Early the next morning, Lao Hua arranged for Zhuang to set up four ox carts, and pulled 800 chickens with chicken coops to go straight to Dongxi Village, and did not come back until after lunch. ”

Lao Hua pointed to the box on the ox cart: "It is full of copper coins." All 800 chickens were sold to the Chao family at market price. ”

"Ah, it didn't work out?" Hua Lei asked.

"You don't feel at ease when your dad does things, the head of the Chao family said, you just go directly to find the owner Chao Gai, as long as you have a specialty, you will definitely be asked for a settlement fee of 50 yuan, an annual salary of 50 yuan, and a variety of bonuses, you are ready to go over tomorrow to try it." This Dongxi village is very different from before, the streets are neat and clean, there are no pigs and dogs running around, and cattle and sheep grazing are also far away from the village. Lao Hua said that he drove the ox cart back to the village.

Early the next morning, as soon as dawn Hua Lei set off, carrying a burden, carrying a mixed iron rod, with a slingshot and projectiles hidden in his waist, to Dongxi Village, and then the housekeeper Chao Xun inquired and then sent someone to the camp of the escort team The team members were training in the queue after breakfast, one by one holding ash poles standing horizontally and vertically, the queue was neat and consistent, and Hua Lei licked his mouth when he watched, this is what he wants to live.

The guards on duty quickly informed Chao Gai, Chao Gai greeted Ruan Xiaoqi with him, and he had some impressions of Hua Lei Chao Gai, the year before last there was a thief in the county town who committed murder on the street, so that this person broke his legs with a stick, and the righteous and brave person was Hua Lei.

"Master Chao." Hua Lei hugged his fists.

"It's Hua Lei, please go inside." Chao Gai welcomed Hua Lei in.

Chao Gai said: "I know a little bit about your skills, and it's not impossible to be a leader directly, but you have also seen that I have almost two hundred people here, and if you are promoted directly, you will inevitably have unconvinced brothers." You can demonstrate your martial arts and Ruan Xiaoqi and Chao Ran, just convince everyone. ”

Hua Lei said: "Thank you for the love of the owner, I know two martial arts, one is an iron rod, and the other is a slingshot." ”

In a short time, ten scarecrows were placed on the school grounds, each with a porcelain bowl on their heads. Hua Lei stood fifty paces away, took the slingshot and didn't see the aim, snapped, snapped, ten crisp sounds, and ten bowls shattered in response.

"Okay." The crowd applauded and applauded.

Chao Gai said: "Hua Lei, your slingshot is powerful, and you have caught up with Huarong in Qingzhou." ”

Hua Lei was embarrassed to be praised and scratched his head: "I am all from a wild road, and this slingshot was practiced when I was a herding chicken, and it is used to fight eagles and foxes." ”

"You can herd chickens?" Chao Gai asked in surprise.

"That's right, I love to practice fists, feet and sticks since I was a child, and I don't love farm work, but I can't stop working when I'm so old, so I arranged a thousand Luhua chickens for me to graze, and I ran all over the mountain with mixed iron rods and slingshots, and this kung fu was practiced like this." Hua Lei Dao.

Next, Hua Lei and Ruan Xiaoqi competed, Hua Lei's weapon was a thirty pound mixed iron rod, an iron rod two and a half meters long, Ruan Xiaoqi's land weapons were not fixed, and both knives and spears could be used, and today he was holding a reed leaf gun with a hardwood pole, and the head of the gun was a foot long.

Ruan Xiaoqi played a trick with a gun, and Hua Lei danced like a windmill with a stick.

The two of them fought in one place for a while, Hua Lei's tricks were mediocre, but his strength was great, and Liu Tang's strength was about the same, Ruan Xiaoqi's martial arts skills on the shore were average, but in the past two months, he has studied with Chao Gai Liu Tang every day, and his martial arts have improved a lot. Chao Ran, all changed the ash pole. ”

Chao Ran and Hua Lei both took the ash pole and fought in one place, this time they both let go of the fight, Hua Lei's stick method opened and closed, and smashed horizontally. Chao Ran's stick is taught by Chao Gai, pay attention to the momentum, shoot ruthlessly, fast and steady, the two have fought for thirty rounds, Chao can't help nodding, and Xiao Qi next to him: "Hua Lei, this person is really good, if it was a real battle, Chao Ran would have been defeated." ”

"This is the importance of strength, usually it is tiring to let you carry forty pounds of things to run cross-country."

After a few more rounds of fighting, Chao Gai called a halt. said to Hua Lei: "Your strength is good, but your tricks are too ordinary, and you will undoubtedly lose when you meet a master, and you still need to hone hard." ”

Hua Lei was a little disappointed and said: "Then I still haven't passed the assessment." ”

"Even if you pass, you will be assigned a squad leader first, and if the training is very good, you will be directly promoted to platoon commander, but before that, you have to do one thing first." Chao Gai said.

"What's the matter, the owner of the village, please command, Hua Lei must use his life." Hua Lei Dao.

"I am buying chickens and ducks in the village, and there should be about 10,000 chickens and five or six thousand ducks, but the herding staff is not skilled, I will give you 20 days, you find Li Qingzi, and arrange for 100 people to train you in detail how to herd chickens and ducks."

"This." Hua Lei hesitated, he came here to stop grazing chickens, but he didn't expect that his first job was herding chickens.

"Are you having trouble?" Chao Gai asked.

"It's not difficult, but can I ask why you have so many chickens?" Hua Lei asked.

Chao Gai drove the other guards away, and said to Hua Lei: "Since you are asked to teach herding chickens, I will not hide it from you, but you must not leak it out." ”

"Okay." Hua Lei nodded.

"This year's spring drought is severe, although I have observed that grasshoppers are increasing, and there was a locust plague in some places in Qingzhou last year, and I am worried that we will also have it here, so we must prepare early. But this thing is an uncertain thing, and it can only cause panic when you say it, so you don't spread the word, after my village vigorously buys chickens and ducks, the enthusiasm for breeding chickens and ducks near me has also increased. Chao Gai explained.

Hua Lei patted his head: "The owner of the village is really a god, I have been herding chickens for many years, and I know that a chicken can eat sixty or seventy locusts a day, why didn't I think of using herding chickens to control locusts." It is only the beginning of March, and the chickens are just able to eat the first batch of locusts, and as long as the first batch of locusts is controlled, the second batch of locusts will naturally not break out. ”

"You just know, don't talk nonsense, understand?"

Hua Lei said: "I know the seriousness of this matter, don't worry, I will go over today to teach the technique of herding chickens, and also teach them to play slingshots, so that they can better protect the chickens." ”

Chao Gai personally took Hua Lei to Li Qingzi and asked Li Qingzi to arrange personnel for training, the first batch, sixty strong men, and forty thirteen or fourteen children. Generally, 2,000 chickens can be grazed during the day with only two adults and one child, but at night, if the chickens spend the night in a large tent set up in the wild, they need to send two more strong men, but this is not a problem, and the manpower is still available.

Although Li Qingzi doesn't know why Chao Gai is suddenly keen on raising chickens and ducks, he is still very cooperative, after all, tens of thousands of chickens and ducks are hatched in the spring, and they can grow into half-sized chickens and ducks in the autumn.

Five days later, the Chao family's purchase of chickens and ducks ended, and a total of 10,000 adult roosters and hens were harvested, all of which were local chickens of the Luhua chicken category, with thin legs and big feet, good at running, hens laying many eggs, and roosters were good at fighting. Five thousand ducks were acquired, mainly small ducks of different colors, the kind that laid green eggs. 60,000 eggs and 50,000 duck eggs. The master of the kang house from Weishan Lake is a father and son, and the skilled people are bullish, and the price is high, 100 yuan per person a year, and at the same time, an apprentice is rewarded with 20 yuan. In this era, there is no protection of intellectual property rights, and it is said that the apprentices of the church starved to death of the master, and it is understandable that they want such a high price, not to mention that the ondol incubation technology is a very complicated thing to carry out without a temperature gauge, and it is a high-tech talent to determine the temperature by feeling.

Hua Lei also began to train herding chickens, 10,000 chickens are divided into five groups, each group of male and female matching, first let them be familiar with each other and then raised on the barren grass beach, chickens eat grasshoppers are born, some chickens have big skills, easy to catch, some chickens are weak, need to learn slowly. Generally, grazing for two hours in the morning, grazing for two hours in the afternoon, feeding the chickens with water during the noon break, and the herding personnel determine whether to feed the grain according to the number of grasshoppers and insects in the grassland. Hua Lei did not reserve, and taught the techniques to Zhuang Ke, and everyone learned seriously.

On this day, dozens of Zhuang Ding with hunting forks gathered in the woods at the entrance of the village, and there were two market gangsters besieged inside, and there were two stunned big yellow dogs next to them. The crowd was very excited, "Straight lady thief, you are impatient, dare to come here to steal dogs." ”

Everyone scolded and beaten, and the crying father who was beaten by the two dog thieves shouted at his mother.

An elderly farmer said: "Stop fighting, go and invite the owner, wait for the owner to come back." ”

Not long after, Chao Gai and Ruan Xiaoqi came on horseback.

Chao Gai asked Zhuang Ke to bring the two thieves over, and shouted: "Say, where did the dog thief come from, and who did he sell the stolen goods to?" Whoever says it is neat will let it go, and if it is slow to say it, he will discount his arm. ”

The market gangster is also a gangster, Chao Gai was stupid when he stared, and the two of them talked nonsense. It turned out that the two were habitual offenders who had been stealing dogs from Tang Niuer's dog meat shop.

"Tang Niu'er is our boss, the dog meat restaurant business is very hot, but there are too few people to sell dogs, so he has to let us go to the countryside to steal dogs, a big dog gives us fifty yuan, and sometimes we can steal seven or eight a day, but we swear to God, this is the first time to come here to steal. This is also the two people are not long-eyed, as soon as they enter the entrance of the village, they were targeted, someone had already called Zhuang Ding to take an iron fork and wait, and only when they were stunned by the dog did they catch it.

Ruan Xiaoqi said: "Then Tang Niu'er's dog meat shop is open on the street, aren't you afraid that the owner will find the owner by stealing the dog and sending it over?" ”

Gang Xianjia said: "You don't know, my brother Tang Niuer is not an ordinary person, he is the first person in Yuncheng to help Xian, how can anyone dare to find the past, even if he finds the past, what can he do if he reports to the official, there are many dogs that look the same, not to mention that Lei Dutou is a frequent customer in the store." ”