Shipin Dalizheng

Rong An hurriedly said, "Prince Tang, the mountain is yours. If you need firewood, let these kids pick it up. They have nothing to do anyway."

"Although the mountain is mine, it takes time to pick the fruits." Rong An opened his mouth, wanting to say that they could do this when they had time, and there was no need to spend more money.

Rong Tang seemed to know what he was going to say and stopped him with his hand, "Rong An, don't say that you guys are just working hard. This is not the livelihood of one person or one family. It concerns the income of the entire village. So many eyes are watching. If you stay up all night like this, making and selling wine, working yourself to death, will the village agree to give you a raise? Maybe at the beginning you worked so hard just to make more money for the villagers, and didn't care whether you took more. If this keeps going on, your body will not be able to bear it anymore, and the output will be low. Will you be considered lazy and cause people to criticize you?"

Rong An knew that many villagers were dissatisfied because they had started work early, and he just wanted to do more work, but he never thought that there would be such consequences.

"I was mistaken."

"One is one, two is two. Since this is a collective business, there must be a clear division of labor and transparent accounting to prevent anyone from getting a hold of anything. The firewood can be considered collective, and the labor is all yours. It's up to you to decide how much to pay whoever brings the firewood."

Rong An figured it out and said to the village kids, "In town, a load of firewood weighing 40 jin only costs six cents. If you go to pick up firewood, it's the same, 20 jin per bundle, and you get three cents."

He also calculated that these boys and girls could easily carry ten or twenty kilograms of firewood and could help the family to some extent.

The kids were so excited. They could catch birds in the mountains, and they could get copper coins by picking up firewood. It was such a good deal.

While carrying Rong An on his back, Chuncao asked Rong Tang, "Master, you want to help the villagers, right? Then why don't you just distribute some? I think giving three or five taels to each household would greatly improve the situation, and it wouldn't take much."

She looked around, seeing no one else around, and lowered her voice. "Anyway, it's all old Earl Jian'an's money. I'm sure if he knew about it, he'd be happy to have his legacy benefit his clan and help them escape hardship."

Rong Tang sighed, "Chuncao, this is how Earl Jian'an took care of his people before, but he ended up raising a whole village of useless people. They lost all their courage and stretched their necks waiting for relief. I always felt that the Earl couldn't bear to let them starve to death. Even after being plundered by the Jin family for so many years, he didn't even dare to think about adopting a child just because he didn't want to join the army and fight. When I came here, I made it clear that I would not act like the old Earl. If you don't want to be poor, then work. This is how I treat my people, and this is how I treat the poor people in the world. You will understand in the future."

Chuncao seemed to understand that, just like a little bit of rice is a favor, a peck of rice is resentful, once any relationship crosses the line, it will become taken for granted over time. If one day the favor is not given, one will be met with a barrage of criticism.

Therefore, we must maintain a certain degree of intimacy with the villagers of Rongjia, but also keep a sense of propriety and not let them think that they can have whatever they want.

In other words, we should just get along like ordinary tribesmen, help each other, but we cannot unilaterally alleviate poverty.

After hearing this, Chuncao understood that she could provide food to the children in the village, but she could never let them get it for free.

"It turns out that life is the same no matter where you live. You have to be very careful."

As Chuncao spoke, she poured the pepper flowers picked by the kids into a bamboo basket, and then she didn't know what to do next.

"Master, how do you make this sweet wine yeast?"

Although I have the recipe for sweet wine koji, I still don't understand it because I have never made it before.

"Call Daya over here, and bring some copper coins. From now on, making the wine yeast will be their job."

As for Daya, he wanted the little girl to learn a skill. As for Tongqian, he wanted him to do something serious. He was a grown-up, but he didn't want to hang out with kids all day.

Daya and Tongqian were called over, and Rong Tang instructed them, "Pick out the flower spikes, leave half to dry, and crush the other half. Chuncao, I remember you bought glutinous rice flour last time, bring a few pounds over."

He had never made sweet wine koji before, and when he watched videos and saw information, some said to use fresh flower spikes, and some said to use semi-dry ones, so he decided to try both.

"Also, these flower spikes were picked from the river. Pick some water pepper from the north slope as well. Wash them like this, dry half in the sun, and crush the other half."

Everyone says their own recipe is good, so I have to try it myself to find the recipe with the highest success rate in making the koji.

Daya and Tongqian were busy with their own work, one twisted the flower spikes into a paste, and the other chopped them into small particles with a knife.

Mix four ounces of flower spikes with two pounds of glutinous rice flour, add a little warm water and knead into a dough, then pinch it into small pieces, roll them into small balls and place them in a flat basket covered with straw, then put another layer of straw on top, cover it with a lid and cover it with black cloth.

After all the operations, several people were sweating profusely.

This is not the end. These are just the two most basic ingredients. Some recipes also add poria cocos, licorice and other ingredients. Rong Tang hopes to try each one and choose the best one.

It happened that there was nothing at home, so we agreed to go to the pharmacy in town to buy some the next day and buy some supplies at the same time.

Seeing that it was still early, Daya said, "Sister Chuncao, I'll go to the north slope to pick some flower ears. They'll be useful tomorrow."

"You don't have to go."

Chuncao brought a plate of fried peanuts from the kitchen, walked out of the courtyard, and waved to the little girls who could see her, "Erya, Sanya, Zhaodi, come here."

The three girls went to cut grass for the pigs, each carrying a small backpack. Zhaodi was the biggest, so she was better off, but Erya and Sanya had a much harder time.

Seeing this situation, Chuncao thought of the fat boy Rong Xiaobao, who was taller and stronger than Erya, did no work and ate a lot.

Several girls came over and looked at her. Erya asked, "What did Sister Chuncao want us to do?"

Chuncao pinched a flower spike and showed it to them, "Do you recognize this?"

Erya said, "This is Polygonum multiflorum. It can be found by the river and on the north slope."

"It's good to know each other. Go pick some and bring them back, and this plate of fried peanuts will be for you to eat. If you pick more, I'll give you two cents each."

Erya whispered, "I'd like to pick flowers for Sister Chuncao. I don't want peanuts or copper coins."

Zhaodi was shy and didn't dare to speak, but Sanya took the plate and said crisply, "Sister Chuncao, do you have a backpack?"

Chuncao found a small one for them and said, "Don't pick too many, or you won't be able to carry them."

San Ya started bargaining, "Sister Chuncao, if we pick half a basket, that's our reward for roasting peanuts. If we pick a full basket, you can give us two cents each. Is that okay?"

Chuncao smiled and said, "Okay."

Sanya reverently put the fried peanuts back into Chuncao's hands. Although she wanted to eat them, she resisted the urge to eat them. "We'll get the reward when we get back."

The three maids carried the pig grass back home and gathered together to head towards the north slope. Before dark, they had filled their baskets and carried them back together.

Chuncao distributed the peanuts to them and gave each of them two cents. The girls, who had never touched copper coins before, all smiled.

It happened that Rong Dashan was about to go home from work, and his three daughters went out together, surrounding him and chattering and laughing.