Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 267 Great Grandfather

General Lin was a little hesitant about this and showed a somewhat conflicted expression.

"Well, how should I put it? If we talk about filial piety, I might be the least filial one."

Song Chunlin smelled some gossip, but General Lin didn't want to say much. He just asked about a few key points of the movements, practiced a few times, and then left the training ground.

Although General Lin was unwilling to say anything, Song Chunlin still pulled Captain Lin over. They were brothers and must know more gossip than he did.

"General Lin...his great-grandfather was a great scholar of our time, don't you know that, young master?"

Song Chunlin was confused: "I don't know, I don't go to school."

Captain Lin was choked for a moment, then whispered to Song Chunlin: "His great-grandfather Lin Xuanshan was one of the four great Confucian scholars of the time, and was an excellent calligrapher. His eldest son, my great-grandfather, was also a famous calligrapher. Although my cousin's handwriting was not very good, he was a master of painting. It was a pity that he died young. Originally, my great-grandfather hoped that General Lin could inherit the family business, but who would have thought that he would turn around and join the army and become a military commander. My great-grandfather was so angry that he almost broke his leg."

Hearing this, Song Chunlin looked suspiciously at Captain Lin Qian's legs. He coughed lightly with embarrassment, "Although my family and General Lin are relatives, theirs is the lineage of the eldest son, who was deeply loved by my great-grandfather. My grandfather was dull and had no literary attainments, so he set up his own business early and made a living by opening a bookstore in the capital. The talents of our descendants are even worse than those of my uncle, so after enlightenment, we all made a living on our own. My great-grandfather cared about my cousin because he was very talented in calligraphy. He once thought of devoting the whole family's strength to supporting my cousin, but my cousin may have become discouraged after his uncle's death and never touched ink again. It's a pity to say."

What a pity? Thinking of General Lin's meeting room that was as messy as a garbage dump, Song Chunlin felt deeply skeptical about the term spiritual energy.

A month passed between working and practicing. All the land of the Song family was planted with crops. Only one-third of the 3,000 strong laborers, whether known or not, had worked. Song Chunlin couldn't help but sigh that there were too many people and they could not be used. No wonder those emperors liked to develop people's livelihood so much.

Just at this time, the approval document for the paper mill came down, and Gu Fengyun took the two children to the workshop address that had been selected early in the morning. Song Chunlin looked at the place and felt that it was not only close to the river, but also surrounded by lush trees and the terrain was higher, making it very suitable for building a paper mill.

Upon hearing that Song Chunlin was also going to build a paper mill, General Lin also came to join in the fun. Song Chunlin then realized that their family's side business was the paper mill, and almost all the paper needed by the literati in the capital came from the Lin family.

But the Lin family’s paper mill was not in the capital, but in Jiangnan.

"There is a kind of tree in Jiangnan that is most suitable for making paper, but it is not cost-effective to transport the wood from a long distance. It is better to make paper locally. The cost of transporting paper is much cheaper than transporting wood."

Seeing that Song Chunlin and his team built a paper mill in the mountains, General Lin casually asked them how they were going to solve the material problem.

Song Chunlin only said that they would use a new papermaking method, and the paper produced would be cheaper.

"Cheaper?" General Lin didn't care. As far as he knew, paper was never cheap. Good rice paper was as expensive as gold. Hearing what Song Chunlin meant, he thought he just wanted to make some rough straw paper, so he didn't come again. A few years later, when the Song family had almost taken up half of the paper business in the capital, General Lin realized how naive he was.

Song Chunlin didn't care whether General Lin was present or not. Whether he was there or not, it would not change his determination to lower the price of paper.

The location of the paper mill is quite far from the military camp, so Song Chunlin simply turned his daily field training here. There happened to be an open area outside, which was large enough to serve as a drying yard, just enough to accommodate three thousand people for training. As for eating, he still used the old method. Song Chunlin pretended to have someone deliver it to him, but in fact he just took it out from the space halfway. A big pot was set up next to the drying yard, and water was taken from the river. There were also fish in the river, so he could occasionally have a meal.

As the workshop was built bit by bit, Song Chunlin's training methods became more diverse. In addition to basic field training, he would occasionally divide people into several teams and conduct actual combat exercises in the dense forest.

Such novel training methods as actual combat exercises were very novel to the ancient people, and the effect of team combat was particularly good, and it could also train these people's team awareness.

After the first actual combat exercise, General Lin saw this group of people again and clearly noticed the changes in them, but he couldn't tell what was different.

In this way, they trained and built the workshop at the same time. Before the first round of grain matured, the papermaking workshop was finally completed. There was not only a workshop, but also several houses at the back that served as warehouses and workers' dormitories.

Song Chunlin's training method has also begun to show results. With the blessing of the spiritual spring water, everyone's physical strength and endurance have reached a new level. This feeling is even more obvious when drawing the bow and shooting arrows.

The first thing to be harvested from the Song family's fields is the peppers. The peppers cannot be picked all at once. The Song family takes good care of the peppers they grow and can generally be harvested three to five times a year, as long as they turn completely red. This year the Song family also planted some green peppers, but the quantity was not large, so the Song family members picked them all by themselves.

It was the first time for the soldiers to see raw chili peppers. Although Song Chunlin warned them not to let the juice of the chili peppers get on their skin, some of them still didn't believe it and broke open the raw chili sauce to smell it. As a result, not only were their hands swollen from the spiciness, but their noses were also choked by the spiciness because they got too close and kept coughing.

"Is this really edible? It hurts my hands if it gets on them."

"I've never seen you eat less hot sauce. Stop nagging me and get back to work. Didn't you hear what the master said? People who slack off at work won't get any hot sauce this year."

No hot sauce? That won't do. Ever since Song Chunlin brought a bunch of hot sauce to the military camp, they have become accustomed to eating with hot sauce. Many people have developed the ability to love spicy food. If they really lose the hot sauce, what's the fun of eating?

The day after harvesting the peppers was exactly Chen Yuer's due date. This birth was much easier than the first. Her water broke when she woke up in the morning, and the baby was born at noon. It was a girl. Now the Song family had all the children of different genders. Grandpa Song and Grandma Song were grinning from ear to ear, and Song Dahe was so excited that he couldn't even speak.

Song Dazhuang hit his brother hard and said, "Well done, brother."

Song Qin brought in the chicken soup that had been stewed all morning. Chen Yuer was leaning comfortably against the head of the bed, looking at her daughter with a loving face.

"Sister-in-law, look, she is so pretty. She is also very considerate. She didn't suffer much during pregnancy and the birth was smooth. I didn't feel any pain at all."

Song Qin also laughed: "That's right, girls are all little cotton-padded jackets, come, drink it while it's hot. When I heard that your water broke this morning, your little daddy immediately went to kill a chicken and waited for you to have chicken soup after you gave birth."

It was the first time that Chen Yuer drank chicken soup after giving birth. It was not that Li's mother-in-law was not kind to her. At that time, Mother-in-law Li cooked the most valuable eggs in the house for her to eat. But the family was too poor, and being able to eat eggs was already considered a great thing.

Thinking of this, Chen Yuer couldn't help but feel her eyes tear up. She was considered lucky. Both of her mothers-in-law were very kind to her. Except for Li Gensheng's father, all the people she met in her life were good people.

Looking at her sleeping daughter, Chen Yuer's eyes softened: "The little one also knows how to choose a day, and waits until after May Day to come."

Song Qinshi: "Don't listen to those gossips. Don't take rumors seriously. It's like a child born on the fifth day of the fifth month will bring bad luck to the parents. How can you choose the day for giving birth?"

"That's true. By the way, sister-in-law, bring me the colorful ropes in my basket so I can put them on the child."

Song Qin walked to the table and took out the colorful rope that had been prepared long ago from the small bamboo basket. It was woven before the child was born, but he hadn't been born yet. But since it was prepared, there was no harm in wearing it.

Because it was the time to harvest peppers, Song Dahe jokingly said that he wanted to name his daughter after Pepper, but was beaten up by Grandpa Song and Amma Song.

"You are such a troublemaker. Who would name their daughter Chili?"

Song Dahe felt wronged: "Dad, what do you think I should call you?"

Grandpa Song rolled his eyes at him and told him to discuss it with Chen Yuer himself.

"She is the child's mother. Let her give her daughter a nickname first, and then give her a full name like Yuanyuan after she is registered."

Others say that a woman will become stupid for three years after pregnancy, but in Song Daha's case, it seems that he is the stupid one, not Chen Yuer.

Chen Yuer watched as her husband came up with several names in succession. Some were Hua'ercao'er, some were Lian'erfen'er. In short, they were all ugly, very ugly.

"Okay, Dahe, please don't name your child this. These are all ugly names."

Li Gensheng chimed in: "That's right, Dad, your name is too ugly."

Song Daha was hit, and thought to himself, he doesn't think it's unpleasant, isn't it quite nice? But he didn't dare to refute his wife and children, so he could only ask for their opinions in a low voice.

Chen Yuer pondered for a moment, "Why not call her Manman? Didn't you say that this year's pepper harvest is good and the warehouse is full? Our daughter was born right after the peppers were harvested, so let's call her Manman. I hope that throughout her life, she can be like a granary, full and never worried about food and clothing."

A mother's wishes are very simple. She either hopes her children are safe and sound, or hopes they are well fed and warmly clothed. When Grandpa Song heard the word "manman", he did not object immediately. Instead, he smacked his lips a few times and then said "good" three times in a row.

"What a good name! Manman means full and round, which is also good."

So little Manman officially had a name, and like her sister, she came with the best wishes from her parents.

There is a custom of washing the third month of pregnancy in Yongle Village, but the Song family does not. Song Yuanyuan only held a full-month banquet at the beginning, so this year Song Dahe also only plans to hold a full-month banquet. It happened that the crops in the fields would be harvested by then, so it was a good opportunity to invite everyone in the village to join in the fun.

Song Dahao was busy taking care of his wife during her confinement, and he handed over the family's land to Song Chunlin and the soldiers under his command. Since he had a title, he did not need to pay taxes, but only had to pay enough for Grandpa Song and Grandma Song's retirement. This was agreed upon with the two old people. All the rest, except for the food for their family of four, was sold.

Because the Song family had the reputation of Song Chunlin, the national archer, although they had no rank, they did not have to pay taxes. Song Dazhuang simply decided to keep all of them, because Song Chunlin's three thousand archers were so greedy that all the output from the land was probably not enough to feed these people, and Song Chunlin had to add a little extra.

After knowing that the 3,000 soldiers would have to rely on Song Chunlin for support, Song Amao quietly caught a few more piglets, thinking of giving them extra meals at the end of the year.

After peppers come wheat, rice, corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes, all of which mature one after another in the same month. In previous years, the Song family directly hired temporary workers, but this year, because there were three thousand more soldiers, based on the idea that strong labor should not be wasted, Song Chunlin increased the original thirty people to fifty. With more people, there is strength, and basically more than ten acres of land can be harvested in a day. It took more than half a month to finally harvest the Song family's own fields as well as Lu Ming and Fu Nian's fields, and store the grain. Song Chunlin also transferred most of his own grain into the space.

The workshop still invited several aunts from previous years. In addition to making hot sauce, they also made some tomato sauce. The tomato sauce was made in small quantities and was only supplied to the family. Some was also distributed to the military camp.

Tomatoes were a new thing, so General Lin also received some. He looked at the bright red ketchup and tomatoes and thought they tasted like hot sauce, but it didn't smell like it. Coincidentally, someone from his family came to ask him to go back, so he simply took the ketchup and tomatoes back with him.

Originally I just wanted to give my great-grandfather a taste of something new, but who would have thought that the old man would actually fall in love with the taste of ketchup. He would dip a little on every cake and steamed bun he ate. He ate fresh tomatoes as if they were fruit. They were sweet and sour and thirst-quenching. After eating, he asked General Lin to go buy more from the Song family.

General Lin finally went to the Song family reluctantly. When Song Chunlin heard the purpose of his visit, he did not find it strange. He just asked General Lin to wait for a while. In addition to the homemade tomato sauce, he also gave him ten large tomatoes and several bunches of small tomatoes.

"These small ones are also grown in our backyard. They are different from the big ones. I heard that your great-grandfather liked to eat them as fruit. Why don't you let him try the small ones? The small ones are more like fruit, but there are not many of them. I only found a few bunches like this. You can actually use the big ones to cook, and they taste good too."

General Lin immediately said he didn't mind.

"It's enough to have some. You can tell with your toes that you can't grow too many of these rare things. A few bunches will weigh three or four kilograms, enough for the old man to eat for a few days."