Chapter 18: A Year's Plan Starts with Spring

  The days passed quickly in the midst of celebration, and before they knew it, the 15th day of the first month had already gone by. Since this year's weather came early, as soon as the 15th was over, the villagers couldn't wait to start their field work. Liu He's cooperative team wouldn't fall behind either. However, this year's weather made the land very easy to till, especially since most of the land had a thick layer of yellow soil on top, which only needed to be flattened out.

  After the New Year, their cooperative group added three more households, including the village head, with a total of 10 mu of land. Now the cooperative group has a total of 230 mu of land, and Liu He still occupies the majority, with 200 mu. Although he lent nearly 30 mu of land to the long workers, doesn't he still have more than 170 mu?

  Liu He is now naturally a big shot, he is the boss and doesn't need to work on the ground, not even managing accounts. Perhaps he has already achieved his goal in later life, which is to muddle along and wait for death.

  Zhang Zhen led several female students to take charge of accounting, while some half-grown children were responsible for plowing with cows or horses. A horse or cow with a half-grown child counted as two workers for a day. The half-grown children not only took care of the cows and horses but also grazed them, which was equivalent to half a day's work. When they didn't need to take care of the cows and horses, they would graze them instead. Liu He managed food, so they wouldn't be counted as workers. Perhaps at the end of the year, Liu He would give them dozens of kilograms of grain, which was much better than when Li Lao Cai was in charge. Li Lao Cai hired Dog Dan to take care of the cows but didn't provide meals, and the grain given at the end of the year was also less.

  So the opportunity for natural learning was placed in the evening, so every night Liu He's yard was the brightest and most lively. Before the New Year, Liu He bought 20 boxes of kerosene at once, mainly because this kerosene was still relatively cheap. Some materials are better stored earlier, even some grain sold by the village was also purchased by him.

  With the help of cattle and horses, the land was naturally cultivated very quickly. They even started another project to dig mountain caves, which was to improve the land for these new farming households.

  Big mountain, Liu He suddenly remembered the bandits' cave, and he needed an excuse to go up there.

  "Village head, you said that mountain to the east belongs to whom." "What's wrong, Liu Dongjia, there are bandits up there, what do you want with it?" "Haha, precisely because there are bandits, I'm interested. You say if I buy that mountain, can I go look for trouble with those bandits?"

  "I said, Sunzi, did you burn it?" At this time, the village chief couldn't care about calling him Dongjia anymore and directly touched Liu He's forehead. This bandit was easy to deal with, he really didn't know that this bandit had already been eliminated by Liu He. He was still puzzled, why did this bandit only go to Liu He's house last year and never came to their houses to rob food again?

  "Village chief, I'm being sincere, you just say it, whose mountain is that and how can we buy it?" The village chief saw Liu He's genuine intention to buy the mountain, so he also relaxed his tone.

  "That mountain over there to the east, it's been more than 20 miles away, but it all belongs to our village. If you want to buy it, I just need to say a word in the village and I can sell it to you because it's occupied by bandits, so naturally no one wants it. I can make the decision, and I can sell it to you for just one yuan, but the transaction tax is on you. I'm telling you, Liu Dongjia, if you really want it, this transaction tax isn't low."

  "Well, I really want it, you tell me, how much is the transaction tax?" "It's a thousand yuan, Liu Dong, can you really afford it?"

  "Alright, one thousand and one yuan, I'll get the money right away. But Village Chief, can I get the deed?" "You can, once I return from the county, the deed will be yours. By the way, Liu Dongjia, it seems you won't miss this small amount of money either. Those properties you bought from Lao Li's hands, shouldn't they also be transferred to your name? The transaction tax for these lands is low, just ten yuan and it's done."

  Ten days later, Liu He successfully obtained the land deed with his name on it. Liu He looked at this brand new paper with the land deed written on it, as well as the scope of the land deed, and those two bright red big seals, one was the official seal of Wuyou County, and the other was the official seal of Huzhou Township. And on the land deed, the two characters "Liu He" were particularly eye-catching.

  "Hahaha, I finally have my own property, I've finally established myself here." Liu He laughed wildly.

  "Master, you haven't been burned, have you? You've been living here for several months now." Liu Xiong naturally placed his hand on Liu He's forehead.

  "Go, you're just burning time, go work."

  Now that the mountain belonged to him, Liu He quickly established a patrol team. Each time, three people would go up the mountain with guns to patrol. However, these people were selected from the original long workers and those bandits who had been subdued by Liu He. Similarly, Gou Dan was appointed as the leader of the patrol team. He didn't need to go up the mountain himself, but just arranged for personnel to patrol every day. If there were any bandits crossing the border, they would be caught early.

  Since the patrol team has taken up guns, they shouldn't treat them as firewood, so Liu He organized everyone to learn how to use and maintain firearms.

  "You, put the gun stock on your shoulder and hold it tight, do you want to get a bruise on your shoulder? You, if you can't close one eye, then wear an eyepatch."

  Very strange, a bandit named Shan Yao Dan who surrendered wouldn't close one eye and open the other, so Liu He had to arrange for Gou Dan Niang to make him an eye patch which he often carried with him. Whenever he went on patrol with his gun, he would put on the eye patch, and when he raised his gun, all he had to do was lower the eye patch a bit and it was done.

  For the sake of everyone's training, Liu He was very generous with his expenses. Not only did he take out all the bullets for everyone to practice, but he also arranged for Li Shu to go to the county town to buy enough bullets for training. Moreover, he even stored up a lot of bullets in preparation for when the devils came, perhaps at that time there would be no place to buy bullets.

  "Liu He," "What's wrong, won't you even call me Liu Dongjia?" "Hmph, I'm not your servant, I wouldn't dare call you Dongjia. Calling you Liu He is already giving you a lot of face."

  "Miss, you are eating and living here with me," "I even helped you teach them to recognize characters." "Alright, alright, you're polite." Liu He knew that whether in the past or in this era, one should never reason with a woman. Reasoning with a woman means that even if you win, you lose, so Liu He stopped in time.

  "Speak up, Zhang Xiaojie, what's going on? Are you thinking of going home again? I'll arrange for someone to take you back." "I won't go back, Liu He. I also want to learn how to shoot a gun." "What's the point of a woman learning how to shoot a gun? You should focus on learning how to raise children at home instead."

  "Liu He, you want to die, I don't care, I just want to learn how to shoot a gun." Liu He still couldn't dissuade Zhang Zhen, so he gave her a gun to practice with. And surprisingly, this little woman was actually quite good at shooting, at least she didn't need to be taught for too long.