Dashan Makes a Living 1984

Yangziling is a mountain peak running from east to west, tens of kilometers long from east to west, but only a dozen kilometers north to south.

The highest point of the mountain is a few kilometers away from the station, and it is about 300 to 400 meters higher than the station.

There is a temple of Mr. Yang Zi on the top of the mountain. According to legend, a certain scholar surnamed Yang in the Song Dynasty once lived in a hut on the top of the mountain, wrote books and passed on his studies, and left immortal works. People respected him, so the mountain was changed to Yangziling, and Yangzi was his respectful name.

Bounded by the top of Yangziling Mountain, Yangziling is divided into two parts.

The east is mainly dominated by broad-leaved forests, supplemented by coniferous forests, which change distinctly throughout the year, sprouting in spring, shaded by trees in summer, covered with fallen leaves in autumn, and bare in winter.

But after passing the top of the mountain, the mountains to the west become dominated by coniferous forests. There are leaves all year round, green and verdant, unlike broad-leaved forests in autumn and winter, when nine out of ten leaves will fall.

Therefore, even though it is December now, the peaks in the east look like a bald head, but the peaks in the west are still covered by green pines and forests.

Wildlife in the forest tends to choose its habitat according to the forest pattern.

The broad-leaved forest area in the east is not suitable for long-term survival of wild animals because of the obvious changes in vegetation throughout the year. Only some small animals such as hares, pheasants, ferrets, minks, and badgers appear, and it is difficult to see large wild animals.

On the contrary, on the western peaks, it is very suitable for them to hide and hibernate because they are covered by vast forests all year round. Therefore, the food chain of wild animals will be richer, from small rodents to large bears, deer, leopards and wolves.

For the nearby mountain people, even if they want to catch some wild animals in the mountains, they will move on the eastern half of the mountain, and try to get as close to the east side as possible to prevent the wild animals from the west from crossing the top of the mountain and coming to the edge of the east. Territory activities.

Generally speaking, it is relatively safe.

It was very normal for Wang Tianxiao to encounter a leopard cat at the edge of the mountain last time, but it was not normal to encounter a jackal.

But considering that the jackals are only two or three scattered instead of in groups, it becomes normal.

They were probably stragglers who were kicked out of the team by the jackals, and somehow they wandered to the eastern edge, and they happened to be encountered by Wang Tianxiao.

Wang Tianxiao's dandelion and white Artemisia species in Shandong also have this consideration.

This side is much safer, sowing and harvesting will not be too dangerous. He will plant some medicinal materials such as Codonopsis pilosula and Astragalus membranaceus in the future on the western mountain. There is no need for large-scale planting, it can be planted carefully, and there is no need for many people when collecting herbs, so there is no need to worry too much about safety.

The three of them stood on the mountain ridge, looking at the snow-covered peak, Wu Wenhua swallowed and asked, "Boss, where do we grow it from?"

Wang Tianxiao looked at it for a while, pointed to a pine tree below and said, "Let's start with this pine tree. Let's try it first and see if it spreads well."

"Okay, just try it. Brother, let's go."

"Eh."

Wu Wenhua is the younger brother, and Wu Qiancai is the older brother, but when it comes to things, Wu Qiancai always listens to his younger brother's arrangements.

The two carried two bags each, and Wang Tianxiao carried two foreign porcelain washbasins, and the three came under the pine tree together.

The mountains on the Loess Plateau are basically in the form of hills, one long and one long stepped. The land in front of me looks small, only five or six acres.

The two brothers poured the seeds into the washbasin, picked them up and asked Wang Tianxiao: "Boss, why don't you spread it like chemical fertilizer?"

"Scatter whatever you want, as long as it can be sprinkled on the ground."

Wu Wenhua grabbed a handful of seeds and sprinkled them into the snow, then turned around and asked, "Do you think this will work?"

"Okay, I said you can do whatever you want."

"That's good, brother, let's work."

"Eh."

The two brothers lined up, one with the right hand and the other with the left. Their movements were very coordinated, and they watched many small holes being smashed out of the snow by the seeds.

Wang Tianxiao stood and watched for half an hour, roughly estimated the time, and found that two people could spread about one mu of land in half an hour.

If you don't consider that the two will be exhausted and the efficiency will decrease, excluding the rest time, if you work eight hours a day, you can spread 16 acres.

It takes a full 125 days for 2,000 mu of land, not counting the weather effects such as wind and rain.

It is now the end of December, and four months later it will be the end of April, which obviously cannot catch up with the season.

He originally planned to take about 30 days, at the latest before the Chinese New Year.

Now at this speed, definitely not.

It seems that in order to complete according to the plan, we must either improve efficiency or add people.

Sure enough, in the morning, with Wang Tianxiao's help, the two of them had only sowed six or seven acres of land after eleven o'clock at noon, but they were too tired to lift their arms.

But they didn't complain, after lunch, the two of them were ready to go to work without much rest, but Wang Tianxiao stopped them.

"Brother Wenhua, Brother Facai, do you still remember what I said last night? We still need more help here, otherwise with our current manpower, it would be too late to finish planting 2,000 acres of land by the end of the year."

"It's a bit difficult. It's not tiring, but it's very slow." Wu Wenhua felt that he didn't satisfy the boss and lived up to expectations, and felt very uncomfortable.

"Well, let's stop in the afternoon. You can bring your sister-in-law and children and live here together. You can take care of each other and earn some income by doing the work. What do you think?"

The two brothers looked at each other, and Wu Wenhua said, "Then I have to go back and discuss it with my wife. It should be fine. If possible, I can also call my wife and her sister. My brother also needs to ask the partner's opinion."

"Brother Fa Cai has a date? Didn't he say he didn't have one last time?"

Wu Qiancai said with a silly smile, "I don't know if it counts or not, we're talking."

Wang Tianxiao knew that there might be some stories that were inconvenient to tell, so he didn't ask any more questions, and said to the two of them, "Well, that's fine. Then this matter is settled like this."

Wang Tianxiao roughly estimated the workload of people. To increase the speed by four times, if the work efficiency of the two brothers is the same, the number of people will also be increased by four times, which means that a total of eight people are needed.

Eight able men.

If Wang Tianxiao brothers can find three, they need three more, and Wang Tiancheng and himself count as one, and they need two more...

He couldn't find anyone for a while.

He didn't want other people to know about the affairs here, let alone intervene. Those who wanted to stay and work here were people he trusted very much.

Wang Tianxin is still available now, but he is half a month away from school, and Liu Yuan is too old, so he must not be allowed to work.

He had already thought about the arrangement for Liu Yuan. After he and himself became more harmonious and intimate, he would go to the mountains every day to see the harvest in the cage, and help feed the animals in the field. several animals.

However, I haven't said so much to Liu Yuan for the time being. I was afraid that I would scare him all of a sudden and make him feel uncomfortable, so I just left the picker and left.

It's not too late until he gets familiar with the environment and even likes it.

As for the old man's wages, he first replaced it with wine, board and lodging, and took the opportunity to ask him to see what he thought.

The old man said that he had no family, and he didn't know if it was true. There were still many secrets about him that had not been revealed. Don't be in a hurry, wait until he can speak out with confidence, it's not too late to listen.

Waiting for the two brothers to leave, Wang Tianxiao was still sitting on the edge of the kang, thinking about where to find someone. His eyebrows were already long, and when he was worried, his two eyebrows would be completely furrowed together, making him look much older than he actually was.

"Dad, why don't you smile?"

After Wang Fang came to the mountain, she didn't go out of the room a few times. The main reason was that it was cold outside and there was a mountain ridge tens of meters away. If she fell, the consequences would be disastrous. So Wang Tianxiao basically asked her to stay in the room with her mother, and play outside with Li Yali when Li Yali was able to get off the kang.

Wang Fang is a child who listens to him very much, and fully implements his request, and will never run out of the room without permission.

When she stood up, she was not as tall as Wang Tianxiao was sitting, and she struggled on tiptoe to rub the center of Wang Tianxiao's frowning brows.

"Yes, shopkeeper, what are you worrying about, isn't it okay at noon?"

"Actually, it's nothing." Wang Tianxiao hugged his daughter in his arms, "It's just..."

He told his wife about the lack of manpower.

Most men in Northwest China are a bit machismo. This kind of machismo does not mean that they are too arbitrary and everything should be arranged by them.

Instead, I like to take responsibility for everything.

I think that I am the pillar of the family, so I have to carry it by myself when the sky falls, and I seldom tell my wife about the difficulties.

Perhaps in the minds of men, this is a kind of masculinity, but in fact, sometimes wives also want to share difficulties with men.

It's just that they often don't have the opportunity.