My village can't be like this

Chapter 123 Contracting Wasteland
Zhang An digged for a while with the hoe, and he had already dug up about one or two catties.

This is enough, after all, you can't put too much, otherwise it will become pickled ginger.

Zhang An said hello to the old aunt, and when he was about to go back, the old uncle stopped him.

"Anzi, do you still have a pile of red bricks left in your house?"

"Yes, uncle, there are some left, do you want to use it here?"

Before Zhang An’s house was built, there were still a lot of red bricks left over, but it was not enough to build a ring house later.

So I bought another car and came over again. After the enclosure was built, there was still a small pile left, about 800 yuan.

"Didn't the village decide to build a public toilet next to the drying yard? It just so happens that there are bricks in your house, and we don't bother to buy them."

The village has been thinking about building this public toilet for a long time.

Every one of these people who come to fish usually suggests that the village build a public toilet.

These people who come to fish now come here every day, and when they encounter urgent needs, they all go to the homes of familiar villagers to borrow toilets to solve them.

In the past, when there were crops in the field, we could just shrink anywhere and solve them on the spot.

Now that the crops in the fields are all harvested, I really want to come here casually in the fields.

It's too easy to be seen by others, and I can't afford to lose this face at that time.

And some newcomers, who are not familiar with the villagers, can only hold back and run to the small woods far away to solve the problem.

Last time, in order to build a giant salamander protection area, the county sent people to repair the road in the village to the side of Laizidong.

People who came said that there was no toilet in the village, which was too inconvenient.

But if they are asked to borrow from other people's homes, they are afraid of the dogs in other people's homes.

So the old village chief thought about it for a long time, and finally after discussing with several people in the village, he decided to build one.

It will be more convenient for someone to come in the future, anyway, there is still some money left in the village.

When it comes to road construction, the old man regrets it a bit. He knew that the road would be repaired later.

If it was later, the county would have built this road directly from Shiyakou to Laizidong.

Fortunately, the county also gave some subsidies to the village, and there was also a lot of money.

It doesn't take many bricks to just repair a public toilet, and they don't want to give it to you when you go to a brick factory to buy it.

Because there are too few, it is not cost-effective to send them down from the brick factory.

And if you have to pay for shipping yourself, this brick will be expensive.

So if you don't need many bricks, you can only pull them by yourself in a carriage, which is quite troublesome.

It just so happened that Zhang An's family had a little left, and Zhang Jianwen didn't want to bother, so he planned to buy it from Zhang An's family.

"Anyway, it's just piled there. If the old man wants it, he can just go and pull it."

Zhang An didn't care, the bricks were all extra, and they were left alone.

It's good to build a toilet, otherwise people will go to their house to use the toilet every day.

It's not that Zhang An is not hospitable, it's just that there are too many people who go there every day.

Back home, Wang Fang had already started chopping peppers with a stubble knife.

Zhang An scraped the Jerusalem artichoke, washed it, put some in a basin and chopped it together.

Seeing that his mother had been chopping for a long time, Zhang An took the pot with the peppers and the stubble knife over to chop, and let his mother rest for a while.

Holding a piece of Jerusalem artichoke in his hand, he ate it like a fruit.

Although Zhang An couldn't accept the taste of ginger, this Jerusalem artichoke had a different taste.

Eating this thing raw is like eating a radish.

"Dad, uncle, they want to build a public toilet in the village, and they want to buy the leftover red bricks from our house."

While chopping peppers, Zhang An told his parents about the old uncle's plan to pull red bricks.

When the time comes, they see someone going to pull bricks in their yard, and they don't know what's going on.

Or when the time comes to find that the red brick is missing, it will cause an oolong.

Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang have no disagreement, it is best if someone buys it.

Otherwise, it will be piled up there, and one piece will be lost every day, and even if there are many, it will be broken day by day.

There are not many good ones left in the pile of bricks in the back.

It didn't take long for Zhang An to chop up a pot of peppers.

Seeing that the peppers in the pot were still big, Zhang An turned them over and chopped them for a while.

Don't stop until it's finely chopped.

Wang Fang put some salt, rock sugar, etc. into the chopped peppers.

After stirring evenly, put it in the soil jar.

Finally, I washed a few pieces of corn husks and put them in. After the air inside was emptied, I put the lid on the earth jar.

By the way, a layer of water was placed in the tank of the jar to seal it.

In one afternoon, Zhang An finished chopping up the dozens of catties of peppers.

These chopped sour peppers can be opened and eaten as long as they are fermented.

This is not only an extra seasoning, but also a longer storage time.

When the family had dinner at night, Zhang An talked about his desire to contract the wasteland.

"Dad, Mom, I want to take over the barren hill of Huangtupo for the village."

"What? What are you doing with that rotten land? Nothing grows there."

Hearing that Zhang An said that he wanted to take over the barren mountain, Zhang Jianguo thought he heard it wrong.

In recent years, many bosses nearby have come to the mountains to grow things.

Although no one in the village has come to contract land, Zhang Jianguo and the others are no strangers to contracting mountain land.

The main reason is that the land is not a good land in everyone's eyes, so they don't have a good impression.

Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang are no exception. Every vegetable grown there will turn into seedlings. Naturally, they don't want Zhang An to waste the money.

"I just thought it was close to our house, just behind the house, and I wanted to contract it to plant cherry trees."

"Didn't my dad ask a few days ago, what are I going to do with so many saplings in the backyard? Those are cherry saplings, the kind planted next to our house."

Originally, they wanted to object directly, but when they heard Zhang An talk about planting cherry trees, the two hesitated.

Speaking of other Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang may have something to say.

But when it comes to the cherries at home, Wang Fang and Zhang Jianguo are not satisfied.

Why, this year, there are more than 20 trees in Zhang An's house, and Zhang An takes cherries to the city every day to sell them.

It took five or six days in a row to sell out, and every day when I came back, I would hand over 800 yuan to Wang Fang.

In the end, from the time the cherries were ripe to the time the cherries were picked at home, they sold a total of more than 4000 yuan.

If the money is only for growing crops, it will take several years to save so much.

So in the eyes of both of them, this cherry tree is no longer a cherry tree, but a cash cow.

And the cherry trees at home basically don't need to be looked after.

Usually we don't weed, don't fertilize, don't apply medicine.

That is, when Zhang An planted it by himself, he went to water it every day.

After that, I didn't care much about it until the cherries were ripe, and the family just picked them.

"But Xiaoan, can the cherries planted on Huangtupo bear fruit?"

Wang Fang was very skeptical about this, because some fir trees had been planted in the village before on the loess slope.

But after so many years, those trees have grown out of shape.

"Mom, I think I can try it. If the land is a piece of fat land, I don't necessarily think about it, because everyone thinks it is good, and many people will be jealous by then."

"And look at our house, this place is actually not much bigger than Huangtupo. It can grow here, and it can definitely grow there. At most, the cherries produced are smaller."

"And I can't do it all the time at home. I have to find something to do. No matter whether I succeed or fail, it's better than sitting and eating."

Zhang An also knew what kind of problem the loess slope was. The main reason was that the soil was hardened and water could not be retained.

So Zhang An has already made a plan. If it is wrapped up, he will sprinkle some plantains on it and let them help fertilize the land.

At that time, get a batch of strong earthworms and put them in, and it should be able to solve the problem.

Others in later generations also did the same when dealing with this land, but the effect was slower, but the effect was still there.

Now Zhang An is planning to do it in multiple ways, but he might not be able to handle it.

Hearing what Zhang An said, Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang glanced at each other.

Knowing that my son has grown up, he has the idea of ​​finding something to do.

Moreover, the remaining money in the family is basically obtained by Zhang An.

Now that their children have ideas, as parents, they can only support him.

The big deal is to lose the money, just pretend that the family doesn't have the money.

At least now that he has a house, it won't be a problem to marry him a wife in the future.

"Do you really want to try it, or are you just kidding?"

Zhang Jianguo looked at Zhang An and asked.

"Dad, I want to find something to do."

"Alright, since you've thought about it, let's discuss it with your uncle later."

In this way, during a meal, the family decided on such a big matter.

Then Zhang Jianguo talked to Zhang An about other things, such as how to manage in the future.

Or how to sell the cherries when they are ripe.

Zhang An didn't have to worry about these things, as there was space, he didn't worry about the cherry trees not living at all.

On the contrary, he felt that this batch of cherry trees would grow well.

At most, the cherry tree will need to do some pruning when it grows up, which Zhang An can do by himself.

As for the sales problem, there is no need to worry about it.

Zhang An directly told his parents about Ding Yi's plan to open a large supermarket, and told them that there was already a market.

If Ding Yi can't eat so much at that time, or the sales are not good, Zhang An will find an excuse then.

It can be sold directly to the provincial capital, and the purchasing power of the provincial capital is much greater than that of the county seat.

After dinner, the old uncle happened to come over to Zhang An's house.

He mainly sent the money for pulling the bricks to Zhang An's family, and the current red bricks cost more than ten cents a piece.

Today, Zhang An’s family’s remaining 800 yuan red bricks were taken away, and they must be given money.

"Uncle, sit down for a while, let's discuss something."

Seeing that Zhang Jianwen gave more than 100 yuan, he planned to go back.

Zhang Jianguo hurried to stay with the guests, just as Zhang Jianwen came over, he also took advantage of this moment to mention to him about Zhang An's contracting the land.

Save time and go to his house to look for him later, wasting time.

The old village chief Zhang Jianwen sat down when Zhang Jianguo said that he had something to discuss.

"Jianguo, what's the matter, you can just talk about it."

"That's right. An Zi told us that he wants to contract the Huangtupo wasteland with the village, so I want to discuss this matter with you."

Hearing that Zhang Jianguo said that his family would contract the mountainous land in the village, the old village chief thought about it before speaking.

"Why do you suddenly want to contract this land?"

Zhang Jianwen is a little strange, because someone came to him recently and told him about contracting the land.

But the other one is a boss from outside, planning to contract it to grow tea.

"Ah, is anyone else going to take over that land?"

Zhang An was a little surprised. He had no impression that someone wanted to occupy the wasteland of Huangtupo.

"That's how it is. There is a boss from the city who recently landed a lot of land in a village near us, planning to use it for growing tea."

"I just talked to me about this matter during the day today. If I knew you guys wanted to make a deal, I would have turned him down."

The old village head is a little dumbfounded. The land is contracted, but it is better to contract it to people in his village who know the basics.

Fortunately, he didn't say yes today. At that time, he felt that the price was too low, and said that he would hold a meeting with the villagers to discuss it.

As a result, at night, I heard from Zhang An's family that they also wanted to contract.

There are other lands in the village, but those are arable lands that can grow food, and everyone will definitely not contract them out.

The rest of the mountains are relatively far away, and the cost is too high.

And the loess slope at the entrance of the village has become a golden location.

It also saves the effort of road construction, and the traffic is very convenient.

But the other party inspected the field and felt that the soil was too barren, so he was only willing to give half of the price.

"Anzi, do you really want to own that piece of land? If you really want to, I'll just reject that boss."

Zhang Jianwen's heart is still toward his own people.

"Don't be in a hurry, old man, let's talk about the other party's conditions."

If the conditions offered by the other side are too high, Zhang An can't afford such a high price, and he can't be the source of wealth in the village.

"I've seen the land, and it's very good in every way, but because the land in Huangtupo is not good, they don't want to pay a high price."

"In other villages, he was given 20 yuan per mu of mountain land. Here in Huangtupo, he is only willing to give half of it, which is [-] yuan."

When Zhang An heard the price, the condition was very low.

"Uncle, I really want to buy Huangtupo, and the price is the same as the one outside. The longer the term, the better. If the boss is more expensive than me, then just pretend I didn't say anything."

"Anzi, you have to think about it carefully. The 20 yuan per mu is more than 2000 a year."

Zhang Jianwen saw that Zhang An was willing to use 20 yuan per mu to cover it, so he persuaded him a few words. He was worried that Zhang An's money would be wasted.

He originally thought that about 15 yuan per mu would be enough, because the land on Huangtupo is really bad.

"Uncle, it's only 20 yuan per mu. You can keep it for me for as long as you can. The longer the better."

If this price can be covered, Zhang An will be overjoyed.

Although the mountain is now contracted in the mountains, 20 yuan is considered a normal price.

But after a few years, this will have to be multiplied many times.

"Okay, then I'll go back and talk to them. We will hold a meeting tomorrow and let everyone decide who to lease the land to."

(End of this chapter)