The village party secretary went to the commune and asked them to get some water tickets. Of course, water tickets were exchanged for grain. Paper was very valuable at the time, so each ticket was cut to the size of a baby's finger and stamped with the village committee's seal. They were distributed per person, and one ticket had to be handed in for every bucket of water.
Everything was ready, and they were just waiting for the well-drilling team to come to the village to drill a well. However, many villages had realized the problem of water shortage, so the well-drilling team was particularly busy. The village checked the calendar and found that it would be at least half a month before it was their turn. How could this be? Not only could the crops not wait, but the people couldn't wait either. So, Village Chief Ma ran to Grandma Yan's house again.
The house has been so lively these past few days. One person after another has come to visit, another to pry into our lives, making Grandma Yan feel dizzy and overwhelmed. In the end, Yan Xiaoqiang had to chase them all out before things finally calmed down.
Yan Xiaonan couldn't understand the way people thought in this era. Instead of coming to my house to ramble on and try to find out what's going on, they should have gone and figured out how to find food themselves. Everyone knows that food is precious these days, yet they keep bringing up the idea of borrowing grain. Who would care about that?
Village Chief Ma is here again. Now Yan Xiaonan is a little disgusted with this Village Chief Ma. You are the village chief, yet you always ask my grandma for advice. It would be better if my grandma were the village chief. At least she gets a village chief's allowance every month.
Seeing Yan Xiaonan's disdain, Xinan quickly whispered to her, "Nannan, you mustn't underestimate the village chief. He has a lot of power. Think about the land he approved for my family and the things that happened when we built the house."
Yan Xiaonan stuck out her tongue. Oh right, how could she have forgotten about that? Luckily, Southwest reminded her. She should reflect on her mistake. She immediately ran to Grandma Yan's side and gave Village Chief Ma her most amiable smile.
When Village Chief Ma saw Yan Xiaonan, he immediately thought she was a lucky charm. He lowered his voice and asked Yan Xiaonan, "Girl, do you have any ideas on how to get the well-drilling team to come and help us dig the well sooner?"
After speaking, he started talking to Grandma Yan without waiting for Nan Nan's reply. He didn't place any hope on Yan Xiao Nan at all. Grandma Yan sighed inwardly. The village chief really didn't know what a gem was. If he knew that the water source was actually found by this two-year-old child, would he be terrified?
Yan Xiaonan knew the village chief was teasing her, but she didn't care about his attitude. She whispered to her grandmother, "Grandma, send the grain to the team leader, cut in line."
Grandma Yan's eyes lit up. "That's right! The village committee doesn't lack food now. With so much grain collected from so many people, we can just give a pound or two to the well-drilling team leader and then cut in line. Why wait so long?"
However, delivering grain is a difficult task now. You can't let others know that it's a delivery, but you also have to let them know that it's a delivery. That's quite a challenge. Yan Xiaonan rolled her eyes again. There are countless ways to do this. Why do you always choose the most difficult one? It's driving me crazy.
Grandma Yan noticed the little girl secretly rolling her eyes, so she quickly made an excuse that the little girl needed to sleep and asked the village chief to sit in the main room for a while. She then took Nannan to the west room and said, "My dear, tell me, why are you rolling your eyes? Do you have a good idea?"
Yan Xiaonan nodded: "Find someone you know, go to his office when no one is around, say that you got the grain through someone else, and hand it to him."
Grandma Yan nodded, saying it was a good idea. She told Yan Xiaonan to take a nap, then closed the door and went to the main room to discuss the feasibility of the idea with the village chief. The village chief nodded, saying that the village chief's son and this guy were on good terms, so they decided to go with it.
The next day, the village secretary's son brought a pound of rice to the well-digging team leader. No need for a word, the three words "Mushroom Village" were enough. On the third day, the team leader came with the well-digging team. Goodness, they brought so many tools! Just looking at them made me feel tired.
The village chief led the group to the water source at the foot of the mountain. The team leader gave a thumbs up, saying, "Mushroom Village has some capable people. They can find the water source so accurately. Amazing!"
The village chief quickly said, "It was a boy from my village who went to the army who told his mother that this is how the army finds water sources."
Upon hearing this, the captain was about to ask what the solution was, but he quickly shut his mouth. He couldn't ask any more questions since he had already received a gift from the company.
With a wave of his hand, the entire team gathered together. After carefully measuring the ground, they began to dig wells using the large trenching method, manually excavating the ground and then using blasting to excavate deeper wells.
The loud explosion drew everyone out of their homes. The bolder ones took a few steps towards the foot of the mountain, while the timid ones leaned against their own courtyard gates, watching outwards, ready to close the gates and hide at the slightest sign of trouble.
Several explosions were heard, followed by cheers from the well diggers. Water had surfaced! The team leader took out a folding measuring tool and measured the water point. It was indeed 30 meters above the ground. He quickly ordered people to use a drill bit and a steel cable to extract the debris and remove the gravel from the hole.
The well has been dug, but it cannot be used yet. The villagers have to use tools to slowly chisel the well walls flat, ensuring that the top and bottom diameters are the same, and they also have to clean all the silt from the bottom. This is a lot of hard work.
The village chief came up with a plan where people could work for free, earning ten centimeters a day in exchange for water tickets. Families who owed the village centimeters were given priority. As a result, Wang Gou Dan and Wang Er Niu were the first to be called upon. Several other lazy households in the village were also called over to work. They worked for two whole days, which made the village chief so angry that he kept cursing.
The freshly dug well water wasn't drinkable, so it was perfect for irrigating the sweet potato fields. This time, with the village chief watching, the lazybones couldn't slack off and actually managed to water the sweet potato fields thoroughly.
Seeing that the water was starting to clear, they had someone collect small stones and lay them at the bottom of the well. Then they found some maifanite and laid it on top, followed by another layer of small stones. They added alum and waited overnight, after which the well water was drinkable.
A pit about half a person's height was built around the well to prevent people from falling in. It also served a very important purpose: to make a well cover with a buckle on the edge to attach it to the pit and lock it in place, so no one could steal water.
To ensure fairness, the village chief also had Tang Jianjun make several wooden buckets of the same size. From then on, one ticket could be used to fill one bucket of water. As for the key, it was kept by the village chief, who would open the well cover on time every day and let people come and collect water with their tickets.
Yan Dongnan would carry two large buckets to fetch water every day. Each large bucket could hold more than two wooden buckets of water. He would fetch water twice a day, which was just right. At first, the villagers were very curious about whether the Yan family could use up so much water every day.
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