Zhang An took the hoe and dug for a while, and he had already dug out about one or two kilograms.
This is enough, after all, you can't put too much, otherwise it will turn into pickled ginger cubes.
Zhang An said hello to his aunt, and when he was about to go back, he was stopped by his uncle.
"Anzi, do you still have a pile of red bricks left in your house?"
"Yes, uncle, there are some left, do you want to use them here?"
Zhang An's family had a lot of red bricks left over from the house they built before, but later they built a circle house and the bricks were a little bit worse.
So I bought another car and after building the circle house, there was still a small pile left, about 1,800 yuan.
"Didn't the village decide to build a public toilet next to the drying yard? You happen to have bricks at your house, but we are too lazy to buy them."
The village has been considering building this public toilet for a long time.
Every one of these people who come to fish suggests building a public toilet in the village.
These people who come here to fish now come here every day. When they encounter emergencies, they go to the houses of familiar villagers and borrow toilets to solve the problem.
In the past, when there were crops in the fields, you could just huddle wherever you wanted and do it on the spot.
Now that the crops in the fields have been harvested, I really feel free to come and go in the fields.
It would be too easy for others to see you, and you won't be able to afford to lose your face when the time comes.
And some newcomers, who were not familiar with the villagers, could only hold back and run to the woods far away to solve the problem.
Last time, in order to build a giant salamander sanctuary, the county sent people to build the road in the village to Lezi Cave.
People who come here say that there are no toilets in the village, which is very inconvenient.
But if they are asked to borrow it from other people's homes, they are afraid of other people's dogs.
So the old village chief thought about it for a long time, and finally after discussing with several people in the village, he thought it would be better to build one.
It will be more convenient for people to come in the future, since there is still some money left in the village.
When it comes to road construction, the old uncle feels a little regretful. He would have known that this road would be built later.
If it were later, the county would have built this road directly from Shiyakou to Leizi Cave.
Fortunately, the county also gave the village some subsidies, and there was a lot of money.
Just building a public toilet doesn't cost many bricks, and if you go to a brick factory to buy them, they won't give them to you.
Because there are too few, it is not cost-effective for the brick factory to deliver them.
And if you have to pay for the shipping yourself, the brick will be expensive in total.
So if you don’t need many bricks, you can only drive a carriage to pull them, which is quite troublesome.
It happened that Zhang An's family still had some left, so Zhang Jianwen didn't want to bother, so he planned to buy it from Zhang An's family.
"It's just piled there anyway. If I want it, I can just pull it out."
Zhang An didn't care, the bricks were all extra, so just leave them there.
It would be nice to build a toilet, otherwise people would go to their house to use the toilet every day.
It's not that Zhang An isn't hospitable, it's just that there are too many people going there every day.
When she got home, Wang Fang had already started to chop peppers with a stubble knife.
Zhang An scraped the Jerusalem artichoke, washed it, put some into the basin and chopped them together.
Seeing that his mother had been chopping for a while, Zhang An took the pot of chili peppers and the stubble knife and let his mother rest for a while.
He also held a piece of Jerusalem artichoke in his hand and ate it like fruit.
Although Zhang An can't accept the taste of ginger cubes, this Jerusalem artichoke has a different taste.
Eating this thing raw is like eating a radish.
"Dad, uncle and the others want to build a public toilet in the village and buy the remaining red bricks from our house."
While Zhang An was chopping peppers, he told his parents that his uncle was going to pull the red brick.
When the time came, they saw someone pulling bricks in their yard, and they didn't know what was going on.
Or maybe it will be discovered that the red brick is missing, which will cause an error.
Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang have no objections. It would be best if someone buys them.
Otherwise, if they are piled there, one piece will be lost every day, and even if there are many, they will be broken day by day.
There was a pile of bricks at the back, and there wasn't much good left.
It didn't take long for Zhang An to chop up a pot of chili peppers.
Seeing that some of the chili peppers in the basin were quite large, Zhang An turned them over again and continued to chop them for a while.
Don't stop until it's chopped into fine pieces.
Wang Fang put some salt, rock sugar and other things into the chopped peppers.
After mixing evenly, put it into the soil jar.
Finally, wash a few pieces of corn husks and put them in. After emptying the air inside, the lid of the earthen jar was closed.
By the way, I put a layer of water in the tank of the jar to seal it.
In one afternoon, Zhang An finished chopping dozens of kilograms of chili peppers.
These chopped sour peppers can be opened and eaten as long as they are fermented.
This not only adds another flavor to the seasoning, but it also lasts longer.
When the family was having dinner in the evening, Zhang An talked about his intention to contract the wasteland.
"Dad, Mom, I want to protect the barren hills of Huangtupo for the village."
"What? What are you doing covering that piece of rotten land? Nothing grows there."
When Zhang An said he wanted to cover the barren mountain, Zhang Jianguo thought he had heard wrong.
In recent years, many bosses from nearby areas have come to the mountains to plant land.
Although no one from the village has come to contract land, Zhang Jianguo and others are no strangers to contracting mountainous land.
The main reason is that the land is not a good land in everyone's eyes, so they don't have a good impression.
Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang are no exception. Every vegetable grown there will turn into seedlings. Naturally, they don't want Zhang An to waste this money.
"I just thought it would be close to our home, right behind the house, so I wanted to book it and plant cherry trees."
"Didn't my dad ask a few days ago what I was going to do with so many saplings in the backyard? Those are cherry saplings, the kind we plant next to our house."
Originally they wanted to object directly, but when they heard Zhang An talking about planting cherry trees, the two of them hesitated.
Speaking of other things, Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang may have something to say.
But when it comes to the cherries at home, Wang Fang and Zhang Jianguo are extremely satisfied.
Why, there are more than 20 trees in Zhang An’s house this year, and Zhang An takes cherries to the city to sell them every day.
It took five or six days in a row to sell out, and every day when I came back, I could give Wang Fang seven to eight hundred yuan.
In the end, from the time the cherries were ripe to the time they were picked at home, the total sold was more than 4,000 yuan.
If this amount of money were spent solely on growing crops, it would take several years to save so much.
Therefore, in the eyes of both of them, this cherry tree is no longer a cherry tree, but a money tree.
Moreover, the cherry trees at home basically require no one to take care of them.
Weeds are not removed, fertilizers are not applied, and pesticides are not applied.
When Zhang An planted it by himself, he would water it every day.
After that, I didn’t care much about it. Until the cherries were ripe, the family only picked them.
"But Xiao An, can cherries planted there on Huangtu Slope bear fruit?"
Wang Fang was very doubtful about this, because the village had planted some fir trees on the loess slope.
But after so many years, those trees have grown completely different.
"Mom, I think you can give it a try. If the land is fertile, I won't necessarily consider it because everyone thinks it's good. By then, many people will be jealous."
"And if you look at our home, the land here is actually not much bigger than Huangtupo. It can grow here, and it can certainly grow there. At most, the cherries produced will be smaller."
"Besides, it's not good for me to just sit around at home all the time. I have to find something to do. No matter whether I succeed or fail, it's better than sitting around in vain."
Zhang An also knows what kind of problems the loess slope has. The main problem is that the soil is hardened and cannot retain water.
So Zhang An has already made a plan. If he wraps it up, he will sprinkle some plantains on it and let them help fertilize the land.
When the time comes, we can get a batch of strong earthworms and put them in, and it should be able to solve the problem.
Others in later generations also did the same thing when dealing with this land, but the results were slower, but the results were still there.
Now Zhang An is planning to attack on multiple fronts, but I don’t believe he can accomplish it.
Hearing what Zhang An said, Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang looked at each other.
I know my son has grown up and wants to find something to do.
Moreover, the money left at home was basically all Zhang An got back.
Now that their children have ideas, naturally they, as parents, can only support them.
At worst, if you lose the money, just pretend that your family doesn't have the money.
At least now that he has a house, it will not be a problem to find him a wife in the future.
"Do you really want to give it a try, or are you just joking?"
Zhang Jianguo looked at Zhang An and asked.
"Dad, I'm looking for something to do."
"Okay, since you have thought about it, we will go to your uncle to discuss it later."
In this way, during one meal, the family decided on such a big matter.
Then Zhang Jianguo talked to Zhang An about other things, such as how to manage it in the future.
Or maybe the cherries have been planted and how to sell them when they are ripe.
Zhang An doesn't have to worry about these things. As long as there is space, he doesn't have to worry about the cherry tree failing to survive.
On the contrary, he felt that these cherry trees would grow well.
At most, when the cherry tree grows up, it will need some pruning work, which Zhang An can do himself.
As for the sales issue, there is no need to worry about it.
Zhang An directly told his parents about Ding Yi's plan to open a large supermarket and told them that the market was already there.
If Ding Yi can't eat so much by then, or if the sales are not good, Zhang An will find an excuse then.
It can be sold directly to the provincial capital. The purchasing power of the provincial capital is much greater than that of the county town.
After dinner, my uncle happened to come over to Zhang An's house.
He mainly sent the money for bricks to Zhang An's family. The current red bricks cost more than ten cents a piece.
Today, I took away the remaining 1,800 red bricks from Zhang An's house, and I will definitely have to pay them.
"Uncle, please sit down for a moment and let's discuss something."
After seeing Zhang Jianwen give him more than 100 yuan, he planned to go back.
Zhang Jianguo hurriedly accepted the guest, and Zhang Jianwen happened to be here. He took the opportunity to mention Zhang An's land contract to him.
I would have to go to his house to find him later, which would be a waste of time.
As soon as the old village chief Zhang Jianwen heard Zhang Jianguo say that he had something to discuss, he sat down.
"Jianguo, you can tell me anything."
"It's like this. Anzi told us that he wants to contract the wasteland on Huangtupo with the village, so I want to discuss this matter with you."
Hearing Zhang Jianguo say that his family wanted to contract the mountainous land in the village, the old village chief thought about it before speaking.
"Why do you suddenly want to contract this land?"
Zhang Jianwen was a little strange because someone recently came to him and talked about contracting land.
But the other one is a boss from outside, who plans to take over the business and plant tea leaves.
"Ah, is there anyone else planning to occupy that land?"
Zhang An was a little surprised. Someone actually wanted to cover the wasteland on Huangtupo, but he had no impression.
"It's like this. There is a boss from the city who recently bought a lot of land in the village near us and plans to use it to grow tea."
"You just told me about this matter during the day today. If I had known you wanted to take over, I would have rejected him."
The old village chief was a bit dumbfounded at this. The land was all contracted, but it was better to contract it to someone who knew the basics of the land in his own village.
Fortunately, he didn't agree today. At that time, he thought the price was too low and said he would hold a meeting with the villagers to discuss it.
As a result, I heard that Zhang An's family wanted to take over the contract that night.
There is other land in the village, but those are cultivated lands that can grow food, and we will definitely not contract them out.
The remaining mountainous areas are relatively far away, and the cost is too high.
And Huangtupo, just at the entrance of the village, has become a prime location.
It also saves the effort of building roads and makes transportation very convenient.
But the other party inspected the site and felt that the soil was too poor, so they were only willing to give half the price.
"Anzi, do you really want to own that piece of land? If you really do, I will reject that boss directly."
Zhang Jianwen's heart is still towards his own people.
"Uncle, don't worry, let's talk about the other party's conditions."
If the conditions offered by the other party are too high, Zhang An cannot offer such a high price, and he cannot do it in front of the village's financial resources.
“I’ve seen other people’s land, and it’s very good in every aspect. But because the land in Huangtupo is not good, they’re not willing to pay a high price.”
"In other villages, he gets twenty yuan per acre of mountain land. We here in Huangtupo are only willing to give him half, which is ten yuan."
When Zhang An heard the price, he thought the conditions were very low.
"Uncle, I really want to take over Huangtupo. And the price is the same as outside. The longer the term, the better. If this boss pays more than what I offer, just pretend I didn't say anything."
"Anzi, you have to think carefully. Twenty yuan per acre is more than two thousand a year."
When Zhang Jianwen saw that Zhang An was willing to rent an acre for twenty yuan, he still tried to persuade him. He was worried that Zhang An's money would be wasted.
His original price was about fifteen yuan an acre, because the land in Huangtupo was indeed very poor.
"Uncle, for just twenty yuan an acre, you can give it to me for as many years as you can. The longer the better."
If this price can be guaranteed, Zhang An will be very happy.
Although mountain land is now contracted in the mountains, twenty yuan is considered a normal price.
But in a few years, this will increase many times.
"Okay, then I'll go back and talk to them. We'll hold a meeting tomorrow and let everyone decide who to lease this land to."