Early the next morning, Zhang Wenyuan gave his second brother five thousand dollars and asked him to take full responsibility for building the house. He himself went to Li Er's house to ask him to build furniture for his new house. As a result, Li Er was grateful to him for saving his wife's life. Hearing that he was going to make furniture, he took his eldest son and carried the tools before going out.
Zhang Wenyuan quickly grabbed him and said, "You don't need to carry the tools. The place where I am is small and you can't even move it. I'll do it here. All you have to do is go to my place to measure the dimensions and then go over and install it."
Hearing what he said, Li Er's eyes lit up, "Well, this method is good, it's up to you!"
We returned to the Zhang family courtyard together. Zhang Wenjing had already recruited more than a dozen craftsmen. Without his bad reputation, things went much smoother. Zhang Wenyuan knew that his reputation was very ugly, so he simply didn't even show his face. He only asked Zhang's mother and Li Dalian to go out and deal with it for a while, and left all the rest to his second brother. He accompanied Li Er to investigate the scene and made a proposal by the way. own needs.
Zhang Wenyuan made a list for Li Er and was about to send him back. Zhang Wenning came to the small courtyard carrying a lot of tools. Seeing his junior brother Li Er measuring the doors and windows of the new house, Gu Long said, "You just have too much money to spend." It’s not over, I don’t have a carpenter at home, so I have to hire someone from outside!”
Zhang Wenyuan said disapprovingly, "Hey...what's the matter? I didn't invite you here to do these things. Besides, Brother Li is not an outsider, he is still your junior brother!"
When Li Er saw Zhang Wenning, he came over to say hello, "Brother, how are you doing recently?"
Zhang Wenning was very dissatisfied with his behavior of robbing her business, and said angrily, "Humph, how can I live as well as you!"
Seeing that he was so disrespectful to him, Li Er couldn't help but turned to Zhang Wenyuan and said, "Sanlang, why don't you let your senior brother make these furniture?"
Zhang Wenyuan curled his lips and said, "He is just petty, don't pay attention to him! I can rest assured that you can do things, don't be anxious, just do it slowly. I will pay you 20 yuan as a down payment first, and the rest will be calculated together when it is done." .”
Li Er hurriedly declined, "Don't talk about that. You saved my wife, how can I have the nerve to ask for your money?"
Zhang Wenyuan laughed and said, "You can't do it without money. Let's go back to the same code."
Li Er just refused, and Zhang Wenyuan also firmly disagreed. In the end, both of them got angry, and Li Er said, "Since you insist on giving money, I won't take your job anymore!"
Zhang Wenyuan also said, "If you don't accept payment, then I won't dare to do the work for you!"
At this point, both of them laughed, and finally took a step back and settled for half price.
After explaining some more questions, Zhang Wenyuan took Zhang Wenning to the room to study the spinning wheel. With the money as lubricant, Zhang Wenyuan's attitude today is much better than yesterday, and he no longer complains to his mother. He also said that after his house is repaired, he will bring his eldest son over to play for a few days to strengthen the brotherly relationship. Zhang Wenyuan haha With a smile, he naturally agreed.
While the craftsmen were busy outside, the two brothers were studying the spinning wheel inside. Zhang Wenning is thirty-four years old and has been doing carpentry work for twenty years. Although he claims to be a master carpenter in Yuncheng County, in fact he can only make bulky furniture and cannot do more detailed work. If Zhang Wenyuan hadn't asked Li Er to do it because he was one of his own, Li Er opened a carpentry shop in the county and his skills were much better than his. The mold he gave him to make last time was very exquisite. It can truly be called a work of art.
Although he already had a draft of the spinning wheel in his mind, there were so many problems when it came to actually making it. Zhang Wenning did not dare to start hastily, so he picked up the drawings and studied them carefully. Zhang Wenyuan frowned at him and muttered from time to time. He couldn't help but remind him a few words, but unexpectedly it made him angry. Although this poor carpenter has average skills, he has a very weird temper. Instead of being grateful for his advice, he is quite annoyed. When he met such a master who liked to put on airs, if they hadn't been brothers, he would have kicked him out long ago.
After noisily studying for a long time, the craftsmen outside had already dug the foundation, and Zhang Wenning had just thoroughly understood the drawings. Zhang Wenyuan had long lost the patience to play with him, because he had become interested in the process of building a house in this era.
The production technology of this era was backward. Although bricks were available in the Qin Dynasty and tiles were available in the Han Dynasty, ordinary people could not afford them. Therefore, the new houses built by the Zhang family were standard "loess walls and thatched houses", and the craftsmanship was very simple. , the cost is also very low. Since the cost was so low, Zhang Wenyuan decided to build a few more houses. After two lifetimes, he was really fed up with living in a pigeon cage. Therefore, the next day he asked Zhang Wenjing to hire some more craftsmen to start construction on the east and west wings together, and it took only four days to cap the building.
Some of the craftsmen invited by Zhang Wenjing had met them that day, but Zhang Wenyuan was more skilled and asked his second brother to take charge of building the house. They came without much thought at the time. When I saw Zhang Wenyuan appearing in the yard, I wanted to give up my job like yesterday. But when I thought that the Zhang family’s wages were higher than the market price and the lunch meal was very rich, I stamped my feet and had to pretend not to know and continue to work hard. .
A few days passed by and the Zhang family's wing was finally built. There were six more rooms in the east and west wings. Zhang Wenyuan made a simple allocation. Zhang's mother and Li Dalian still lived in the original side room, and Yan Poxi lived in a new house. He built a wing for himself as a study room, and left two as guest rooms for his eldest and second brothers to live together temporarily. One of the remaining two rooms was used to house the spinning wheel, and the other was used to make the spinning wheel. This layout was very chaotic and completely incomparable with the courtyard houses of later generations, but he couldn't control that much.
In addition to building two new wing rooms, Zhang Wenyuan worked tirelessly to repair the old yard and walls. He originally wanted to build a bathroom, but Zhang's mother and Li Dalian both opposed it and had to give up.
"Forget it, let's just live there!" Since they don't accept modern life, Zhang Wenyuan can only comfort himself in his heart. Travelers are not things in the pool. They will do big things in the future. How can they keep living in this kind of house? Where is it?
"When I take my revenge, I will take my mother and Dalian to the south. Naturally, this house will be abandoned. What does it matter whether the bathroom is repaired or not?"
In the evening, after the craftsmen evacuated, Zhang Wenyuan called Zhang's mother and Li Dalian to the west wing, pointed at the brand-new spinning wheel, and said proudly, "Mom, look, the super spinning wheel has been made!"
Mother Zhang saw five spindles on the new spinning wheel and was surprised, "Why are there so many threads? Can thread be spun?"
Zhang Wenning said proudly, "Mom, why don't you believe in my skills?"
Zhang Wenjing also said, "Mom, don't you know if you go up and try it?"
Zhang's mother was a little timid, so she asked Li Dalian to try it. Li Dalian carefully came to the spinning wheel and stepped on it lightly with her foot. The big roller began to rotate rapidly. The five small rollers were driven by the big roller and all rotated rapidly. . Under everyone's surprised gaze, five yarns came out like poisonous snakes spitting messages and then wrapped around the spindle obediently. It was so efficient that it seemed that machinery was also a kind of beauty.
Seeing such a miraculous thing, Zhang's mother was so happy that she knelt down and kowtowed, "Master Lu Ban, the third son of our family has been blessed for countless generations. If you can teach me some skills, I will give it to you." Kowtow!”
