The warm wind blew up, making the leaves on the jujube trees in the courtyard bigger and bigger, and the leaves on the willow trees by the river showed spring green early, and the tender green was soon blown green by the warm wind. It was at this time that the people who were busy in the fields began to thaw from the ground and took a breath, and then waited there, waiting for the spring rain and the sorghum and millet in the field to sprout.

However, this weather is not something that the people can wait for, because it is a dry wind, the seeds sown in the ground cannot germinate, and like many people, Zhao Mancang, who has been busy for half a month before planting the land at home, is there anxiously waiting for the rain.

"Why hasn't it rained yet?"

Again, as usual, he was driving the wasteland, looking up at the sky, and the wind was still dry. In the end, he had to sigh and continue to drive the wasteland. In fact, he is not from Xuzhou, like the people in the village, he moved here from other places, and when he came, there was nothing.

Except for this land, which he reclaimed with his own hands, everything else was picked up from the village, even the house - at the beginning, he just dug a pit and buried a few white bones in the house, and then the house left by the desperate family became his home, as for this land, it was only a ripe waste that had been abandoned for a few years, as long as a fire was put on and the land was turned over, food could be planted.

Although these ripe wastes once had owners, most of them died in war or did not know where to flee. No one has ever stopped the reclamation. Moreover, the more displaced people from outside the country are reclaimed, the happier the government becomes. The performance evaluation of the county lord is to see how many displaced people and how much land is cultivated.

With his strength, in the past few years, he has cultivated a full hundred acres of land, but he has not opened up enough wasteland, and when he sees those abandoned land, his heart is itching.

"This year, more than a dozen acres will be opened, and when the three boys are born, the three of them will be able to share at least fifty acres each, and in a few years, there may not be so much wasteland......

Thinking so in his heart, Zhao Mancang raised his whip and urged the oxen to pull the plough to continue to reclaim the land. I was busy until the evening, and when it was getting dark, the wind rose, and this wind was a little different, not a dry wind.

"Maybe it's going to rain!"

In the evening, the wind gradually stopped, and after dinner, it suddenly began to rain. Zhao Mancang, his daughter-in-law, and his children sat in the house like this, and he was satisfied, watching the rain fall straight down, fall into the ground around the courtyard, and drip down from the eaves at the top of the door.

However, when the rain fell, he stretched out his little hand to catch the silver-white rain line; The youngest son laughed like this, and they laughed with him, and Zhao Mantun sat by the door, smoking a cigarette pouch, and pointed to the rain outside, saying:

"This rain is not lazy, it can make the ground through, as long as this year's rain can keep up with the solar terms, our family's days will definitely be good......"

A few days later, the wheat seeds in the field sprouted, and patches of tender new greens arched over the moist brown earth. Because of the rain sticky ground, naturally can no longer go to the reclamation, the work in the field is also done, at such a time people will visit each other, several families in this desperate village, although they are all from other places, but the relationship is also quite close, distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors, there is something to do, are to take care of each other.

When I visited the door, the big guys felt that this year's day was good, this kind of child just went down to the ground for a few days, God began to rain, the rain is not too big or small, neither flooding the field, nor because of the less, so that they have to use a flat shoulder to carry water, back and forth to break the waist.

The idle people gather here or there, eat tea here or there, and push pai gow. The women stayed at home, making shoes or mending clothes, or spun yarn and weave cloth there. Compared with men, women may be more tired, after all, all year round, in addition to the head in the field, they have to spin yarn from cotton, and then take the yarn to the market to sell, or weave the yarn into cotton cloth to make clothes for their families.

But Zhao Mantun and his daughter-in-law didn't visit the house much. In this village of only six or seven households, there is no one as solid as theirs, although there is wasteland everywhere outside the village, but not everyone is willing to be busy from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, constantly opening up the wasteland, in the eyes of many people, as long as the land can be fed. However, one of the reasons why he is reluctant to visit the house is that he does not want to gamble.

Staying at home, while the woman was spinning yarn there, he took out the farming tools to inspect them, and then repaired them. Then I will make some simple farm tools by myself there, and the belongings are just like this.

It is precisely with this momentum, with a harvest that is more than 10% better than others, Zhao Mantun can sell more grain every year, exchange more grain, and have a lot more money on hand, but outsiders don't know about this, in order to hide the silver, they also dug a small hole in the inner wall behind the bed in the house, and then stuffed the silver into this hole, and then wiped the hole with a ball of mud. In this way, no one except the two of them knew that the clay pot in the wall contained silver.

The money is for the sons to marry their wives!

Zhao Mantun will always think like this, people always have a lot of dreams, for Zhao Mantun, his dream is very simple, that is, a wife and children, not starving.

"Mother, I heard people say a few years ago that this wheat is now easier to sell than sorghum, and a stone of wheat is dozens of dollars more expensive than in previous years, otherwise, this year, when it is winter, we will plant wheat on more than 20 acres of land near the river."

"That's the best place in our house."

The daughter-in-law, who was spinning the thread, said.

"Well, I know, this year, open some more land, when the time, even if it is more than 20 acres of land, do not rest winter, do not tighten, as long as the year is still passable, we will not worry about eating and drinking, planting wheat is not better than planting millet sorghum, not to mention picking the land, but also drafting, relying on the river's land fertilizer, close to the water, although the grain of one acre of land is not as good as millet sorghum, but the price is not high, and then we can sell a few more taels of silver......

If it weren't for the fact that wheat is a fine grain, easy to sell, and can be sold at a high price, the people are naturally reluctant to plant wheat in ordinary times, because wheat picks up land, costs water, and the yield is not as good as sorghum millet, so the people often only plant a few acres, which is reserved for silver to pay taxes, and sorghum millet is the people's ration. But what Zhao Mantun wanted here was to exchange the wheat for silver, and to have more wheat.

"Mother, you see, our family now has more than 100 acres of land, and 20 acres of mulberry fields have been deducted, how much does our family of five eat in a year? This sorghum millet can't be sold at a high price, and if you want to sell it for silver, you still have to plant wheat......"

Zhao Mantun does not know, why wheat is more expensive than in previous years, in fact, this is very simple, because compared with millet, sorghum and other coarse grains, wheat is a fine grain, good taste, can also be processed into a variety of food, with the increase in urban population in Jiangbei, Xuzhou and other places, so that the demand for wheat is increasing, the price is relatively high, and Zhao Mantun is driven by such interests, began to plant wheat.

The vision for the future made Zhao Mantun work his land all day long. He dreamed of changing his family's life through his own efforts, making his family's life easier, and even many times, when passing by the village mansion that had been burned to the ground, he imagined that one day, he would be able to build a big brick house like that in this village, instead of living in the current brick house. Of course, at that time, he will never go hungry again, he will not, neither will his daughter-in-law and children.

After another spring rain, Zhao Mantun, who could no longer work because of the stickiness of the ground, carried the fruits of his daughter-in-law for a winter - more than 100 catties of yarn, and he did not wait for the beginning of spring to sell yarn, because he knew that at that time, yarn was sold everywhere, and in winter, what else could women do at home except spinning? At the beginning of spring, the yarn is not sold at a high price.

"It's almost time now, the ones that should be sold out are sold out, and the estimate of the closing line should also be raised......

Thinking so in his heart, although he was carrying more than 100 catties of yarn, Zhao Mantun's legs were full of strength, as long as he sold these threads, he could sell them for more than a dozen taels of silver, and there was no shortage of silver at home, and even the food stored at home was enough to eat for a year.

"When the yarn is sold, and then a few zhang of flower cloth are pulled, the mother-in-law has worked hard for a winter, and it is not easy to ......"

Thinking of his mother-in-law's frozen and swollen hands when she was spinning, Zhao Mantun thought so in her heart. Although it cost some money, it was worth it in his opinion, and he had to buy not only the cloth but also some other things, and he thought in his heart what he wanted to buy, and he walked step by step to the market, and when he arrived at the market, it was as lively as before.

When passing by the stall selling meat, looking at the fat pig on the table, Zhao Mantun couldn't help but swallow his saliva.

"Mantun, do you want to come to two catties, let the daughter-in-law and children taste the meat, look at this meat, how fat ......"

"Medium, leave me two catties!"

Zhao Mantun, who had quite a large pocket, naturally did not refuse, and immediately responded with a smile.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, I'll go sell the yarn and come back and cut the meat......"

After drinking tea, he came to the shop, and listening to the online price quoted by the shopkeeper, Zhao Mantun was dumbfounded.

"Shopkeeper, this, why is the price of this yarn not worth the beginning of spring, at that time, a hundred catties can still be sold for 12 taels and 3 yuan, why is it so low now, only 10 taels?"

"Ten taels is still low?"

Zhao Mantun, who was watching the shopkeeper behind the cabinet, shouted.

"At the beginning of spring this year, everything that was collected at this price was lost, you know how much silver is only a bag of 300 catties of factory yarn in Qinghe, only 23 taels, if it weren't for the factory line without the dense soil line, ten taels, ten taels will not be collected......"