Village Chief He stayed up for half a night and divided the existing manpower into three groups. Five villagers and five bandits continued to plow the land; ten villagers went to dig wild vegetables and cut firewood; the remaining villagers and the other ten bandits all stayed behind. A wall was built in the village.
Even the blind old man used it, guarding the entrance to the village and calling out to strangers when he heard them.
As for the materials for building the wall, yellow mud was dug out to make clay embryos, and then all the collapsed houses were demolished, and all available materials were used.
Jiang Yue dug out some ancient fortification techniques from the pile of books, which can be used in a slightly simplified way.
The men in the village know how to do everything. They have done everything from masonry to carrying big bags.
When the time comes, the spiers of the broken tiles will be erected and attached to the top of the three-meter-high wall. Then dig traps not far away from the inside and outside of the wall, just like hunting rabbits in the mountains. Place sharp bamboos under the ditch and cover them with leaves.
During this process, some refugees occasionally came to beg for food, but they were driven away.
Everyone has experienced the disaster for more than a year, and they have been warned by the village chief. Who still has sympathy, why not sympathize with yourself!
The adults were all doing hard work, and children under the age of 7 were also holding their noses, digging holes, collecting human excrement, and covering fallen leaves and other things together for fertilization. Nothing can be grown on unfertilized wasteland.
The whole village was bustling with activity, but in just one month, half of the long wall was built, blocking part of the view.
Because the spring plowing time was slightly late for half a month, Jiang Yue gave the village a suggestion to soak the seeds first and then transplant them into the ground.
The old farmers knew that it was the Jiang family that had given them precious and good grain seeds, so they became more and more grateful to them and did whatever they said.
They planted the land carefully, and after the seeds were moved into the ground, the strong laborers moved to the wall-building team.
And those few elderly people barely live in the fields. Every day I kept my head down, picking up stones and pulling out weeds, and carefully fertilizing them.
There is no need to add too much fertilizer or too little to burn the seedlings. These old people know it well and do it better than anyone else.
Occasionally there were a few spring rains, and the seedlings grew especially vigorously. The villagers greeted each other with smiles reaching from the corners of their mouths to their ears.
"The buds are all grown up, they are already this high!" An old man raised his hands to show the height, feeling happy and hopeful.
"Really! I kept an eye on it every day, and it took two or three days to take root, and the wind didn't even knock it down!"
"Not to mention, soaking the seeds first will make them grow better than planting them directly in the ground! The seedlings will grow strong!"
Seeing the old woman holding tender grass in her hand, she smiled and said, "Are you going to the village chief's house to feed the chickens?"
The old woman's wrinkled face turned into a flower with a smile, "Yes! Those chickens are edible and they are getting better and better every day!"
Being able to eat means you are growing strong!
The Jiang family gave a total of 18 hatching eggs, and the village chief's wife hatched a total of 16 chicks, but two of them died. Now there are 10 hens and 4 roosters respectively. If you raise them well for four or five months, they will be able to lay eggs again.
When the eggs are laid and the chicks hatch, they will be divided among everyone on a per-person basis. Now people in the village eat from one big pot and wait until next year's harvest before eating separately.
But the people in the village are full of hope. Now the food is growing, the vegetables are two fingers high, and there are meat and eggs. As long as there are no more severe droughts or floods, they can always survive.
The crowd was so lively that they almost wanted to support the Jiang family couple, whose prestige was no less than that of Mr. Qingtian.
Jiang Yue and Jiang Nian stayed in the house and planted the ground in the space. Jiang Nian refused to let her get tired, so he worked with one hand. There was little land anyway, so he could plant slowly.
Those few acres of land are planted with different grain varieties, which can be said to be a warehouse full of grain surplus.
Jiang Yue also replenished all the cooked food that she had finished eating, and the two of them steamed thousands of steamed buns, steamed buns and pancakes.
During this period, no one came to disturb me.
However, she found that from time to time there were bunches of wild vegetables or firewood at the door, and sometimes there were small fish. This should have been caught in the small river not far from the end of the village.
Jiang Nian likes to eat crispy fried fish, so Jiang Yue accepts it. Those wild vegetables are also very tender, slightly bitter yet sweet, refreshing and delicious.
The weather was rare, so she took Jiang Nian out for a walk.
The villagers gathered at the entrance of the village today to build a thick gate.
"Hey, Miss Xiao Jiang is out."
People in the village rarely see them go out and greet them warmly.
From time to time, I smell the aroma of meat and vegetables coming from the Jiang family, and even the aroma of steamed buns can kill people.
Although they were still hungry, no one came to ask for food. Most of them squatted in the corner, smelling the smell of meat and eating wild vegetables.
Jiang Yue smiled and responded, "The weather is nice, let's go out for a walk."
She looked at it and heard from the villagers that they planned to build double doors and arrange for guards to take turns, which was good.
The bandits have become sallow and thin, but fortunately they have not been tortured or beaten, which is much more merciful than the way they treated the villagers.
They were still digging traps for the courtyard wall, and their hands and feet were trembling when they saw these two living kings of hell. The second child, who had been castrated by Jiang Yue, even shrank into a ball.
"What are you doing! Don't think about being lazy, get to work quickly!"
The supervising villagers took the weapons brought by the bandits and used them on them. Not to mention that these people have a deep hatred for the villagers, but just because they now know the secrets of the village, it is impossible to let them go easily. Just stay in the village and do hard work to atone for your sins!
Jiang Yue and the two walked around and found that the wall was almost completed. When we walked to the small river behind the village, there were quite a lot of water plants in it.
The spring rains were heavy some time ago and they are growing well. She found a wooden stick and shook it into the water plants. Many small fish cubs came out, and occasionally there were ones as big as two fingers.
She made another suggestion to Village Chief He.
"It's better to dig a small pond in the village and catch some fish to raise. It can also replenish the meat. If there is really a shortage of water in the summer, you can also scoop it up to save lives. As for fish food, plant some aquatic plants and raise some. Earthworms, also known as earthworms, are good to raise. Chickens are also good to feed."
Village Chief He had never thought of digging a pond in the village, but he thought it was a good idea.
That day, I chose a wasteland in the village that couldn't be planted, dug a big hole, covered the walls with yellow mud, and poured water into it.
For a week, the children, who ranged from five or six to fifteen or sixteen years old, dug out the creek behind the village and transplanted all the water plants into the pond. Then I picked up several buckets of small fish and shrimp and put them into the fish pond.
Next to the pond, a pit was dug, rotten leaves were thrown away, and the earthworms dug out by the children were raised.
If the food in the fields is taken care of by the elderly, the fish ponds and earth dragon pits here are left to the children.
With the "task" on their shoulders, the children felt that they were adults too, and were very happy. They went to see the large and small pits for three meals a day.
Counting them day by day, it was clear how many there were too many and how many were missing.
