The sky was bright, and the rooster in the chicken coop crowed step by step, from the hall to the front of the courtyard, and then to the room of the Chen Ping brothers.

Immediately afterwards, the crouching hen in the nest also clucked, took a step, stopped breathing, and turned her head quite proudly.

Giggle...... Giggle......

"Laid eggs, laid eggs."

Chen An was still asleep a moment ago, the rooster crowed and did not wake up, and as soon as the hen crowed twice, she stood up like a corpse, and ran to the chicken coop with her bare buttocks.

"Is it necessary to be so excited? Wasn't it just an egg, I thought you laid the egg. Chen Ping, who had not slept in the middle of the night, finally fell into a deep sleep, and was woken up this time, and the cold wind came in along the quilt, and the sleepiness on his body was immediately swept away.

Two chickens, one male and one female, the rooster crows to announce the time, and the hen lays eggs to improve the diet.

Putting on a linen coat and straw shoes, Chen Ping went to the well to fetch a bucket of water and tested the water temperature, which was very cool.

"Xiao Anzi, take out the big clay pot in the hall." Chen Ping shouted at Chen An, who was still groping in the chicken coop.

"I'm looking for eggs." Chen An said that he was not available, pouted his buttocks, and got his head into the chicken coop.

The poor hen was whirling around the nest, and when she saw that her house had been raided, she clucked even harder.

"Wait a minute, Brother will give you more, you can help me take out the clay pot in the corner of the kitchen, and I will boil hot water." Since he came to this village inexplicably, Chen Ping has always maintained the habit of washing with hot water, on the one hand, the cold weather is on the one hand, on the other hand, Chen Ping hopes that he can recover from a cold sooner, otherwise he can't do anything with a sick body, and his grandmother won't let you do it.

Chen Ping is not a medical professional, but he knows more about some common sense things than people in this era, and starting with hygiene and living habits, he can prevent diseases, avoid many unnecessary troubles, and even save his own life.

Judging from the situation of this week, the results are obvious, and the bowl of boiling water last night has eliminated the last signs of cold.

The hen does not lay eggs every day, and the eggs in Chen An's hands were quickly taken away by the Liu family who came out of the east house.

"Mother, I'm going to go to the ground with Grandpa today, can I also eat an egg?" The family is not wealthy, the income is completely dependent on the more than ten acres of fields, and most of the cases of catching two fish occasionally are also mentioned in the county to sell, the number of times a family can eat meat is very limited, Chen's father has to work in the field, more than ten acres of open fields, plus more than three acres of mulberry fields, usually rely on Chen's father's cooking, physical exertion, this egg is given priority to Chen's father as a nutritional product, Chen An can only eat three or four times a month, naturally it is greedy.

"Dandan, I'm going to eat Dandan, too." Chen Zhen shook her steps and rushed to Liu's feet, grabbing the corner of Liu's skirt with one hand and holding it high with the other, to get the egg.

"That's mine." Chen An screamed sadly, "Forget it, who made me my brother, let it be for you." ”

After a while, Chen An got into the hall, and after a moment of effort, he walked to Chen Ping with a clay pot.

"Brother, I brought the clay pot." Chen An squatted down, almost rushing to take the wooden scoop in Chen Ping's hand and scooping it full of water, "I'll come, I'll scoop water." ”

Now is the time of the day, converted to the Beijing time of the later generations, that is, six or seven o'clock, before the time of dinner, boiling water is naturally not borrowed from the stove in the hall.

Therefore, Chen Ping built a simple stove in this courtyard, next to the wall, with yellow mud and gravel blocks, picked up some dry dead branches, and then lit a fire.

"It's really backward." In this era, not to mention lighters, there were no matches, and the ancient method of making a fire had to be used - drilling wood to make fire.

With a wooden stick, a oak plank, and a small measure under it to knead the dried wormwood leaves, Chen Ping practiced his hand speed.

"Hurry up, brother, use a little more force, and it will be fine in no time." Chen An encouraged and urged on the side.

A few minutes later, smoke rose from the oak plank, the speed of Chen Ping's hands sped up a few points, the friction generated heat, and the wormwood on the oak board finally followed the scorched black, and then there was a spark.

Seeing this, Chen An on the side leaned down and blew carefully.

"It's on."

When the flame rose, Chen Ping quickly added a few more handfuls of wormwood leaves, and then led them to the stove.

"Brother, is what you just said true?" Chen An came over again at this time, "Can you get the eggs?" ”

"Yes." Chen Ping replied vaguely.

Chen An immediately grabbed his brother and said excitedly: "Are you going to Widow Wang's house again?" ”

"Huh?" What does the widow have to do with eggs? Chen Ping was stunned, but after a while, he searched for the answer from the residual memory in his brain.

Chen An said that the widow Wang lives by the river in the south of the village, and is the wife of Chen Ping's fellow villager Chen Da.

Widow Wang married to Baitu Village ten years ago, and in three years, she gave birth to a son and a daughter for her husband's family. But the good times did not last long, in the nineteenth year of the emperor's reign, the Turkic Datou Khan invaded the border pass, and Chen Da went out as a guard and died in the border pass.

Poor Chen Da's parents, only this one son, the old mother learned of her son's death from the chief, and cried so much that her eyes almost fell blind.

Finally comforted Chen Da's mother, but it was less than a month, and the bad news came again - Chen Da's son, who was only five or six years old, fell into the river, and Chen Da's father went down to the river to save people, so a young man and a grandson followed Chen Da.

This time, Chen Damu finally failed to survive, and when she saw the corpses of her grandfather and grandson, she snorted for a long time, and she didn't come over in one breath and died.

Chen Da was originally a government soldier, and died for state affairs, and the old and young died so that only the widow Wang and a young girl were left, and the county took care of him, leaving fifteen acres of open air and five acres of mulberry fields for the widow.

You must know that Chen Ping's family of five, plus the third uncle who went out and didn't know where to go, is two husbands and one woman, so they can only get ten acres of open fields and three acres of mulberry fields.

Although the widow was a woman and her husband had died, she was very able to run the house, and relied on the property left by her husband to collect rent, and her life was not worse than before.

"It's the same as last time, I'm on guard, and you go in and touch the eggs?" There are more than a dozen hens in Widow Wang's house, and this is what Chen An is thinking about.

The brothers have done this once.

If the hen is lost, someone must be looking for it, but who knows how many eggs there are? When a half-grown child is growing up, it is no wonder that the Chen Ping brothers will think of ways to supplement nutrition.

Scooping two scoops of hot water and mixing them with several scoops of well water, Chen Ping tested the water temperature, added half a scoop of well water, and looked at Chen An: "Wash your face." ”

"Brother, you are so troublesome, like a lady, and you love to be clean too much." Chen An teased, he has always had no habit of washing his face, and he simply patted his face and was done, "Okay, will you go tonight?" ”

"No, no." Chen Ping pressed Chen An's head, pressed it into the wooden basin, and rubbed the burlap towel vigorously on his face.

"It hurts, it hurts, brother, you lighten it." Chen An protested, "My face is about to fall off." ”

"Do you still want to eat eggs?" Sure enough, Chen An immediately looked up honestly, and raised his head very cooperatively, Chen Ping cleared the linen towel, looked at the blackened water, and changed another basin, "Look, how dirty, this has become mud, you have to love clean to marry a daughter-in-law." ”

"Grandpa didn't wash his face, why didn't you let him wash it? You know you're bullying me here. Chen An's face hurt for a while, "My face has also been washed, can you tell me how you got the eggs?" ”

"And the mouth." Chen Ping took some fine rubble powder, "put it in his mouth and rinse his mouth." ”

Chen An was about to rinse his mouth with the rubble in his mouth, but suddenly raised his head and looked suddenly realized: "You must be lying to me." ”

"Rinse your mouth." There is no toothpaste, and even salt is reluctant to use it, this rubble powder is the most economical and simple way for Chen Ping to think of at present, and it took Chen Ping the whole afternoon to grind out a small handful, "Don't lie to you, just wait." ”

Chen An gave in again, and his brother fell ill, not only becoming a lady, but also becoming more and more severe.

"Boil hot water again, did you come for nothing as firewood?" Father Chen walked out of the hall, holding two sickles in his hands, and frowned at Chen Ping, "Is the cold sick better?" ”

When the cold is cured, it is natural to go to work.

"How can it be so fast?" Liu knew what Chen's father meant, "You go and harvest the rice, and I will bring you food in the middle of the day." ”

"Yes." Father Chen answered, let go of Chen Ping, and looked at Chen An, "Go." ”

"Didn't you say I only picked up rice? Grandpa, why did you get two sickles? Chen An was alert and found two sickles in Chen's father's hand.

"Do you still want to eat?" Father Chen's eyes widened, and he had the intention that Chen An would not let him eat if he didn't go.

Chen's father dragged the reluctant Chen An to the ground, and Chen Ping was not idle, he first washed up, and then wiped Chen Zhen's face - of course, it was very gentle.

"Mother, I want to go out." Chen Ping said to Liu, who was serving in the vegetable garden in front of the courtyard.

One acre of garden and homestead land is enough to convert more than 600 square meters of measurement relationship in later generations, but at this time it is only 200 square meters - but it is enough to make a homestead, and the vacant land in the yard cannot be wasted, and some vegetables are planted.

Cutting off the grass roots in his hands and throwing them into the corner, Liu was still not at ease with Chen Ping's ice, but seeing that the sun was rising in the east, it was a sunny day today, so he didn't stop it: "Don't go to the outlet." ”

"Well, I know."

Out of the courtyard gate, stepping on the village road, Chen Ping took a step, took a look, and admired the rural scenery more than a thousand years ago.

In the past week, Chen Ping indirectly learned a lot of news from Chen An and his father. I know that the village I am in belongs to ** county and belongs to Yangzhou.

"Fortunately, it's in the south of the Yangtze River, if it's in Shandong, there will be hardship." As a history lover, Chen Ping is no stranger to the peasant uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and the arrogant Yang Guang's series of actions to show off his wealth led to a waste of national strength, the people were struggling to make a living, and the uprising was surging. The second generation of Quan, who had not suffered many failures, couldn't bear the successive failures of slapping his face, and shrank in Jiangdu to be an ostrich, and was finally killed, fulfilling Li Yuan.

The site of the uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty was mostly in Shandong, while Yangzhou, south of the Yangtze River, as Yang Guang's ostrich nest, was relatively safe before Yu Culture and the killing of the monarch.

"There is no worry about your life, at most, you have to pay taxes, well, you may have to conscript soldiers, and cooperate with Yang Guang's face-saving career. At the end of the day, it's about money, which may have been a problem before, but now...... Hey. Chen Ping's mind flickered with nouns, gunpowder, glass, paper, printing, sugar, and so on.

Isn't it all money? Knowledge is power, and honesty does not deceive me. But things have to come step by step, and there is no hurry.

"Be careful, there's a river ahead." The voice of reminder came from behind, delicate and eager, it was a girl.

"Ahh

It seemed to be too late to remind, and with a pop, Chen Ping stepped into the river with one foot.