Zhao San Niu returned with water early in the morning. She used a gourd dipper to water the plants in front of and behind the house. Once all the vegetables sprouted, she would start fertilizing them. In ancient times, there was no chemical fertilizer, only farm manure. Cheng Luanluan really couldn't handle this kind of work. Fortunately, she had many sons in the house, so she could assign it to anyone. Once again, she felt that having many sons was truly good.
As Cheng Luanluan was watering, she saw something furry in the vegetable patch. She walked over to investigate, and to her surprise, it was two dead ducks.
She had bought twenty ducks, and two had died. Looking at their bodies, they had probably died last night, but no one had noticed.
No one noticing was also a good thing. She quickly dug a hole to dispose of the bodies, then swiftly bought two more ducks from the store to replace them. The new ducks from the store were not yet accustomed to their surroundings, looking left and right in confusion.
The hens, Da Huang and Er Huang, ran over, one from the left and one from the right, pecking at the heads of the two ducklings. Immediately, the two ducklings scurried after them.
Cheng Luanluan looked at the small puddle in her yard. Ducklings spent most of their time playing in puddles. The ducks were still young and had weak resistance. If one duck got sick, it would spread to the rest of the flock through contaminated water. She seemed to notice that four ducks already showed signs of illness; they would likely die in another day or two.
She opened the store and bought disinfectant powder specifically for ducks, mixing it with chopped wild vegetables.
"Zhao Si Dan!"
Cheng Luanluan called out.
Zhao Si Dan was squatting in the main room, shelling water caltrop seeds. This was his work for the entire day; he had to shell at least three catties of seeds.
Hearing his mother call, he quickly stood up and ran out: "Mother, I'm here!"
"Take this flock of ducks out to the fields for a walk," Cheng Luanluan reminded him. "As soon as the ducks start eating the rice, bring them back immediately."
In her previous life, she had heard about rice paddies raising ducks. The water in the rice paddies was suitable for ducks to live in, and microorganisms and weeds in the paddies could provide food for the ducks, while duck droppings would become nutritious fertilizer for the rice plants.
The most important thing was that there were some locusts in the rice paddies, and ducks loved to eat them. If there were enough locusts, the ducks wouldn't eat the rice. But if they ate all the locusts, the ducks had to be brought back to prevent them from damaging the crops.
Zhao Si Dan was happy to receive a new job and herded the ducks out.
Cheng Luanluan had a total of thirteen mu of land, with five mu dedicated to growing rice. From a distance, the rice paddies shimmered. Twenty ducks in the yard seemed like a lot, quacking incessantly every day, but they disappeared into the rice paddies in an instant.
Twenty ducks simply couldn't eat many locusts, nor did they excrete much fertilizer. She still needed to buy at least a hundred more ducks.
She turned around and saw Da Huang and Er Huang squatting in the empty chicken coop, secretly deciding to buy a few more chicks.
Cheng Luanluan was about to go inside to attend to her work when she saw a horse-drawn carriage slowly appear on the main road of Da He Village. It was the same carriage she had seen yesterday. The carriage stopped at the village entrance. The stable boy driving the carriage jumped down and said something to a nearby farmer. Upon hearing it, the farmer dropped his hoe, turned, and ran towards the village head's house.
The carriage curtain was lifted, and a middle-aged man dressed in silk stepped out. He looked to be around thirty or forty years old, with a noticeably protruding potbelly.
The man wore an official's hat. In this village, no one except the village chief had ever seen the county magistrate, but upon seeing his attire, everyone immediately knew that the county magistrate had arrived.
Following behind him was another man, about forty or fifty years old. He was an assistant trained by the county magistrate, known as a shiye.
Those who were busy in the fields all stopped their work, standing at a distance and whispering amongst themselves. No one dared to approach.