eurekapd Chapter 150: The Division is Complete
Chapter 150: The Division is Complete
"This piece of land is the farthest away and not very big. It's dry land and has become barren because no one has cultivated it for many years. This time the government specially allocated it to you. Each of your families can get at least one acre. Go and measure it." After the head of the village said this, two young men holding noose came out from behind and went to measure it.
Soon, the land was measured and divided according to the size of the land and the number of people in the family.
Zhou Guo's family was large, and they were allocated two acres and six mu of land.
The old man was alone, and the smallest plot of land he was allocated was not even an acre. Zhou Guo deliberately chose a plot that was close to her master's land so that it would be easier to manage in the future. She didn't believe that her master, who had never farmed in his life, would be able to do so. In the end, this job would still fall on her.
Everyone was very satisfied with the land allocated to their families. In this day and age, being able to get land here was already a great thing. They thought they had to buy it on their own.
After the land was divided, everyone went back.
This time, I walked to the end of the village, passed Zhou Guo's house, turned south, walked through the fields opposite, and went around a mountain, and came to a wasteland. This wasteland was larger than the previous one, the terrain was flatter than the previous one, and the fertility was better.
The head of the village sighed and said, "This is the last piece of land that can be distributed to you. If your family does not have enough land in the future, you can choose unowned land to open up."
The two words "meizhu" were pronounced more heavily than the other words, and everyone could hear it.
Everyone's ancestors were peasants, so who wouldn't understand this? The atmosphere was a little depressing for a moment.
Only Zhou Guo was a little confused. To open up wasteland, one had to find land that had no owner. If an owner's land was opened up, wouldn't it belong to someone else? There would be no point in opening it up.
But looking at the unwillingness and anger on everyone's faces, I slowly came to my senses. It seems that reclaiming land is not something that can be done casually.
This piece of land is much larger than the previous one. Zhou Guo's family got five and a third acres, and the old man got one and a half acres. However, these lands are not in the same place, but scattered here and there.
In order to make work easier, each family picked those with similar fertility and size and exchanged them with others. After a lot of exchanges, everyone was satisfied. Although they were still not connected together, they were not so scattered.
Zhou Guo also specially moved the old man's land to the side of his own land, which would be cheaper to maintain.
After the land was divided up among the families, the village head went back with his pipe in his mouth.
The people who were allocated land looked at their own land and were reluctant to move. They walked to the fields tremblingly, walked around their own land again and again, pulled out any weeds that they didn't like, and walked into the fields to start clearing the land with their bare hands.
In fact, some of them had no land when they arrived in the village. As time went by, the little family fortune passed down by their ancestors had long been consumed, and the land was sold or mortgaged by their descendants, with half an acre at a time. Then, they could never redeem it back, and had to rely on renting other people's land to grow crops, and they went hungry for half a year out of the year.
The reason they were able to survive this sudden famine was because the newly harvested grain had not yet been handed in. Otherwise, they would have starved to death on the way.
The Zhou family fell into poverty over the years, but they had not had time to sell their land. Although they were happy about the new land they were allocated, they did not feel that much emotion.
Zhou Guo said: "Let's open up the land when we have free time. The most important thing now is to repair our house. Otherwise, we won't be able to sleep well every day."
The Zhou family left. Their house was the most dilapidated among all the families. It didn't even have a door, and there were many things to do at home.
Zhou Guo looked at the house in front of him. It was broken everywhere and he didn't know where to start.
The beams were broken, so the roof needed to be re-laid with new beams, and the wood had to be cut from the mountains.
You need a saw to chop wood. I brought one with me when I came out, but I don’t know where I lost it along the way. In the long run, I still have to buy one.
There are only two machetes left, so I have to buy two more. I can't cut several plots of land with just one machete. It will take me a long time to cut the land.
The most important thing is that there are no beddings at home. It is getting colder at night. It is easy to catch a cold and get sick if you sleep with the air exposed. Getting sick at this time is a troublesome thing.
They also had to buy some vegetable seeds, as they had eaten all the seeds they brought with them on the way to escape the famine.
"Mom, we don't have anything at home. We have to go to the county town to buy some things. We need to add a few more quilts and some vegetable seeds. We can also buy some other things if we see any shortage."
Zhou Dacang and a few others were building a fence nearby. The fence, which was one person tall, had already formed a corner along the courtyard wall and looked quite presentable.
Li followed to help, and said without raising her head when she heard it, "Well, we have to go. Damao, take your two brothers to ask the others if they want to go together. It will be cheaper if we buy more." She got up and went to the next room.
Zhou Gu agreed and took Zhou Mi and Zhou Mai to the village.
Zhou Guo looked around but didn't find the old man. She thought he had just gone to the toilet. "Where's the master? Did he go into the mountains again?" His horse was gone.
"Of course he does. He said he wanted to settle down in the village and get familiar with the surroundings, so he rode away on his horse." Zhou Dacang pointed to the west.
She nodded. Yes, he couldn't sit still and couldn't work, so it would be good for him to go out for a walk.
She brought two carts over and harnessed them. There were a lot of things to buy, and one cart might not be enough. Aunt Qian's family next door didn't have a cart, so the things had to be put on their cart. There were also a lot of people, so after all the calculations, both carts had to go out.
Zhou Gu and his men came back from the village not long after, panting and saying, "They are all going."
"Well, Aunt Qian next door is going too, but the two children at home are not going. Do we all want to go?" said Mrs. Li.
Zhou Dacang said, "No, someone has to watch over the house. We don't even have a door. So I won't go. I'll take Damao and the others to build the fence. Then we don't have to sleep in the yard at night."
"You go, uncle. I'll take them with me. We'll stay at home and continue building the fence. We have to cook late at night, so we can eat when you come back." Zhou Xing said. She looked at her mother who was sitting obediently in the yard. She had to keep an eye on her.
Zhou Dacang: "What are you doing at home as a little girl?"
"I'm not going. You go, uncle." Zhou Xing was determined.
Zhou Dacang wanted to persuade her, but Zhou Guo said, "Okay, you stay at home, I'll bring you some delicious food."
Zhou Xing looked at her gratefully and nodded with a smile.
Because there were a lot of things to buy, if one more person went, they would take up one more seat. So Zhou Guo and the others discussed it and decided to only have three people go, and the rest would stay at home.
No one else in the Zhou family had any objection. Comparatively speaking, they would rather stay at home. After all, they really didn't want to travel in such a short period of time.