Although the sparrows were small, they were still meat.
Jiang Hu was not in a hurry to deliver the things first. Anyway, it was raining today and he could not go to the fields to work. Everyone must be at home. It did not matter when he sent them.
He asked Erni to go to the house to accompany Er Niang and look after the children, leaving the heavy responsibility of continuing to catch sparrows to Dawa. Then he took the thatch and basket himself, ready to pack up these sparrows that were captured.
He did not know exactly how many were caught. He was busy cooking earlier. When Dawa caught them and shouted for him, he grabbed them and stuffed them into a sack.
Now that the mouth of the sack was tied, the sparrows kept fluttering inside. They were carried out the door like this. If he was not careful, all the sparrows would escape.
Therefore, he was prepared to tie up the sparrows one by one.
The thatch was placed aside, and the basket was covered with a bamboo plaque. He first stepped on the mouth of the sack containing the sparrows before slowly reaching in to grab one.
He drew a thatch and tied up the sparrow's wings and legs to make sure it didn't fly away. Then he put it in the wicker basket and covered it with a bamboo plaque.
Basically, everyone in Fu'an Village knew each other, but Jiang Hu did not know how many families there were. Back then, after everyone settled down, they only hurriedly chose the village chief and went to till the land.
However, everyone had finished their work in the past few days. Jiang Hu estimated that the village chief had already calculated how many families there were in the village.
Jiang Hu decided to count how many sparrows he had captured first before going to the village chief's house to ask how many families there were in the village. Then he would give them according to the situation.
Not long after, Dawa ran out excitedly, shouting for his father to come quickly. Without thinking, Jiang Hu grabbed the sack and strode out.
However, it might be that sparrows also communicated with each other. Other than the fact that it was easy to catch a lot at the beginning, there were less of them later on, and they waited longer each time for one to be caught.
When it was almost noon, Jiang Hu patted his pants and stood up. "Dawa, let's stop waiting. We'll continue catching tomorrow. Let's cook first."
At noon, he continued to cook sparrows with wild vegetables soup. After eating in the morning, he did not feel cold even though it was still raining. Usually, he would shiver from the cold if he sat outside like this.
It seemed that this sparrow was good stuff.
"Father, how many did we catch in total?" Dawa bounced back to help start the fire. He was overjoyed to see his father deal with the sparrows.
"We caught more than 70. I'll keep 10 at home in the afternoon and distribute the rest to the villagers."
Dawaimmediately pursed his lips. "Why do we have to split so much? It wasn't easy for us to catch them."
Jiang Hu comforted him. "Don't worry, we'll catch more tomorrow. Look at the sparrows on the tree in the distance. In the future, when I go to the fields to work, you'll stay at home to catch sparrows, okay?
"Even if the sparrows become smarter, there will always be a few stupid ones. It's enough to catch a few every day."
"Alright, Father, you might as well tell the others how to catch them. When the time comes, everyone can catch sparrows themselves. We don't have to give any to them."
As for whether others could catch them or not, that was up to them.
Jiang Hu nodded. "I know."
It was the same sparrow meat seasoned with a little salt. Although the sparrows were small, the meat was really firm. It took Jiang Hu more than an hour to cook to his satisfaction before he added the wild vegetables he had dug up yesterday.
He scooped up a third of the breasts, sparrow legs, and other meat for Er Niang. The rest was for the three of them.
After that, he washed the diapers and took out the buckets in the house to pour into the latrine pit and wash them again. Finally, he packed the sparrows that he was going to give away in a sack and took the bamboo basket. He asked Dawa to follow with the grass rope and the sparrows' internal organs.
"Father, what are we doing with these?" It was drizzling. Dawa hung the bamboo grass rope around his neck and held a broken bowl with the sparrows' innards in it.
"We'll catch fish in the river first, then send the sparrows to the others." Jiang Hu strode ahead. Dawa had to jog to keep up.
"Catch fish!" Dawa immediately became greedy. "Does Daddy know how to catch fish?"
Jiang Hu nodded. "Of course, but there was no bait previously. Father didn't think of it either. Let's try fishing today."
As they spoke, they reached the river.
Villages were typically built near water sources, so Fu'an Village naturally had a river. It was not far from their house, only about a thousand feet away.
As the saying went, the more anxious one was, the more anxious one became. Previously, he was so anxious that he had completely forgotten that there was a river in the village and there were fish in the river. After eating his fill today, his brain finally came alive.
When they reached the river, he put the sack aside and let Dawa watch him. He tied the bamboo basket with a straw rope and placed the internal organs into the bamboo basket with the broken bowl. Then he placed the bamboo basket in the river with the straw rope.
The river was not deep, but they happened to be upstream. The current was a little rapid. Jiang Hu tied one end of the rope to a mulberry tree by the river.
After he was done, Jiang Hu picked up the sack again and called out to Dawa, "Let's go and deliver the sparrows first. We'll come back and take a look."
The father and son went to the village chief's house first and asked how many families there were in the village and where they lived. When the village chief found out what they were going to do, he was so happy that he personally led the way for them. He also told them how many people each family had.
Other than the 10 that were left at home, Jiang Hu took out a total of 67 sparrows. There were more than 40 families in the village. He gave two to those with more family members and one to those with fewer people.
At this time, having meat to eat was very extravagant. No one thought it was too little.
Just as Dawa had suggested, Jiang Hu also told them how to catch the sparrows.
If there was nothing in the field and there was no extra grain, they could find the grass seeds that had not been sown the previous year as bait. There was always a way.
The best thing about Fu'an Village now was that everyone helped each other along the way. As for those mean families, they had long disappeared because no one helped them.
After walking around the village and going back, two hours passed. The sacks were empty. Before father and son went home, they jogged towards the river.
"Father, there's fish! There's really fish!" Dawa shouted as soon as they arrived at the river. He was not as steady as his father.
However, although he was steady, Jiang Hu could not help but be happy. He nodded hard. "Yes!"
He had already begun to pull the rope up quickly. Jiang Hu was tall and strong. Recently, he had been fed spiritual spring milk by Xiaomi every night. His strength had returned. In a few moments, he lifted the bamboo basket without a single fish escaping.
"Dad, you're so awesome. There are so many fish!" Dawa jumped up and down excitedly. Today was definitely the happiest day!
The smile in Jiang Hu's eyes became even more obvious. "We won't eat sparrows tonight. I'll cook fish soup for you all!"
There were five to six palm-sized big fish in the bamboo basket, as well as many finger-sized small fish. It was enough for several meals.
When he delivered the sparrows earlier, he had also mentioned catching fish using the sparrows' internal organs as bait. Now there was no need to specially inform them about their catch.
The fish's internal organs could still be used as bait. This river was not small. It would definitely help everyone tide over their difficulties!