Chapter 242: The Bell Rings Again
Because of the ruthless man's escape, everyone was sent back into the "fence" the very next day.
As for the plan Wang An had been quietly preparing for over a year, it had gone completely and utterly down the drain.
It had to be said: in anything you do, you have to be one step ahead of others, otherwise you won't achieve a damn thing!
After Wang An discovered this gold mine, although his face remained expressionless, he was quite excited internally.
His family already had about 160 catties of gold bricks; while these were already very valuable, who would ever complain about having too much gold?
Regardless, Wang An decided to scoop up a massive haul of gold first. For gold mining, a period of ten-plus years could be considered very ample.
While Wang An was pondering these matters, Liu Guilan suddenly shouted, "Xiao An, come out and mix the dumpling filling! We're having dumplings for lunch."
"Coming, I'm heading down now." Hearing this, Wang An gathered his thoughts and answered as he stepped out of the house to put on his shoes.
Ever since Wang An made that one batch of dumplings, whenever the family ate dumplings, the task of seasoning the filling became Wang An's job.
However, since Wang An had a wife, he passed on the skill of mixing dumpling filling to Mu Xueqing without reservation.
Actually, Wang An had also taught his mother, Liu Guilan, but unfortunately, this thing seemed to require talent.
Despite using the same sequence and the same ingredients, the filling Liu Guilan mixed just wasn't very tasty!
It was a truly perplexing phenomenon!
At home, Liu Guilan rarely ordered Wang An to do chores; Wang Dazhu and Mu Xueqing were the same.
After all, the work of "mountain hunting" was not easy and was dangerous; with Wang Dazhu, his wife, and Mu Xueqing, there was enough help for the household chores.
It was just that Mu Xueqing's wrist was injured. To ensure the dumplings tasted good, the glorious yet arduous task of mixing the filling fell upon Wang An once again.
However, the meat filling wasn't minced by Wang An, but by his father, Wang Dazhu.
Since Wang An started mountain hunting, the family members were no longer as idle as they had been before.
Besides feeding the pigs, they had to chop grass for the sheep, mules, horses, and donkeys, and they had to clean the manure the animals left in the sheds.
In this era, chopping grass was genuinely exhausting; it required one person to feed the grass into the cutter and another to push the blade down with all their might.
Cleaning the manure in winter was also no easy feat because the waste froze solid to the ground, requiring a pickaxe to dig it out.
One could imagine that when a pickaxe struck the rock-hard manure, it would certainly splash bits of waste, and where would those splashes fly?
However, in the countryside, people didn't find the manure of mules, horses, donkeys, cows, or sheep dirty, because they were herbivores, and their manure was actually a treasure.
Far from being shunned, some people would spend every day carrying flower baskets around the village to collect manure.
Because chemical fertilizers were scarce in this era—and mainly because people couldn't afford them—crops would certainly grow poorly without fertilizer.
Thus, in this era, manure was the only fertilizer for the fields.
Many people didn't realize how high the status of manure was in a farmer's heart.
But it must be said that although the stuff wasn't edible, its status in the countryside was second only to grain!
Wang An clearly remembered that before he went to the South in his previous life, a war had broken out among the villagers over collecting manure.
The incident started when a cow dropped a large pile of manure on the village road, and two children collecting manure saw it at the same time.
One must know that children in this era were very resourceful and frugal, so both children claimed they saw it first.
When cow manure is first dropped, it looks like a lump, but in reality, it's like mud—it doesn't hold a shape and is very sticky.
One child, eager to protect the manure, reached out and grabbed the still-warm cow dung with his hand.
The second child, naturally, would not let this go, so he grabbed it too.
Perhaps the first child grabbed more and the second grabbed less.
The second child got fed up and slapped the warm cow manure directly onto the first child's face.
Children in the Northeast were rarely cowards; fighting was as simple as a daily family meal.
So, the first child directly pressed the second child's head into the cow manure.
Then, the two children wrestled, rolling back and forth in the cow dung; naturally, both children ended up covered in it.
This situation naturally attracted the parents' attention, and the parents of both families started fighting as well, both claiming their child had discovered the manure first.
Notably, not a single parent from either side mentioned that the cow manure had dirtied the clothes; the critical point of contention was: who did this pile of cow manure actually belong to?
Wang An had witnessed the entire process at the time, but he didn't find it unbelievable!
In the countryside, every household's manure pile was generally outside the main gate, but "manure theft" happened from time to time.
Therefore, it was perfectly normal for two families to fight over a pile of shit.
After Wang An finished mixing the filling, he helped Wang Dazhu and his wife wrap the dumplings.
Then, Liu Guilan's mouth wouldn't stop.
Of course, everything Liu Guilan talked about was the sewing machine, constantly praising how useful it was.
In fact, after learning how to use the sewing machine, Liu Guilan had already sat before it for over two hours doing needlework.
In Liu Guilan's words, one hour of work with the sewing machine was equivalent to two days of usual work.
After lunch, Wang An took a stroll around the small convenience store, but today the main topic of conversation was still related to the wolves and the red dogs.
After Wang An played cards for a while, the production team's bell rang once again.
The one ringing the bell was none other than the newly appointed Brigade Secretary, Sun Dafu.
Soon, the men, women, young, and old of the village gathered around. For the past two days, the entire village had been in a state of panic because of the wolves and red dogs.
After all, it hadn't been long since the land had been distributed to individual households, and the livestock and poultry originally belonging to the production team had been sold off to various families.
So the current situation was that the households with livestock and poultry were the most panicked and frightened.
After all, everyone knew the primary purpose of wild beasts entering the village.
It was absolutely impossible not to panic!
The purpose of this meeting was primarily to discuss how to deal with the wolves and red dogs.
Although Kaoshan Village only had seventy or eighty households, it had a militia; of course, the militia positions were held by members of the dominant clans.
Based on a ratio of one soldier per ten households, Kaoshan Village had eight militiamen.
Adding the hunters and those with guns, the primary combat force of Kaoshan Village totaled 42 people.
These 42 people were divided into three teams of 14 at night to patrol the perimeter of the village.
However, now that the land had been distributed to households, these combatants—aside from the militia—had no obligation to help others hunt wolves or patrol.
Who wouldn't want to protect their own home? Besides, who would take responsibility if casualties occurred?
Therefore, the final decision was that regardless of the location—meaning regardless of whose house it was—whoever killed a wolf or a red dog would own it, and the villagers could not steal it!
Of course, if a villager killed one themselves, it belonged to that villager.
Furthermore, there would be rewards based on merit. The brigade office would provide money, giving rewards based on the number of beasts each person killed.
Starting from 50 yuan for first place and decreasing downwards: 40, 30, 20, and 10 yuan, taking only the top five.
It had to be said that Sun Dafu was quite experienced; this way, he fully mobilized everyone's enthusiasm.
Not only could killing a wolf or red dog bring money from selling it, but killing more could earn a reward. To everyone, this was like hunting while sitting at home.