60s: I have a store

Chapter 323: Oxcart stuck in a ditch

After Zhou Ping's promise, the old branch secretary reluctantly agreed not to tell Zhou Ping's parents about the incident. Otherwise, the boy would be severely beaten.

These days, there is no such thing as not beating children, let alone any such law.

The old branch secretary emphasized again: "If I find out again, I will definitely tell your parents. You know the consequences then."

After hearing the old branch secretary's warning, the children realized the seriousness of the matter, so they all nodded quickly to show that they understood.

When the old branch secretary saw this scene, he nodded with satisfaction.

The tree-cutting work was still proceeding in an orderly manner. When the women saw a tree fall down, they immediately pulled it to a safe place to clean it up. It was too dangerous to clean up the trees at the place where they fell, so they had to pull them to a safe place.

The morning passed quickly and there were only about ten trees left to reach the target of 50.

Moreover, the cleanup work is still proceeding in an orderly manner. Everyone has worked hard for a whole morning, and seeing that the time is almost up, they distribute the dry food they brought to everyone.

After everyone got the dry food, they didn't care about their image and just sat on the ground and started eating the dry food. If they were thirsty, they would pour some water to drink.

After an hour of eating and resting, everyone's enthusiasm returned.

The villagers continued to cut down trees, but this time not all of them had to do the work. Instead, half of the people were assigned to carry the cleaned trees back to the village.

The country is now in the early stages of economic construction and development, and the levels of transportation and mechanization are relatively backward.

After logging, the timber is mainly transported down the mountain by human and animal power. Human transportation mainly involves workers carrying the timber on their shoulders or lifting it. Although this method is low-cost, it is inefficient and is suitable for short-distance and small-scale transportation.

Animal-powered transportation uses animals such as horses and cows to pull timber. This method is more common in mountainous areas and can carry heavier timber, but at a slower speed.

With the advancement of technology, the application of simple machinery has gradually improved transportation efficiency, but it is still restricted by geographical conditions. The selection and improvement of these modes of transportation reflect the technological level and geographical environment challenges at that time.

There is another type that depends on the influence of the weather, that is water transportation.

Water transport is a way of transporting wood using natural water flow. Craftsmen would look for suitable small mountain streams near the forest farm, dig ditches down the mountain, and use rainwater and ditches to slide the wood down the mountain.

After the wood arrives at the foot of the mountain, it is transported to its destination via the river. This method is particularly effective in the rainy season and can save manpower, but it is greatly affected by the weather.

Zhou Xuqiang led a group of people to the village, pulled all the ox carts in the village over, and transported the timber back. Otherwise, if they relied solely on manpower to transport the timber, it would probably be much slower.

It is impossible to lift a piece of wood without three people. A piece of wood weighs at least several hundred kilograms. It is not surprising that some heavy pieces even weigh over a thousand kilograms.

Soon all the ox carts in the village were pulled over. There were not many ox carts in Zhoujiazhuang, only three.

An ox cart can carry about 1000 kilograms of cargo, which is 2000 jin. An ox cart can carry about three or four fir trees.

Three trucks can carry about nine to twelve fir trees, and if combined with human transportation, about twenty fir trees can be transported at a time.

Zhou Xuqiang led a group of people to move the fir trees onto the ox cart.

The car was loaded in a short while. Since the driver did not need to be a man, women and even some older children could do it. In order to maximize efficiency, all men were responsible for carrying the wood, and everyone thought this arrangement was reasonable.

Even if Zhou Xuqiang said that he was responsible for driving the ox cart, no one would have an objection. After all, he had a nephew named Zhou Yimin. The village could have enough food and money to build a reservoir, all thanks to Zhou Yimin's help.

And Zhou Xuqiang didn't slack off, so people had even less reason to find fault with him.

Everyone started to work. Zhou Chang was in charge of one of the ox carts. He usually drove an ox cart. He was only fifteen years old, but because he had not eaten enough for a long time, he looked frail.

But he is also a good worker. Originally, he wanted to carry wood, but was rejected by Zhou Xuqiang. When you grow up a few years older, I will call you even if you don’t say it, but for now you just need to be responsible for driving the cart.

After hearing what Zhou Chang meant, he understood what Zhou Xuqiang meant and did not continue to rush to move the wood. With his current physical condition, he would not be able to move the wood for long before having to stop and rest, which would slow down the progress of moving the wood.

Soon Zhou Xuqiang and his group set off. Since the road back to the village was relatively safe, the team leader and the old branch secretary did not arrange for security team members to escort them along the way.

There is no way because Zhoujiazhuang only has a few guns and there is no way to train more members of the security team.

What's the use of having more people without so many guns? This is no longer the era of cold weapons, but the era of hot weapons. There is an old saying that no matter how good your kung fu is, you are still afraid of a kitchen knife, let alone a gun which is more powerful than a knife.

After more than half an hour of intense journey, the ox cart driven by Zhou Tian fell into a nearby ditch due to a lack of attention.

Zhou Tian whipped the ox a few times, hoping to get it to exert force and pull the wheel out of the ditch, but the ox cart was carrying so much wood that it could not get out of the ditch at all.

Zhou Xuqiang saw how the people in front of him stopped, so he said, "Everyone stop for a moment, I'll go take a look ahead."

After hearing what Zhou Xuqiang said, the others slowly put the wood on the ground and took the opportunity to take a break.

Zhou Xuqiang hurried forward to check, and soon saw that the ox cart driven by Zhou Tian had fallen into the ditch.

He also knew that now was not the time to blame, but to call for help in pulling the ox cart out of the ditch.

"This won't work. Take the wood off the truck first." Zhou Xuqiang spoke immediately.

There was no other way, he could only call for help, first moving all the wood off the ox cart, and then pushing the ox cart out of the ditch.

"Zhou Tian, ​​be careful next time." Zhou Xuqiang warned.

Fortunately, the old branch secretary and the team leader were not there, otherwise they would have been scolded. Cows are very important assets in the village, and it is painful to whip them a few times.

Zhou Tian quickly replied: "Uncle Xuqiang, don't worry, I will pay attention next time."

If someone else had led the team, he would have been scolded. But now that he wasn't scolded, he felt relieved.

However, if I make this mistake again, I will definitely be scolded and gossiped about by the villagers. If you can't even drive a ox cart, then you shouldn't just occupy the toilet without doing anything.

Zhou Xuqiang organized everyone to continue their journey, and everything went much more smoothly without any accidents.

(End of this chapter)