Ancient natural disasters: The whole family traveled through time and was almost wiped out

Chapter 170

But it was so cold that the soil was frozen, making it very difficult to dig. A dozen people dug for half a day but still couldn't get to the bottom, and they were sweating all over.

Butcher Jiang wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve and pounded the ground with his hoe: "Where can I buy fish fry now? The flood has hit, and the fish fry have already run away."

Old Master Jiang choked: "I can't bear to get angry with you, just do your work quickly, use some strength, and tickle the dirt?!"

Butcher Jiang felt wronged: "Grandpa, I used all my strength and my hands are hurting!"

It’s not that he didn’t try hard, it’s that the soil was too hard!

I dug and dug beside the big fish pond, and dug out soil and sand.

It would take another day to dig out the gap and release the water. The men carried their hoes and went back to the fields. Farming is the lifeblood of farmers. The older generation sometimes went to check it several times a day, but they had no idea what they were looking for.

There is also a thick layer of silt in the fields, as well as traces of rotten rice stalks. Some people like to leave some rice stalks in the fields and let them rot freely, saying that this can increase the fertility of the fields.

Silt can also be used to fertilize the fields. A few years ago, when the ponds were dredged, many people used winnowing baskets to scoop up pond mud and put it on the fields to make fertilizer. But now the silt in the fields is obviously different from the black mud at the bottom of the pond, so it is not known whether it can fertilize the fields.

Old Master Jiang took the hoe from his eldest son and dug the ground hard twice, but it became very hard.

"That's good. It's completely frozen. We won't have to kill insects next spring."

There is everything on the ground after a flood. The vitality of insects and eggs is a mystery. They are very fragile and tenacious, but there is no doubt that there are a lot of them.

High temperatures can hatch insect eggs, which is why plagues are more likely to occur when the temperature rises after a disaster. However, low temperatures can kill most insect eggs, so crops will have fewer insect pests in the coming year. This is also one of the reasons why "auspicious snow indicates a good harvest."

Fortunately, the temperature has been very low since the flood, which has reduced the possibility of disease transmission to a certain extent. Jiang Suying has been wandering around the village during this period, and sometimes she would sneak to the neighboring village, but she did not find any abnormalities in any village.

But there are definitely colds and flu, and as long as they are not spread on a large scale, there is no problem.

If everything were normal, the village lockdown could be lifted soon.

"Grandpa, I'm leaving. There's nothing to see in the fields, and there's no work to do. I'm going home to eat." Jiang the butcher walked around the fields and was about to go back. He had worked all day and was very hungry.

It’s said that farming is much more tiring than selling pork. He would rather sell pork for ten days than dig in the fields for a day.

"Go back. You're always thinking about food." Old Master Jiang grumbled and waved his hands. When people get old, they tend to mutter: "We should also pay more attention to the fields. We farmers blah blah--"

"Mm, mmm, mmm!"

Jiang the butcher responded while retreating, and Jiang the hunter retreated with him. These two men were not really good at farm work, nor did they like farming that much.

"What are you eating today?" Hunter Jiang asked casually.

After they walked away, the two of them started chatting casually.

Butcher Jiang sighed, "What else can we eat? Pickled vegetables and white porridge. If it weren't for the fact that we ate so well in the mountains and my mother hasn't gotten used to the poverty yet, she would have to eat thin porridge every day."

"Who isn't? My porridge is starting to become watery today, too."

"I miss the fat chef." Butcher Jiang smacked his lips.

I miss the days when we ate from a big pot in the mountains, those were simply heavenly days.

He suggested: "Why don't you talk to Pei Ge'er and ask him to set up a canteen in the village?"

"If you're so bold, just go ahead!" Hunter Jiang turned around and left, carrying his hoe.

"I'm just saying that. How can I really think of taking advantage of Brother Pei's family every day? I don't know when my family will be able to eat whatever they want and have enough money."

"How can you say that? How much money have you made from slaughtering pigs over the years? My family is worried! It costs money to treat Niuniu's leg, and it costs money to build a house. Now we don't even have a shabby shed. You all have moved out, and we are still living in Uncle Pei's house!"

Except for Hunter Jiang, the other five families whose houses collapsed still lived in the guest house of Old Jiang's family, but they no longer ate together, they cooked for themselves.

"Alas." Jiang the Butcher sighed, "Life is so hard! I hope things will be better next year! When will you build your house?"

"It has to be spring anyway. It's freezing cold now. We can't build anything. There's no way to repair the house."

"Okay, let me know when you build the house, and my third brother and I will go over to help."

"I was just about to tell you that you'll probably be selling pork again by then, so remember to come and help when you close your stall."

"Okay! If you don't want wages, you have to provide meals!"

"Take care of it!" said the hunter Jiang with a smile.

"Can we ask the fat chef to cook?"

"...Why don't you go to heaven! Get out!"

"hey-hey……"

"Hey what, I'm back."

"Wait, I'll go too. I want to see the chickens, ducks and geese."

The children went out to play and brought back dozens of chicks. It didn’t take long for the news to spread throughout Jiangjia Village. The women didn’t believe it at first and came to see the old Jiang family. When they saw the nest of chicks, their eyes widened and they grabbed their children and said, “Where did you find them? Take me to see if there are any more.”

"We found it over there in the old house." The kid sniffed and described the scene to his mother with his hands and feet dancing: "Uncle Xiaobai is really amazing. He found it first. The chickens ran away, but Uncle Xiaobai and Aunt Xiaomi caught them all."

Many people didn't believe it and ran to the old house, and even searched the hill behind the house carefully, but they didn't find a single chicken feather.

There were no ducklings or goose babies by the river, but two hibernating bamboo pit vipers were found.

"Your Xiaobai is so lucky!" many women exclaimed.

"It's his good luck, and it's also our village's good luck. When the chicks grow up and lay eggs, our village will be able to raise chickens again."

The woman clapped her hands and said, "That's right. Remember to save a few for me when the time comes."

"You should talk to the village head about this."

"What's wrong?"

"In this weather, it's not easy to raise dozens of chicks. Xiaobai said that the village head and Wang Bo's family should raise them together!"

Aunt Wang is Old Lady Wang, a former chicken farmer in Jiangjia Village. She is a very shrewd and calculating old lady with rich experience in raising chickens.

It was only when Jiang Xiubai brought the chicks back that he realized that Old Lady Wang still had some breeding eggs, twenty in total.

"That's great, Aunt Wang is great at taking care of the chickens!"

The women were chatting outside.

In the room, Jiang Xiubai and Jiang Xiaomi were studying the twenty eggs!

"These eggs are useless." said Old Lady Wang.

In fact, she brought fifty breeding eggs to the mountain. She gave thirty of them to the fat chef to cook and eat. As for the remaining twenty, well, they were kept as a souvenir. On the one hand, she knew very clearly that it was impossible for these eggs to hatch chicks, but on the other hand, she still had hope - what if!

So I have never been willing to eat it and have kept it until now.

"Since it's useless, leave it to me. I'll try to see if I can hatch it."

"It can't be hatched." said Old Mrs. Wang. She thought of taking it back and eating it - if it was still edible.

"What if? It's written in the book."

"What?" Old Lady Wang looked suspicious. "I'm an old woman who has never been to school. Don't try to deceive me."

I have lived for decades, but I have never heard of hatching chicks from eggs that have been left for several months.

"Let me try!"

Old Mrs. Wang looked at the cage of chicks next to her, then looked at the twenty eggs, and her expression changed.

She glanced at Jiang Xiaomi and smiled at her, which made Jiang Xiaomi feel a little confused. Finally, Mrs. Wang looked at Jiang Xiubai and said, "Okay."

The tone sounded as if he had made a very difficult decision.

Yes, twenty eggs!

How many families nowadays can afford to have twenty eggs?

If it wasn't for Jiang Xiaomi's father and grandfather, if Jiang Xiaomi wasn't here now, and if it wasn't for the fact that she didn't want to appear less stingy, she would have asked Jiang Xiubai to pay for half of the twenty eggs!

"Thank you, grandma!" Jiang Xiubai said with a smile.

"You kid, you must be so polite!" Old Mrs. Wang wrapped the chicken coop to prevent the chicks from getting frozen, then left with the coop, fearing that she would regret it if she walked a second slower.

Before opening the egg, there was a 50% chance that it was good! Twenty good eggs were scattered as soon as she let go!

As soon as Old Lady Wang left, Jiang Xiubai bought ten breeding eggs as replacements. Of course, he knew that it was impossible for these eggs to hatch chicks.

He gained some useful information from his limited knowledge, which is that the best time to store breeding eggs is within 2 weeks, with 5 to 7 days being the best. After seven days, the hatching rate of breeding eggs drops significantly, but there are exceptions. Some breeding eggs can still hatch after being stored for days, but the probability is small.

But when the temperature dropped below five degrees Celsius, the fertilized egg became inactive and collapsed. The temperature on the mountain had already dropped below minus five degrees Celsius, so there was no way it could be saved.

"That's not necessary." Jiang Xiaomi crossed her arms: "In exchange for these ten eggs, you can hatch them yourself!"

Speaking of hatching eggs, she recalled some not-so-nice memories from her childhood. She was forced by that group of people to be a hen hatching eggs. She had to sit on the eggs without crushing them, and she had to cover the eggs completely with clothes.

Ah, it’s too painful to look back.

I don’t know what there was to be afraid of back then. If it were now, huh, each of us would be rewarded with a rotten egg, and we would have to lick each other’s clean!

"I don't want to incubate! Let's go find Brother Mian! I'll buy him some books and see if he can build an incubator for me."

"I thank you on behalf of my brother." Jiang Xiaomi silently lit three incense sticks for her brother: "No, even if he can make it, he will need time. You take out the egg now..."

Jiang Xiubai: “…” It was a bit of a mistake, but it doesn’t matter, just put it back into the space and take it out when it’s done.

"You have hatched all the eggs that have been laid out for months. What will you do if Granny asks you to hatch them again in the future? You won't be able to replace the eggs."

"She came to me, so I hatched it for her, but whether it can be hatched or not is not up to me to decide." Jiang Xiubai spread his hands: "It's successful once, but it can't be successful every time."

Jiang Xiaomi gave him a thumbs up: "9." 6 turned over!

The final right of interpretation belongs to Jiang Xiubai.

learned.

If there are any unexplainable problems in the future, you can attribute them all to probability!

"Wow, there's a big fish!"

Knowing that they were going to fish today, the kids got up and ran over. They just happened to see a silver carp weighing seven or eight kilograms hanging on the fishing net at the gap where the water was released, and a number of small fish weighing more than half a kilogram or one kilogram, struggling hard to break free from the fishing net.

They squatted on the edge of the pond and stretched out their hands to scoop up the fish.

"Go, go, go! Go play nearby." The adults drove them away: "Don't go down to play in the water. Playing in the water in such a cold weather will make you sick. You will have to drink bitter medicine, and your aunt will give you injections. Are you afraid?"

“No acupuncture, no acupuncture!” The children almost shook their heads.

The children were frightened into sitting obediently aside, and the adults began to fish with nets. The water in the fish pond could not be completely drained, and there was still about thigh-deep water mixed with mud, which smelled fishy.

People have to go into the water, pulling the fishing net, walking from left to right in the cold sewage, catch a net of fish, and quickly go ashore for another person to go in. Although they know there are not many fish in the pond, they still feel unwilling to give up if they don't try to catch some.

There is a river in the village, and almost every household has a fishing net, it's just a matter of size. Before the rainstorm, in order to facilitate fishing, several households' small fishing nets were woven into a large fishing net, and five nets were made. Now two nets were brought over and asked to be pulled around the fish pond. There were not many fish in the first net, let alone the second net.

There are four major carp species in this fish pond, namely black carp, grass carp, silver carp and bighead carp.

The village basically stocks the pond once a year and a half. It is an unscientific way of raising fish, so the fish do not grow very fast. In a year and a half, the fish can basically gain three and a half to four catties, and the total weight of the fish is about fifteen thousand catties. If the market is good, you can get five cents per catty of silver carp. If everyone raises silver carp and if they can all be sold, then every household can get one or two taels of silver in this year and a half.

Originally, we were not going to stock the pond this year, and fish would be caught in the second half of next year. However, when the rainstorm came, the pond was temporarily cleared, and there were basically no fish in the pond. The pond is being cleared now not for fishing, but for disinfection and sterilization in preparation for fish farming next year.

One tael of silver, distributed by the government, is like getting it for free.

Therefore, every household pays great attention to this fish pond.

Although the pond had been cleaned once and it had rained, the total catch from this cleaning was about 100 kilograms. Only the one hanging on the net weighed seven or eight kilograms. The rest were small fish and shrimps, as well as some eels and loaches hiding in the cracks of the rocks.

"Let's share the fish!"

The children clapped their hands and screamed.

Every year the fish would be divided up by Jiang Lizheng. This time each family only had less than two kilograms of fish, so there was no need to divide them. Just pick up as many as you can as long as they are heavy enough. As for which families would get the big fish, they went through the trouble of drawing lots to decide.

"Let me do it, let me do it!" Jiang Xiu'an raised his little hand. Jiang Lizheng picked him up and asked him to do it. Seeing this, the other children all asked their parents to hold them.

Jiang Xiu'an was extremely lucky and actually caught one.

Unfortunately, fish, shrimp and other things cannot be put into the pot immediately now. They need to be kept in clean water for a few days.