Chapter 819: Protecting the Young Sprouts

By now, because the main structures of all the houses in Wang An's home had been completed, the majority of the hired helpers had already departed, leaving behind only those with specialized skills.

As for these people, they were all working on the tasks they were best at.

Building kang beds, installing ceilings, laying underground heating flues, building stoves, erecting partition walls, crafting doors and windows, and so on. These renovation tasks were almost all proceeding simultaneously.

It had to be said that the progress of this work was actually quite fast—far faster than the speed Wang An had initially anticipated.

However, thinking about it, this was normal.

After all, renovating a house at this time was actually very simple. Primarily, there weren't that many types of building materials; aside from wood, there were bricks, and for filling material, there was mud. There weren't many new tricks to be played.

Therefore, for experienced masons and carpenters, this work required no thought; they could simply start working after a single glance at the layout.

It must be admitted that although building materials were scarce at this time, a house was ultimately just a house. No matter how luxurious or simple the renovation was, it served the same purpose of housing people.

Moreover, simpler renovations had one advantage: they saved money—saved a massive amount of money.

For example, in Wang An's house, the windows were double-layered wooden windows; naturally, the frames were coated with tung oil.

The ceiling was made of square wooden strips about one centimeter wide, nailed down one by one. Once the strips were nailed, they were simply plastered with white lime.

The partition walls were built with blue bricks, the floors were paved with red bricks, and the stoves and kangs were also built with red bricks.

Although such a renovation was very simple, it actually looked quite grand.

And so, amidst the bustle of the crowd, time continued to slip away quietly.

Early one morning, while the craftsmen had come to work were eating breakfast, the village bell suddenly rang.

When the bell rang, something had inevitably happened.

The mason Sun Xiangyang spoke with a look of certainty but slight annoyance

"This is most likely to organize everyone to protect the green seedlings. I heard from my spouse that wild boars are rampant this year. In many of the nearby villages, quite a few crop fields have been devastated, and they've ended up replanting black soybeans."

The reason Sun Xiangyang said this was because every year at this time, the various villages would organize the villagers to protect the green seedlings together.

Protecting the green seedlings meant guarding the crops to reduce the damage caused by wild boars, Asiatic black bears, and the like.

Of course, in previous years, this usually happened about half a month earlier than this year.

The timing for protecting the seedlings this year was actually a bit late.

But there was no helping it. After the land had been allocated to individual households, everyone looked after their own. Furthermore, protecting seedlings was truly not a pleasant job, so naturally, no one would proactively go into the fields to do it.

Additionally, if no one organized it, even fewer people would go.

After all, the crops across the fields belonged to different families, and wild boars wouldn't specifically target just one family's crops.

If my land suffered losses, yours certainly would too; so if you don't go protect the seedlings, I won't either.

That was the logic!

After Sun Xiangyang finished speaking, the stonemason Li Laicai followed up

"Exactly. Those wild boars are damn well deserving of death. My soybean field in the South Gully was absolutely trashed. I'm thinking of replanting some black soybeans after the next rain."

For some reason, the vast majority of herbivores had a particular fondness for soybean stalks, as if there were something in them that they needed.

After the stonemason Li Laicai finished, Li Facai—who was also a mason and the father of Li Biao—spoke

"Is it still in time to replant black soybeans now? Won't the harvest be mostly shriveled seeds?"

Li Laicai sighed and said helplessly

"Harvesting shriveled seeds is better than planting nothing at all. Otherwise, those fields would be a total waste this year."

It had to be said that this was the downside of living in a forested region. Although there was plenty of land, aside from floods and insect plagues, the destructive power of herbivores like wild boars and black bears was quite formidable.

The carpenter Niu Yichen suddenly said

"Right, our village was organizing the contracting of wasteland and barren hills a while back. Why has there been no news lately?"

Sun Xianghui also asked in bewilderment

"Yeah, I was thinking of getting thirty or fifty mu of wasteland. Since we can't hunt or carry a club, if we don't get more land to grow more grain, we'll have no money to spend every year."

To be honest, Wang An was also puzzled by this. If they could contract the land immediately, they could still plant some black soybeans; any later and nothing could be planted.

One must know that Wang An's purpose in buying the crawler tractor wasn't just for digging foundations; he also intended to use it for reclaiming wasteland.

Furthermore, the last time he went to buy grain, Wang An had already bought black soybean seeds, but so much time had passed and the wasteland was still not settled.

Thus, amidst the chatter of the crowd, everyone finished breakfast and walked together toward the village headquarters.

By the time Wang An arrived at the headquarters with the others, a considerable number of villagers from Kaoshan Village had already gathered.

Village Chief Sun Dafu had returned to the headquarters' office after ringing the bell, while the crowd began smoking and chatting.

However, the topics everyone discussed were all related to wild boars and black bears.

Things like how much of their crops had been devastated, or how someone else's field was completely ruined.

It must be said that these figures sounded truly shocking and were quite distressing.

The losses were genuinely not small!

Only a few plots of crops, because they were located further away from the mountains, had escaped the infringement of the wild boars.

Overall, basically every household had suffered some amount of loss.

After about another ten minutes, almost all the villagers had arrived. Village Chief Sun Dafu, the accountant Li Youcai, the militia captain Sun Xiangfeng, and several other village cadres stepped out of the headquarters' office.

It had to be said that Sun Dafu, as village chief, was indeed much more capable than the previous Niu Yiqun.

Sun Dafu spoke

"Everyone stop talking. Wait until I'm finished before you speak."

With one sentence, the entire gathering instantly became silent.

Then, Sun Dafu continued

"The main reason I've called this meeting today is regarding the protection of the green seedlings. In previous years, the militia and hunters would keep watch in the fields, and those who did so would receive work points."

"This method certainly won't work this year because we've allocated the land to households. Therefore, let's discuss a solution together. Should every household provide someone to take turns on a shift, or what other arrangement? Everyone, speak your mind."

After Sun Dafu finished, he sat on a stool and remained silent, effectively handing the power over to the villagers.

The villagers then began to discuss the matter boisterously.

Thank you "Big Emperor of the Empire" for the reward, thank you, thank you!

Thank you "Book Friend 20250106072902113" for the reward, thank you, thank you!

(End of Chapter)