Training for Da Dong was only one aspect; Chen Xiao Bei now had an even more troublesome issue.
Two hundred jin of vegetables could satisfy Old Wu's needs, and another two hundred jin could meet the demands of the few restaurants in the county town.
However, more than a dozen households in the village grew vegetables. Even if he only bought fifty jin from each, it would far exceed the county town's daily demand. If they couldn't be sold within a few days, the vegetables would mature and spoil.
This would undoubtedly greatly dampen everyone's enthusiasm for growing vegetables and make them lose trust in him.
On the way back to He Tou Village, Chen Xiao Bei pondered how to expand their sales channels.
After much thought, he suddenly slapped his forehead.
He was truly stupid.
Go to Xiao Jia Town! Xiao Jia Town, with its rows of restaurants and inns on both sides, would surely have a greater demand.
He would go to Xiao Jia Town tomorrow to assess the situation. Therefore, the crucial task of delivering vegetables to the county town had to be entrusted to Da Dong.
Upon returning to He Tou Village, Chen Xiao Bei immediately found a piece of paper, wrote down how many vegetables each restaurant had ordered for the day, and handed it to Da Dong.
Holding the slip of paper, Da Dong felt as if he was holding a hot potato and stammered, unable to speak.
Chen Xiao Bei understood his timidity. He smiled and said, "If you're really scared, ask Xiao Wen to go with you."
Hearing this, Da Dong grinned. With a companion, he wouldn't feel so afraid.
After lunch, Chen Xiao Bei stole some time from his busy schedule to check on the fish feed he had made by the fish pond.
The moment the lid was lifted, Cui Hong Yu and Chen Qiao Er instinctively stepped back.
Their reactions were as Chen Xiao Bei had expected. But to be honest, after mixing chicken manure with leaves and fermenting it, it wasn't as smelly as they imagined.
There was only a faint peculiar odor.
Chen Xiao Bei used a shovel to scoop up some chicken manure, placed it on a rock, and gently crushed it with the shovel, turning it into fine powder.
He then shoveled it up again and sprinkled it on the water surface, which quickly rippled.
Fish were swimming over and snatching at the chicken manure.
Seeing this, Chen Xiao Bei let out a long sigh of relief. His fish feed had been successfully made.
Cui Hong Yu was also astonished, perhaps because this method was far beyond her understanding.
In this era, people only caught fish from the river; there was no concept of artificial aquaculture. Therefore, it was normal that she didn't know how to feed them.
Chen Qiao Er was even more delighted, jumping and clapping her hands, "Fish, fish, eat quickly, eat your fill and grow fast."
Indeed, Qiao Er was quite clever to come up with such a rhyme.
As the three of them were happily feeding the fish, Da Dong arrived again.
"Brother Xiao Bei, the schoolhouse is built. Come and take a look."
Yes, work on the schoolhouse had started some time ago, and Chen Xiao Bei hadn't visited. He hadn't expected it to be completed so quickly.
Upon hearing that the schoolhouse was built, Cui Hong Yu and Chen Qiao Er also became interested and followed Chen Xiao Bei to see the novelty, especially since Chen Qiao Er would be attending soon.
The schoolhouse was located about fifty meters north of the large locust tree.
This was considered a central location in the village, and it was safer for the children to attend school within the village.
The schoolhouse was built to be spacious and bright, with three main rooms arranged squarely. Each room could accommodate more than a dozen desks.
It was good. Chen Xiao Bei was quite satisfied. Although the doors and windows hadn't been installed yet, he could already imagine what it would look like in the future.
However, after a walk around, he felt something was missing. Sudannovel.com
Suddenly, he realized.
Ah, a blackboard! Teachers in this era did not have blackboards when they lectured.
How could that be? They should do it more modernly.
But to have a blackboard, two problems needed to be solved. Blackening the board with ink was relatively simple, but they needed chalk! Chalk was obviously hard to find in this era.
However, while chalk was difficult to find, another material was somewhat easier to obtain.
That was lime.
Qing Niu Mountain had plenty of stones, so burning some lime was not difficult.
As long as they had lime, he was confident he could create chalk that could be written on.
Returning home, Chen Xiao Bei immediately got busy.
He called Chen Da Yong and a few other village guards to find a long, narrow pit in the woods west of the village.
The pit was about one person deep, ten feet wide, and forty to fifty feet long. This would be perfect for a small lime kiln.
Chen Xiao Bei gestured and explained to Chen Da Yong. First, they would lay a layer of wood on the ground, then a layer of stones, then more wood, then more stones, and finally pile a thick layer of branches on top.
Then, they would sprinkle some tung oil to ignite the branches, letting them burn continuously.
He remembered seeing primitive lime kilns in his childhood that burned for several days. Of course, they used coal back then, but there was none here, so they had to use branches.
Although the yield of lime from this method would be low, even a few percent yield was enough to make chalk for a while.
As everyone was working with great enthusiasm, they heard a commotion from the village.
Some people were exclaiming, others were shouting.
Even the dogs in the village were barking together.
Chen Xiao Bei didn't know what was happening and hurried back to the village.
As he was running forward, Chen Xiao Wen rushed over. "Brother Xiao Bei, hurry and take a look! They, they, they've returned with the tiger!"
Returned with the tiger?
So soon? This was somewhat unexpected for Chen Xiao Bei.
He followed Chen Xiao Wen to the large locust tree, and the scene before him still shocked him somewhat.
Three tigers.
Two of them were covered in bloodstains, their breathing still faint. They were likely the two injured by him and Da Dong.
Beside them was a smaller one, as if it were asleep, only panting heavily and not moving.
My heavens, Yang Zhi and the others had actually captured three live tigers.
Seeing Chen Xiao Bei arrive, Yang Zhi seemed very excited. Pointing at the three live tigers, he said, "Brother Xiao Bei, I got you some live specimens. Take good care of them."
Chen Xiao Bei thought to himself, no matter how capable I am, I can't raise these things as pets!
"Brother Yang Zhi, you're joking. I wouldn't dare to raise these things. By the way, tell me quickly, how did you catch these three tigers?"
Yang Zhi laughed heartily and patted Chen Xiao Bei on the shoulder. "When we followed the blood trail, these two guys had already lost most of their strength and bled too much, so we didn't need to do anything."
"Of course, this little tiger was much easier to deal with. A dose of anesthetic quickly knocked it out. I brought the whole family of three for you."
Chen Xiao Bei's feelings were very complicated. Tigers injured people, and they had to be eliminated. But honestly, tigers had a difficult life too. A family of three should be harmonious, shouldn't they?
Chen Xiao Bei felt a pang of compassion and quickly went to find Cui Hong Yu, asking her to treat the two injured tigers.