Chapter 173 Expansion
Not far away, a dozen men gathered under the low city wall, all busy with their work.
Instead of repairing the walls, they raised their hammers and completely demolished the already dilapidated walls. Then they rummaged through the ruins, storing the relatively intact bricks separately and sweeping up the debris at will.
Chen Chunxing thought they looked familiar, as if they were all the bandits he had brought back before.
The locals are relatively thin, only the bandits can be considered fat and strong.
She couldn't help but pull the reins, stop the mule cart by the roadside, waved to Yang, and walked over.
“Yo!”
Hearing this somewhat frivolous greeting, several men raised their heads with unfriendly expressions, then quickly changed their expressions and turned them into attentive and silly smiles.
“Miss Shen!”
"How come you have time to go into town today?"
"Are you here to see Master Xue? Do you want me to lead the way for you..."
"Miss, have you eaten? If not, our brothers will treat you to a...working lunch."
God knows how much effort they put in, their faces are twitching.
Chen Chunxing glanced curiously at the debris on the floor and said casually, "You guys still have work meals?"
"That's..." One of the men said with a wry smile, "Master Xue said that if you want a horse to run, you have to feed it enough grass."
Chen Chunxing smiled, pointed at the battered city wall, and asked, "Didn't I ask you to repair the city wall? Why doesn't it look like it's being repaired?"
"Hasn't the young lady heard?" The man was stunned and hurriedly explained, "Lord Xue wanted to expand Honglu County. The previous city walls were like tofu dregs, so he simply tore them down and rebuilt them."
Chen Chunxing was suddenly surprised.
Ah Huai never told him this... The county town is indeed not big, so it can be expanded.
It's just that the regulations seem a bit strange.
She pondered for a moment, then asked, "Why don't you find more people?"
No matter how small a county town is, it cannot be built by a hundred people. This section can be divided into a dozen people at most, and it will take a long time to complete.
The man replied with a sad face, "Master Xue wants to find it too, but he really...can't find it."
Someone nearby angrily interrupted, "I don't know what's wrong with the people here. They'd rather stay home and starve than go out and take a job. In our area, jobs like building the city wall are something everyone would rush to do."
"When the city wall is built, won't the people in the city benefit?"
The man who was born in the border area sighed, "We can't blame them entirely."
"Honglu County is located on the only way to Beijing, and has suffered hardships for many years. Look at this city wall, it has been breached countless times."
"If there hadn't been any major activity over the past two years, I wouldn't even be able to find any living people, let alone find anyone to work with!"
The surroundings suddenly fell silent.
Chen Chunxing glanced at the man who was speaking and couldn't help but remind them: "It's only been a few days since you left the mountain stronghold, and you've already learned to worry about the country and the people. You're quite awakened, aren't you?"
The man rolled his eyes, covered his stomach, groaned, and ran to find a secluded place to squat.
“…”
Chen Chunxing had to leave even though he didn't want to. Before leaving, he said, "Let Master Xue lead you to build toilets first. We need to focus on people's livelihood issues. Summer is approaching, and I don't want to see any epidemics like malaria appear in the city."
The man was stunned and took note of these words.
——
By evening, a warm orange halo appeared on the horizon.
The farmers who returned home together greeted the people on the mule cart with a smile.
Su Runrun lay by the window frame, looking out curiously. When she smelled a slight smell of cow dung in the air, she pinched her nose in disgust.
“I don’t like it here!”
Lin Popo didn't even think about it and blurted out, "Then you leave?"
The little girl puffed up her cheeks in grievance, her fair and tender face looked like a dough.
Lin Popo sincerely held her in his arms and squeezed her into a ball.
In the school.
Diao had already prepared the meal, a pot of Northeastern stew.
The base is made of braised bones, garnished with some miscellaneous seasonal vegetables. When it is almost cooked, long flower rolls made of two-grain noodles are added and then simmered.
The steamed buns, soaked in soup, are soft, moderately salty, and exude an alluring aroma.
The children love to eat it.
There were simply too many people in the family, and Diao didn't want to make those delicate stir-fries again after making them once. Thinking of the stew that Lao Wang had made, she decided to follow his example.
She talked with the villagers today, loaded the pickles onto the truck, and went to the pottery shop to pick and choose some high-quality goods, intending to take them to Yangjiatun to see if there was a market for them.
"Why did you bring back three more?"
The mule cart stopped and the smile on the old lady's face froze. She stared at the group of people filing out and said in astonishment.
We agreed to buy a mule, but didn’t say we wanted to buy a person!
"Oh, please come back to help, so that you can feel at ease when you leave." Chen Chunmei let a few people enter the house first, and she smiled and held Diao's arm.
"That girl in the yellow skirt, is she also here to help? What can she do?" Diao's eyes never left Lin Popo.
"Don't look at her skinny appearance, she can beat ten of me! Please come back and teach the children some self-defense skills."
Diao rolled her eyes and thought to herself, I, an old woman, can beat ten people like you!
After Chen Chunxing briefly explained the dispute in the backyard of the county government office, Diao changed her attitude and smiled at Lin Bobo who was washing his hands.
"This girl is obviously a formidable one. Don't take that small bowl, get a bigger one! We don't treat teachers unfairly here!"
Lin Popo picked up the soup bowl blankly and filled it shyly.
Baji, Baji——
Wondering.
How did the old lady know that she had done food broadcasting before? Hey!
His heroic manner of eating impressed everyone in the courtyard.
Don't blame her, it's been too long since she last ate human food.
Niu Chunhua, who hid in the house, was not much better off.
Diao stood at the gate and watched for a while, then quietly asked Chen Chunxing, "Which of them can cook?"
Chen Chunxing blinked and smiled sweetly: "They can both learn."
"..." Diao raised her voice, "So they don't know anything? Is that person inside also here to be a teacher?"
Chen Chunxing thought about it and said, "Yeah." The one inside is here to be the dean of studies.
Diao's eyes twitched. "More than twenty students and four or five teachers! Even the capital doesn't have such luxury, right? It's not like they're picking up cabbages."
In the end, she didn't curse out loud, muttering, "Forget it, forget it. Luckily, your grandma and I were prepared... Tomorrow I'll take people to Yangjiatun. You better take care of yourself and don't run around anymore!"
Chen Chunxing stood at attention and patted his chest to promise: "Whoever runs around again will get up eight times in one night!"
“…”
Wang Youcai stood under the wooden shed and shouted, "Are you two going to eat or not? If you don't, there will only be juice left!"
"I'll eat! I'll eat!"
Before Chen Yandong opened his mouth, the voice came out by itself. He looked around suspiciously and found that his eldest sister had brought back a little girl.
Suddenly I became alert.
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