Chapter 144 143. A forced melon is a rotten melon
Lei Li and Zhou Yi's clothes were not bad.
Because she had to cook porridge and light the fire, she wore simple clothes. If you looked carefully, you could see the dark patterns on the dark fabric, which showed its preciousness.
His hair was just wrapped with a cloth strip, and he didn't have any luxury items like jade crowns or hairpins, sachets or jade pendants. He looked like a very simple wealthy businessman.
After all, they were dressed so poorly that they looked no different from the villagers. The village chief said that they were rich gentlemen from the county town, but the refugees probably didn't believe him.
But it’s not okay to dress too well either.
When the village chief heard Lei Li say this beforehand, he was quite puzzled. "As the saying goes, clothes make the man. If we dress well and show them our wealth, they'll know we won't default on their wages, and we're not lying to them, won't they trust us more?"
Lei Li shook his head and said, "They are all dressed in rags. When they see us dressed in fine clothes, even if we don't mean to be arrogant, they will feel strange."
"Those with good hearts should be more humble."
"If you have a dark and evil heart, you can't help but think - these gentry and merchants make so much money but only give themselves porridge and sweet potatoes, and don't even order any meat or vegetables. They are really hypocritical and kind-hearted people."
"If they don't work hard and slack off, that's fine, but I'm afraid someone will incite people to cause trouble."
The village chief thought so too.
It's fine if they cause trouble on the construction site, at most they will just delay the project and drive people away. But if they sneak into the village to cause trouble, it will be a big deal. Even with patrols on duty, they can still be careless. Isn't this just like someone stealing unripe green rice?
Brother Li is still more cautious in doing things.
At this time, Brother Li, who was standing in front of the boiler, was smiling, with a face as beautiful as a peach blossom and a gentle expression. When he saw the refugees looking at him, he introduced himself to Zhou Yi in a kind voice.
"My surname is Lei, and my name is Lei Li. This is my husband, Zhou Yi. I heard that Nanjiang has unfortunately suffered from drought and locust plagues. My husband, I, and everyone in our village are very worried."
"We are also from the village, digging for food in the fields. Whether our life is good or bad depends entirely on whether God is kind or not. If there is a good year, we can save some food and have a good New Year. We can buy some meat for our children."
"Life is tough these days. If we encounter severe floods, droughts, or other natural disasters, it's truly difficult. Selling my children will allow me to live well, and I'll be content even if I die. If I harm them... I wish my whole family would die together, even better than being eaten by wild dogs and wolves."
Lei Li spoke with genuine emotion.
The refugees couldn't help crying when they heard this, especially those whose relatives or children had died on the road. They were heartbroken but tried hard to hold back their tears.
"Everyone has come all this way, and the next small merchant can't do much. He can only do his best to build a porridge stall for everyone to rest and fill their stomachs."
The refugees were all touched.
An old man with a wrinkled face came forward tremblingly, pretending to kneel down. Lei Li quickly took his hand and helped him up, saying repeatedly, "No, no, old man, please get up quickly..."
Seeing that his bamboo tube was empty, Lei Li poured him another large spoonful of porridge, picking the part that was cooler at the edge of the pot.
"The porridge is hot, take your time and eat it. There's more in the pot. If it's not enough, we can cook rice and sweet potatoes."
“Hey, hey…”
The old man was in tears and not good at speaking. He just wiped his tears and nodded. He took a bite along the edge of the bamboo tube and tasted the fragrance of rice and the sweetness of sweet potato.
How long has it been since I last tasted this?
—
Lei Li had his reasons for saying that the porridge stall would only be open for three days.
First, three days is enough for the refugees to recuperate and gain some strength, so they can choose whether to build roads for them or go to work elsewhere.
Secondly, if the porridge stall was kept open, he was afraid that the refugees would become lazy and rely on Lei Li. He also didn't want lazy and cunning people from the village, town, or anywhere else to take advantage of the situation and pretend to be refugees to eat and drink for free.
Lei Li is not a philanthropist who runs a charity. He can donate money and supplies to the disaster area out of kindness, but he is not a pushover who allows others to take advantage of him.
"These three are also to plant the seeds for them."
Lei Li's eyes narrowed in a smile, a hint of pride in his smile. "You took advantage of me and ate my rice, but now you don't work for me and give it to others. Aren't you an ungrateful person with no heart?"
"Besides, you have to find work for others yourself. I'm here to assign you a job, and I also provide food, accommodation, and wages. If you don't want such a good thing, you're a fool!"
The refugees are certainly not stupid.
Most people went to the village chief to sign up for road construction. A small number of people did not trust Lei Li and his team. After eating sweet potato porridge for three days to regain their strength, they ran to other places to find work.
The village chief and the villagers did not stop them.
A forced melon is a rotten melon, not sweet and not tasty, and you have to spend money to buy it. Lei Li doesn't want it.
There were more than 500 refugees participating in the road construction.
There were men, women, young and old, all of whom had heard that there was free sweet potato porridge in Sanlihe Village - some of them were reluctant to eat porridge for three meals a day before they became refugees, and since there was work and wages, they gradually gathered here.
The road to be built is from the villages in Sanlihe to the county seat.
"First, cut down all the trees and vegetation on the main road, dig out the tree roots and grass roots, and then dig out two parallel passages. The width of this passage should be about 3 meters, and the error cannot be too large."
"To make the road stronger and easier to walk on, we use tools to crush large stones and spread them on the soil as the foundation. On top of that, we spread a layer of finer stones to fill the gaps between the stones. The thickness of this layer is about 20 centimeters."
"Finally, a 15-centimeter layer of soil and sand mixture was spread on the surface."
Zhou Yi explained to them and demonstrated with simple tools. He specially brought a wooden barrel filled with sand and planted some grass in it to simulate road conditions.
"It's actually similar to building a house, except we only lay the foundation and don't build the house."
Many mud-brick houses in Qingmi County are like this.
First, dig a big hole on the flat ground, then erect pillars to support the beams, fill it with stones, sand and flat soil, surround it with relatively flat stones, and then lay mud bricks when the area reaches a certain height.
In this way, when it rains heavily, the foundation of the mud house will not be easily washed away by the water, and it will not collapse so quickly.
"We have a lot of flood mud here."
The village chief grabbed a handful of mud from the ground. This mud is also called yellow mud. It is yellow with red. It is very sticky when it comes into contact with water. With some lime, it can be used to make mud bricks or adhesive.
"This mud is all in the nearby mountains. We can use a cart to pull it back. We have cows in the village, and it's perfect for use now since we're not busy with farming."
"We don't have any stone in our village, but there is some in Wulihe Village, not far from us, and it can be transported here by car. This is the official stone mountain. Let Mr. Lei inform the county government and get a low price for it."
The idea of building the road was proposed by Lei Li and Zhou Yi to Xu Xingzhe. Xu Xingzhe wanted them to take the lead and set a good example for other gentry and wealthy businessmen, so he would naturally give them a discount.
Furthermore, this was the county government's account. When they made money, 70% of it was paid to the court, and the remaining 30% could be used as public funds to pay monthly wages to the constables and county officials for their welfare.
certainly.
Building roads is more than just a matter of words.
In addition to transporting mud, sand and rocks, smashing and blasting the rocks, leveling the roads and digging suitable tunnels, planners, surveyors, etc. must also be hired.
——After all, a quick road is easier to travel than a detour. This road should also be connected with several nearby villages, towns and county towns, and it should be as accessible as possible rather than having several branch roads.
After everything was paved and repaired, the road surface was compacted with rolling stones, making it easy to travel whether it was a heavy ox cart or a galloping horse.
nature.
In order to prevent laziness, several trustworthy supervisors should be assigned to monitor the work in real time, not only to see if anyone is lazy or working fake, but also to see if anyone is suffering from heatstroke, so that they can support justice when disputes arise.
"But it's simple."
Lei Li said nonchalantly, "The village is quite idle. Besides the chili peppers, which are harvested as usual, the rice is harvested when it's ripe. When everyone heard about the road construction, they were all very excited and wanted to work on it even without being paid!"
Building this road will benefit future generations.
If you wait until you are old, or when your children and grandchildren are born, you can tell them, "The road you are walking on was built by your father and grandfather." When your children and grandchildren have their own children, they can also say, "The road you are walking on was built by your ancestors." Then you will have face in the afterlife!
"Let the village chief pick a few older, young, and strong men to suppress them. They should have some say and be able to have a say with the villagers."
"These people are working outside our village. They might get into trouble with the villagers. If the village chief is here, we can let him make the decision. If he's not here, there are supervisors who can speak for both sides."
"OK."
Zhou Yi nodded. "I'll do as you say. It's hot now. I'll have someone make some mung bean soup for them this afternoon. Let them take a break and don't get a heat stroke."
"Don't worry, I've made all the arrangements."
Lei Li patted his chest and promised.
He was meticulous in his work and cooperated with the county government to make it a key demonstration project to defraud wealthy businessmen of their money. For Xu Xingzhe, that was also a great political achievement. He would still be the magistrate of Qingmi County for two years. With the help of officials, businessmen would prosper financially, so he had to do it beautifully and everyone would be happy.
The refugees were working hard at the construction site, and people from several nearby villages also came to work. Building the road was a good deed, and it was also a good thing to have three meals a day.
A dozen women and their husbands were hired to cook.
In the morning, there is thick sweet potato porridge with pickles or sauerkraut. For lunch and dinner, there is rice, stir-fried vegetables, a pure meat dish and a soup, which is also made with radish and pork ribs.
There is plenty of oil and seasoning, and this big pot of rice is more delicious than the ordinary homemade rice, which makes people's face greasy after eating it.
With this level of food, not everyone could eat it before becoming a refugee. It was considered good to have meat every now and then. It was nowhere near as good as having meat, vegetables and rice every day.
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