Chapter Ninety-Six: Growing Vegetables in the Wasteland
Early the next morning, Xiao Ding and his family, as well as Fan San, Fat Sun and others, saw off the girls.
Among them, Mu Yiyi and Mu Hong returned to Jingzhou, Yue Yurou and Tang Yunzhi returned to Jinzhou, and the Mei sisters returned to Mergezhou. The three passers-by are all very far away.
Xiao Ding asked them to go to Xiaoshan to choose horses, and then put on their donkey cart, spread cotton quilts in it, and let Tang Yunzhi lie in the donkey cart.
Considering that it was inconvenient for Yue Yurou and a girl's family to drive the donkey cart, he sent one of the six thieves named Zhang Long to help Yue Yurou and Tang Yunzhi drive the donkey cart, and instructed him to sell the donkey cart after arriving in the county seat, and replace it with a spacious closed cart for the second daughter, and asked him to send the second daughter to Yuqing Mountain in Jinzhou and then return.
Although Mu Hong's internal injuries have improved greatly at this time, they still have not healed. The Mei sisters still have little experience in the rivers and lakes, and it is very inconvenient to walk the rivers and lakes in the face. Therefore, Xiao Ding also instructed Mu Yiyi and the Mei sisters that after arriving in the county seat, they would also hire a closed carriage, or buy one, and hire a coachman to help them catch the car. Although riding a car is not as fast as riding a horse, it can save a lot of trouble without a few women showing their heads.
Thinking that the girls refused to exchange the night pearl for a plate, Xiao Ding asked Zhao Laixi to take some silver and give it to everyone, and each passerby gave fifty taels. Zhao Laixi grinned in distress, but in front of everyone, he couldn't say anything.
Yesterday he had just gone to the county town to exchange the three ingots of gold for three hundred taels of silver, and today he gave half of the silver again.
The girls took Xiao Ding's night pearl last night, and today Xiao Ding wants to give silver again, but they refuse to ask for it, but they can't help Xiao Ding's forced delivery, so they have to accept it. After glancing at Xiao Ding affectionately, they all said goodbye and reluctantly walked on the path to Luoxia County......
After sending off the girls, the courtyard of Xiaoding's house was much cleaner.
Two days later, Sun also said goodbye and left. Although his leg injury has not healed, he claims that he is not worried that Mrs. Luo is adrift alone, and he wants to find Mrs. Luo.
Xiao Ding and Fan Sanpang glanced at each other, smiled knowingly, and no longer forced him to stay, and also gave him fifty taels of silver, let him choose a good horse to ride, and instructed him to hire a carriage to sit in the town, so that he could take care of his leg injury.
Sun loudly agreed one by one, took the iron rod, and rode away.
This time, in addition to the family members in Xiao Ding's family, they are the Ou brothers and sisters, Fan Sanpang and the five thieves. Xiao Ding now also knows the names of these bandits, the one who helped Yue Yurou drive the car is called Zhang Long, and the remaining five are called Zhao Hu, Wang Dynasty, Ma Han, Dong Chao, and Xue Ba.
uh——? Add Li Gui and Lou Qing, isn't this the eight major officials under Bao Qingtian of Kaifeng Mansion?
Xiao Ding secretly sighed that there was such a coincidence in the world, but he didn't care too much. Anyway, people in this era will not know who Bao Gong is, and these people are only from bandits. What's more, a person's name is just a code name, and it doesn't matter what it's called.
At this time, Zhao Hu came to Xiao Ding and said respectfully: "Shaodong, I still have two good brothers in Feiyun Village, one is called Li Gui, and the other is called Lou Qing......."
Belch! Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao will arrive!
"How?" Xiao Ding just thought of the eight major officials of Kaifeng Mansion, but he didn't expect to be able to get it together!
"They don't want to be bandits for a long time, but they don't have a way out, so they still stay in the cottage. Otherwise, I'll go back to the cottage and call them to work for you......" Zhao Hu continued.
"Don't worry about it first, if they want to come, they will naturally come, you can work here with peace of mind first!" Xiao Ding said. But in my heart, I was secretly slandering, you want to go back to Feiyun Village to bring people back, have you considered Shi Jianforan's idea? Do you think Shi Jianforging will let you take his men out? Don't talk about bringing people out, it's yourself, it's hard to say whether you can come back after you go back!
Xiao Ding gave Zhao Hu and the five of them to Second Uncle Niu and asked Second Uncle Niu to arrange work. He also arranged for Fan Sanpang to manage the group of horses on the other side of the hill. As for the Ou brothers and sisters, Xiao Ding did not arrange things for the time being, they followed Xiaofu and Xiaozhu'er all day long, and Ou Mulin is not afraid of the little wolf now.
Now that the house on the other side of the construction site has been capped, you just need to wait for the inside to dry before you can move in. There is also furniture that is not ready, and it will take a while to wait.
The carpentry work of building the house was not done by Zhao Laixi himself, because after Xiaoding left, Zhao Laixi had a lot of things to do, and he was really too busy.
Zhao Laixi found two apprentices who had a good relationship with him and were also learning carpenters at his second aunt's house to come over to help. These two apprentices have been studying at the second aunt's house for several years, and they can basically be apprentices on their own. It's just that the second aunt's furniture shop is still relatively short of manpower for the time being, so the two of them were not released.
Zhao Laixi paid the two apprentices to start work at the price of the finished work. The two apprentices were very happy. But when the second aunt heard about this, he was furious.
Zhao Laixi doesn't care how angry the second aunt is. Since he was beaten last time, the second aunt ignored him, and he also saw through the second aunt's recognition of money and not relatives, and he did not plan to be an apprentice with the second aunt in the future.
These days, the weather has gradually entered the early winter, and it is better to have the sun shining during the day, and at night, the people sleeping in the grass huts and shacks can already feel the chill of the early winter.
Because there were several more people in the family, the room that Xiao Ding originally intended to use as a livestock house also decided to use it for living. He asked Second Uncle Niu to arrange manpower, and in the room where the original livestock house was originally livestock, he also set up a fire kang.
Xiao Ding had instructed Second Uncle Niu how to make the kang before he went up to Luoxia Mountain, and after he came back, he also checked the kang that had been set up on the side of the new house, and felt that Second Uncle Niu's bricklayer work was really good.
Moreover, they have all lit a fire in the kang stove that has been set up, and there is no smoke leakage at all, which is very easy to use. Second Uncle Niu also claimed that his family would also change the bed to a kang this winter.
The work on the greenhouse side is relatively simple. Now the two greenhouses have been built almost completely, but the poor is still carpentry. Because of the lack of carpentry, some people are too busy.
According to the drawings, each of the two greenhouses has the size of two acres of land. The surrounding wall is a hollow fire wall, and you can make a fire in the fire wall in winter to keep warm and ensure the temperature in the shed. The ceiling is a sunny slope made of wooden frames, and the slope is full of window lattices, on which are pasted with window paper, although the window paper is not as transparent as the glass of later generations, but it can also be used.
If it snows in winter, a straw curtain on the wooden frame of the roof can prevent heavy snow from crushing the window paper. At the same time, the straw curtain can also keep warm.
Hearing that Xiaoding was going to grow vegetables in the greenhouse, Second Uncle Niu and all the workers looked at each other.
Why? Because that land is a wasteland. Even if the grass, trees, and rocks on the surface of the ground are cleared, it is still wasteland. The soil still contains a lot of gravel, sand, tree roots, etc., and in some places there are even large areas of boulders buried in the ground, so how easy is it to grow vegetables on that wasteland?
Anyway, Second Uncle Niu, who has been a farmer for half his life, thinks that he has no ability to grow vegetables on such a wasteland. Not to mention vegetables, even if he grows other crops, he doesn't think he can grow them.
The other workers also had the same idea as Second Uncle Niu, and they couldn't guess what kind of medicine was sold in Xiaoding's gourd.
Even Tian Dabao and Zhao Laixi shook their heads again and again when they heard that Xiao Ding was going to grow vegetables in the two sheds under construction, and Tian Dabao sighed secretly, did this fool commit stupidity again?