Chapter 514 513. Wall Village Meeting
The most difficult season in the Badlands turned out to be in June.
In Suldak's memory, June belongs to the season when everything grows and thrives.
But for the people in the barren land, before the rainy season comes, the difficult life continues. Even cassava is more expensive this year than in previous years.
The nineteen natural villages in the barren land have a population of nearly 7,000, only half of them can fill their stomachs, and the remaining half are able to go out to ask for a living. They all left the barren land.
There are some old people, children, and women who cannot leave the barren and desolate land, and there is no one to help them. Their family members who are begging for a living outside cannot bring back food in time, or if there is no such family at all, some people will starve.
At this time in previous years, some people in Wall Village also went to Oak Ridge to dig wild vegetables to feed their hunger.
This year, Wall Village has changed a lot. All the villagers who are willing to work have earned a little money. Although the wheat produced by themselves is not enough to eat, as long as they live a little more carefully, with some chestnut rice, pumpkin, miscellaneous grains and beans, etc., they can survive a long time. There is still some surplus food left after winter.
Even if some people eat up all the stored food, as long as they are not lazy and willing to work on the construction site of the reservoir, they can still eat it.
Suldak, Luke, and some respectable old people in the village gathered at the house of the old village chief Brett. Aunt Brett made lemon tea for everyone. The room was full of people. Luke and several young people in the village crowded together In the corner of the living room, everyone hurriedly made tea for everyone, while chewing roasted pumpkin seeds.
Life is not so hard. The wheat in the field is not growing badly due to lack of water. The villagers all have a confident smile on their faces. Even when chatting, they become much more humorous.
Suldak sat beside the old village head, and almost everyone looked at Suldak and the old village head.
Seeing that it was almost time for people to arrive, the old village chief knocked **** the pipe in his hand.
‘Tuk Tuk Tuk’
The oak pipe hit the edge of the wooden stool, making a series of muffled noises, and the living room immediately became quiet.
The village head, Brett, looked around in the living room, and then said: "Almost all of you here are the parents of various families in the village. It was Duck who invited you here today. Whatever matters are discussed inside, this method will continue, and everyone can gather here to discuss anything."
Some of the young people leaning against the corner stood up and boldly asked:
"Uncle Brett, you mean that if you don't care about fairness or unfairness in some matters, we can object to the decision?"
Village Chief Brett stared, angrily said: "How dare you?"
The young man was so frightened that he immediately retreated into the crowd, really not daring to show his head.
There was a burst of laughter in the living room.
"It was my idea to invite everyone to come today!" Suldak said, the living room fell silent, and everyone turned their attention to him.
Suldak leaned on the chair and said to everyone: "I plan to build a children's home in the village to take care of children. I will provide three meals a day for free every day. In addition, I will teach the children some imperial language, basic combat skills, and life skills. Common sense and so on, the children who cannot be taken care of in the village can be sent to the children's home, which can also liberate the women who take care of the children in the family to participate in the production and construction of the village."
Hearing what Suldak said, the surrounding villagers began to talk about it.
Surdak raised his voice and said: "Whether it is the construction site of the reservoir, the artificial drainage canal, the land reclamation of tidal flats, or the carpenter workshop, the village fleet, and the starch workshop all need additional manpower, and as long as they are willing to work earn a wage."
An old man sitting next to Village Chief Bright opened his eyes, looked at Suldak and asked:
"Little Duck, are you telling the truth? No matter whose family's children can be sent to this children's home? Not only to help take care of them, but also to stutter every day?"
Suldak glanced at Uncle Brett. When he first mentioned this matter to him, Uncle Brett was against it.
Although he frowned this time, he didn't object.
Suldak nodded and said, "That's right!"
A middle-aged man stood up. He was one of the few hunters in the village who were good at hunting gray rock iguanas. What he was best at was finding the hiding places of gray rock iguanas.
At this time, he seemed a little excited, and asked Suldak:
"Can you still teach them Imperial language and combat skills?"
Suldak nodded and said, "Imperial language can be taught by Selina, and I will arrange for members of the security team to take turns teaching combat skills."
The villagers seemed a little excited, and asked one after another: "How old can a child be sent to the children's home in the village?"
Suldak thought for a while and said, "All children under the age of eight can come here to stutter."
As soon as Suldak finished speaking, the living room exploded. Everyone didn't expect such a good thing, and they discussed who's family and whose children were eligible to enter the children's home.
The old village chief Brett frowned, turned his head and said to Suldak:
"A seven or eight-year-old kid is about to catch up with an adult in one meal, Dak, this is too much of a burden on our village, should the age limit be lowered?"
Many seven or eight-year-old children in the village can help adults pull weeds in the wheat fields, at least half of the labor at home.
Suldak was also worried that making the children's home too big all of a sudden might cause some mistakes, so he said, "That's under six years old!"
Seeing that everyone was talking enthusiastically, Luke, who was huddled among the young people, stood up suddenly and said to Suldak:
"Dark, I haven't had time to say this time when I come back..."
The living room became quiet again. Everyone in the village knew that Luke and Charlie were the leaders of the sulfur mine. He and Charlie spoke the most weightily among the young people in the village.
Luke hesitated for a moment, and said: "The open-pit sulfur mine in the rocky area of Pustout Mountain is almost finished mining. Charlie is going there this time, and he is going to explore the area outside the rocky area. There is no such thing as an open-pit sulfur mine, and once the open-pit sulfur mine is exhausted, we simply cannot sustain the current huge expenditure."
After all, Wall Village has the current situation. Apart from Suerdak’s own pocket, this open-pit sulfur mine is also another economic pillar. Now that the mine’s sulfur is about to be harvested, everyone really can’t accept it.
However, Suldak waved his hand to Luke, signaling him not to worry, and then said: "In a few days, I will go to Pustule Mountain to do a field survey. How can such a big volcano have only a piece of sulfurous land? The good news is that when I went to erect the boundary marker there last month, I found that there were still a few stone remains left by the river of lava. Rivers are everywhere."
Hearing what Suldak said, the tense atmosphere in the living room suddenly relaxed again.
Seeing that everyone accepted the proposal, Suldak went on to say: "This is what I think. Now is the time when people in other villages are in a difficult situation. I can't control adults, but as a Pa The Sheriff of the Badlands at Gros Pass..."
Speaking of this, Suldak's voice raised a little.
"I don't want children in my jurisdiction to starve to death because they can't eat. There is no milk and oatmeal. It's still okay to have a sip of multigrain porridge."
Speaking of this, Suldak tapped the Knight's Medal of the Guard Battalion on his chest, and several villagers who wanted to speak out immediately swallowed their words.
Aunt Brett and Charlie's wife ran over again to refill everyone's water.
Suldak paused for a while before saying:
"So... I think, this children's home in our village can recruit children from 19 natural villages in the entire barren land, especially those who are young and can't eat!"
The villagers in the living room immediately shouted:
"How many children do you have to accept! It won't eat up our village!"
"That's right, Little Duck, you can't do this, isn't it a drag on us all..."
"Just after eating a few full meals, I forget about it. How many people are starving in the barren land? Can we all manage it?"
The old village head, Brett, wiped his face vigorously. Hearing what everyone said, he didn't even have the desire to swear.
‘What a group of short-sighted idiots! '
The old village head sighed, thinking in his heart.
Suldak did not expect so many people to raise objections.
There is nothing wrong with the reason for everyone's opposition, that is, they are worried that the starving children in other villages will encroach on everyone's vested interests.
Suldak has already decided on this matter, he was silent for a while, and then said:
"This money does not come from the village. The sulfur mine in the rocky area is now jointly developed by me and the village, but the sulfur mine found in my knight's collar is my industry. I will take a part of the income from these industries. A sum of money to pay for this part of the expenses!"
Sure enough, as the old village chief expected, when Suldak said this, the doubts and objections in the living room disappeared again.
It’s just that they don’t know that some mine dividends that belonged to them have disappeared. Perhaps it was the few words just now that made Suldak determined to separate the subsequent development of the sulfur mine from the village. After all, even the miners who mined the sulfur mine were a group of kobold slaves.
Since Suldak pays for it himself, and it is beneficial to everyone, the villagers naturally no longer object, but some villagers secretly think indignantly: Why can children from other villages enjoy this kind of welfare...
Someone questioned: "What about those children who are far away? Are they still allowed to live in the village?"
Suldak said casually:
"There are many projects in the village this year, and people are needed everywhere, and they have to take care of their own wheat fields. The artificial canal on the tidal flat is almost dug, but the field around the middle has not been reclaimed. Those who are willing to send their children to The needy households here can arrange something for them to do in the village. At least they can have a meal. I think we can build some reed mat work sheds. Although these work sheds can’t keep out the heavy rain, they can at least house people. The rainy season is here, and it’s time for them to go back to the village.”
The old village head sat aside at this time and interjected:
"It's not that the wasteland on the tidal flat is not planted, and the water in the reservoir above has bottomed out. In order to ensure the irrigation needs of the wheat fields in the village, the water source available on the tidal flat is very limited. Now it is so dry, dig a Even the pits can raise a cloud of dust, and there is no moisture in the ground, so no other crops can be grown at all.”
Suldak said casually: "You can choose some drought-tolerant crops, and the tidal flats are low-lying lands, so the drought should not be so serious. I will solve this matter..."
The old village head said again: "Dake, there are places that need to spend money everywhere at present. Should we delay the construction of the third-level water storage tank?"
Suldak shook his head and said firmly: "The project can't be stopped, don't worry about whether the money bag can hold up, this time the plane war on the Maca plane has won, and our advance support army has won a lot of money. If we don’t take advantage of this time to build the third-level cistern, once the rainy season comes, I’m afraid it will take at least September to start the expansion project of the cistern again. It’s best to build the fourth-level cistern this year , so that if there is a four-level reservoir before winter, at least the tidal flat can be irrigated in the dry season next year."
The old village chief nodded and said: "The cassava starch in the village has already been sold in the Hailansa city market. Although the price is not as good as wheat flour, it can also bring us a good profit."
Hearing that the village still has such an income, the originally resentful villagers suddenly became happy again.
Suldak said to the old village chief Brett: "The artificial canal has been opened to the entrance of the underground river, but before the rainy season comes, I plan to continue to widen and deepen the river channel. The deeper and wider the river channel, the longer the rainy season will come. More rain, anyway, those kobold slaves can't be idle, we have to find some work for them."
The villagers agree with this.
‘Yes, those kobold slaves must not be left idle! '
Suldak went on to say:
"And I want to dig a large lake at the entrance of the underground river to strengthen the water storage capacity, otherwise once the rainfall exceeds the discharge of the underground river, it is likely to cause waterlogging..."
"This time I bought a batch of tomato, onion, and cabbage seeds from the White Elephant Company. We can plant these seeds in advance before the heavy rain. It is estimated that it will not take much water to cultivate these seedlings. Once the rainy season arrives, we will Just transplant these seedlings directly into the field, which can shorten the growth cycle of crops."
The villagers looked at a loss, what kind of seedlings, what production cycle, they couldn't understand at all...
After discussing so many things, the old village chief Brett rubbed his wrinkled forehead.
I am getting older, my memory is not good, and I can't even remember some of the previous things, so I keep thinking in my heart: 'Little Duck, why do you have so many ideas at once? '
…
(end of this chapter)