The worst time travel, surviving seven years of famine

The big stone was lying in the river, and the dike was built.

"Boom~bang."

With a loud noise, a piece of bluestone finally fell off the mountainside, rolled down the slope, and fell into the Lanxi River.

This rock, which is taller than two people, is the result of a morning of hard work by more than a dozen villagers in Lanxi Village. The location where the boulder lies in the river is where the dike is built this time.

The location where the boulder rolled down was exactly what they thought. Old Man Gu was very happy and hurriedly led the villagers to worship the Dragon King statue again.

The Dragon King statue was specially invited by the villagers of Lanxi Village from the Dragon King Temple in Lianhua Town for the opening ceremony. Building bridges and dikes are major events for the villagers, and they must burn incense to invite the local Dragon King. Starting construction on an auspicious day may be a blasphemy against the power of the gods, so Lanxi Village prepared some incense, candles, flowers, fruits, and gold and silver ingots made of paper to pray for a good start and a smooth and safe construction.

It is worth mentioning that this time, Old Man Gu also took a jar of wine from his home. In Old Man Gu's words, the Dragon King is greedy, and after drinking wine and having a good sleep, he will not make trouble, and they can also finish building the dike.

Gu Liang was amused and helpless. Offering sacrifices to the Dragon King, such an illusory thing, is considered idealism. This delusion of getting the Dragon King drunk with wine is materialism.

With the boulder, the dike has a foundation, and the rest is easy to say, just continue to move the stones and pile them up.

Everyone took the chisel, crowbar, drill and hemp rope, and selected suitable stones along Lanxi to build the dike.

And Dabao's grandfather took the chisel and hammer to carve on this boulder, in order to carve a river-suppressing beast for the dike.

When Dabao's grandfather was young, he helped people to dig stone strips in the neighboring county, so he had some experience, so the job of the river beast was naturally handed over to him.

After the new bridge was built, a dragon-slaying sword must be hung under the bridge. Because ancient people believed that every flood was caused by a demon dragon, in order to prevent the flood from breaking the bridge, a dragon-slaying sword was hung to remind the demon dragon that this road was blocked and let it avoid it. And repairing the dyke requires a river beast to permanently suppress the dyke and prevent the water from rushing down.

Lanxi Village is a small village without such a large financial resource. Letting Dabao's grandfather carve is just a formality. Dabao's grandfather carved a rhinoceros. Rhinoceros has always been considered a symbol of longevity and auspiciousness in ancient times. It has the function of warding off evil spirits and is the most suitable as a river beast.

Dabao's grandfather carved the stone rhinoceros in less than a day. As Gu Liang expected, Dabao's grandfather's craftsmanship is indeed top-notch. It looks like a fat pig with a bull horn on its nose.

Gu Liang looked at the 'big horned pig' and said nothing. After all, the people here had never seen a real rhino. And even if he had seen it, he couldn't make it lifelike with his craftsmanship. Anyway, Gu Liang didn't believe it. He just followed the process and didn't need to worry about it.

After working all morning, Da Ni, Er Ni, Chun Ni and Li Donghua's two daughters came with the food made by the Gu family. Since the Gu family took the lead, the old man Gu simply contracted the food for this project. One lunch a day was acceptable for their family.

Dry rice with sorghum egg porridge cooked with wine lees, and two vegetarian dishes. Although it was not rich, it was definitely enough to fill the stomach. Even dry rice was a good thing for some of them.

The Gu family had a lot of wine lees, which could be used to make wine lees cakes, wine lees porridge, etc. The wine lees could even be dried and preserved, but most of the use of the Gu family was to feed pigs, cattle and mules. Sorghum was a bit hoarse, and eating wine lees for a long time was not good for the body, so it could only be eaten in moderation.

The sorghum wine lees and egg drop porridge brought by the maids was soon divided up by the group of people. This porridge not only has the fragrance of egg drops, but the wine lees in it also have a hint of alcohol, which warms the body and stomach. This is very useful for the people who have been soaking in the water of Lanxi River today. After drinking it, they feel warm and are not afraid of the river water in autumn and winter.

After a day of hard work, the foundation of the dike was finally leveled and it looked like something.

This job looks good, but you will know how hard it is when you actually do it. The riverbed of Lanxi River in this section is about ten meters wide. It is not easy to deal with the foundation well. You have to dig a drainage canal to divert the river water to one side. The foundation here is not like a wall. The upstream of the dike must be built with stones to form a trapezoid to prevent the dike from being washed away by the river.

The next day, Gu Liang was a little tired because he helped the day before, so he got up later.

When he arrived at the river, he found that there seemed to be more people today than yesterday.

Logically speaking, since this is physical labor and voluntary labor without pay, the number of people coming should be decreasing day by day, so why is it more than yesterday? Gu Liang even counted them and found that there were at least a dozen more people, which is not a small number.

Gu Liang looked at the people working and found the problem, so he said to a man who was tying stones:

"Uncle Sun, why are you here too?"

"Well, we are all from the same village. I can't just watch and not help build the weir!"

"Yes, this weir will benefit the whole village. I have wanted to build it for a long time, so that we don't have to worry about getting our shoes wet when crossing the river in winter."

"Oh! Uncle Li, you are here too, I haven't seen you yet."

"You kid, don't you think your Uncle Li is here to work?"

"Of course not, I'm not afraid that you will come to work secretly and have no food to eat at noon!"

"It's okay, I will help you even if you don't care about the food..."

Gu Liang and the group of villagers who didn't come yesterday chatted with each other, causing laughter around them, and the air was full of a happy atmosphere.

Gu Liang counted carefully, and there were exactly five more families who came to help today, and the number of working families exceeded 20 households, finally exceeding one-fifth of the total population of the village. Although not much, it shows that this matter is very popular with the people, and anyone with a discerning eye can see the benefits of this matter.

Gu Liang wanted to help today, but there were enough people and he was weak, so no one asked him to help.

Once Gu Liang helped, he would be driven away and not allowed to do it. In the words of the villagers, Gu Liang's hands are used to make wine and make a lot of money, so how can he do such rough work? Instead of moving stones, it is better to go home and move the silver he earned.

Gu Liang knew that the villagers were teasing him, and he was not annoyed. He just explained that the recent liquor tax was too high, and brewing was not profitable. If it increased again, it would be better to farm and move bricks.

What Gu Liang said was true. The recent liquor tax has increased too much. After the autumn harvest, it has increased from almost one-tenth to one-fifth. Moreover, now white wine and yellow wine have been taxed separately, and the tax on white wine is higher than that on yellow wine.

Although it can make money now, the profit is definitely much less than before, so Gu Liang said he was too lazy to brew. Gu Liang also tried to find connections and gave some money to the higher-ups through the Xu family, but the final result did not change. It may be that the higher-ups did not agree.

The matter was not done, and the money was not returned. Old Mrs. Gu was distressed for several days. The quality of their family's food also declined rapidly during those days. They ate sorghum lees cakes and lees porridge for two days.