Chapter 35 One word for one chestnut
The wind blows.
The spring water brought coolness, but the group's hearts remained restless.
Once Zhao Anhe denied it, Zhao Ergou didn't know whether he should continue speaking.
Cheng Wanwan spoke calmly: "Besides digging ditches, can you come up with any other better ideas?"
Everyone was silent, they couldn't think of anything.
"Er Gouzi, keep talking." The village head took a puff of his pipe. "What if it works?"
Zhao Ergou didn't sleep a wink last night, not because of his breakup, but because he was thinking about how to better dig canals to bring in water.
This was the most important thing in the whole village and had long surpassed his personal feelings.
"A dozen miles sounds like a long distance, and it would take half an hour to walk there, but actually, if you divide a dozen miles into countless small segments and each person is responsible for one segment, this is not a very difficult task."
He stood up, took three or four steps, and continued.
“This is about one zhang (approximately 3.3 meters). One person can dig it out in an hour. However, since it hasn't rained, the soil is very hard, and there are stones and other things in the soil. So, let's say it takes one person two hours to dig one zhang.” Zhao Ergou spoke confidently. “I went down and measured it yesterday. It's about three thousand zhang in total. If one person needs two hours to dig one zhang, then three thousand zhang would need three thousand people to dig it for two hours…”
He used the calculation method that Cheng Wanwan taught him yesterday, and he calculated very quickly.
When the village head was handling the daily affairs in the fields, he often had to mentally calculate these numbers, and he gave the answer instantly.
There are about four to five hundred able-bodied laborers in Dahe Village, people between the ages of sixteen and forty-five. With so many people working together, it takes about fifteen or sixteen hours.
It's impossible for a person to work at a high intensity all day long. If you break it down, it would take about two and a half days.
In just two and a half days, water from the mountains was diverted to the rice fields. This was an absurd thing that the village head had never dared to imagine before.
"Ergouzi, you're really smart..." the village head said in disbelief. "I used to think Tiezhu was the smartest kid in Dahe Village, but starting today, you're one too."
Zhao Sidan pouted: "Then I
That's not smart.
The village head laughed out loud: "If you can recognize ten words, you will be the third smartest child in Dahe Village."
Zhao Sidan immediately grabbed Zhao Tiezhu's hand and said, "Brother Tiezhu, teach me ten Chinese characters, and I'll treat you to some sugar-roasted chestnuts."
Zhao Tiezhu's mouth watered instantly: "One word for one chestnut."
Zhao Sidan nodded immediately.
With the plan in mind, the village head felt much more relaxed.
He stood on a high rock, looking at the winding mountain path, and asked, "Mountain Mother, which path do you think is better for digging the ditch?"
Normally, when encountering such a thing, the village head would discuss it with the village’s experienced farmers, but today, he wanted to hear Cheng Wanwan’s opinion.
If Da Shan Niang could teach Zhao Er Gou to be so smart, she must be quite capable herself.
Moreover, Dashanniang is a member of the Cheng family, and the Cheng family has a student who is said to be the youngest student in the surrounding villages.
After thinking for a while, Cheng Wanwan said, "The water source is at the bottom of the valley. We can dig a ditch directly from the bottom of the valley to the east side, and then go downhill. Here, the sun doesn't shine directly on us, and the soil isn't as hard..."
The village head nodded repeatedly, and together with Cheng Wanwan, they roughly determined the route of the ditch and made some marks along the way.
After finishing the work, it was noon.
The group prepared to descend the mountain.
Halfway there, Cheng Wanwan remembered what Zhao Sidan had said yesterday—"It would be great if we could hatch chicks."
Those two large hens didn't look like wild chickens at all, which could easily arouse suspicion and cause unnecessary trouble.
However, if you find a rooster on the mountain in front of the village head, it's considered to have passed the test.
Without hesitation, Cheng Wanwan immediately bought a large rooster from the mall, specially designed for breeding. It had bright plumage and a vibrant comb, and cost her eighty coins.
She lagged a few steps behind and let the rooster out.
"Cluck cluck!"
The rooster flapped its wings and took flight, rushing straight towards Zhao Ergou.
Zhao Ergou was thinking about digging the ditch. Although the matter had been decided, there were still many details that needed to be perfected, and he kept thinking about it...
Suddenly something lunged at him, startling him so much that he quickly dodged to the side.
"What a huge chicken!" Zhao Tiezhu's eyes lit up. Before anyone could react, he suddenly pounced and grabbed the rooster's wing. "Hahaha, Grandpa, Dad, Second Uncle, I caught a pheasant! We'll have pheasant meat tonight! Ahahaha!"
This child is laughing so hard he's almost silly.
Zhao Ergou was extremely annoyed; a chicken flew towards him, but he managed to dodge it.
Such a fat rooster, at least four pounds. Since it won't lay eggs, just twist off its head and take it home to stew or roast... Just thinking about it made Zhao Ergou's mouth water, and then he became even more annoyed.
Cheng Wanwan: "..."
I miscalculated. I didn't expect Zhao Tiezhu to react so quickly. He truly deserves to be called the smartest kid in Dahe Village.
She moved a few steps to the side and spent eighty coins to buy a rooster... This time, the rooster flew towards Zhao Dashan.
Zhao Dashan was quick-witted and agile, Zhao Ergou was furious, Zhao Sanniu was as imposing as a mountain, and Zhao Sidan was afraid the chicken would fly away. The four boys pounced at the same time.
"Cluck cluck! Cluck cluck!"
The rooster was pinned to the bottom and kept squawking pitifully.
Cheng Wanwan quickly pulled the children away. If the chicken was crushed to death, she would have to buy another rooster...
Fortunately, this rooster was quite resilient and flapped its wings to try to escape.
Zhao Dashan twisted a straw rope, tied the rooster up, and threw it into his basket.
“These two chickens look exactly alike.” The village head was full of surprise. “These days, wild pheasants are even stronger and more beautiful than domestic chickens. There must be some undiscovered grains in these mountains. We can look for them again when we have time.”
Cheng Wanwan thought to herself, "Village head, you're really overthinking this. These two roosters are modern artificially fed chickens. How could they not look good?"
The two families went down the mountain, and one family caught a big rooster, which attracted the attention of the villagers.
"There are many good things on the mountain!" The village headman said, suppressing his excitement. "Tell each other that everyone in the village will come to a meeting in fifteen minutes. I have some good news to tell you all!"
The whole village was in an uproar.
"The fact that there is no water today should be good news regarding water."
"Did the village head agree to some conditions with Guihua Village? Did the people of Guihua Village agree to let us go there to fetch water?"
“The people of Guihua Village are the most difficult to deal with; they probably took away half of our village’s grain.”
“Our village has no grain. All our hopes are in the fields. If it doesn’t rain, we can’t harvest a single grain of rice.”
"Forget about the fields, there's not even water for people to drink right now..."
The villagers slowly gathered in the open space next to the big locust tree.
Dahe Village has a total of 197 households. Some families have four generations living together without dividing their property, while others have four or five members living together after dividing their property. People of all ages came, totaling more than a thousand people, filling the open space.
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