With the end of the rainy season, the weeds on the Beigou pasture gradually wither and turn yellow, and the water level in the Beigou pool drops significantly every day. The villagers in Wall Village must store enough pasture here before winter comes. This pool will eventually
The water will dry up and bottom out, and some finger-long silver-scaled small fish swim in the water in groups. At this time every year, young people from Wall Village will run to the water pool to build a dam. As long as the inside of the dam is
Scoop out the water, and you can easily pick up this small annual silver-scaled fish in the muddy water with your bare feet.
The surface of Pagolos Mountain is a huge limestone rock formation. Because of this special rock formation, rainwater quickly seeps into the ground when it falls, and almost no vegetation can grow on this rock formation. Therefore, this place is called the Pagolos Mountain.
Desolate land.
Although some silt has gathered at the bottom of the Beigou Caochang pool, it still cannot prevent the water from seeping into the ground.
A group of yellow sheep gathered at the edge of the pool to drink water. A four-wheeled carriage filled with volcanic ash drove slowly along the edge of the Beigou pasture. The driver waved his whip and startled a group of copper-billed sparrows hiding in the grass.
Five or six older children were catching fish at the edge of the pool. One of the older children saw the coachman on the four-wheeled carriage. He quickly pushed his companion and whispered: "Hey! Conan, the man driving the carriage is your father."
…”
Another child who was fishing in the mud quickly raised his head and saw the figure on the ravine. He showed a very surprised expression and said quickly: "Ah! He seems to have said that he will drive to the mountains today to pull volcanic ash."
Several older children stood in the quagmire, waving to the coachman above the ravine.
At this time, the carriage driver also noticed a few older children fishing at the bottom of the ravine, so he stopped the four-wheeled carriage and stood on a high place and shouted to the older children at the bottom of the ravine: "You guys must pay attention to safety!
"
"I know!" the older children responded enthusiastically.
In the view of the coachman, several people from neighboring villages carrying simple luggage were rushing towards Wall Village along this road. When they passed Beigou Pasture, their eyes were full of envy. This kind of pasture where livestock can be grazed is here.
It's rare in this desolate land.
Old Conan drove his carriage past people from neighboring villages, because this road led to Wall Village, so he couldn't help but ask: "Everyone...are you going to Wall Village?"
These people from neighboring villages stopped and replied readily: "Yes, we heard that Chief Bright of Wall Village is recruiting bricklayers to build a reservoir in the village, and we will pay them every day, so we are going to Wall Village."
Try your luck in the village and find a job here, which is better than walking to the city of Helensa."
Seeing the wrinkles on their dark faces, Old Conan was a little hesitant, wondering whether to take them in a carriage for a while, but the carriage was already filled with a whole load of volcanic ash. Old Conan hesitated.
Then he said nonchalantly: "Oh, we really need to build a reservoir..."
He hesitated for a moment, but after all, he did not pick up those people from neighboring villages.
Facts have proved that Old Conan's choice was very wise. The carriage walked forward for a while, and actually saw four or five groups of villagers from neighboring villages who went to Wall Village to find odd jobs. These people would ask Old Conan for information.
The matter of building a reservoir.
…
The masons from Wall Village rode directly to the sulfur mine in Pudu Mountain.
The young men below will walk first, wait for the masons to arrive at Pudu Mountain, and then send the horses back. Then these young people will ride their horses to Pudu Mountain. The sulfur mine alone has almost all the men in Wall Village.
Therefore, almost all the craftsmen who built the reservoir came from several surrounding villages.
The specific candidates were personally selected by the old village chief. Just after the harvest festival, these craftsmen came to Wall Village carrying simple luggage.
The old village chief made simple arrangements for these craftsmen. The craftsmen, led by the old village chief, went to the place upstream of the village where they were going to build a reservoir. The rough outline had been planned with white lime in advance, and there were still white stones on the ground.
The line is still clearly visible, and then the old village chief described the approximate size of the reservoir to the bricklayers.
There is already some volcanic ash and limestone powder piled up on the construction site here. The laborers will first sift the volcanic ash and limestone powder, and then mix them together according to the ratio required by the old village chief, and mix them into cement. Another part of the laborers will
Then we began to dig a deep trench around the white gray marking line of the reservoir. Next, we made the steel bars bought by Suldak into a ground cage, put it into the trench, and then poured cement to lay the foundation...
Selina's notes clearly recorded the specific requirements and procedures for each step. The old village chief was the organizer of building the reservoir. He had to direct nearly one hundred and fifty craftsmen to operate it efficiently. Su
Erdak needed to pay these bricklayers and laborers a salary of eighty-five silver coins every day, so he had to utilize every labor force, and the entire reservoir construction site became very lively for a while.
Unforeseen problems came one after another. For example, the quantity of volcanic ash and lime powder originally stored was seriously insufficient. There was a conflict between the craftsmen who weaved the ground cages and the laborers who dug the trenches. The trenches dug by the laborers were not wide enough and there was a problem.
The limestone dug out of the trenches needs to be ground into stone powder, etc. Even if the old village chief is accompanied by his capable assistant Selina, these trivial tasks keep him busy almost without even touching the ground.
The old village chief held his waist with one hand and almost screamed hoarse at the busy construction site.
…
At this moment, Suldak was riding through the mountain pass, and the number of corpses of robbers hanging on the cross on the top of the mountain was obviously increasing.
The surrounding villages have a very resolute attitude towards bandits, and the effect is very obvious. Although these bandits are a group of ruthless characters who are accustomed to licking blood from the edge of their knives, they have disrupted the inherent rhythm of life of the villagers living in the deserted land. Although here
Most of the villages are impoverished, and the villagers are struggling to survive on food and clothing, but this does not mean that they are a group of lambs to be slaughtered.
On the contrary, the mountain people who can survive in this desolate land have a kind of ruthlessness in their bones.
And the bandits are foreign invaders after all. If they gather into a team, they may be able to massacre these natural villages with the scimitar in their hands. However, because Suldak killed a group of bandits with one person at the mountain pass before,
, these bandits were scattered into various natural villages. Now they are slowly found by the villagers, defeated one by one, and the killed bandits will be sent to the top of the mountain here.
Suddenly, the wooden cross on the top of the mountain pass has turned into an artificial jungle. Surdak never expected that the villages could be so effective in stopping the bandits...