Chapter 323: Oxcart Stuck in a Ditch

With that rascal Zhou Ping’s promise, the old branch secretary reluctantly agreed not to tell Zhou Ping’s parents about the matter. Otherwise, that kid would surely have gotten a severe beating.

In those days, there was no such thing as a law against hitting children—no one even thought that way.

The old branch secretary emphasized again, “If I catch you doing it again, I will definitely inform your parents. You know what the consequences will be.”

The children, hearing the warning, understood the seriousness of the matter and all quickly nodded in agreement.

Seeing this, the old branch secretary nodded in satisfaction.

The tree-felling work continued in an orderly fashion. When a tree was felled, the women would immediately drag it to a safe location to be cleaned up. It was too dangerous to clean it where it fell, so it had to be pulled to a safer spot first.

The morning passed quickly, and only about ten trees remained to meet the target of fifty.

The clearing work was still going smoothly. After a hard morning’s labor, when it looked about time, the group began distributing the dry rations they had brought.

People didn’t care about appearances. They just sat down on the ground and began to eat. If they were thirsty, they poured themselves a bit of water.

After about an hour of eating and resting, everyone’s energy returned.

The villagers resumed chopping down trees, but this time, not everyone needed to do the cutting. Half of them were assigned to transport the cleaned timber back to the village.

At that time, the country was still in the early stages of economic construction and development, with relatively poor transportation and mechanization.

Timber was mostly hauled down the mountain by manpower or animal power. Manpower meant carrying or lifting it on shoulders—this method was low-cost but inefficient and suitable only for short distances and small loads.

Animal transport used horses or oxen to pull the wood. This was common in mountainous areas and allowed heavier loads, though it was slower.

With advances in technology, simple machines had started to improve efficiency, but geography still posed a challenge. The choice and improvement of transportation methods reflected the technological level and environmental difficulties of the time.

There was another method that relied on natural conditions: water transport.

Water transport used natural streams to move timber. Craftsmen would locate suitable mountain streams near the logging sites and dig ditches downhill. Rainwater would help carry the timber down these channels.

Once the logs reached the foot of the mountain, they could be floated downriver to their destination. This method was particularly effective during the rainy season, saving on manpower, but was heavily dependent on the weather.

Zhou Xuqing led a group back to the village to bring the oxcarts and start hauling the timber. Relying on manpower alone would be far too slow.

A single log couldn’t be lifted by fewer than three people—it weighed several hundred jin, and some even over a thousand. That wasn’t unusual.

Soon, all the oxcarts in Zhoujiazhuang were brought out—there were only three.

Each oxcart could carry about 1000 kilograms, roughly 2000 jin, which meant about three to four cedar logs per cart.

So with three oxcarts, that meant nine to twelve logs per trip. With manpower added in, they could move around twenty logs at a time.

Zhou Xuqing led the group in loading the logs onto the carts.

It didn’t take long. Since driving the cart didn’t require men specifically, women and even older children could manage it.

To maximize efficiency, all the men were tasked with moving the logs. Everyone thought this arrangement made sense.

Even if Zhou Xuqing had said he would drive the cart himself, no one would’ve objected. After all, his nephew was Zhou Yimin—the reason the villagers had enough to eat and the means to build the reservoir.

Plus, Zhou Xuqing wasn’t shirking work, so no one had any grounds to complain.

Everyone got busy. Zhou Chang was in charge of one of the carts. He was only fifteen, and since he had often been underfed before, he looked frail and thin.

But he was a hard worker. He originally wanted to help carry the logs too, but Zhou Xuqing turned him down. “When you grow a few more years, even if you don’t say anything, I’ll call you to help. For now, just drive the cart.”

Zhou Chang understood what Zhou Xuqing meant and didn’t insist. With his current strength, he probably wouldn’t last long carrying logs and would only slow everyone down.

Soon, Zhou Xuqing and the group set out. Since the road back to the village was fairly safe, the team leader and the old branch secretary hadn’t arranged for the security team to escort them.

There was no choice—the village only had a few guns. Even if they wanted to train more security team members, they couldn’t.

Without enough guns, what use was having more people? This wasn’t the cold weapons era anymore—it was the age of firearms. As the saying went, “No matter how good your kung fu is, you’re still afraid of a kitchen knife,” let alone something even deadlier like a gun.

After more than half an hour on the road, something happened. The oxcart driven by Zhou Tian accidentally got stuck in a ditch on the side of the road.

He whipped the ox a few times, trying to get it to pull the cart out, but with all that timber loaded up, the cart wouldn’t budge.

Zhou Xuqing noticed the group had stopped and said, “Everyone pause for a bit—I’ll go check up front.”

The others heard him and slowly put their logs down, taking the opportunity to rest.

Zhou Xuqing quickly made his way forward and saw the problem—the oxcart driven by Zhou Tian was stuck in a ditch.

He knew now wasn’t the time to assign blame. First, they needed help getting the cart out of the ditch.

“This won’t work. First, unload the timber from the cart,” Zhou Xuqing instructed immediately.

There was no other option. They had to call people over, unload all the logs first, and then push the cart out of the ditch.

“Zhou Tian, be more careful next time,” Zhou Xuqing reminded him.

Luckily, the old branch secretary and the team leader weren’t around. Otherwise, he would’ve gotten scolded severely. Oxen were important assets in the village—even whipping them a few times caused concern.

Zhou Tian quickly replied, “Uncle Xuqing, don’t worry. I’ll definitely be more careful from now on.”

If someone else had been in charge, he would’ve gotten a harsh scolding. Not being scolded this time was a relief.

But if he made the same mistake again, there’d be no escaping both the scolding and the villagers’ gossip—“Can’t even drive an oxcart properly? Then stop hogging the position and get out of the way.”

Zhou Xuqing got everyone organized again, and the journey continued much more smoothly after that. No more incidents occurred.

(End of Chapter)