People who engage in geological exploration travel all over the country and often stay in the homes of fellow villagers, so Su Hao is no stranger to farm affairs. In his impression, in the early years, straw in the fields was burned as fuel in southern rural areas.
Later, as the economy developed, more and more families could afford coal and even liquefied gas, and the situation of burning straw gradually decreased.
In this home, he clearly saw that Yang Gendi used straw when lighting the fire. Why did Lu Xiuer still go to collect firewood?
Seeing her son's confused look, Yang Gendi had no choice but to explain: "Of course we need to burn straw for cooking, but there is not enough grass to burn it. The straw recovered from the fields is only enough for half a year. If we don't pick up firewood for burning,
How can it be enough? Every household in this village is like this. Last year, Xiu'er was bitten by a snake while collecting firewood, don't you remember?"
Reaction. Several neighbors helped and sent Lu Xiuer to the nearby Shitan Town to see a doctor, which saved her life.
"Why don't you go to study?" Yang Gendi was quite surprised when she saw her son looking around and asking questions. In the past, her son never cared about things at home. Unless he was looking for something to eat, he would never leave the house.
Take a step into the kitchen. Why is he suddenly interested in these things today?
Su Hao smiled at his mother and didn't explain anything. He just said, "Mom, let me help you light the fire."
"You know how to make a fire?" Yang Gendi's eyes widened. In her memory, her son seemed to have never made a fire once. No matter how busy she and Lu Xiuer were, Su Hao would never offer to help.
Su Hao walked to the stove, sat on the small bench where the fire was burning, picked up a handful of dry straw, broke it with his hands to spread the straw, and then stuffed it into the furnace.
Yang Gendi stood aside and asked in surprise: "Hao'er, when did you learn to make a fire?"
"Do you need to learn how to make a fire?" Su Hao asked.
In fact, burning rural earth stoves still requires some skills. First of all, straw cannot be stuffed into the furnace into a bunch to burn, because it is not easy to burn through. Secondly, when stuffing straw into the furnace, you must first stuff it
Go a little further and wait until the front is finished burning before stuffing the back in. If you don't know these skills and just stuff the straw in very hard, the fire in the furnace will be scattered, and you may even put out the fire.
.
Su Hao's skills were developed after he helped burn fires countless times at a farmhouse in his previous life. How could he explain it clearly to Yang Gendi?
"My son is just smart, and he knows everything at a glance. When Xiu'er first helped me light the fire, he didn't do it as well as you." Yang Gendi said with relief as she watched her son's skillful movements.
"Mom, I understand, our stove doesn't work. That's why we don't have enough straw to burn the fire." Su Hao sat down to light the fire, not just because he wanted to help Yang Gendi with some work. When he was standing there just now, he was already
After looking at the stove at home, he found that the design of the stove was very unreasonable. After trying to burn a few handfuls of straw, he became more convinced of his judgment. He knew that this was the main reason why there was not enough straw to burn at home.
Yang Gendi was very dissatisfied. She said: "Hao'er, what are you talking about? This stove was made by Dr. Ni from Shitan Town when your grandfather was still alive. There are no stoves in the whole village except the Li Chang family.
, our family is the best."
The word "doctor" is used locally to refer to carpenters. But if other craftsmen are more skilled, people will also call them doctors, but they must add a prefix representing their profession. The doctor Yang Gendi said,
Even the well-known masons in the town have a lot of skills in making stoves. The stoves made by professional masons are indeed much better than those made casually by one's own family.
But this Zao, which Yang Gendi ranked second in the village, was full of flaws in Su Hao's eyes.
First of all, the furnace wall of this stove is too thin to maintain heat. Only a small part of the heat generated by the combustion of fuel in the furnace is absorbed by the pot on top, and most of it is radiated through the furnace wall. This is
This resulted in a huge waste of energy.
Secondly, the furnace is designed too small, and the position of the flue is also problematic, resulting in poor air circulation in the furnace. As a result, the firewood in the furnace is not fully fueled, and the furnace is prone to black smoke. This is actually insufficient combustion.
of carbon particles.
Also, if the stove opening is too large, it will also lead to heat loss; the height of the chimney on the roof is certainly not high enough to achieve the air suction effect, which is also one of the reasons why the air in the furnace does not circulate.
Su Hao was able to see these problems not without reason. In his previous life, he had been exposed to a design called "firewood-saving stove", and the above are the main points of it.
Speaking of firewood-saving stoves, this is actually a great achievement of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of China. In the 1980s, the Ministry of Agriculture launched a project to promote firewood-saving stoves. For 10 years, it funded 100 people every year.
Counties promoted firewood-saving stoves in rural areas. In 10 years, this project covered a total of 1,000 counties across the country.
Most of the stoves used in rural China for thousands of years have defects like Su Hao's stove, which results in the stove's thermal efficiency being extremely low, with an average of less than 10%. This is also the main reason why many places in rural China do not have enough fuel to burn. This method promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture
This fire-saving stove was jointly developed by a series of experts. It has a simple structure and requires almost no additional investment, but it can increase the thermal efficiency of the stove to more than 25%.
Farmers can save more than 60% of straw by using firewood-saving stoves, and basically no longer need to cut firewood, which is of great benefit to soil and water conservation in rural areas.
Not only that, due to the improvement in thermal efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions have been greatly reduced. In later generations, the United Nations once specially studied China's experience in promoting wood-saving stoves and regarded it as a very great cause.
Su Hao was a person who liked to learn new things in his previous life. When he was in the countryside, he once learned relevant knowledge from technicians who promoted firewood-saving stoves. Now when he looks at his own stove, he naturally understands the problem.
Naturally, Su Hao couldn't explain this knowledge to Yang Gendi. Based on his understanding of Yang Gendi, he knew that if he proposed to build a new stove for his family, Yang Gendi would definitely object. This would include doubts about his skills.
I don't trust him, but I also feel sorry for him, and I'm not willing to let him work.
After thinking about this, Su Hao stopped talking. While lighting the fire, he and Yang Gendi chatted for some time. The mother and son were talking and laughing, and they were quite happy.
When Lu Xiuer came back from collecting firewood, Yang Gendi had also prepared the rice. She served it in three large bowls and placed it on the Eight Immortals table in the main room. A family of three had one bowl for each person. As for the dishes to go with the meal, there was a small plate of beans and two peas.
Molten tofu.
"Eat quickly, didn't you say you were hungry?" Yang Gendi looked at Su Hao and said.
"Why is your porridge like this?" Su Hao looked at his own bowl, then at the bowls of Yang Gendi and Lu Xiuer, his eyes felt a little astringent.
What we ate at night was porridge cooked with vegetables. Su Hao's bowl was filled with thick rice grains, while Yang Gendi and Lu Xiuer's bowls were mostly filled with vegetable leaves, with only a few grains of rice visible here and there. In fact, in the past, when eating at home,
It's all like this. In the view of the scholar Su Hao, this is a matter of course and not worth mentioning at all. But now this Su Hao can't accept this kind of care for himself at all. He is a grown man who eats thick food, and his mother
Is it still possible to eat something thin with my sister?
"Hao'er, you have to study, use your brain, and eat well. Xiu'er and I will be fine if we eat less." Yang Gendi explained.
"Just eat it, what day will it not be like this?" Lu Xiuer also said sourly.
Su Hao picked up the bowl and without any explanation, put one-third of the rice grains in his own bowl into Yang Gendi's bowl, and another third into Lu Xiu'er's bowl. Both Yang Gendi and Lu Xiu'er were stunned by his actions.
After a long while, Yang Gendi said: "Hao'er, you..."
"Mom, you and Xiu'er work in the fields and consume a lot of food, so you should eat well. From now on, when we eat as a family, we will be full together if we are full, and we will be hungry together if we are hungry," Su Hao said.
"Silly boy." Yang Gendi didn't know whether to be happy or sad. She had the intention to give back the rice that Su Hao had just allocated to her, but the determined look in Su Hao's eyes made her hesitate.
"Mom, my son was ignorant and lazy in the past, which made you and Xiu'er suffer. Don't worry, from now on, I will be reborn. I swear, within a month, I will let you eat delicious food and drink spicy food.
I will never let you go hungry for another day!" Su Hao solemnly promised his mother.