Chapter 291: Fixed Rules are Not Laws
After cleaning up the dishes, the whole family sat on the kang chatting.
Wang An asked, "Dad, did you go look for people to cut trees during the day?"
Wang Dazhu said while smoking, "Mm-hmm. I made three more narrow sleds. The snow hasn't melted yet, and we have the livestock, so once the cutting is done, we can just haul them straight back."
Wang An thought for a moment and asked, "How many people did you find? How many days do you reckon it'll take?"
Wang Dazhu calculated with his fingers as he spoke
"I found your eldest uncle, your second uncle, and your eldest and second brothers. Just the five of us. I'm afraid if I find others, I won't be able to pay them back in labor. If you have time then, you should go too."
Wang An instinctively asked, "Mm-hmm, I'll call Xue Li and Lao Wu then. By the way, my second brother didn't go to the forestry station for odd jobs?"
Wang Dazhu sighed and said, "Where is there that much work? Your second brother hasn't had any work since the New Year."
Hearing this, Wang An felt helpless. At a time like this, there were idle people everywhere.
In his previous life, Wang An had read magazines; the reason there were so many trivial disputes in these few years was precisely because too many people had nothing to do.
The magazines stated that according to statistics, the unemployed young adult population in the cities—those who had returned to the cities—numbered over twenty million.
And the number of young adults who were similarly idle but not recorded in the statistics was even higher than those on the books.
One must realize that at this time, the total urban population was less than two hundred million.
One could imagine how many idle people there were in all of China.
Furthermore, it had always been the case that when life in the city was difficult, life in the countryside was even harder.
Because in this era, whether through the collective system or the household responsibility system, as long as you farmed, you had to hand over the public grain.
And the grain handed over had to be the ripest, plumpest, and driest, without any impurities.
Moreover, no one could cheat this system because there were heaps of grain inspectors. If there was the slightest discrepancy, your grain would certainly be deemed unqualified.
To put it bluntly, after the autumn harvest, the best grain was handed over, and the poor grain was kept for oneself to eat.
Some might ask: how do you separate grain harvested together?
This is very simple, because during the threshing process, "winnowing" is required.
For example, after rice is threshed, the grains are mixed with husks, leaves, small stalks, and soil. At this point, they must be separated.
"Winnowing" involves scooping up this mixture with a wooden shovel and tossing it into the air, using the power of the wind to blow away the rice leaves, soil, small stalks, and other impurities.
Because the rice grains are heavier, they fall back down, and the grains that land do not fall in the same spot.
As is well known, the heavier an object is, the less the wind can move it. Therefore, the grains on the windward side are the heaviest and plumpest, and thus the best part.
This portion is the part handed over as public grain.
The grains on the leeward side are the shriveled, unripe ones, which have the worst taste after being milled into rice.
This portion is what the vast majority of farmers keep for themselves to eat.
Therefore, do not be fooled by the nonsense many people spout.
Saying how great the countryside is, that you just need to farm a bit to be self-sufficient and that you'll never starve, and so on.
The people who say this are absolutely city dwellers!
If the countryside is so great, why don't the people saying this come here?
Why would thousands upon thousands of educated youth prefer to return to the city and starve rather than settle down and take root in the countryside?
One must know that at this time, the countryside very much welcomed city people to settle. As long as you settled, large tracts of land would be allocated to you for cultivation; they wouldn't begrudge you even half a plot.
Thus, whether the countryside is actually good or not is something everyone knows in their hearts.
It's just that the people who talk nonsense with wide eyes simply have no shame.
However, hearing from his father that the hired workers were all relatives, Wang An felt it was quite good, as it would avoid a lot of trouble.
Wang Dazhu continued muttering, "Counting the main house, the lower room, the open shed, the pigpen, the sheepfold, and so on, we're going to need a fair amount of timber. The few of us will have to work for ten or eight days."
After hearing this, Wang An decided to find a way to improve the efficiency of the work, because the most time-consuming part of preparing timber is felling the trees.
In this era, aside from the forestry stations, individuals used large saws.
Two people would sit under a tree, pulling the large saw back and forth, stroke by stroke.
Not only was this large saw used for felling trees, but it was also used to cut the logs into planks.
Of course, there was another type of saw with a bow frame.
But regardless of the type of saw, it was all a matter of pulling and tugging. Not only were the people pulling the saw exhausted, but the speed was incredibly slow.
Wang An wondered if Wu Dong and the others could help him buy a chainsaw; even if they couldn't buy one, borrowing one would do.
If it all relied on human pulling, it would be a damn waste of time.
Having made up his mind, Wang An decided not to enter the mountains tomorrow. The chainsaw was one thing, but he also needed to prepare bricks and tiles so his father wouldn't worry.
As for cement, he would buy it only when it was needed, because cement cannot be stored for long or it will clump.
Wang An suddenly remembered that on this trip to the county town, he mustn't forget to buy medicine for the dogs.
Perhaps it was because the weather was too cold, or perhaps because the dogs kept licking their wounds, but in any case, the wounds on the dogs' bodies had not yet scabbed over.
Wang An pondered what he needed to do tomorrow, but he didn't tell Wang Dazhu about his plan to get a chainsaw.
The key was that he wasn't certain; one must realize that in this era, a chainsaw was not something that could be obtained so easily.
After planning for tomorrow, Wang An and Mu Xueqing went to the west room to wash their feet and go to sleep.
After washing their feet and crawling under the covers, he couldn't do anything. Bored, Wang An could only hold the naked Mu Xueqing and sleep.
It must be said that the feeling of being constantly erect was really not very pleasant.
In the morning, Wang An switched to using coarse salt crystals to get close to the deer.
He had suddenly realized that all deer cannot do without saline soil, and many people in the village caught live deer in saline areas.
And indeed, these salt crystals were like a miracle cure to the deer; they simply couldn't resist them.
The two does that had been avoiding Wang An completely forgot what fear was and were drawn over one after another.
Watching the deer munching on the salt crystals, Wang An began to wonder where the saline soils were located in the mountains.
After thinking about the distribution of saline soil, Wang An then pondered what gear would be perfect for catching deer.
After all, if he was going to raise deer, the more the better.
After befriending the deer, Wang An hitched the Big Son Horse and the Big-Bellied Horse to the sled.
Looking at the sled that had been emptied last night, he loaded six pieces of black bear meat, which he intended to give to Fang Xiu'e.
He also loaded several rabbits, as well as wild pheasants and flying dragons. After a thought, he placed the two bear paws he had kept for himself onto the sled.
The bear paws were intended for Wu Dong. Although they had a good relationship, when it came to getting things done, one had to be generous.
Finally, Wang An loaded two skins of deer spine liquor and drove the sled out the gate.
Wang An didn't plan to sell the black bear meat he had hunted yesterday, because during the next few days of felling trees in the mountains, he would need to provide meals for all the hired workers.
In Kaoshan Village, regardless of who the hired worker was, the employer had to provide three meals a day, and those three meals had to be good food and drink.
Of course, every place is different, or rather, every village is different. As far as Wang An knew, in Yangshu Village, hired workers were only provided with a midday meal.
Fixed rules are not laws; everyone has their own customs. In any case, no one helped for free; the labor always had to be repaid.