Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 52: Pebbled Land
"Stop it, boss!" Seeing Chen Gu and Scar appear, Stunning Tiger immediately ran over to say hello.

"Yeah!" Chen Gu nodded and asked with concern: "Is the spring ploughing going well?"

"It's okay. Although it's been delayed for more than half a month and there are a lot of weeds in the field, it's cultivated land after all, so it's easy to work on. It's not the beginning of summer yet, and there's still a month to Grain in Ear, so it's totally in time." The roadblock explained.

Chen Gu knew this. As the saying goes, "If you don't plant before Grain in Ear, it will be in vain." This means that as long as you plant before Grain in Ear, it will be in time, but it will be difficult to plant after that.

"Then you take the brothers and get busy first. Scar will take me around. We can talk after lunch. By the way, find two brothers to come over!" Chen Gu said as he took two slabs of pork down from the horse's back.

Chen Gu had picked the fattest pig, but the two legs of meat together only weighed more than 80 kilograms. The native pig breeds in China are really not big, but they are really fragrant.

"Find two brothers who are good at cooking and have an extra meal at noon. Just stew the pig's head and pig's feet. You can keep the rest and have two more meals." Chen Gu said with a smile.

"Haha, thank you very much, Shaoshantou!" said the roadblocker happily, and then shouted to the two young men from the geography department, "Xiaowu, Xiaoliu, come here quickly, Shaoshantou has brought us some meat, take it and stew the pig's head and feet, remember to put some peas in it, and cut the rest into small pieces and marinate with salt."

After the two young men ran over and saluted Chen the Assassin, one of them carried a slab of pork and ran towards the thatched house.

Then, Chen Gu, led by Scar, walked around the entire mountain.

As for whether it is possible to plant on this kind of land full of pebbles, it is actually possible, as long as you pick up the larger stones.

This area belongs to the Sunxi River Basin. These pebbles were later given a name called selenium-rich jade and were operated by the district government for a period of time. Well, in fact, it can indeed be considered jade, after all, it has been authoritatively certified by national institutions.

Chen Gu looked at the sunny slope that stretched into the deep mountains and couldn't help but frown and asked, "This place is quite large, at least more than a thousand acres, and the terrain is relatively flat. Why don't we reclaim it all?"

“It’s very difficult. In fact, the soil in those places is thicker, and the terrain is lower, so there is not so much water shortage. There is also a small ditch at the bottom. All aspects are pretty good.

But apart from the red sandstone we have reclaimed, the yellow mud below is full of densely packed pebbles, some as big as a washbasin, and some as small as a finger. No matter where the hoe lands, it will bounce back. "Scar said with a wry smile.

The hill is not big and not very high, so it has no name. After all, it is more than a thousand meters away from the nearest house and no one usually comes here, so there is no need to give it a name.

It would be more appropriate to call it a big mound rather than a hill. The sunny slope is relatively flat so dozens of acres of land have been reclaimed, but the shady slope is very steep and not worth reclaiming.

In fact, it is because farming means soil erosion. The land will be dug deeper and deeper, and the pebbles underneath will continue to be turned out, so they need to be picked up once a year.

And they have to be picked up every year. People in later generations who don’t know always say that these stones will grow, from nothing to something, and then grow little by little, so they have to be picked up every year.

However, except for the first year when there were too many stones piled up due to soil erosion for many years, which required some effort, there were actually not many stones that needed to be picked up every year.

However, due to the special nature of the land, a hoe cannot be used as a tool for digging, because a hoe has a surface and it is easy to dig up stones, which will cause great damage to the hoe. It can even be said that there is a 100% chance of digging up stones.

Therefore, this kind of land requires a special tool for digging, a two-tooth hoe. Of course, an iron pickaxe can also be used, but an iron pickaxe only has one tooth so not much soil can be dug up, while two teeth can dig up a large piece of soil. This is what happened in the later generations when people ate from the same pot. It must be said that people at that time were really willing to work, full of hope for the future, and could overcome any difficulties.

At that time, in Jiangjin, an area of ​​more than 2,000 square kilometers, most of the land was extremely sloping and not suitable for cultivation, but it still supported more than one million people, relying only on a two-tooth hoe.

Chen Gu was considering whether to take out this tool, and what benefits it would bring to himself and to ordinary people.

The answer is that it benefits the big families more.

But after considering it, Chen Gu decided to take out the two-toothed hoe. The big clans are also part of our country. They are stronger, and naturally we have more Chinese heritage.

"Scar, I'm going to give you a task!"

"Young Master, please speak!"

"Go find some people living at the foot of the mountain and ask them to pick up the stones in this area and pile them together. Well, just pile the stones on the side of an area that is ten feet long and thirty feet wide.

In a few days I will ask Zhang San to bring you a batch of special hoes. Once the stones are picked up, dig the soil and plant the land. Just plant one crop of soybeans this year!" Chen Gu said with a smile.

Scar couldn't help but frown, but considering that it was Chen Gu's arrangement, he finally nodded and agreed. After all, even if it was wrong, the loss would not be big for Chen Gu. But if Chen Gu was right, then this matter would be too important for the Shanzhai.

Although there were only more than a thousand acres of land in front of him, Scar knew that there were many more such lands behind the opposite hill.

If everything can be planted, even if it is a little more difficult, it is acceptable. For the village, so much land is of great significance.

At this time, most people's spring ploughing had already ended, and there was a large amount of idle labor, so Scar easily recruited people to pick up stones.

The people living nearby naturally knew about this stronghold. After all, it had existed for twenty or thirty years. However, this stronghold did not rob or plunder.

Instead, they only engaged in highway robbery. To be more precise, they only collected tolls, which were not much. An ordinary person charged one copper coin, a person carrying a load charged two copper coins, a person riding a horse charged five copper coins, a cart charged five copper coins, and a horse-drawn carriage charged ten copper coins. The horse-drawn carriage charged the most.

People living nearby do not charge any money. In addition, with the establishment of this mountain stronghold, there are fewer people robbing and stealing nearby. It can be said that the safety of nearby residents is guaranteed to a certain extent.

Therefore, everyone was not averse to working for the mountain village. When they heard that the wage was 30 cents a day, they were very enthusiastic to come and work.

Even the elderly, the weak, women and children came. They didn't ask for money, just a full meal and they were guaranteed to work diligently.

Scar considered that it was just picking up stones, and children might be more nimble and bend down faster, so he agreed and explained that he would consider paying those who were diligent.

(End of this chapter)