newbobooks Chapter 559: Building a Thatched Shed
Chapter 559: Building a Thatched Shed
"Of course I am happy." Zhou Guo pinched a piece of cake and said with a smile: "The higher your official position, the more I will dare to do whatever I want. I told my mother that I want to be the richest man in the world and the biggest landlord in the world."
"The richest man? The biggest landlord?" Zhou Dacang leaned over and touched her forehead. "You don't have a fever. You started dreaming at dawn?"
Zhou Guo took his hand away, choked a little and took a sip of tea, "Why are you dreaming? Even if I can't be the richest man, I can be a big landlord, right?"
He boasted, "If I become a big landlord, I will lend you food and fodder if you have to fight a war!"
Zhou Dacang didn't even bother to look at her. "You want to be a big landlord? Where can you buy land? Most of the land in the world has been divided up by the big families. Even if the common people fled during the war, the big families also fled, but the land deeds in their hands are still there. As long as they are not exterminated, the land is still theirs. Do you want to snatch it from them? Can you snatch it? Your uncle is only a small hundred households now. If he goes out, others won't even look at him. Don't think too much."
Zhou Guo was silent, because this was a problem that had troubled her for a long time. Wanting to be a big landlord but not being able to buy land, wasn't that a waste?
After thinking about it, she still came to no conclusion. She couldn't just hope that the wealthy families who had occupied land during the war would all stop having their incense. That would be too cruel!
He waved his hand and said, "There is no answer to this question for now, let's put it aside for now and first tell me how you got the title of centurion."
Snowflakes were flying outside the house. On the warm kang in the house, the uncle and nephew were drinking hot tea and eating cakes while talking about little things in the army.
After more than half an hour, Li came outside and called for breakfast.
Zhou Dacang finally breathed a sigh of relief. This girl wanted to ask everything, even whether there were women in their military camp. Is this what a little girl should ask?
She might have learned bad things while doing business outside in the past two years, so he would like to ask the old man to keep a closer eye on her.
On second thought, I felt that there seemed to be nothing to worry about. She was very capable and skilled in martial arts, and no one could bully her. She was not an ordinary person, so I didn't think she would bully a child.
Zhou Guo put on his shoes contentedly, put a cloak on Zhou Dacang, covered his head with a hat, and helped him out.
Zhou Dacang was also happy to have her serve him, and said with a smile: "I don't know what blessing I have accumulated to have the young master personally come to dress me."
Zhou Guo supported him as they walked out, and said happily, "Of course he is our family's senior official, the future general. If I don't curry favor with him now, I'm afraid I won't be able to get close to my young aunt when she enters the family."
Zhou Dacang couldn't help but tap her head lightly, "Then knock more often, maybe your aunt won't let me knock when she comes in?"
The two of them walked towards the main room, chatting and laughing.
Zhou Guo and Zhou Xing were no longer sleeping in the west wing of the main house. They were sleeping in the east room with Li and Xu.
Zhou Su and Li Lai ran over and slept with Zhou Gu.
Four kangs are now heated at night. There was no kang in the main hall before, but now there is one. It is much more convenient to have a kang for eating or entertaining guests.
The whole family gathered on the kang.
There was another table set with a variety of breakfast items.
Porridge, steamed buns, steamed buns, meat patties, pickles, and a pot of chicken stewed with mushrooms.
Zhou Guo couldn't help but ask: "Mom, we eat steamed buns and porridge every day, can we change it up tomorrow?"
Mrs. Li stared at the table and said, "It's such a big table with all kinds of dishes. You can eat whatever you want. What else do you want? I got up early in the morning to work!"
No one at the table dared to speak, they just lowered their heads and drank their porridge in silence.
The old man picked up a bun, took a bite of it, and then lowered his head to drink a mouthful of porridge.
Hei Dadan lay on the ground silently gnawing on a bone.
Zhou Guo said: "...then you can try noodles, dumplings, wontons..."
The sound lowered and died away.
Li sat down unhappily, looked at Zhou Guo again, and finally said, "Just eat it today and make it tomorrow."
Zhou Guo smiled happily, "Thank you, mother, you have worked hard!"
I brought her a big meat pie and asked for a bowl of chicken soup. "Here, eat your favorite meat pie. It's cold, eat more. You've lost weight."
Zhou Su obediently scooped a few pieces of chicken into her bowl.
Mrs. Li enjoyed it very much. Although her eldest son was not very talkative, her younger children were very caring.
The atmosphere relaxed and everyone started eating, chatting and laughing.
After we finished eating, the snow stopped.
Zhou Guo and Zhou Gu went to the mountains. The sky was gloomy yesterday and the north wind was so strong that it made people's bones ache.
She hurriedly took them to build a thatched hut. If the temperature was not good in the next few days, they would have to light a fire in the hut.
When they got to the mountain, they saw that Wu Jiang and the others were already there, busy dealing with the snow that had fallen on the shed and the snow on the wood. When they saw Zhou Guo coming, they were like seeing a savior, "Boss, it snowed too heavily last night. Won't the things in the shed be frozen to death?"
Zhou Guo lifted the curtain and bent over to walk in. The shed was built low and the oilcloth was expensive. It was only enough to cover a dozen plots of land. There was not enough land for other plots, so it had to be built like this.
He poked around and took a few handfuls of soil to look around. He had checked all the sheds. The sheds made of tarpaulin were much better. Next year, all the mountains would be covered with tarpaulin. Such tarpaulin should be able to be used for several years. However, tarpaulin is expensive. If straw mats can be used, using straw mats for insulation will save money and be convenient.
He said to Wu Jiang and the others, "It's fine now, just keep it like this. I'll come again this afternoon, and every day from now on. If it gets too cold and freezes, you'll have to add more braziers inside. If one is not enough, you'll have to add more. You guys have to stay awake when you go to bed at night. It'd be best if someone takes turns to watch over it at night. Now is the critical time. If you get crushed by the snow, you'll probably die. The snow on the straw shed can't be too thick."
It’s still too late to plant this year. We have to plant at least half a month earlier next year.
Wu Jiang wrote them down one by one, "I understand."
Zhou Guo said, "I know it's snowing these days and no one wants to move. I'll get you some leather later and share it with you. If you don't know how to make it, ask the women in the fertilizer farm to help. Once it snows, you have to stop fermenting fertilizer. I'll transfer them all up and you can arrange them so that we can have more manpower."
Wu Jiang was worried that no one was needed. After hearing her words, he was very surprised and even raised his voice in response. There were really not enough people like them in the two mountains.
After checking the mushrooms, Zhou Guo went to Feizhuang.
The manure pile was also covered with straw mats.
Everyone was cleaning the manure garden. Because of the composting, the garden was full of soil, fallen leaves and hay, making it a mess.
A housekeeper came up and bowed, "What do you want, young master?"
Zhou Guo said: "There is nothing wrong with Feizhuang for now. There is not enough manpower in the mountains. You all go to the mountains to help for now. You will all be under the charge of the chief steward."