I traveled through time, starting with two acres of land and a dog

He lay on his father's back with his head curled up in the straw raincoat. He lifted the raincoat above his head and put his face under his father's armpit to get some fresh air.

"Dad, it's time to plant the early spring crops. Tomorrow you tell grandpa to arrange for people to reclaim the land and plant crops. The land we rent from the rich man Ma must be used to plant two acres of wheat before the end of the month, and we will also plant radishes. We will plant at least four acres of wheat this year, as well as potatoes. When the time comes, I will teach grandpa a new planting method, intercropping wheat with corn and peanuts to improve land utilization." He said to his father on his back.

"How do you intercrop?" asked my father.

"Wheat is planted in furrows, with seeds and fertilizers spread in the furrows and then covered with soil, about half a foot in the middle, and then planted in a row. In this way, wheat is planted in rows, and the empty space in the middle will be used to plant corn and peanuts next year," he explained in detail.

"Master, you are a genius. I never thought of this. Planting crops this way can save a lot of land." Hu Laosi answered from behind.

"I used to take exams in the county and saw that some people in the plains also planted crops this way, but I didn't think deeply about it at the time and later forgot about it," said the father.

The planting methods of multiple cropping, intercropping and ridge-forming have been promoted in the Central Plains and Jiangnan regions for thousands of years, and are the key to China's leading agricultural culture in the world. However, in the Daba Mountains, which are relatively isolated, with large mountains and sparse population and vast land, the most popular method is to burn the mountains to fertilize the land, which is a relatively primitive method for growing corn.

On the third day, while his grandfather, second uncle, Hu Laosi and more than ten other people began to develop the barren hill and tidy up the land rented from the rich man Ma, he continued to do nothing at home, reading, walking Xiao Hei (the name of the puppy), writing, eating, sleeping, and thinking about how to grow his poppies in a secret way so as not to be discovered. It was already a little late and he had not planted the seeds yet.

Hard work pays off. In five days, he had already planted two acres of wheat on dry land. That night, he pulled his grandfather and said, "I have thought of how to plant opium." My father had announced in advance that there were opium seeds, but he did not tell us where they came from. He asked everyone to keep it secret and kept thinking about how to plant them.

"How should we plant it? If Mr. Yu finds out, it could be fatal." Grandpa carried him to a rock beside the yard and asked.

"Those few seeds should be planted on at least half an acre of land. If they are scattered on the ground, the area will be too large and it will definitely not be safe. We do this..."

The next day, his grandfather carried him on his back to the field and chose a suitable location to cultivate poppy seedlings. They had chosen a shady slope at home. He and his second uncle leveled out a relatively flat land about 10 meters long. His second uncle carried wood ash and a small amount of sheep manure, mixed it with half fine soil, mixed it evenly, pinched small pieces and placed them on the nursery, put four or five poppy seeds on each small manure ball, and then put wheat on some of the nutritious manure balls. After germination, they were mixed with seedlings. From a distance, it looked green and lush, and the wheat was relatively tall, covering the poppy seedlings. As long as you didn't look closely nearby, you couldn't tell them apart. Next spring, they will be transplanted into the corn field and mixed with it, and the tall corn stalks around them will be used to cover the poppy seedlings inside.

It took Grandpa and my second uncle two days to complete the breeding of 20 square meters of land. There are about 3000 nutrient manure balls. If all of them germinate more than 5000 plants, with a germination rate of one-third, there will be 6000- plants. After wheat was planted around, there were no paths on the land, and no one was allowed to enter and trample on the wheat seedlings. Grandpa also built a shack and stayed here for a long time. After planting poppy seeds, the whole family began to live in fear. They pretended to be calm on weekdays and still had to do what they had to do.

In November, they collected a lot of grass, soil and fertilizer from the rented barren mountain and planted more than four acres of seedlings. Then they devoted all their efforts to reclaiming the wasteland. Li Long, the second son of Li Shigui's family, who was seventeen years old this year, He Cunyi, the eldest son of He Dongqing's family, and several young men from Jia were asked to reclaim the land and cultivate the land. In addition to two meals, they were also given some coarse grains as wages. At that time, it was the slack season for farming, and if they could provide meals, they could recruit workers. After observing their work for more than ten days, my father asked him which of these people could stay and be security team members in Jia.

Because they didn't have much land, they could only rent out three or four mu for free, and the rest had to be cultivated by themselves, so they selected capable and down-to-earth people as team members through work. He recommended Li Long and He Cunyi, and they would not be able to talk about it later.

That night, my father called the two old men to discuss the matter. He recruited them as members of the security team of Jiali. They exchanged three mu of wasteland, one and a half mu for each family, and did not charge rent for three years. There were also additional subsidies for work, which depended on actual ability and contribution. The two old men almost knelt down to thank him on the spot. In this era, working as a long-term worker for the landlord's family, the kind-hearted ones were given a few bags of rice throughout the year, while the cruel ones could not even have enough food to eat, and some even owed debts to the landlord. My father drafted a simple document and signed a land and labor exchange agreement with the two families.

The wasteland outside has been almost reclaimed, and corn can be planted after it is burned out next year. He also asked his grandfather to collect dozens of kilograms of tung tree seeds, and then planted them around the wasteland. There are at least thousands of them. Tung trees were also a very valuable economic crop at the time. Two kilograms of tung trees could be exchanged for one kilogram of grain. If the world war breaks out during the Chinese New Year, the price will soar as a strategic material.

Grandpa didn't agree at first, because the wasteland was rented from a rich man named Ma. Everyone thought that planting tung oil trees on someone else's land was not a favor to others. He was afraid that the little chest would say firmly: "The land I have planted is mine. Sooner or later I will buy it." Grandpa didn't say anything, and began to manage the land as his own, planting mulberry trees, jute, tung oil trees and other trees on the surrounding steep slopes.

As they were recruiting armored security guards, the original rooms were no longer large enough, so they used the felled trees to rebuild two new thatched huts next to the tiled house. It took 4 or 5 people 5 days to collect all the materials, and they stacked the wood like building blocks, which made them very sturdy.

On November 11th, the sky was clear and the warm sun of early winter was caressing the yellowing leaves all over the mountain. When the autumn wind blew, the yellow leaves on the mountain fled from the branches and danced in the wind like shy girls that were frightened.

"Hey yo, hey yo...", Grandpa, second uncle, Li Long, He Cunyi, Hu Laosi, Hu Laowu.

The six of them were putting up the main beam for the thatched house. The four young men were shirtless. Li Long was thin, about 6 meters tall, with a rectangular face, thick eyebrows, and high cheekbones. He stood on the roof beams on both sides of the roof and held the thick tree trunk with both hands to drag it up. His face was covered with sweat, which was shining in the sun. He stood on the roof like a little war god. He Cunyi was the strongest one among them. He was 1.6 years old this year and already had a full beard. The small braid on his head was inconvenient for him to work, so he was crushed once and could only scream in pain. Then, at the instigation of him and Hu Laosi, he got angry and cut it off with a pair of scissors. Now he can only let his hair down and stand on the middle support like a little old man to pull the main beam. The second uncle was the tallest, about 1.7 meters tall, which was considered tall in Sichuan at that time. Together with the little monkey Hu Laowu, they pushed from below, and with the efforts of the five of them, the seven or eight meter long main beam was placed steadily in the middle in half an hour.

He and Xiao Heizi were learning carpentry and repairing the house by the courtyard. At this time, a child crying was heard on the road over at Shuijingwan. He saw a barefoot child running along the road, crying and shouting:

"Uncle Du, Uncle Du, my mother doesn't respond to my calls, wow... wow...", she cried and called out. It turned out to be the eldest son of Mrs. Zhang's family, Gouwazi. He had been too busy these days and had not paid attention to Mrs. Zhang's condition. It seemed that her condition was in danger.

When the mother heard the crying, she came out of the house and asked the child what had happened.

After asking, we found out that Gou Waer said that his sister was also sick two days ago, and was feverish. His mother was very anxious on the bed, but she refused to wake him up this morning. He thought she was asleep, so he cooked porridge and fed his sister a few mouthfuls in the morning. His mother still refused to wake her up, so he came to find his father. His mother had told him before that if he had any problems, he should go to Uncle Du.

After a few words of comfort, my mother said to my grandfather, "Dad, go and take a look and help deal with it. The two children are so pitiful. If Xiaoya is seriously ill, you can bring her here and they can help take care of her for a few days."

"Okay, I'll go check it out now. Let's go, Gou Wa!" Grandpa wiped the sweat off his face with his sweatshirt and went back with Gou Wa.

It came quickly and went quickly. The sun was still very bright, but it suddenly felt colder. Li Long and a few others sat on the beams to rest. Li Long angrily said that Ma Laocai had secretly raised the rent this year in order to raise funds to save Ma Wenshu, and he gritted his teeth in excitement.

He listened for a while, then walked silently into the house. Everyone had gotten used to his ability to walk and talk in the past few days, so they no longer had to hide it.

When the sun was about to set, Grandpa came back carrying a little girl on his back. The girl had a high fever and was placed on the bed. Her mother used a towel to wipe her body to dissipate the heat. Grandpa also brought back the news that Mrs. Zhang had passed away. Everyone was too weak to grieve and could only help deal with the aftermath. He found an axe in the house and took Li Long and He Cunyi to Mrs. Zhang's house to help deal with the aftermath.

It was dark at night when my father came home. "Dad, why are you back so late?" he asked.

After taking a few bites of the steamed buns from the pot, my father continued, "I went to Chief Yu's house after school today. He said that I have been in office for almost a month, and we have to speed up the collection of next year's taxes. He also revealed that Ma Wenshu has been released. In October, an uprising broke out in Wuchang, Hubei. It was so powerful that it has spread throughout the country. Many knowledgeable people have begun to pessimistic about the Qing Dynasty, and many provinces are preparing for independence. Rebel armies are surging everywhere. The infantry and cavalry of the Donghe Inspection Office stationed in Yuanshanping at the beginning of the month have secretly withdrawn to Zhaohua County to suppress uprisings in various places. Chief Yu only got the news a few days ago. He always thought that the Inspection Office had gone out for training, and that the Inspection Office was asking someone to sell several buildings in Wuying Township. In addition, various news were circulating on Mi Cang Road, resulting in hoarding of grain everywhere, while land and retail prices have been falling. It is estimated that a new era is about to come, and the world is precarious."