Chapter 16: The Cavern

Jiang Yifan smiled and pointed at the piles of earth behind him.

"This is the dugout, which will be your dormitory in the future.

One dugout can accommodate two people. You can allocate the living space to the people you want to live in.

By the way.

One person cannot occupy a dugout. I'll make it clear to you in advance. We have limited living space here and the conditions are like this.

Everyone, hurry up and you can still clean up and go to the canteen for dinner later.

The canteen will provide meals for everyone tonight, but it will not be provided in the future. You have to cook for yourself."

Jiang Yifan left directly after saying this, obviously without giving them any chance to resist or refute.

Everyone stood in front of these low earth piles and realized that this was the house they were going to live in tonight - the dugout.

Looking at everyone's expression as if struck by lightning.

Xia Zhi pursed his lips. No wonder they couldn't accept it.

The so-called dugout is the most rudimentary house in the frontier. Obviously, the brigade they came to should be a newly developed farm in the agricultural reclamation area.

If it was the farm of the former Construction Corps, it would probably have been able to build adobe houses.

This place should be responsible for land reclamation, so people still live in dugouts.

Most people don't know what a dugout looks like. The so-called dugout is a very simple house, and the overall style is a bit like a vegetable cellar in the north.

These days, no matter where you go, the conditions are difficult and materials are scarce. If you want to build a mud house, how many people will be needed to make mud bricks?

But there is no need for a dugout.

It is adapted to local conditions, and it saves raw materials, and at most costs a little manpower.

In fact, dugouts have many advantages. They keep warm in winter and cool in summer.

The materials are economical and it is very convenient to build. To put it bluntly, it is two words-saving money.

Xia Zhi found the dugout in front of him and walked in directly. Seeing Xia Zhi walking in.

Liu Zhiyan said nothing, holding her hanging arm and holding her suitcase with one hand.

She followed.

Liu Qianjin also followed with his bag in his hand.

Who would have thought that Xia Zhi turned around and turned back, pointed to the dugout next door, and told Liu Qianjin.

"Liu Qianjin, you can live next to me."

Liu Qianjin immediately scratched his head and nodded obediently.

"Xiao Xia, I listen to you."

He really went into the dugout next door.

Xia Zhi then turned around and helped Liu Zhiyan carry her suitcase into the dugout.

Liu Zhiyan fanned her nose and walked into the dugout with a look of disgust on her face.

Seeing the situation inside, she was almost dumbfounded.

"Xia Zhi, who would let us live in such a house?"

"Is this called a house? It's better to call it a pigpen. I think they keep us in the pen like pigs."

Obviously, Liu Zhiyan, who came from a small cadre family, had never seen such a house.

The dugout was actually quite wide, and the height of this dugout was okay, about 1m8.

Otherwise, they would have to crouch down to walk in.

The bed for sleeping was a soil platform more than 30 cm above the ground with a layer of straw on it.

But overall, this cave faces south and the only simple door opens inward.

A few pieces of wood are nailed together and covered with a few pieces of sacks.

There is a thick poplar tree in the house as the beam of the whole house.

With the poplar tree beam as the center, there is a rafter as thick as a forearm every few dozen centimeters, just like a human rib.

On these rafters, a layer of hay will be laid first, and then a mat made of reeds will be laid on top of the hay.

Of course, another layer of mat will be laid on the mat, on the one hand to prevent water and on the other hand to prevent cold.

Finally, the top is sealed with soil.

And this kind of house has a small window of about 50cm in the middle of the roof.

Generally, no one makes a window frame specifically, that is, a piece of glass is pressed on the hole.

When the sun rises, it will shine in from the window on the roof, and there will be light in the dim cave.

This is quite different from a house in the general sense. It looks not only dim and simple, but also depressing.

There is a stove next to the door, which is connected to a two-meter-high adobe wall, called a fire wall.

No one builds a kang here.

In winter, dead branches or branches and straw are burned in the furnace, and the flames conduct heat from the flue of the stove through the flue of the fire wall.

This simple method keeps warm and resists the cold.

Xia Zhi touched the fire wall with his hand, and it was cold now. Obviously, they need to find fuel themselves.

It will definitely not work tonight.

But obviously in order to welcome these educated youths,

a groove for oil lamps was dug out on the wall on the side of the earth platform.

A canned glass bottle was filled with half a bottle of kerosene, which was used to illuminate them at night.

There was not even an electric light here.

Liu Zhiyan exclaimed, and saw a mouse crawling out of the straw pile on the platform, brushing against the edge of her shoes and running out of the door directly.

"Ah! Mouse!"

Xia Zhi took a look and threw the bag in his hand, as well as Liu Zhiyan's suitcase and bag, onto the straw-covered floor.

He walked out again.

Liu Zhiyan was frightened when she saw it, and followed Xia Zhi with her arms hanging.

"Xia Zhi, where are you going? Wait for me, don't leave me behind, I dare not stay here alone."

God knows that thinking about staying in the same room with mice, Liu Zhiyan wished she could grow two wings and fly back.

When they first came here, everyone just said passionately that they would support the construction of the border areas, fight against the sky, the earth, and nature.

Dedicating their youth to the construction of the motherland, who would have thought that dedicating their youth would be with mice.

"Don't follow me, I'm going out to find something. We have to clean up the house quickly, otherwise we won't be able to sleep when it gets dark."

The two female comrades came out, and the others all crawled out of the dugout.

The main reason was that no one had expected the living conditions here to be like this. They were all from the city, and even if their families were poor, they at least had a mud house to live in.

This house was simply unheard of and unseen.

Many people's eyes were red, and they were about to cry.

"We want to go back!"

"We don't stay here!"

"Is this a place for people to stay?"

"How can we live in such a house?"

Many people were indignant, and Xia Zhi glanced at these people.

No one will care about them today.

The educated youth immediately turned hostile when they saw the simple conditions.

Even if they wanted to go back now, they couldn't. It was impossible to walk hundreds of miles alone, and there would be wolves on the road.

To put it bluntly, they were left here on purpose to kill their prestige and prevent these educated youth from quarreling.

She had seen this kind of method in her previous life. At least today, no one would care about them.