Although the Lin family also had a Zhuangzi in Qingshui Town before, but the Zhuangzi was too small, and after half of it was given to Mrs. Lin, there were only more than 100 acres of land left, at best, five or six tenant farmers, and last year they sent some dried vegetables, dried mushrooms, eggs or something, and they were also full of hoarding, and there was no such big pomp and circumstance.

This year, she hired the farmers to plant the land, paid the wages, and all the things she produced belonged to the Lin family. Because Qiu Chen vaguely remembered that soybeans and other legumes could fertilize the fields, most of the land reclaimed by the four Zhuangzi was planted with soybeans and mung beans, and some of the more fertile ones were planted with millet and sorghum. After harvesting, most of the beans contacted the grain store on the spot to buy them, and the grain brought back was limited, and the thousands of taels of silver were said to be a lot, but it was only a few thin pieces of paper, Qiu Chen did not feel the joy of harvesting brought by a large piece of land.

Unexpectedly, the New Year's goods sent by the farmers a few years ago made her find the feeling of being a landlord, which can be regarded as an unexpected joy!?

The four Zhuangzi are distributed in four counties, and the New Year's goods delivered from each Zhuangzi are also very different. Bacon, wind chicken, wind duck, wind goose, live chicken, live duck and live goose, as well as all kinds of dried vegetables, game, etc., Qiu Chen took the long list of New Year's goods and swept it, and there were dozens of kinds of New Year's goods sent by each Zhuangzi...... That's all, almost all of the family's New Year's goods are available!

While arranging for someone to take the coachman to wash up and have dinner, he arranged for someone to hang up a lantern and immediately inspect the goods and put them into storage. Some fruits, such as apples and pears, were covered with quilts and not sent to the cellar for storage, and they were frozen overnight when they were left outside.

These jobs have their own Mama Chen, Mama Lin and the girls are busy, Qiu Chen turned back to the small flower hall in front, called Daxing and Zhao Jiu to ask a few words, and sent the two of them back to their respective homes to rest.

It took three hours, and it was not until the end of the hour that the first cadre finished counting the New Year's goods and put them into the warehouse, and the coachmen were also full, so they went to the East Cross Courtyard to arrange a workshop to rest.

The next morning, Qiu Chen took Qingxing Yufeng, as well as Mama Lin and Chengying to calculate the New Year's goods, and added and subtracted a few things to the New Year's goods that had not yet been sent out, and it was refreshing.

After lunch, the girls gathered in the big kitchen and gathered in one place to select all kinds of rice grains and dried fruits to be used for Laba porridge.

Laba Festival, which can be traced back to before the Xia Shang Dynasty, was originally a festival to celebrate the harvest and to warn the ancestors and gods, called Laba Day. Historical changes, the combination of the Buddha Enlightenment Day and the Buddhist Shakyamuni Enlightenment Day combined to form the later 'Laba Festival'.

Because it is combined with the Buddhist 'Buddha Enlightenment Day', the festival customs of Laba have formed two aspects. One is the sacrifice at home, and the other is to go to the temple to worship the Buddha; Moreover, many temples give alms during this festival; Many families also give alms of porridge and rice to accumulate merit.

In previous years, Qiu Chen just took the family to eat Laba porridge and went to Lin Sheng's grave. Now because of the Lin family and the Wang family, some customs in the capital have also been brought over. Laba boiled porridge, sent porridge, and eating porridge became an indispensable item.

The Lin family has a lot of miscellaneous grains, and there are also a lot of candied fruits of various colors, and eight kinds of grains were selected at the end, namely glutinous rice, japonica rice, millet, millet rice, barley, corn, sorghum rice and wheat kernel rice; The eight kinds of auxiliary materials are river beans, soybeans, green beans, flower beans, large flour beans, mung beans, and red adzuki beans; Eight kinds of candied dried fruits, including pine nuts, walnut kernels, almonds, white nuts, preserved peaches, apricot flesh, golden silk jujubes and Qiu Chen's homemade sugar water cherries; In addition, in order to increase the aroma of the porridge, fried sesame seeds and fried peanuts and rice chips are also added.

Only eight kinds of rice are mixed together, which is dozens of catties, and the big kitchen specially replaces the big pot for two steamed steamed buns. At night, the rice beans are washed and boiled in a pot over high heat. Boil for an hour, at the beginning of the hour, continue to boil for half an hour, at this time the rice, beans are already crispy, the porridge is also thick and fragrant, and then the washed and chopped preserved fruit dices, even fried sesame seeds and fried peanuts are crushed into the pot, boil for a while, and the fragrance can be mixed evenly out of the pot.

More than a dozen small pottery jars have already been placed on the side, one by one containing Laba porridge, covered with lids, put them in cotton tires and parcels sent to the front yard, and Junwen Junshu who got up early to wash and comb and dress up freshly took Afu Aman, as well as a large group of children such as Junyan Junzhang, Chengzi, and Junli, carrying porridge jars to the families who have close contacts in the village and the elderly people in the village.

In the workshop kitchen of the East Cross Courtyard, several large buckets of fragrant Laba porridge were also boiled, and they were carried into the shed to give the workers steaming Laba porridge.

After the delivery was finished, the children ran back with a smoke, and then gathered in Mrs. Liu's house to salute and say hello.

Lin Xu did not come back in Anyang Mansion, although the ten exams of the school have been completed, but the New Year's gifts from all over Anyang Mansion have to be sent over, this year there are a few more official eunuchs, Qiu Chen specially asked the Chen family to bring the New Year's gifts prepared by the family, and after discussing with Lin Xu to add or subtract as appropriate, send them to the mansions.

After Laba, Zhuangzi sent a New Year's gift, as the main family, the Lin family also wanted to express their condolences for the New Year's Festival.

Qiu Chen discussed with the gentlemen, and asked Junshu to take Ah Fu with him, accompanied by Daxing, and escorted by Qin Yong and Shen Hu, all the way to the five Zhuangzi to comfort the lives of the villagers, and send some food and things to the past.

went to Zhuangzi to express condolences and observe the people's feelings; Settle accounts with Huichun Hall, Guo family, and Yun family, and prepare for the New Year inside and outside the family...... Lin Xu returned to Liujiaao from Anyang Mansion...... It was also his classmates, classmates, and literary friends from Anping County......

…… In the midst of being busy, time flies, and it seems that it is the twentieth day of the lunar month in the blink of an eye.

The workshop is preparing for the twenty-second day of the lunar month, and the day before the new year is a holiday. Therefore, on the twentieth and twenty-first two days of the lunar month, ice fishing was chiseled, pigs were killed and meat, and on the twenty-second day, the workshop had stopped working, and the workers cleaned up all parts of the workshop, happily took a portion of their New Year's goods, and bowed to the main family together, and went home for the New Year with joy.

This year's annual holiday is long, until the sixth day of the first month of the New Year. The workshop will officially start.

After the twenty-two were cleaned up, Mrs. Liu, Zhou, and Yang Shumeng, with a group of children in Junwen and Junshu, had already packed their luggage and set off to return to Yang's shop for the New Year. Qiu Chen sent people over twice before, wanting to pick up Old Man Yang and Zhao Junyi to Liujiaao for the New Year, but Old Man Yang refused to agree, there was no way, the Yang family had to go back for the New Year.

This is the third Spring Festival that Qiu Chen has come to this world. The first Spring Festival was spent with Qin Zheng, and I didn't feel anything; The second one was accompanied by Old Man Yang and Mrs. Liu to Layue, and the family was joined by Old Man Mu, Qin Li, and Qin Yong, and they didn't feel anything; In this third year, the family population has increased a lot, and there is also a large group of people accompanied by Afu Aman's son, Qin Li and Qin Yong...... There were a lot more people, but Qiu Chen didn't even have one who could speak.

Another consequence of being a brother and sister is that someone has done everything, except for the basic survival activities such as eating, drinking, lazing and sleeping, she doesn't need to do anything else, and then, Qiu Chen is idle. Of course, for all kinds of affairs, human relations and world affairs, Mama Chen and Yufeng Qingxing would still come over to ask for instructions and discuss with her, but Qiu Chen didn't like these things. She just made a rough plan, and the next specific affairs were left to the Chen family and Yufeng Qingxing...... In this way, the most obvious thing is Qiu Chen's idleness, and the rapid improvement of Qingxing Yufeng's ability to deal with affairs.

She was born to work hard, but when she was idle, she had some losses and no decline.

After a few days of idleness, Qiu Chen remembered the situation when he came back in a heavy snowstorm, so he directly set up a rule with the maid at home, every day after breakfast, the director began at two o'clock, and the stewards on duty everywhere came over at this point, the application for the application, the return of the return, the processing, and what else happened, unless it was urgent, it was going to be the next day. For the rest of the time, Qiu Chen didn't hold back in the house, and went directly to the glass kiln in the backyard, and discussed with Jialiang about firing human eyes and horse eyes.

After spending the last morning in the glass kiln, he came back for lunch, took a lunch break for half an hour, and then went to the greenhouse to cultivate vegetables and flowers, and became interested, and sent people up the mountain to find some humus soil under the dried mushrooms, and found some dead branches and rotten wood with dried fungus, and tried to cultivate mushroom fungus at one end of the greenhouse.

She is a complete layman about these, and only knows some basic habits of fungi, such as liking humidity and warmth, so she uses wheat straw to cook and sterilize it as a substrate and mulch, and sprinkles soil and wood that may have fungi from the mountains in the middle, and sprays it with water two or three times a day to keep the fungus bed moist.

From this, Qiu Chen remembered the air pressure spray can, that thing used an air pressure device, the principle is clear, and the setting is simple...... So she drew drawings and asked Iera to fire some of the devices, and she replaced the absorbent hose with a thin copper pipe, and the soft cushion was made of double-sided tung oil cloth...... Try to change, try to change, Qin Li and Qin Yong were sent by her to run to Anping County almost every day, and went to the coppersmith shop to find the old coppersmith to improve the structure of the device...... After five or six days of tossing and turning, she finally tried to make a watering can that satisfied her.

When it was done, she immediately customized more than ten sets of parts of different sizes with a relatively complete structure, and assembled a bunch of watering cans with the key accessories fired by Jialiang. These watering cans can hold two loads of water at the largest, with a wooden bucket, when moving, two people need to carry or push forward with a trolley, and the force of the car pushing, just with the air pressure device of the watering can, that is to say, as long as the cart is filled with water and push the car, the two nozzles on both sides of the watering can will continue to spray out uniform fine water droplets, forming an effect similar to artificial rainfall. Of course, it is too unrealistic to use this drought resistance, and if it is used to spray soil pesticides to control pests and diseases, it has become the most commonly used sprayer in modern agriculture.

The smallest watering can is the size of an egg, and the accessories are made of silver, and the body is engraved with delicate patterns...... This, Qiu Chen is going to use to hold the upcoming perfume. With such a top-secret and exquisite watering can as a container, it is conceivable that a bottle of perfume worth ten taels of silver can be sold for a high price of fifty taels or even hundreds of taels! Moreover, there is no semicolon, not afraid of counterfeiting!

After the twenty-sixth day of the lunar month, most of the people outside rushed home to prepare for the New Year, and before noon on the twenty-seventh, Liao Wenqing and Yun Jichen rushed to Liujiaao from Anyang and Zhengding respectively!

"Hey, Yang Shuren, what kind of urgency is it that you sent an urgent message to us here? It's going to be the New Year in two days...... You don't know what to do, I was scolded a lot when I went out, and I was almost forced to get out...... You have to talk to me about it, I'm sorry for my brother for being scolded for this little thing! Yun Jichen and Liao Wenqing hurried over on horseback all the way, and they were all sweating in the freezing ground and cold days in the wax moon.

Qiu Chen asked them to take them to wash and comb, change into dry clothes, and then talk together in the hall of the courtyard. As soon as he opened his mouth, Yun Jichen couldn't stop complaining about his bitterness!

Qiu Chen drank the tea lightly, ignoring Yun Jichen's bitter water at all, and drank a few sips in a row, before he raised his eyes and looked at Yun Jichen and said, "Do you still know that the New Year is coming?" Embarrassed to come over empty-handed? ”

Yun Jichen didn't think it was a pestle, he smiled, and then raised his eyebrows and said angrily: "What? Didn't we send the New Year's goods from our house? I clearly told Zhishu to send it with the account at the beginning of the month...... Hmph, this dog minion is really getting more and more daring! ”

Qiu Chen glanced at Liao Wenqing, who had a faint look in his eyes and did not intervene, and sneered: "Don't have any sins, just push it on the little guy...... Zhishu is a good boy, and it is rare that he has not been taken bad by his master! ”

Yun Jichen touched his nose and laughed, not caring about Qiu Chen's sarcasm, and continued to laugh a few words.

Qiu Chen didn't wait for him to ask again, and motioned for Qingxing to send a box, which was the silver version of the watering can she made, which she had temporarily added a little bit of toilet water, Qiu Chen picked it up, made a demonstration towards the handkerchief raised by Qingxing, and then handed the thing to Liao Wenqing and Yun Jichen without a sound.

Yun Liao and the others looked at the silver watering can handed over by Qiu Chen with surprise in their eyes, and tried to spray it twice, Liao Wenqing finally opened his mouth: "This is used to hold flower dew?" ”

The three of them had met before and discussed that the upcoming perfume was not called perfume, but collectively called flower dew. After the product comes out, the specific name is named according to the fragrance and characteristics of the product. For example, Pink Beauty, Purple and Red, and so on!

Qiu Chen nodded, Liao Wenqing showed a rare touch of heartfelt joy, looked at Qiu Chen and praised: "You are thinking about it...... I really don't know how to be born, but I can be so clever and kitty! ”

Yun Jichen lowered his eyes, concentrating on fiddling with the watering can in his hand, looking up and down and pondering, and then a sentence suddenly appeared: "Where did this come from?" Will it be learned? ”

Qiu Chen shook his head with a confident smile, took the watering can from Yun Jichen's hand, and unscrewed the lid to show the two: "See this, and this, the most critical part is fired with glass...... Therefore, what others can make is the body of the pot, which is useless! ”

Yun Jichen burst out with a bright smile, nodded his head, gave a thumbs up and praised Qiu Chen for a while, and then raised his voice and commanded: "Send me the New Year's gift I brought to Yang Shuren!" ”

After a while, Zhishu brought four or five mothers-in-law into the hall with three large camphor wooden boxes, placed them in the hall, and retreated without a word.

Qiu Chen's gaze swept over the three large wooden boxes, and said with a smile: "What kind of New Year's gift is this, why do I look so heavy, is it a few boxes of gold, silver and jewelry?" ”

Yun Jichen shook his head vigorously, no longer hung his appetite, got up and stepped forward, stretched out his hand to open the three boxes one by one.

As soon as he opened the box, Qiu Chen was instantly stunned, the three boxes contained neither gold nor silver, neither jade nor stone, nor food and toys...... Well, no, two are ingredients, and the other is also related to ingredients.

The first box contained rugby-sized Lipu taro; A box contains two vine seedlings with only the soil of the stems and roots remaining; There is also a box containing a box of red-skinned sweet potatoes!

Staring at the three boxes of things, Qiu Chen's eyes lit up, and he ran over almost without caring about anything, picked up a piece of sweet potato and stroked it...... Ha Luha, sweet potato, what a good thing, what a good thing!

A year ago, I got corn and potatoes, and now I have sweet potatoes...... It is to be expected that in a few years...... No, in just two years, she will be able to make the surrounding prefectures and counties no longer starve! There will no longer be a homeless people dragging their children and daughters around begging for famine in spring!

When Liao Wenqing first looked at the contents of the three boxes, he also had a moment of incredulity. It's just that his surprise was different from Qiu Chen's, what surprised him was not the surprise of seeing a new species, but the original intention of Yun Jichen to bother with this...... As far as he knew, these foreign things were not cultivated even on the southeast coast where there were ports to the sea, and the only way to get them was by those ships that had returned from going to sea...... Although he can now be sure that Yun Jichen of the Yun family has his own ocean-going vessel, it still takes a lot of effort and great manpower and material resources to get these things, and it is by no means an easy task!

has cooperated with Yun Jichen for more than two years, and Liao Wenqing knows a lot about it, and he also knows a lot. Yun Jichen seems to be gentle and elegant, and he is still a child of an official family, but his real character is definitely not so kind and easy to get along with. There is no interest...... Or just having benefits, can't make him do such a thing!

Lowering his eyes and hiding his emotions, Liao Wenqing thought silently for a long time, and when he raised his eyes, he saw Qiu Chen touching his own child, holding a stupid red skin with infinite surprise in his eyes, caressing ...... No need to ask, he can also see that Yun Jichen's gift really voted Qiu Chen's mind! It's so much to her liking!

In this way, Liao Wenqing couldn't help but have more questions about Yun Jichen's original intention!

Unexpectedly got sweet potatoes, Qiu Chen was overjoyed.

She took a piece of sweet potato and immediately handed it to Qingxing: "Take it to the kitchen, wash it, put it in the pot and steam it for half an hour to bring it back to me!" ”

Yun Jichen drank tea and looked at Qiu Chen, who was trembling with joy, and smiled silently. Liao Wenqing guessed in his heart, but he kept a light and gentle smile on his face.

"It seems that these few things sent by Yun Er are to your liking!" Liao Wen smiled lightly.

Qiu Chen nodded repeatedly, pointed to the two vines and asked with a smile, "If I guessed correctly, these are two grapes?" ”

Qiu Chen knew and heard so much, Yun Jichen had already seen it, and when he heard her guess at this time, he nodded disapprerovingly: "Yes, it is said that it came from ancient Persia, one is called Red Rose, and the other is called Ma (Nunai), it is said that they are as sweet as honey, and the raisins we eat from the Western Regions are dried from the latter kind of grapes." ”

These two kinds of grapes are really famous, and they taste excellent, Qiu Chen is naturally overjoyed. However, compared with the acquisition of sweet potatoes, the preference for the two famous grapes is obviously much weaker.

Casually, Qiu Chen pointed to a box of Lipu taro and said, "What about this?" …… Well, I don't think I've seen this before! ”

Yun Jichen nodded with a smile: "Yes, it's not our Ming thing, it's from Siam, and it's called taro." ”

"Siam? Not Guangxi? Qiu Chen subconsciously asked.

With this question, Yun Jichen and Liao Wenqing both showed a touch of color. Yun Jichen was puzzled: "Guangxi? Where did you learn about this in Guangxi? ”

As soon as Qiu Chen's words came out, he knew that he had leaked his mouth, but he couldn't take it back when he said it, so he had to pretend to be ignorant and said, "Isn't it?" I forgot to see a simple sentence in a book that said that the Yi people in southwest Guangxi eat a kind of root produced in the mountains, which seems to be called fish or something...... Or is it not a thing? ”

Yun Jichen listened to her explanation, and didn't continue to ask, only smiled lightly: "Definitely not one." This kind of thing is only grown in Siam, and we have not planted it in the Ming Dynasty. It is said to be sweet and soft and glutinous, and can replace rice grains......"

"Oh? Sweet and soft? How? Let's make a taste first! Qiu Chen interjected impatiently.

Yun Jichen shook his head with a smile, and said: "It's nothing strange, just like you just said, steam it for an hour after water, remove its skin, eat its meat, or dip it in white sugar and honey to eat, the taste is better!" ”

"Oh, I see!" Qiu Chen agreed, and immediately took a piece of Lipu taro and handed it to Yuegui, and sent her to the big kitchen to steam it with the sweet potato.

After this inquiry, Qiu Chen didn't dare to say anything about these three things, so he only changed the topic excitedly: "Let me tell you, it's very tiring for you to come all the way today, and I'll also bring some good things for you to taste......"

Yun Jichen naturally responded in a row, and even Liao Wenqing, who was much more indifferent, couldn't help but show a slightly deeper smile when he heard that Qiu Chen had something delicious to take out.

The family was all Qiu Chen with a few children, and they were familiar with Yun Jichen and Liao Wenqing, and they didn't care about any men and women, so they set up two tables in the dining room in the front yard together.

Lin Xu rushed back before lunch, so he and Chengzi sat together with Yun Jichen and Liao Wenqing, and Qiu Chen sat with Afu Aman and Shanzi Stone.

There is a hot pot on the two tables, and the aroma of the thick fresh soup in the pot is mouth-watering, not to mention, the fresh vegetables on the table are full of bright and bright vegetables, which are extremely rare in this cold winter wax moon. In addition, there was also a plate of neatly shaped, particularly clean fresh mushrooms and fresh fungus, which made Yun Jichen and Liao Wenqing's eyes widen in surprise!

These mountain treasures are expensive because they are not easy to get in the mountains. Moreover, because fresh goods are not easy to preserve, most of them are dried in the sun and then soaked when eating...... Unexpectedly, Qiu Chen was able to come up with fresh, and it was in this cold winter when the moon dripped!

Yun Jichen tried to say a word, Qiu Chen pursed his lips and smiled, "Even if you eat, you just get so much, and there is nothing superfluous." ”

Yun Jichen raised his eyebrows, and he didn't ask anymore. After all, now Qiu Chen's identity is different, with the Marquis of Jingbei there, it is normal for some rare things to be there.

And the simple steamed sweet potatoes and taro are also liked by the family. The sweet potato is soft and glutinous and sweet, the taro is pure and crispy and glutinous, melts in the mouth, and is freshly eaten, which is naturally sought after by everyone.

The guests and hosts enjoyed a meal, not to mention a few small ones, that is, Yun Jichen and Liao Wenqing also consciously ate it, but it was not easy to move around, sat and drank a pot of tea, and went to the place of reincarnation of grains a few times, only then did they feel more comfortable, so they said goodbye and left together. After all, the next day is the twenty-eighth day of the lunar month, and they are all rushing home for the New Year!

Qiu Chen, who got the good things, generously picked a few baskets of fresh vegetables in the greenhouse, and also picked a small basket of fresh mushrooms and fresh fungus by himself, and sent a carriage to send them back.

On the twenty-eighth day of the lunar month, fried oil goods, steamed steamed buns, and renovated various offerings. On the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month, cook big meat, whole chicken, etc., make meatballs, and make dim sum...... Two days passed in the blink of an eye in the busyness of the whole family, on the Chinese New Year's Eve of the 30th month of the lunar month, after breakfast, Qin Li Qin Yong took a few children to carefully post Lin Xu's couplets, couplets, door gods, blessing characters, window flowers and other festive things that Lin Xu had written before, and this work was all morning.

In the afternoon, Chen's Lin discussed with Qiu Chen about building a fire tower. It is to use firewood in the spacious place at the door, build a tower, and then light it in the dark, so that the bright flame will light up the night sky of Chinese New Year's Eve, and also illuminate the red and prosperous days of the new year.

Qiu Chen ignored these, and after breakfast, she went to the West Courtyard, asked Mrs. Lin, and sent a copy of all kinds of New Year's goods and supplies that had been prepared, and two new clothes that she asked the sewing room to make for Mrs. Lin, and also made one for Aunt Huang.

After lunch, the Chen family, together with the Daxing family, tried their best to be busy in the kitchen to show their talents, and delicately renovated a few tables of seats. In addition, there are also people who are responsible for chopping the stuffing and noodles, and the dumplings to be eaten in the mouth when preparing the New Year's Jiaozi.

Lin Xu was still driven to the West Courtyard by Qiu Chen to accompany Mrs. Lin and Aunt Huang for the New Year. She took the children and her family into the hall, and set up a few tables in the hall and the second room, the female dependents, as well as Qin Li and Qin Yong, and the family members, gathered a full six tables.

As soon as the dishes were served, the firecrackers at the gate were also lit.

After the Lin family set off the firecrackers, the firecrackers of other families in the village also went off, and soon, the loud firecrackers became one.

In the sound of firecrackers, the fire tower at the gate of the east courtyard and the west courtyard of the Lin family was also lit, and the bright flames were beating, along the dry firewood, and with the night wind, the flames were hunting, and soon the entire wood tower was wrapped in bright flames.

At this time, the people in the family, mainly the masters, regardless of gender, would all come out of the gate, gather around the wooden tower, stretch out their hands to bake the fire, turn around a few times, the tower made of firewood burned halfway, and Qiu Chen took the children back to the house.

When night fell, the cold was extremely heavy, so she still had to pay attention to it, so as not to let the children catch a cold.

------Off topic------

Only today did I find out the information, taro originated in India, and it was only introduced to China during the Japanese occupation. At the beginning of the article, I wrote taro...... I'm so sorry!

Also, about the mistake of yesterday's chapter - because I was too tired, I was sleepy at night, and I wanted to hold on to more yards, but my brain was completely confused. I can't change it after uploading, I got up at six o'clock this morning to correct my mistakes, but I can only wait until after eight o'clock for the editor to go to work to approve it. In the morning, the editors are busy, usually after half past eight......

Su Su sincerely apologizes to all of you! I'm sorry!