At noon, the sun is just right.

In the backyard of the Chen family compound, in Chen Shou's bedroom.

A simple old bricklayer, with his hair and beard mostly white, led his two sons to set up the fire bed according to Chen Sheng's request.

Chen Sheng stood aside with his arms folded, chatting with the bricklayer without saying a word.

"Liu Weng, is it troublesome to make this kind of green brick?"

"It's not troublesome, it's not troublesome. As long as you have enough labor and firewood, you can burn four to five hundred bricks in one day. How many bricks do you want, sir? Leave it to the little old man. I'll keep it safe for you!"

This old man is a well-known bricklayer in Changningfang. His craftsmanship is passed down from his ancestors. He has often dealt with the Chen family, a businessman in the past, and he is a familiar neighbor.

"Four or five hundred dollars?"

Chen Sheng glanced at the bricks inside and outside the house, and frowned slightly.

He laid the kang according to the specifications of a double bed, which required four to five hundred blue bricks.

If he were to build a big bunkhouse that could sleep a hundred or ten people like the one he planned, wouldn't it cost 70,000 to 81,000 yuan?

Moreover, firing green bricks also consumes a lot of firewood...

He silently crossed out the option "brick and stone fire pit" in his mind.

After pondering for a moment, he asked again: "Liu Weng, I remember that there is a kind of brick that does not need to be fired. It is made directly from a mold and can be used after drying."

The little old man nodded and said: "Sir, are you talking about rammed earth bricks? What do you want to build? If the green bricks in the brick kiln are not enough, I will go to other places to build them for you and keep them for you.

Hey! Who are you? How can you use rammed earth bricks? Not to mention that the soil is always falling off, and it is not durable. It has been held up to the sky for 20 or 30 years and it will fall apart. How can there be any experience with blue bricks?

Sir, this big house made of blue bricks will not collapse even after four or five generations!"

Chen Sheng smiled and thought for a while, thinking that there seemed to be no need to keep the fire kang anti-cold plan secret. He could just ask this expert to give him some advice: "That's it. I have to be reminded by a wise man to predict what will happen today."

When winter comes, there will most likely be heavy snowfall for days. This year there is a severe drought, and the county’s fathers are already miserable. If there is another severe cold, I don’t know how many people will freeze to death.”

"This thing is called a fire kang, and it's a bed that can be used for heating."

"You see, after the fire pit is built and a fire is lit here, the heat will follow the smoke and pass through the flue, making the entire fire pit warm. When people lie on it, it is snowing heavily outside, and it is still as warm as summer.

"

"This end is used to make fire, and this end can also be used to cook hot soup and stew meat. You will always have a hot mouthful..."

He gestured to the fire kang and explained to the little old man, "I want to build three to four thousand large fire kangs in the twelve counties of the county before winter, which can sleep hundreds of people, and gather the villagers who are unable to keep out the cold.

Get through this winter.”

"Don't worry about labor. There are still 20,000 to 30,000 poor families in the county who are doing work-for-relief, and they are looking forward to the county government providing them with work."

"The only worry is material resources and time."

"It needs to be simple and not cost too much material resources, and it is also necessary to build these thousands of big open fire pits before the heavy snow comes."

"Let's see if there is anything we can do..."

The little old man was stunned by what he said. He held the brick knife in his hand and was stunned for a long time, without even leaning the bricks in his hand against the hot bed.

This is the impact of dimensionality reduction from the perspective of structure and vision!

After a while, he suddenly came back to his senses, threw away the masonry knife and bricks, and bowed to Chen Sheng repeatedly: "My lord, the saint has such a heart..."

Chen Sheng quickly stepped forward to support him and said with a smile: "Okay, okay, seriously, you are an expert at doing bricks and tiles. Do you think this can be done?"

"We, we, don't, don't know."

The little old man shook his head and said that with his narrow and poor understanding, he could not imagine how big it would be to build three to four thousand large bunks that can sleep a hundred or ten people in just over a month.

a project of.

I just feel so overwhelmed and my scalp is numb!

"Don't panic, let's take care of it one by one."

Chen Sheng smiled and comforted the old man with gentle words, "First of all, can a person sleep on a bed made of unfired rammed earth bricks? Can it withstand fire?"

The little old man thought for a while and replied firmly: "I can stand it. When I was young, I followed my father to the north to build the Great Wall. At that time, everyone used rammed earth bricks to build brick kilns, and those brick kilns were fired day and night.

It has not collapsed for several years, and when it was demolished, several big men could not push it away. As long as people lay on it and did not stamp their feet vigorously, it would not collapse."

Chen Sheng nodded.

In fact, he also vaguely remembered that the fire kang was originally an earth kang.

But in his previous life, he had only seen a fire kang when traveling to the Northeast and knew its principles.

As for how the Tukang is laid out, how does he know?

"The second question is, are rammed earth bricks easy to make? Are there any strict requirements for the clay used to make rammed earth bricks? I'm talking about mass production. Can it keep up with the progress of building a fire pit?"

This time the little old man didn't hesitate and replied without thinking: "If you do it well, an eight-year-old child can make seven or eight yuan a day. If you are young and strong, if you work hard a day, you can make two or three hundred yuan."

Come on! There are no special requirements for rammed earth. Just dig anywhere three to four feet, and the soil underneath can be used to make rammed earth bricks."

"very good!"

Chen Sheng smiled and clapped his hands: "Then there is only one last question left... Is this job difficult? If I ask you to lead a hundred apprentices within ten days, can you lead them?"

The little old man lowered his head and hesitated to utter a complete sentence.

Chen Sheng knew what he was thinking, and said softly: "We are all neighbors on the same street. As long as you are willing to teach me this craft, I will not treat you badly... I can give you an official robe, as long as you are willing to do your duty honestly."

If you want to do your best work and don’t do that bad thing that is harmful to the world, you can give those clothes to Da Liu or Xiao Liu!”

He said with a smile.

"Put it on the little old man!"

The little old man suddenly puffed up his chest, his face turned red, and he slapped his chest loudly: "Not to mention a hundred, even two hundred little old men will teach him step by step!"

Chen Sheng nodded and said: "I will introduce you to someone later. You will always help him. Invite all the bricklayers in the county to do this together... It is not a corvee, but wages and food will be fine."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Zhao Qing's voice coming from far away from the ear room: "Dalang, Uncle Twelve is here and waiting for you in the front hall."

Chen Sheng nodded to her, turned around and said to the still excited little old man: "Well, you are busy, and when you are done, you must try to light the fire and see if there is any smoke from the chimney."

The little old man nodded like he was pecking rice, "Don't worry, sir, I will definitely do your job for you!"
Chapter completed!