It’s no wonder that Mr. Xiaoman is desperate, cognition determines behavior.
Just now, he saw the red light above his head getting brighter and brighter, and knew that the fire was not small.
What people in the mountains fear most is when they encounter fire hazards. Strong winds whip up sparks that fly around and burn wherever they fall.
Now the two families are living in this mountain. There are dead grass and leaves everywhere, and there is not even enough water to put out the fire.
No matter where he goes, it's almost like waiting to die. His newly established belief in survival is about to collapse again.
Jiang Zhi has no intention of giving up. Scientific fire prevention always has a glimmer of hope.
"Uncle Chang Geng, you can avoid fire here!"
Jiang Zhi led this group of old, weak, sick and disabled people to the terraced fields he had just opened.
Although the area here is not large, the dead grass has been cleared cleanest, and there are no tall trees here, making it the most open place.
Little Man stumbled into the new soil and was immediately attracted by the soil here: "This place used to be a stone slope, why are there circles of flat land?"
Jiang Zhi was still thinking about the fire at this time and had no time to explain: "Uncle Chang Geng, the three of us are going to find a way to ignite the fire. You have to watch here to prevent the burned wild animals from hurting people."
Although it is close to the village and people often go up the mountain, there are no large predators such as jackals, tigers and leopards, but there are still wild boars and sheep.
Usually these wild animals will deliberately avoid people. When there is a wildfire, the wild animals on the mountain will run around when they are anxious. If they come over and collide with people, it is possible.
Master Xiaoman knew that the situation was urgent, so he nodded and said, "Okay, I'll guard it."
Except for Jiang Zhi and the two boys, he was considered a laborer at this time and needed to take on the task of protecting the weak.
The paralyzed Xu Dazhu was placed directly on the grain bag. Xiao Manye, Xiao Mannai and Qiaoyun stayed there with their children.
Jiang Zhi took Xu Errui and Xiaoman to start cleaning up the surrounding shrubs and weeds.
This time she didn't cut or dig anymore. It would be too slow to clean it up, so she had to use fire.
Now that the wind direction is known, a small area can be overfired to create an isolation zone.
At the beginning, the three of them stood upwind. Jiang Zhi lit a small patch of dead grass with a torch, while Xiao Man and Er Rui ran along the line of fire.
When the wind blew, the flames quickly spread forward, burning through the dead grass, and stopped near the terraces that had been dug in advance, because there was no burning material to extinguish naturally.
If any sparks fell outside, they would be immediately destroyed by Xiaoman and Xu Errui with branches.
After one area is burned, step back a dozen steps and continue to light the fire, then extinguish it, then light it again, and then extinguish it.
Just like this, it burned bit by bit, gradually burning away the shrubs on the slope, and then the mountain forest next to it, burning away the flammable hay leaves under the trees, leaving a piece of black soil.
In the terraced field in the open space, Mr. Man was holding a hatchet in his hand and wearing a quilt to protect him from the wind.
He asked Qiaoyun with a puzzled look on his face: "Er Rui's wife, when did your mother open up wasteland? This land is very fertile!"
He is a farmer who has been farming all his life. He can tell how much food a piece of land can produce just by squeezing the soil with his hands.
Now Mr. Man was touching the soft and thick soil under his body. He couldn't believe his eyes. How could this stone mountain that his ancestors had walked through countless times suddenly create such a good wasteland?
Although the area is still small, it is indeed the best place.
Qiaoyun was not idle at this time. It was not convenient for her to follow her mother-in-law and husband to the mountains and forests, so she sat on a straw mat and used a sickle to clean the grass roots that had been missed in the terraces.
Hearing Mr. Xiao Man ask himself about these terraced fields, Qiaoyun put down his sickle and glanced at the sky worriedly before saying, "My mother-in-law said that you can farm even if the soil is thin. This type of field is called terraced fields. You can make the soil as deep as you want. You can store water and plant rice seedlings.”
These words were told to Qiaoyun by Jiang Zhi in the evening when he was grinding green glutinous rice flour.
Qiao Yun was happy for a while knowing that she could plant rice seedlings. She and Er Rui lay on the earth bed at night and talked about how they could eat white rice and flour and drink thick rice porridge after giving birth, so that the family would no longer worry about food shortage.
But just a few hours later, we encountered a wildfire, and we still didn’t know if the family would survive.
Qiaoyun is unwilling to accept it!
Since moving to the mountain, my mother-in-law no longer curses others. She is kinder to herself than her own mother. She secretly thanks those who were displaced by the war.
But why doesn't God let this good life last forever?
Terraces!
Mr. Xiao Man frowned even more. This method of opening fields on slopes was also found in other places.
Usually, earthen ponds are built at high places to store water for irrigating the land, but I have never seen such a narrow and long land like layers of steps.
Next to her, Xiao Mannai was holding Nini who was sleeping in her arms. She pulled the quilt over her eldest grandson's exposed legs and whispered, "Master Xiaoman, when this mountain fire passes, we will open up wasteland and cultivate land."
Food is becoming less and less every day, and no matter how much we save, there is not enough to eat.
Today, Er Ruiniang sent me green fruit jelly, and my family was barely full once, so we couldn't wait for help every day.
Dig out some wasteland yourself, and when the weather warms up, you can plant melons, beans, and even a few sweet potatoes to get a harvest.
Little Man dropped the soil in his hands and raised his eyes to the sky above his head: All hope has to wait until this fire has passed!
At this time, the children were busy fighting for their lives, and he stopped sitting.
Land is the lifeblood of a farmer's family. He has been doing farm work all his life and couldn't let go of the fertile land when he saw it.
At this time, the torches on the terraces have been burned out, so in order to save money, new torches are lit.
There was no light, so Little Man crawled on his knees, groping for the gravel that Jiang Zhi had not picked up in the field and stacking it on the edge of the ridge, even if it was just a thumb-sized stone.
The words spoken by several people did not avoid Xu Dazhu who was lying on the grain bag.
At this time, Xu Dazhu pretended to be asleep as usual, but felt uncomfortable in his heart.
In the past, he avoided matters at home, always saying that he had enough to eat, but today he wanted to avoid the fire and put all the food out and buried it with soil, so he could see clearly.
There is only half a bag of corn, some fine grains, and a handful of dried potatoes. No matter how much I make porridge, I can't get enough food.
Although Er Rui's family has more food than her own, it's not much more. Aunt Jiang is better off clearing wasteland now than waiting to starve.
It is all his fault that he has become a useless person, and has become a drag when encountering disasters. As he gets older, grandpa not only has to take care of himself, but also has to do the heavy work of land reclamation in the future.
Xu Dazhu was in agony. He reached out and pinched his legs, which had little flesh, until the skin and flesh were torn.
In the dark night, everyone had their own things to do except Nini who didn't understand anything.
On the other side, Jiang Zhi and the other three were having sex in full swing.
This was real heat. There was a blazing fire in front of them. They didn't dare to be distracted. It made the three of them sweat profusely. Even if they had wet their clothes with mountain spring water, it didn't work.
Xiaoman and Xu Errui wanted to take off their clothes and go shirtless, but Jiang Zhi stopped them: No matter how hot it is, they are not allowed to take off their clothes.
This is a fire scene and the temperature is extremely high. Cotton and linen winter clothes can at least provide fire protection and heat insulation.
You will be burned immediately after taking off your clothes. In the most serious case, the skin on the body will fall off unconsciously like cooked meat.
Just when the three of them had basically burned all the fallen leaves and dead grass in the forest near the two families, and were preparing to expand the area, a gust of wind suddenly changed its direction and rushed towards the top of the mountain, causing the fire to change direction.
Fortunately, Xiaoman was standing by and put out the fire with a few blows from a branch.
Jiang Zhi's face tensed up: "Quick, the wind direction has changed. All the fires here are put out. Let's go back to the terraces quickly!"
The wind just now had been blowing outward, and now it was rushing to the top of the mountain, which meant that the fire down the mountain had spread.
It creates a chimney effect and it only takes a few minutes for the fire to come up.
As soon as they heard that the fire was coming, Xiaoman and Xu Errui no longer dared to take their time leisurely. They were tired in the middle of the night and they didn't want to be burned to death in the end.
They used their last strength to extinguish the remaining open flames. Almost instantly, a large amount of thick smoke surged up from the valley behind them, causing the three of them to choke violently and run towards the terraces in the dark.
