Traveling Through Farmhouses: Taking the Baby on a Famine Escape

Upon arriving at Zhang Xixi's house, Sun Wenfang looked at the watermelon patch and asked curiously, "As far as I know, watermelon seeds are very hard to come by."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Xixi knew that the adult must have watermelons at home, so she quickly brought up the mysterious master.

"I don't know either. My master gave me these seeds, and they just grew after I planted them in the ground!"

Zhang Wenbo chimed in, saying that Zhang Xixi's master was a very mysterious and capable person, and embellished the scene of the mysterious person's appearance.

After listening, Sun Wenfang didn't say anything, but just looked around Zhang Xixi's house and said she was leaving!

Fortunately, Xiao Jin's family had all gone up the mountain and weren't at home; otherwise, if they had been discovered keeping a tiger, it would have attracted attention again.

Zhang Xixi and Zhang Wenbo escorted Sun Wenfang and the others to the village entrance, and only turned back after watching the carriage drive away.

"Little sister, do you think Lord Sun believed your story?"

"I don't know either, but it's okay if he doesn't believe it. That's just the way it is. This Lord Sun probably won't pry, since we've already given him the method for organic fertilizer."

"We need to get the villagers to collect the manure as soon as possible. Although Lord Sun will have people experiment before taking any action, we still need to hurry."

Zhang Wenbo nodded, "I'll go talk to the village head right now and try to go tomorrow."

As they traveled along the mountain path in the carriage, Sun Wenfang and the others were also talking about Zhang Xixi and the others.

"Sir, is what that woman said true?"

Sun Wenfang didn't answer the question, but instead asked, "Sun Ping, what did you find out?"

The servant pulled on the horse to slow it down before replying, "Sir, I spent a little money to inquire with the villagers and found out that all the land in the village was wasteland. After using a certain medicine and fertilizer, the soil improved after a month. They also said that planting pasture can also improve the soil."

"This news is the same as what that woman said. Did you ask how the potion was obtained?" Sun Wenfang asked again.

"They said they traded labor with Zhang Xixi; one bucket of medicine costs ten workers and can improve one acre of land."

"Work-for-relief program, not bad!"

Wu Yong, who was standing next to him, questioned, "Could it be a scam? I've never heard of such a miraculous potion before."

Upon hearing this, the servant immediately retorted, "I asked several people, and they all said the same thing. They shouldn't be lying to me."

Sun Wenfang said, "Let's put the medicine aside for now and see about it later. When we get back, let's test the organic fertilizer at the estate first."

He was still somewhat skeptical of the potion, but now that he had the fertilizer formula, the immediate issue was more important.

Zhang Wenbo from the village told Zhou Dashan about this, and the two of them went to inform the other villagers. After discussing it, they gathered all the cattle in the village together, and the eight of them took two oxcarts to the county town and various towns to collect manure and night soil.

We're leaving tomorrow. Six of Zhang Xixi's cows have also been requisitioned. We'll collect their manure and septic tank later and then redistribute them.

The next day, Zhang Dacheng and Zhang Wenbo set off with the villagers, and Zhang Wenbo continued to turn over and dry the rice.

Zhang Xixi's family continued to harvest rice. Fortunately, it didn't rain, otherwise they wouldn't know where to dry the rice!

As evening fell, the villagers who had gone out returned one after another, having had a good harvest; almost every oxcart was filled with manure and night-blooming jasmine.

The villagers carried them all to the depression below and dumped them into a large vat.

On the third day, they continued harvesting and going out, and Zhang Xixi's rice harvest was also completed.

In the following days, everyone continued to clear the land and weed. After the rice in Zhang Xixi's house dried, a torrential rain came, which relieved the hot weather.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of the men in the village who work from dawn till dusk, a lot of manure has been put out in the low-lying area, and of course, the amount of material received has been decreasing recently.

In the following days, only Zhang Dacheng, Zhang Wenbo, and a few villagers went to collect the rice; the other villagers were busy harvesting rice.

The Zhang family's rice was harvested in a single day by Wang Daniu, arranged by Zhang Xixi.

Next, the task of making organic fertilizer was handed over to Wang Daniu and his family. After some discussion, the village decided to distribute the fertilizer according to the number of people. This time, Zhang Xixi's family would be counted as five people for making fertilizer, while the money for collecting night-scented manure would be distributed according to the number of households.

The fertilizer was made in just a few days, and every household in the village was busy harvesting rice. By the time the harvest was finished, half a month had passed.

Zhang Dacheng and his colleagues had also finished their daily work of leaving early and returning late, because there was nothing left to collect.

It is worth mentioning that all the families in the village followed Zhang Xixi's example and left rice stubble, because they believed that this regenerated rice would definitely succeed.

That's right. The rice plants in Zhang Xixi's paddy field have sprouted again, but only a few have sprouted.

At this time, Xiao Chen and her family drove all the ducks into the rice paddy.

The villagers did the same, because they found that ducks raised in rice paddies did grow quickly. In a few days, the ducks would weigh two pounds, and then there would be more meat than they could eat.

A few days later, Zhou Fu came to say that the waterwheel had been completed.

Seeing Zhou Fu's tired face but bright eyes, Zhang Xixi quickly comforted him, "You've worked hard! You should rest well today, and we'll go test the water again tomorrow!"

"Master, there's no need to rest, you can go today."

Zhang Xixi said seriously, "It's getting late today, let's go tomorrow!"

Seeing her husband like this, Sun Xiuxiu felt very sorry for him. He hadn't been home for the past few days and had been staying at Zhou the carpenter's house. He must be very tired!

"Just listen to the boss, go and get some rest!"

"Fine!"

Seeing Zhou Fu's excessive sleep deprivation, Zhang Xixi broke off a section of ginseng from her room and handed it to Sun Xiuxiu.

"Kill a chicken and stew it with this ginseng. We'll give everyone a nourishing meal tonight, especially Zhou Fu."

"Thank you, boss!"

Sun Xiuxiu was very grateful to Zhang Xixi. Her husband was the pillar of the family and couldn't afford to fall ill. With this ginseng, he would definitely recover.

The next day, Zhou Dashan and the others learned that the waterwheel had been completed, and the young people in the village volunteered to carry it to the riverbank.

Under Zhou Fu's arrangement, it took half a day to install the first waterwheel in the deserted village in the river.

The waterwheel has scrapers and buckets. As the river water rushes in, the spokes slowly turn due to the momentum of the water, and the buckets are filled with river water and sent up one by one.

At the top, the water buckets naturally tilt, pouring water into the aqueduct, which then connects to the ditch at the highest point of the wasteland. When the farmland needs water, one side is blocked to allow the water to flow into the irrigated fields; when water is not needed, it is allowed to flow back into the river.

This is the entire irrigation process of the waterwheel!