Although the torches provided a bright light, there were still dark areas that couldn't be illuminated, let alone used to read blueprints.
Moreover, it was already late at night, and the younger children were all asleep in their mothers' arms.
Douhua fell asleep nestled in Sanwang's arms.
Yan Ming held the sleeping Da Tou in his arms.
Li Lanzhen said, "You can take a look tomorrow. Anyway, there's a lot of land in this canyon. When measuring the foundation, we can make the dimensions of each courtyard a little larger so that it will be more spacious to live in."
It's best to build houses in rows, with pathways between rows and between yards, just big enough for pedestrians and vehicles to pass through. This way, it's neat, looks good, and if someone needs to call out, they can hear each other.
"Grandma, we want to stay with you!"
A sudden shout brought everyone to a halt!
Li Lanzhen turned her head and saw Shi Tou and Yan Ming.
Apricot Blossom and several other children were standing nearby.
The children's eyes were slightly red as they looked at her longingly.
Li Lanzhen really wanted to slap herself.
How could I forget to address the children's housing situation?
She quickly comforted the children.
"Of course you should live with Grandma!"
Douhua, Datou, and I share a room.
You boys and girls will live separately in the west room and the three east wing rooms.
"Look at them," she continued.
"However, I still want to build you houses and yards. You will grow up, and when you grow up, you will get married and leave home."
The children smiled after hearing what she said.
They said cheerfully, "We'll listen to Grandma!"
Treehouses were built on all eleven trees.
The boys slept together, and the girls slept together.
Even the children from these families don't sleep in the same treehouse as their parents; instead, they choose to sleep separately from the other children in the village.
Li Lanzhen asked Sanwang to bring her the tofu pudding.
Han Yuemei, Linglong Miaomiao, and Douhua, a total of five people, lived in her treehouse.
It was very spacious and the floor was soft.
There's a reed bed here, and a lot of mosquitoes.
Wu instructed Xue Bao to light several more fires, and to put mugwort in each fire.
Xue Laohu also sprinkled mosquito repellent powder around the 11 trees.
As for the people on night watch, they were also arranged by Xue Laohu, and divided into three shifts so that everyone could get a good rest.
Seeing that the children were all asleep, Li Lanzhen suddenly realized that she had done something stupid.
Why are those logs and wheelbarrows for the construction site here? It must be quite a distance from here to the place where we're going to build the house and yard.
Ugh! How stupid!
She didn't want to move it anymore since it was already like this; she'd go check on it tomorrow and see how it went.
The next day was destined to be a busy one.
For breakfast, each person received a boiled wild duck egg.
These were all baskets of wild duck eggs that Li Lanzhen took out from her spatial storage.
The chickens, ducks, and geese in the space laid a lot of eggs.
She plans to buy a batch and exchange it for some silver when she goes to Youzhou City next time.
Or, after the houses and yards are repaired, each family will be given some eggs to incubate like a mother hen, placed on the heated brick bed.
If the temperature and humidity are suitable, the chicks and ducklings will successfully hatch.
After breakfast, the different groups of people started doing their own things.
Han Shunde allocated all the oxen to Zhang Deshui, letting them harness them to plow the fields. He also gave them an oxcart loaded with iron plowshares, farm tools, and seeds.
He then called upon everyone to harness horse-drawn carts and donkey carts to pull timber, which were covered with saws and axes.
Several young people vied to push the wheelbarrow.
They marched in a grand procession to the north side of the Grand Canyon, to the site where they planned to build the house and yard.
Li Lanzhen did not leave with them.
She walked ahead towards the north side of the Grand Canyon, observing the canyon as she went.
The road was high in the east and low in the west. The reed marshland in the west stretched all the way northward, and the water in the river neither decreased nor increased.
There are few trees in the middle of the Grand Canyon, but there are many trees near the cliffs on both sides of the canyon.
Even if they don't go up the mountain, they can still gather firewood and dig up fresh wild vegetables in the forests on both sides.
That's good, even if there's a heavy downpour, there won't be any mudslides.
The problem is that there isn't enough drinking water. The river water in the reed marshes is fine for washing clothes and irrigating fields, but it's not good for drinking.
Li Lanzhen wanted to find a few more springs. If there weren't any in the canyon, she could only go to the nearby mountains to take a look.
She walked fast, and the people behind her never caught up with her.
At this moment, she walked to a large, open, and relatively flat area, looking at the river to the west, which meandered here and flowed towards the western mountains. There were no reeds growing here.
She noticed that this area was relatively high up, so even if it rained or rainwater washed down from the mountains to the east, it would flow along the ditches into the large river to the west, resulting in excellent drainage.
The place that Han Shunde and his group found to build the house and courtyard should be here.
Standing on it and looking north, she could indeed see a grove of trees, which should be the peach orchard.
She looked around again and found that this was probably the best place to build a house and a yard.
The area is quite large, and all the courtyards and houses can face south. They are built in a neat and orderly manner, and it should be no problem to build more than a dozen rows of five rooms each.
While they were walking around observing, Han Shunde and his group arrived.
Han Minghai shouted, "Mom, what are you doing standing there?"
Seeing that they didn't seem to be going to stop, Li Lanzhen slowly walked over and pointed to that area.
"Isn't this the foundation for building a house?"
Han Shunde stared at the area for a moment, stunned.
He looked down again and said.
"It's not here; you have to go another mile down."
Li Lanzhen looked them over and said.
"I think this place is pretty good. The foundation is quite solid, and the river here no longer has reeds, so it's convenient for us to wash clothes and use water."
Also, this place is close to the land in front, making it convenient for people to travel between the fields during spring planting and autumn harvest.
It's also close to the cave to the east, so escaping here would be easy in case of any emergency.
Han Shunde and the others put down their vehicles and tools, walked over, and carefully examined the area.
In the end, I felt that this place was indeed nice.
Why didn't they investigate this area when they passed through here yesterday?
Li Lanzhen thought for a moment. Since they had chosen the area behind them as the foundation, she still wanted to take a look. If it was better there, they would build it there.
“Let’s go take another look over there. If it’s better than here, let’s build the house and yard there.”
They hurriedly walked north to the site they had chosen.
After walking for more than a mile, we came to see a much larger area.
Li Lanzhen looked around and saw that the terrain here was not high. The river to the west was relatively far away and closer to the Western Hills. The Western Hills also made a bend here.
The mountains to the east are still lush with trees, and that peach grove over here is only about a mile away.
She remained silent, observing the conclusion reached by Han Shunde and the others. In her heart, she still preferred the area in front.
After a while, they discussed it and said to her.
“Lanzhen, let’s build the village in the place you’ve chosen.”
The terrain there is high, close to the river, and not far from the cave to the east, making farming and management more convenient.
Li Lanzhen nodded, then looked around and thought to herself that this place would be a good location for building a processing plant or other factory buildings in the future.
Of course, she doesn't want to say it now; she'll wait until next spring to talk about these things.
Now that the location for building the village had been chosen, the men rolled up their sleeves and began clearing a level area, then measuring out each courtyard.
Li Lanchun did not participate, but simply took out two baskets from her spatial storage, which were filled with wild vegetable cakes.
She told Han Minghai and then went back to the 11 trees.
When she arrived, she walked along the river in the reed marshes and observed, but she did not find any trace of spring water.
On her way back, she walked along the eastern mountain but found no trace of a spring.
I felt a pang of regret, thinking that I should still go up the mountain tomorrow to see if there is a spring in the mountain, and what method I should use to bring it down directly to the village, which would be much more convenient.
When Han Shunde and the others left, they told Xun Nizi and the others that they would not be back for lunch and would not return until the afternoon.
So at noon, Xue Nizi and the others filled large wooden basins with food, loaded them onto an oxcart, and took it to deliver the meals to them.
Lunch was a big stew of wild boar ribs, chicken, rabbit, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and wild vegetables, with soup, meat, and vegetables all in one pot. There were also plenty of wild vegetable pancakes for everyone.
Zhang Deshui and his colleagues lived relatively close by, and they all had a great time working that morning.
When they came back for dinner, everyone's faces were beaming, and they couldn't stop smiling.
He kept saying, "This land is so fertile, this place is wonderful."
After lunch, Li Lanzhen climbed up to the treehouse; she wanted to take a nap.
I'll also go into the space to take a look, since Zhang Deshui and the others have already cultivated the land and planted the seeds.
Has the small canyon within the space also changed?
The children skipped their afternoon nap and went with the older kids to collect wild duck eggs by the river or to dig for wild vegetables.
Li Lanzhen went up to the treehouse, slipped into the space, and was startled!
A young man wearing a silver mask stood before me.
How do you survive?
"Otherwise what? I should be dead!"
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