Chapter 218 The Tree That Is Hard to Cut Down
After they returned home, none of them dared to tell their families that they had heard a tiger roar on the mountain.
They were afraid that if their families found out, they would stop them from going hunting in the mountains.
On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Zhang Shuzhen went up the mountain and killed two yellow-haired wolves. On the seventh day, she cooked a feast at home.
Then, after sending the children away, they went to invite Liu Changde and his son, as well as Wang Jianshe, Chen Weiguo, and their families.
During the Chinese New Year, everyone can get together, have a drink, and chat.
The next day, the eighth day of the first lunar month, it was time for the frontline workers of the forest farm to go up the mountain to work.
At eight o'clock in the morning, the internal combustion engines and commuter buses in the yard were already waiting at the small train station.
This time, it wasn't as lively as it was at the beginning of the winter travel season. Only family members went to see them off at the station; there were no drums or songs.
Winter production takes place every year, and the men from each family go up the mountain to work every year; in fact, everyone is already used to it.
It's enough to organize it once a year at the start of the Winter Games; it gets meaningless if you keep doing it all the time.
The people who guarded the large warehouse and those responsible for tending the fire on the mountain took turns on duty.
So once everyone got to the mountain, they didn't need to worry about heating the kang (heated brick bed) or cleaning; they could go straight into the mountains to work.
The logging area under the responsibility of the educated youth team only had one last patch of forest left to be logged, which would probably be finished in a few days.
After that, the felled timber is gathered together, slid down to the log yard at the foot of the mountain, and then the logs are collected, measured, and that completes the work for this season.
"Our team's arrangements are still similar to those before the Lunar New Year; everyone can just do their own thing."
Upon arriving at the mountain, Sheng Xiping led his men on a tour to check the surroundings. After confirming that there was nothing unusual, he began to arrange the work.
“Jianshe and Zhijun, you two will have to work as Li Dazhuang’s assistants.”
The last remaining section of forest has somewhat complex terrain and is not easy to log in. Please be careful and proceed slowly; safety is our priority.
As the team leader, you must be thoroughly familiar with the situation in the entire logging area.
The remaining areas have steep slopes and rocky cliffs, with complex terrain that makes logging difficult, but the tree species are excellent.
Sheng Xiping was still worried and gave him repeated instructions.
"Fusheng, take your men and hurry up and repair all the ice ditches."
We've accumulated a lot of timber before the Lunar New Year that hasn't been placed yet. We need to hurry up and slide it down after the New Year, otherwise it will be difficult when the temperature rises again.
This year, the Lunar New Year is late; it's February 11th. They won't be back to work until February 18th.
The Rain Water solar term is just around the corner. From now on, the weather will be freezing, but the water won't freeze. The snow on the mountain will melt during the day and then freeze again at night.
The longer it is delayed, the more difficult it will be to slide the timber down, so we must hurry.
After the sledding before the Lunar New Year and the snowfall during the holiday, some parts of the ice gully are uneven, or the stones and soil underneath are exposed.
Therefore, we must hurry up and fix it so that we can slide all the timber down as soon as possible.
These are all veteran educated youth; they know how to do things, so there's no need for too many instructions.
Everyone was doing their own thing, and everything was proceeding in an orderly and efficient manner, busy but not chaotic.
Zhou Qinglan and several other female educated youths took a small train back to the forest farm on the eighth day of the first lunar month.
These girls have been living in the Sheng family for so long, and although they were supposed to pay rent, the Sheng family refused. So, the girls brought a lot of things for the Sheng family as a token of their appreciation.
The day after returning to the forest farm, Zhou Qinglan took a car up the mountain to continue her measurement work.
Taking a break, Zhou Qinglan went to find Sheng Xiping, and the two chatted for a while.
The couple set their wedding date for April 9th, which is the 28th day of the second month in the lunar calendar.
If you do the math, there's only a little over a month and a half left.
The two young people were very much looking forward to it and agreed that they would get their marriage certificate as soon as their work on the mountain was over.
Timber production on the mountain is proceeding normally. Li Dazhuang came up after the New Year and performed much better than before.
One reason is that the young man went back and inquired about the output of other work teams, and found that although the educated youth team relied on manual labor, their output was not low.
If things continue like this, the educated youth team will likely be recognized as advanced, and he, the saw-wielder, may also be recognized as an outstanding lumberjack.
How many people truly don't care about honor? Li Dazhuang knew he wasn't capable of winning it before, so he didn't even consider it.
Now that he knows there's a chance to win an award, Li Dazhuang has become quite capable and works very hard.
Another reason is that during the Chinese New Year, Li Dazhuang was scolded several times by his master, Lao Zhang.
Last time during logging, they encountered a giant tree that had been sitting on its throne. In the end, it was Sheng Xiping who stepped in and brought it down.
At first, no one in the educated youth team told anyone, but during the Spring Festival, someone got drunk and let it all slip out.
When Lao Zhang heard this, he realized that his apprentice hadn't even managed to cut down a single poplar tree, yet he had become a high-ranking official, and in the end, it was Sheng Xiping, this educated youth, who brought him down.
Could Old Zhang, with his temper, stand it? He felt humiliated and shamed, so he caught Li Dazhuang and gave him a good scolding.
Li Dazhuang was scolded by his master, and he was holding back his anger.
So he thought he would work hard after the New Year and try to get recognized as an outstanding lumberjack, so that his master could see that he was capable.
Driven by two factors, Li Dazhuang really worked very hard after the New Year.
With Wang Jianshe and Zhang Zhijun, both capable assistants, working well together, the logging speed was quite fast.
Ten days after the group arrived on the mountain, the logging area was almost completely dried up, leaving only a dozen or so white pines on the slopes of a few hills.
Those white pines grow on steep mountain slopes, some even growing in the crevices of rocks, with almost no place to stand under the trees, making logging extremely difficult.
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