Reborn with a Space: Building a Fortune Amidst Famine

Chapter 184: 184 digging a reservoir

”Why are we worried about this? Let’s just think about what to plant when the time comes.”

Yuanyuan sighed and said, ”We can’t plant anything, only cabbage and radish are possible. No grains will grow.”

In the afternoon, both had nothing to do. Yuanyuan divided up the food, Jinyu, and the money, and gave half to Tan Shaoting.

Tan Shaoting wasn’t particularly happy with how Yuanyuan calculated things so precisely, but Yuanyuan felt it was good this way.

”In the future, let’s divide things up directly like this, to avoid trouble later on.

Even brothers should keep clear accounts.”

Although Tan Shaoting wasn’t happy, he didn’t say anything.

The next day, Ma Changshun came over. He informed them that starting tomorrow, they would be digging the reservoir, with three meals a day and wages included.

This wasn’t too bad, but Yuanyuan knew that even if they were provided meals, it wouldn’t be much, and getting enough to eat would still be a problem.

However, this wasn’t something they could ask about. Whether or not you got enough to eat, you still had to work.

”Group Leader Ma, will we have to carry the soil up? And with our farm not having many people, how big and how deep will we dig the reservoir?”

”We’ll see as we dig; we really don’t know yet. Alright, I have to inform others.”

There’s no time for delay. Starting tomorrow, heavy work awaits.

Early the next morning, the two of them, each with a shovel, went directly to the pond side to wait. By this time, over a dozen people had arrived, each family planning to take advantage of the food supply and eager to work.

Actually, this wasn’t bad either. The children nowadays are quite capable, able to do a lot of work.

The Zhao siblings also arrived, and they walked over to Yuanyuan.

”Yuanyuan, why haven’t we started yet?”

”Maybe we’re waiting for the leaders to arrive?”

As they were speaking, many more people came over. Feng Baoshan was among them, bringing a shovel with him too.

”I won’t say much. Everyone has seen the situation this year. We’ve been affected, but having suffered this loss, we will be self-reliant.

This reservoir is definitely a must-have so that we won’t suffer from such disasters again in the future.

Well, everyone understands in their hearts, so each group should get started.”

Ma Changshun led the nearly sixty people from the group responsible for carrying soil and had them go home to fetch baskets.

Yuanyuan and Tan Shaoting walked together, complaining, ”Wow, carrying soil, just the thought of it is tiring.”

”Let’s take it easy, do what we can manage.”

”Alright, let’s take it easy.”

Actually, Yuanyuan already had a thought, though not sure if it would work. Using the principle of a lever, people would stand directly on top.

With this idea in mind, she started searching for usable materials when she got home.

But she couldn’t find a long enough pole, so she eventually gave up.

”Yuanyuan, what’s wrong?”

”I wanted to make something, so we wouldn’t have to carry the soil up, just load it directly onto a cart to haul away. If it gets too deep, we could use steps.”

Yuanyuan squatted on the ground and sketched out a diagram of the lever.

Tan Shaoting glanced at it and quickly understood.

”This could work.”

”But I only have a few meters of tree trunks, no such long pole.”

”Can’t we just use the longest piece of wood? We’ll harness it and haul it over.”

Since Tan Shaoting agreed, Yuanyuan took out over ten of the longest tree trunks from the space.

Tan Shaoting selected four straight and long ones and loaded them onto their donkey cart, and the two took their baskets and left.

Ma Changshun watched them drive the cart over with wood on it, feeling quite puzzled.

Yuanyuan had to explain it to him again.

”Group Leader Ma, we probably won’t use this today, we need to dig a bit deeper first.”

”If this really works, it’ll save much effort. Xiao Su is really clever.”

Yuanyuan was embarrassed by the praise.

All the baskets were brought over, and they directly filled them with soil; once filled, they carried them away and dragged them to a location about five or six miles away to dump the soil.

With so many people, over four hundred working together, it was really fast, and it was hard to distinguish which group was which; even the group leaders were working.

Today, the goal was thirty meters wide and two meters deep.

It sounded like a lot, but once they started, it wasn’t as difficult as it seemed.

The noon meal was mixed-grain bread, specially prepared by thirty older women. Inside the bread was dried vegetable soaked in water and salt, but there was basically no real dish.

Each adult got five fist-sized pieces of bread, and each child got three.

Yuanyuan and Tan Shaoting were quite capable and considered strong laborers, so they each got five pieces of bread as well.

Even the soup was just cooking pot water with some salt.

Yuanyuan really couldn’t bring herself to eat or drink it. The two exchanged a glance and simultaneously put it away in their bags.

They began tinkering with the makeshift lift.

They set it up in a triangular frame, although the lever was really too short, they still gave it a try.

Surprisingly, it was indeed much easier than carrying things up manually.

”Try lifting three baskets at once.”

While others were eating and resting, the two of them studied this contraption.

Lifting three baskets at once was a bit strenuous, but doable. However, the safety measures weren’t very good. Thankfully, it wasn’t especially heavy.

Feng Baoshan was eating and watched their experiment. He thought it really seemed feasible. Not only did it save a lot of effort, but it also cut down on manpower.

But having only one of these wasn’t enough. ”Director Feng, actually, we can take turns using this, giving everyone time to rest.”

Feng Baoshan understood Yuanyuan’s point, and after some thought, agreed it made sense.

This way, they could work in shifts, and when someone got too tired, they could pass the basket in a relay manner, increasing work efficiency dramatically.

Initially, today’s task was to dig two meters deep, but by the end of the day, they had reached over three meters.

But everyone knew that today was the first day, everyone still had energy, and tomorrow might be different.

This provided only one meal at noon, contrary to the promise of three meals. Yuanyuan discreetly gave all ten bread pieces to Zhao Yanli.

”Yuanyuan, you guys didn’t eat?”

”We were just busy with that lift and didn’t have time to eat. Take it back and eat; the two of us have other food.”

Now, it seemed that Tan Shaoting had gotten used to it; they had effectively become a team.

They arrived home the fastest, and Yuanyuan felt incredibly hungry. She remembered hearing somewhere that feeling hungry is when people grow the most.

Really didn’t know if that’s true or not. Anyway, she was definitely hungry. The two of them quickly washed up and took out steamed buns, rice, a pot of braised pork, tomato and scrambled eggs, and shredded potatoes.

Both were ravenous and had no time to talk; they just ate voraciously. Filling up their stomachs first was the priority.