Chapter 452: Planting rice and buying silkworm seeds

The villagers, who were so busy that they were dripping with sweat, noticed the situation at the Qiao family, and were even more surprised and envious.

Among the cattle used by the villagers, there were also a few cows, but they were as wild as the bulls and completely uncooperative. Everyone lamented that they were all captured bison in the same batch. Why were the Qiao family's cattle so obedient?

The villagers originally planned to help the Qiao family rake the ground after taming the cows, but it turned out that the Qiao family didn't need their help at all.

Since the soil has been turned over, it only takes water and a rake to break up the mud and level the ground, so it doesn't take much work.

On the third day, the Qiao family’s land was all raked, and they began to take off and plant the rice seedlings. The villagers were still taming the cattle. Although they finally raked several fields, none of them were raked smoothly. .

The Qiao family's cows can rest, but no villager went to borrow the cow from the Qiao family.

Those were the Qiao family's own cows, and the cows in the village were also given to them by Qiao Ran. They couldn't be greedy.

The men were still raking the fields hurriedly. When the women saw that the Qiao family had begun to plant rice, since their own land had not been raked yet, they all came to help the Qiao family plant rice.

The school also closed its baths. In fact, it was the end of the month, and there were still a few days before the month-end bath. Sun Xiucai thought that the children of farmers were also part-time laborers in the fields, so he decided to take a bath in advance and gave two days of leave to let the children Go home and help plant rice seedlings.

In this way, the children have four days of vacation, and all children over the age of six or seven go to the fields to help.

Farm children are used to farm work. In the Qiao family, apart from Bei Xingyue and Xiao An'er and Xiaoba who stayed at home to play when they were young, Nannan Xi, Qin Gengwen and Qiao Ran all went to the fields to help plant rice seedlings.

Many children in the village were not idle, and they all followed their mother to help in the Qiao family's fields.

There is strength in numbers, and the women chattered while working, but the speed was not slow at all.

The children were in groups of three and five, with the older ones helping to transplant the rice seedlings, and the younger ones helping to take off the rice seedlings, carry the rice seedlings, and distribute the rice seedlings. Because there were so many people, they found it very interesting. The usually boring farm work did not feel boring or tiring at all. .

The Qiao family was only allocated a total of eleven acres of paddy field. In addition to the seedling fields, vegetable fields, and melon fields, less than nine acres were used to grow rice. With the help of the women and children in the village, it took less than three days to grow rice. All the seedlings were planted.

It usually takes the Qiao family half a month to complete spring planting, but this year they completed the entire process of leveling the ground, removing the rice seedlings, and transplanting the rice seedlings in less than seven days.

At this time, there are still some people in the village who have not finished raking their land!

Without saying a word, Qiao Erhe and Qiao Sanhu took their cattle and went to help the villagers plow the fields and plant rice.

As for Qiao Ran, no one would let her go if she wanted to help. No one wanted to make her tired, so she could only think about growing lotus roots and water chestnuts.

Lotus roots and water chestnuts were not difficult to grow, but the water level in the pond was a bit high, so Qiao Ran simply planted a piece of land in the space to raise seedlings, and then transplanted the seedlings into the pond.

None of this is urgent. She can work in the space at night when people are asleep.

So, after finishing her spring planting, Qiao Ran decided to find silkworm seeds and start raising silkworms.

After telling her family, Qiao Ran put on men's clothes and rode towards Luoyang Mansion.

The small village called Xiangyang Village is halfway to Luoyang Fucheng, on the hillside next to the official road. There is a large mulberry tree planted on it.

Qiao Ran went directly to the village not far from the mulberry forest. When she arrived at the entrance of the village, she saw a few old people who were too old to work in the fields chatting with their little grandson under the tree. She got off her horse and walked up to ask. .

"Are you talking about the mulberry forest at the entrance of the village? That belongs to Huang Laogen's family. Well, it's the family under the wild jujube tree. His family is indeed raising silkworms. He should still be at home now. I haven't seen him coming out to work. Go and see if he is at home!"

An old woman tremblingly stretched out her hand and pointed in the direction to Qiao Ran.

Qiao Ran thanked her and led the horse to the door of the low mud brick house.

The courtyard door was closed but unlocked. Qiao Ran knocked on the courtyard door. After several times, an old male voice came from the courtyard door: "Come on, come on. Stop knocking!"

After a while, the courtyard door was opened from the inside, and Qiao Ran saw an old man in coarse linen clothes with gray hair appearing in front of him. He looked to be in his sixties.

"Sir, who are you looking for?"

The old man squinted his eyes to look at the young man in front of him, and saw that he was holding a horse behind him. Although he was dressed in ordinary clothes, it was not ordinary people who could afford a horse, so he asked suspiciously.

Qiao Ran bowed her hands to the old man and said in a thicker voice: "Old man, I saw a mulberry forest outside your village and thought someone must be raising silkworms, so I came over to inquire and found you. Is your family raising silkworms? I want to buy some silkworm seeds to raise."

When the old man heard that she was here to buy silkworm seeds, he turned sideways and invited her into the house: "My family has raised some silkworms, but I have decided not to raise them anymore. You are just in time. Come in first and take as much silkworm seeds as you want. As for the money, , just give me whatever you want, hey, I’m going to throw it away anyway.”

Qiao Ran was startled and asked quickly: "Why don't I plan to raise silkworms anymore? I think the mulberry trees you planted outside are quite good. Is it because silkworms are difficult to raise, or because silkworm cocoons cannot be sold at a high price?"

The old man sighed and said: "To tell you the truth, my family has been raising silkworms for decades, and the silkworm cocoons we raise are the best in the country. It's a pity. Firstly, my body can't move anymore. Secondly, , it is also difficult to sell these silkworm cocoons, the price is getting lower year by year, and the tax in Luoyang Prefecture is too high. The money I make from raising silkworms for a year and selling them is not enough to pay the tax. I plan to go to other prefectures to seek refuge. My nephew is gone."

Qiao Ran couldn't help but sigh inwardly after hearing this.

It turns out that this old man has a registered residence in Luoyang. With such Luoyang officials, the life of the common people is really difficult.

She tied the horse at the gate of the courtyard, entered the courtyard under the guidance of the old man, and walked to the main room.

The yard is not big, and the mud brick walls have been washed away by rain in several places. There are a few chickens raised in a corner of the yard, probably because they are afraid that the chickens will run into the house and eat silkworms.

There were only four rooms connected to the main room, and the main room was also very small. There was only a set of shabby tables and chairs inside, and the chairs were a little shaky when sitting on them, and Qiao Ran didn't dare to sit down with confidence.

She took a coarse porcelain bowl from the old man with a missing mouth, drank some water, and asked the old man to take her to see the silkworms.

It turned out that two of the four rooms were used for raising silkworms.

Qiao Ran walked in and saw rows of bamboo shelves covered with white silkworm cocoons.

The old man introduced: "You came just in time. In a few days, these silkworms will break out of their cocoons and lay eggs. If you take them back now, they will be able to lay eggs."