The General's Delicious Wife Chapter 069 : Farmer's Formula
Qin Zheng walked all the way from the foot of the mountain to the Xue family's field, and saw that Xue Liang Ping and Xue Li had already looped up the plowing tool onto the ox.
Xue Li rolled his eyes when he saw Qin Zheng, commenting with great displeasure, "Didn't you say you were coming here first? Why would you reached later than us?"
"Its my first time coming to the fields and I found the wrong plot of land." Qin Zheng excused himself without much thought and then began to help.
Xue Li immediately stuffed the tool he was holding into Qin Zheng's hands, he yawned and could not help wishing that he could lie down and fall back to his sleep again.
He was called up way before dawn and his stomach was already full of spite. Furthermore, Xue Yong made an excused with his injury, that he would be unable to get down from his brick bed and so he could continue sleeping without a care.
But the farm work in the field waited for no one, so he unwillingly and grudgingly followed Xue Liang Ping to the field.
Seeing that Qin Zheng was not very proficient in using the plowing tool, Xue Li could not stop himself from saying, "Didn't Xia Yue Chu earn a few taels of silver, you were revolving around her everyday calling Sister-in-law here and Sister-in-law there, is she not willing to give you some money to spend?"
Qin Zheng replied without raising his head, "What does the money that Sister-in-law made got to do with me. Besides, don't you still have to farm even when you have money? What are you going to eat or drink?"
"Che! Silly boy!" Xue Li pulled out a grass and chewed on it, lifting his chin and told him with a look of contempt, "What can't you buy with money? If you could make a few taels a day, who would be in the field farming?"
"If you have the ability, you can also go make a few taels of silver. If you don't have the ability, you should stick with me and work honestly!" Xue Liang Ping led the ox already plowing through the ground once. When he saw his son lazing around like a hooligan, he scolded angrily, "Come over here and take the ox, I'll prepare the seeds."
Xue Li dragged himself over to work, Xue Liang Ping freed his hands and sat by the field, pulling out a few cloth bags, making the last check on the seeds to be sown.
These thin cloth bags, which look inconspicuous, contained the hope for the entire family for the whole year.
Fortunately, last year was a good year, and all the seeds left behind were plump, which made people feeling great when they look at it.
"Liang Ping, are you ready to sow?" Footsteps could be heard along the field.
Xue Liang Ping followed the sound, and saw an old man with grey beard and grey hair, who was wearing a blue collared coat, making his way over with his hands behind his back.
The wrinkle lines on his forehead were very deep, and the beard on his chin was sparse, yet it was grown out pretty long, swaying gently as he moved.
He was the oldest man in the village, Sun You Cheng, Sun Old Mister.
If they were to follow the generational hierarchy strictly, Xue Liang Ping would actually be two generations away from him.
However, Seng Head Village was unlike the villages where family clans gathered together since ancient times, their forefathers from three generation above were all foreigners to this land, hence everyone was not so strict about their seniority, most of them were referred to by their age.
The old man was in his eighties this year, but his body had been full in health, and he had an exceptional liking to farming.
All his children and grandchildren had already moved to town a long time ago, but the old man disliked the inability to farm in the city and resolutely refused to live off his children and grandchildren.
But even as he lived in the village, his family did not dare to let him go down to the field or wave his shovel, so the land was distributed in rental to others.
Sun Old Mister had nowhere to exhaust his strength, every spring, he would wander around the village, watching other people farm wherever he went.
When his interest sparked, he would snatched their ground work helping them out, and if he saw something that didn't like, he would spur a bout of scolding and curses.
The village was full of people who were his juniors, no one could fault him, and they dared not let him work. If they could not get it done right, they would had to receive his disdain.
After all these time, the people in the village became respectfully distanced towards him, and complaints were forming behind his back.
Xue Liang Ping was one of the few people who was favored by Sun Old Mister, he would listen attentively to the old man's rambling about farming 101.
Especially after learning a few practical tips from the old man, he became even more respectful towards the old man.
"Uncle Sun, why are you here?" Xue Liang Ping took two steps forward to provide support for the old man, "Be careful to what's below your feet."
Sun Old Mister waved off Xue Liang Ping's hands and said unhappily, "I'm not old yet! After going to the fields all my life, do you think I would stumble to my death or what?"
"What is this you are saying!" Xue Liang Ping knew the old man's temper, so he laughed it off and moved out of the way.
Sun Old Mister stood at the border of the field and looked at the layers of black soil that had been turned over by the plow. He nodded his head while stroking his beard, "I strolled one big circle, and your family's land is still the most well prepared. Just looking at it, you must had worked hard last autumn by plowing deeply right?"
Xue Liang Ping smiled proudly and said, "Yes, won't you always telling me, deep plowing in autumn and shallow plowing in spring, drought or flood no need to worry!"
"That's the logic!" Sun Old Mister walked down into the field, squatted down and grabbed a handful of earth, rubbing it twice within his palms and threw it back into the ground again. "The frost melted late this year, yet the weather changed early, maybe this autumn will turn cold earlier too, those who had just started plowing now, won't be able to find a place to cry when that time comes!"
After Xue Liang Ping heard this, his countenance became grave, scrunching his eyebrows together and said, "The spring season had been delayed for more than half a month, if it turns cold earlier in the autumn, I'm afraid it will hold up the farmer in fertilizing the soil!"
"If the timing is caught just right, perhaps it won't be delayed." Sun Old Mister straightened his back and looked over to the distanced river, "But that's just what I am saying, who knows if it would be accurate or not!"
"Uncle Sun, I dare not comment for anything else, but when it comes to farming, when has it never been as you had predicted?" Xue Liang Ping knew that the old man liked it the most when others praised him for his ability in farming, so he enforced. "Besides, the years that you had been rolling around the ground are even longer than I had lived, I will be treating whatever you say as treasures."
Sun Old Mister nodded contentedly at his achievement, giving out advice in a good mood, "If you are willing to listen to me, today as you are plowing, dig the ditch three inches deeper and add manure to the bottom then cover it up with soil before your start planting."
Xue Liang Ping frowned hearing this, the family owned a few plots of land, if he did this for all of them, that would take a lot more effort and delay their time for sowing.
Furthermore, this method sounds a bit wrong.
Xue Liang Ping thought for a while, and asked hesitantly, "Uncle Sun, the decomposed manure at home had already been mixed into the ground, do we still need to add manure below? The accumulated manure we have right now are yet to be fully decomposed, if we add them directly into the ditch, I'm afraid that it would burn the roots!"
"You wood head and wart brains!" Sun Old Mister wiped out his tobacco pouch and pipe around his waist, and knocking a solid hit on Xue Liang Ping's forehead.
"Aiyo, Uncle Sun, I am wrong." For someone his age, Xue Liang Ping was beaten to the point of crying for mercy, "Then what are the benefits of this method, you have to at least tell me about it!"
"Making you dig a deeper ditch, its so that the manure can be buried underneath. Once the seeds germinate, the roots will not run too deep for a while and it won't touch the manure yet. It can decompose on it own underground, and it will be even better after a few rainy days. By the time when the roots can reach the manure, the plant would have been developed well enough."
When Sun Old Mister talked about farming, he changed his previous rigid attitude, with his brows dancing, one could just how excited he was.
"In the beginning, naturally you won't be able to see any difference, everyone would have it about the same. But once the seedlings grow in its height, you can see it then, they would really be different everyday, jumping in height like no other. So what if the work is delayed for a day or two now, by that time you would know its benefit!"
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Translator Notes:
Translated by YellowBean.