Chapter 123 Contracting Wasteland
Zhang An dug out about a kilogram or two with a hoe for a while.
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 was about to go back when 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?"
< br>Zhang An's family had a lot of red bricks left over from building a house before, but later they built a circle house and the bricks were a little poorer.
So I bought another car. 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 built this public toilet. , have been thinking about it for a long time.
Every one of these people who usually come to fish suggests that the village build a public toilet.
These people who come here to fish now come here every day. When they encounter three emergencies, they go to the houses of familiar villagers and borrow toilets to solve them.
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 want to come and go freely 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 by then.
And some newcomers, who were not familiar with the villagers, could only hold back and run to a grove 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 had 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.
But fortunately, the county also gave the village some subsidies, and there was a lot of money.
It doesn’t cost many bricks to build a public toilet alone, but if you go to a brick factory to buy it, they won’t give it to you.
Because there are too few, it is not cost-effective for the brick factory to send them down.
If you have to pay the freight yourself, the brick will be expensive in total.
So if you don’t need many bricks, you have to drive a carriage to pull them by yourself, 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 he left them alone.
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 is not hospitable, it’s just that too many people go there every day.
Back home, Wang Fang has 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.
I also held a piece of Jerusalem artichoke in my 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.
At that time, they saw someone pulling bricks in their yard, and they didn’t know what was going on.
Perhaps it will be discovered that the red brick is missing, causing an own mistake.
Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang have no objections. It would be best if someone buys them.
Otherwise, if they are piled up there, one piece will be lost every day, and even if there are many, they will be broken day by day.
When we reach the pile of bricks at the back, there aren’t many good ones left.
It didn’t take long for Zhang An to chop up a pot of chili peppers.
Looking at the large pieces of pepper in the basin, 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 earth jar.
Finally, I washed a few pieces of corn husks and put them in. After emptying the air inside, I put the lid on the earthen jar.
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 peppers.
These chopped sour peppers can be opened and eaten after they are fermented.
This not only adds another flavor to the seasoning, but also keeps it 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 cover the barren hill on Huangtupo for the village."
"What? What are you doing covering that piece of rotten land? Nothing grows there. ”
Hearing Zhang An said that 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 farm in the mountains.
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 was close to our home, just behind the house, and I wanted to book it and plant a cherry tree.”
“Didn’t my dad ask about it a few days ago? I was there in the backyard. What are you going to do with so many saplings? Those are cherry saplings, the ones planted next to our house.”
I originally wanted to object directly, but when I heard Zhang An talk about planting cherry trees, I was both worried. The person hesitated for a moment.
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 when I came back every day, 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, they sold a total of more than 4,000 yuan.
If this money was spent solely on crops, it would take several years to save so much.
So in the eyes of both of them, the cherry tree is no longer a cherry tree, but a money tree.
And basically no one needs to take care of the cherry trees at home.
Weeds are not removed, fertilizers are not applied, and medicines are not applied.
When Zhang An planted it by himself, he would water it every day.
I didn’t care much about it until the cherries were ripe, and the family just picked them. "But Xiao An, can cherries planted on the loess slope bear fruit?"
Wang Fang is very doubtful about this, because there were some fir trees planted in the village 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, and by then it will become jealous of many people."
"And if you look at our home, the land is actually not much bigger than Huangtupo. It can grow here, and it can definitely grow there. At most, the cherries produced will be smaller."
"Besides, I can't just sit around at home all the time. I have to find something to do. Whether I succeed or fail, it's better than just sitting around and having nothing to do."
Zhang An also knows what kind of problem Huangtupo is. , the main reason 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 will get a batch of strong earthworms and put them in, and we should be able to solve the problem.
Others in later generations 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 from multiple directions. 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.
And the money left at home was basically all Zhang An got back.
Now that their children have ideas, as parents, they can only support them.
At worst, if you lose the money, just pretend that you don’t have the money at home.
At least now that he has a house, it will not be a problem to marry him 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’ve thought about it, let’s 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 any of this. 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 too much.
Zhang An directly told his parents that Ding Yi wanted to open a large supermarket, telling them that the market was already there.
If Ding Yi can't eat so much by then, or 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, the old 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 we took away the remaining 1,800 red bricks from Zhang An’s house, and they must pay for them.
"Uncle, please sit down for a moment and let's discuss something."
Seeing Zhang Jianwen give him more than a hundred yuan, he planned to go back.
Zhang Jianguo hurriedly invited the guests, and Zhang Jianwen happened to come over. He took the opportunity to mention Zhang An's land contract to him.
I will have to go to his house to find him later, which is 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 directly."
"That's it, Anzi told us that he wanted to contract the wasteland on Huangtupo with the village, so I wanted to Please discuss this matter.”
Hearing that Zhang Jianguo said 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 the land.
But the other one is a boss from outside, who plans to hire him to grow tea.
“Ah, is there anyone else who plans to take over that piece of land?”
Zhang An was a little surprised. Someone actually wanted to take over that piece of wasteland in Huangtupo, but he had no impression of it. .
"It's like this. There is a boss from the city who has recently occupied a lot of land in the village near us and plans to use it to grow tea."
"It was just during the day today. He told me this matter, if I had known that you wanted to take over the contract, I would have rejected him.”
The old village chief was a little bit dumbfounded. The land is contracted, but it is given to someone who knows everything about it in the village. Better.
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.
In the evening, I heard from Zhang An’s family that they wanted to take over the contract.
There is other land in the village, but those are arable land that can grow food, and we will definitely not contract it out.
The remaining mountainous areas are relatively far away, and the cost is too high.
The Huangtu Slope just at the entrance of the village has become a prime location.
It also saves the effort of building roads, and the transportation is 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, then it cannot be treated as It is the source of wealth in the village.
“I’ve seen their land and it’s very good in all aspects. However, because the land on Huangtupo is not good, they are unwilling 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 half of it, 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."
Zhang Jianwen will now see that Zhang An is willing to use twenty yuan The money was guaranteed per acre, but he still offered some words of persuasion. 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 lease it to me for as many years as you can, the longer the better."
If this price can be guaranteed After coming down, Zhang An was so 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."
(End of Chapter)