An orphan girl from a farming family: Everyday farming in the mountains during natural disasters

While eating hotpot, she was boiling vegetables, which was spicy and numbing, and she could also warm herself by the fire. After eating, she was so hot that she took off her fleece coat and put on a reed fleece coat.

This meal was the longest in history. It lasted until the evening. Two candles were lit on the table. She and Heihei ate to their heart's content, enjoying the ultimate happiness brought by the food.

After a few days, heavy snow fell, and the area around the tiankeng was covered with a new white coat, and the ground was covered with thick snow.

Xia Qingyue picked all the cabbage, radish and garlic sprouts in the vegetable garden in advance.

I had been thinking of growing garlic shoots and harvesting garlic next year, but the current situation seems a bit uncertain.

When it snows, the wind will blow, carrying the snow across the ponds and paddy fields, and even the kitchen will be affected. One thing she must do every morning when she wakes up is to sweep the snow and pour it into the ditch so that it can melt and flow away later.

After sweeping the snow, go to the cave door leading to the outside to see if it is frozen.

There is no way to prevent this problem. If you are frozen, you can only stay in the tiankeng and wait for the weather to warm up and the snow to melt.

Now, the poultry used charcoal fire for heating. They were fine at first, but as the weather got colder, the poultry with poor physical constitution and small body could not withstand it. Five rabbits, three chickens and two ducks died.

With tears in her eyes, she killed the dead rabbits, chickens and ducks while they were still hot, cooked them for the next meal, and froze the leftovers in the snow, using it as a natural way to preserve freshness.

In the winter, it snows and there is no farm work to do, so she has plenty of free time. In the morning, she would chop bamboo to weave vegetable baskets and dustpans, and do some handicrafts. If she wasn't afraid of using too much firewood, she would also like to use clay to make some pots and pans.

In the afternoon, she practiced archery with Xia Dasong's bow and arrow. She thought that she should not waste her time in vain and learning one more skill would only do good.

Maybe it's because he often does heavy work, so he is stronger than before. After practicing for a few days, he can easily draw the bow and shoot arrows. But strength alone is not enough, he also needs eyesight, body balance and other aspects.

The rest of the time she was spending on cooking delicious food. The most popular dish was hotpot, which was convenient and saves time. There was a lot of konjac in the cellar, and she was thinking about how to cook it and finish some of it.

After much thought, she came up with the idea of ​​making konjac snacks. In her previous life, she particularly loved a certain brand of green-packaged spicy and sour snacks. After eating the first few packets, she could eat several packets at a time.

I got more than ten pounds of konjac, made konjac tofu, cut it into strips and put it on the snow to freeze for a while.

After the frozen konjac tofu is thawed and has dense small holes on it, squeeze out the water and spread it on a bamboo raft, then place it next to the stove to dry.

Soak the dried konjac strips in water, squeeze out the water again, steam them on a steamer for half an hour, add salt, fresh pine mushrooms, rice vinegar, kiwi sugar liquid, and chili oil and mix well.

The finished konjac cake is chewy and springy, and its color is a little dull, but it tastes good, especially the longer it is stored, the more sour and spicy it becomes.

The konjac made in this way is delicious and low in calories, so you don’t have to worry about gaining weight.

She made a lot at one time and put the leftovers into a clay pot.

After dinner every day, she liked to sit by the fire in the main room, eating snacks such as dried fruits, konjac cakes, walnut honey candies, roasted chestnuts, fried pumpkin seeds, etc. to pass the time. It would be even better if she had a book to read.

If I have the chance in the future, I will buy more books, paper and pens.

The snow continued to fall for more than half a month, and the cave door leading to the outside was frozen and blocked.

The snow in the sinkhole is increasing day by day. Xia Qingyue has to sweep the snow every morning. She is worried that if it continues like this, the sinkhole will be filled with snow.

Fortunately, the snow stopped after more than twenty days, and it was already early January.

There was no snow, and the sun was out for seven days, so the snow in the tiankeng slowly melted into water and flowed out.

In mid-January, it started snowing again, and it continued intermittently until the end of the month, when the amount of snow suddenly increased and turned into heavy snow.

Xia Qingyue boiled a pot of brown sugar ginger water, poured a cup and held it in her hand to warm her hands, while she looked at the gray sky at the mouth of the tiankeng.

"Why is it snowing so heavily again? This shouldn't happen. It's almost February!" She was very worried about how long the snow would last.

The heavy snow has been falling for four days without stopping and is still continuing.

At the same time, the mountains and forests outside were covered with snow. The accumulated snow crushed the branches. The snow on the ground was nearly one meter high, submerging the tree trunks underneath.

The only sound that could be heard throughout the world was the whistling cold wind.

The garrison in the upper reaches of the stream was in a mess and desolate state.

The tents that had been set up were toppled over and collapsed, covered by the wind and snow. Frozen corpses were lying all over the place, some of which were already covered by the snow.

In the mountains and forests, many refugees froze to death due to the long-term extreme cold and snowstorms this year, and the lack of warm clothes, dry firewood, and food to fill their stomachs. Some animals were not spared either.

In mid-to-late February, after the snow stopped for a few days in the cold winter, on the coldest night, a group of soldiers holding torches rushed up the mountain in a mighty force and went straight to the mountain stronghold occupied by Guan Jianshan, launching a night attack and a fierce battle began.

At dawn, the battle was over as the smoke cleared.

The once well-maintained mountain stronghold became dilapidated after this night, and the people passing by became soldiers.

The ground was covered with blood and corpses were everywhere, most of the dead were people from the village.

In the main room, which was the largest and best in the village, the door was open and three pots of blazing firewood were burning in the middle of the room, dispelling the coldness coming in from outside.

A fat white man in official uniform sat on a throne, stroking his short beard with his hand, and asked a skinny man who was bowing in front of him with his hands clasped:

"Master Liu, how is the situation going?"

"Replying to Lord Qian, this group of treasonous criminals who rebelled against their superiors and formed a clique for personal gain have all been executed on the spot."

"I heard that the bandit leader was a deserter from King Yun's army. His name was Guan, Guan..."

"Guan Jianshan." Master Liu raised his eyes and glanced at Lord Qian, then said: "This man was trapped and fought hard. The situation was extremely complicated at the time. He was not careful and was stabbed in the stomach by a soldier."

"Dead?" Lord Qian glared, looking unhappy. "Didn't I tell you before I came here that you must capture him alive so that I can bring him back and hang him on the city gate as a warning to others? This will put the King of Yue at ease and allow him to go north to expand his territory without any worries!"

"Forget it." He waved his hand impatiently. "Now that things have come to this, go and have someone chop off Guan Jianshan's head and bring it back, and hang it on the city gate."

Master Liu bowed his head and said, "I will go right away."

"Come back!" Lord Qian shouted. He stood up, rubbed his hands, and glanced at the room with disgust. "It's freezing. I have to go down the mountain immediately. Master Liu, you can do that thing right away. You stay here and go down the mountain when you're done."

Lord Qian quickly left the house and arrogantly called several teams of soldiers to escort him down the mountain.

Master Liu walked out of the house slowly and stood under the eaves, watching Master Qian and his party walk further and further away. The flattering smile on his face gradually disappeared. He straightened his back, raised his chin slightly, called a soldier standing at the door, and ordered:

"Take people out to find refugees and tell them that the world is peaceful now. The King of Yue loves his people like his own children and treats all refugees well. He is willing to build houses and divide fields for them, distribute grain seeds, and distribute disaster relief grain. Let them go down the mountain immediately!"