Training the Heavens

Chapter 201 Initial results
The Cordyceps picking season in Qilian Mountains generally runs from mid-April to mid-June. With the help of Guo Chenzi and others, Xu Lingjun spent one and a half months picking all the Cordyceps around.

He would go to the supply and marketing cooperative almost every time he collected two kilograms of cordyceps. Nowadays, supply and marketing cooperatives in various places are responsible for purchasing Chinese medicinal materials. When he went to sell cordyceps, people didn't care that he was wearing a hat. They just weighed the weight and paid him directly. It was very efficient.

Even during the most intense years, this business has never stopped, because everyone will get sick, and the pharmaceutical industry is not well developed now, there are not so many modern medicines, and many gaps have to be filled by traditional Chinese medicine.

Large-scale cultivation of Chinese medicinal materials has not yet matured. If people want to obtain medicinal materials, they have to go out to pick and dig them. If they are not even allowed to do this, there will be a shortage of medicinal materials.

When the Cordyceps picking season ended, Xu Lingjun did the math and found that he had picked a total of 16.3 jin (16.3 catties) of Cordyceps in the past month and a half, earning him 228.3 yuan, which was enough to build a new house.

Li Xiuzhi was not idle during this period. When Xu Lingjun went out to collect Cordyceps, she was alone in the hot sun at noon, mixing mud and making molds, and made thousands of adobe bricks. Then, she pulled back carts of dried adobe bricks and piled them in the yard. When work started, these mud bricks could be used directly.

This won her praise from all the neighbors, and everyone said that Lao Xu had found a very capable and good wife.

After selling Cordyceps at the supply and marketing cooperative for the last time, Xu Lingjun bought a few jars of wine, cut some meat, and bought some vegetables that were rare on the ranch. He returned home and asked Li Xiuzhi to cook, and he went to invite Guo Xizi, Dong Kuan, Haisheng and others over.

They all guessed what Xu Lingjun was going to do, and happily followed him over. Guo Chenzi had just had two drinks when he took the initiative to ask, "Are you going to build a house? There's no need to be so formal. You've even invited us to dinner. Just tell us, and we'll definitely come to help."

"If it weren't for you taking care of me all these years, I might have died long ago. I wanted to have a good drink with you guys before, but I had no money in my pocket and couldn't even afford to buy some wine. Now I'm finally a little better off. Everyone, have a good drink today and don't worry about not having enough wine." Xu Lingjun said sincerely. Everyone who came here today was a good person and deserved his sincere gratitude.

"Hey, why are you being so formal with us? You have helped us a lot in the past. Whenever other children encountered problems in their studies, weren't you the one who helped teach them? In my opinion, you should be a teacher. If you were a teacher, the children of the teams around us would be blessed." Dong Kuan always felt sorry for Xu Lingjun. It was a pity that he had read so many books, but now he had to herd sheep with a bunch of rough guys like them.

Guo Chenzi also wanted to say something, but at this time Li Xiuzhi came over with a large plate of food, "The ground soft fried eggs are ready, would you like to try mine?"

"Enough, enough. There are only a few of us. Can they finish all the food you cooked? Stop working so hard and sit down to eat together." Aunt Dong quickly pulled Li Xiuzhi back and stopped her from cooking.

"That's right, we are all family. It hurts me to see you frying so many eggs at once. Stop frying them and sit down to eat." Haisheng's mother simply got up and put out the fire in the stove to prevent Xiuzhi from having to cook.

"Then Xiuzhi, just sit down and eat first. You can get busy after you finish eating." Xu Lingjun saw that there were basically enough dishes on the table, so he didn't insist anymore.

Li Xiuzhi had already sat down, but Aunt Dong was still talking about eggs. "We have so many eggs. It would be great if we could exchange them for money."

Xu Lingjun was already about to talk about the eggs, so he quickly took over and asked, "How long do you think Xiuzhi has been saving these eggs?" Aunt Dong, a lifelong cook and chicken farmer, quickly estimated, "With such a large basin, I'm guessing there must be at least eight eggs. You have five hens, and if you assume they lay an egg every three or four days, they've had to save them for at least five or six days."

In later generations, high-quality laying hens in farms lay almost one egg every day, but in the ranches of the 1970s, the egg production rate of hens remained at a relatively low level because breeding and farming technologies were still underdeveloped.

It is considered good if a hen can lay 300 eggs a year, which is completely incomparable to the 350 to eggs produced by Hailan laying hens in later generations.

Xu Lingjun is currently unable to import high-quality laying hens from abroad, but fortunately, by improving breeding techniques, the egg production rate of hens can be increased. Now his experiments have begun to show results and he can teach them to others.

So, as soon as Aunt Dong finished speaking, Xu Lingjun smiled and said, "You guessed wrong. Our chickens lay at least one egg every three days, and sometimes even one every two days!"

"What? How did you do this?" Aunt Dong was shocked. Dong Kuan, Guo Chenzi and others didn't understand. She had raised chickens for decades, but she knew how rare it was to find a chicken that laid eggs so diligently.

"Xiuzhi mentioned raising chickens earlier, and I suddenly remembered a method I'd read in a book: using earthworms to raise chickens. Not only can it make the chickens grow faster, it can also increase egg production by 20-30%. I asked her to try it according to the book, and surprisingly, it worked." Xu Lingjun spread his hands. "If you want to learn, I'll let Xiuzhi teach you. If they lay dozens more eggs every year, our family will be better off."

Aunt Dong thought about it and said, "If it really works as you said, it will produce more than just dozens of eggs. Each chicken will lay one egg every two or three days instead of one every three to five days. In a year, each chicken can lay dozens more eggs. We have five laying hens at home, so maybe we can lay two hundred eggs in total! That's incredible! It will help our family a lot!"

"It's not a big deal. Just give it a try. If it works, just do it. If it doesn't work, just stop." Xu Lingjun continued to persuade, and then you told him your method.

Aunt Dong believed it immediately. "That's why the older generation always said we should study. We've raised chickens all our lives, and we've only seen them eat earthworms, but we've never thought of feeding them, let alone figuring out how to raise them. Xiuzhi, when your house is finished, I'll come and learn from you."

"There's no need to go through so much trouble. We have a lot of earthworms at home now, and our chickens can't eat them all. I'll send you some tomorrow. If you find them useful, it's not too late to raise some too." Xiuzhi was also very grateful to them. Now that she had the chance to repay them, she was willing to do so.

"Okay, then we'll take advantage of you." Aunt Dong agreed readily.

Xu Lingjun took this opportunity to add, "When I was reading books before, I did read a lot of methods to increase production, but I never thought of using them before. If I come up with any good ideas in the future, I'll tell you."

(End of this chapter)