Ancient natural disasters: The whole family traveled through time and was almost wiped out

Chapter 163

Chapter 163

Jiangjia Village used to be a very simple and ordinary village, with green bamboo leaves by the river and green grass beside the stream.

There is a large washing stone not far away. At this time of the day, the women would have already walked home with the washed clothes, chatting and laughing as they walked, continuing to talk about the interesting things they had talked about while washing clothes.

It doesn't matter about trivial matters.

In the original Jiangjia Village, different crops were planted in the fields all year round, some tall, some short, some green, some yellow. From time to time, some colorful weeds and flowers grew on the ridges, which annoyed the farmers. In a trance, I could even hear the farmers' complaints when they were weeding.

But now, all the colors in the village are covered tightly with yellow mud. The entire village, fields, and land are completely occupied by thick mud.

Jiangjia Village is located on high ground, and there are no signs that the houses were submerged in the flood, but the situation is not much better. There are obvious signs of waterlogging in the middle of the house, which is the highest water level. Below the water level are undried mud bricks.

After being soaked for a long time, the mud bricks of some old houses have become softened and collapsed, such as Jiang Quezi's house.

Some of them also showed signs of collapse, and some were already tilted and looked like they were about to collapse.

Moreover, most of the roofs suffered varying degrees of damage.

The village was desolate and dilapidated, as if it were dead.

"House, my house!"

Jiang Cuzi cried and shouted like a madman, stumbling towards the collapsed house, stepping on the mud and then lifting his feet up, leaving one calf-deep mud pit after another. His legs were lame to begin with, and he fell into the mud before he reached the house.

He struggled to get up, but fell back several times. The last time he just lay in the mud and cried loudly: "It's gone, everything is gone! The ancestral house is ruined in my hands! I'm sorry for my ancestors!"

"Dad!" Jiang Quezi's daughter-in-law quickly pulled him up. Although she was about to break, she still had to hold on to the old man first. She was really afraid that the old man would not be able to bear it and pass away. The old man had suffered so much over the years.

In the minds of most people, a house is a home. If the house is gone, the home is gone.

There were cries and howls everywhere.

Cry for yourself and hate God.

"Brother Pei, our village...our village——"

Old Master Jiang held Jiang Yipei's hand, crying with snot and tears, his lips trembling and he couldn't speak fully. Jiang Yipei was afraid that the old master would faint, so he patted him on the back: "It's okay, I'm here! If the house collapses, we will just build it again. We will build a more solid one that won't collapse in water or blow down in the wind."

Old Master Jiang took a breath, not comforted at all. This kid is rich now, as if he has never been poor. He just opened his mouth and said, "Just build it again?" What is it! How difficult it is for ordinary people to build a house! How expensive!

A lot of stone clay, wooden beams, tiles, yellow mud and yellow sand were needed, and all of these things had to be collected. It took the hunter Jiang more than two years to collect enough materials.

It won’t collapse under water or blown down by wind?! How about you just build a blue brick and tile house?

Besides, even if all the things are ready, we still need to hire a bricklayer.

Building a house requires skills. Without this skill, the house will collapse after it is built.

There are two bricklayers in the village, but what can these two people do?

With so many houses and only two people to take care of them, let alone building them, even if they work themselves to bits, they still wouldn’t be able to finish the repairs!

As for hiring other bricklayers, it’s difficult because we don’t know if they are still there.

Jiang Lizheng would be lying if he said he wasn't upset when he saw the village. But life had to go on, and he didn't have the time to complain. He shouted, "If a house collapses, we can rebuild it. There are so many of us, are we still afraid that we can't build a village? What is the slogan we shout every day? Shout it out loud!"

"Unite!"

"Unity is strength. This strength is iron, this strength is steel——"

They all stopped crying and sang out of reflex.

Jiang Xiubai was infected by the atmosphere and couldn't help but sing along for a few lines.

"That's right!" Jiang Lizheng said, "I know everyone is upset, but crying can't solve any problem! If crying can get the house back, I will cry with you now!"

"Everyone, young and old! Cheer up, as long as we pull together, work together and put our efforts into one, there will be no obstacles that we can't overcome! As long as people are here, home is here!" Jiang Lizheng was almost moved when he finished speaking.

When you are at home, you are there. Wow, what a great word!

"Yes! We are still at home, even if the house collapsed! We can clean up and squeeze in and still live here! It's okay, uncle, you can live in my house! I'll make room for you!" Jiang the Butcher supported Jiang the Cripple with red eyes, causing Jiang the Cripple to burst into tears again.

The unfortunate thing was that at this touching moment, he actually thought of his debt collector son. If that bastard was still alive, if he was still filial, if he... their family wouldn't have such a hard time.

"Good boy, benevolent!" Jiang Lizheng patted Jiang the butcher's broad shoulders with relief. "It's good that you have this intention, but for safety reasons, everyone will live in our house until the houses in the village are repaired! You and Jiang the hunter lead the team and drive the mule team home. Tie them up in the yard first, and then arrange for people to clean up the warehouse and make a clean place to unload the goods, otherwise the animals will not be able to bear it."

Of course there are intact houses in the village. In addition to Old Jiang’s family, the overall frames of Jiang the Butcher and Jiang Xiubai’s houses are good, except for the damaged roofs. But it’s not a big deal and they can be lived in after some repairs. But he doesn’t dare to let anyone move in now. The eldest son is right. Who knows if a house that looks good from the outside will have safety hazards?

The Jiang family mansion is made entirely of blue bricks, so relatively speaking, the safety factor is much higher and it is the safest to live in.

"Yes! Village head!" Hunter Jiang answered quickly. Although he felt sad, he didn't cry. Why should he cry? His house was gone long ago and his tears had dried up long ago.

"Uncle Chen." Jiang Lizheng called Butler Chen.

"The servant is here, please give me your orders, sir."

"Have a few people take Jiang the butcher and his men to the warehouse, and have a few more take the women to clean up the two guest houses. Hurry up, we're going to stay there tonight."

"Yes, sir! Gentlemen, follow me!"

Uncle Chen called on Jiang the Butcher and Jiang the Hunter to take their servants and maids and wade through the mud towards the Jiang family mansion.

Butcher Jiang put away his sadness and whipped the mule: "Gee—"

The mule was hurt by the beating and it raised its head before moving forward.

Jiang the Butcher is covered in mud, but he doesn't care!

What’s the difference between being a little dirty and even dirtier!

Seeing that Jiang Lizheng had arranged everything in order and there was nothing for him to do, Jiang Yipei helped Old Man Jiang walk home through the muddy water with peace of mind.

The people of Jiangjia Village are naturally not ungrateful. They are sensible and obedient. Since there are arrangements, they will follow them obediently. They will never go wrong if they follow Jiang Lizheng's family.

She wiped away her tears and followed them to the Jiang family mansion.

The inside and outside of the house are much cleaner.

Because of the protection of the courtyard wall, water can easily enter through the gaps, but mud cannot, so there is only a thin layer of mud in the Jiang family mansion.

The guest house also has a wall, which is equivalent to a second layer of protection, and there is even less mud.

Everyone secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If there was as much mud in the house as outside, the workload would be terrifying and it might not be finished until tomorrow.

In the guest house, without anyone saying anything, everyone automatically found tools to clean and even divided the work, all arranged by Jiang the butcher's wife.

Some people clean the house, and some people clean the outside.

"Those who are in charge of the outside of the house, remember to take a shovel and move the mud in the yard to one side. If there is not much mud, just shovel it to the small garden over there."

"There will be more people responsible for fetching water, and more water will be used."

The well is not far away, but it uses too much water. I have to clean the house inside and outside, and it is impossible to shovel all the mud on the ground. After I am almost done, I have to rinse the ground. The workload is so heavy.

The situation inside the house is better than outside, because it is protected by walls and wooden doors. The house is just dirty, with almost no mud. Also, the wooden door has been soaked in dirty water for a long time, and it emits bursts of strange smell from time to time. It needs to be taken down, brushed thoroughly, and aired to remove the smell.

There was nothing but a wooden door in the room.

There was not a single piece of other furniture.

Old Master Jiang was dumbfounded: "Brother Pei, where are the tables, chairs and benches in the yard?"

Old Master Jiang is old and can no longer work. He wanted to find a chair to sit down and rest. After looking around, he found that the yard was quite empty. There were so many rooms, but there was no furniture at all!

"It's all put away. Don't worry, it's all well put away. I guarantee it'll be fine!"

Jiang Yipei then remembered that all the things that could be taken away from this house had been collected into the space by his daughter in accordance with the principle of not wasting anything. She hadn't even put them out yet, so naturally they couldn't be found.

Now that he had gotten the promise, Old Master Jiang did not ask any more questions. He found a place in the yard that was out of the way, sat there, and watched them work. As he watched, he began to doze off.

Seeing this, Jiang Yipei went back to their courtyard. The courtyard where they lived was naturally cleaned by their servants and maids as well as themselves. Everyone was assigned a task, which was an easy task that could be completed with a little effort. Jiang Xiumian was assigned to wash the floor, which was the kind where the servant would fetch water and pour it on the ground, and he would sweep the floor a few times with a broom.

When he saw the servants carrying water back and forth several times, but the ground was still so dirty that its original color could not be seen, Jiang Xiumian made a "tsk" sound, threw away the broom, and pulled Jiang Xiubai over.

The servants and maids saw that their masters were not working - oh, if they didn't want to work, then they didn't have to work.

Jiang Xiumian and Jiang Xiubai whispered to each other for a long time, and no one knew what they were talking about. Anyway, Jiang Xiumian's expression changed several times.

Finally, the two of them hid in the room. Not long after, in the astonished eyes of the maids and servants, they grunted and carried two plastic buckets, some PVC pipes, some joints, and some spare parts, and walked towards the well. Not long after, two unpowered water pumping devices made their debut, stunning everyone.

"The well water is flowing backwards!" Someone exclaimed in amazement, "It's really possible! I thought it was made up by storytellers!"

"How did you make it? I saw Brother Mian make a hole here and a hole there, connected two pipes, and the water came up!"

"What are you researching for? Just be happy that you don't have to fetch water. Come on, come on, wait until you've cleaned up the yard before you start researching. If you keep dawdling, where are you going to sleep tonight?"

However, two unpowered pumping devices were not enough, so Jiang Xiumian added three more, connected them with long water pipes, and used them to wash the floor directly.

Although the pressure is not that great, it is convenient.

There is strength in numbers. The two guest courtyards were cleaned up early. They also helped Jiang Xiaomi and the others clean up the other courtyards, oh, and the kitchen.

This needs to be cleaned up, it’s the place for cooking!

The fat chef was motivated to cook. You know, he had to take care of such a big kitchen with his young son and apprentice, and it was very tiring. Even though the kitchen was so empty, thieves would have to leave crying if they came.

Finally, when the sun set, the Jiang family mansion was completely new. Although it was not as clean as before the rainstorm, it was a world of difference compared to noon.

"It's all here."

Jiang Yipei opened an inconspicuous small cellar. The entrance of the cellar was sealed tightly and water could not get in. Even if the things inside were not just put in, they were all dry.

The tables, chairs and benches that Jiang Xiaomi had just put in were not damp at all, so Jiang Yipei asked everyone to take them back to the guest house and decorate them.

Especially the bed.

Although every room in Lao Jiang's house has a kang, it is impossible to get all the villagers to sleep on it, with more than 600 people!

This means some people have to sleep on the kang and some have to sleep on the bed.

There's no room to sleep here. Except for the master's room, the kangs of everyone else, even Jiang Xiaomi, Jiang Xiumian, and Jiang Xiubin, have all been requisitioned, and are filled with children.

The weather was cold and they were afraid that the children couldn't bear it. Besides, it was not suitable for anyone except children to go on the kang of Jiang Xiaomi and his friends. Jiang Xiaomi was okay, but Jiang Xiumian was about to collapse. These children were so noisy and they even called him "uncle".

Since they were all people who had slept on a large dormitory bed before, they didn't need any time to adapt to such a group living environment. They just ate the food prepared by the fat chef, washed up quickly, and went to sleep on the kang.

——If this were their own home, they might not have washed. Today, they are so tired physically and mentally that they don’t want to move.

The next morning, everyone got up early and had breakfast. Except for the team that had to move the house to Yunling Mountain, everyone went back to their own homes. Jiang Quezi was no exception. Looking at his home in ruins, he couldn't help crying.

Compared with Jiangjia Village, the unfortunate Jiajia Village could not even cry. Most of the houses in their village collapsed. They finally cleaned them up and thought they could have a good sleep at night. However, in the middle of the night, the roof collapsed without any warning and crushed two people to death.

County Magistrate Chen returned to the county government office and before leaving, he repeatedly warned Jiang Yipei not to forget their agreement.

Jiang Yipei just smiled and said nothing.