Chapter 133 Buying coal for the winter
Zhang An thought for a while and told Mr. Huang his thoughts to see what the old man thought about it.
Huang Erye thought for a long time before telling Zhang An to go down the mountain together first.
Although the old man also knows that the old cow is left here and may encounter other beasts.
But it’s not a problem to wait here all the time. The main reason is that I don’t know when everyone will find this place.
It's better to take a gamble and go down the mountain to find everyone first, and then drag the cattle.
If something happens to the cow when he comes back, it will be his own life.
Because I didn’t think carefully, now everyone in the village is looking for me in the mountains with dark eyes. I have already caused trouble to everyone.
Hearing what Mr. Huang said, Zhang An took Mr. Huang down the mountain to find everyone.
Walking through the rotten stone forest and passing through the sand forest in front of him, Zhang An returned the same way he came from.
Because when he came, he left a mark on the road so that people behind him could find him.
I was very lucky. As soon as I walked out of the sand forest, I saw several rays of light swinging under the mountain.
This must be someone from the village who came here. These lights are all the light of flashlights.
When Zhang An saw these flashlight lights, he opened his mouth and shouted loudly in the direction of the light source.
"I am Zhang An, and I have found the second master."
Since Zhang An can see the light, it proves that he is not far away.
Sure enough, after the sound was passed, everyone responded immediately.
Two groups of people, one walking up and the other walking down.
After walking for a while, everyone gathered together.
It turned out that everyone was looking for it separately, but no one found it in the end.
And everyone is not looking blindly. When looking, they still pay attention to see if there are any traces of people passing by.
Most of this mountain is now a wolf and chicken forest, and it is easy to tell whether someone has walked through it.
So there were obviously no traces of anyone walking in some places, so everyone returned the same way.
I also happened to encounter the flashlight Huang Ming brought from home, and everyone summarized the direction they had just looked for.
Only the side where Zhang An left had no news, so everyone looked for him this way.
Finally, the mark left by Zhang An was discovered, and just halfway through, the two groups met.
"Second uncle, you are doing this badly. If the cow is lost, everyone can look for it. What if something happens to you, who is so arrogant? Even if the cow is gone, you will not have any money at most. Don't do this next time. ”
What Mr. Huang did this time was indeed somewhat thoughtless.
But the old uncle has to say this. As the village chief, whatever he says is right.
Huang Erye knew just now that he had not considered it well, so he will apologize to everyone now.
Everyone who came out to help was sincere and worried that something might happen to Mr. Huang, so they were relieved to see that Mr. Huang was fine.
Finally, Zhang An told everyone about the situation of the cow. While everyone is here, he can go up and drag the cow up.
So the old rule is that Huang Ming goes home to report the news to reassure his family.
The rest of the people walked up and went to the rotten stone forest to drag the cattle.
After having a flashlight, the road was no longer dark, and everyone quickly passed through the sand forest and arrived at the rotten stone forest.
This stone pit is quite deep. After everyone tried several times just now, they couldn't drag the cow up directly.
There is not much mud here, and no one has a hoe, otherwise they can fill it with soil and pad the cattle.
Although it is called Rotten Stone Forest, these stones are not small pieces, but rocks that grow together with the mountain.
There is no way to move it directly, so the idea of backfilling came to nothing.
It would be much easier if there was a bar, but everyone came in a hurry and no one took them with them.
But when Zhang An saw someone bringing a hatchet, he immediately thought of it.
"Uncle, we have a hatchet. We can chop down a few trees and lay them down to build a bridge."
Zhang An did as he said and took the hatchet from the villagers. , ran to the edge of the sand forest, picked out a few bowl-sized sand trees and chopped them down.
Seeing this, the others with hatchets also followed Zhang An’s example in chopping down trees.
After finally cutting down seven or eight trees of this size, cut off the branches and put them directly into the stone pit.
Lao Niu probably knew that everyone was trying to save him at this moment, so when he saw the sand tree that everyone had put down, he would spread his legs to make room.
Finally, we stepped on the bridge made of sand trees little by little, although we slipped down many times during this period.
But in the end, the old scalper was dragged out, and the result was good.
The main reason is that this place is far away from the village, and I have to go back to get things. It takes an hour or two to go back and forth, so Zhang An did not suggest going back to get the bar.
When everyone just dragged the old scalper out, Zhang An looked at the time and it was already past nine o'clock.
Most of the people here haven't eaten yet and have been coming into the mountains since before it gets dark in the afternoon.
But now I have found Mr. Huang and pulled out the cow that fell into the pit.
Everyone was very happy and temporarily forgot about eating.
By the time everyone returned to the village, it was already ten o'clock in the evening.
Normally, everyone would have fallen asleep by this time.
After Huang Ming came back to report that he was safe, the family knew that the old man had been found and the cow was fine.
The people at home are no longer anxious, thinking that everyone has not eaten yet, and everyone is hungry and goes out to help.
So Mrs. Huang called her daughters-in-law over and quickly cooked the meal at home.
It’s so late. It’s time for everyone to have a hot meal when they come back from the mountains.
When Zhang An and the others arrived, the food at Mistress Huang’s house had already been prepared.
No one was polite, and as soon as Mrs. Huang called out, everyone went over to sit down to eat together, occupying two tables.
While eating, Mr. Huang apologized to everyone again and said thank you.
No matter what, the results are good now.
Everyone smiled and said it was nothing, just don’t be so scary next time.
Especially Mr. Huang’s family was frightened.
After everyone finished eating, they all went back to their homes.
The next step is for Huang Erye and his family to have a "meeting" by themselves.
Early the next morning, when Zhang An got up, he felt a gust of morning wind and actually shivered.
I obviously feel that today is much colder than usual.
Looking outside, there is frost everywhere. No wonder it has become so cold.
Although it has already been winter, in Zhang An's eyes, it is winter only when there is frost, otherwise the temperature will not drop.
"You kid, why don't you wear more clothes? It's frosty today and it's very cold."
Wang Fang, who had just come from the old house, found that Zhang An was still Wearing only a short-sleeved shirt in the yard.
He quickly reminded him to go back and put on his clothes. It would be uncomfortable if he caught a cold.
Zhang An didn't hold his tongue. He didn't know it when he came out just now. Now he turned around and went back to the house to find a coat to put on.
"Uncle, where are you going?"
Uncle Zhang Jianwen drove a carriage past the door, and Zhang An said hello smoothly.
"Hey, it's getting cold now. Let's go and bring back a cart of coal while the weather is nice."
In Changqing Village, we don't burn firewood in winter, we burn coal for the winter.
Because there are coal mines in many places nearby, the coal nearby is relatively cheap.
So everyone is used to burning coal all year round.
So before winter, everyone doesn’t have to go to the mountains to cut firewood.
Zhang An took a look at his coal pit, and there seemed to be not much left.
It’s full of coal and there’s no coal left at all. It seems it’s time to buy some.
You can tell the difference between the two as soon as you hear their names. You can use mud and stone to compare them. Coal blocks are very resistant to burning, and coal surfaces are particularly easy to burn out.
Most families in Zhang An's village seldom use coal when the weather is not cold.
Throughout the year, most of the time, coal is added with water and mixed into coal balls for burning.
The coal balls are wet, so they will dry out after being placed on the coal stove.
Not only can it seal the burning coals, but the clumps of coals will make it harder for the fire in the stove to go out until the next morning.
The coal clumps pried off the next morning could be broken into small pieces and burned, and they were easily ignited.
So now children in rural families not only have to cut grass, feed pigs, cook and wash dishes when they come back from school, but they also have to mix coal at night.
There is also a saying in the village, which is "don't care about the front, and rush to mix the coal and wash the dishes later."
This is what the children often say when there are several children in the family.
It means that when eating, the speed is compared. The one who finishes early does not need to worry about anything, and the last one to finish has to mix the coal and wash the dishes.
But it's different in Zhang An's family. There is no such thing as speed comparison.
In the past, Zhang An hated mixing coal and washing dishes because he was the only child in their family.
As long as Wang Fang and Zhang Jianguo went to work in the fields, Zhang An did all the housework alone.
In order to mix coal, every family in the village has two coal pits.
A very big one and a very small one.
The big coal pit is to have a place to store the coal when you come back from buying it.
Small coal pits are used for mixing coal. Generally, small coal pits are located in front of your home, which is also for convenience.
Mixing coal is very simple. Shovel the coal surface into a small coal pit and pour some water and yellow mud into it.
Use your home hoe to stir back and forth in the coal pit, and sometimes you need to use a coal stick to hammer it.
As for coal sticks, most people cut down a section of tree as thick as a bowl.
In later years, some people also used hammers directly.
So coal mixing in rural areas is also called coal washing.
When mixing coal, the yellow mud is added mainly so that the mixed coal noodles can form a better ball.
The other one is to save some coal when lighting the fire. After all, it all costs money, so the little you can save is the best.
But you can't add too much yellow mud, it's all proportional. If you add too much, the coal lumps won't ignite at all and can't be burned.
Although later Zhang An used induction cookers and gas stoves for more than 20 years.
But the chore of mixing coal has always been around Zhang An's entire childhood.
Basically since he was seven or eight years old, he has mixed the coal at home. I believe this is the case for many people.
When it’s very cold in winter, you can’t just burn coal briquettes.
Because the coal briquettes burn out easily, it is difficult to maintain the temperature of the fire.
Especially in the past two years, many families have bought iron stoves.
So when it’s extremely cold, you have to burn coal.
There seems to be a company in the county that specializes in making coal cakes, but they are all sold to people in the county.
Coal cake used to be a round ball of coal, just the size of a household stove core.
Briquettes have begun to appear in the past two years, and they cost about 15 to 20 cents each.
Only a few people in Hongyan Town buy briquettes for use, and even less people in these rural areas buy them.
No one in town specializes in selling coal now, mainly because they don’t make much money and coal is too cheap now.
And there is a place specializing in selling coal in the county, called the coal pipe station.
If you want to buy coal in the village, whether it is coal noodles or coal blocks, you have to go to the coal pipe station in the town to buy it.
You can actually get it delivered home there, but it’s the same as buying bricks, you have to buy enough.
So many times, when people go to buy coal, they find several families to join them.
If you buy enough in this way, they will send it to you by car, and then the families will divide it among themselves.
Otherwise, you can only find a car to pull it yourself, or you can pay the freight yourself.
Zhang An was thinking about buying coal, when suddenly a hare fell in front of Zhang An.
Looking up, he found Huatou standing on the fence on the third floor looking at him.
This guy is planning to throw the rabbit to death.
Since Huatou has been familiar with Zhang An's house, he runs out to grab something and comes back from time to time. He can be regarded as a Gu family.
There is no need for Zhang An to feed it during normal times, it can find food by itself outside.
At the beginning, it caught a chicken in the village.
When someone came to the door, this guy thought it was the same as before.
Zhang An had no choice but to apologize to others, and finally lost the chicken money.
Then Huatou was severely punished by Zhang An, and from then on it did not dare to mess around in the village.
Zhang An waved his hand to indicate that he had received it, and the flower head flew back to his nest.
Zhang An’s family now also raises a lot of rabbits, there must be more than ten or twenty rabbits.
They were bred from the pair of rabbits that Zhang An brought out before. The breeding ability of these two rabbits is too strong.
There have been several litters in the past six months, and both the first and second litters have grown into big rabbits.
When Zhang An went to feed the rabbits in the past two days, he found that three or four female rabbits were also raising their babies.
Rabbits, as an animal, once they grow up and give birth to their first litter, they will continue to have litters thereafter.
At this rate, the number of rabbits in Zhang An's family will more than double by next year.
It seems that we have to find a way to deal with them. If this continues, the rabbit pen may not be able to contain them for a long time.
Zhang Anjia usually kills the meat for himself, but when guests come, some people also order Wang Fang’s signature spicy rabbit meat.
Even so, it cannot stop the reproduction rate of rabbits at home.
What's more, the weather has been cold during this period, and there are even fewer people coming now.
Usually, a group of people would come every two or three days, but now it doesn’t work. There are only a few people there every week. Maybe it’s because of the cold weather.
And not everyone who comes wants to eat rabbit.
On the contrary, Zhang An's local chicken and goose sell well, and every time people come here, they will want to eat these two.
Zhang An brought the prey brought back by Huatou to his home.
"Mom, here, this is what Huatou brought back today."
"I'll boil some water and let your dad scald it later."
Wang Fang After looking at it, I saw that this rabbit is not very big. I can make a pot of it later and eat it at home.
"Then I'll go to the second grandpa and fourth grandpa's house."
"What are you going to do?"
"Isn't it getting cold? After dinner, I want to buy some coal. I’ll go see if these old people still have coal to burn.”
Wang Fang didn’t say anything when Zhang An said this.
The couple were quite concerned about the three old people because the old people at home left early.
Now Zhang An's second grandfather and second grandmother's home is much better than before.
In the past, the sons in the family didn't pay much attention to them. Anyway, the whole family would quarrel when they met together.
In the final analysis, it is all caused by poverty.
Now the eldest son Zhang Jianzhong has made some money, and the situation has become bigger.
I usually bring some of whatever I eat at home, and during festivals I would come over and ask the two of them to come and spend it together.
(End of this chapter)