26 Start of construction
He quickly became an absolute supporter of County Magistrate Ye.
"Him? He's just a..." Sun Ning's voice was stiff. "An insignificant person."
As if to allay Ye Yunzhao's curiosity, she immediately spoke, "County Magistrate Ye, if we build a keel waterwheel according to the width and depth of the Hongyu River, how do we use this pedal?"
Ye Yunzhao casually replied, "That's easy. Just stand on it and step on it."
However, the Red Cliff River was very deep. Ye Yunzhao suddenly had an idea: "Do you think we can make four pedals? Two people can pedal together."
Sun Ning thought about it and didn't dare to make a promise. "County Magistrate Ye, I need to study this further."
After hearing this, Ye Yunzhao nodded in agreement. One cannot be careless with farm tools, let alone things related to water. If one is not careful, people may die.
Ye Yunzhao was very relieved to leave the task of making the dragon-bone waterwheel to Sun Ning. After she left, she did not return to the county government office, but went to the home of the head of Xixiang Village.
The courtyard, which had been bustling with noise just now, returned to silence. When Ye Yunzhao pushed the door open and walked in, Xixiangli was carrying a hoe and was about to go out.
"County Magistrate Ye, were those people unable to do it?" Xixiang Village Chief asked first.
"Those people?" A trace of confusion flashed across Ye Yunzhao's face. "Have all one hundred people been recruited?"
"Hey, it's time to start work!"
Ye Yunzhao originally thought that she would do some preparatory work today and officially start building the house tomorrow, but she never expected that after all this time, the construction had already begun!
It seems that the power of eight cents a day is enormous!
"Very good, very good. Now that we have started the work, we have to provide lunch today. Not only the one hundred villagers in our village, but also the refugees sleeping on the dam have to work. If they need it, you, the village head, have to mobilize each household to lend them tools." Ye Yunzhao explained carefully.
"Feeding these three hundred people is no small matter. I'm thinking that you, the village head, should find me five or six aunts who can cook. They'll cost me... three cents a day."
Three cents a day! Xixianglizheng's eyes turned, who's wife can't cook? Vegetables and food don't need to be paid for by oneself. What's the difference between cooking for laborers and cooking for one's own family?
Isn’t this just picking up money!
Before he could say anything, Xiangyun, the wife of the village head, suddenly emerged from the kitchen, holding a clay pot. Her cheeks were rosy and she smiled cheerfully, "County Magistrate Ye, can you take a look at me?"
As he spoke, he handed the pot to Ye Yunzhao and said, "County Magistrate Ye, please try my cooking! I guarantee it's delicious!"
Ye Yunzhao knew that this little bit of food was very precious, so he quickly waved his hand and said, "Auntie, I won't eat. You can come if you want, but I want to borrow your kitchen for a while. We can't cook outside, right?"
After all, he is a village head, and the iron pot in his home is much larger than that of ordinary people. Last time, he used Sun Ning's small iron pot to cook, which was too restrictive. This time, Ye Yunzhao planned to do it all in one go.
"I do! I do!" Xiangyun smiled from ear to ear and was eager to pour out the contents of the pottery jar for Ye Yunzhao to take away.
Xixiangli stood aside, his heart filled with joy, knowing why his family was chosen: "County Magistrate Ye, our iron pot is big! Just use it! Don't hesitate."
Ye Yunzhao nodded repeatedly. Seeing Aunt Xiangyun enter the kitchen to pour something for herself, she quickly waved to the Xixiang Village Chief and said, "Please ask the Village Chief to quickly select someone and have them wait for me at your door in an hour."
Then he shouted towards the kitchen: "Auntie, I have something else to do, so I'll leave first!"
After Ye Yunzhao finished speaking, she ran away as she had other important things to do.
*
On the other side, the construction of the house is also proceeding in full swing.
The person in charge was Lu Dalang, the eldest son of the Xixiang village head. He was in his prime, tall and dark, with a voice like a strong bull, and looked like a black-faced devil.
Standing beside a large expanse of wasteland, Lu Dalang said to the refugees Ye Yunzhao had brought back, "The two hundred of you will start clearing the land today."
“Those who borrowed tools cut away the thorns in the wasteland, and those who didn’t borrow tools pulled out the weeds.”
His arrangements were very reasonable, so there was no trouble.
Lu Dayuan, carrying a hoe, said to Aunt Wang's son, Wang Laiwang, "Brother Laiwang, select forty or fifty people to go to Dongshan to dig for yellow clay."
The best yellow clay in Xixiang is all in Dongshan, but the road to Dongshan is not easy to walk on and is a bit far away.
Wang Laiwang had built houses for wealthy families in the state before, so he was naturally familiar with the process. Since he had received the task of digging yellow clay, the people he chose naturally brought dustpans, shoulder poles and leisi.
Lu Dayuan nodded with satisfaction and arranged the rest of the people: "The rest of you will follow me into the mountains to cut trees."
Lu Dayuan was silently calculating in his mind. His father had said that he wanted to build seventy thatched huts, and County Magistrate Han had also instructed that the huts did not need to be too big, just enough to sleep three or four people.
We are just building them a shelter from the wind and rain first. If they want to live in a big house, they will have to work hard in the future. The small thatched hut we built for them now is already very good.
In this way, although the number of huts sounded large, the actual amount of wood needed was not much. Lu Dayuan felt that their group of people could finish chopping all the needed wood in one morning, and even if everyone was slow, they could finish it today.
In this way, under Lu Dayuan's arrangement, the three groups of people did their own work in an orderly manner, trying their best to build a new home in Lingnan County for these outsiders.
Those who followed Wang Dawang to Dongshan were more or less unhappy.
"We're building houses for the refugees, not for our own people. Why do we need to dig up the yellow clay from Dongshan? I'd just dig up some at random."
"Who says it's not true? The county magistrate is really stupid. What's the point of accepting so many refugees? He still wants to use our Xixiang land."
"You heartless thing, what nonsense are you talking about!" Wang Laiwang glared at him while carrying a plow.
Ever since Wang Laiwang saw the three-legged plow invented by Ye Yunzhao last time, and with Aunt Wang always talking at home about how bad the old county magistrate was and how good County Magistrate Ye was, he quickly became an absolute supporter of County Magistrate Ye, and now he can't stand others saying anything bad about her.
Wang Laiwang spoke bluntly. Seeing someone slandering County Magistrate Ye, he spat at his feet viciously: "You can earn eight cents just for digging dirt in Dongshan now. This great opportunity is a reward from County Magistrate Ye! If you think County Magistrate Ye is a bad person, then go home right now! I won't stop you!"
Someone nearby who understood the situation also said to the man, "You were just thinking about buying half an acre of wasteland at a low price. Now that your plan has failed, why are you still blaming County Magistrate Ye?"
Hearing this, Wang Laiwang's expression brightened from gloomy. He glanced at the speaker with admiration, then glared at him with his head tilted. "That's right! County Magistrate Ye naturally has her own plans for accepting refugees. If you didn't know better, you'd think you were educated."
The man, who was being attacked by the crowd, blushed deeply. He had just said something thoughtless and had never expected to cause such a big trouble. He quickly apologized, "Brothers, please forgive me. I was just being stupid."
Only after this did Wang Laiwang give up, and a group of people walked towards Dongshan in a mighty procession.
At three quarters past noon, when Ye Yunzhao arrived at the home of the headmaster of Xixiangli, five people had already gathered at Aunt Xiangyun's house. Perhaps they guessed that there were too many people and they would go to the mountains to pick wild vegetables. They all carried large bamboo baskets on their backs, and they looked very happy, ready to go.
Ye Yunzhao's bamboo basket was not empty. Inside it was a short bamboo mat that had been used before. Behind her followed Zhuang Xue, who had three large fish baskets tied around her waist.
Ye Yunzhao smiled and said, "Everyone is here. Let's go. I'll take you fishing."
What?! Fishing?!
Everyone looked at each other, and it was not difficult to see the surprise in their eyes. The fish in the mountains were different from ordinary river fish. They were very smart and swam very fast and fast. Most people could not catch them, and only when they were extremely lucky could they occasionally catch one.
But County Magistrate Ye is not an ordinary person!
Although they didn't get to eat the crucian carp and mushroom soup made by County Magistrate Ye last time, their husbands did eat! Ever since then, everyone knows that County Magistrate Ye has a great fishing skill!
Now, is he going to teach me this skill?!
Aunt Xiangyun couldn't keep secrets, so she covered her mouth and laughed out loud: "County Magistrate Ye, you...you want to teach us how to fish?"
"Yeah, let's go, we have to hurry."
As soon as Ye Yunzhao opened her mouth, everyone ignored everything else and hurriedly followed her out the door.
The way up the mountain was still the same, but this time Ye Yunzhao specifically told them to look around as they walked to see if there were any wild gingers.
As they lowered their heads to search, Ye Yunzhao suddenly called out, "Aunts, come and take a look."
Following the sound, Ye Yunzhao was pointing at a wild grass and turned around to wink at them.
"County Magistrate Ye, eating this grass will cause vomiting and diarrhea!"
Derris contains the poisonous rotenone, which should never be taken internally. Perhaps some people in Xixiang ate too little and only suffered from vomiting and diarrhea.
Ye Yunzhao nodded: "Aunt, you are right. This grass is poisonous, but it is also a good thing for fishing."
"Fishing?" Zhuang Xue asked. "Are we supposed to catch the fish after they've been poisoned?"
Before Ye Yunzhao could answer, Aunt Xiangyun denied it, saying, "That's impossible! The fish County Magistrate Ye brought back last time was alive! It was fresh fish!"
"You'll understand this later. Remember what this grass looks like."
Ye Yunzhao kept it a secret, pointing at the fish vine and saying, "There's no hair on the vines, but there are pockmarks on the branches. Some of them have small pink flowers, and they can grow very tall, clinging to the tree trunks. If you come across a small one, you can dig it out. If you come across a tall one, you can pick some leaves. Remember that?"
The six people had never listened so carefully. Ye Yunzhao instructed them to dig up a few trees, throw them into the bamboo basket, and walk into the woods.
Mountain springs are often not near mountain roads and need to be found in the woods. After Ye Yunzhao explained his idea, a shorter aunt pointed in a direction. Not long after walking, they found a mountain spring where fat fish were swimming freely.
Ye Yunzhao was the first to take off her backpack, take off her shoes and socks, roll up her trouser legs, and walk step by step into the cold mountain spring. The rest of the people naturally followed her example.
Ye Yunzhao explained to them clearly how to place the stream stones and how to place them on the short bamboo mats. After the fishing traps were roughly arranged, she began to tell them how to use fish vine grass.
"This grass is called Derris. Eating too much can kill people, so we don't need too much. We just need to smash the roots hard. Look, does white juice come out?"
"The juice is poisonous. Wash it quickly upstream. Just be patient and wait. There will be fish in the trap downstream soon."
Ye Yunzhao spoke and acted at the same time, and several people saw it clearly.
"So simple?" Aunt Xiangyun exclaimed.
"It's that simple."
Ye Yunzhao led them to the short bamboo mat. After a moment, Aunt Xiangyun rubbed her eyes as if she was dreaming.
All the fish in the mountain spring jumped onto the bamboo mat, jumped twice and then stopped moving!
"You are not allowed to eat these little fish." Ye Yunzhao said as he picked up the little fish on the bamboo mat and threw them into the river.
The aunt beside her swallowed her saliva and looked at the small fish thrown into the river with great regret: "County Magistrate Ye, why can't we eat them?"
Ye Yunzhao said seriously, "If we catch them all at once, what will we eat in the future? These small fish don't have much meat on them. It's better to let them grow a little bit so that we can catch them again when we want to eat them later."
A few people nodded in confusion, thinking that what County Magistrate Ye said made sense.
"Catch these big fish and put them in the fish basket." Ye Yunzhao demonstrated by catching one and throwing it into the fish basket. Then he sank it into the water and shook it. The big fish that had been motionless suddenly became lively and active.
The tail flicked, splashing water on the faces of the aunts who were stretching their heads to look.
Several people looked at each other and laughed. The sun shone through the layers of leaves. It was a good day today.
*
When Ye Yunzhao returned to the headmaster's house in Xixiang with a large piece of tofu, the diligent aunts were busy washing and cutting it.
Ye Yunzhao used a bamboo knife to cut the tofu into two halves, took half to the stove for them to use, and cut the other half into small pieces himself, preparing for tomorrow's lunch.
Originally, the other people were busy with their own work and didn't notice Ye Yunzhao at all until she poured a whole ceramic basin of cut tofu into the ash under the stove.
"Ah! County Magistrate Ye, what are you doing?"
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