Chapter 283 Building Houses and Farming
There were quite a few "coolies" attracted by the steel-toothed rabbits hung outside to dry in the sun. In five days, Xia Xiaoman caught eight of them, including men, women, young and old.
Xia Xiaoman was too lazy to remember these people's names, so she named them Xiaoyi, Xiaoer, Xiaosan, Xiaosi...
Except for Xiao San and Xiao Si, no one else had any objections to their names. Those who had any objections would no longer have any objections under Xia Xiaoman's fist.
Xia Xiaoman would take care of these people's three meals a day, and the food standards were the same as those of the official ones, with two large bowls of porridge for each meal. But the work they did was more than the official requirements, and they had to work 16 hours a day before they could stop, and they were treated like donkeys.
But there is one thing that is much better than working for the government, that is, there is enough water. If you are too hungry, you can drink a big bowl of water. And the porridge is also better than the official one, without any weird smell.
With these eight coolies, all the mud bricks needed to build the house were ready in less than half a month.
Xia Xiaoman picked a place not far from the Lingxu Gang, drew the approximate layout of the house on the ground with a stick, and asked the laborers to dig the foundation and build the house.
Now the higher-ups are busy solving the famine problem and have no time to care about them. Xia Xiaoman wanted to build any size house outside the garrison, but she didn't build it too big. She only built a house with two bedrooms, a living room and a bathroom.
There is a 30-square-meter yard outside the house, and opposite the yard is the field planned by Xia Xiaoman.
The amount of food in the space has been reduced so much that she can no longer idle around like before. It’s time to do something serious.
The reason why she chose this place was because of the land in front of the yard. The land was relatively flat and all yellow soil. If she turned the land over and added some fertilizer, she should be able to grow a lot of food.
It was extremely hot the year before last, and Fucheng had some heat-resistant new potatoes. She still had some in her hands. If they were cut into small pieces, they could probably be used to plant two mu of land. The rest of the land could be used to plant other heat- and drought-resistant crops.
When the digital coolies helped her build a house, Xia Xiaoman left Maodan to look after the house, and went to the garrison to recruit six people to come back to help her turn the soil. She brought her own tools, and if she didn't have any tools, she would find a way to borrow them. She only had a shovel and a hoe, and the hoe was brought from her hometown.
He took the six workers home and saw that the digital coolies were all covered in dirt and their clothes were torn. He asked, "Escaped again?"
Xiaoyi, who was beaten the most, said hurriedly: "Boss, I didn't run away. It was them who wanted to escape, and Brother Mao beat them up."
"Awooo!" Maodan raised his head and chest proudly.
Xia Xiaoman raised her eyebrows, "Then what's going on with you?"
Xiaoyi explained: "I fell down while helping Brother Mao catch someone. If you don't believe me, you can ask Brother Mao."
"Awoo, awoo!" This guy is so stupid, he can even wrestle a person to the ground, but his balls are still useless.
Xia Xiaoman scratched Maodan's chin, looked at Xiaoyi and said, "You know what's going on. You can have an extra half bowl of porridge at noon."
Upon hearing this, Xiaoyi smiled happily and said flatteringly: "Thank you, boss! Thank you, boss!"
Xia Xiaoman waved her hand and told him to go back to work. Then she took the workers to the fields she had drawn and asked them to plow the land first.
The wages paid to workers are slightly higher than the official wages. Working for the official, you can eat two bowls of porridge for 8 hours, and one more bowl for manual labor. In her place, you get three meals a day for 8 hours of work, one bowl of porridge for breakfast and dinner, and one and a half bowls for lunch, which is half a bowl more than the official wages.
Don’t underestimate this half bowl of porridge. Many people are vying to work for it, but most people don’t have the tools and can only watch the job fall on others.
After arranging the work, Xia Xiaoman asked Maodan to be the supervisor while she took a hoe and dug a hole nearby. She wanted to use this big hole to ferment the manure water.
It is too late to ferment the fertilizer now, but you can ferment the manure water. When the crops grow, you can water them with manure water a few more times, which can also provide nutrients to the crops.
"Xiaoman! Xiaoman, are you home? Maodan, where is your master?" Su Ran came over carrying seven or eight skinned steel-tooth rabbits.
Maodan sat there without moving, and howled twice in the direction of Xia Xiaoman. As a supervisor, he couldn't leave his post at will. What if someone took advantage of his absence to slack off?
After roaring twice, it continued to stare at everyone working on the scene. If someone was lazy, it would walk over and bare its teeth at them to intimidate them. If they didn't listen, it would bite them directly.
Seeing that he couldn't rely on it, Su Ran carried the Steel-Tooth Rabbit and searched for a while before he saw Xia Xiaoman hiding in the corner digging a hole.
"Sister Xiaoman, why are you digging here? Are you setting a trap?"
"Making a cesspool." Xia Xiaoman wiped the sweat off her face. "Why are you here?"
"I'm sending you today's rabbit. Look, it's already been cleaned." Su Ran handed the rabbit out.
Xia Xiaoman took the rabbit and looked at it. "There are so few. Do many people sell their internal organs like us?"
Su Ran sighed, "Yeah! Recently more and more people are learning to sell offal like us, and business is getting worse and worse. And it seems that almost all the steel-toothed rabbits in the area have been caught. We used to be able to catch dozens a day, but now we can only catch five or six at most."
There are more than two million people in the garrison, and the meat of a steel-toothed rabbit is only as small as the size of a palm. An adult man needs to eat at least seven or eight steel-toothed rabbits in one meal to feel full. There are not enough steel-toothed rabbits nearby for more than two million people. It is normal that the number of rabbits will decrease.
Xia Xiaoman sighed: "No matter what kind of animal it is, as long as it is edible, it will be eaten to extinction."
Su Ran smiled and said, "They are not extinct yet, just less in number. But it is good this way, otherwise they won't be able to grow food in the planting areas."
After saying that, he remembered something and said, "Sister Xiaoman, I heard that Heizhu Village has helped the government dig a well. Don't you want to dig a well? Do you want to make an appointment with Heizhu Village first?"
"Do we need to make an appointment? Do many people come to them to dig wells?" Xia Xiaoman asked.
Su Ran nodded. "Some gangs with some supplies know that the people of Heizhu Village can dig wells. After the villagers help the government dig wells, they will immediately ask these villagers to go back and dig wells. If you don't make an appointment, it will be difficult for you to get a turn in a short time."
Xia Xiaoman said: "Then I will go to the people in Heizhu Village to make an appointment tomorrow."
After the land is turned over, she will plant crops. Planting crops requires a lot of water, and it would not be appropriate to go to Lingxu to fetch water at that time.
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