Shipin Dalizheng

Rong Dashan thought it was not difficult and said he could do it.

Rong Qianqi looked at it and said that he could do it too. He was very good at carving things, and that cylindrical barrel happened to be his specialty.

So the two of them worked together arm in arm.

Turning around, I saw Doctor Zhang walking towards the village with a medicine box on his back. He had admitted seven or eight injured patients and needed to see them every day.

Rong Tang was the only one who had free time, so he moved the bamboo couch, filled a bowl with the strange-flavored peanuts fried by Aunt Dahu, and sat under the tree to enjoy the cool air, not wanting to be too moist.

An hour or so later, Chuncao and Daya came back together, bringing Sanya with them, with their small backpacks full of flower ears.

Chuncao gave her three cents, but Sanya refused to take them.

"Sister Chuncao, can you give me something to eat?"

Chuncao paused and asked, "Sanya, you haven't eaten yet?"

"Sanya!"

Daya stopped her and told her not to talk about family matters.

Chuncao changed the question, "Sanya, did you eat the meat of the rabbit I gave you yesterday?"

Sanya looked at her elder sister, lowered her head, and whispered, "The meat was saved for Xiaobao. Erya and I gnawed the bones and drank the broth."

The so-called bones were what was left after the meat was removed, and the so-called broth was the vegetable broth used for cooking. The three of them shared half a bowl and ate it with wild vegetable pancakes.

Even Erya and Sanya thought it was the most delicious thing. But when the eldest sister came home that night, she closed the door and said something to Dad and Grandpa. Grandma scolded her again. She didn't even let the four of them eat this morning. They were all hungry.

Chuncao went into the kitchen. In order to make cooking easier, they always kept bone broth, so she asked Aunt Dahu to quickly make a bowl of food for Sanya.

In order to cook quickly, Aunt Dahu scooped a few spoonfuls of bone soup, cut two pancakes and boiled them, then sprinkled them with chopped green onions and fried oil. It was so delicious.

San Ya was very satisfied with the meal and felt very embarrassed. She didn't have a big appetite, so Chun Cao forced Daya to finish the extra food, saying, "Don't waste it."

Daya lowered her head while eating, with tears in her eyes.

After dinner, Chuncao nonchalantly filled a bowl of peanuts for Sanya and said, "This is for you as a snack. From now on, you have to pick some peanuts and bring them to me every day."

Sanya's eyes lit up, "I understand, Sister Chuncao."

Her mother and second sister were still hungry, but she couldn't beg for food to take back home, otherwise what would happen? These peanuts were enough to fill their stomachs.

After Sanya left, Daya went to clean the flowers. Chuncao walked up to Rongtang, looking angry and said, "Master, the Third Master and the Third Mistress don't look like bad people. Why are they so cruel to our eldest son's family?"

Rong Tang guessed that although the Third Master's family had favored the Second Son's family in previous years, it had not been too extreme. The change should have only happened recently.

Rong Dashan is dull and foolishly filial. In addition, as the eldest son, he has no male heir to inherit the family line. He feels unfilial in front of his elders and is willing to bear the blame. He even secretly thinks that his elders are doing it for his own good.

As the main laborer in the family, he should have had enough to eat, so he couldn't empathize with the suffering of his wife and daughter. Besides, every family in the village was like this, so he didn't think his parents were wrong.

In short, he is a traditional, honest man. He doesn't beat or scold his wife and daughter, but he also has no awareness of resisting his parents to protect his wife and daughter. Not only him, but even Zhou, who has been bullied, feels that her situation is justified. This is the sadness of women being trapped by the feudal shackles.

He said, "There's nothing we can do about it. Their personalities have already been formed, their mindsets are set in stone, and they can't change. When Rong Dashan and Zhou become grandparents themselves, they might treat their sons and daughters-in-law the same way."

The Third Master is not a bad person, and in fact, the Third Grandmother is not a bad person either. This has nothing to do with good or evil. It is just the reincarnation of being a daughter-in-law and becoming a mother-in-law after many years, generation after generation.

"Da Ya is the same, just as taciturn. She's not as caring as San Ya, who is willing to use her labor to exchange for food for her mother and sister. She only cares about herself."

Rong Tang sighed again, "You've wronged Daya again. She doesn't just care about herself, she can't even take care of herself. If you hadn't pitied her and asked her to come to our courtyard to work, she wouldn't have enough to eat. How can you expect her to take care of the family? Shamelessly begging for food every day to take back to mother and sister? How does that look?"

Ultimately, Daya has been so brainwashed by society's rules that she has no desire to rebel. Erya is also frightened and incredibly timid, but Sanya is fearless, smart, and opinionated, so she might be a good candidate for development.

Such girls are rare. If they can be cultivated, even if they cannot become a great helper, they can still support their own family and protect their parents and sister.

San Ya didn't know at this time that she was selected as Rong Jinji's number one seed and her future was bright.

Before lunch, a new batch of koji was made. This time, the koji that had been successfully fermented the day before was added. Let's call it the old koji. Rong Tang estimated that the success rate of this batch was higher.

Next, we will try making glutinous rice wine, which can also be called sweet rice wine.

Cook the glutinous rice that has been soaked in advance, rinse it with cold boiled water to cool it down, drain the water and put it into a ceramic bowl, mix it with sweet wine koji powder, flatten it, make a fist-sized hole in the middle, then seal it with oil paper and place it in the kitchen cabinet against the wall.

Since I didn't know the specific proportion of adding koji powder, I made three pots in total to see the effect.

Aunt Dahu participated in the whole process and felt confused. Why would she waste the good glutinous rice instead of eating it?

Just as we finished the work here, the village chief Rong Dajiang came over with two people, looking angry.

"what happened again?"

Rong Tang felt that he was destined to worry about everything. He had to make decisions on all the big and small matters in the village. After all, he was not a village cadre and did not receive any salary.

Rong Dajiang said, "We were digging the ditch and originally wanted to start from the paddy field to save a lot of effort. But the Gao family was so unreasonable, saying that the land belonged to the Minister and the ditch also belonged to the Minister, and they wouldn't let us continue digging. We could continue digging if we gave them ten taels of silver. We've been arguing for a long time but have come to no conclusion."

Rong Tang was completely convinced. "Even with dozens of people, they couldn't stop a family with the surname Gao? Didn't they tell them that this land belongs to the Jian'an Marquis's Mansion, and that it was the Jian'an Marquis's son who wanted to dig the ditch?"

"I told you, the Gao family only recognizes the Shilang Mansion. They have six sons, all of them are fierce. The ones I brought with me are still hurting and can't fight."

"Hey!"

Rong Tang grinned, angrily. His paddy fields had been occupied by others for planting, and now he was being blackmailed for money when he wanted to dig a ditch. If this got out, this prince would become a laughing stock.

I originally planned to take the land back after this season's rice was harvested, but now I have to establish my authority.

Rong Shen, Rong Qianqi, get things done."

Rong Shen and Rong Qianqi came over, carrying a simple sedan chair made of two long bamboo poles with a round chair connected to it.

Rong Tang sat down inside, and the two of them lifted it up, shaking it up and down, quite like a local tyrant patrolling.

At the edge of the sixty acres of paddy fields south of the village, dozens of servants holding digging tools were intimidated by six burly men, and no one dared to move.

All the men in the Gao family are strong and powerful, so Old Man Gao and Old Mrs. Gao are also quite domineering. Their daughters-in-law and grandchildren are also ruthless.

They were from Gaojia Village in the east. In the past, there were many people and little land, so they often did not have enough to eat. A few years ago, Yang Lianye asked them to come and cultivate these 60 acres of paddy fields. He agreed to pay them five taels of silver a year. The Gao family regarded Yang Lianye as their master, helped them seize the fields, and have been guarding them until now.