If you look down from the sky above the village of Wall, the ravine where the village is located looks like a claw mark scratched by a dragon, and the whole village of Wall is located in the green claw mark, and the tidal flat downstream of the river bay is like a pool of green blood flowing from the claw mark.

In just three days, much has changed in the upper reaches of the village, and the prototype of the first reservoir has been shown in this area.

At the top of the ravine, nearly an acre of semicircular slate land has been cleared, and since there is no soil cover, it is usually barren and devoid of vegetation, and nearly 200 craftsmen and laborers work on the site every day.

Seeing the scene of the work in full swing in front of him, the old village chief stood on the stone slope with emotion, thinking that when he was young, he also thought about changing the situation of the village, and tried to transport the fertile river mud from the tidal flats downstream of the river bay to the upper reaches and spread it on this barren stone slab to make fields.

But when the few acres of fields he had painstakingly cultivated reached the rainy season, all the mud on the slate land was washed away by the river and stream, and returned to the mud in the tidal flats.

The old chief had fallen ill for this reason, and now the young knight Surdak had to do these things, and his ideas were far bolder than his own.

In Surdak's plan, the entire reservoir was divided into five levels, and it looked like a terraced rice field, with each staircase being a separate reservoir, and the five reservoirs were interlocking, and after the first reservoir was full, the spring water entered the second reservoir through the overflow of the pool, and so on, until the fifth reservoir was completely completed, and the water stored in the reservoir could theoretically allow the villagers of Vol Village to survive the dry season in spring and summer.

According to the old village chief's requirements, the bottom of the entire reservoir must be flat, and because of the strong permeability of limestone, the bottom of the reservoir needs to be covered with a layer of two-inch thick pozzolana cement as a waterproof layer.

The arc-shaped cistern wall has begun to pour the foundation, the only thing that makes the old village chief a little headache is that there are only four horse-drawn carriages in the village, even if they make three trips a day, the volcanic ash is continuously transported back, but the volcanic ash is still too little, each time the volcanic ash is transported back, according to the proportion of lime powder mixed in, the craftsmen on the site rush up, and the volcanic ash cement can be snatched up in an instant.

On the third day, the reservoir project came to a semi-standstill, and after leveling the slate of the cistern, more than 100 laborers carried the ash back from the depths of Mount Paglos with linen bags, except for the necessary 20 or so laborers who grinded lime powder on the construction site.

Hearing that they could make money by carrying volcanic ash, the women of Vol Village approached the old village chief one after another that afternoon and asked the old village chief to distribute this kind of good fortune to the villagers in advance.

The women of the village thought that their strength would not be much worse than that of the laborers in the other villages, and that they would be able to carry the ash back from the mountain.

After all, you can earn 50 copper plates a day. For the women of the village, this money is simply not too easy to come by.

There is nothing in the barren village of Wall, but the people who live here have a lot of strength.

Even if there is less volcanic ash on the back, it is better to get less wages than to stay in the village all day, and you can't earn a decent copper coin if you stay in the village.

The old village chiefs arranged for several women with weak legs and feet to take care of the children and the elderly in the village, and the rest of the women followed the laborers on the construction site into the Paglos Mountains to carry the volcanic ash.

When Surdak rode back to the village of Wall, and just walked out of the mountain pass lined with wooden crosses, he saw a black line on the mountain road between the mountains, and this intermittent black line stretched from the village of Wall to the end of the mountain.

These villagers from other villages seem to be migrant workers who have come to work in the village, each of them is discouraged, the sweat on their faces has dried up and then dripped, the heavy bags on their shoulders are bulging, it looks very heavy, the soles of a pair of straw sandals on their feet seem to have been trampled on, only the back half of the straw rope on the surface of the feet is left, the thick foot board is on the ground, the toes are very separated, and at a glance you know that they are all people who are usually barefoot.

When these villagers from other villages saw Surdak, they thought about stepping aside and letting Surdak ride his horse first.

Surdak did not linger any longer, for he found that there were some village women behind the procession, also carrying heavy linen sacks, struggling to follow behind.

He rode over and jumped off his horse, trying to help the women of the village carry the heavy linen bags, but the women of the village refused to carry the linen bags and followed the procession step by step into the village.

"Surdak, busy with you, just carry a bag of sand, we can do it too!" The women of the village shifted the linen bag to the other side of the shoulder and said with a smile at Surdak, her eyes squeezing a smile for fear that Surdak would snatch her linen bag.

"Why are you all carrying this?" Seeing that these village women were so tired that they couldn't straighten their waists, Surdak asked with a calm face.

It is not uncommon to see them chatting while washing clothes by the river, and to see them wielding sickles in the wheat fields, and that the strong laborers of the village have gone to the Pubao Mountains to dig for sulphur mines, and that it is the women who carry the wheat from the fields to the grain fields, and now that they are carrying the heavy volcanic ash to the village like the laborers of the other villages, Surdak feels as heavy as pressing a stone.

Seeing Surdak's face, these village women, who usually looked spicy, were naturally not afraid, they put down the linen bag, and said to Surdak in a unique accent of Wall Village: "Isn't it just carrying some dust in the mountains!" The old village chief took all these jobs to the people of other villages, and a bag of dust cost fifty copper plates, and it was not all the same to whoever did this work, why not do we have our own people first, and we couldn't carry it, so we finally asked the old village chief for this job......"

Surdak was suddenly weakened by what they said, and could only say: "You can bear less, I will go and talk to the village chief about the salary, so that you and the craftsmen can get the same pay." ”

Hearing that Surdak was actually on their side, the group of village women immediately danced with their eyebrows, and said again and again: "Oh, this is not good, what rules are set, then follow the rules, the village chief hates the most is the person who breaks the rules, as long as he is willing to give us some remuneration, it will be good." ”

There were even older village women who took Surdak's hand and said very earnestly: "Dark, I heard the village chief say that you paid for the construction of the reservoir this time, what is the use of this reservoir, we all know in our hearts, it is said that we should not be paid for carrying dust, how can we be embarrassed to carry less than others and get the same remuneration as others......

Surdak thought to himself that in the final analysis, the foundation of the children's villagers was too thin, and even if the men were paid a lot of money for mining, they would want to make a little more money as much as they could, but fortunately they didn't see Rita and Natasha among the villagers.

Thinking of this, he didn't say anything, he wanted to go on horseback to discuss with the old village chief, since the sulfur mine brought a lot of wealth to the village, how could he further improve the living conditions of the villagers. I can't eat stew and white bread every day, and the whole village is struggling to make ends meet......

As soon as he arrived at the entrance of the village, Surdak saw old Sheila sitting under the tree, a group of children playing and jumping lattice in the open space, and little Peter was also involved, he played a little devoted, and did not notice the arrival of Surdak, or some sharp-eyed children next to him reminded little Peter, little Peter was careless, jumped by mistake and lost, only to happily pounce into Surdak's arms.

Surdak took him in his arms and led the horse to old Sheila, who looked at Surdak with a calm face and asked him, "Haven't you had dinner yet?" ”

Standing in front of old Sheila, Surdak always felt an inexplicable pressure, after all, no matter what the purpose, he was also a knight who replaced his son, and now he slept in the same bed with Natasha...... He sneered and said, "I ate some on the way, and I'm not hungry!" ”

"Everything in the city is done?" Old Sheila asked again, her wrinkled face unwavering, her head tilted slightly.

Surdak scratched his head and said, "That's it, this time I registered at the Knight Academy of Highlandsa, and I will go to the academy in a few days, and I will be considered an official knight after graduation." ”

Old Sheila nodded slightly, and glanced at little Peter tenderly.

Of course, she could understand the implication of Surdak's words, this official knighthood, if there were no accidents, would fall on little Peter in the future.

Seeing Surdak carry him to the horse, little Peter leaned on Surdak's arms and screamed excitedly, and old Sheila's eyes lit up with a faint light of hope......

……

On the construction site of the cistern, the bricklayers are sitting on the outermost stone mound of the cistern to rest, and in just three days, it has begun to take shape, the bottom of the cistern has been almost leveled, the gentle slope in the ravine has been artificially flattened here, and the limestone dug out is piled up in the outermost part of the cistern.

The foundation cement pier of the half-moon arc-shaped embankment is planned to be 37 in total, and only 12 have been poured so far, and the cement pier will be nearly one meter deep ground beam, according to the design drawing of Surdak, each foundation cement pier will stretch out eight steel bars, which are tightly tied together with the ground beam steel cage, and then can continue to pour volcanic ash cement, only by laying a firm foundation, can a three-meter-high reservoir dam be built.

The coolies hired from the outer village had already carried bags of volcanic ash back from the mountain, and Selena was counting the amount of volcanic ash, when she saw Surdak riding back from a distance, her white face was unabashedly bright, she was wearing a gray linen dress, a beige sweater, and a turban to wrap her long hair, and her tall figure stood out from the crowd.

Instead of getting under Selena's skirt this time, Signa sat on a nearby rock, folding her hands and counting something.

On the mountain road leading to the outside of the village, people carrying volcanic ash came back one after another, and Selena could not get out for a while.

Surdak also saw Rita and Natasha busy, carrying a large wicker basket filled with hot baked wheat cakes, distributing them to the artisans who had gathered to rest, while the village women behind them were carrying steaming wooden barrels full of vegetable soup as they ate dinner on the construction site.

It seems that this group of people is not going to rest immediately after dinner, and the construction site of the cistern will not end until later.

When little Peter saw Natasha in the crowd, he struggled to get off his horse, running and jumping towards Natasha and Rita.

Surdak led the horse to the brook and let it drink before approaching the old chief.

The old village chief was standing beside a large stone with the parchment drawings drawn by Surdak himself, and was explaining something to the bricklayers next to him.

I heard him say: "Tomorrow we must pour out the rest of the foundation stone piers, these buried parts of the ground still need to be raised with water for a period of time, the ground of the reservoir can be moved to the back, now it seems that the volcanic ash is enough, I will increase the manpower of grinding lime powder overnight, to ensure that there is enough cement tomorrow!" ”

Then he felt that the bricklayers around him were a little distracted, and they all looked out, and were about to scold angrily, but when he saw Surdak walking in, his face softened and said, "...... Oh, Surdak, you're back, okay, let's go eat first, and then tidy up the venue before it gets completely dark! ”

The old village chief waved his hand to drive the bricklayers away, then took a sip of water from his cup, exhaled a long breath and said, "How is it, is this trip to Hylansa going well?" ”

Surdak nodded and said, "It's going well, the materials needed have been bought, and a large number of supplies should be delivered tomorrow!" I've only been walking for three days, and I've already cultivated like this here, so you're not afraid of exhausting these craftsmen! ”

Speaking of this, the old village chief said with some pride: "You don't know how many people intercede with me every day, begging me to hire them to repair the reservoir, what is there not to be satisfied with if you can find such a job outside the mountain pass?" ”

Then the old village chief pulled Surdak and whispered: "It's not that I'm too harsh, these accounts don't count...... You don't know what you're spending every day, and the night before I finished work, I asked Selena to count the accounts, and that's how I found out...... Good fellow, as long as we start work, we will throw at least one golden coin into the cistern every day, which we didn't dare to think about before......"

"As long as I think that I can save a gold coin by finishing it a day earlier, how dare I be tired......"