The happy little days of the Ye family

Ye Qingqing looked at Tang Xiaojing: "Brother Xiao Jing, don't you know how to hunt? The valley is on the edge of Stone Mountain. You can hunt more pheasants and hares, and you won't have to worry about running out of meat for lunch."

Tangshan felt that packing lunch was too much trouble, "Uncle Ye, we don't have so much food at home."

"And to make food for so many people, we have to hire a special person to cook, prepare it, and deliver it to the other side of the valley. The valley is so far away, and it's troublesome to deliver the food."

"It's better to give them more wages and let them bring their own dry food. This will save trouble."

Mr. Ye thought that the valley was indeed a bit far away. The Tang family's ox cart had to be used to open up wasteland. Their donkey cart was also driven to the dock by Ye's father and Ye Donglin. Food delivery was also a problem.

"That's okay, then I'll give you 18 cents a day's wages, and you'll make a big pot of mung bean soup in the afternoon for everyone to cool down."

Mr. Ye looked at Ye Xilin and said, "Xilin, I'll leave the pigs at home to you. Remember to clean the pig pens and cook pig food every morning, and get more pig grass when you have time."

"When we are hunting pigweed, we drive the ducks at home to the creek, and then go to the pond on the side of Zhulin Mountain to feed the fish."

All the dry goods at home have been sold out, and they haven’t set up a stall to sell red dates yet. Only Ye Xilin is idle at home, and he happens to be staying at home to raise pigs.

Ye Xilin, who was immersed in eating hard, raised his head with a smile and said, "My eldest brother is busy setting up a stall on the pier, so I will inherit the family's pig raising skills. From now on, I will be a big pig farmer in the village."

Mrs. Ye on the side happily patted Ye Xilin on the shoulder: "If you are ambitious, your grandfather and I will rely on you to carry forward our pig-raising skills."

Ye Xilin was very confident. He patted his chest and said, "The family just doesn't have enough manpower. In the future, I will raise dozens of pigs and eat the meat at home."

"Grandpa, don't you always say that there is not enough fertilizer in the fields? I will cover all the fertilizers in the fields from now on."

Although Ye Xilin's words were a bit exaggerated, everyone did not laugh at him. They all praised him: "From now on, the meat of the family will depend on you."

"Have ambition, and have the heroic looks of your father and me when we were young."

Everyone was thinking about meat, except Mr. Ye who was thinking about his family's fields and fertilizers.

Mr. Ye gave Ye Xilin a piece of meat and looked at Ye Xilin with a smile on his face: "Okay, okay, my family's fields will depend on you from now on."

After dinner, Tang Shan and Mr. Ye went around the village and selected 15 capable women and 15 strong boys of thirteen or fourteen years old.

It was agreed that we would go to the valley to open up wasteland tomorrow, and each person would be paid 18 cents per day. In the afternoon, we would need to bring our own dry food.

Before opening up the valley, Tangshan planned to build the road into the valley first.

Now there are a lot of weeds growing on the road to the valley, and the road is full of potholes. Going to the valley is too painful.

This road is actually quite simple to build. First, cut off the new weeds that have grown on the road, then dig out the stones, tree roots and grass roots on the road, and finally fill the road with smooth surface. This way the road is repaired.

Mr. Ye was worried that it would be too late to open up wasteland, so he originally planned to open up wasteland first, but according to Tangshan, the road could be built in about ten or eight days.

Build the road first so that you won't have to suffer when going to the valley, and it will be easier to transport food in the future.

Mr. Ye went out early in the morning with dry food for three people. When he arrived at the entrance of the village, the Tang family and his son had already arrived, as did most of the people.

The road to the valley was built from the edge of the back mountain. After everyone gathered together, Tangshan took everyone to the back mountain.

It takes about two-quarters of an hour to get from the village entrance to the back mountain. At this distance, Tangshan did not pull out the family's ox cart to carry people, and walked slowly with everyone.

Mr. Ye divided the 30 villagers into five teams, each with six people, and each team was responsible for a section of about 5 meters.

In this way, the work done by each team can be seen, and no one is lazy or idle.

The road was easy to build, and by lunch time, almost every team had already built a few dozen meters of road.

Mr. Ye found a shady place to sit down and called Tangshan and Tang Xiaojing to come over and eat together.

After the father and son came over, Mr. Ye took out the pancakes and braised eggs that Mrs. Ye had made in the morning from his backpack.

Tangshan looked at what the surrounding villagers were eating. They all had grain pancakes and sweet potatoes.

"Uncle Ye, the villagers only eat this little food. How can they have the energy to work in the afternoon?"

Mr. Ye took a big bite of the pancake and said calmly: "Farming depends on the weather. This year's harvest is not good, and everyone is living in a pinch."

"This is a pancake that I only eat because I go out to work. During the slack season in the countryside, every household eats porridge, sweet potatoes and the like."

Tang Xiaojing glanced at the large iron pot that he originally planned to use to cook mung bean porridge in the afternoon.

"There are a lot of pheasants and rabbits in the back mountains. I'll go to the mountains to catch a few rabbits or pheasants to make a pot of broth. Opening up wasteland is a labor of strength. How can we do it without some oil and water?"

Tang Xiaojing quickly ate the pancakes and eggs in his hands, then picked up his bow and arrow and walked up the mountain.

Tang Xiaojing regretted not bringing Rhubarb and Xiao Huang over. These two little guys are now very good at catching rabbits and pheasants. If Rhubarb and Xiao Huang followed, he wouldn't have to go up the mountain to hunt by himself.

The village in Houshanli is relatively close, and many people are active on the mountain every day. The small animals on the mountain are more wary. It took Tang Xiaojing a lot of effort to catch two rabbits and a pheasant.

In the afternoon, the villagers drank the broth cooked by Tang Xiaojing. Although the broth only had a little salt and some fishy smell of rabbit, it was meat, and the villagers drank it very happily.

After eating well, everyone worked harder and built the 100-meter section of road designated by Mr. Ye that day.

Early the next morning, Mr. Ye and Tang Shan continued to divide the road sections for the villagers. They didn't want to do it once every day, so they simply divided the remaining journey into five major sections, and each team was responsible for one section.

The Tang family had an ox cart, and Tang Xiaojing used the ox cart to pull those in charge of the farther sections.

Tang Shan and Mr. Ye were busy building roads. After Tang Xiaojing finished pulling people, he went up the mountain to hunt a few rabbits and came back.

During lunch, the villagers drank the broth cooked by Tang Xiaojing.

Yesterday, Tangshan told the villagers that each of them should bring a big bowl. At noon, everyone would use the broth to make pancakes and eat them.

The road seemed easy to build, but the valley was too far away. It took 10 days to build all the roads to the valley.

Although the repaired road is not very smooth, it is at least better than before it was repaired. You don't have to be shaken to pieces when you go to the valley.