Chapter 145 144. This is a magical mountain road
July is the busy farming month.
The farmers who came to build the road have gone back to harvest rice. The people in Sanlihe Village are now living a better life, and more families have bought cows or mules. They no longer have to queue up to borrow from others or rely on their own strength, so the summer harvest is much faster than before.
The sun is shining brightly now. By mid-July, all the fresh rice in the village has been stored in the warehouse, and the villagers are eating the sweet and soft rice.
The Lei family had rented out all their rice fields, so they bought some from the villagers and had them cooked in a shed so that the road construction workers could taste this year's new rice. They also slaughtered a few pigs and stewed white radishes in a big pot to eat with the new rice.
The workers worked hard all day, but they almost cried when they had such a meal at night.
They are all farmers who have fled from the land to make a living. The new rice is just delicious to others, but to them, it is the harvest of hard work, the hope for the future, the clothes their children wear, the food in their parents' mouths, the money they can save to ride in an ox cart when they go to the town or county, and the land and hometown that grew up and nurtured them.
If possible, who would want to leave their hometown and flee to a strange place with their family?
They slept in the wilderness, and the clothes their children wore were donated by others. They didn't even have their own house, only a makeshift wooden shed.
At night, I heard the calls of an owl or some nocturnal bird coming from the deep mountains. In the morning and evening, I could hear bats flying in and out. I also heard that wild boars and blind bears had appeared there. Even a large group of people were still terrified.
There are many rivers in Nanjiang.
People in Nanjiang live along the riverbank, where there are mostly wide riverbanks and flat paddy and vegetable fields. They have never seen so many and deep mountains.
The paddy fields can be connected into terraces, and the roads built have eighteen bends. If they were brought in from other places, they would probably not be able to escape from this mountain even if they ran day and night.
Fortunately, I met a good person.
They ate the new rice with tears in their eyes and the fragrant and greasy pork, thinking that they were lucky to have come across a good village and a good master.
The refugees had a rare good night's sleep.
The next day, the supervisors discovered that the workers who were originally refugees were working more enthusiastically and enthusiastically, which made the workers who came from other places compete to work harder, for fear that the supervisors would think they were lazy and stop them from working.
Although the wages for this job are low, the food is good. Many people come to build roads just for this meal. They ask their family members to bring meals at noon and at night, and then take the meat and vegetables provided by the construction site away, letting their family members eat the meat while they eat pickles and vegetables.
After working hard for nearly a month, the road from several villages in Sanlihe to the county town was finally completed and connected to the official road.
The workers worked diligently and put in a lot of effort. This road was built by ancestors from several villages, but it had fallen into disrepair over the years, with many potholes and water accumulation, and it was dusty and difficult to walk on. There were not many weeds and trees, so it was easy to clean.
The soil dug out from the pit for the roadbed does not need to be transported away manually.
This road was originally built along the mountain. The soil, stones or weeds were dug up and thrown down the mountain. In places where it was not wide enough, the mountain was shoveled away. In some places, where many people passed by, the road was dug a little wider, up to three and a half meters.
At that time, horse-drawn and ox-drawn carts were not very wide, only about 1.23 meters or 1.4 meters at most. If they were too wide, it would be difficult for oxen, horses or mules to pull the carts, and it would also be inconvenient to travel on the road, especially on mountain roads.
So a three-meter-wide road is enough.
Stones, pebbles and sand were laid layer by layer, and finally a layer of soil mixed with mud and lime was filled in. Oxen and mules pulled the stone rollers back and forth several times. After being exposed to the sun for a few days, the soil became hard and solid, and carriages and horses could run fast and steadily on it.
On the day the road was completed, Lei Li and Zhou Yi held a road-opening ceremony with the workers and people from several villages.
Two large strings of firecrackers were set off in Sanlihe Village. The deafening sound of the firecrackers scattered red flowers all along the way. Adults and children all wore their best clothes and stood on the roadside, covering their ears to watch the firecrackers, with everyone's face full of joy.
"Good luck on the road!"
Lei Li was also happy. He shouted loudly and set off from Sanlihe Village with Zhou Yi in a carriage.
Sitting in the carriage were Liu Ye'er, Lei Dashan, and the elders from her maternal family, including her grandparents and uncle, as well as Sister Hua'er and Xiao Liumu. Xiaobao was also pulled up by Sister Hua, and Liu Ye'er was holding Xiao Shengjiang in her arms.
It's a bit crowded with so many people sitting together.
But no one felt crowded, they just felt excited. Being pulled by two horses, they crossed the mountains and hills steadily.
Behind the horse-drawn carriage, families with ox-drawn and mule-drawn carts also drove their carts to follow, with their family members sitting in the carts. Some of them were more particular and even pasted red paper and hung colorful ribbons to seek good luck.
Those who didn't have cars also followed happily. Families with close relationships even took turns riding in the ox cart, especially letting the children ride to share in the good news, hoping that their families would be able to buy an ox or a mule in two years.
People from several villages, together with the townspeople who came to watch the fun and the workers who were building the road, a large group of thousands of people marched forward in a mighty procession, just like a large temple fair.
People who didn't know what was going on but loved to watch the fun also came over. When they heard that a new road was being built and was being opened, they couldn't stop exclaiming in amazement and praise, which made the villagers very happy.
This is the road built by their village!
Before they reached the official road, someone saw a small group of people at the end of the new road from afar. When they looked closely, they were shocked!
"It's the magistrate!"
"What?!"
"Not only the magistrate, I saw several people from the county government office! That petty household clerk was there too!"
"And Mr. Wang in town! He's a big landowner with hundreds of acres of land!"
"Master Li is here too!"
"Is it the scholar named Li from this town?"
The crowd was noisy.
Lei Li and Zhou Yi remained expressionless.
Or rather, they knew they would come, after all, they were the ones who invited them.
After all, this was the first major collaboration between a large private enterprise and the county government, so how could the county magistrate not show up to show his support? And how could the co-investors feel comfortable without inspecting the project and accepting the compliments?
This is a charitable contribution!
——Yes, the method Zhou Yi and Lei Li came up with at the beginning was to trick the landlords and gentry into contributing money to build roads for the refugees.
This solved the problem of refugee resettlement and the county government's lack of money to build roads. The county government could also make a small profit by selling sand and gravel, killing three birds with one stone.
The reward for landlords and gentry is also very simple, that is - fame!
In one’s lifetime, some people live for fame, some for profit, and some want both fame and fortune. Especially for those who already have profit but cannot pass the imperial examination and have no reputation, isn’t this a good opportunity to become famous?
The way to become famous is also very simple.
It's a road marker.
Seeing that Lei Li and Zhou Yi had arrived, County Magistrate Xu Xingzhe exchanged a few simple greetings with them, praised the landlords and gentry who had invested in the road construction, and mentioned the hard work of the road workers, thus appeasing all three parties.
The sky is high and the emperor is far away.
The highest-ranking official the common people had ever seen in their lives was the county magistrate, and they called him the "honest official" and the "parent official." It is conceivable that they were flattered and overjoyed by the praise from the county magistrate.
Even Mr. Li, who had the qualifications to be an official but did not become one, felt relieved after hearing the magistrate's words, and a smile appeared on his face.
"This road construction is a great act of kindness that will benefit the present generation, bring blessings to future generations, and last for generations to come. On this auspicious day for the road's opening, I, on behalf of the Qingmi County government, present a road monument so that all who pass by will appreciate your kindness."
As he spoke, Xu Xingzhe uncovered the red cloth.
This red cloth has been covering the place for a long time. Passersby had already discovered it yesterday. However, it was guarded by people from the county government, so the common people did not dare to ask too many questions or look too much, for fear of bringing bad luck and suffering misfortune.
But now after listening and seeing, I realized that it was actually a large square road sign.
Most of the villagers were illiterate, but the village chief knew how to read. Before the nosy villagers could urge him to read, the mean-looking head of household book said,
"Because Lei Li and Zhou Yi took the lead, along with Mr. Wang Qi'an and Mr. Li Peiru, they funded this charity, so they are written at the front. The workers who built the road are always standing at the back. They are..."
This stele has gold characters on a black background.
The largest ones are the road names, called Fu Ji Road. The names of Lei Li, Zhou Yi, Wang Yuanwai, and Li Juren are written on the first line after the road name, with the font only slightly smaller than the road name, and the people involved in the road construction are written at the back.
First came the names of the village heads of several villages in Sanlihe, followed by the names of several supervisors, and then the people from the village who went to build the road and the workers who were originally refugees.
The refugees had not thought about having their own names. Although the names were written very small to save space, they were all their own names.
Wang Ermao, Li Yuping, Qing Da, Xu Xiaoxiao, Meng Yi, Wang Dafu, Wang Erfu, Xue Jinchai, Xue Da, Xue Er...
Even the women and their husbands who were working were up there.
Farmers always use the same few characters when naming their children. Only those families with some money willing to hire someone to name them, or those with educated elders, can have a nice and smooth name. Therefore, many of the names mentioned above are called "Da" or "Er", according to the order of birth.
But they knew it was them at first glance!
Those who participated in the road construction were in tears, and those whose family members participated in the road construction also felt proud.
When other people saw it, even though their names were not on the road, people from their own village or town would feel happy and envious. After all, it was the road in their own place, and there were no such good roads anywhere else!
What’s more, this road was praised by the county magistrate!
Which other path can bring such blessing?
Where else could a person be listed on the same monument of merit as a successful juren, a landlord, or a wealthy businessman?!
Just one for them!
As the saying goes, good news doesn’t travel far, but bad news travels a thousand miles. That’s because few people spread good news.
Now people in several villages and a town were talking about it. Even distant relatives made a special trip to visit. People who passed by and saw the monument were also talking about it. Within two days, the news spread throughout the entire county.
Especially for those who funded the road construction, the county magistrate Xu Xingzhe not only erected a road monument, but also made a plaque and gave it to Lei Li, Wang Yuanwai and Li Juren respectively, calling them——
"A house of blessing and kindness".
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