Some people wanted to ask Mu Gaoyi and Shi Hetong for information, but seeing that they were also confused, they knew that these two people probably didn't know much more than they did.
Yes, this person was sent by Wei Jin in the past two days, and he had never met Mu Gaoyi and Shi Hetong before.
When I first came here, I was assigned to work as a handyman. I don't know what happened later, but the relationship developed by leaps and bounds.
"I guess he ran away from the home of an outsider?"
"Stop talking nonsense. We accept disciples, but there are very strict rules. How can we let the disciples live outside and work as handymen?"
"But he doesn't look like a wild carpenter. I guess he must have been taught by a master, maybe he didn't formally become a apprentice."
Other craftsmen took a break from their busy work to rest and chat.
But here, Mu Gaoyi and Shi Hetong wiped the sweat from their heads, looked at people, and whispered.
"Hey, Hetong, we guessed right. She might be a student of Jixia Academy. Otherwise, how could she know so many woodcrafts at her age?"
"I think it's the same. I heard that Jixia Academy only accepts students with unusual backgrounds and strong talents. We were the losers and failed to get in."
Mu Gaoyi said that he couldn't be too envious. He said with a sour taste in his mouth: "Look at this person, he has a bright future at a young age. The car he designed is simply wonderful. I don't know how good it will be when it is finally made." How shocking.”
But Shi Hetong thought more about it than Mu Gaoyi. He wondered: "But he is so selfless and allows us all to participate, and he doesn't even mention his name. Isn't he afraid that all the credit will be taken away by others? Did the design graphics also end up being faked?"
"Does he need to be afraid?" Mu Gaoyi rolled his eyes: "Just asking, can you afford to offend the people behind him?"
They all thought that behind A Qing was Wei Yao, Runtu, or some great craftsman, but they could not have guessed that the man standing behind Zheng Quchi was Yu Wen, who could subvert the entire political circle of Ye State with just one sentence. Sheng.
But then again, who would have thought of this.
"Okay, okay, in fact, we also understand this. If you say he is powerful, he is indeed powerful, but there are many powerful craftsmen in the seven countries, so they don't have to focus on our achievements."
"this point?"
"Okay, huge, okay."
There were more than thirty of them, and they worked for three full days, not to mention day and night, but that was to the point of forgetting all sleep and food.
Only then were the car's parts, panels, and corner joints finally taken out.
But the remaining time is still urgent, and no minute or second can be wasted.
Seeing that the time was almost up, Zheng Quchi asked Runtu for a docile horse and planned to ride it to the Fu County workshop.
Runtu escorted her all the way, and saw her entering an iron shop with a familiar face. She greeted an old blacksmith with white eyebrows, who then came out with a bag of heavy objects.
The old blacksmith looks quite old, but he has an inverted triangle body and his arms are particularly muscular.
"This business almost made the old man and his disciples collapse from exhaustion."
"Thank you for your hard work. The work is very good, beyond my expectation. I will come to take care of Grandpa Tie's business next time I have a chance."
"That's good. But I remember, the person who came to make the decision was a little girl, right?"
"Oh, yes, she is my sister. She works for me. I thought she couldn't move this thing, so I came to pick it up myself."
"That's it, good. Since you're satisfied, the old man can rest assured. These things of yours are very particular about craftsmanship. The patterns are something I've never seen before. It's too labor-intensive."
"Once raw, twice cooked, Grandpa Tie's skills will definitely be even better next time. I'll leave the last part here. I have something to do here, so I'll leave first."
"Hey, young man, you have a lot of money."
"Not much, the rest is expedited fee."
Zheng Quchi was very strong and did not need Runtu's help. He shouldered the big bag and strode forward. In the end, Runtu found a carriage to transport her and her things back to the camp.
On the carriage, she carefully inspected the custom-made batch of bronze parts. There were round and square corner decorations, reinforced edging, canopy hooks and other things.
She drew the graphics, marked the dimensions, and had the blacksmith melt copper into them and cast them. She specifically told them to make them old and with good texture. She couldn't cut corners, but she couldn't make them heavy. After all, they were just for appearance. Ornaments.
When the craftsmen saw Ah Qing coming back carrying a large bag of things, they felt strange.
"Ah Qing, where did you go so early in the morning?" Mu Gaoyi ran over, his eyes wandering over her bag of things.
"Go and work as a coolie."
She put the things on the ground in front of everyone, and there was an immediate clang, a sound like the friction and collision of tiny pieces of metal.
"What's this?"
"Let's see."
She took them apart and revealed the contents inside. They all couldn't help but exclaimed: "Isn't this the decorative copper parts painted on the car? You have already finished them, right?"
"Well, time is urgent. I asked a blacksmith to customize it earlier. I have checked all these and there are no problems. Once it is assembled, we will just nail it on according to the design drawings."
"Okay, we are very motivated now."
"that is!"
"Then let's assemble it next."
Everyone gathered around, because Zheng Quchi always thinks ahead when doing things, and because she has been working hard these two days, whenever someone gets into a bottleneck, she can step forward and push them, so they sometimes ask questions unconsciously. her opinion.
Zheng Quchi said: "Well, I think it will take almost a whole day just to assemble and correct the parts."
"I just made an estimate and it's similar to your opinion. By the way, we still have to reserve one day to test all aspects of the car. Otherwise, something went wrong. Wouldn't it be ridiculous?"
"Sure enough, time is still too tight."
Assembly alone requires three parts. First, component assembly, off-shelf assembly, then overall assembly, and finally various exterior modifications, brushing with tung oil, etc.
In order to prolong the service life of the wood, the outer layer of the wood still needs to be painted with a layer of paint. After the paint is applied and allowed to dry a little, you can also test the performance, as long as you pay a little attention.
These are time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks, because this part is not done by the more people the better, but by the technicians originally assigned by Zheng Quchi, who have to make adjustments while installing.
Especially the important parts must be spliced according to the design drawings.
It is necessary to pick out the mortises and tenons, reduce the tenons, rough grind the special-shaped parts to find the shape, and check whether the mortise and tenon joints are of appropriate size, tight, and whether they are skewed or warped.
Zheng Quchi did not go to help with the assembly this time. Others thought she was unfamiliar with this part of the fortification, but in fact she felt that she was busy with other things.
That is - carving.
This art is most about aesthetics and craftsmanship. Several carvers who are good at this aspect are working overtime to catch up. Others still have time to chat, but they don't even have time to take a breath until Zheng Quchi joins them. .
"Hey, look, that Ah Qing went to the carving team again."
"She can't even do this, right?"
"...It's hard to say."
After a while, someone said angrily: "Nonsense, she really knows how to do it!"
Carving a line is more time-consuming than any other process. To be fair, if wood carving is to be done accurately, it can take a hundred days or even a year.
But what they want to get is not the kind of craftsmanship that is so delicate that it takes a year to carve it, nor is it using a whole piece of wood to carve it in fine relief, but building materials.
To save time, it should be aesthetically pleasing, but not too harsh.
The wood carvings designed by Zheng Quchi are arranged on the car body in a buckle manner to decorate the car doors, windows and bare car panels.
Of course, this is not only for the overall beauty of the car, but also for the overall weight reduction of the cabin. She uses a combination of carved wood panels and solid wood panels on the doors, windows and panels to reduce the stress on the chassis.
The wood carvings she designed are based on one of the ten most traditional auspicious patterns in China.
The lion rolls the hydrangea.
The lion rolling the hydrangea is a composition of two lions and a hydrangea.
According to legend, the lion is the king of beasts and a symbol of power and majesty, and the ball made of textiles imitating hydrangea is regarded as an auspicious and festive thing.
Originally, she wanted to design something more advanced, but she felt that it was too much. It was too foreign and unsophisticated, and others couldn't understand it and had to bother to explain it. It was better to have something on the car body that everyone could understand. Something familiar.
It allows people to know what it means at a glance, and it is easier to achieve word-of-mouth publicity.
Carving requires full concentration. Zheng Quchi sat for several hours. During this period, her eyes, hands and mind were all on the wood.
Sweat dripped from her forehead. Zheng Quchi wiped it with her hands, but suddenly she felt something sticky on the back of her hand. She was stunned.
She raised her hand and saw that the thing on it was... It was over, her disguise was washed away by her sweat.
She immediately put down what she was doing and covered her face: "I, I'm going to wash my face first, you continue."
Seeing that she was leaving, they immediately lost their composure.
"Hey, hurry up, ten of us can't even match your speed."
"well."
This kid is simply a treasure. The more you dig, the more you find.
Zheng Quchi covered his face and ran towards Fu Rong. Now he was the only one who could fix it for her, but he never thought that Fu Rong was not in the account at all.
The guard even refused her the idea of entering to wait for someone, staring suspiciously at her suspicious behavior.
Zheng Quchi touched her face. It was uneven and there were a lot of broken pieces falling on the road. She didn't need to look in the mirror to know that she must look scary now.
I originally thought about going back to the main army's tent to hide, but I didn't see Runtu. She couldn't get in without anyone to take her with her "disfigured face".
She had no choice but to be afraid of being seen, so she turned left and right, hiding in a place where no one was around. She never thought that after turning this way and that, she ended up in a very remote location.
This place seems to be...a water prison?
She had a topographical map of the camp in her mind, and as soon as she recalled it, she could guess where she had run to.
It is said to be a water prison, but after a hard winter on Chang Tong Slope, the running water has stopped, and there is only a dry river bed in front, and a basement with stone steps carved out of the back of the big stone.
She also knew exactly who was being held in the water prison now.
The question is, are people still inside?
She was just about to take a step when a strong and cold figure appeared in front of Zheng Quchi and blocked it with one arm: "Madam, this is not the place you should come to."
Zheng Quchi was so startled that his hair almost exploded.
"I just entered by mistake..."
Runtu nodded: "Of course, but if you take a few more steps, you will be shot as a suspicious person by the guards hiding in the water prison."
Zheng Quchi: "..."
Isn't it too insidious, hiding in the dark? Fortunately, she couldn't stand the test anymore. She didn't want to go on an adventure just now, but planned to turn around and return.
However, would this person be snitching behind her back?
"Don't tell the general about this, you know?" Zheng Quchi was frightened by Yu Wensheng's crazy comments and was neurotic.
Before, he suspected that she was teaming up with the Mo family, and almost slapped her into the cliff and smashed her to pieces. Now if he found out, she almost went to the water prison to "visit" her old friend, and she didn't know if he would go crazy again.
Runtu remained silent. Obviously, for him, the general was the object of all his loyalty.
Zheng Quchi narrowed his eyes and threatened: "You dare to say it, I will tell Yu Wensheng that it was you who didn't show up in time to stop me from trespassing, which caused me to almost fall into danger. Do you think he believes you or me?" "
"...Madam, don't worry, Runtu won't say anything."
He seemed to have misjudged her before. The general's wife was probably not stupid and sweet, she was simply fair-skinned and black-faced.
Zheng Quchi knew that Runtu, a boring gourd, would either refuse to agree, but would not retaliate once he agreed.
Only then did she feel relieved.
"You're here just in time. Look at my face. I need Fu Rong now. Do you know where he went?" She put down her hand and let Runtu look at her face.
To be honest, his face now is a mess, his facial features are in a mess, he looks like a man and a woman, and it’s quite scary.
"Madam's face...Fu Rong went up the mountain to dig wild vegetables. If Madam is in a hurry, Runtu can take Madam up the mountain to find him."
"Hurry up, hurry up, I still have things to do, but I can't see anyone with my face right now."
She waved her hand, motioning for him to quickly lead the way.
But Runtu stayed in place and didn't move.
"What's wrong?"
"Ma'am, are you going to go out like this?"
"What should we do?"
Runtu carried a fully wrapped man on his back and used Qinggong to leap into the jungle. He listened to the sound to identify the location and followed the footprints left behind.
Zheng Quchi opened the cloth from his eyes and watched as many Ye soldiers passed by, digging around in the mountains and forests, looking for something to eat and digging for wild vegetables.
She asked Runtu: "Are we going to run out of food?"
"Go back to Madam, the general will find a solution."
"You see, along the way, these creeks and paths have almost dried up, and Fu County can no longer produce food. Everyone will be hungry in the future." She looked at the dried fish on the river bed and was filled with excitement. White stones are unpleasant to my heart.
"The general will find a way."
"But your general... also needs someone to share his worries. He is in so much pain that he can't eat until tomorrow morning, and he has to leave for Jizhou for work in the afternoon. Can you only rely on him to solve everything?"
Although he is the patron saint of Ye State and Ye Jun, no one is invincible. If his body collapses, will the rest of the people be left alone?
(End of chapter)
