Siheyuan: Starting from Building a Village

next day

Slightly cool and windy.

The Sun Also Rises.

The third brother is always the first one to get up, followed by Erlang and Li Dabao. They also want to sleep in, but they can't beat the third brother, so they are forced out of bed every day.

The two followed the third brother to practice military boxing, and occasionally practiced against each other, but all ended with Erlang and Dabao's failure.

Erlang and Li Dabao also encouraged Lao San to have a sparring match with Liu Guozhi. The result was obvious. Lao San was abused twice, Erlang and Li Dabao were abused three times. After that, the three of them never mentioned the sparring match again.

Two more people joined the training team today, Chen Weiguo and Li Xiangdong.

Forget about Chen Weiguo, he just acted on a whim, tried a few tricks, and acted like a weird person, so he followed behind to make up the numbers.

Li Xiangdong is different. He was a soldier and is now the deputy director. He has remarkable abilities.

As usual, after practicing two sets of military boxing, Liu Guozheng began to prepare breakfast.

I still chose the most time-saving and convenient mutton soup. I also cooked a pot of potatoes as the staple food.

You can drink as much mutton soup as you want and eat as much potatoes as you want.

Just don’t waste it and don’t eat too much.

After dinner, they took a short break and started to plan what they needed to do.

Lu Erban and Yang Decao, two people who knew a little about carpentry, went to help Yang Youde.

Two women, Niu Guirong and Ma Chunhua, were asked to do needlework, mainly making clothes for the children. They were told to learn how to sew with a sewing machine, but they were afraid of damaging the machine and refused to learn no matter what, which made Liu Guozheng speechless.

The remaining five people are ordinary people. While they farm at home, they also know a little about breeding. They can only say that they know a little bit and have no use for the time being. There are two who said they grew up by the Yellow River and know how to make nets to catch fish, but they have no use for the time being. Of course there are fish in the fish pond. As many as you want, there are fish, and you can put them in at any time.

But I don’t plan to use the fish pond to make money this year. I’ll wait until the village is on the right track and then talk about it next year.

According to Liu Guozheng's plan, the entire village's income in the next three to four years will depend entirely on this fish pond.

As for planting fruit trees, it is a long-term endeavor. Without three or four years, no benefits will be seen.

There is also the issue of breeding. All cattle and sheep are raised in the back mountain, which is behind the West Mountain. According to Zhang Long and Zhao Hu, who have been to the mountain, there is a basin behind the West Mountain. The area is not small, larger than the planned village. That is the secret breeding base of the future village. The open breeding is all chickens, ducks, geese and the like.

As for raising pigs, I don't plan to raise a large number of them. Just two or three will be enough. Firstly, there are not enough manpower, and secondly, pigs are too dirty. There are not enough manpower to begin with, and it will take a lot of energy to clean them every day, so it's better not to raise them.

Liu Guozheng traveled through time to enjoy life, not to experience the difficulties of life.

A few people who had nothing to do for the time being went to clean up the rubble.

As a nurse, Wenxiu naturally knew how to read, so the task of teaching these children to read was given to her.

"Brother Zheng, what are we doing?"

Seeing that everyone else had work to do, Erlang and Laosan naturally didn't want to be idle either.

"Wait for the people from the Electricity Bureau to help erect and plant the poles."

It shouldn't be a problem to get electricity in the village. With the mayor of the Jingxi mining area stepping in, there shouldn't be any problem.

In the 1960s, it was quite troublesome to get electricity to a village, involving multiple steps, including erecting poles, planting poles, stringing wires, installing transformers and building distribution rooms.

This electricity should be connected to villages with electricity. The lines should be mapped, the pole pits should be dug in advance, and then the poles should be erected.

The poles are about 50 meters apart, and tools such as crowbars are needed throughout the process to ensure that the poles are gently lifted and placed in the correct position.

Planting poles is one of the most important steps in the electrification process, and requires the participation of most of the village's strong laborers. The specific operations include pulling the poles, keeping the poles upright, etc., and finally completing the planting of the poles by filling and compacting the soil.

After the poles are planted, the next step is to string the wires and install the transformers.

The entire power-pulling process takes about half a month.

Sure enough, at nine o'clock in the morning, workers from the Electricity Bureau arrived and made a series of surveys and arrangements.

Erlang, Laosan, Chen Weiguo, and Li Dabao were all assigned to dig holes.

Zhang Long and Zhao Hu are responsible for transporting and erecting electric poles. This task is really best suited for them because they are very strong and the two of them can handle the job of erecting poles.

Liu Guozheng stayed at home and prepared meals.

You can't eat unleavened bread and potatoes every day, you still need to steam some buns.

Of course, it is not pure white flour, it is all two-ply flour, but the proportion of white flour is higher.

Because there were so many people, the steamed buns needed to be steamed for one day in advance. We did heavy work during these days, and only steamed buns and meat could fill us up.

Liu Guozheng also knows how to make steamed buns.

As a northerner, my family would steam buns, especially during the Chinese New Year. Since there were so many buns to steam, basically everyone who could do the work would help. As I watched, I wanted to try it. Practice makes perfect, and I learned how to steam buns naturally.

This is also an essential skill for many men in later generations, such as cooking, making meals, doing housework, etc.

I have to say, being a man is really difficult.

It takes twenty minutes to steam a pot of steamed buns, with thirty buns in each pot. Liu Guozheng is preparing to steam two pots.

After steaming two pots of steamed buns, I boiled another pot of water and filled the thermos. It was almost noon.

Liu Guozheng didn't plan to take a rest and started preparing lunch directly.

It was still a big stew with lots of pork belly.

Each person had a big bowl and two steamed buns, the taste was absolutely amazing.

Wait until Erlang and the others come back and then start driving.

After dinner, continue in the afternoon.

Everyone is very motivated.

People in the 1950s and 1960s, especially those in rural areas, worked hard every day and all they wanted was to have enough food to eat. It would be even better if the food could be improved occasionally.

Now not only can I eat enough, but I can also eat well.

Naturally, I will cherish this hard-won opportunity and be full of enthusiasm.

The day passed in busyness.

Of course, you can’t avoid having another drink in the evening to relieve fatigue and have a good sleep.

After everyone went to bed, Liu Guozheng went straight to the second world, took out a bottle of Coke, and drank it every meal. He burped a lot, and it was so refreshing.

In his previous life, Liu Guozheng liked to drink Coke, especially in the summer. When he was tired from work, he would drink a bottle of iced Coke and take a gulp. It was so comfortable. But later, he got diabetes and never drank it again.

After drinking a sip of Coke and lying on the sofa, the feeling of the afterlife came back.

There are sofas in the second world, and they are the most advanced ones from the 1960s. But they can only be used in the second world. In the real world, we have to wait a few years.

We don’t need to be low-key about what we eat, but we should be low-key about what we use.

After drinking the last sip of Coke, I returned to the main world and went to sleep.