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Mr. Li felt cold and just when he thought there was no hope for things, Zhou Luxue, next to him, spoke: "There are not only us in charge in the palace. Everyone is watching the new grain this year, and we must also consider the opinions of others. However, things are not completely impossible. Shanchu said just now that the grain this year is not feasible, but there are still some old grain left in the palace in previous years. If you agree, we negotiate with other elders and we should lend it to you. But we must return it to the palace next autumn, and there is no need for interest on that 10% of the grain."

"Which year was the first time these surplus grains in previous years?" Zhao Zhenzhong asked.

"The first one was five years ago, but very few were, most of them from the previous year." Zhao Shanchu replied.

"Then please ask the two elders to worry, hoping to lend us 4,000 kilograms of grain the year before. We will definitely return it to the palace next autumn." Zhao Zhenzhong bowed to the two elders and said respectfully.

Zhou Luxue, Zhao Shanchu went out for nearly an hour and a half, and Old Dao Li came back just when he was a little anxious.

Zhao Zhenzhong looked at the expressions on the faces of the two, and knew in his heart that borrowing food should be done.

Sure enough, after the two sat down, Zhou Luxue smiled and said, "I heard about your actions and thought it was a good thing to do good deeds and accumulate merits. After discussion, I agreed to lend you three thousand kilograms of old grain every year. In addition, the palace decided to join in the righteous act and give you one thousand kilograms of old grain." After a pause, Zhou Luxue looked at Li Laodao, and Zhao Zhenzhong's expressions were on his face, and said, "Good people do it to the end. Since you have cultivated the land, you probably have to grow grain, and borrow another 600 kilograms of wheat from this year as seeds."

Old Dao Li and Zhao Zhenzhong were overjoyed and quickly stood up to express their gratitude to the two. Zhao Zhenzhong bowed to the two elders: "Thank you for your concern for Yucheng. I would like to thank the two elders Gao Yi for their orphans, and for the Ende of the Taiqing Gong."

Although the Taiqing Palace and his party were not smooth sailing, the results were better than expected when they came, which was a harvest. When they returned, Zhao Shanchu arranged for the palace people to find a boat and moved everything from the Taiqing Palace to a small pier near the Taiqing Palace Mountain Gate at the foot of the mountain, and then loaded the boat back from the sea. Nearly 30 miles of rugged mountain roads, they took a straight line but less than twenty miles. At around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a total of thirty sets of new adult cotton coats, ten shovels, ten picks, ten iron rakes, ten soil carrying baskets, and other reclamation and cultivation tools, as well as a batch of grain and seeds were transported to the vicinity of the hut residence. However, except for 600 kilograms of wheat seeds and 1,000 kilograms of old grain from the previous year, the other 3,000 kilograms of grain from the cave will not be transported back after the stone cave is completed.

In order to thank Boss Lin of Qingshan Village for his ship transportation, Zhao Zhenzhong specially sent him one dried pheasant and hare rabbit, as well as some wild fruits such as walnuts, hazelnuts, persimmons and other wild fruits picked from the mountains. Boss Lin accepted the gift after being humble and drove away happily.

In the following two days, Li Laodao inspected the terrain and selected several places with relatively good soil quality, no large rocks, and relatively close to the water source as reclamation areas. Kuang Zhenjue and Zhao Zhenzhong accelerated the digging of stone caves, went up the mountain to collect various wild fruits and wild vegetables, and captured birds and beasts that fell into traps and other prey. Under the leadership of Li Shifen, the children cut grass from the surrounding mountains as Zhao Zhenzhong said, and fermented fertilizer.

Everything was busy in a nervous and orderly manner. When Li Tongsheng and his fifteen people arrived, it was October 2nd and the lunar calendar was August 28th.

In the next half month, more than 40 men, women, young and old, started the land reclamation action on the selected location. Of course, the main force in reclamation of land was the dozen people who later were the ones. Li Laodao just provided advice on the side. Zhou Tian and Zhou Hao had time to lead the young people to help pick up stones, and also undertake tasks such as delivering water and food. Zhao Zhenzhong and Kuang Zhenjue took advantage of the arrival of winter to collect as much mountain materials as possible for the winter. During this period, they rushed to the sea and obtained a lot of seafood. The wild game in the mountains and seafood in the sea provided sufficient motivation for the laborers who carried out the reclamation operations. In half a month, sixteen people, including Li Tongsheng, reclaimed about 80 acres of land. Then a group of people used tools to sow 600 kilograms of wheat seeds in 50 acres in two days as required by Zhao Zhenzhong.

After reclaiming the land and sowing the seeds, Zhao Zhenzhong fulfilled his promise and sent out all the more than 30 pheasants and more than 60 hares that had accumulated during this period. He also sent some wild fruits and food picked in the mountains, and gave each person twenty kilograms of food that had just been transported back from the Taijue Palace.

Everyone was happy and helped for four more days to complete the cleaning of the stone cave that Zhao Zhenzhong was nearing the end. When they parted, everyone was reluctant to leave. Zhao Zhenzhong said, "Thank you all, uncles, brother for help during this period. If there is something wrong in the future, I may have to trouble you." A relative surnamed Liu in his early forties from Li Shifen's family was the oldest among these people. He said with emotion: "Brother Zhao, please thank us for your help, and I also thank my brother and the Taoist priest for their respect for us.

I have a good meal and drink here. I have given so many things before leaving. I have grown up and helped many people work, but only the most comfortable thing to do here. To be honest, don’t joke, I’ve grown up so old, I have never eaten such good food before. Also, Brother Zhao, working here, you have never looked at us who are suffering from others. In the past, when I worked at the homes of those landlords and old treasures, they were scolded at every turn, but they never looked at us directly.”

After hearing the bitterness he said, Zhao Zhenzhong comforted him, "If you don't talk about your relationship with your master and your aunt, by age, you are mostly my elders or elder brothers. You can't help us younger generations. We can't even take out a bite of food. I know that everyone's family is not well-off, so I can only help you make up for the things I give. This is where we sweat together, and it's also half of your home. When you are free, come and see and walk more. If you have anything, we can help, just talk."

After seeing off everyone full of gratitude and reluctance, Zhao Zhenzhong and others were busy for more than 20 days, they finally breathed a sigh of relief and took a break. In the following days, after Zhao Zhenzhong's suggestion, everyone planted a batch of cabbage and spinach on the cultivated land that could harvest before snowing in winter.

In the following time, in addition to going up the mountain to collect as usual every day, Zhao Zhenzhong spent basically on the cave. Now that the entire cave was completely cleared, Zhao Zhenzhong found that the space inside was larger than he had imagined. The cave originally exposed on the ground was roughly triangular, with a span of six meters on the ground, a height of about seven meters, and a depth of about twenty-two meters. After the thorough cleaning, the span of the bottom of the cave was nearly ten meters, a height of about nine meters, and a deepest point was nearly twenty-eight meters. The boulders and mountains on both sides were nearly fifty degrees and more than sixty degrees.

Zhao Zhenzhong had already thought about the planning and arrangements for the stone cave. After reaching an agreement with Li Laodao, Li Shifen, Li Tongsheng, Kuang Zhenjue, Zhou Tian, ​​Zhou Hao and others, he solved the lighting problem inside the stone cave to a certain extent.

In mid-November, when looking at the basically completed cave in front of you, everyone's faces showed sincere joy. The top of the cave had been closed with clay and thatch, but there were four built flue outlets arranged on it, and between the flue outlets, there were more than thirty pieces of translucent tortoiseshell of different sizes. In addition, the white lime painted on the mud wall in the cave, although the lighting in the cave was still poor, it was much better than the original ceiling of the cave.

Leave about two meters of space inside near the entrance of the cave, and add the thatched houses built outside the cave to be built into a kitchen and a restaurant.

A wall was built with thatched yellow mud bricks two meters inward, leaving a portal about one meter five meters wide and two meters high in the middle of the wall.

A two-meter-wide channel is left directly opposite the portal in the cave. On both sides of the passage are rooms separated by thatched yellow mud and adobe. Each side has eight rooms. A kang is built in the center of the rooms on both sides of the passage, plus the two in the cave, and there are four kangs in total. These four kangs are used to dissipate heat and maintain the air temperature in the cave.

A door that is one meter wide and two meters high is left in the passage opposite the passage of each small room. The interior of the room is two meters wide and about three meters six meters long. In the interior of the room is a long table that is one or two feet wide and two meters long. On both sides of the door behind the door, there are two simple wooden beds with a width of two feet wide and one meter eight, each with two meters long, and two meters long, which can accommodate up to eight people. In this way, the entire cave space can accommodate up to one hundred and twenty people.

The innermost part of the cave is a space with a span of more than nine meters, a height of more than two meters, a depth of about eighty cubic meters, and a total volume of about eighty cubic meters. This space will be used together with several nearby rooms to form a warehouse to store grain and other daily necessities.

Before the Xiaoxue solar term, a group of old and young people moved into the stone cave. Looking at the excited and noisy children, Zhao Zhenzhong breathed a sigh of relief. In this chaotic world, there was finally a place that could cover the severe cold and heat, and temporarily looked like a home.
Chapter completed!