Traveling through troubled times to escape famine and cultivate crops as a grain merchant

Chapter 222 Chopping Firewood

The old man walked around with a knife on his back, looking for fallen or dead trees. Just one of these would be enough to keep the fire burning for a long time.

After searching for a long time, he only found a tree as thick as an ankle. He thought that this kind of work should be assigned to Zhou Guo. That girl might be able to find a lot of dead trees as thick as thighs.

He cut down the dead tree, removed the branches, and carried it into the mountains.

Then I saw a thick layer of wood on the ground, some big, some small, some dry, some wet.

It looks no less than the tree on his shoulders.

Zhou Guo came over with a large pile of firewood in his arms, and immediately saw the big tree on the old man's shoulders. "Master, please put the firewood down. Isn't it too heavy to carry it on your shoulders?"

The old man looked at the firewood on the ground and asked, "Where did you get so much?"

Zhou Guo put down the firewood and patted the dust off his body. Today he was wearing clothes made of raw linen. Linen was hard-wearing and most suitable for work. He patted his clothes and said, "Firewood is everywhere. It seems that few people come to this mountain. The wood in the forest has grown up and is very suitable for firewood. My uncle is still chopping dead branches from the trees. He has chopped a lot of them. We can finish the work today after chopping for a while."

In fact, they had been in the mountain for less than an hour, but the old man had only had a bowl of porridge in the morning, so she worked hard as soon as she entered the mountain in order to finish the work as soon as possible.

After saying that, she turned around and walked back. She had to dig out the big stump of the tree she saw. She remembered that her brother came out with a small hoe. One stump of wood could burn for many days and was equivalent to two bundles of firewood.

Zhou Mai dragged out all the dry firewood that had fallen on the ground in the woods, even the ones that were not much bigger than a thumb. He thought it would be great to take them back and use them as kindling.

Zhou Dacang was chopping dead branches. After he finished chopping the dead branches of one tree, he jumped to another tree and continued chopping. In a short while, all the dead branches from more than a dozen trees had been removed, and a large pile of them had accumulated under the trees.

Zhou Guo took a small hoe and started digging from two meters away from the roots of the tree. He dug a circle around the perimeter and moved inward little by little, using the same method as digging ginseng.

She kept her head down and never straightened her back. After about a quarter of an hour, the soil around the tree roots was dug into a thick layer. She threw away the hoe, walked forward, and pulled with both hands with a little force. The roots that had been buried in the ground for who knows how many years were pulled out by her.

There was a lot of dirt on the root. She took the hoe and hit it banging, and the dirt fell down, raising a cloud of dust. When she had cleaned up enough dirt, she dragged the tree root back.

The tiny person is dragging a huge tree root behind him, which looks so inharmonious no matter how you look at it.

No one knew where Zhou Dacang had gone while picking the dead branches, and Zhou Mai had not come back yet. The old man left the dry tree and walked away, leaving firewood scattered all over the ground and no one there.

She put the root down, searched nearby for a while, pulled out several strong and tough vines, cut them into two-meter-long vines, laid them on the ground, and began to sort the firewood.

She sorted them out one by one. She used a machete to trim and bend the dead branches, and they became straight. She learned this from her family members. Originally, they were simply cut off.

The firewood was piled high. He picked up the vines spread on the ground, pulled and stepped on them, and tied them into a big bundle.

I picked it up and tried it. It was very good, not heavy at all. Anyone could carry it except Zhou Mai.

Put the bundle of firewood aside and start on the second one.

She is still the eldest one, and she can carry two loads of such firewood at a time.

When Zhou Dacang and his companions came back, they saw a row of four round and plump firewood sticks as big as giants, lying on the ground in a row, and they were arranged quite neatly.

Zhou Dacang and the old man are fine.

Du Zhoumai was a little upset, "Guoguo, you bundled the firewood so big, how can I carry it?"

By then, I'm afraid it won't be him carrying the firewood but the firewood carrying him, and he will definitely be carried down the hillside.

Zhou Dacang patted his shoulder and said, "It's obviously not for you. We still have it."

The old man shook his head, seriously doubting whether this girl knew how to tie up a small person. She was small, so why did she want to make everything look big?

Zhou Guo raised his head from the firewood pile, looked at the bundles of firewood, and said, "Don't underestimate them because they are large. They are all dry firewood and not that heavy. I tried it and it was very light. I haven't even dealt with the wet firewood yet."

Zhou Mai quickly said, "Then you take a rest, I'll do it."

Zhou Dacang also went forward to help. Although he could carry it, it was too big and would block the way. He could not see the road ahead clearly when carrying it on his shoulders, and it would be troublesome if it rolled down the slope accidentally.

Zhou Guo didn't compete with them. It was best to have someone to help.

The old man shook his head. He cut down two dead trees. Although they were not big, they were still long. It would be enough to just take these two back. He didn't want to join in the fun.

Zhou Guo and the other two quickly tied up the firewood on the ground one by one and threw it down the path leading into the mountain, where it rolled all over the ground in a twisted manner.

The three of them went down again, picked up the firewood one by one, and lined them up on the side of the road where they could get sun exposure. The wet firewood was dried within a few days.

After counting, they found that in about an hour, they had chopped down a total of ten bundles of firewood. In addition to the large tree roots dug out by Zhou Guo and the two dead trees cut down by the old man, it was a very good harvest. These could burn for about twenty days.

It only took an hour, but the men had become very nimble, which was also due to the abundance of firewood in the mountains.

Zhou Mai smiled and said, "If we chop wood this way, we will have enough firewood for the winter in a few days."

Zhou Guo said, "That's not necessarily true. You forget that it's very cold here in winter. We have to keep the kang heated day and night, otherwise we'll freeze to death. It won't work if we prepare firewood like we do in the south."

Zhou Dacang smiled and touched her head. "Although it's not that cold in the south, we still have to light a fire during the day when it's the coldest. The fire keeps burning all day long, and it consumes a lot of firewood."

Zhou Mai nodded.

Zhou Guo suddenly realized and forgot about it. He turned around and looked at the old man. He saw him sitting aside without saying a word. He was probably hungry. He didn't know if he regretted not eating the grilled fish fillets in the morning.

He walked up to her and said with a smile, "Master, let's go. We are going into the mountains and catching fish for you in the pond."

When the old man heard this, he stood up and left, leaving only the words "I'll go first, you guys come later." He soon disappeared.

Zhou Guo felt a little worried when he saw the figure moving so fast. He wondered if the figure would run out of strength and fall from the tree.

Because Zhou Mai was there, the three of them had to follow behind step by step.

After walking for half an hour, she looked up at the distant mountains that seemed not to be getting closer at all. Her feet felt sore. It had been a long time since she had walked step by step like this. When she followed her master into the mountains, there was always one person running in front and one person chasing behind. It usually took less than an hour to reach the destination.

If she went alone, the two people behind her would not be able to find a place.