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

That means she has to prepare food for the chickens and ducks from now on, so that they can grow fast and healthily.

After a while, the reed shoots and rice bran will be gone, so we will have to find something to feed them.

It is possible to find wild grass to feed them, but it is too monotonous.

Xia Qingyue suddenly thought of the stream where the willow tree grew. There should be fish and shrimp in it, which she could eat, and so could the chickens and ducks.

In the utility room there is a fish cage woven by the original owner's father.

In addition to fish and shrimp, grains also need to be fed. Xia Qingyue has been eating sweet potatoes and yams for a few days and especially misses the taste of rice.

"It seems I have to hurry up and find more herbs to dry and bring down the mountain. Oh, and I can also find pheasant eggs and wild duck eggs to sell!"

After finally getting down the mountain, it’s natural that you should bring enough things to sell so that you can make as much money as possible.

Similarly, after earning money, it is best to buy all the daily necessities on the street at once and then go up the mountain.

She started to light a fire and heat up the food, and boiled a pot of water in the back stove for bathing.

"Alas, I don't know what the situation is like outside."

This place belongs to Xiangzhou of Dayuan State. The original owner and his family originally lived in Xiushui Village at the foot of the mountains.

Two years ago, natural disasters occurred frequently in many places in Dayuan. People were displaced and starving. The relief food sent by the court was delayed, so riots broke out. The deposed crown prince, the fourth prince, who was demoted to Lingnan, seized this opportunity, recruited soldiers, and united with the old forces. Within a short period of three months, he successively captured Yuezhou, Qiongzhou, and Fuzhou.

At this time, the old emperor, who was incompetent, had no interest in state affairs and was obsessed with the way of immortality. His health was deteriorating and he was bedridden. Several princes in Kyoto had their own thoughts and were fighting openly and secretly. As the Fourth Prince seized the three southern states, they became anxious.

A few days later, the old emperor passed away, leaving behind an imperial decree for the sixth prince to ascend the throne.

However, the other princes were not pushovers and all had backup plans.

On the third day after the Sixth Prince proclaimed himself emperor, the Fifth Prince led his troops south to occupy Xiangzhou and Qianzhou. At the same time, the Seventh Prince occupied Yunzhou and Shuzhou, and the Eighth Prince obtained Huizhou and Suzhou.

Several princes proclaimed themselves kings in different regions, and the Japanese Kingdom on the border repeatedly provoked and provoked wars, resulting in frequent conflicts.

After the Fifth Prince took control of Xiangzhou, he proclaimed himself King of Xiang and formed an alliance with the Seventh Prince who proclaimed himself King of Yun. They introduced new political laws and increased taxes, making the already difficult life of the people even worse.

In that year, before autumn, the Xiushui Village where the original owner's family lived was forcibly taxed by soldiers. Almost all the food in every household was taken away. Those who had no food had to pay, otherwise the men in the family would be captured and forced to do labor.

Fortunately, Xiushui Village is close to mountains. The mountains are endless and towering into the clouds. There are wild vegetables on the mountains. The original owner's family and the villagers of Xiushui Village went up the mountain every day to find wild vegetables to eat and survived the winter.

There were too many people and too little food. In order to let his family live a better life away from the war, the original owner's father proposed to move to the mountains to escape the world. After getting the family's consent, they moved to the mountains in the spring.

What Xia Qingyue was worried about was that there might be a fight outside, otherwise it would be very dangerous, as she was alone and had a dog.

Thinking of this, she ate dinner with a heavy heart, took a bath and lay down on the bed.

After tossing and turning for a while, she fell into a deep sleep due to exhaustion.

The morning light is dim, the sun rises slowly from the horizon, and the rosy glow fills everything in the world.

Xia Qingyue evenly scattered the sprouted seeds on the ground that had been turned over yesterday, covered it with a layer of moist soil, and also turned over a piece of the sweet potato field.

Even though her stomach was growling with hunger, she still cut some reed shoots and mixed them with rice bran, and prepared food and water for the chickens and ducks before she started preparing breakfast for herself and Heihei.

For breakfast, she beat four eggs to make steamed eggs, a bowl of washed raspberries, and added some extra yam and two steamed duck eggs.

I fried a dish of shepherd's purse using the chicken fat I saved from yesterday.

After dinner, Xia Qingyue found two big-bellied fish cages and came to the stream. She first dug some earthworms, mixed them with reed shoots and threw them into the fish cages as bait. Then she found two good locations, placed them in the water, and propped them up with stones to prevent them from flowing away.

She won't be back at noon today. I'll have duck eggs, yam and raspberries for lunch. I'll put away the fish cages when she comes back.

These days she wants to work harder to find medicinal herbs and chicken eggs.

Xia Qingyue walked a long way and found six plants of Polygonatum that can replenish qi, nourish yin, strengthen the spleen and moisten the lungs.

Fifteen plants of Astragalus were found.

Thirty-seven and twenty plants.

Thirteen stalks of Angelica sinensis.

Ten plants of Bletilla striata.

Five plants of Sanguisorba officinalis.

The backpack was filled with ground ivy, arborvitae, and mugwort leaves, and it was packed tightly.

These medicinal herbs are either blood tonics or beneficial for treating external injuries. Based on the real-time situation, she believes that these medicines will sell better.

The reason why she knows so many medicines is that when she was a child, her family was poor, so she went to the mountains with her grandmother to look for medicinal herbs to sell for money.

She was lucky today. She smelled the fragrance of the flowers and found two honeysuckle trees full of white flowers.

There were so many flowers that she was dazzled and wished she had a few more hands to pick them together.

It was already noon and she didn't even have time to eat lunch. She only stopped when she had picked a full sack of raspberries and was too tired to continue. She took out the raspberries she had brought and stuffed a handful into her mouth, and shared the food with Heihei.

After quenching her thirst with raspberries, she went on to eat yams and finally the duck eggs.

When she was a child, she choked on the yolk of boiled eggs many times. It was so uncomfortable and left a deep impression on her.

To avoid choking, Xia Qingyue ate the duck eggs even more slowly.

Fortunately, I didn’t get choked today.

After eating, she continued to pick honeysuckle, but considering her limited personal ability, she only picked what she could take back.

She stuffed a sack of honeysuckle into her backpack and carried the sack in her hands. She could handle the weight.

It was afternoon, and it was not convenient to go far away to look for medicinal herbs, so Xia Qingyue took Heihei back to the reed marsh.

She followed Heihei to look for eggs, which was like having a detector.

I have to say Heihei is very strong and he can always find the right target.

Two hours passed. Xia Qingyue followed Heihei in running around in the reed field. The reed leaves were as scratchy as corn leaves. They made her hair messy and she was covered in sweat.

But the harvest was gratifying. We found fifteen duck eggs and thirteen chicken eggs.

When returning to the tiankeng, passing by the stream, Heihei barked twice into the stream, and Xia Qingyue then remembered that she almost forgot the fish cage.

She rolled up her trouser legs and went into the water, pulling the two fish cages ashore.

Through the small holes in the hollow fish cage, she saw something moving inside.

When I opened it, I saw fish as long as fingers, fish as long as chopsticks, and river shrimps.

Xia Qingyue happily slung the vegetable basket over her arm and picked up the fish cage, "Let's go home!"

When she got home, she put the opening of the fish cage against the wooden basin used for washing vegetables and emptied it.

One fish cage actually contained half a basin of catch.

Two cages make a full pot.

The fish is not dead yet, it is jumping everywhere.

Xia Qingyue picked out the larger fish and shrimps and cut the smaller ones into two halves, giving one half to Heihei and the other half mixed with reed shoots to the chickens and ducks.

The chickens and ducks, which had not yet adapted to the environment, huddled in corners. When the fishy smell of fish and shrimp spread, they all ran over to grab the food, fearing that it would be gone if they were too late.

Xia Qingyue, who was outside the circle, watched this scene thoughtfully.