Chapter 244: The Militia

Because the day after the ruthless person escaped, everyone was sent back to the "fence."

And the plan Wang An had been quietly preparing for more than a year had all gone down the drain.

It must be said that you have to be one step ahead in everything, otherwise you won't accomplish anything!

After Wang An learned about this gold mine, although his face was expressionless, his heart was still quite excited.

His family now had about 160 *jin* of gold bricks; although these were already very valuable, who would complain about having too much gold?

Regardless, Wang An decided to fish out a batch of gold first; ten years is a very sufficient amount of time for gold panning.

Just as Wang An was pondering things, Liu Guilan suddenly shouted: "Xiao An, come out and mix the dumpling filling; we're having dumplings at noon."

"Okay, I'm coming down." Hearing this, Wang An put away his thoughts and answered while getting off the kang to put on his shoes.

Ever since Wang An made that meal of dumplings, whenever the family had dumplings, the job of mixing the filling became Wang An's.

However, Wang An had a wife, so Wang An passed on the skill of mixing dumpling filling to Mu Xueqing without reservation.

In fact, Wang An also passed it on to his mother, Liu Guilan, but this thing might require talent.

Anyway, with the same order and the same ingredients, the dumpling filling Liu Guilan mixed just didn't taste good!

This is a very puzzling thing!

At home, Liu Guilan rarely ordered Wang An to do work; of course, Wang Dazhu and Mu Xueqing were the same.

After all, the job of mountain trekking, besides being dangerous, was not easy to begin with. The family's chores were already enough for Wang Dazhu, his wife, and Mu Xueqing.

It was just that Mu Xueqing's wrist was injured, so in order to make the dumplings taste good, the glorious and arduous task of mixing the dumpling filling fell on Wang An again.

However, the meat filling wasn't minced by Wang An, but by Wang An's father, Wang Dazhu.

Ever since Wang An started mountain trekking, the family members were no longer like before, having nothing to do all day.

Besides feeding the pigs, they also had to cut grass to feed the sheep, mules, horses, and donkeys, and they also had to clean up the manure left by the mules, horses, and donkeys in the shed.

Cutting grass in this era was genuinely quite tiring; it required one person to feed the grass into the cutter and another person to desperately press the cutter.

And cleaning up the manure of mules, horses, and donkeys in winter was also not easy, because the manure was frozen very firmly on the ground, so it needed to be dug up with a sharp pickaxe.

Imagine a sharp pickaxe digging into frozen, hard-as-rock shit; it would definitely splash shit spray, and where would that shit spray fly?

However, in the countryside, people didn't find the manure of mules, horses, donkeys, cattle, and sheep dirty, because they are herbivores, and their manure is actually a treasure.

Not only would no one dislike their manure, but on the contrary, there would be people carrying baskets all over the village every day to pick up manure.

Because chemical fertilizer was scarce in this era, and mainly because people couldn't afford it, and if the crops didn't have fertilizer, their growth definitely wouldn't be good.

So in this era, manure was the only fertilizer in the fields.

Many people don't realize how high the status of manure is in the hearts of farmers.

But it must be said that although this thing can't be eaten, its status in the countryside is second only to food!

Wang An clearly remembers that before Wang An went to the south in his past life, a war broke out in the village because of picking up manure.

The cause of the incident was that a cow had laid a quite large pile of shit on the road in the village, and it was seen by two children picking up manure at the same time.

You have to know that children in this era were very good at managing their lives, so both children said they saw it first.

When cow manure is just laid, it actually looks like a lump, but in reality, it's like mud; it doesn't hold its shape at all, and it's also very sticky.

One of the children, eager to protect the manure, directly grabbed the still-warm cow manure with his hands.

The second child, of course, wouldn't let it go, so he also grabbed it with his hands.

It might be that the first child grabbed more, and the second child grabbed less.

So the second child didn't accept it and directly slapped the still-warm cow manure in his hand onto the first child's face. Children in the Northeast rarely have cowards; fighting is as simple as a home-cooked meal.

So the first child directly pressed the second child's head into the cow shit.

Then these two children rolled back and forth on the cow shit wrestling, and naturally, both children were covered in cow shit.

This situation naturally attracted the attention of the parents, so the parents of both families also started fighting, both saying that this cow shit was discovered by their own child first.

It is worth noting that neither side's parents said that the cow shit had dirtied their clothes; the key issue they were arguing about was who this pile of cow shit should belong to.

Wang An witnessed the whole process at the time, but Wang An didn't feel it was unbelievable!

Because in the countryside, every family's manure pile is generally outside the front door, but the incident of losing manure happens from time to time.

So it was a normal situation for two families to fight over a pile of shit.

After Wang An finished mixing the dumpling filling, he wrapped the dumplings together with Wang Dazhu and his wife.

Then Liu Guilan's mouth couldn't stop.

Of course, what Liu Guilan said was all about the sewing machine, constantly praising how easy it was to use.

In fact, after Liu Guilan learned how to use the sewing machine, she had already sat in front of it and done needlework for more than two hours in a row.

In Liu Guilan's words, one hour of work with this sewing machine could compare to two days of work usually.

After lunch, Wang An went to the small shop for a stroll, but today the main topic in the small shop was still related to wolves and red dogs.

Just after Wang An played poker for a while, the production team's bell rang again.

The person ringing the bell was none other than the newly appointed brigade secretary, Sun Physician.

Soon, the men, women, old, and young in the village all gathered around. For the past two days, the whole village had been in a state of panic because of the wolves and red dogs.

After all, it hadn't been long since the land was divided among households, and the original livestock and poultry of the production team had been sold to each household separately.

So the situation now is that families with livestock and poultry are the most panicked and afraid.

After all, everyone knows what the main purpose of the beasts entering the village is.

Not to panic—that is absolutely impossible!

This meeting was mainly to discuss how to deal with the wolves and red dogs.

Although Kaoshan Village only has seventy or eighty households, it also has a militia, and of course, the militia is also composed of people from the big clans.

According to the ratio of one soldier per ten households, Kaoshan Village has 8 militiamen.

Plus the hunters and people with guns, Kaoshan Village's main combat power totals 42 people.

These 42 people are divided into three teams at night, 14 people per team, to patrol around the village.

However, now that the land has been divided, these combat forces, except for the militia, have no obligation to help others fight wolves or patrol.

Who doesn't want to protect their own home? Besides, who would be responsible for any casualties?

So it was finally decided that no matter where it is, that is to say, no matter whose house it is, whoever kills the wolf or red dog, it belongs to them; villagers cannot snatch it!

Of course, if the villagers kill it themselves, it belongs to the villagers.

And finally, there will be rewards based on merit; the brigade headquarters will provide money, rewarding each person based on the number of beasts they kill.

Decreasing from 50 yuan for first place, followed by 40, 30, 20, and 10 yuan, only taking the top 5.

It must be said that Sun Physician still has a lot of skill; in this way, everyone's enthusiasm was fully mobilized.

Not only can you sell the wolves or red dogs you kill for money, but you can also get reward money if you kill more; for everyone, this is like hunting at home.

Please keep reading, rewards are appreciated, thank you, thank you, I salute you.

(End of chapter)