Chapter 281

The next morning, at the crack of dawn, before the roosters had even crowed, Zhao Ba, Li Dashan, and the others were already dressed and headed to the fields. They pulled up the chubby sweet potato vines one by one. Han Dazhu and the others had already hauled the wood ash to the edges of the fields and carried over the buckets of water, waiting only for Si Jiuyue to arrive so they could start planting. After Si Jiuyue got up, Old Madam Si quietly cooked an egg for her, urged her to eat it, and then made her drink a large bowl of corn porridge before she finally set off with her father and the others to plant the sweet potatoes. Once she reached the sandy fields, she explained to her cousin and the others that each mu of land required about forty to fifty pounds of sweet potato vines. She added that they would work much faster if they coordinated in teams of three. She called over her Second Brother and demonstrated the method: one person would drop the vines, the second would be responsible for sprinkling the wood ash, and the third would plant the vines into the holes and cover them with soil. After adding a bit of water to the dirt mounds, the planting process would be complete.