The first day of the seventh month is a hot and noisy day. The sky and the earth seem to be caged in a furnace, and the sky is empty, and the clear blue sky is like a water mirror, illuminating everyone's prayers for rain.

"This year's rice filling is not good, six or seven percent are empty shells, alas...... Let's have a coincidence, it's really wise not to be old. When Zhuang Tou sighed at this, he saw the expression of his nephew and looked at Zhao Lu proudly.

And Zhao Luzheng is burying his head in his sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn are drought-tolerant, and less rain will only make them smaller, but they will not be harvested. But rice and wheat are miserable, this year since the Dragon Boat Festival has been pitifully rained, many people are dragging their families into it, and taxes will not sympathize with anyone.

"What did I say last year? Trust me once, trust me once. Zhao Lu held a piece of sweet potato root and glanced at Zhuang Tou coldly, "You also rent land, right?" ”

Although Zhuangtou was recommended by Qi Fang, he was the person chosen by the ghost knife himself, Xu was old in the past, and it was easy to discuss when he spoke.

"Ugh." Zhuang Tou took a deep breath and said sadly: "The main thing is that you can't sell this thing, we can't eat it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, right?" ”

As he spoke, he stroked his stomach, the sweet potato gas production is too fierce, and he has abdominal pain like tendons from time to time, and only a fart comes out in the middle of the night, if he encounters diarrhea...... It's too much of a test of mentality.

Not as intimate as rice and wheat.

Zhao Lu hurriedly said: "Huh? Haven't you ever eaten the sweet potato flour from our shop? ”

"Your Uncle Dao is watching closely."

"Didn't taste it?"

Zhuang Tou was stunned, and slowly turned his head to stare at Zhao Lu, the eyes of the two were intertwined, and the complex emotions in their hearts were intertwined in the air through their eyes.

Only then did he know that the original boxes of sweet potatoes entered the workshop, and the flour and flour that came out were the souls, the ghost knife that killed a thousand knives......

"You have such a clear division of labor, and you have really eliminated a lot of my worries, which makes me happy." Zhao Lu was speechless, smiled and put a few sweet potatoes into the box, it was not yet the season to dig sweet potatoes, "But it is your ignorance of the details that has caused me the biggest worry." ”

When she first planted sweet potatoes, she had a lot of ambitions, and if her idea could feed more people, would the space continue to grow? Or maybe show her a way home?

After all, who wants to get married in this ghost place when they are teenagers, and then have children, in that case, it is better to learn from Miaoyu and become a sister-in-law!

Walking towards the house with a few arm-thick sweet potatoes, a large cellar was dug outside the workshop, which was guarded day and night.

Because the river dried up, the assembly line originally driven by the water flow became a force of people and mules, humming haha in full swing, "The things I brought are outside, tell them to stop today, I have a way to try." ”

The hired people are all homeless, and the surrounding low earthen houses are staggered, and they consciously divide the living area, and they plan to settle down here.

The ghost knife whispered a few words to the people around him, and then took out a palm-sized papyrus paper from his waist.

"Or according to your plan, living in zoning, landfill or incineration. However, at the beginning of the year, the three fermentation manure tanks were not enough, and now they have expanded to five, although they occupy a larger area, but the speed of fattening in the coming year will be accelerated, and it can be regarded as saving a lot of manpower to open up wasteland. Pinching his own notebook, he was babbling to report to Zhao Lu.

Zhao Lu nodded, the land has been cultivated year after year, the fertility continues to decline, and without chemical fertilizer, it is necessary to rely on the annual weeds to fill and rot to provide fertility, which is far from enough.

Some of the dung trucks that came out of the capital were dumped in the moat, and some of them went into the Zhuangzi of those large families, wanting to improve the overall land quality, and the biogas digester was effective, so he actively said, "If the people around this method learn, we don't have to hide it." ”

Zhuang Tou wanted to speak and stopped, and said in his heart that other people's land wants you to worry about something, but he leaned over and saw the crooked tadpole text on the ghost knife book, and it was estimated that only the ghost knife himself could recognize it, so he sneered.

Just as he was about to lose two sentences, he happened to ask the workers to take out the potato flour to dry and suck away the eyes, obediently, if this is to make cakes, the family will have to eat it for several years!

Seeing that Zhuang Tou's eyes were straight, Zhao Lu didn't know why, so he asked casually, "What's wrong?" ”

The ghost knife turned around and smiled like a warning, and pushed Zhao Lu to walk outside the workshop with his backhand, "What kind of pottery pipe are you talking about, I asked someone to burn two sections, can you see if it can work?" ”

"I'm not wrong, ambition is not old, it's true." Zhuang Tou Ne sighed, "It's ...... than we were back then"

"Shut up!" The ghost knife Huo Ran turned around and said angrily, "If you are too idle to go out and patrol the fields, has the wild boar hit?" Two more times, and you'll have deducted all of your money this year! ”

"Okay, good," Zhuang Tou raised his hand to make a reassuring gesture, "I'll get out in a while, if it wasn't for the young owner to invite me, I wouldn't be too lazy to come!" ”

Zhao Lu is young, so there is a kind of refreshment that does not match her age, but it is precisely because of her young age that everyone calls her a young owner, which is not unusual.

Seeing that the two of them looked like black-eyed chickens on their faces, but they had a tacit understanding in their style of acting, although Zhao Lu was gossiping, it was not good to get to the bottom of it, so he said: "Don't worry, don't worry, there is something for you to overcome, stay for lunch." ”

As he spoke, he picked up the clay pipe and walked to the edge of the septic tank. Ignoring the obstruction of Zhuang Tou and everyone, Zhao Lu took care of himself and pulled out the plug embedded in the septic tank, and with a 'poof' sound, a stench that rushed straight to the Tianling Gai came to his face, and smoked everyone up.

"It's too stinky, it's too stinky, I said boss, tell me what you have to do, don't ...... it yourself Phew! Zhuang Tou couldn't hold back, turned his head and ran out, holding a peach tree and throwing up.

Zhao Lu glanced at him, and said in his heart Fortunately, he didn't eat, otherwise what a pity would he have vomited?

The ghost knife didn't speak, but he nodded in agreement, covered his mouth and nose, and motioned for Penghua to help the person up. This is a pool for defecation, and although it is sealed, it is still very pungent when you get close to it in the hot summer.

Penghua pursed her lips, Zhao Lu had drawn at least half a month's draft at home, and now looking at the pottery pipe in that place, she knew that she was doing the right thing, where would she listen to other people's words to distract her?

So he moved behind Zhao Lu, and tightly covered the eyes of the ghost knife.

"You don't have to be surprised." Zhao Lu got up, and as soon as he raised his eyes, he saw Penghua's not strong body, and said with a smile: "On such a hot day, can you go find an umbrella?" ”

As if he saw what the ghost knife was thinking, Zhao Lu put away the smile on his face, looked at the pottery pipe that no longer sprayed stink, and said in a deep voice: "The tightness of glutinous rice milk and white plaster mud is still too weak, where did you burn this pottery pipe?" Is the clay from our neighborhood? ”

The sealing is too poor, and the biogas can't be stored at all, so we still have to find a way to make some 'cement'. To make cement, limestone is easy to obtain, but clay is controlled by those kilns, and ordinary people have no way, so it is extremely difficult to get a large amount of clay.

Mining? If the mine is opened today, Ming'er will be a death row prisoner in the imperial court, and Zhao Lu's courage has not yet reached that level.

"He has a cousin in the hall who is an apprentice in the kiln in Xishan, and this thing was entrusted to his nephew, what do you want to do with clay?" Burning the kiln is not something that anyone can get involved in, and the ghost knife is afraid that Zhao Lu will rush in and ruin the good situation in front of him.

Zhuang Tou listened, ignored the ghost knife, and said to Zhao Lu after a while: "Dongjia, you have to give me time to inquire about this matter, it's not good to reply to you now." ”

Instead, he asked, "This sweet potato flour is ground from sweet potatoes, so is it flatulent?" After all, the sweet potato was angry, and then he turned around, looked at the worker who turned the flour, and said, "Excuse me, how does the price of this thing compare with the price of flour?" ”

The workers were surprised, and then shook their heads, they were rough workers, and the factory gave priority to women and children, followed by men with children under the age of seven. Everyone is grateful for the lunch provided every day, and they don't ask about anything that has nothing to do with the work at hand.

"Sweet potato flour and sweet potato noodles are made from sweet potatoes, you don't think I dug up sweet potatoes and went to exchange them for wheat sorghum, right?" Zhao Lu shrugged, not minding Zhuang Tou 'peeping' at the secrets on the assembly line.

He personally grabbed a handful of sweet potato flour in his hand and explained: "The price of sweet potato flour is half cheaper than wheat noodles, but after being made into vermicelli, the price can be 20% more expensive than wheat noodles." ”

She stretched out two fingers, very complacent, today's productivity, wheat yield per mu is five buckets, and it must be a good year.

And sweet potatoes, which is the weather in Beijing this year, also have a yield of six or seven hundred catties per mu, and Jinling, where Zhao San is located, is a high-yield sow under the wind and rain. It's just that because the white flour is more marketable, everyone hangs on the wheat and rice and doesn't let go.

Growing sorghum in the mountains is even more in the service of the wine of the elite class. Sorghum has a rough taste and is cheap, and large families can only think of winemaking.

Ordinary people are reluctant to eat rice after planting it, and usually after the grain tax is paid, if there is a surplus, they will sell it all, and then exchange it for sorghum and wheat with more low-priced rice, so as to survive year after year.

But even so, in a famine year, you still have to sell your children to survive.

Therefore, what changes have been made in the palace are meaningless to the peasants, after all, the water level in the deepest wells is currently low, and how many people spend half a day crossing the mountains and mountains, just to carry back a bucket of daily drinking water.

On the bare riverbed of the moat, the corpses of dead snails and mussels can be seen, and when people get closer, there is a fishy smell. Zhao Lu sighed more than once, fortunately he didn't rent the house by the river, otherwise how would he live this day.

The ghost knife was eager for Zhao Lu's huge iron machine, and when he went out with her, even if he had a dark face towards Zhuang Tou, he couldn't hide his positivity.

"Recently, there is not enough water, so I haven't made vermicelli, this noodle is not as good as wheat gluten, and making noodles and cakes is almost meaningless." It's not that he can't eat it, it's just that it's really greasy, and the ghost knife saw that Zhao Lu asked for a bag of flour by name, and he was busy whispering.

On a hot day, Zhao Lu only said a word of relief, and the mountain people have their own clever plans.

The water wine is brewed by Zhao Lu himself, in fact, it is rice wine that has been put for a longer time, Penghua is tight-handed, and every meal will be Baba, so he saves a lot of rice grain.

However, the old rice couldn't be sold for a few dollars, and it was all turned into such a jar of muddy wine.

The sweet potato flour mixed with cold water, according to the practice of three non-sticks, constantly add oil to the pot, add a small amount of oil many times, fry and mature into a two-finger thick cake, cut it into diamond-shaped pieces with a quick knife, and then heat the oil in the pot, and the fragrant garlic sprouts and green onions and red peppers go straight to the Tianling cover, and the sweet potato flour cake is made into a meaty taste.

When the meal was served, Penghua sat beside Zhao Lu, busy pouring Zhao Lu's bowl full of wine first, and seeing that the wine jar went out and came back, there was only one bottom left in it, and Penghua was suddenly a little depressed.

It's all saved in the mouth, and now it's cheap for outsiders.

Seeing that she was distressed, Zhao Lu smiled and said: "Brewing is really a waste, next time you eat more rice, don't leave the rice noodles, I won't brew it." ”

Buying the price of new grain and selling it when it is old is something that can only be done without heart. As he spoke, he casually politely said a few words, and raised his head to dry half a bowl of water and wine.

The smell of wine diverged, and most of the heat wave around him suddenly dissipated, not to mention the ghost knife and their big man, even Zhao Lu himself, he also felt refreshed! She slapped the bowl on the table, praised it, and shouted, "Go!" ”

Zhuang Tou laughed, "Just now everyone was betting on whether you eat or drink, okay!" Readily! ”

Five or six catties of wine, more than 30 people, but one mouthful, but everyone got together, and there was a feeling of tears in their eyes after eating a meal.

The wine table culture was just about to flood, and when he saw the third worker who said auspicious words come forward, Zhao Lu was uncomfortable, so he shouted: "There is nothing to add to the coarse tea and light rice today, if you eat well, I will invite everyone to watch the excitement." ”

The ghost knife smiled: "Why can't you eat well, the oil and water in your stomach this year are not as much as today!" ”

"It has to be the craftsmanship of the young owner's stove, it's true, the wild vegetables are all eaten with the taste of the gods, I look at this dish, and it will be called the race fairy in the future!"

Because there is no oil and water, where can there be delicious dishes without oil and water? Zhao Luxin said, there is no oil and water, and the poop pulled out has no fertility, what else to say.

In the face of waves of sycophants, she was a little fluttering, and for a while she really had the illusion that she was the heroine.

Seeing her vain steps, Penghua naturally stepped forward to set up the person, her rough palms were similar to the sand and stones on the ground, and the cracks left in the winter were not good, and Zhao Lu was clever.

Then he naturally raised his hand and patted it on his forehead, thinking about what he was thinking, if she was the heroine, what would be the name of the lady in a high position like Yuanchun Baochai? What's more, after seven or eight years of crawling, there is no trace of luck!

Staring at the shiny bowl on the table, I couldn't help but think viciously: If the Tai Hospital doesn't prepare for itself in two years, I will find a way to buy a few more acres of land and become a small landlord in the countryside!

If you have never fought for this kind of thing, then if you don't have it, you won't have it. But Zhao Lu's current situation is that the meat has passed in front of him, and the fragrance has been left at the tip of the nose, and it is too difficult not to be moved!

The size is a official, in ancient times when information was blocked, no matter how small the official was, it also meant that the information channels were diverse, and it was not easy for people and other policies, but there were many benefits for policies to change life.