Reborn in Dunhuang, I am farming and doing business in the desert

Chapter 51 Killing Pigs

Shen Zhao was surprised and turned around and ran out.

I saw a group of people walking towards me from afar, and the two in the middle were my father and my eldest brother Shen Xun.

"Brother!" Shen Zhao ran over, his eyes red with excitement.

Including her previous life, she hadn't seen her elder brother for more than ten years, and her impression of his appearance was a little vague.

"A Zhao." Shen Xun smiled and touched his sister's head, saying softly, "You've grown taller in the past few months."

Shen Zhao's face showed joy. He held his elder brother's hand and looked at him carefully.

I saw that the eldest brother was wearing a gray-blue padded robe of the garrison troops, a leather belt, and a sword hanging at his waist.

His trousers were torn at the knees and the cuffs were tied with cloth tape. He was also wearing a pair of linen shoes with exposed toes. These should be his only shoes.

Shen Zhao took the sheepskin backpack off his elder brother's shoulders, put it on his own shoulders, and asked, "Brother, how did you get back? Did you take a ride?"

"After entering the pass, I met a group of envoys from the Western Regions, and I walked back with them."

Shen Xun brushed his hair that was hanging down and said with a smile: "I also bought some small toys from the messenger. They are in my backpack. You can play with them."

Shen Zhao nodded: "I also have something good to give to you, big brother. I will give it to you when I get back."

The brother and sister chatted as they walked to the gate of the courtyard. Shen Heng had already rushed over and gave his eldest brother a big hug: "Haha! Big brother, you are finally back. Ah Zhao keeps mentioning you several times every day. My ears are already callused!"

Then he walked into the yard with his elder brother arm in arm, pointed at the wooden barrels and water tanks on the ground and said, "I'm so tired these days, grinding the mill and making tofu every day. It's a good thing that you're back, so you can help grind the mill from now on."

Shen Xun smiled gently and said, "Okay."

"You're the only one who knows how to order people around?" Mother Zhang Shanyue glared at her second son, brushed the dust off her eldest son, stroked his messy hair, and said with a look of pity: "Ah Xun, you must be tired from the journey. Come into the house and rest. I'll make you some soup noodles right away."

Shen Xun nodded, pulled his mother into the kitchen, and greeted everyone in the family.

Zhang Shanyue smiled and said, "It just so happens that our family is planning to slaughter an animal today, so we would like to ask Ah Zhu Di and Ah De to stay and help."

Ah Zhu's father: "Okay, I'll go home and get some tools and come back."

After saying that, he took his son back to get the tools.

Killing a pig is different from slaughtering a sheep. The pigs are big and strong, and after bleeding, you have to blow away the hair. It is difficult to do without special tools.

For example, the wooden barrels used to scald pig bristles are specially made in an oval shape and ordinary people don’t have them.

So, several men worked together to tie up the fat pig, then carried it onto a table and placed a large basin underneath it to collect the pig's blood.

Shen Zhao had already boiled two large pots of hot water and immediately ran to his aunt's house.

She didn't dare to listen to the screams of the fat pigs, nor did she dare to watch how people slaughtered animals.

Half an hour later, when the noise at his home had died down, Shen Zhao dared to go back.

Before leaving, the aunt gave her a handful of fried soybeans and said mysteriously, "A Zhao, I see your elder brother has a black spot on his forehead. Don't let him go to the Cao family these days. Do you hear me?"

Shen Zhao clutched the soybean and nodded: "Don't worry, auntie, I will definitely keep an eye on him and not let him talk to the Cao family."

To be honest, she didn't believe her aunt's weird things before, but since she came back to life, she has become more or less cautious about these things.

Besides, she was not sure what her elder brother felt towards Cao Jia Qianjun. If he really could not bear to break off the engagement, it would be reasonable for him to act irrationally.

"Well, good girl, take care of yourself too. I notice that your forehead is getting darker." Aunt Shen tilted her head and looked at her niece.

Shen Zhao laughed: "Okay, I will definitely take care of myself." When he got home, he saw many neighborhood children gathered in the open space outside the Shen family's yard. They were watching Father Pig chopping pork.

Zhang Shanyue and Shen Heng carried the cut pieces of pork into the kitchen one by one and piled them into the big bathtub.

As for the pig offal, they were still placed in the slaughter barrel, and Shen Xun cut and sorted them one by one.

Pork liver is a good thing and should be stored separately in a yellow basin, while pig heart, lungs and stomach should be placed in another basin.

First, tear off the fat attached to the pig's large and small intestines, then turn out the feces, clean them, and then rub them with bran.

Shen Xun had done these things before at the beacon tower outside the Great Wall, except that he was cleaning sheep's internal organs at that time.

Shen Zhao squatted beside and watched, and asked softly: "Brother, do you know about the Cao family's affairs?"

Shen Xun slowly tore off the fat, then rolled it up and put it in a basket: "I know, what's wrong?"

Shen Zhao also helped to tear the oil: "Cao Jiaqian despised our family's poverty and married the village stingy man from Yulixiang. Our family has already gone to his house to ask for the 5,000 yuan gift money. You know all this, right?"

"Yes." Shen Xun lowered his eyes and said, "Father told me everything."

Shen Zhao secretly glanced at his elder brother's expression and whispered, "Now that our family is rich, you can marry any woman you want in the future. That girl from the Cao family is a brainless idiot. Fortunately, she didn't marry into our family, otherwise you would be in big trouble!"

Shen Xun laughed: "Yes."

Although the eldest brother said this, Shen Zhao knew that his smile was forced and he was obviously in a bad mood.

He patted his elder brother's arm and said to him in comfort, "Father intends to give you more service. This time when you come back, you won't have to go to the beacon tower outside the pass anymore."

Shen Xun shook his head: "No, I haven't even completed a year of service yet. Even if I spend the money this time, what about next year?"

According to the laws of the Han Dynasty, garrison soldiers must serve at the border for at least two years in their lifetime. Even if he serves more this time, he will have to do labor service for countless years to come. He can't afford to spend money every time, right?
Besides, the second younger brother will soon become an adult and he will also have corvée labor, so one of the two brothers will have to guard the border.

Instead of this, it would be better for me to stay there and let my second brother stay at home and take care of our parents.

"You can spend money next time. Anyway, our family can afford it." Shen Zhao tried to persuade his brother: "After that, you can take the civil servant examination, and then you can be exempted from corvée labor, right?"

Shen Xun was silent.

If you can really pass the exam to become a clerk, who would want to go to that remote place outside the Great Wall?
Moreover, the dozen or so beacon towers were full of intrigue. He was new there, and a few of them, seeing that he was young, kept ordering him to do things. They either asked him to draw fields outside the wall, or to step on cow dung to make dung cakes, or to turn over and dry firewood. He had no time to rest for a moment.

Fortunately, my father spent a lot of money to prepare for me to work as a clerk at the border, but in the end all the money was wasted.

It was not until today that he found out that the man who collected the money had deceived his father, saying that he was a fire chief outside the Great Wall.

Oh! How could a rookie like him be the chief of the army? His father was thinking too simply.

Seeing that Shen Xun did not refute, Shen Zhao whispered in his ear: "Big brother, this time you should listen to father's arrangements. Dad and mom have prepared the money for the labor service. Later, we will find a way to recommend you to be a clerk. Then our family will be exempted from labor service. Anyway, second brother is still young, and he will not do labor service before he is 18 years old."

Shen Xun was stunned for a moment, then shook his head: "This may not be possible, let's talk about it later."

It is easier to do the job, just pay the money, but not everyone can do the recommendation.

Although my father was a pavilion chief, he could only recommend matters related to pavilions, post stations or post offices, such as riding officials or thieves, or at worst, clerks in the post offices.

As long as one performs these duties, one can indeed be exempted from corvee labor.

Before Shen Zhao could say anything, his second brother patted him on the back of his head: "Are you being lazy again? Aren't you going to cook for us? Why don't you get started? It's almost dark!"

(End of this chapter)