Chapter 178: Not every penny can be earned

The well head was put aside first. Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming were happy when they saw the welded steel bars.

"Come, come, come, haven't dug a well for a long time, today let's see if our skills have fallen behind." Lu Yingming untied the steel bars from the bicycle, stood them up, and walked to the edge of the dug pit.

Li Long put away the bicycle and followed over, and saw a small groove dug out in one corner of the pit. This groove was very deep, and water had already come out inside, looking quite muddy.

Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming gripped the steel bars and poked them straight down into that small pit. One end of the steel bar was sharpened, and it went down more than half a meter at once.

It started to go down very fast, but after going down five or six meters, they could hear the sound of colliding stones when going down further. This was hitting the sand and stone layer.

"Now the big work is starting." Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming stopped their movements, leaned against the edge of the earth pit, each rolled a Mohe tobacco, smoked while recalling the experience of digging wells in the past:

"Our place has a high water line. I remember digging a well at the bank that year, the drill went down more than ten meters before reaching the sand and stone layer, and that sand and stone layer was seven or eight meters thick, the drill was worn blunt..."

"The city is different. It is much easier to dig wells in our countryside. If you find a good place, you don't need to pass through much of the sand and stone layer to dig through. Like that public well, the water-producing point is so good..."

"We don't have that ability, and even if we do, it's not in the courtyard, so let's dig with peace of mind here."

Li Long jumped off the earth kang, grabbed the steel bar with some curiosity, lifted it hard, and poked it down again.

It was very hard below, poking down felt like hitting a stone directly, very difficult to go deep.

"Not easy to drill, right?" Lu Yingming said with a smile, "The big drill we used back then was more troublesome. Digging a well takes a long time. This pressure well is easy, it can be installed and water can come out today!"

Looking at Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming's confident smiles, Li Long believed it.

Liang Wenyu and Lu's sister-in-law were cooking. On the stove outside, vegetables were stir-frying, and inside, rice was being steamed. Li Long could smell that a stir-fried chive with egg had already been cooked, and there was a meat dish that should be braised pork—the wild boar meat brought back two days ago came in handy.

After lunch, Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming continued to dig the well, while Li Long rode his bicycle to find materials—he remembered that for the pressure well to be hit well, bricks were needed for support, cement, sand, and stone materials, to make a sturdier one.

He remembered that it was more than ten years later when Li Jianguo's family hit a pressure well in the courtyard in his previous life. At that time, it was padded with bricks after hitting, and it wasn't wiped with cement. Those bricks were movable, so it collapsed after not long, which was very troublesome, so it must be reinforced frequently.

Li Long rode his bicycle to the county to buy two bags of cement, and then shoveled a bag of coarse sand by the small river of the commune. The easiest to find were bricks. Because of the previous team production, there were quite a few half-bricks at the old horse corral. Li Long went to pick up some after unloading the cement and other things.

By the time he gathered the bricks, Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming had already started to lower the water pipe.

"Dug well? In place?" Li Long was a bit confused, "So fast? Water came out below?"

"Yes, hit the water layer below the sand and stone." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "You didn't see it, when the steel bar was pulled out, the water sprayed out directly, the water volume below is really large!"

"How is the taste?" Li Long asked again.

"Clear and sweet! The water is very good!" Lu Yingming said with a smile, "This water, it's much better than the water in the public well over there, and better than the water in the self-flowing well by the side of the small sea!"

"That's really good." Li Long was sincerely happy, "Then I'll mix cement and sand now, and I'll build the well seat in a while."

Next, Liang Wenyu and Lu's sister-in-law mixed cement and sand, while Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming filled the pit they dug, leaving only the pipe that was hit down.

After the pit was filled, they started to build the well platform here. Li Long dug a water ditch from the pressure well to the inside of the courtyard to facilitate the excess water flowing into the vegetable garden.

The well seat was built, the pressure well head was installed, and the next step was to wait.

"It can be used tomorrow morning." Li Jianguo said, "Tomorrow we have to splash water, so the cement won't crack."

"What about the remaining cement and sand?" Liang Wenyu looked at a pile of mixed cement and sand and asked, "It can't be wasted."

"It won't be wasted!" Lu Yingming said with a smile, "Isn't your family raising pigs? Then just hit two pig food troughs!"

"Hit pig food troughs?" Li Long had a faint impression in his mind.

At this time, when building things with cement and sand, because of financial reasons, little cement is used, and a lot of sand and stone is used, so whether things are sturdy or not is hard to say.

Later, production conditions improved, and wiping cement troughs was done directly, but at this time, it was necessary to mix cement with a large amount of sand and stone, dig a pit on the spot, wipe the trough in the pit, and then fill it with soil. It didn't need to be filled tightly. After a period of time, after the cement and sand were air-dried, dig it open and look at the complete situation.

Because little cement was used and there was no steel bar reinforcement, the pig food troughs were easy to rot, and usually, one out of three would rot.

"When wiping, use a few reeds as tendons, it shouldn't be easy to rot." Li Long suddenly thought of the tofu-dreg project he heard about in his previous life, which was using bamboo poles instead of steel bars, naturally it wouldn't work for building a building. But now if you use reeds as tendons to wipe pig food troughs, there is no problem at all.

"Can it work?" Lu Yingming was a bit confused.

"Why not?" Li Long smiled, "It's like needing to use wheat tails to mix mud when making soil blocks. The role of that wheat tail is the same as the reeds in this cement."

"Then let's try!" Li Jianguo felt that Li Long's words made sense, "Anyway, it doesn't cost much."

It just so happened that there was nothing to do now, and it would be a while before dark, so several people divided the work. Li Long went to find suitable reeds, while Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming carried this extensive concrete to find a suitable place outside the residential area.

Dry reeds are easy to find, every family can pull out two bundles—because pulling reeds is a very important side-line fund source during the winter slack season (the specific method will be mentioned later).

Li Long found suitable reeds, carried an iron shovel, and went to the south. At this time, Li Jianguo and the others had already dug out a suitable pit and started to level the pit.

To wipe a suitable pig food trough, at least the inside of the soil must be very flat, so Li Jianguo and the others used iron shovels to pat the soil surface flat and neat.

Li Long measured the pit, started to chop the reeds into corresponding lengths with an iron shovel, and when Li Jianguo and the others were wiping cement and sand, he placed the reeds on top.

After the two pig food troughs were wiped, the sun had already set, and after drying for a while, feeling that the cement had started to solidify, they slowly added soil inside, trying to keep the soil from causing a big impact on the cement surface.

After all this was done, the sky was already dark. Liang Wenyu of the Li family boiled soup, and the two families laughed and added a midnight snack, and didn't disperse until very late.

Early the next morning, Li Long went to see the well seat of the pressure well. The cement felt hard, but it wasn't dry.

The whole family didn't dare to use it. Li Long went to see the situation at the pig food trough south of the residential area. No one came to move it, but it definitely shouldn't be good yet.

Until noon, Li Long saw that the cement on the surface was dry, so he tried to put some priming water in the pressure well head, and then pressed it. Soon, pressure came, pressed hard a few times, and a stream of water flowed out from the pressure well mouth. At first, the water was a bit muddy, but it soon became clear. The water volume was indeed very large, pressing twice would produce a large stream of water. Li Long caught a handful from the pressure well mouth and drank a mouthful, it was really clear and sweet, very cool!

Alright, this major project is considered completed.

I think in less than two days, everyone in the whole residential area should know that the Li family hit a pressure well, and nearby families should also come here to carry water to eat. After all, this water is so clean!

After lunch, Li Long rolled the small-caliber rifle with a sack and tied it to the main beam, straddled his bicycle, and rode toward the outside of the village. He had to go into the mountains.

Riding all the way to the county town, Li Long first went to the large courtyard. A part of the fritillaria in the side room had dried, and Li Long collected these fritillaria. He came to see mainly because he was worried that these drying fritillaria would go bad. After all, there were many fritillaria, and his drying was relatively extensive. If they really went bad, there was no way.

Fortunately, the fritillaria quality was good, the temperature and humidity in the room were also okay, and the weather in these few days gave face, so no problems occurred.

When leaving the large courtyard, Li Long brought more bullets, saying that maybe he could hit some prey.

Li Long first went to Xiaobaiyang Gully. Seeing Li Long arrive, Xie Yun Dong and the others were quite happy, chatted for a while, Li Long checked the carrying poles woven in these two days, saw that the quality was good, and he was very satisfied.

"Those people didn't come again." Xie Yun Dong said, "We have woven more than two hundred carrying poles now, at most ten days, we can finish the work."

"Then let everyone work hard. I see that everyone's hair and beards have grown during this time, and their clothes are dirty beyond recognition, it's time to go back."

"That's right, although working earns money, not going home for a period of time, still misses it." Xie Yun Dong said with a smile, "Then I'll tell everyone."

Li Long saw the sun had already set on the top of the mountain, so he pedaled his bicycle toward his wooden house.

!.

On the way, he didn't see any prey, but heard a few wolf howls in the distant mountains.

Returning to the wooden house, Li Long saw the sky was not dark yet, lit a simple stove outside, casually made something to eat, extinguished the fire after eating, and went back to the house to sleep.

Getting up the next morning, the sun had already risen. This time Li Long went out to wash up slowly, and then boiled porridge and cooked.

After eating, he originally intended to pack up and then go to Xiaobaiyang Gully. After waiting for a while, seeing no one coming to find him, he tied the fritillaria in the small room to the bicycle and rode toward Xiaobaiyang Gully.

When he arrived at Xiaobaiyang Gully, Xie Yun Dong and the others had already finished breakfast, and the things were all packed and placed outside the dugout.

However, the atmosphere was a bit weird, which surprised Li Long. Before he could ask, Xie Yun Dong told him.

"Xu Jianjun ran out by himself last night, saying he wanted to pick deer antlers. As a result, he didn't pick up deer antlers, but instead attracted wolves! Three wolves came last night... If it weren't for the fact that we had many people and lit torches together to scare the wolves away, Xu Jianjun would be finished, and maybe one of us would have been bitten by wolves!"

Li Long's face turned black immediately.

This Xu Jianjun is just so disobedient, right?

He looked at Xu Jianjun, who was sitting in front of his dugout with an indifferent expression on his face.

"Now there is no way to deal with him. The carrying poles are woven, and he also feels that we can't do anything to him, so you see... anyway, if there is a task next year, I will definitely not want him."

Xie Yun Dong was also very angry, but there was no way.

Li Long's heart moved. He walked to the dugout, clapped his hands to attract everyone's attention, and said:

"Everyone has worked hard for more than a month. Today is considered a successful completion of the task. Everyone remembers the number of carrying poles woven, there are more and less, but overall it is better than digging in the fields, right."

"Right, right."

"That's right, more than twenty yuan a month, comparable to an apprentice."

"There is meat to eat every three days, which is much better than at home."

"That's thanks to Xiao Long, Xiao Long, really thanks to you." The one who said this was Wei Zhong Hua, whose family had an extra small wild boar, and it was even more beautiful.

"I also thank everyone for cooperating with my work. There may be work in the autumn, and I will find everyone then—of course, some people will be excluded, I can't afford to raise a master."

As soon as Li Long's words came out, most people were immediately excited—earning money twice a year, the urgent needs of the family were earned.

Now there is ration land, eating full at the end of the year is no problem. If there is another way to earn money, wouldn't it be faster than a worker—after all, there is nothing to do all winter!

Xu Jianjun originally listened indifferently. Anyway, the work was finished, and the carrying poles he wove were also qualified. He couldn't deduct his money—if he deducted his money at this time, he would fight with the Li surname!

Just didn't expect that Li Long's relaxed words made Xu Jianjun's face look ugly.

Without anyone reminding him, he knew that Li Long was talking about him.

If there really is such a side-line work in autumn and winter, and others have it but he doesn't, that would be a big loss of face!

The problem is, watching others earn money and he can't earn it himself, he feels uncomfortable!

"Alright, let's wait for a while, the supply and marketing cooperative's car will come in a while, let's load these carrying poles onto the car, and when we go back, everyone will follow the car back to the county, but next, we may have to go back by ourselves."

"Very good, saved this section of the road, and after arriving at the county town, the rest is just two or three hours." These people were all happy.

After about half an hour, the sound of the car engine rang, and then three cars appeared at the entrance of the gully, and then they came here.

Xiaobaiyang Gully is generally flat. After the cars drove over, they turned the car head and extinguished the fire. The driver didn't move, and two people, a man and a woman, came down.

"Hello, is it Xiao Li?" The man was very enthusiastic, smiled and took the initiative to shake hands with Li Long, "I am Wu Tianshan, the warehouse manager of our supply and marketing cooperative. You can call me Old Wu. This is our warehousing clerk He Fang."

"Hello Manager Wu, hello Sister He." Li Long took the initiative to greet, "Check and load now?"

"Fine, we won't delay time, let's check and load now."

Li Long turned around and waved:

"From inside to outside, help each other, lift the carrying poles over row by row, wait for one person's to be checked before the next one."