The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 170 Spring.
Recently, Gan Minglan has been acting as a portable baby bottle for little Yuanyuan.

They also occasionally go into the Divine Tree Space to work.

This season is when silkworms hatch.

The silkworm eggs need to go through an 8-9 day incubation period before the silkworms can hatch.

The newly hatched silkworms are black and small, and are commonly known as ant silkworms.

During the silkworm larval stage, mulberry leaves need to be collected manually and cut into thin strips for feeding.

Only after the silkworms have passed the third instar stage are they suitable to be placed on the mulberry leaves of the sacred tree to feed on themselves.

Gan Minglan took silkworm farming very seriously.

Especially after learning the price of silk products from the State of Bei, he secretly wondered if exquisite cloth made from seven-colored silkworm silk would be worth a fortune.
Although she's not short of money, she doesn't mind the smell of gold and silver!
Every day, we need to add mulberry leaves to the young silkworms and clean up their excrement.

This day.

King Atu, who had watched over her child for another hour, couldn't resist running over and tickling her skirt.
"Chirp chirp chirp Master, Master, when will you let us out?"

"Huh? Didn't you love watching over Yuanyuan the most? Yuanyuan is in the space right now!"

"Aww, the cubs are cubs! Haven't you noticed that there are so many little mice that we can hardly fit them all in the space? They can't continue to be so lazy. I, the Great King, am going to take them out to find a new territory."

Gan Minglan had naturally already considered the question raised by King Atu.

"Then take them and move to Junma Mountain! This mountain range is right across from the west gate of the border town. There are bad guys who like to climb over the mountain to steal things!"

"Roar, roar, roar, don't worry, Master. This king will definitely have his little mouse brothers unite all the rats on that mountain, and they'll come and warn you if they spot any bad guys."

King Atu is no longer content with just babysitting his master!

Anyway, the cub is at home, so I can come back whenever I want to see it.

But spring has already arrived outside, and the king needs to patrol the mountain (to continue recruiting followers).

King Atu is ultimately a career-driven rat!

That night, it led thousands of mountain rats westward to Junma Mountain.
During her holidays, Gan Minglan not only raised silkworms and her daughter, but also occasionally visited her parents' home.

With her, a master of cheating with wood-type superpowers.

Within ten days.

Three-inch-long doggrass has already grown in the corners and edges of courtyard number 52.

Mother Gan sighed repeatedly, "If only the wheat in the fields were this easy to grow!"

This herb, which my daughter named "Dog Rice Grass," is known for its rapid growth, changing every day.

No need to water or fertilize!
I was worried before that the plants wouldn't survive, but now I'm doing it without hesitation.

Gan Minglan gave her mother a large bag of grass seeds, instructing her to plant them along all the base of the walls and the corners of the front and back yards of the two-courtyard house that they had bought a few days earlier.

All the houses in the border town are made of earth and wood. Although they don't look as grand as the houses with blue bricks and gray tiles, each household has a very spacious courtyard.

In the end, the Gan family spent 150 taels of silver to buy a two-courtyard house facing the street on the busiest street in the South Gate.

Based on the area in later times, it occupies approximately three acres of land.

The plan is to combine the five front-facing rooms facing the street into a main hall and kitchen.

The east and west wing rooms of the second courtyard contain six private rooms.

The main house is for personal use.

The largest part of the courtyard renovation project was the rear building and the back gate.

Sheep are a seasonal livestock.

Locals traditionally sell fat sheep between the ninth and first months of the lunar calendar each year.

But a mutton soup restaurant can't only operate for five months of the year.

Therefore, the rear building and the back garden will be demolished and rebuilt into a sheep pen to facilitate the raising of sheep awaiting slaughter.

Based on his previous experience running a pork shop, Gan's father planned these things with ease.

With the thousand taels of silver given to him by his daughter as a safety net, he was now in a position to receive the money.

They became much more composed in their work. Everyone said that the Gan family's butcher shop did well, not only because they never cheated on weights and measures, but also because Gan's father had some expertise in selecting live pigs.

He had visited most of the villages in the six counties under the jurisdiction of Daming Prefecture.

When buying live pigs, he only picks the strongest ones!
Now that he's switched to selling mutton, he naturally wants to choose the best sheep to sell!

He had been inquiring about this for several days, and his neighbors had all enthusiastically told him that the best lamb in the entire Huaiqing Prefecture was in Huyan County.

Gan's father inquired further:
"I think the mutton in our border town is quite good. What's so different about the mutton in Huyan County?"

Neighbor:

"The sheep in Biancheng are edible if you don't compare them to those in Huyan County, but compared to Huyan County, they're worlds apart! Do you know what Huyan County's specialties are?"

Gan's father: "Huyan County, Huyan County, its specialty is salt."

The neighbor nodded:

"Salt is one thing, but this county also has a lot of medicinal herbs, among which licorice and scutellaria are the most famous! The sheep in Huyan County grow up eating medicinal herbs and rarely get sick!"

Hearing this, Gan's father was very curious:
"Does the lamb from Huyan County taste like herbs?"

The neighbor smacked his lips: "Not only does it not smell like medicine, but it also has a natural milky aroma!"

Gan's father's round eyes widened even more, as if to say, "Don't try to fool me."

The neighbor explained it to him.

Near that salt lake in Huyan County, there are hundreds of miles of saline-alkali land.

Sheep that drink spring water from saline-alkali soil for a long time will lose their muttony smell.

Even without any seasoning, lamb cooked in plain water has a milky aroma.

Every neighbor who mentions the sheep from Huyan County praises them, saying, "They're absolutely delicious!"

Gan's father was someone who listened to advice.

He's a man of action!

The next morning, he excitedly took his youngest son to Huyan County to buy sheep.
At this time, the millions of acres of military farmland in the border town had just been sown with spring wheat.

The border troops at the five guard posts breathed a sigh of relief.

The border town didn't have many oxen for plowing, so most of the time the fields needed to be plowed by manpower.

If it weren't for the timely delivery of those 600,000 shi of grain, they really wouldn't have been able to complete spring plowing, a task that requires a lot of physical labor.

The border troops and the government troops are the same.

The military farmland of the garrison must be cultivated by the soldiers themselves!

Tilling, fertilizing, sowing, and irrigating are all essential steps that cannot be omitted.

Spring plowing has ended.

The Tatars outside the pass are busy grazing and raising their young, and they usually do not disturb the border during this season.

The five major public security bureaus have begun to take turns giving people holidays.

The border town also ushered in a peak period of weddings.

Of the 370-odd people who returned from Haijin Town, about 200 bachelors got married within half a month.

They went from being set up on a blind date to getting married.

The efficiency was so high that Gan Minglan was astonished.

Then, she was overwhelmed by wedding invitations.

"Captain Gan, we've been through thick and thin together. You won't skip Ang's wedding tomorrow, will you?"

"Captain Gan, the second son of the Ang family will be getting married in three days. You must come to our house for a celebratory drink!"

"Captain Gan, if it weren't for Fourth Brother Ang accompanying you to Haijin Town, who knows how many more years he would have remained a bachelor! We've reserved a seat of honor for you at the wedding banquet the day after tomorrow."

"."

(End of this chapter)