Xiao Niangpi stood in the courtyard, watching the people sweeping snow, cracking firewood, and doing general cleaning.
This winter was extremely cold and the snow was heavy. Lin Yueru stood behind her, stretched out her hand to cover her mouth and yawned. She has always been a little sleepy recently.
They were only two months pregnant, so it wasn't obvious at all, but they both became more delicate at the same time, as if they needed help when walking. Mei Xiang was holding back a smile from behind.
Since the young lady became pregnant, she seems to have become a completely different person. She is extremely squeamish.
The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and you have to keep your home clean. Today is the Little New Year. As the saying goes, after the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, it is the New Year. After today, it is officially the Spring Festival.
This is the first Spring Festival that Xiao Niangpi and Yang Fan have celebrated at home after they got married. Xiao Niangpi takes it very seriously, so she gets up early to arrange various matters.
In the morning, I listened to the steward team's report on the year's work. In the afternoon, I distributed Spring Festival supplies to hired workers, tenants, and domestic slaves, and the master also distributed rewards.
Even though Lin Yueru wanted to sleep in, she could only get up and follow the lady with Mei Xiang to have a private moment.
In the Ming Dynasty, the wife was responsible for the housekeeping. The master generally did not interfere much with the affairs of the family. He was mainly busy with various official matters.
The wife has the highest decision-making power over family affairs, and can even kill or kill the slaves. Her power is terrifying.
Except for the master, no one can veto the wife's decision.
After a year of marriage, Tu Shanyue has already established absolute authority. From the military leaders to the tenant farmers, everyone is silent when they see his wife. No one dares to make a move.
There are now more than one million slaves in Yang Fan's family, or 300,000 households. In addition to those on his own land, there are also those in Duolun City on the grassland.
In addition to the Han people, there are also pirates and their families composed of Mongolians, Koreans, Japanese, Ryukyus, Southeast Asians, etc. There are also people of various ethnic groups in the Vladivostok colony.
It's not easy to manage such a big family. It took Xiao Niangpi a year to completely straighten it out. Mainly relying on the help of the secretariat. Now there are thousands of people in the family. Xiao Niangpi also assigned levels to them.
.A total of five levels for hierarchical management.
Zhang Jida ran over and said with a smile: "Madam, the hygiene of the house has been taken care of, and it looks brand new from top to bottom. Do you think the master will start the ceremony of worshiping the stove when he gets home?"
Xiao Niangpi nodded with satisfaction, it was the old servants at home who were comfortable and satisfied with their work.
"Have the pigs been killed? How have the other foods been prepared?"
"Reporting to Madam, Donkey Dan has killed three big fat pigs. He is boiling water for the leg wool. He has made several baskets of sugar melons with the syrup he boiled by himself. He has also fried potatoes and made shredded potatoes. The tribute will be served later.
I kept the Kitchen God and his grandmother eating so happily that their teeth were glued together. When I reported on the work at the top, I couldn’t say a bad word."
"Well, you did a good job, and you will be rewarded. Each of you will receive a set of zodiac commemorative gold coins issued by Xinghe Bank during the Spring Festival this year."
"Mrs. Xie" Zhang Geda immediately became happy.
Now he is not short of money. The main reason for his happiness is the respect that the master has for them and the dignity. Does he know about commemorative coins? He has made a thousand sets in total for the master's use.
Came here to give gifts during the Spring Festival.
This year's Spring Festival is the Year of the Snake, and Xinghe Bank issued a set of limited edition commemorative gold coins. There are 6 coins in the set.
The gold coin weighs one hundred grams. On the front are embossed Q-versions of six common snakes in China. On the back are auspicious words about snakes and exquisite patterns.
"The master said that he will come back in the next year, but I don't know if it will be late. It is said that the master will host the stove ceremony." Xiao Niangpi touched her belly and murmured.
There is a folk saying of "seeing off dumplings to meet the wind noodles". Because the Kitchen God will return to heaven to report work on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, every household makes dumplings the day before to see the Kitchen God off.
The maids in the back house are now making dumplings under the leadership of Aunt Mei.
After wrapping the dumplings, take them out with a lid and freeze them on the outside.
At that time, you can use it at any time, just put it in the pot and cook it.
There are more than 700 people in the house now, and if there are too few bags, there won’t be enough food. If someone doesn’t have enough to eat, wouldn’t it be a loss of face for the master’s family?
There is a saying that in the new year, children should clean the house and sweep away all the dust in the corners of the room. It is said that the Stove Lord has a bad memory. This is a record of the good and bad things the family has done in the past year. As long as the dust is swept away
, the Stove Lord couldn’t remember it.
This can be regarded as not seeking merit, but seeking no faults.
The head of the family personally leads the whole family to worship the Kitchen God. After the ceremony, the statue of the Kitchen God and the horse are burned to show that the Kitchen God has returned to heaven on horseback.
In order to enable the Kitchen God to speak sweet words, all sweets are used to sacrifice Stove Fruit, most of which are made into colorful puffed foods.
In fact, the most important activity on Xiaonian Day is that in addition to offering sugar melons and cakes, it is also necessary to change the portrait of the Kitchen God. When the old portrait of the Kitchen God is taken off, every household must also "invite" a new portrait of the Kitchen God.
While several people were talking, a servant ran in from the front yard and shouted: "Madam, the master's motorcade has arrived in Zunhua and will definitely be home at noon." This was what Yang Fan had sent to Zunhua to come back quickly to report the news.
When I heard that Yang Fan was coming back, there was a sudden buzz of excitement in the courtyard.
"It's great that the master can come back in time to celebrate the New Year with everyone." Xiao Niangpi said happily. "Hurry and prepare the sugar melons and snacks. When the master comes back, we will start to worship the stove and then start the banquet."
According to custom, we have to do several things today, firstly cleaning, and then cutting and pasting the window grilles. These were all done by Aunt Mei and the maids yesterday.
There is also the custom of eating sugar melons for both adults and children. The children all sing nursery rhymes, "On the twenty-third of the twelfth lunar month, sugar melons are sticky, and the Kitchen God will go to heaven the next day."
On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will return to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor the good or bad deeds of his master's family over the past year. Therefore, when worshiping the stove on the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, everyone must eat "tanggua", which is "stove candy".
Kitchen sugar is a kind of maltose. When it is drawn into a long candy stick, it is called "Guandong candy". When it is drawn into an oblate shape, it is called "sugar melon" or "sugar cake".
Tanggua is an ancient traditional snack of the Han people. It is both a Spring Festival food and a sacrificial item for worshiping the Kitchen God.
It used to be said that on the 23rd day of the 23rd, we would sacrifice the Stove King. We would buy some candies made of maltose, such as sugar melons, and Guandong sugar.
Go up to the Stove Lord's mouth and don't let him say more.
After all this work is done, the banquet can only be held at two or three o'clock in the afternoon. Then the whole family will have a big meal.
The Yang family is rich and has always had good food and plenty of wine and meat. Therefore, the servants like to celebrate festivals very much.
When it gets dark, there will be an entertainment program that everyone is looking forward to.
Zunhua is the center of iron smelting, where an artistic performance called iron flower was developed from iron smelting.
The molten iron was poured onto the city wall, causing thousands of sparks to form. They were called "tree flowers" because they resembled a leafy tree crown. Their spectacle was no less spectacular than fireworks.
This kind of performance is very thrilling and thrilling. Each shirtless strong man throws red iron juice into the air, transforming into a unique landscape of fireworks, which makes people mesmerized.
There is a special reason why everyone is looking forward to the master's return home.
It's a holiday starting today. The Yamen is sealed today and will not open again until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Therefore, today is the day when the master will issue a year's reward.
Everyone was looking forward to Yang Fan coming home. The children were all looking forward to giving out reward money, and their parents gave a few older children to buy candy figures and rattles.
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