Defeat natural disasters with farming

After getting up and washing, Ye Yu picked up millet pancakes wrapped in straw paper from the table, and walked towards the steamed bun kiln while eating. When he arrived, there were already a dozen people standing on the slope.

There was an orange-red flame in front of their eyes, and the temperature as high as more than 1000 degrees gradually fired the pottery blanks in the kiln into shape.

Pottery Yao said: "We have to wait another day and one night. After all the vents are blocked, the flame in the kiln will go out by itself. Do not open the kiln before it goes out. Otherwise, the temperature in the kiln will drop too fast, which will cause The pottery is broken."

At this time, those who guard the kiln in the village can go home and have a good sleep, and come back to start the kiln the next day.

Yao potter was not idle at the moment, he led the more skillful villagers in the village to make some molds with clay, such as plates, cups, jars, etc., the number is quite a lot, and in the future, you only need to put the clay into the molds Shaping, so they don't need to work hard to make pottery blanks.

Ye Yu was sitting on a chair imitating Yao potter's movements and fiddling with clay. He said it was making molds, but in fact it was more like playing with mud. He kneaded and began to wander.

I associate pottery with ironware and glass in my mind. Iron can also be made at the temperature that can be fired at the temperature of glass. At the same time, the raw materials needed for glass are quartz sand, soda ash, feldspar and limestone, etc., and only iron ore is needed for iron making.

More importantly, these materials are not uncommon. You can test them later. The village is now short of iron products, such as iron pots and farm tools. Every household cherishes them very much. Even so, half of them are basically rotten. There is a hole in the middle of the iron pan at home, and it can only be repaired and barely used.

Iron weapons are also very important. In today's world, to put it bluntly, whoever has the biggest fist has the right to speak.

There is also glass. Now their windows are pasted with a kind of bast paper. Although it can block the wind and rain, the light transmission is very poor. Even in the daytime, sometimes the room is extremely dark. It would be great if they could be replaced with glass windows. Well, among other things, the light transmittance of glass can really be regarded as one of the best.

Ye Yu had a lot of miscellaneous thoughts in his mind, so the movements of his hands were a little careless, which led to him finally kneading a pottery blank that looked completely different.

Ye Yu looked around guiltily, and saw that no one was paying attention to him, so he rubbed the pottery blank twice to destroy the corpse.

They went home to eat at noon. Mother Ye put down her needlework and said to Ye Yu, "It's too hot. I made cold noodles with shredded chicken and tomatoes mixed with sugar. Go wash your face and eat."

Shredded chicken cold noodles are covered with a layer of shredded cucumber and carrot. The yellow-green color is very refreshing. Added with chili oil and balsamic vinegar, it will stimulate your appetite when you smell it.

Tomatoes mixed with sugar are also delicious. In the end, the tomatoes have turned into water, mixed with sugar, and drunk in one gulp, the mouth is full of sweet taste.

Mother Ye fanned him with a palm-leaf fan, pampering him: "Eat slowly. There's not enough in the bamboo plaque."

Ye Yu ate the last noodle in two bites, and asked her, "Mother, why don't you eat it?"

"I've finished my meal long ago, who is as busy as you and your father every day and hits the back of his head." Ye Mu poured him a cup of tea, "This is made with the Pu'er tea bricks that Brother Xu sent earlier. It’s because I’m not used to drinking such expensive tea, so it’s better to drink tea made from chrysanthemum flowers picked from the mountains.”

"Pu'er tea is bitter, but it tastes good." After Ye Yu finished a bowl of tea, only the faint fragrance of Pu'er remained in his mouth.

"Drink it if you like it. I see that tea brick is enough for you to drink for a year or two." Ye Mu originally wanted to rub Ye Yu's head, but when she thought that he was already a half-grown boy, she put her hands on her head It slid down and landed on Ye Yu's shoulder and patted it.

In the afternoon, Ye Yu took a nap for half an hour, and when he went to the kiln, he saw Ye He concentrating on making pottery blanks. If you only looked at his solemn expression, you would never guess what he was doing.

Ye Yu didn't bother him either. He found a place to sit down and started making wind chimes. Pottery wind chimes are quite simple to make. You only need to fire seven or eight pieces of pottery and connect them with strings.

It's just a sudden interest, Ye Yu is not worried about whether it can be done, it is enough for him to feel happy in this matter.

After the pottery was half-dried, Ye Yu thought about it, took a brush and ink from home, and painted plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum on each piece of pottery, as well as the corresponding poems.

He made two wind chimes.

Father Ye and the others got up early the next day, and came to the kiln together to wait for the moment when the kiln was opened.

Yao Taoist took a deep breath, feeling somewhat uneasy. After all, he hadn't made pottery for many years, and he didn't know if there would be any problems. If he didn't succeed, what should he do? Integrate into Yejia Village.

But now it has come to a critical juncture. It is better to know the result sooner.

Therefore, he led people to remove the earth bricks blocking the fire and air vents, and gradually the light shone into the kiln. The closer he was to seeing the pottery, the more nervous Ye Yu felt, and he could not help but take two steps forward.

His shoulder just touched Ye He, and it turned out that Ye He also stood in front of the kiln at some point.

He volunteered at this time and said, "I'll go in and get the pottery."

No one else had any objections, so Ye He crawled into the kiln from the air outlet, and stayed in it for a while before crawling out with a face covered in black ashes. Shouted: "We made it!"

Father Ye took the pottery bowl with a smile on his face, and said happily, "Okay, well done!"

The villagers around the back cheered when they heard the words, and they couldn't wait to step forward to have a look at the burnt pottery.

Seeing this, Pottery Yao quickly said, "Don't worry, let's take out all the pottery first."

Several young and middle-aged men climbed into the kiln and took out all the pottery. Ye Yu and the others counted it and found that about two-thirds of it was complete, and the remaining one-third either had cracks or was directly broken into pieces. Everyone in the village is very satisfied. After all, it is the first time to fire pottery. Such a success rate can be regarded as God's blessing.

Moreover, pottery with cracks is not unusable, but it cannot hold water. It can be used to grow vegetables at home or store food. Even broken pottery can be used as raw materials for the next production after being crushed.

Ye Yu picked up a clay pot and looked it over carefully. The surface was smooth and delicate, showing a reddish-brown color in the sun. There was no pattern at all, but it had a simple and elegant beauty. He curled his fingers and tapped it a few times with his knuckles. The knocking sound on the surface of the clay pot is clear and pleasant, which is enough to prove that the hardness of the pot is qualified.

The pottery in the first kiln got off to a good start, and the whole village was very happy, so they soon started firing the second kiln, which included the molds they made before and some scattered small objects.

Try not to open the kiln for three years, and once the kiln is opened, pottery enough for three years can be fired.

Ye Yu returned home with some clay pots and bowls, just to make up for the previous loss, especially the smaller clay pots, which are used to make jam and canned food.

I have to say that the time they chose to fire the pottery was really a coincidence, because not long after the pottery in the second kiln was fired, the weather changed suddenly, the wind was cold, and a heavy rain poured down without warning, blocking everyone at home.

Ye Yu covered the window, took out the thick padded clothes from the cabinet and put them on, and said happily, "Fortunately, we closed the kiln yesterday."

Otherwise, it would be rained, not to mention the pottery in the kiln wasted, and even the kiln flooded with water would have to be rebuilt.

Mother Ye responded, she looked up and saw that the continuous raindrops were like steel needles, falling on the ground and splashing water.

"This rain came at a perfect time."

But no, after this rain, the drought situation here has eased, at least next year when farming, there will be no need to face dry and cracked fields everywhere.

Ye Yu nodded and said, "I hope to harvest more grain next year."

"Yes." Mother Ye sighed, "This is the way of the world."

She suddenly thought of something again, and asked Ye Yu, "Brother Xu, have they arrived at Jingbian City?"

Hearing this, Ye Yu counted the days in her heart, and then replied: "It should be here, and I don't know if General Chu has recovered from his illness."

Half a month ago, General Chu sent someone to send a letter, saying that he was not feeling well, and asked Chu Xufeng to go back to Jingbian City. Originally, Ye Yu was going to go with him, but he happened to be infected with the cold at that time, so not only Ye Yu His father and mother did not allow him to go there, and even Chu Xufeng seldom refused him coldly, asking him to rest at home.

"It's fine when you arrive. If you encounter this rain on the road, it will really delay things." Ye Mu said as she took the old clothes in the sewing basket and began to sew.

Ye Yu was also a little worried when he thought of this, he couldn't help but frowned slightly, but it was useless no matter how worried he was, and now he couldn't contact Chu Xufeng, so he could only choose to trust him.

On the other side, Mother Ye was doing needlework from morning to night, and she didn't stop even when the room was dark.

Ye Yu lit a candle and asked her, "What are you sewing?"

Mother Ye approached the candle and said, "I'm sewing clothes for sister Ru. The skin of a newborn baby is tender, and the cotton cloth has to be washed several times before it can be worn. It happens that you have a few clothes that you wore when you were young. It can be worn like a sister."

"Then don't touch the dark seams." Ye Yu put the needle and thread into the basket, "Let's continue tomorrow, my eyes are almost blurred."

"Okay." Mother Ye let go of her hand and let Ye Yu take over the needle and thread. She stood up and thumped her waist, "Sister Ru is so beautiful and well-behaved. She almost never cries at night."

Ye Yu laughed and teased, "I'm going to be jealous if you continue talking."

Mother Ye listened to Zhile, stretched out her index finger and pressed Ye Yu's forehead, "Don't be funny, why are you jealous with a newborn child?"

-

Because of the rain, the whole village didn't go out and stayed at home. Ye Yu was even more thankful that when he built the assembly hall, he took people to clean up the ground in the village. A drainage ditch was built there.

It is precisely because of the existence of this drainage ditch that although the rain was heavy enough, it did not flood the village.

In addition, he raised the village path with bricks, which made it very convenient for the villagers to go out, and it was rare for them to step on the mud.

However, as the rain is getting heavier and has no intention of stopping, there is one thing they have to do in the rain, and that is to quickly harvest the sweet potatoes and corn that have been planted in the field, or wait until the rain is over. Well, the rhizomes in the ground are soaked in water, and it will be considered a failure at that time.

Moreover, the sweet potatoes and corns that were replanted this year did not grow well. The largest sweet potatoes buried in the soil were only as big as a child's fist. , the corn inside is also very small.

But no matter how little it is, it is food, and if it is food, it must be rescued.

The villagers braved the rain to collect sweet potatoes and corn, and because they harvested them in time, most of them were collected.

Ye Yu squeezed the corn and sighed, "Why is it so small?"

After a gesture, the peeled skin is only half the size of his palm, and the ground is probably not much.

Mother Ye said: "It's good to have something to gain. It's been like this for the past two years. Let's see next year."

She glanced at the corn in Ye Yu's hand again, "These corn don't need to be ground into flour, they can be boiled or roasted."

This is not impossible, boiled corn and baked corn are also delicious.

Mother Ye cooked five small corns and five sweet potatoes that night. The small corns were very green and tender, and there seemed to be a puddle of water in the corn grains. One bite was full of sweetness. The same was true for the sweet potatoes. Soaked up all the light and much sweeter than the large sweet potatoes harvested earlier.

It was rare for Father Ye to go home for dinner on time today, and Mother Ye couldn't help complaining when she saw this: "Are you so busy? You don't come home until night."

"I'm already busy, and I can finally take a good rest recently." Father Ye picked up a corn and gnawed it in two or three bites before he had the strength to speak, "Busy is busy for a while, mainly because many things have collided."

Mother Ye reminded him at this time: "I don't care if you are busy or not, but tomorrow is a big day like my sister's full moon. You have to remember that our family is going to the old house to attend the full moon banquet."

Hearing this, Father Ye put the corn sticks in his hand on the table, rubbed his forehead and said, "If you don't tell me, I really forgot, time flies so fast, my sister will be full moon soon."

He asked, "What gift shall we give?"

Mother Ye replied: "As promised, a silver ingot can be reshaped by someone in the future, whether it is made into a bracelet or a hairpin."

Ye's father is Ye Ru's third uncle, and they have already separated, so the full moon gift really doesn't need to be so expensive, a silver ingot is just right.

There is a custom here. When the child is full moon, the parents usually give a collar or safety lock. The cheaper ones are made of wood or stone, and the more expensive ones are made of gold, silver or jade. It is mainly a thought.

"Enough." Father Ye said.

Ye Yu sat on the chair and listened to his parents talking. As he listened, his right hand involuntarily touched the safety buckle on his neck. He had worn this safety buckle for ten years and never took it off.