Traveling through 1942 with space

After Butler Cai left, all the village elders came forward to ask questions.

"Yangmin, how is it? Is there any work?" Fifth Master asked Hou Yangmin with a look of doubt on his face.

"Brother Yangmin, I saw that the housekeeper was pointing at that sweet potato field. Does he want us to dig sweet potatoes?"

……

"Everyone, be quiet and listen to me. We've found a job, and it's not a small one this time. Thirty-five acres of the sweet potato field across the street has been contracted to us.

After digging, I will give you 12 mu of sweet potato vines and 100 kilograms of defective sweet potatoes. If you do a good job, you will get 3 mu more. "Hou Yangmin laughed and said the news loudly.

"Oh my God! I gave you ten acres of sweet potato vines and a hundred kilograms of sweet potatoes. That's so much that I won't have to worry about food anymore." A man said with his eyes wide open.

"You, Hou Laowu, know nothing. The ten acres of land are divided among the whole village. Do you think it's all given to you alone? Then you go and dig it alone, and we'll leave." A woman next to the man scolded with a smile.

"Why don't I know about the hammer? Xiufen, do you know my hammer? Besides, as long as there's food to eat, I'm not afraid of thirty-five acres of land, not even three hundred and fifty acres." The man teased with his neck stiff.

"Ha ha!"

The crowd burst into laughter.

"Okay, stop arguing and listen to what the clan leader has to say." The Seventh Master in the front turned his head and scolded loudly.

"Mr. Cai said that these sweet potatoes must be loaded onto trucks and taken away in five days, which means we have to finish the work in four days.

I just checked. Those twelve acres of land can produce at least five to six thousand kilograms of sweet potato vines. We have more than a hundred strong laborers in our village and can finish the work in three days at most.

After we finish the work, each family will be able to get at least 100 kilograms of sweet potato vines. If we work hard, we can try to finish it in two days, and each family will get more than ten kilograms of sweet potato vines.

But let me be frank with you, this is not our food and you cannot eat it secretly. Also, do not allow children under the age of eight to enter the fields when digging sweet potatoes.

At that time, the two households would dig together and supervise each other. If they were discovered by the landlord, not only would the entire village lose all their rewards, but the thieves would also be brought to see the authorities.

This is not our hometown. If you are taken to see the officials, the clan will not care because your family has caused the whole clan to starve. "After Hou Yangmin finished talking about the reward, he looked at the villagers below with a serious face and said.

"I understand, Chief!"

"Yangmin, we old guys are standing by to watch. Whoever steals the food will be broken of his legs by me and Lao Qi."

"Yes, cheating hurts others and yourself."

As Hou Yangmin finished speaking, some villagers suppressed their inappropriate thoughts and spoke out in agreement.

"Okay, come here, head of this household, and let's start dividing into groups."

At this time, the power of the clan collective was reflected. There were also many scattered refugees in family units near the Nanjiagou refugee team. They were not only easily bullied because of their small numbers and weak power, but they could only pick up the "leftovers" that these organized teams didn't want.

When digging sweet potatoes, except for Hou Xiaoge's mother who cooked and looked after four or five children who were too young, everyone else in Hou Xiaoge's family went into the fields.

The sweet potatoes of that time were not like those in later generations, with the yield per mu easily reaching 5,000 to 6,000 kilograms or even over 10,000 kilograms. There were only three or four sweet potatoes in a nest, and the largest was just over one kilogram. Most of them were small potatoes weighing one or two taels.

Although the sweet potato field of Landlord Cai can be irrigated, the yield is not high because it is located halfway up the mountain. One acre of land can only produce about 700 to 800 kilograms, and most of them are small potatoes that are only one or two fingers thick.

The refugees were weak and lacked tools, so they could not dig quickly. Nearly 200 people were divided into 18 groups, and each group dug exactly one acre a day.

Hou Xiaoge's family has spiritual spring water to replenish their physical strength, so they can easily dig an acre of land in a day.

When the refugee team in Nanjiagou was digging sweet potatoes, Butler Cai also brought sixty or seventy people pushing wheelbarrows up the mountain.

Most of these people were guarding and patrolling the fields with tools to prevent the refugees from stealing the sweet potatoes, while some were pushing wheelbarrows to transport the sweet potatoes to avoid too much accumulation and causing greed among the surrounding refugees.

During this time, Hou Xiaoge spread his mental power and discovered that a few greedy women and children occasionally stuffed thumb-sized defective products into their mouths to eat secretly, but the patrolling people just snorted coldly after seeing them, kicked the stealers and left.

Since the landlord didn't care, Hou Xiaoge was too lazy to remind him. He just mentioned it to his uncle when he went back home for lunch.

After Hou Yangmin found out, he asked several clan elders to beat each of them with a stick, and then went to see Butler Cai during the meal break.

When Hou Yangmin came back, he told Hou Xiaoge that the master of the house could see all these petty thieves clearly from a high place, but the thieves were not excessive, so they turned a blind eye. He just asked Hou Yangmin to restrain himself and not act recklessly.

Hou Xiaoge was also impressed after listening to it. Indeed, no one who can be a mediocre manager is a mediocre person. If the water is too clear, there will be no fish. He knows clearly what is more important, catching the big and letting go of the small.

The work was too tiring on the first day, so everyone only worked 15 acres on the second day. On the third day, the remaining three acres were completed early. The refugees from Nanjiagou even helped the local villagers push the sweet potatoes to the landlord's house.

With such efficiency and honesty, Butler Cai wanted to hand over the remaining seven or eight acres of land to the Nanjiagou team.

You should know that Butler Cai found several refugee teams a few days ago. Although the Nanjiagou team is the largest, the number of people in the other teams combined is also not small.

But the other refugee teams worked too slowly and there were several conflicts over stealing food. In total, they only worked on more than 20 acres of land and had not finished it in almost three days. The gap was immediately apparent.

However, this proposal was rejected by Hou Yangmin. Firstly, he did not want to conflict with other refugees. Secondly, they were all fellow villagers and it would be better not to steal other people’s jobs when they were away from home.

In the end, because they did a good job and dug the land clean, in addition to the twelve acres of sweet potato vines promised by Manager Cai plus the three acres as a reward, the landlord, Mr. Cai, said that the refugees from Nanjiagou would be rewarded with an additional fifty kilograms of sweet potatoes. It can be said that everyone was happy.

"Yes, with these 180 kilograms of sweet potato vines and 6 kilograms of sweet potatoes, our family will have enough food for the next three or four days." After distributing the sweet potato vines and sweet potatoes, the two women in charge of food looked delighted.

"Uncle, I still have some money. Let's buy some cornmeal or flour when we pass by the village or town tomorrow!

Otherwise, if you eat sweet potato vines every day, your poop will be green and have no nutrients." Hou Xiaoge sighed as he looked at the piles of sweet potato vines in the camp.

"Just sell some bran and cornmeal, but forget about white flour. Save the money for future use." Hou Yangmin nodded and said.

"Brother Yangmin, hurry up and grab your gun. Wild boars are coming down the mountain to steal sweet potatoes." A family was eating green sweet potato vines when a villager from a distance ran over excitedly.

"Wild boar? Xinmin, get your weapons!" Hou Yangmin's eyes lit up when he heard that a wild boar was coming down the mountain.

When everyone arrived at the mountain where they were helping Landlord Cai harvest sweet potatoes, more than twenty wild boars appeared in another sweet potato field that had not been dug yet, digging around everywhere.

The leader of these wild boars weighs about three or four hundred kilograms, and he is followed by seven or eight younger brothers weighing one or two hundred kilograms. The remaining thirteen or fourteen are small cubs weighing twenty or thirty kilograms.

At this time, the wild boars were happily eating the sweet potatoes dug out by the refugee team who had provided free labor, but the refugee team that had dug the sweet potatoes had already run away.

On the other side, the thirty or so people under Manager Cai had only two rifles and three shotguns. The others were armed with carrying poles and hoes. They were so scared that they dared not approach the twenty or so wild boars.

"Brother Yangmin, you have to help! We can't let these wild boars destroy the master's sweet potatoes." Butler Cai, who was standing in the distance and was anxious, saw that Hou Yangmin and his group had so many guns. His eyes narrowed at first, and then he came forward enthusiastically.

"Okay, but how do we calculate the cost of the wild boars we killed? Some of the ammunition is not cheap. Steward Cai should give us some compensation!" Hou Yangmin nodded in agreement but put forward conditions.