Chapter 398: Digging for a Month

The next morning, after eating soft pancakes and potato shreds and drinking some milk, Lin Heng waited at the gate for the excavator to arrive.

In the morning, Xiulan took out the things that needed to be dried and made some dough to make dumplings at noon.

At around eight o'clock, Lin Heng heard a car horn and soon saw a medium-sized tractor being pulled by a trailer coming up the road, followed by a small dump truck.

"Wife, the excavator is here, I'm leaving now."

Lin Heng turned around and shouted something to Xiulan, then left quickly.

When he arrived at Hongfeng Mountain, he first gave a pack of cigarettes to the excavator and dump truck drivers, and then opened the gate to let people in.

The excavator got off the trailer, repaired the road outside, and then drove in.

"Boss Lin, please tell me how to dig specifically." Master Liu, who was operating the excavator, stopped the excavator and looked at Lin Heng and said.

"Just as we said before, you build the road first, then deal with the bushes and weeds, and I'll draw an excavation range for you." Lin Heng said to the excavator master.

Master Liu nodded and said, "Okay, I'll do it first. Will the road be four meters wide?"

"Four meters is fine." Lin Heng nodded.

After the preliminary discussion, the excavator started working.

Road construction does not require much digging, and the main task is to compact and level the road and clear some raised areas.

Lin's father and mother were watching nearby. They were also very curious about this huge machine. Some villagers also came to the road below and watched the excavator digging the soil to build the road for the whole day.

In less than an hour, the excavator repaired and compacted the road to the mountainside, and began to open up the land, digging up bushes and turning over weeds.

"It's so fast! This excavator is so easy to use." Lin's mother exclaimed.

"It takes half an hour to dig this far." Father Lin also sighed.

"It's really worth it when you look at it this way." Mother Lin nodded. This was the first time she saw an excavator and she fully understood the power of this big guy.

"Come on, Dad, let's go up and tell him how to dig." Lin Heng said to his father.

"Okay."

Father Lin nodded and walked upstairs happily with Lin Heng.

When they reached halfway up the mountain, Lin Heng began to explain to the excavator master how to dig specifically. After the excavator master understood, he re-dug the upper section of the road, as the previous road was not suitable.

After confirmation, the excavator started working, digging the soil first, and the excess was pulled out by the dump truck and dumped at the place Lin Heng said.

The excavator worked very efficiently and soon dug out a platform of more than 200 square meters. Father Lin looked at it for a long time before coming down. The two of them went to feed the cattle and sheep, and then bred a cow that had just come into estrus today, and pulled out the cow that had been bred yesterday to be mated again by the bull.

It was almost half past ten when they finished all these tasks. At this time, the third father Lin Xutao also came over to watch. Many people in the village who had never seen an excavator came over to take a look.

Even the village party secretary and the village chief came and asked about Lin Heng's excavator and talked about many things.

Lin Heng took advantage of the opportunity when the villagers gathered outside Hongfeng Mountain to spread the news that he would continue to collect acorns this year, at one cent per pound.

The price is not high, but there are a lot of things, and the oak forests are everywhere. It is no problem for one person to pick up 100 kilograms a day. Many people in the village are willing to earn this extra money.

Lin Heng picked it up mainly to feed livestock. He cooked it, dried it, and then crushed it. Finally, he mixed it with some corn, wheat bran and other ingredients to feed pigs or chickens.

The two big fat pigs his family raised on Hongfeng Mountain weighed more than 200 kilograms each. They didn't use any feed, but were fed a lot of acorns, corn, sweet potatoes, and plenty of grass.

These two pigs are going to be slaughtered for the Chinese New Year this year. In the first half of this year, Lin's mother bought two piglets, one black and one white. They now weigh about 60 or 70 kilograms in preparation for next year's Chinese New Year.

In a blink of an eye, it was already noon. Lin's mother prepared a large table of food to entertain the excavator and dump truck drivers. Lin Heng also ate here and did not go back to the village.

After the excavator finished his meal, he worked until eight o'clock in the afternoon. Because this was not charged by the hour or day, the total price was fixed, and the sooner the work was finished, the sooner the balance could be received, so the master worked very hard.

The two masters also slept in the old house of the Lin family at night. Caiyun never stayed in the old house when she came back. She either slept on the sofa in Lin Heng's house or stayed here in Hongfeng Mountain.

After one day's work today, a preliminary surface has been dug out for the first platform, which is 25 meters wide, 60 meters long and covers an area of ​​1,500 square meters.

There is still a long way to go before the first platform is completed. Not only do we have to dig the soil, but we also have to use a drill to chisel away some stones, then dig and level it, and repair the nearby hillsides. This will take a long time.

Lin Heng did not eat at Hongfeng Mountain in the evening. He went back home and ate buns with Xiulan. Caiyun was also there.

"Are these dumplings stuffed with green onions and roe deer meat? They're delicious." Lin Heng praised the dumplings while eating them.

"Yes, I made 103 buns this time, with five kinds of fillings. They will last for a long time." Xiulan nodded with a smile.

"I like eating wrappers!" Xiaoxia said, holding up a steamed bun filled with red bean paste.

"The tofu filling is also very delicious." Caiyun nodded repeatedly.

Xiaolongbao was a luxury food for rural people of that era. They were happy to eat white flour steamed buns and flower rolls, and rarely dared to think about steamed buns, especially meat buns.

The next morning, Lin Heng brought some steamed buns to his parents. Excavator Master Liu was shocked when he saw the milk and steamed buns for breakfast: "This food is really good. It's worth working for you."

"Don't let yourself suffer no matter what you do. You must prepare good food." Lin Heng said with a smile.

Master Liu gave a thumbs up: "You are at a very clear level."

After breakfast, the excavator continued to work. Today's task was to chisel stones, which was much slower than digging soil, so the working speed became lower.

Lin Heng did not have the chiseled stones transported away by car, but instead cut them into small pieces and piled them aside so that they could be used when building the retaining wall later.

The National Day holiday ended on the third day, but the excavator still did not leave and continued to work here. Because there was more than one excavator on the road construction site, they found an excuse that the excavator was broken and needed to be repaired, and prepared to finish the work here in one go.

On the tenth day, the first platform was finally dug out. A platform covering an area of ​​1,500 square meters looked very comfortable. The surroundings of the platform were also repaired. In the afternoon, the excavator built a path from the edge of the first platform and dug the second platform according to Lin Heng's instructions.

The second platform is larger than the first one, 25 meters wide and 70 meters long, covering an area of ​​1,750 square meters. Although the slope is only 20 degrees, not much soil needs to be dug, and it took a full 12 days.

Although there is still some distance to the top of the mountain, the soil layer here has begun to become shallower and there are more stones, so it takes longer to dig. It even rained for two days, but the excavator is still working.

It was originally agreed that 1,500 square meters were dug, but the main reason why only 1,700 square meters were dug was that the excavator master felt that Lin Heng’s food was good and he often smoked, which was much better than working at the construction site, so he wanted to dig more.

By the time the two platforms were mined, more than half a month had passed, from October 1st to October 22nd.

Starting on October 23, excavators began to dig the winding mountain road to the top of the mountain.

It took two days to dig the winding mountain road. On the 25th, we reached the top of the mountain and came directly to the cabin. Many trees were destroyed along the way.

Originally, the excavator master No. 25 was about to leave, but Lin Heng felt that it was awkward that the first platform was smaller than the second, so he added a hundred yuan and asked the excavator master to expand the first platform to 1,800 square meters and the length to 72 meters.

The excavation was completed on the 25th, and on the 26th, the excavator master was asked to tidy up the area around the platform and dig out the foundation trench for the first platform where Lin Heng was going to build the cattle pen.

Everything was successfully completed on the afternoon of the 26th. The excavator was loaded onto the trailer and the project manager came in person. After Lin Heng paid the balance, he cooked a large table of dishes and everyone drank happily.

When the drinking party was over and Manager Li was about to leave, he put his arm around Lin Heng's shoulder and whispered, "Boss Lin, if you don't harden the platform and road you dug out quickly, it will be easily damaged by the rain."

Lin Heng glanced at Manager Li, shook his head slightly and said, "Cement is too expensive. I don't have that much money. I plan to buy some gravel later and pave the road with it."

"What if there is very cheap concrete?" Manager Li said with a grin.

Lin Heng was curious: "How cheap is it?"

Manager Li said, "The concrete mixing station on Jianguo Road usually produces more concrete, so some of it will be wasted. You only need to pay a little for the freight and they will bring the extra concrete to you."

After a pause, he continued, "Just like you need to pave these two platforms and the road leading up the mountain, it doesn't cost a lot to lay 20-centimeter-thick concrete. 1,500 yuan is enough."

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"If it's one thousand yuan, I can still consider it." Lin Heng said.

Manager Li thought for a while and said, "Then it'll be 1,300. You can put up the planks yourself, and we'll build them for you later."

"Although the price is good, I don't have that much money." Lin Heng shook his head.

After some discussion, the price was finally settled at 1,100 yuan.

"No problem." Lin Heng nodded with a smile and watched Manager Li leave on his motorcycle.

After seeing the people leave, Lin's father and mother came over, and Lin's father asked curiously: "Son, what did you just talk about?"

"It's about the concrete. They said they have some extra concrete for sale cheaply." Lin Heng told his parents a brief account of what happened, but he didn't tell them the secret.

After hearing this, Father Lin immediately said, "That's fine. It's a good deal to turn all of it into cement for only 1100 yuan."

He knew how much it would cost to make the concrete himself and thought it was a good deal.

"Nothing will go wrong, right?" Lin's mother asked a little worriedly.

Lin Heng smiled and said, "No, it's just a little bit of concrete."

"If there's no problem, then you can do it." Lin's mother nodded. She still agreed with building her own home. It would be convenient to do anything with cement.

The next morning, the excavator driver and the truck driver drove away, and Hongfeng Mountain returned to peace again, but the situation was very different.

After breakfast, Lin Heng, Xiulan, and Xiaoxia pushed their two children to Hongfeng Mountain. It was already late autumn, and the red, yellow, and green trees intertwined, forming beautiful scenery.

The sun was no longer scorching, and it was warm in the mountains, the temperature was just right.

"Dad, how do you make flowers with ginkgo leaves?" Xiaoxia looked at Lin Heng holding the ginkgo leaves.

Lin Heng touched her head and said, "I'll teach you when we get to Red Maple Mountain. Now you can pick flowers for fun."

"Mom, this is for you!" Xiaoxia picked an autumn chrysanthemum and handed it to her mother.

"Xiaoxia is so good." Xiulan took it and smelled it, looking at the scenery around her. Everything in autumn was so beautiful.

When we arrived at Hongfeng Mountain, Father Lin had just finished feeding the shrimps and was feeding the musk deer and piglets.

Mother Lin looked at them and smiled, "You are here to take Xiulan to the mountain to look after her, right? Give the two grandchildren to me and I will take care of them."

"Thank you, Mom." Lin Heng immediately pushed his two sons into the house and handed them to their mother, then took Xiulan and Xiaoxia up the mountain along the four-meter-wide dirt road that had been compacted by the excavator.

Although Xiulan came to see the excavator while it was working, she never went up the mountain.

There were many yellow chrysanthemums on the roadside of the mountain, emitting a faint fragrance. After walking for a while, the three of them arrived at the first platform.

The long platform was covered with piled stones and excavated foundations, and there were only some fallen leaves. Such a large platform of 72 meters long and 25 meters wide is almost unheard of in such mountains, and just looking at it makes people feel comfortable.

After Xiaoxia came up, she started running happily. Xiongba, who followed her, also started to run happily, feeling very happy in the slightly cool autumn breeze.

While paying attention to Xiaoxia, Lin Heng explained the renovation plan here to Xiulan. At present, the cattle pen is built on the first platform at the bottom. It is large enough and convenient, and is completely sufficient.

If you want to build a villa in the future, you can build it on the second platform, and then build a third platform behind it, and then build two stairs directly connecting the first platform and the third platform. This is the front and back garden, which is perfect.

Now the roads connecting the two platforms are at the very edge, connected by a 180-degree bend. The two connected together look like an extra-large lying U-shaped bend.

Xiulan smiled and nodded: "It's quite suitable. From here you can see a large area below. The scenery is very beautiful."

She strongly supported Lin Heng's idea of ​​building a villa here, and building a big house of their own on the top of this beautiful red maple mountain.

Standing on the edge and looking at the scenery outside, I saw that the slope between the first platform and the hillside below was only 20 degrees, so people could walk down easily.

Then Xiulan walked to the inside of the platform, where there was a nine-meter-high slope. If she wanted to dig a 25-meter-wide platform on a 20-degree slope, the innermost part had to be this high.

However, the slope at the innermost part is not 90 degrees, but about 70 or 80 degrees.

Xiulan looked at the pile of stones not far away and asked in confusion, "This amount of stones is not enough to build a retaining wall, right?"

Lin Heng nodded: "It's definitely not enough. The retaining wall is only built on the two sides where landslides are likely to occur. The rest is not built, so a slope is made instead of a 90-degree right-angle slope."

If the retaining wall that is 9 meters high and 65 meters long were to be built, it would be a huge project, so Lin Heng gave up this project for the time being.

The loose soil on this slope has been removed and what remains are relatively solid stones and a small amount of clay. In addition, the slope is more than 70 degrees, so there will be basically no problem unless there is an earthquake.

When he really plans to build a villa, he will clean up the hillside behind. He cannot spend too much money on this now. As long as there are no major problems, he will not spend more money. After all, he is still accumulating original capital.

(End of this chapter)