Chapter 821

By now, because the main bodies of all the houses in Wang An's home were completed, most of the helpers had already left, leaving behind only those with some skills.

As for these people, they were all doing the work they were good at.

Building kang beds, hanging ceilings, building ground fire dragons, building stoves, building partition walls, making doors and windows, etc., and these decoration works were almost all proceeding at the same time.

But it must be said that these works were proceeding quite fast in terms of progress, far faster than Wang An had originally anticipated.

But thinking about this problem, it was normal.

After all, decorating a house in this era is actually very simple, mainly because there aren't so many types of building materials. Besides wood, there's brick, and the filling material is mud; you can't come up with any other new styles.

So for skilled masons and carpenters, doing this work doesn't require thinking; after looking at it once, they can just start working.

One has to admit, although there are few building materials in this era, a house is just that—no matter how luxurious or simple the decoration is, it's all for people to live in anyway.

And there's another benefit to simple decoration, which is saving money—saving a lot of money.

For example, the windows of Wang An's house are two-layered windows made of wood. Of course, the window frames need to be brushed with tung oil.

The ceiling is made of square wooden strips about one centimeter wide, nailed one by one. After nailing the wooden strips, you can just smear white lime on them.

The partition walls are built of blue bricks, the floor is paved with red bricks, and the stove and kang are also built of red bricks.

Such decoration, although very simple, actually looks quite grand.

Just like this, amidst everyone's busyness, time kept passing quietly.

Early this morning, the craftsmen who came to work were eating breakfast when the bell in the village rang.

When the bell rings, something must have happened.

The mason Sun Xiangyang said with a face full of certainty but a bit of annoyance:

"This is nine times out of ten to organize everyone to protect the green seedlings. I heard from my wife that wild boars are rampant this year. Many crop fields in the nearby villages have been ruined, and they've had to replant black beans."

The reason Sun Xiangyang said this was because every year at this time, each village would organize villagers to protect the green seedlings together.

Protecting green seedlings means protecting crops, reducing the harm caused by wild boars and bears to the crops.

Of course, in previous years, it was about half a month earlier than this year.

The time for protecting green seedlings this year was actually a bit late.

But there was no other way. After the land was divided among households, everyone looked after themselves, and protecting green seedlings was truly not a good job, so naturally, no one would take the initiative to go down to the fields to protect them.

Plus, without anyone organizing, even fewer people would go.

After all, the crops in the fields belong to everyone, and wild boars don't specifically ruin one family's crops.

If my family's fields have losses, yours definitely have them too, so if you don't go to protect the seedlings, I won't go either.

That's exactly the logic!

After Sun Xiangyang finished speaking, the stonemason Li Laicai also followed up:

"Mm, indeed. These wild boars are truly damn hateful. My bean field in the south gully was ruined quite badly. I'm thinking of replanting some black beans after the next rain."

I don't know why, but the vast majority of herbivores have a soft spot for soybean stalks, as if there's something they need in them.

After stonemason Li Laicai finished speaking, Li Facai, who was also a mason—that is, Li Biao's father—said: "Is it still in time to replant black beans now? Won't you just harvest a handful of shriveled beans?"

Li Laicai sighed and said very helplessly:

"Harvesting a handful of shriveled beans is still better than planting nothing. Otherwise, wouldn't those fields be wasted for this year?"

One has to admit, living in the forest area has this disadvantage. Although there is a lot of land, besides floods and insect disasters, the destructive ability of herbivores like wild boars and bears is also quite formidable.

Carpenter Niu Yichen suddenly said:

"By the way, our village was also talking about contracting wasteland and barren land earlier. Why has there been no movement these days?"

Sun Xianghui also asked very puzzledly:

"Mm, indeed. I was thinking of getting thirty or fifty mu of wasteland. We don't know how to hunt or raise ginseng, so if we don't get more land and grow more grain, we'll have no money every year."

To tell the truth, Wang An was also very puzzled about this matter. If they contracted it immediately now, they could still plant some black beans; any later and they wouldn't be able to plant anything.

You have to know that Wang An's purpose in buying this crawler tractor was not just for digging foundations; Wang An also wanted to use it to reclaim wasteland.

Besides, last time he went to buy grain, Wang An bought black bean seeds back, but so much time had passed, and the wasteland still had no whereabouts...

Just like this, amidst everyone's discussion, everyone finished breakfast together and walked towards the village headquarters.

When Wang An followed the crowd to the village headquarters, the villagers of Kaoshan Village had already gathered quite a few.

Village Chief Sun Physician went back into the village headquarters room after ringing the bell, and everyone started smoking and chatting.

It was just that the topics everyone chatted about were all related to wild boars and bears.

Like how much of my family's crops were ruined, his family's crop field was completely finished, etc.

But it must be said that these data, when heard by people, were truly shocking and truly a bit startling.

These losses were truly not small!

Only a few fields of crops were spared from the wild boars' infestation because they were in places further away from the mountains.

Overall, basically every household had more or less losses.

After another 10 minutes or so, basically all the villagers in the village had arrived, and Village Chief Sun Physician, Accountant Li Youcai, and Militia Captain Sun Xiangfeng, along with several other village cadres, also walked out of the village headquarters room.

It must be said, Sun Physician, this village chief, was indeed much stronger than the original Niu Qun.

Sun Physician said:

"Everyone stop talking, wait until I finish before you speak."

One sentence instantly made the whole meeting place silent.

Immediately after, Sun Physician said:

"Calling everyone to this meeting today is mainly about this matter of protecting green seedlings. In previous years, it was the militia and hunters who went down to the fields to squat and guard, and those who went down to squat and guard could get work points."

"This method definitely won't work this year because we have all divided the land among households. So, let's discuss a method together and see if every household should send someone to take turns, or what the rules should be? Everyone speak up."

After Sun Physician finished speaking, he sat on the stool and didn't speak, which could be said to have completely handed over the power to the villagers.

And the villagers started discussing in a hubbub.

Thanks to "Empire Emperor" for the tip, thank you, thank you!

Thanks to "Book Friend" for the tip, thank you, thank you!

(End of chapter)