Chapter 96: Planting Vegetables in the Wasteland

The next morning, Little Ding and his family, along with Fan Sanpang, Sun Dazhong, and the others, saw the women off. Among them, Mu Yiyi and Mu Hong were returning to Jingzhou, Yue Yurou and Tang Yunzhi to Jinzhou, and the sisters of the Mei family to Bingzhou. The journeys of the three groups were all exceedingly long.

Little Ding had them choose horses from Xiaoshan and harness his family's donkey cart, with cotton quilts laid out inside, allowing Tang Yunzhi to rest in it. Considering it inconvenient for a young lady like Yue Yurou to drive the donkey cart, he also dispatched one of the six mountain bandits, named Zhang Long, to assist in driving the cart for the two women. He instructed him to sell the donkey cart after arriving in the county and purchase a more spacious enclosed wagon for them to ride in, delivering the pair to Yuming Mountain in Jinzhou before returning.

Although Mu Hong's internal injury had greatly improved by then, it was not yet fully healed. The Mei sisters possessed shallow experience in the jianghu and found public appearances on the road inconvenient. Thus, Little Ding also instructed Mu Yiyi and the Mei sisters to hire or purchase a closed carriage and employ a driver upon reaching the county. Though traveling by carriage would not be as swift as riding horses, it would spare the women the trouble of exposing themselves in public.

Recalling that the women had refused to exchange the night pearls for travel expenses, Little Ding then had Zhao Laixi distribute some silver among them, fifty taels to each route. Zhao Laixi was heartbroken, yet in the presence of others he dared not voice complaint. Yesterday he had merely exchanged the three gold ingots for three hundred taels of silver in the county's money house; today, half of it was already spent in this distribution.

The women had taken Little Ding's night pearl the previous night and now wanted silver today. They refused it repeatedly, yet could not withstand his insistent insistence, so they had no choice but to accept it. After deeply gazing at him one final time, they bid farewell with reluctance and walked up the path toward Luoxia County...

After seeing them off, the courtyard of Little Ding's home grew much quieter.

Two days later, Sun Dazhong also bid farewell and departed. Although his leg injury had not healed, he claimed not to feel at ease leaving his wife to wander alone outside, so he wished to go search for her.

Little Ding and Fan Sanpang exchanged a knowing glance and smiled, so they no longer urged him to stay. They gave him fifty taels of silver, selected a fine horse for him to ride, and instructed him to hire a carriage in town to rest his injured leg.

Sun Dazhong agreed to each arrangement one by one, took up his iron rod, and rode away on horseback.

At this time, Little Ding's household consisted solely of his family, the Ou siblings, Fan Sanpang, and those five mountain bandits. Little Ding now also knew the names of these mountain bandits. Zhang Long was the one who had driven the cart for Yue Yurou, and the remaining five were respectively named Zhao Hu, Wang Chao, Ma Han, Dong Chao, and Xue Ba.

Uh...? Adding Li Gui and Lou Qing, wasn't this the Eight Great Yamen Runners under Kaifeng's Lord Bao?

Little Ding secretly sighed at the coincidence in the world, yet he did not care much. After all, people in this era would not know who Bao Gong was, and these individuals were merely bandits. Moreover, names were merely labels; what name mattered.

At this moment, Zhao Hu came before Little Ding, respectfully saying, "Young Master, I still have two good brothers in Feiyun Village, one named Li Gui and the other Lou Qing..."

Uh! Speaking of Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrives!

"What?" Little Ding had just recalled the Eight Great Yamen Runners of Kaifeng, and had not expected they would actually assemble.

"They also no longer wish to be mountain bandits, but are stuck without a way out, so they remain in the village. If you like, I can return to the village and call them to work for you..." Zhao Hu continued.

"No need for that. If they wish to come, they will naturally come. You may work here at ease first!" Little Ding replied. Yet in his heart he secretly mocked: If you return to Feiyun Village to bring people back, have you considered Shi Jianfeng's plan? Do you think Shi Jianfeng would allow you to take his subordinates out? Not to mention bringing them out; even if it were you yourself, whether you could return or not would be uncertain!

Little Ding sent Zhao Hu and the other five to Niu Ershu, to arrange work for them. He also assigned Fan Sanpang to manage the horses at Xiaoshan. As for the Ou siblings, Little Ding did not give them any tasks for the time being; they spent their days playing with Little Fu and Little Zhuer, and Ou Mulin no longer feared Little Wolf Gray Gray.

The house at the construction site was already fully roofed, waiting only for the interior to dry before they could move in. Furniture had also not yet been prepared and would require some time.

The carpentry work for the house was not personally done by Zhao Laixi, for after Little Ding left, Zhao Laixi had too many matters and was truly overwhelmed.

Zhao Laixi found two apprentices with whom he had good relations, who had been learning carpentry from his second uncle's house, and sent them over to assist. These two apprentices had already learned for several years at the second uncle's place and were basically able to work independently. Yet because the second uncle's furniture shop was temporarily short of manpower, they were not released as masters.

Zhao Laixi paid the two apprentices the wage of skilled workers. The two apprentices were naturally very pleased. But after the second uncle heard of this matter, he was so enraged that he jumped up and down.

Zhao Laixi paid no heed to how angry the second uncle was. Ever since he had been beaten last time and the second uncle had ignored him, he had seen through the second uncle's character of valuing money over kinship ties, and in the future he no longer planned to apprentice to him.

In these days, the weather gradually entered early winter. During the day, when the sun shone, it was tolerable, but at night, those sleeping in the grass sheds and earth shelters could already feel the chill of early winter.

Because the family had added several more people, Little Ding originally intended to use the room for livestock as a living quarters and decided to repurpose it for habitation. He instructed Niu Ershu to arrange manpower and had a kang bed constructed in the room that was originally the livestock quarters.

Little Ding had previously instructed Niu Ershu on how to build a kang before leaving, and upon returning he inspected the kang that had been built in the new room, feeling that Niu Ershu's bricklaying work was really quite good.

Moreover, they had lit fires in the kang fireplaces of the built kangs, with no smoke leaking whatsoever, making them very usable. Niu Ershu also claimed that this winter he would change the bed in his own house to a kang.

The work on the warm sheds was relatively simpler. Now the two warm sheds were nearly complete, the missing part being the carpentry. Because there were few carpentry hands, some were overwhelmed.

According to the blueprint, each of these two warm sheds was two mu in size. The surrounding walls were hollow fire walls, where fires could be lit in winter for heating to ensure the temperature inside. The roof was made of wooden frames in a sunny slope, covered with lattice windows plastered with window paper. Although the window paper was not as transparent as later glass, it could still be used.

If it snowed in winter, laying a layer of straw mats on the wooden frame of the roof could prevent heavy snow from breaking the window paper. At the same time, the straw mats could also provide insulation.

Hearing that Little Ding wanted to plant vegetables in the warm sheds, Niu Ershu and all the workers exchanged glances.

Why? Because that piece of land had originally been barren wasteland. Even after clearing the wild grass, wild trees, and rocks from the surface, it remained wasteland. The soil still contained large amounts of gravel, sand, roots, and in places even large rocks buried underground. To grow vegetables on such barren land, what was easy about it?

After all, Niu Ershu, who had farmed for half his life, believed he had no skill to grow vegetables on such wasteland. Forget vegetables; he believed he could not even grow other crops.

The other workers shared the same doubts as Niu Ershu, unable to guess what medicine was sold in Little Ding's gourd.

Even Tian Dabao and Zhao Laixi, upon hearing that Little Ding wanted to plant vegetables in the two sheds under construction, shook their heads repeatedly. Tian Dabao even secretly sighed, was this fool having another bout of stupidity?