Sure enough, there was less ice on the ground at the entrance of the village, and there were obvious traces of being shoveled on the road in the middle, but it was not particularly clean.
But stepping on it will not feel like you will fall anytime.
It was cold at the moment, and not many people in the village were outside, but they still knew that there were many carriages and horses coming to the Zhou family's village outside the village.
When Man Bao and the others arrived at the entrance of the village, it happened that the head of the village was also going out to look for them.
Nothing serious, just to say hello, after all, the villagers are tenants of the Zhou family, aren't they
As soon as he saw Man Bao and the others, the head of the village immediately stepped forward to salute, "See Mr. Zhou."
Man Bao hurriedly returned the gift, the other party was very old, she did not dare to accept the gift in vain.
The head of the village smiled, "Master Zhou, is the whole family here to play in the village?"
Man Bao smiled and nodded, "I heard that it snowed in Yongzhou two days ago, so we came to enjoy the snow."
The head of the village didn't know what to appreciate in the white snow. Doesn't it snow every year? But he still greeted with a smile.
Now that we met, Man Bao naturally wanted to ask about the situation in the village, "Have the eggs given to you all hatched into chicks?"
Li Zhang answered "Yes" with a smile, and said: "Everyone is very concerned, as long as the hatched chickens are raised in the house, they will eat and drink like people."
This is of course impossible. Chickens still eat worse than humans.
Man Bao was very satisfied with this, so he asked about the spring planting next year, "It's time to prepare the grain seeds. Is the village planning to replace the new grain seeds this year, or keep them at home?"
The chief said: "We are thinking about picking out the best part from our home, and then buying some new grain seeds from the county town to replace them. It was agreed before that this grain seed..."
"I'll pay half of the money," Man Bao said, "I know. Later, I'll have someone go to the grain store in the city to search carefully to see if there are any particularly good grain seeds."
Li Changbiao responded with a smile, talking to someone who knows how to farm is a peace of mind.
Man Bao finally asked about the winter, such as whether the villagers prepared enough firewood...
As soon as the village chief said that everyone was prepared, and that the preparations were sufficient, Man Bao immediately proposed to buy some firewood from the villagers.
If you ask her to say, why borrow something for a few tens of pennies, just buy it.
Bai Shan thinks so too.
The head of the village thought about it now, and they came to the village to buy firewood.
But everyone in the village is Zhou Man's tenants. She has a request, not to mention buying or lending. She asks for it directly, and the tenants can only give it.
The head of the village hesitated for a moment, and decided to make a good relationship, so he smiled and said: "Isn't it just firewood, it's worthless, where can I buy it? In this way, move a few bundles from my house, and I will send people to each house. It's enough to get it together."
Man Bao declined, "It's far away from the mountains and forests, and you have to walk a long way to collect firewood. Why don't you just take everyone's things?"
Seeing her sincerity, the village chief pointed it out clearly, "It's not something expensive, besides, Mr. Zhou didn't ask for pasture this year, and everyone has less work to cut grass, so this is the time to collect so much firewood. Originally, The firewood in the village should be given by us."
It was only then that Man Bao thought about the forage. In previous years, the tenants in the village had to provide forage to the chief officer of the land.
However, their family doesn't have many horses, but there are quite a few mules, but the former has always been raised by Bai Shan and his family, and they use high-quality grain and grass, so they don't care about the grass here;
The latter was in charge of Zhou Zhoulang, and he didn't know where he got so much hay. Anyway, the mule was not thin, and he could earn a lot of money every day.
In the end, at the insistence of the head of the village, Man Bao accepted the twenty bundles of firewood he had scraped together, and the villagers sent them to the village.
When old Zhou Tou heard that it was a free gift, he was overjoyed, then accepted their love, and said to Zhou Dalang and his wife: "Don't say, although they are lazy, they are not bad people. In the future, you should be more humane when you take care of them." If you can help them, besides not letting them be too lazy, I can help you with other things."
Zhou Dalang responded and asked, "Father, shall we go back tomorrow afternoon?"
"Why don't you go back and stay here?" Old Zhou said, "If Mr. Zhuang said that Manbao was in a bad mood and wanted to come out to see the snow and climb down the mountain to relax, I wouldn't go out in this cold day."
Zhou Dalang didn't really want to go back, "I discussed it with the child's mother, and I want to stay in the village to raise some chickens and ducks."
He said: "Take advantage of the free time, let's buy some eggs and duck eggs to hatch, and then tidy up other untied places in the village."
The main reason is that when they are in the capital, they only help out in the east, and then follow the helpers in the west, so they are very idle.
So Xiaoqian's meaning is that it is better to live in Zhuangzi, have something to do, and then go back to the capital after missing parents and children, which is not far away anyway.
The old Zhou was thinking, Zhou Dalang continued to mutter: "She also wants to pickle some dried vegetables, fish, meat and so on. The house over there in the capital looks very nice, and there are occasional distinguished guests at home. If it is under the eaves I'm afraid it's not good to dry the meat."
Old Zhou thought of the bacon, sausages and all kinds of bacon and cured meat made by his eldest daughter-in-law, and immediately nodded and said, "Okay, then you can keep it."
After thinking about it, he said, "Let's stay with you."
Anyway, when he went back to the capital, he would go to the restaurant to help out. There were not many things to do, and after Man Bao went back, he would go to the palace, and the meeting would be on the eighth day of the next month, so he thought for a while and said: "I will ask Er Ya some more later. Money, let’s go buy some meat and vegetables and come back and sit down, this year we will celebrate the New Year in the capital, and there will be quite a few people eating.”
Thinking of buying vegetables, old Zhoutou complained, "We came here too late before and forgot to grow vegetables. We still have to grow this vegetable ourselves in the future. By the way, is there any land in the village where we can grow vegetables?"
Man Bao, who was obediently sitting on the side waiting for food, immediately interjected, "Father, there should be more space in this village for me to grow things."
Old Zhou asked, "Plant the weeds you dug from outside?"
"Why is it a weed? Maybe it's a medicine," Man Bao said, "Everything in the world can be used as medicine. Li Ru just said it. Shopkeeper Zheng has already contacted me with a batch of medicine seeds. I want to try it in Zhuangzi when the time comes." Plant one."
Some are also planted in the mansion in the capital, and they are planted separately, and the survival rate is a little higher. This is what the shopkeeper Zheng spent a lot of effort to collect from those medicine farmers.
Of course, in addition to the medicine seeds given by shopkeeper Zheng, there are also things she is interested in buying from the mall, as well as things dug up from outside, hehehe...
There are people coming and going in the mansion in the capital, and she doesn't dare to grow things in the mall, but Zhuangzi's here is basically his own family, and the eldest brother and sister-in-law take care of it herself, so she is very relieved, so she plans to find some novelty things planted.
For example, Keke said that grain seeds that cannot inherit good genes of the second generation.