The winter in the mountains is very cold, and the temperature here is not only a little lower than on the plains, but at the same time, the humid air penetrates the thin linen clothes, which makes people feel the unbearable taste of the winter in northern Guibei.

Hou Si tightly tightened the already tattered cotton clothes on his body, on the outside of it, it was a hemp that could not be said to be clothes at all, even more tattered, he carefully stuffed the rags of the outer linen clothes to his shoulders, so that these rags that had lost the function of protecting from the cold played a role in the shoulder strap of the basket to protect the cotton clothes inside, that cotton clothes were the reward of his hard work in the mine, among the more than 20 young people who came together, only he got such a reward. Hou Si knew that not only linen and linen clothes were in demand in the entire mountain village, but also cotton clothes were things that many people in the mountain villages wanted to add, and even those foremen who took care of themselves still had no such cotton clothes just wearing linen clothes, which could not only bring a trace of warmth to himself in the cold winter, but also made him gain the envy of many people.

Hou Si still remembers the first day he came to the mountain village, he and everyone came to the mountain village hungry, although the constantly rotating thing on the mountain beam in the distance makes people curious, but for him and the people around him, the aroma of rice coming out of the hot porridge in the cauldron is more tempting to them, Hou Si has forgotten the last time he ate such a thick hot porridge, he is the same as everyone else, not only drank all the hot porridge, but also licked the bowl cleaner than washed.

That night, two men who appeared to be in charge of the place came to their men, telling them about their future work and warning them of the fate of the escape. Hou Si was not too surprised that he was sent to work in this mine, since he was trafficked into slavery, he only hoped that the future master would be kind to him, to be honest, Hou Si, who had seen too many things in the north, did not think that he could escape to any legendary Taoyuan Holy Land, if he could be half full, he would be able to make do with his life...... Besides, he came from the north and was confused by the mountains here, he had never seen so many mountains in his life, and he just wanted to run...... Then you have to know the way!!

But then what made Hou Si feel a little surprised was that when the two stewards told him that he had worked for three years, or that he could be released from his slavery in advance, live like a normal person, and even marry a wife and have children, Hou Si's eyes lit up.

There is hope in people's hearts, this day is more than the desperate person to live such a point of motivation, the next day, Hou Si in the mine work is always the hardest, not only more material but also not lazy, although there is no whip-wielding foreman here, but there is a thing called work; At first, no one cared about this thing called the division of work, and some people could be lazy when they worked, most of them were done after the ore or workload collected every day, until some time ago, Hou Si listened to the two villagers who managed themselves when they were talking about their work and preparing to change things for the New Year, with the good feeling accumulated by the hard work in the past, Hou Si had the courage to ask about the work, and the two villagers saw that Hou Si asked about his work, and for the sake of the work and did not cause trouble, he helped to turn over the work book. But I didn't expect this to be shocked, and the accumulated work in the past half a year has reached an astonishing number, far exceeding the second place!!

The matter of waiting for the fourth work was quickly reported and spread, not only the slave workers in the mine were talking about it, but also many mountain people were talking about it, and even directly alarmed the top stewards Qin Er and Deng Shifeng. For this kind of typical example of being willing to work and not causing trouble, Deng Shifeng and Qin Er naturally couldn't miss the opportunity to set an example, the two personally came to the place where these slave workers lived in the mine, and after asking Hou Si about the materials they needed most in addition to being free, they used these jobs to approve an old cotton coat traded from outside for their queue......

A cotton coat gave Hou Si the warmth of his body, and at the same time strengthened his confidence to work harder, and more importantly, it was to let the other slaves who just want to be fed have a real role model around them, these people finally knew that this kind of work was so useful, not only could they exchange things from the service club called it, but more importantly, when they reached the total work point, they could get rid of this slave labor status in advance and live like ordinary mountain people!! As for the fourth, it only took him half a year to accumulate nearly half of the total work! In other words, by the end of next year, even sooner, he will be able to leave the rotten shack where the slave laborers live, and go to the village to have a home of his own and a good future for him!

With such a hope stimulus, in the following days, the villagers who are responsible for supervising these slave laborers found that the workload of these slave laborers is growing up without their own supervision and urging, and the original collection and beneficiation of more than 20 people in one day can be completed in half a day, and not only these old slave workers, but even the new more than 20 new slave workers who have joined in are also rapidly adapting to the environment and new life here under the stimulation of the words and deeds of the old slave workers, with these young and strong labor force who are willing to work, It is said that the steward Qin Tou was going to distribute some daily necessities as a reward for a more comfortable New Year.

"Wait four, you go to the foreman, someone is looking for you!"

When Hou Si poured down the gravel in the basket and was about to return to the mine to carry the gravel to the Pitang under construction, the foreman who helped to count the work points informed him when he handed him a flat bamboo strip for counting, and with the twenty-six bamboo strips obtained from today's work, Hou Si came to the foreman's shack with curiosity. This person Hou Si knew that he was a bigger steward than Qin Tou in the village, everyone called him Deng Daxian, and some people called him teacher, and this cotton coat was given to him by himself.

"Hou Si, I heard that you are looking for a branch to write and draw on the ground when you have nothing to do this month?"

After Deng Daxian sat down with a somewhat restrained waiter, he went straight to the point and explained the main purpose of his visit this time.

"This ......" faced Deng Daxian who was specially approved for cotton clothes for himself, although his smile was very kind, Hou Si was still a little nervous when he arrived, because everyone knew that Deng Daxian was even more powerful than Qin Er, the head of the village, and Qin Er had to listen to Daxian; Moreover, those factories that turn stones into gold, and the windmills on the mountain beams that are all made of iron, were all conjured by Deng Daxian with immortal methods! Even Deng Daxian can still have the magical technique of attracting divine electricity from the sky to the village to turn into lighting, and in the face of such a god, it is difficult for Hou Si not to be nervous.

"It's okay, say it boldly......" Deng Shifeng saw Hou Si's nervousness.

"This ...... I...... I talked to the foremen and learned that if they wanted to do a better job, they had to go to the school to read and learn arithmetic, and they often had to go to the school in the evenings, and I thought...... In the evening, I had nothing to do, so I begged the foreman to help me write a few words, and I learned to scribble on the ground......"

Hou Si's voice was already low when he said the back, he was afraid that he would annoy Deng Daxian because of this incident, but out of the corner of his eye, he was surprised to find that Deng Daxian in front of him was not angry, but handed him a wooden stick to pull the pond fire.

"Can you write a few words now, write to me here." Handing over the wooden stick, Deng Shifeng looked at Hou Si in front of him with surprise, thought about it and added: "Don't be afraid, you write out all the words you have learned to write, read them out, write as much as you can, write as much as you want, the more you write, the better, write ten and I will give you a credit!" ”

Hearing the word "work", Hou Si's eyes lit up again, because now everyone knows the benefits of work, everyone works very hard, plus there are more people, some work has begun to appear saturated or does not need or requires very little labor, everyone is competing for a few jobs that can work, so that the work points that can be obtained every day are beginning to decline, the original day to transport ten baskets of ore to get a point is now only half a point, which has brought a lot of trouble to the accumulation of work points for Hou Si, Now you can get a job for writing ten words...... It's a fool not to write.

First of all, Hou Si's own name, and then the Tianshu, Shuishan, Tutian, people, up and down, left and right, one, two, three, four, to ten...... Hou Si racked his brains to write out all the words that he could remember in his head, and wrote one next to Deng Daxian and the chief foreman laughed and counted one, but as Hou Si wrote more and more, gradually these two people stopped laughing, but looked at Hou Si who was writing Chinese characters one by one on the ground with a surprised expression.

"There is a point of bird ......" Hou Er thought for a long time, and slowly wrote a new word on the ground.

"One Hundred and Eighteen ......"

"What is not dotted is the ...... of Wu" The characteristics of Chinese characters and common surnames allow some characters to be learned and recognized.

The face of the chief foreman counting next to "One Hundred and Nineteen ......" twitched, and the slave laborers who came to watch outside the house were also chattering and whispering something.

"I can't think of it...... I've learned some words, but often I forget them when they don't work......"

Squatting on the ground and thinking about it for a long time, Hou Si found that he really couldn't remember the words that didn't appear.

"Good fellow...... One hundred and nineteen words, one short is one hundred and twenty, but it doesn't matter, even if it is one hundred and twenty! Twelve minutes!! ”

Deng Shifeng slapped his thigh in surprise, Hou Si's surprise to himself was really enough, he originally heard that Hou Si was looking for a foreman to learn literacy every day when he still didn't believe it, in no foundation and no teacher's explanation and explanation, so learning ideograms can only rely on rote memorization, but if it is a slave worker who has to work hard every day, he can have such self-motivation...... Deng Shifeng already had a new plan in mind to accelerate quality education and basic training in mountain villages.

"Hou Si, I will send a substitute teacher from the academy every night in the future, you slave workers can learn more words and arithmetic from him, learn well, I will continue to reward the work, and when you finish the basic teaching course, I will not only count you ten big points, but also let you be the new foreman of the mine!!"

Hearing that Deng Daxian was going to send a teacher to teach his people, Hou Si and the slave workers outside were excited, and when they heard that they could still get a job for studying, all the slave workers cheered, what about Hou Si? When he heard that he could still be the new foreman of the mine, he was already stupefied by the temptation and happiness of a new life in the future......

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