After the two groups left, a new round of land reclamation and farming began throughout Longtan County.
Pan Qingfeng was not there, so Lin Yiheng took the register he had made and called everyone to gather in the open space in front of the county government office.
Lin Yuanzhi, Lin Tiezhuang, and the team leaders waited to the side, then turned around to lead the people assigned to their teams away.
The Taoist priest and the teachers from the school also came, carrying the list of children that Lin Yiheng had copied for him.
Lin Yiheng knew that the teacher was going to take the child away, so he briefly introduced the child to everyone and then went first.
Master Dao glanced at the excited crowd, cleared his throat, and unfolded the papers in his hand.
"The children whose names I call, please come forward."
Everyone looked at each other, filled with anxiety about whether their child would be selected.
A moment later, more than twenty children under the age of thirteen stepped forward one by one.
After the teacher checked and confirmed that everything was correct, he said, "You will all come with me to the school to collect your books and supplies. From now on, you will attend classes at 7:00 AM and be dismissed at 3:00 PM. Unless you feel unwell, you may not ask for leave!"
Led by the older children, the children bowed to the two teachers.
"I will heed the Master's teachings!"
Before leaving, some parents, worried about me, quickly gave me some instructions.
"Gousheng, when you go to school, you must listen to the teacher."
"Erwa, be more diligent and help the teacher with the chores more!"
"..."
Master Dao walked ahead with his hands behind his back, ignoring what was being said behind him.
The teacher next to him frowned repeatedly as he listened. What kind of nonsense were these names? He would definitely give them nicer names later.
After the children left, Lin Yiheng stepped forward again. As usual, the team split into two groups: most of them went to clear land, and a small number went to build houses.
After the teams were divided, everything proceeded smoothly.
The second crop of rice seeds has already been planted.
Lin Yinan then sent Liang Wen to the mountains to look for sugarcane, as their people said they had seen a large sugarcane field in a mountain valley.
Although the sugarcane is very sweet, the shell is too hard and tough on the teeth, so they don't like to eat it.
"Lord City Lord, what do you need that thing for?" Liang Wen asked, puzzled.
Lin Yinan said, "It's used to extract sugarcane."
"Cane sugar? Is it the same as maltose?"
"Yes, that's right. Once we make the sugar, we can sell it."
Upon hearing that sugar made from sugarcane could be sold for money, Liang Wen and the others were very enthusiastic, because the sugarcane field they had seen before was not small.
After preparing dry food and water, Liang Wen led his guards and several men who came down from the mountain into the dense forest.
Lin Shuo led the team to reclaim wasteland and cultivate the land. With the guidance of people who had lived in Longtan County before, they went north from the city gate, passed through a forest, and found fertile fields.
The fertile fields were overgrown with weeds, and the workers were sweating profusely as they wielded their sickles to cut the weeds, which were taller than a person.
Some people took small hoes and dug up the edible wild vegetables that were exposed on the ground.
“Chunni’s mother, look, those girls are secretly stuffing the wild vegetables they’ve dug up into their clothes,” a woman said, pointing to the people who had just joined the group.
"Let's go take a look."
Chunni's mother picked up the basket from the ground and walked towards the group of people.
Those women were all brought by Pan Qingfeng. Chunni's mother stood behind them for a long time without noticing them, and just kept stuffing the wild vegetables she had dug up into her clothes to hide them.
"Take it out!"
Chunni's mother suddenly spoke, startling them.
Turning around, they saw Chunni's mother staring at them with sharp eyes.
"What are you taking?" a woman asked, patting her chest in confusion.
Chunni's mother had a gloomy face and narrowed her cold eyes. "Put the wild vegetables you dug up into the basket."
Upon hearing this, another woman immediately objected, shouting at the top of her lungs, "What? Why should we hand over the wild vegetables we dug ourselves to you?"
Those working nearby stopped what they were doing and looked over.
Chunni's mother glanced at the people around her. Among them were people from her own village, secret guards and guards from the Wu family, and people who had come down from the mountain.
"Don't you know that everything unearthed during land reclamation belongs to the public?"
She was somewhat angry at this woman who didn't follow the rules.
"Why should it belong to the public when we dug it ourselves with our own effort?"
Several women became angry and began to question them loudly.
"You're working for the city lord now, yet you're embezzling his property. How can you be so shameless?"
"It's just a few wild vegetables, Lord City Lord won't mind."
"The wild vegetables we dug up were also sent to the canteen to be cooked for everyone. What you're doing is unacceptable; you must hand them over!"
Chunni couldn't articulate the grand principles; she simply felt that they shouldn't do that.
The argument alerted Lin Shuo, who was teaching people how to plow the fields in the back.
He asked in a deep voice, "What's the argument about?"
Chunni's mother told him in detail about the behavior of the women.
Upon hearing this, Lin Shuo's face instantly darkened. "Didn't you listen carefully when Pan Qingfeng read the contract that day? The contract clearly states that during working hours, one must not use one's position for personal gain. These fields belong to the city lord, and the produce there naturally belongs to her."
"You're already violating regulations on the very first day of work?"
"It's just a handful of wild vegetables." The woman took out a large handful of wild vegetables from her bosom, threw them into the basket unwillingly, and said with dissatisfaction.
With her taking the lead, the other two women also threw the wild vegetables they had secretly hidden into their baskets, without daring to utter a single complaint.
Lin Shuo glared at her fiercely, pointing to the crowd that had unknowingly gathered around. "Is it just a matter of wild vegetables? If everyone digs up wild vegetables and picks wild fruits for their own selfish desires during work hours, who will do the work in the fields? Don't forget whose food you eat three meals a day?"
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