There are several plates of side dishes on the table, as well as a bowl of scrambled eggs, with an enticing aroma.

And Zhong is also a strong person, his own family is in difficulty, and he still wants to help others. On weekdays, she and Xie Xiuniang wear patched clothes at home, but when they go out, they must change into good clothes, just to prevent others from looking down on the current Wang family.

The three of them talked, but Wang Dou mostly listened. Zhong sighed: "A few days ago, when I went to the state city, the price of this grain and rice has risen again, a bucket of corn costs eight yuan, and even the bran costs a bucket of one dollar, and I saw that many families could not afford to buy grain, and some men and women starved to death on the side of the road. ”

Xie Xiuniang also said on the side: "Yes, now a pound of pork in our village costs more than 200 yuan, and a duck egg costs 20 yuan." ”

Wang Dou sighed in his heart, Baoan Prefecture is a rich land, water conservancy is relatively abundant, drought is lighter than other places, the current price is not bad, according to his understanding of history, to the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, even in the land south of the Yangtze River, the price has risen to an incredible level, a bucket of rice costs two taels of silver, and even finally rose to six taels, a duck egg costs thirty yuan, a chicken is more than one thousand yuan, and a small woman is only one thousand or two, the cheapness of human life in the troubled times, the difficulty of the people can be seen.

Zhong and Xie Xiuniang talked about various rumors, Zhong couldn't help sighing, and at the same time was glad that he still had something to eat, the people were always content, as long as there was a bite of food to eat, they would be satisfied.

After eating, Xie Xiuniang went to shabu the bowl, and the queen mother looked at her thin figure and said: "This child is also diligent, but his body is weaker, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to give birth and raise at that time." ”

Xie Xiuniang grew up in the Wang family since she was a child, and like other peasant women, she has the advantages of traditional frugality and hard work, cultivating and cutting grain in the field, chopping wood and grass in the family, cooking tea and cooking rice, washing clothes and raising pigs, etc., she is doing it wholeheartedly, which the queen mother is satisfied with.

However, she thinks that Xie Xiuniang's health is not very good, especially her small breasts and thin buttocks, which makes her a little dissatisfied. In her opinion, if a woman's breasts are full, the child will have enough milk in the future, and the buttocks will be large, so it will be easy to give birth, and it will be bad if the breasts are small and the buttocks are thin.

In fact, in ancient times, women were beautiful with big breasts and fat buttocks, and it made sense to marry more to see the woman's figure rather than her face, in ancient times, the child mortality rate was high, and it was not easy to raise her, the queen mother had five children, but most of them died, and only Wang Dou had a single seedling, so seeing Xie Xiuniang's situation, the queen mother couldn't help but worry.

He took off his shirt and punched a set of punches, fierce and powerful, hitting the strong, and the muscles of his whole body were tangled like rocks. This punch is called "splitting and hanging boxing", it is a popular boxing method in the Qi family's army, and Grandpa Qi once focused on the boxing scriptures in the "New Book of Ji Xiao", which is the sharpest for actual combat.

After playing a complete set of punches, Wang Dou's upper body was drenched in sweat, and the muscles on his body were even more oily and slippery, but he still didn't give up, took his spear, and put on a starting pose.

Yang's pear flower gun, from the Song Dynasty, Grandpa Qi once praised it for fighting all over the world invincible, and widely promoted in the army.

Take a gun, stop a gun, turn a gun, catch a gun, and use a gun...... The gun is like a swimming dragon, Wang Dou's eyes are focused, this physical skill is the greatest guarantee for him and his family to survive in the troubled times, since coming to this world, after recognizing the surrounding environment, he is diligent every day.

It wasn't until Xie Xiuniang came in and asked him to have breakfast that Wang Dou stopped.

Breakfast is black flour scones, accompanied by a large bowl of clear soup, of course, the taste is not as good as last night's white noodles, but the advantage is in the quantity, after all, from today onwards will have to do heavy farm work, not to eat enough.

When talking about today's farm work, autumn sowing to plough the land, but the Wang family's cattle have long been sold, and now his family's more than 20 acres of land, can not afford to raise cattle, so he has to rent cattle from Jiang An, in order to grab the farm, but also need two oxen to pull the plow, so that the land is fast. This rent is not a small amount, Jiang An didn't even collect cashier's money, but insisted on exchanging white noodles for rent.

The iron plough in the house was also snatched away by the Tartars a few years ago, and all these years he has not been able to come up with the money to buy a new plough tool, and he has to rent it. After calculating a few rents, Zhong's heart ached, she once considered not using oxen and plows, and used planers to plow the land for her family, but Wang Dou vetoed it, not to mention that she was tired to death, and she didn't know what year she was going to plan.

The rental of ploughing cattle and plough tools Zhong had already negotiated with the chief Jiang An, and after the meal, Wang Dou went to Jiang's house with his mother, but Jiang An was not there, saying that he went to the state city, and only his family was there. took the ploughing ox and plough tools, Wang Dou drove the cattle with the plough on his back, Zhong carried the wheat seeds on his back, and Xie Xiuniang carried two frames of manure on his back and followed the mother and son out of the house.

It's still early now, but people who have been working out of the village have been appearing on the main streets and alleys, and when they see Zhong's, "Fourth aunt is early!" Waiting for the greetings to sound from time to time, compared to Wang Dou, the Zhong family's reputation in Xinzhuang is good.

There are also some people who see Wang Dou behind Zhong and subconsciously want to make fun of him, but when they saw Wang Dou's cold appearance, the words in their stomachs shrank back, and they secretly wondered how strange this Wang Da fool was these days.

When she was about to leave the village, a young girl hurried past the three of them, and from time to time someone pointed at her, the girl held her head high, as if she disdained the discussion of others, but her pale face and the trace of fear in her eyes revealed the weakness and uneasiness in her heart.

Xie Xiuniang said softly behind Wang Dou: "Sister Xu is so pitiful......"

This girl is the woman who almost hit Wang Dou yesterday, Wang Dou knows that her name is Xu Yue'e, she is the daughter of Xu Kuan in Zhuangneijia, she is eighteen years old, she is quite beautiful in Zhuangnei, and she is about to marry someone, but it all ended last month.

After July 23, the Jin army captured the city of Baoanzhou, and the army plundered all parts of Baoan, Xu Yue'e did not have time to retreat to the village, and was captured by the Houjin soldiers, and was fortunate to escape back two days later. However, the Zhuang people are all talking about it, saying that they were plundered by the Tartars, how can they be spared? It must have been ruined.

Under the gossip, the man soon came over and asked to withdraw from the marriage, willing not to even want the dowry, her father Xu Kuan was naturally furious, he was also a figure with a head and a face in the village, how could he be humiliated like this? scolded Xu Yue'e at home all day long, why didn't she die. The cold eyes and criticism of the villagers made this once proud woman quickly emaciated, but in front of outsiders, her head seemed to be held higher.

Hearing the cold words coming from time to time beside him, Wang Dou snorted and said, "A man can't protect his wife and child, but he is angry with a weak woman, what is it." ”

Hearing Wang Dou's words, Xie Xiuniang behind her didn't understand it very clearly with wide eyes, but Zhong glanced back at Wang Dou approvingly.