Chapter 36 Land (I)
The morning sun shone in the courtyard, and the test of reciting the multiplication table was coming to an end. Even the slowest student, the fourth child, recited by muscle memory, "... eighty-nine seventy-two... um, ninety-nine... um... eighty-one."
"Good!" Huo Chong praised: "Come on, applaud Lao Si."
With Huo Chong taking the lead, the applause made Lao Si feel relieved. But not long after the praise, Huo Chong said, "You have to recite it every morning for the next month," which made Lao Si look desperate.
Huo Chong didn't care about the reactions of these guys. Learning is not that easy. The pain felt during the learning process is real, and feeling pain itself is unpleasant.
But there was no point in intensifying the pain. Since they had finished reciting, Huo Chong led his fellow apprentices to start cooking. Eating itself could bring pleasure to everyone, and it was not a bad thing to reduce the pain as much as possible.
After dinner, Huo Chong looked at the schedule. It was now May 26th. The troubles that had been going on for a few days had finally come to an end, and Huo Chong didn't want to think about it at all. If Xu Youlin's agreement was still valid, he should be here around July 15th. Huo Chong didn't take long to prepare the goods.
Just as the class was about to start, someone knocked on the door again. The third brother immediately looked at Huo Chong anxiously. Huo Chong sighed inwardly. It was not just the third brother. Huo Chong felt uncomfortable when he heard someone knocking on the door.
When he opened the door, he saw that it was Liu Sijin, the tenant who rented the land Huo Chong inherited from Uncle Liu. Just as he was about to invite Liu Sijin in, he grabbed Huo Chong's arm and said, "Brother Huo, something happened."
Well, something happened again. Huo Chong couldn't say anything, so he went back, picked up the short stick and put it on his waist, asked Qian Qing to teach her brothers to read, and Huo Chong himself followed Liu Sijin.
When they got to the field, they saw that the crops on a corner of the land passed down by Uncle Liu had been destroyed by something. Liu Sijin was both angry and distressed, and said to Huo Chong: "Brother Huo, I will move in today. If I catch whoever did it, I will beat him to death!"
Huo Chong was also furious when he saw the man-made destruction of the crops that were about to be harvested. Everyone worked hard for a year to grow crops, and they depended on these crops. Directly destroying the crops was probably more abominable than stealing food. Thinking of this, Huo Chong angrily said, "Brother Liu Si, did you hear any rumors? Who did it?"
Liu Sijin sighed with a sad face, "Alas! Brother Huo, you... have offended a lot of people. Who do you think it is? I am also implicated."
Huo Chong certainly knew that he had offended many people. Not to mention a piece of land, those people might have the intention to kill him. But Huo Chong really didn't know who did it now. Hearing the tenant Liu Sijin complaining, Huo Chong hurriedly comforted Liu Sijin, "Brother Liu Si, look at how big this piece of land is. This year, when you harvest the grain, dig up this piece of land. It's all mine."
Hearing this, Liu Sijin's expression improved a little, "Brother Huo, people say you can cultivate blessings. I don't ask you to cultivate blessings, but can you make sure nothing goes wrong in the future?"
Huo Chong certainly didn't want anything to happen, but he had made so many enemies and didn't have enough people to watch over him. He could only try his best to appease Liu Sijin.
When he got home, he saw that his fellow apprentices did not follow Qian Qing to learn to read as , but were wandering around the yard. Qian Qing was so angry that he pouted and sat on a small stool.
Huo Chong felt his anger rising, and he grabbed his fellow apprentices and beat them on the buttocks with a broom. The group of people were quiet now, and Huo Chong sat on a stool, pointed at them and cursed: "Do you think I am harming you by teaching you to read? Speak up! Speak up one by one!"
The third and fourth brothers lowered their heads and dared not say a word. The sixth brother had a look on his face that he knew he was wrong and said to Huo Chong: "Big Brother, don't be angry. Didn't you say you would take us to plant potatoes today?"
Huo Chong wanted to scold Lao Liu, but Lao Liu looked so pitiful that Huo Chong could not get angry. Thinking about it again, he did arrange it this way. More than 300 potatoes had been distributed before, and Huo Chong had originally thought of planting potatoes in a small plot outside the house. This was indeed the work arranged for today.
Thinking of this, Huo Chong shouted: "Do you know that it is wrong for you not to study?"
The fellow students quickly responded, "I know" and "I know"
"Do you know how difficult it is to find someone to teach you to read?" Huo Chong continued to shout.
This time, the fellow disciples were obviously not convinced by Qian Qing, but seeing that Huo Chong was really angry, the third brother whispered: "Big Brother, I won't dare to do it again!"
Since his junior brother admitted his mistake, Huo Chong did not want to pursue him any further and could only sigh: "Junior brother, as long as they are willing to teach us, we should thank them. Don't look down on others in the future. Don't look down on our own people."
After that, Huo Chong said to Qian Qing, "Junior sister, come here. Don't be angry. I'll let these guys apologize to you."
Qian Qing stood up and turned back to the house. The third apprentice brother immediately wanted to provoke again, pointing at Qian Qing's back and said, "Big Brother, she doesn't give you face."
Huo Chong couldn't help but slap his third apprentice brother Tie Niu twice on the back, "You are the one who started this! How dare you criticize others!"
Tie Niu begged for mercy. Huo Chong didn't want Qian Qing to go to the fields, so he took his fellow apprentices to carry potatoes to the fields. The fields were planted very sparsely these days, which was very different from the densely planted farmlands of the 21st century.
Huo Chong led his fellow apprentices to pull up the destroyed crops and plant potatoes. Liu Sijin was watching from the side. After Huo Chong finished planting, he came over to ask. Huo Chong could only say that these were ground beans, and he didn't know anything else.
Liu Sijin muttered, "The beans are so densely planted here, they won't grow well." Huo Chong suddenly thought of the famous saying, "The success of a crop depends on manure." Modern agricultural methods can be summarized very simply, relying on good varieties, fertilizers and pesticides. The fertilizers have been prepared long ago, and now it's time to see the results.
When I returned to the earthworm room, I saw that one of the not-so-large piles of rot had completely changed color. I used a stick to pry it open and found that there were not many earthworms left.
Huo Chong carried some earthworm soil back to the edge of the potato field. He first used a small iron hoe to dig shallow trenches on both sides of the potatoes, poured some earthworm soil in, covered it with soil, and watered it.
Just these simple plantings made Huo Chong sweat and pant. His fellow apprentices were in the same situation. Huo Chong then deeply realized the hardship of "hoeing the field in the middle of the day, sweat dripping on the ground". He no longer looked down on farmers.
With such a high intensity of labor, farmers don't have time to rest during the slack season. If they work like this every day, they will be exhausted to death.
On the first day of June, the wheat was ripe and ready for harvest. Huo Chong did not dare to be careless and took his fellow apprentices to join the harvest. After a few days, Huo Chong felt that his lumbar spine must have been damaged. That kind of pain was not normal. He had never experienced such pain in all these years.
Liu Sijin was also tired, but his face showed the joy of harvest. Huo Chong said to Liu Sijin as if he had been pardoned, "Fourth brother, I want to plant some ground beans and barley before sowing."
"Why do you want to grow that kind of thing?" Liu Sijin was puzzled. Huo Chong didn't want to explain that he wanted to make maltose and wine, so he could only say, "I want these."
"I've planted them before, but I don't know how to do it." Liu Sijin looked unfriendly.
Huo Chong advised: "Fourth brother, let's try it out."
Liu Sijin's eyebrows twitched. He looked at Huo Chong suspiciously for a while, then turned and left without saying a word.
Huo Chong didn't expect Liu Sijin to react like this. He knew he probably said something wrong, but he didn't know where.
Since Liu Sijin was unwilling, Huo Chong did not force him. Moreover, Huo Chong had his own plans and did not have time to mess around with such things. It was too easy to come up with some ideas. But Huo Chong knew very well that only ideas that could be implemented were valuable. For example, Huo Chong now had no choice. He could only start with making glassware and raising rabbits.
The heroic mother rabbit survived until the little rabbits were weaned and then died. Apart from the Liuli, Huo Chong only had these few rabbit cubs that were just able to eat.
The daily routine is quite simple, just follow the schedule to be on duty. The temperature in Zhangdian is obviously lower than that in the plains, so I sleep well at night.
On the third day, Liu the Hunter came to the house and asked Huo Chong as soon as he saw him, "Brother, how could you seize the land?"
"What?" Huo Chong encountered a word that he didn't understand at all.
Hunter Liu continued with a dark face: "You are doing this against your conscience!"
"What? I don't understand what you are saying!"
"I said you have a bad conscience!"
"It's not this sentence, it's the one you said after you came in." Huo Chong asked.
After a long argument, Hunter Liu finally understood that Huo Chong did not understand what "seizing the tenant" meant. Hunter Liu, who had been frowning all the time, was amused and explained to Huo Chong that "seizing the tenant" means that the landlord interrupts the land lease agreement with the tenant.
Huo Chong didn't understand, "When did I start to seize the land?"
"You said you didn't?" asked Hunter Liu loudly.
"I didn't!" Huo Chong answered decisively, and then he saw Liu the Hunter go straight out the door, and soon he pulled Liu Sijin in.
"So what did you say to Si Jin last time?" Liu the Hunter looked like he was upholding justice.
Huo Chong repeated what he had said before. Liu Sijin and Liu the Hunter looked very unhappy. Liu the Hunter asked loudly, "Aren't you just trying to seize the land?"
"Fuck!" Huo Chong was really angry. "Brother Liu, what do you mean by this? Are you trying to put the blame on me?"
Perhaps seeing Huo Chong being so confident, Liu the Hunter also asked loudly: "Then let me ask you, what will you do if the four golds cannot be grown?"
"If he can't grow them, what can I do? I'll try to get barley and ground beans from somewhere else."
"You are just talking nonsense!" Hunter Liu accused Huo Chong.
Huo Chong finally felt something was wrong, so he simply asked the two to sit down and asked directly about the process of seizing the land in this place.
Hunter Liu was straightforward and explained the method directly. It turned out that when a landlord wanted to seize a tenant, they would not simply say "I won't give you the land to farm next year" and then leave it at that. They would always find an excuse first, and then use this excuse to create public opinion that the tenant was not a good person. Finally, they would gather some people to make a judgment on the "bad guy".
Hearing this, Huo Chong couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Isn't this the way those people deal with me?"
However, seeing the stern expressions of the two people opposite him, Huo Chong was too embarrassed to laugh. But he felt relieved in his heart. No wonder he liked to play "good guys" and "bad guys" so much in the past. Because there was such an atmosphere where good guys could deal with bad guys without limit.
Because of this trend, it’s no wonder that novels about capable people willing to be villains are so popular. Killing off all the “good guys” in the story is really a satisfying thing.
