Peasant woman

Chapter 24

Fu Gui shook his head and said, "As Li Zheng said, there are only so many fields in the village, and no one wants to relocate now. Maybe no one wants to sell the land in a year or two."

Xu Cao had expected such a result a long time ago, so she was not surprised. She nodded, "That's okay. If it doesn't work, we can open up one or two acres of land by ourselves. It's just a bit hard."

It is very troublesome to open up wasteland. Zhanghe Village is surrounded by mountains. If you want to open up wasteland, you can only open up wasteland on the side of the mountain. You have to choose a good location, preferably near a water source, so that irrigation and other things will be much more convenient in the future. Only two acres of land can be reclaimed on the top of the mountain, and paddy fields are somewhat unlikely. When irrigating paddy fields, a lot of water is needed, and water is usually released. If two acres of paddy fields are reclaimed on the top of the mountain, the only choice The water has gone up, so the paddy fields are not considered for the time being, and we are going to open one or two acres of fields first.

Xu Cao told Fugui about this, and Fugui nodded in agreement, "Okay, let's look for it tomorrow to see what is suitable, and then report to Lizheng. Much cheaper."

On the second day, Xu Cao asked Xiaobai and Heizi to help look at the cured meat in the courtyard, and the two went to Lizheng's place.

Lizheng in the village is equivalent to the position of the village head, and Lizheng in Zhanghe Village is an old man in his 60s, Cao Yanli.A very fair old man, every time there is any dispute in the village, the old man will resolve it fairly.

The old man has a son and a daughter, both of whom have already married and established businesses.

The elderly family is good, but his son Cao Guangde is not so easy to get along with. Fortunately, Youli is taking care of him on weekdays, and he hasn't done any major things that make people angry.

When the two came to Cao's house, they were sitting in the yard pulling firewood outside. Seeing Xu Cao and Fugui, they smiled and said, "Fugui, have you thought about it? Are you really going to reclaim two acres of land?"

To open up wasteland on the hills, you first need to cut down all the trees and uproot the stumps. This is a big project.

Fugui smiled and said: "Think it over, my wife and I are going to reclaim two acres of land, Lizheng, how much money will it cost?"

Cao Yanli smiled, pulled a little boy from the side and sat down, then pointed to the two little boys next to him, and said: "Sit down, I'll tell you something." Fugui hurriedly led Xu Cao to sit When they got down, Cao Yanli said: "Think about it, I won't say anything more, you can just give four taels of silver for the land reclamation, mainly for the government, after completing the land deed, go to the government to cover the money The two acres of land belong to you, but the cost of land reclamation is very high, just the two of you, I don’t know how long it will take to open it, and you must hire people. Have you all thought it through?”

Xu Cao did the math, thirteen taels of silver on her body was enough, and two taels of silver per acre of land was not expensive. The slightly better fields in the village had already reached 13 taels of silver per mu, and those that were a little bit worse needed six or seven taels of silver.

Fugui also thought it was okay, so they settled down, the two paid the money, and told Lizheng about the land they liked, and finally Lizheng got the land deed and official documents, and then went to the government to stamp it.On the second day, Xu Caofugui and Lizheng went to the government office in the town. Fugui accompanied Lizheng to the government office to get their seal stamped, and Xu Cao was busy buying pots and pans.

In the past two days, the stove in the kitchen is almost dry, and you can cook in it at night. After returning home, Xu Cao happily cleaned the pots and pans she bought, and then put the big pot on the stove. Above, start stir-frying and cooking.

A pot of rice steamed at night, the rice is white rice, Xu Cao bought it in the town during the day, not much, just bought five catties, this rice is very fine and expensive, and the price is ridiculously expensive, fifteen yuan per catty , These five catties cost 75 Wen.Xu Cao also wanted to come here for 14 years, and hadn't even eaten a mouthful of white rice, so she couldn't help but bought five catties, and regretted buying it, it was too expensive.

On the contrary, Fugui saw her distressed look, held her hand, and said: "Daughter-in-law, you can buy whatever you want, I can still earn this little money."

After hearing this, Xu Cao didn't feel so distressed anymore.

After the white rice was cooked, Xu Cao fried a piece of wild boar with sun-dried chilies. First, he used the oil from the fat pork to refine it, then threw the chopped garlic and dried chilies into the pot. The pork was poured in, and it was fried, and the aroma was overflowing.

Miao Miao was too young to let her eat spicy food. Xu Cao used the Chinese cabbage bought during the day to make her a stewed cabbage with pork. Pork and cabbage, the taste is really delicious.

Brother Jun stood staggeringly at the door of Xu Cao's kitchen, "Boom, eat...you want to eat" This little guy yelled clearly when he was eating, but he never yelled clearly when he was called Aunt Xu Cao.

Xu Cao smiled and added a bowl to Brother Jun, and asked him to take it home and eat it by himself.The little guy ran away with the bowl in his hand.

Xu Cao also had no choice. Now that the family is separated, she has disagreements with Chen and Niu, but she has no conflicts with Xiao An, her second sibling, her younger brothers and her father. If you serve them food, it would be too much.A bowl of water is not flat, it is better to just give it to the children.

When eating, Miao Miao ate a big bowl, and a lot of stewed pork and cabbage, Xu Cao ate two bowls, Fugui ate five bowls, and ate up the last leftovers.Only then did he belch full of meaning, and grinned at Xu Cao, "The rice my wife made is really delicious, I haven't been full for a long time."

When living with Mrs. Chen, he was never full. He is big, so he eats a lot. Sometimes when he hunted in the mountains, he roasted his prey on the side of the mountain, but he didn’t feel hungry. .

After dinner, the few of them went to rest early, and they still have things to do when they wake up tomorrow morning.

In the evening, the two discussed again. If they want to open up wasteland, the trees on the two acres of land should be cut down, because it is on the side of the mountain, with some slopes, the location is not high, and the trees are not very dense. If you ask someone for help, it is estimated that ten In the next day, all the trees can be uprooted.

The two discussed to invite ten people, and each person would be paid [-] Wen a day, regardless of food.

When he woke up the next day, Fugui told his second and third younger brothers, and they also agreed to help, but they were also charged at [-] Wen per day, and all brothers had to settle their accounts clearly, so as not to waste time. Add unnecessary trouble.Then Fugui went out to find someone. There were not many idle laborers in the village, and they were all looking for work in the town.Fugui invited Uncle Dezi, Brother Qingshan, and several other men from the village to help build the stove. When Fugui came back at night, he told Xu Cao that there were still two people missing.

Xu Cao said: "It's okay to be short of two people. We can start work tomorrow, and finish it before the snow falls. If someone wants to help, we don't have to refuse. It's better to finish it earlier."

Fugui nodded, "Success!"

Seeing it, Mrs. Chen hesitated for a moment before saying, "Fugui, do you want to open two acres of land on the top of the mountain? Tomorrow I will ask your uncle, third uncle, first cousin, and second cousin to help. Erlang Saburo is the same, so you can finish it as soon as possible."

Fu Gui agreed after thinking about it. Now is the time when there is a shortage of people, so it is okay for uncle and cousin to come and help.

Seeing that Fugui agreed, Mrs. Chen happily ran to tell her elder brother and third younger brother to go.

The eldest brother of the Chen family is named Chen Sheng. He has two sons, Chen Jinkui and Chen Jinwu, and a girl. The two sons are married and have children, and the girl is also married.These three are Fugui's cousins.The Chen family also has a third younger brother, named Chen Mao. Chen Mao died of his wife a few years ago and never married. He took care of his daughter Chen Ru and grew up with peace of mind. A few days ago, it was Chen who was going to die or live, but it was Chen who persuaded her, telling her that she would definitely help her find a good marriage, and then she coaxed Chen Ru.

Sure enough, on the second day, uncle Chen Sheng, first cousin Chen Jinkui, second cousin Chen Jinwu and third uncle Chen Mao went to the mountain to help. Including Fugui, there were thirteen people in total.Whoever Fugui promised to cut down the tree, the root dug up will belong to his family, so everyone worked very hard, and no one was lazy, except for the eldest cousin and second cousin.

The Chen family is pretty hardworking. Although the Chen family is quite annoying, she is hardworking. Her elder brother and third younger brother are not lazy, but the two sons raised by the eldest are a bit lazy. They are busy cutting trees, Dig the roots.When Xu Cao came to deliver water and pancakes to Fugui, he saw the two sitting on a broken tree, chatting vigorously.

Seeing Xu Cao, the two waved at Xu Cao, "Cousin, come here."

Xu Cao thought that both of them were rich cousins, so she walked over and said with a smile, "Eldest cousin, second cousin, what's the matter?"

The eldest cousin Chen Jinkui smiled, looked at Erlang sitting on the broken tree with his legs, and pointed to the water and pancakes in Xu Cao's hands, "Send food and drink to Fugui?"

Xu Cao hummed.

The second cousin Chen Jinwu who was next to him immediately smiled and said, "Cousin, your eldest cousin and I came here without eating in the morning, so give us some pancakes."

Xu Cao subconsciously clutched the pancakes and tea in her bosom, thought for a while, and said, "Big cousin, second cousin, I'm really sorry, today's pancakes are enough for Fugui, I'll go over to give Fugui some food first." If you are hungry, I will inform the first cousin and the second cousin later, and let them bring you food." She brought five pancakes, just enough for her husband to eat.

The two cousins ​​got angry when they heard it, and frowned, and said, "Cousins, I heard from my aunt that it was because of your relationship that my eldest cousin separated from them, but really? You Tell me how you became the daughter-in-law of the Yang family? Isn’t this a gossip for the villagers to chew on my cousin?”

Xu Cao watched the two of them work together to cut down a tree all morning. Hearing what they said, the corners of his mouth couldn't help twitching. The character of these two people really resembles Mrs. Chen, and my uncle is obviously not such a person. , How did you give birth to such two sons.On the contrary, the second, third, and fourth sisters in the family have followed the uncle's temperament, and they are all honest and honest people.

Naturally, she ignored them, and after making a fool of herself, she clutched the pancake and walked towards Fugui.She planned to tell Fu Gui at night that the big cousin and the second cousin were here purely for fun, where did they come to work?She doesn't want such a person to help.

(End of this chapter)