Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

Thinking about all this, Wang An suddenly had the idea of ​​"never farming again!"

In Wang An's view, given his family's current conditions, farming was simply "making a living without any real effort"!
That's right, this is the most typical example of "enduring hardship without effort".

Because the value of Wang Anjia's money, gold, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, ginseng and other things is already unknown.

So it's not just Wang An's generation, but even his grandson's generation, it would be more than enough.

Besides these things that can be seen and touched.

If we also consider Wang An's shares in the pharmaceutical factory, Qiao Xiaohu's mountain produce purchasing company, Han Xiaomin's medicinal herb company, and the motorcycle factory, then even by the time of Wang An's great-grandson, they would still be completely well-off.

So, with such good family conditions, why do they still have to farm and suffer? Isn't that just "trying to endure hardship when there's none"?

However, despite thinking this way, Wang An dared not tell Wang Dazhu and his wife.

The main reason is that Wang Dazhu and his wife are only in their forties, in the prime of their lives, and far from the time to enjoy their retirement.

Besides, Wang Yi is still in school, and Wang Xiaomei and Wang Xiaoli are still young. If Wang An dares to say that he and his wife can't farm anymore, then Wang An will definitely get a beating, and it will be a double beating from both the boy and girl.

Therefore, Wang An decided to immediately replicate last year's practice, which was to hire people to empty the manure.

The main reason was that Comrade Wang Dazhu knew that if he relied solely on his own family, he would never be able to finish disposing of all the manure. However, he always thought that he should do more himself and hire fewer people to do less, because this way he could save a lot of labor costs.

"Xiao Zhong, Xiao Zhong."

Walking to the east side of the courtyard, Wang An shouted twice towards the old courtyard, and Huang Zhong ran over from the house in no time.

"Big brother, did you call me?"

Wang An nodded, pointed to the pile of dung, and said:

"After you finish eating, come with me to Weizigou. After that, we'll see if anyone there wants to come and dump manure. It'll be 6 cents a day per person, including food and lodging. It'll be the same as last year, except they have to bring their own luggage."

Wang Anjia has a place to stay and extra luggage, but it's definitely not enough, so he simply doesn't provide any luggage.

Upon hearing this, Huang Zhong quickly said:

"Brother, wasn't it 5 cents a day last year? Has the price gone up this year?"

Wang An casually waved his hand and said:
"Yeah, it should be raised a bit."

Emptying manure is considered a physically demanding job, but only barely, because both men and women can do it, and their efficiency is about the same, so the wages for men and women are the same.

Huang Zhong then said:
"Let's go then, brother. I've already finished eating."

Wang An nodded, turned around and walked to Wang Dazhu's side, saying:

"Dad, I'm going to Weizigou to find a craftsman. I think we have a lot more manure this year than last year. How many people do you think we can use?"

Locally, people who do short-term jobs like this are called "craftsmen," and they can be considered early prototypes of migrant workers.

Perhaps because there was simply too much excrement, Wang Dazhu didn't refuse this time. After thinking for a moment, he said:
"Eight or ten are fine. Once the manure is poured out, we can immediately send it to the field. That's enough manpower."

Wang An immediately said:

"Let's not have 10 or 8 people. The sooner we get it over with, the better. Let's hire 15 or 16 people. After that, have my Sister Shen Wei and Sister Zhao boil water and prepare the food. Let's get started today."

Wang Dazhu nodded and said, "Okay, that works too. You should hurry up and go."

After saying this, Wang An turned to Huang Zhong and said:

"Xiao Zhong, let's go."

As was his habit, Wang An walked to the GAZ truck, and then remembered that he needed to bring the people over directly. So Wang An walked towards the Liberation truck.

Last year, Wang Dazhu drove a four-wheeled vehicle to bring people back, but this year Wang Anjia's means of transportation has been further upgraded.

A dozen minutes later, Wang An drove the Jiefang truck into Weizigou.

Huang Zhong got out of the car and, as he walked, craned his neck and shouted:

"Old Wang's family in Kaoshantun is hiring people to haul manure. They pay 60 cents a day, including food and lodging. If you want to work, hurry up and bring your luggage. They need about 15 or 16 people. One person from each family is enough."

There are only about 20 households in Weizigou, and if we hire 15 or 16 people, we can basically get one person from each household. After all, there will definitely be people who don't want to do this work or who are busy with other work.

When Huang Zhong called out for the third time, many people, like beggars, came out of their dugouts or mud houses, carrying or holding their tattered belongings.

Wang An remembers that even in the late 90s, Weizigou had not changed much compared to now; it was still as poor as ever.

The biggest difference is that these people now have household registration, and every household has moved out of the dugouts and into rammed earth or adobe houses.

In less than 5 minutes, the number of people was enough.

The main reason is that last year, these people had worked at Wang An's house, whether it was clearing land or dumping manure, so they were already quite familiar with the work.

Seeing people gathering, Wang An immediately got out of the car, pointed to the truck bed of the Liberation truck, and greeted everyone with a smile:
"Come on, everyone get on the bus. Same old rules, three full meals a day, 6 cents a month. If you do a good job, we'll treat you to a drink tonight."

As soon as Wang An finished speaking, the man named Er Gangzi laughed loudly and said:

"The employer is very generous. We've been waiting for their approval for days, hahaha."

Pang Yongxiang also smiled憨厚ly:
"Yeah, I think it'll be over in the next couple of days. I haven't dared to go out these past two days, just waiting for my boss to call me, hehehehe."

After the two finished speaking, several other people who came with them chimed in with their own words.

Clearly, these vagrants from Weizigou were all waiting for Wang Anjia's summons.

The main problem is that every year during this lean season, most families run out of food, and this is especially true for these migrant workers in Weizigou.

Judging from their pale and sickly faces, it's easy to tell that these migrant workers are now surviving on newly sprouted tree leaves, wild vegetables, and other such things.

So, when there's such a great opportunity as Wang Anjia's—to work, earn money, and even have meals provided—it's natural that everyone would scramble for it.

In fact, these people are not so much interested in making money; what attracts them most is that they can have enough to eat.

That's right, it's all-you-can-eat.

Those who have never truly experienced hunger will never know how appealing a full meal can be to someone who has been starving for a long time.

Wang An counted the number of people, then very generously greeted everyone and said:

"Alright, let's go home and eat first, then we'll get back to work." (End of Chapter)