Chen Yang climbed onto the roof and carefully inspected the laying of the tiles and eaves, while filling some gaps with the inferior cement they had developed themselves.
This should prevent the leaks from being too severe. They considered rain protection when they built it; it wasn't just a matter of simply putting a triangular roof on top.
In addition, they covered all the firewood in the woodshed with leaves, just enough to prevent water from seeping into the inner layer.
The smoking room was temporarily shut down, and waterproofing measures were reinstated. All the smoked meat was stored in earthenware jars along with some dried fruit.
The largest project involves rain shelters for farmland.
Jiang Bo's father has already dug the drainage ditch, but the construction of the rain shelter is still underway.
They divided the rain shelter into four sections, otherwise it would have been easily overturned. Moreover, building them separately made maintenance much simpler; if only one large shelter had been built, the entire shelter would have collapsed if even one pole had fallen.
Building these temporary rain shelters requires a large number of roof tiles, and the tiles need to be waterproof enough to keep out rainwater. More importantly, the tiles need to be sturdy enough to not be blown away by the wind.
The structure of the rain shelter doesn't need to be complicated, but it must be sturdy; they don't want to have to brave the rain to repair it later.
The rain shelters can definitely be built before the rainstorm arrives, because the planting areas are all in the time acceleration zone, which gives them more than 20 days. If they work hard, they can finish even one house, let alone several rain shelters.
The tiles were dried in the accelerated time zone, and the firing process was carried out simultaneously in several kilns.
With the timeline accelerated, they completed the four rain shelters in two days, much faster than expected. Most of the time was spent on reinforcement, driving stakes into the base of each pillar and securing them with large stones.
The fishpond area, however, had the most massive amount of construction work.
They planned to dig a large pit to attract the fish, then build a fence at the bottom with iron bars to enclose the fish inside the pit, and build a dam around the outside of the pit so that even if the water level rose, the fish could still survive in the pit they dug.
However, this approach has several problems. First, the pits they dig must be large enough, otherwise the fish will huddle together and easily die.
Secondly, they must ensure the water quality in the pit. Although the water in the pit is connected to the lake, the circulation rate is not high enough, and the water quality can easily become turbid.
The last and most troublesome problem is the fish's food.
Originally, the fish in the fishpond survived by eating aquatic plants and microorganisms, and were occasionally given some food, mostly insects and ants. Theoretically, most fish could go a week without eating.
When all the fish are huddled together, hungry, and facing a storm that makes them uneasy, the fish are easily agitated, which can cause a large number of deaths.
They can make their own fish food, just a mixture of animal liver and plants. The fish are not picky eaters, but every one or two days, someone has to brave the heavy rain to feed them.
After Chen Yang and his team finished building the defensive shed, they also went to help dig the pit to make sure it was big enough.
Guo Zifeng mixed the soil from the part connecting to the lake into mud, and then fired it to make pottery. The iron fence has already been installed, and to prevent accidents, they made multiple layers and reinforced the soil layers.
Hong Gui had a lot of scrap iron from his previous blacksmithing work, and he melted it down and forged it again, producing these iron bars in a short time.
The pit is several tens of meters away from Chenghu Lake, and there are several pools of water in between, which can be used to divert water from Chenghu Lake.
They laid some pebbles at the bottom and in the pit to provide some purification and reduce soil erosion. The remaining water from this temporary fishpond and the flow of water through Chenghu Lake will further purify the water source.
Yang Yu also tried to transplant some aquatic plants, hoping they could survive in the temporary fishpond, as plants have the most powerful purifying function.
Ding Qihan and Weng Ji have also returned. They have made some predictions, but they still need to carefully observe the terrain to study it.
Wengji identified several types of fish with strong aggressive tendencies. Chen Yang and the others caught and ate these fish to prevent them from causing trouble during the storm. This is the fate of mischievous creatures.
The digging of the fishpond will continue until the last day before the fish are moved there. Until then, the fish will be dug as large as possible. Dikes will be built as the digging progresses.
The island in the middle of the lake is simpler. The farmland is only so big, and three rain shelters have been built to protect it all. The animals will find their own shelter on the island.
Furthermore, the first floor of the island in the lake was originally used for storing miscellaneous items and raising livestock, and animals often came to stay there; they were already used to it. Hou Yu left the gate open, and if the animals couldn't avoid the rain, they would come to take shelter on their own.
On the fifth day, halfway through the day, Chen Yang discovered a powerful cheat device: Xiao Hei.
Xiao Hei had been watching them dig the hole for a day or two, and then he actually picked up a shovel and started digging himself. Chen Yang was overjoyed and immediately rewarded him with smoked jerky.
Rewarded, Little Black got excited and started digging furiously with its shovel. It was now getting bigger and bigger, almost like an adult black bear, and it was incredibly strong. Although it wasn't very good with the shovel, it was almost as fast as four people, and it could often dig up a large area with just one shovel.
Chen Yang and the others followed behind, clearing the soil out of the pit. Guo Zifeng mixed the water and soil together to form a dam, and then started a fire next to it to dry it.
With Xiao Hei as a new force, their digging speed increased significantly.
Seeing how much its little brother, Little Black, was pampered, the European Emperor seemed to get jealous. It carried Three Fatty around, looking for something to do, but no one seemed to need its help, which made it quite disappointed. On the other hand, Three Fatty lay comfortably on the European Emperor's back.
The European king has almost fully grown into a large dog, only slightly smaller than an Alaskan Malamute, and carrying a fat cat wouldn't be a problem.
In the end, Li Su'er discovered the fallen Emperor of Europe and gave it the task of delivering food.
She would wrap the food up or put it in a bamboo tube, tie it to the European Emperor, and then the European Emperor would give it to the people working at the fishpond or the people in the vineyard.
The clever European Emperor successfully completed the task, winning unanimous praise and earning the title of "Delivery Dog".
The rain shelters and drainage ditches on the other side of the western border river have also been completed, and they are now working hard to dredge mud and pile up stones to build a dike. Although the farmland is relatively close to the western border river, the dike should be sufficient for defense, so there is no need to worry too much about the western border river.
There were no problems with the island campsite in the middle of the lake; the most worrying issues were the fishpond and grapevines at the Xindu campsite.
Ding Qihan observed the terrain where the grapevines were located. Drainage there wasn't a problem; water accumulation was extremely unlikely. However, some trees had been cut down to allow the grapes to receive better sunlight, which had weakened their wind and rain protection. While reinforcing the grape trellis, Yun Shi also built windbreaks and rain shelters for each vine, but the effectiveness was uncertain. He left some extra wood and tiles there for future repairs.
Preparations are almost complete; now we're just waiting for the torrential rain to put us to the test.
(End of this chapter)
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