, Li Sheng and Uncle Zhao also walked a few villages, and finally found someone who had agreed on five hundred chickens. They only waited for the shed to be built in a few days before paying the silver taels to get them back.
There are not many things that Zhang Xiaoliu can participate in to help, but after all, he was the first to mention this matter, and he was also afraid that everyone would lose confidence if he didn't get it right at the beginning, so he went to see it almost every day.The glutinous rice at home was steamed and put into a clay vat to ferment. Zhao Zhengze took care of him in the field, so fortunately he was still busy.
Not all bamboo was used to build the shed, but a foundation of more than one meter was dug from the ground, and burnt mud bricks were bought from Lincun.Both Uncle Zhao and Li Sheng invited several people from the village to help, and they built the wall five or six feet high in just one day.Of course no tiles are used on the roof, long bamboos are stretched across the roof, and the only thing left to do is to spread spear grass on top later.
The style of the shed was also proposed by Zhang Xiaoliu, which is a square shape.It is 25 feet long and about six or seven feet wide, with a door at the front and back.A ditch was dug behind the shed, and a ray of running water just came in from the ditch left on the mountain.
After working so hard for four or five days, the bamboo forest where the chickens will be raised finally took shape.Dozens of wooden troughs are scattered in the bamboo forest, and will be filled with water or chicken food respectively.The chicken shed has been exposed to the sun for two days, just enough for the chickens to live in.Li Sheng and Uncle Zhao took advantage of the afternoon to bring the chicks back.
The chickens were just the size of a fist, but the other two had no lack of experience in feeding chickens, so Zhang Xiaoliu didn't say much, and let them take care of them based on their experience.
In the past few days, there were quite a lot of people outside the bamboo forest, but because there were people of seniority like Li Mama, and Dashun and Cao'er were dragged by many people to inquire about the news, Zhang Xiaoliu avoided it instead.He is not afraid of others asking about it, but if it is mixed with all kinds of sour and unfavorable words, it will make people uncomfortable after all.
The wine brewed at home has been turned over several times, and Zhang Xiaoliu is becoming more and more confident in the wine he brews.He even felt that he was the kind of person in the legend who was so lucky that no matter how the glutinous rice wine was made, it would be sweet.
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Cao'er Meme and Dashun Memo both looked at the chickens in the shed with some trepidation, Zhang Xiaoliu walked back after talking to them.Mai Mai was already reading outside the house with a book in her hand, and from time to time she was holding a branch and making pictures on the ground.
"Xiaomai, are you back?" School was over at four o'clock in the afternoon, and it was almost five o'clock when Xiaomai came back.But now is the longest time of day, and the sun doesn't go down until after six o'clock.These few days he was so busy that he didn't talk to him carefully when Mai came back.
"Brother." Mai Mai was concentrating on looking at the book in his hand, only then did he realize that Zhang Xiaoliu was beside him.
"Mister hasn't taught you how to write?" Zhang Xiaoliu looked at the writing on the ground, it was more neat than the last time he saw it.
"Not yet, I'll give it a try." Mai Mai also wore a blue robe, which Zhang Xiaoliu bought for him at the fair last time after selling wine. Anyway, according to Mr. Chen, scholars must have The appearance of a scholar.Needless to say, even Zhang Xiaoliu was very satisfied after putting it on, looking like a little scholar.
"Since the master didn't teach you, you don't have to rush to learn. Now let's read more characters, and then the master will teach you to hold the pen and write well." Although he was very happy to see him working so hard, it has been a long time. I was afraid that his simple interest would not be able to support him.
"Okay, brother knows a lot." Seeing his brother coming back, Mai Mai closed the book and wanted to chat with him, so they went in together.
"Brother Liu, didn't you say you wanted to buy a piglet? I heard from Qiuming today that his family only caught one last month and killed it for the New Year! If you want to raise one, I'll ask again. Does that family still have any piglets?" Entering the room, Zhao Zhengze took Xiaosong to sit on the bed and fiddled with the things he carved, Xiaosong put one thing to his mouth, and when he blew hard, there was a clear and long sound.
"Hey, you really made this sound-making thing?" Zhang Xiaoliu walked over to look, and Xiaosong hid behind him preciously.
Zhang Xiaoliu sneered, and turned his head to Xiaosong to show that he didn't care for that thing, and then said to Zhao Zhengze: "I'm afraid I won't be able to raise it this year. You see, I'm too busy and have no place to raise it."
Zhao Zhengze wanted to say that he was free to feed, but recently Zhang Xiaoliu was so busy that he panicked.But thinking that there was no place, he swallowed the words back.
But Zhang Xiaoliu knew his thoughts very well, and said with a smile: "Didn't you help me brew wine recently? This should be regarded as a partnership between the two of us. It's not bad to want to raise a pig because we didn't have a place to make money before. But now there is no rush." He was so busy a few days ago that he almost forgot about turning over the wine cellar, but fortunately Zhao Zhengze had already done it at home.
"I can't help you with anything..."
"Next time you brew with me, maybe you can do it yourself in the future. But you have to test whether the wine you brew will become spicy." Zhang Xiaoliu has never been the kind of person who does everything. Bad, he hoped that he could share the burden.It is really not easy for one person to brew twenty buckets of wine.
"Okay, I have already remembered your steps, and I can definitely help you!"
Xiaosong hid his hands behind his back for a long time, and found that his brother really didn't look at his new gadgets anymore, and suddenly felt a little lonely.His hand holding something arched behind Zhang Xiaoliu's back, and he opened his hand when he turned around.It was a well-ground peach core, and after the core meat was dug out, it could make a sound when it was blown into the hole.
"It turns out that Xiaosong has such a fun thing. Be careful not to swallow it when you are playing with it!" Zhang Xiaoliu looked at his aggrieved expression, and suddenly felt that he was a little boring to a child like that just now, so he calmed down and coaxed He said a few words.
After hearing this, Xiaosong really became happy again, and without hesitation, he stuffed the peach pit into his palm and asked him to blow it on.
"Brother doesn't like to play with this. Xiaosong is so good recently, it deserves to be rewarded. We have a large group of chickens and haven't tasted it yet. Ah Zheng, you go catch one and kill it to cook tonight."
Due to the busy work during this period, Zhang Xiaoliu is also a little greedy, especially the chicken that he has not eaten here.
Zhao Zheng went with a smile.On this day, the important matter of raising chickens was settled for the time being, and the wine making was just waiting for the wine to start. A whole chicken was added to the meal, and the two small rooms were full of laughter.
Later in the night, in the same village, Zhao Zhengguang, who had just fallen asleep, was kicked awake by his bedmate Gao.
"What are you doing?" The weather was hot, and Zhao Zhengguang was awakened just as soon as he fell asleep, and pushed Gao angrily.
"Oh, it hurts to death! You want to kill your son, don't you?" Mrs. Gao didn't expect him to react so rudely. She was afraid of the heat and couldn't sleep when she was pregnant, and she became even angrier after being pushed like this.
"You know it hurts, so what are you kicking me for?" Zhao Zhengguang looked irritable, and he was dragged and talked for half an hour before falling asleep, and he finally fell asleep and couldn't live in peace.
"You sleep like a pig, occupying most of the bed, and will you let me sleep with your son?"
Hearing this, Zhao Zhengguang held back his breath and moved into the wall.Can you explain it, if Gao Shi is scolded back home again, he will have to pick it up alone.
Seeing this, Gao was a little satisfied.After a while, he said again: "Aren't you the elder brother whom the cousin took refuge in? Didn't his father still drag his two younger brothers to live in the dilapidated house? Why now I heard that he has a younger brother who goes to school and can make wine Sell money?"
"Who knows, what are you asking so much for?" Zhao Zhengguang was about to grit his teeth these few days. He never thought that the short and thin kid was so capable, and Zhao Zhengze took advantage of it for nothing.
"Where is the need for me to inquire? It's being talked about everywhere, and you can't help but hear it. Hey, people still ask me why I don't learn how to brew wine!"
"Those people are all watching our jokes, what do you care about them!" Zhao Zhengguang said angrily, beating the bed board with an ugly face.
"Okay, let's not talk about it. But before you got married, you said you were going to build a house, why didn't you mention it now after you got married?" Gao complained.
...Every family has its own troubles, until the dark clouds cover the moon, the earth is completely plunged into darkness, and the whispers in the house have not stopped.