At 7 am, land reclamation is underway.
All 80 hoes were taken out and distributed to everyone. As expected, the villagers had no extra tools, but fortunately, County Magistrate Zhu lent them 30 hoes.
Liu Yang also brought a group of children to help, cutting grass and picking up stones. They would be enrolled in school on the 20th of the lunar year, so they took advantage of these few days to do more work at home.
Everyone was busy as hell. Fortunately, the weather was not very hot. Old Mrs. Jiang and her two daughters-in-law were responsible for making and delivering tea to the workers, and cooking meals for the family.
The Liu family set a lunch break for everyone working from 11:00 to 1:00. By 5:00, the day's work was over, and it was still light, making it convenient for cooking and other things.
In an era without electric lights and electrical appliances, productivity was low and daylight was very important to them.
When working for my family, as long as the weather is not too hot and I don’t take a break at noon, I usually bring some simple food and drinks, and then continue to work until dark.
The 80 people we found were all capable of doing practical work, most of them were young men in the family, and Xu Fugui and Liu Laizi were also there.
They had one acre of good farmland and one acre of sandy field. They cleared the weeds from the good fields and built canals to bring water to the fields. They didn't have any ox carts or plowing tools, so they didn't rush.
The village chief said that as long as they helped, the Liu family would lend them cows and tools.
Needless to say, Xu Fugui was grateful. Liu Yuhan was his savior, and he didn't ask for any payment for his help. A lot of good medicine was spent to save him. Now his own father was helping to supervise the work.
Liu Yuhan didn't expect that Sun Xiaohua and Widow Sun would also come to ask.
She had just finished her dinner and was digesting it in the yard when she heard Xiao Si calling her and saying that someone was looking for her.
"Sister Xiaohan, I heard from your grandma that you're the one who's in charge of your family's land reclamation. We wanted to ask if you need any help there. You know my family has only one acre of good land, but we don't have any cows or tools. I can help you with the work for free. But, can you lend me the cows and tools? There are quite a few families lined up at the village chief's place, and I..."
"My family is the same as Shangxiang's. I won't ask for any wages for helping you. Can you lend me your ox and tools when you are free?"
"Sister Shangxiang, Sister Xiaohua, of course you can. But if you work longer hours, your wages will be calculated separately. You can just come at the same time as them tomorrow."
"Thank you, Xiaohan."
………………
At noon. In front of the Liu family's gate.
The two men who helped Liu Shinan lead the cow that day not only came with luggage, but also brought thirty strong men and young men. Most of them had dark skin and strong bodies. It was obvious at a glance that they must have done hard work in their daily lives.
The group felt a little embarrassed in front of them. With so many people coming at once, they were worried that the host family might not be able to accommodate so many people.
Liu Shinan received them and briefly explained the work content and working time to them.
I told Village Chief Lin yesterday that I wanted to continue renting the empty yard where the craftsmen team used to live.
Liu Daling had previously taken two taels of silver, and Village Chief Lin returned one tael to him and told them that if they wanted to rent in the future, they would have to pay 500 wen per month.
Liu Shinan went to Village Chief Lin to get the key, gave him 500 coins, and took the men who were working to the empty yard to put down their luggage.
We pulled the ox cart and the plow to the reclaimed land. Four adult oxen were led there, and the land that had been reclaimed yesterday could be plowed.
If four oxen can plow three mu of land per day, then a conservative estimate is that they can plow about ten mu a day. In ten days, that's 100 mu.
First, we need to clear out 100 acres, and then we need to build ridges, loosen the soil, and fatten the crops. None of these steps can be missed. When the time comes, we will plant as much as we can.
It seems we have to split up into three groups: the first to do the initial preparations for land reclamation, such as weeding and collecting rocks; the second to plow and build ridges; the third to fatten the cattle, and the work of repairing the canals cannot be stopped either.
Liu Yuhan went through all the possibilities that could be fattened up in this era.
She felt helpless and asked her eldest brother Liu Yang to bring a dozen young men to dig a large pit within their three mu of land at the foot of the mountain.
Prepare to pile up livestock manure, some rotten leaves and dead leaves from the mountain, as well as rotten black soil, add toilet water to make fertilizer, throw the rotten vegetable leaves in the space in, surround it, and cover the pit with wooden boards to prevent people from accidentally entering, and to increase the temperature inside to intensify fermentation.
After fermentation, take it out and dry it in the sun, and the fermented mixture becomes manure pill. This kind of fertilizer has a high fertilizer efficiency and a certain insect repellent effect.
This task was assigned to the eldest brother with more than ten people. If one pit was not enough, they would dig two or three pits.
Fortunately, there are plenty of cattle and horses at home, so we can store some fertilizer. Liu Daling is watching closely, and when he is about to pull, he will grab something to catch him...
After a busy day, the family only had time to talk after dinner.
"Grandma, why don't you go find two people in the village who can cook, pay them wages, and see if they're willing to help cook for the helpers who live in the yard next to the village chief? You have too much work to do, and it's more convenient for everyone to cook in that yard."
"Mom, what Xiaohan said makes sense. There are too many things to do. If we help with the cooking, we won't be able to do anything else. We should find someone to help cook for them."
Li also nodded.
"Okay, I'll go look around tomorrow. I have someone in mind."
Liu Yuhan planted the two acres of potatoes he had already planted. The sweet potatoes had already sprouted ten days ago and were already quite tall.
The so-called sweet potato tuber seedling method is to plant the harvested sweet potato tubers in the seedling field of your choice, and then seedlings will grow from the sweet potato tubers. Each sweet potato tuber will grow 2 or 3 sweet potato seedlings, and each seedling will have independent roots at the root.
Another method is to grow sweet potatoes using vines. This involves cutting vigorous spring potato vines, each 20-30cm long, and planting them directly without roots. Liu Yuhan's sandy soil requires more vines, so he uses vines without roots.
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