Cheng Wanwan and six craftsmen spent half a day finalizing the drawings of the house.
The budget fund was 10,000 taels of silver, including the money to buy the land. However, if it was built in Dahe Village, this part of the money would be almost nothing, so it was finally decided to build a large courtyard with four entrances.
The size of the fourth courtyard is quite large, about 3,000 square meters. It includes the fruit trees on the side, and has built pools and rockeries, pavilions, corridors with carved railings, a medium-sized garden, and a place for pets to play. The courtyard is surrounded by east and west wing rooms, a front hall and a rear courtyard. There are more than twenty wing rooms for entertaining guests.
The craftsmen were responsible for the general layout and control, while Li Zheng arranged for Zhao Anjiang to cooperate in purchasing blue bricks, stone, wood and other materials. The most important thing was to recruit people to build the house.
It is not an easy task to build a four-indoor courtyard within half a month.
However, the court was willing to spend money, and the day's wages were as high as sixty cents. If some skilled carpenters, masons, and bricklayers came, the day's wages would be one hundred cents.
Old man Zhao and Ah Fu also came to help. They joined the carpenter team. There were more than thirty carpenters in total, using yellow pear wood to build the main furniture. The top carpenter from the imperial court had extremely strict control over the process and personally watched it. More than thirty people work, which requires exquisite workmanship and progress. If they can't finish the work during the day, they have to stay and work overtime at night...
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Old Man Zhao learned many carpentry skills from the capital.
Cheng Wanwan made two suggestions about the house. One was not to move the bed, but still build a fire pit. She was afraid of the cold and couldn't do without this thing. Second, the toilet was built according to her drawings, with some modern concepts added, which would make it neater and more convenient.
Craftsman Yang, who was in charge of this part, couldn't help but be amazed: "The people of Sui'an have such a great idea. In this way, the palace will not have any peculiar smell without burning incense, and it only needs to be cleaned once a day. If it is applied to the palace , those palace maids and eunuchs can also relax a lot."
At this point, Craftsman Yang paused for a while and then spoke hesitantly, "But this is a method thought up by the people of Sui'an. It can only be used in other places with the permission of the people of Sui'an."
There may have been no intellectual property rights in ancient times, but as craftsmen, the skills they learned were exclusively inherited, and some unique skills would only be passed on to their descendants or disciples. They could not take away the drawings just because the Sui'an people were so generous. When it came out, he appropriated it for himself.
"It doesn't matter." Cheng Wanwan waved his hand, "If it can be promoted, it will be a good thing."
Craftsman Yang suddenly felt that he was judging a gentleman with a villain's heart, and said repeatedly: "The pattern of the Sui'an people is indeed different from mine. It's because I am too narrow-minded."
Cheng Wanwan couldn't stand such flattery, so she responded with a few words and quickly found an excuse to leave.
She went to inspect the 200 acres of fertile farmland that the imperial court had rewarded this time. The fields near Dahe Village had already been claimed by the villagers. The 200 acres of newly rewarded land were a bit far from her home. It took a long walk to get there. It was fertile. There are no crops grown on the land, it is full of weeds and green as far as the eye can see.
Cheng Wanwan had no rules at all about what to grow in so many fields.
After the summer solstice, major food crops cannot be planted, and only some vegetables can be grown, such as cabbage, celery, eggplant, etc. The temperature in summer is high, and they will mature in one or two months after planting.
But she has 200 acres of land, and it is unrealistic to use all of it to grow vegetables.
Cheng Wanwan stood at the edge of the field and thought about it, and finally decided to plant peppers.
At the beginning of spring, we planted some at home, and now they have grown. Some of the dishes at Dahe Yan Restaurant require chili peppers, which are picked from our own land.
But in fact, some dishes will be more delicious with chili sauce. After franchise stores spread all over the country, chili sauce has become a unique secret recipe. Even if the recipe is spread, it will not taste like that without the secret chili sauce.
In addition to chili sauce, you can also make bean paste, chili powder, chili oil, chili noodles...
Thinking of this, Cheng Wanwan's mouth watered down, and many spicy delicacies appeared in her mind.
She went to the cotton field to find Zhao Dashan to arrange the matter first.
The cotton field is growing very well. The cotton seedlings have grown to a very high height, and about one-third of them have bloomed.
After cotton blooms, it enters the flowering and boll stage. This stage is when insect pests begin. The insect pests will not stop until the catdding stage.
She bent down and peeled open a red flower. Oh my god, two larvae were squirming inside. Her scalp was numb and she immediately closed the petals.
She knew that removing the eggs before could not eradicate them at all, and the existing bugs would still be there.
"Mom, why are you here?"
Zhao Dashan walked over from the field, carrying a bucket in his hand. The bucket was full of colorful bugs. Water was put in the bucket, but the bugs couldn't crawl out and were struggling and squirming inside. This scene made Cheng Wanwan Throat surging...
She quickly looked away: "How many acres of land can you find in one day?"
Zhao Dashan replied: "It looks like three or four acres."
Zhao Dashan and ten long-term workers are currently looking for insects. It will take about four or five days for all of them to search all the cotton fields.
Four or five days later, new bugs had hatched in the first acre of land inspected on the first day. In addition to looking for bugs, they also had to water and fertilize. Cotton at this stage has a huge demand for water and fertilizer. You can imagine how busy it is to carry water manually...
"I will take care of the problem of looking for insects. You are mainly responsible for watering and fertilizing the cotton. Whether it can be harvested depends on this period. Also, I plan to plant peppers in the new fields. You can arrange this. ." Cheng Wanwan said, "Give me this bucket of worms and take it back as a model."
She picked up the barrel with slight disgust, not even daring to look at it, and hurried back.
The bugs she found during this period were all used to feed the chickens and ducks. As soon as she returned to the yard, she was surrounded by chickens and ducks.
"Go, go, you all go on your own." She said angrily, "It's not even dinner time yet, go find food outside, Rhubarb and Erhuang, you two, take the little cubs out quickly!"
Rhubarb and Erhuang were the first old hens picked up in the family. They were the first among the chickens and ducks. As they got older, they produced fewer and fewer eggs. Perhaps they were afraid of being slaughtered, so they were extra obedient and immediately took the cubs with them. out.
Cheng Wanwan asked Zhao Sidan to call all the children under the age of six in the village.
Children over the age of six are considered half-grown children who can help the family, while children under the age of six are little brats who spend their days in the village recruiting cats and dogs to play around.
Sidan shouted in the village for a while. When he heard that Dashan Niang was calling the children for something, the adults in the family immediately asked their children to come over quickly.
After a while, there were forty or fifty little kids standing in the yard.
"Sidan, give them each a piece of candy."
Cheng Wanwan ordered with a smile, and Zhao Sidan brought out a bag of candies, one for each person.
The little ones received the advice from their parents and politely thanked them, then took it and couldn't wait to put the candy into their mouths, smashing it and eating it.
