What do farmers do in winter?

Some city dwellers who don't know about farmers might think, what else can be done? Spring, summer, and autumn are all busy, and only winter is left. The pen is www.biquge.info idle and has nothing to do, it is cold and snowy, you can play cards, bask in the sun, chat, and celebrate the New Year. These, the Northeast people call it "cat winter".

However, for real farmers, even in winter, there is no leisure.

Although the north wind was howling and my hands and feet were frozen, I was still busy. It is necessary to prepare the land, repair the ridges, and accumulate fertilizer, including clearing pond mud, clearing pits, cleaning biogas digesters, cleaning stove ash, etc., and transport the accumulated fertilizer to the ground in winter. Repair ridges, canals, level the land, repair the roads leading to the fields, prune and fertilize the fruit trees.

There is endless work, where can I still cat?

Those who praise the good customs and customs of the countryside every day, the beautiful mountains and rivers, the singing of birds and the fragrance of flowers, are all imagined by petty bourgeoisie who have never been to the ground and do not know the sufferings of the world. If farming is really as good as they say, then why are so many farmers living a good life in their hometowns and going all the way to the big cities to become workers?

I really thought they were all living Lei Feng, I was a brick, where do I need to move?

However, even if the peasants work so hard, they may not necessarily have a good income all year round, it depends on the will of God, that is, God does not give face, but also depends on the mood of the lord, the lord's mood is good, this year's tax will be lower, the lord's mood is not good, then the peasants will have to go hungry.

However, Count Don has always had a good temper, and when Count Don has a bad temper, he never gets angry with the peasants, and the peasants of Desmond are still having a good time this year.

Especially because of this year's bumper harvest, the peasants have surplus grain in every household, and they all have spare money in their hands, and this day is even better, and even this dark and cold winter night is not so terrible.

It's like the famous line in a song of ice and fire: "Winter is coming." （Winteriscoming.）

Such a simple sentence contains how many peasants' fear of winter, so much so that in the bard's lyrics, death comes in heavy snow and quietly takes people's lives in the long night.

But this year's winter was exceptionally warm, and the reason for this was that Count Xiao Tang had a new invention - the kang.

Well, Count Xiao Tang once again shamelessly plagiarized the invention of his ancestors, but if the one who invented the kang in the first place knew that his invention could save people's lives and bring warmth to poor farmers in a foreign country, I am afraid that he would also nod his head in agreement.

Actually, Ireland is not that cold.

Although Ireland is at the same latitude as the northeastern part of our country, the winter in Ireland is rarely as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius, which can be said to be a warm winter.

The reason for this is that Ireland is an island country, surrounded by the sea, greatly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, located in the westerly wind belt, affected by the warm North Atlantic Current, and has a mild winter. The northeast of China has a temperate monsoon climate, which is affected by the cold air in the north and has a cold winter.

However, even in the most mild climate, wearing thin linen clothes at minus 10 degrees Celsius or no clothes at all, plus not having enough to eat, can still kill people.

If you think about it further, in the vast steppes of Eastern Europe, which is close to Russia, where winter temperatures are even lower. The legendary 'Whip of God', or the invasion of nomads, is actually forced by the cold winter. Because these nomads, they are not like farming people, they do not have enough food reserves, once the winter snow blows through the cattle and sheep flocks to freeze to death, then these nomads have no food and no clothing, in order to prevent the little cubs in the family from being starved to death, the ugly woman is not frozen to death, these nomads, they can only pick up the scimitar to rob.

Therefore, the ultimate way for human beings to defeat nature is to increase productivity, as long as productivity increases, then no matter what God does to us, even if it is windy today, rainy tomorrow, and hail the day after tomorrow, then we can live well.

Now, what Count Tang has to do is to further improve the productive forces, that is, to 'deepen agricultural reform'.

The first item is still digging ditches.

It was an immediate project, which was dug in the first year and the second year was dug to provide water to the fields and alleviate the drought of the crops. Crops are also like people, sometimes more delicate than people, and they will die if they don't drink water.

In addition, a shallow ditch can also keep out naughty cattle and sheep. We all know that grazing in this part of Western Europe is very haphazard, and it is left to be left alone when the cattle and sheep are driven out. In this way, the cattle and sheep will nibble on the seeds of the crops that have just grown, and they especially like to gnaw on these seeds, a thin, thin young leaf, which is simply the most delicious meal!

But once there is a ditch, even if the ditch is only twenty or thirty centimeters wide, because of the nature of the animals who are afraid of water, they will never dare to take a step beyond the thunder pool.

Therefore, the Count of Don recruited another team of people to do the 'new sacrament' - by the way, the 'sacrament' has now been divided into three teams - and we can simply understand this 'sacrament' as construction. The first team was the sacramental team of the toilet, the second team was the sacramental team of the road, and the third team was the sacramental team of the ditch.

The number of these three teams is not fixed, especially the road sacramental team, the land will be frozen in winter, and tamping will have no effect, and it is not suitable for large-scale road construction, so now the second team has been disbanded and will be reassembled next summer, so the labor force to do the third sacrament is still very sufficient.

Digging ditches, first of all, is to set the ruler, level the ground, these are all necessary to do, set the ruler to know where to dig, after leveling the ground to know where to dig and where not to dig.

These are untechnical, but tedious tasks, but fortunately, after such a long period of time from spring to winter, the first students of the Earl Don crash course have finally graduated.

The Earl of Tang sent all the male students and asked them to organize fifty peasants each, and to take the peasants to level the ground during the day, and to report a grand bonfire at night—not for celebration, but for the evening school—and the students would teach the peasants to read and write every day by the light of the fire, of course, in simplified Chinese characters, not too many, and only three a day. In this way, throughout the winter, each farmer can learn an average of 600 to 700 simplified Chinese characters (because there are still those who learn and forget at the same time), which is not much, but as long as they keep learning, it only takes a year to a year and a half, and farmers can also use simplified Chinese characters in their daily life, and there is no obstacle to speaking and writing.

After that, the peasants can continue to teach the peasants, although their efficiency is low, but their number is large! Even if the peasants were taught one-on-one, if everything went well, it would only take five or six years, and Desmond would never see an illiterate person again!

As for the female students, if they are willing to go out and do activities, then the little Count Tang can also give them this opportunity, and they can go and organize women. But if there is someone who is naturally shy and not suitable for showing his head, then Count Xiao Tang will also follow her, and she will work in the castle every day, not to mention the rest, all the orders issued by Count Xiao Tang every day, each of which must be copied hundreds of times, and spread to all the villages!

――――――――― Episode: The Grand Duke's Revenge (1) ――――――――

"Father! What are we going to do? ”

As the saying goes: the sky is unpredictable. Prince Diarmatt never expected that his perfect plan would fail! The army brought out by my father actually lost! I lost so badly, I don't save one out of ten!

You idiot! With such good conditions and such superior forces, how can you lose!

So it is understandable that Prince Diarmat's eyes are full of anger and no affection when he looks at his father.

But Archduke Murchid did not care.

The defeat of the war, the betrayal of his first son, and the death of his favorite third son, compared to these, what is the little hatred of his second son?

The anger of defeat and defeat kept burning the heart of the Grand Duke, and the anger charged the Grand Duke's head, but the Grand Duke had never felt so good.

He felt that his body was full of vitality again, as if he had returned to the youthful strength of the age of twenty, he felt that his brain was so agile, as if he had returned to the clarity of thinking at the age of sixteen, and he deeply understood that this was the opportunity given to him by God to bring him back to his youthful age. And now, it's time for him to make a choice.

"Let's go to Connaught."

Eventually, the Grand Duke said.

"Father? What do you say? ”

"Let's go to Connaught, that bastard of Connaught will definitely laugh at me, but it's nothing, as long as I still have the title of Grand Duke, I still have the value of use, as long as I pass this, pay some price, I can ask that bastard to send troops to help me restore my rule."

"Father, what is your little price—?"

Prince Diarmat had some bad premonitions, so he asked cautiously.

"What else could there be? Money, power, or our submission. The Grand Duke of Murchid looked back at him, as if it was the first time Prince Diarmat saw his father, who really knew him, and the indifference and madness in his eyes frightened him: "But as long as there is land, we will still be nobles, we will still be human beings, don't you understand such a simple truth?"

"Okay, let's go, you, as my successor, must know more things, and in the future, I will teach you these little by little."

Fortunately, the madness of the Grand Duke came and went quickly, and before Prince Diarmat came to his senses, the Grand Duke patted him on the shoulder cordially, and then said so.

When Prince Diarmat heard this, he was immediately overjoyed, and immediately saddled up before and after the horse, and the madness of the Grand Duke just now was regarded by him as an illusion, and he did not notice at all, and when he lowered his head, the dark black light flashed in the Grand Duke's eyes from time to time......