"It's just that I have a question."
Suddenly, Ding Shang asked.
"Any questions?" Zhu Di asked.
Ding Shang said slowly: "Your Highness, the iron furnace is seamless on all sides, so the smoke cannot escape and can only escape along the chimney.
In this way, some houses of villains and others have stoves built in them, and the stoves are directly connected to the kang. So, isn't it okay to burn charcoal in the fire pit? "
"Um?"
Zhu Di was stunned, "What is the fire kang?"
Zhu Di grew up in the south and had never seen a fire bed.
"Your Highness, you can tell by looking at the house next door!"
Guo An said.
"Let's go, we want to see a fire kang!" Zhu Di was also a little excited.
Immediately, after taking two steps, several people came to the next room.
In the room, a large block of earth appeared out of thin air, as high as a wheel and as wide as a person, but occupying half of the house.
At one end of the earthen kang, two stoves were built.
"Your Highness, this is the fire kang."
Guo An pointed at it and said, "The fire pit has a chimney mouth, which will circle around the fire pit for several times, and then be discharged out of the house through the chimney on the wall again."
"Isn't this the Nuan Pavilion?" Zhu Di saw the fire kang for the first time. After looking at it curiously for a while, he said in wonder.
"Your Highness, you are so complimentary. The fire kang is not as good as the warm pavilion."
Guo An quickly waved his hand, "The fire bed is only a bed used by the people who live in cave dwellings in Shanxi and Shaanxi. Wei Chen only borrowed it."
Zhu Di asked again, "You mean they will sleep on this fire kang at night?"
"Your Highness is wise!"
Guo An nodded slightly, "As long as you burn it on the stove for a while, the entire kang will be warm. And if you burn it for half a day, even in the coldest month of winter, the entire kang will be boiling hot."
"It's so magical!"
Zhu Di nodded slightly, "In this case, our Yanshan Guard barracks also need to build cement houses."
"Your Highness, that will have to happen next year!" Guo An replied.
"Um!"
Zhu Di nodded slightly, then thought of something, and asked: "Since you have a fire kang, why do you still forge an iron furnace?"
Guo An continued: "Your Highness, Wei Chen just feels that the winter in Beiping Mansion is extremely cold, and Wei Chen's house needs some stoves.
In addition, Wei Chen is also planning to build a greenhouse on the farm and heat it with a stove in winter in order to grow fresh vegetables. "
“Growing vegetables in winter?”
Zhu Di was stunned for a moment, and then his face was full of disbelief.
"Just by looking at how fresh vegetables can be grown on a stove, you know that since the Qin and Han Dynasties, sages have always wanted to grow vegetables in the cold winter.
However, until now, people can only barely grow sprouts and leeks. "
"Your Highness, that's why Wei Chen asked the craftsmen of the Iron Smelting Institute to forge more transparent glass!" Guo An said.
Hearing this, Zhu Di subconsciously wanted to deny it, but when he thought of Guo An's achievements since he started serving as the magistrate of Wanping County, a fire suddenly appeared in his heart, and he stared at Guo An closely.
"Guo Qing, can you really grow vegetables in winter?"
"Your Highness, as long as the transparent glass Weichen needs can be calcined, Weichen will definitely be able to grow fresh vegetables."
Guo An looked confident.
At this moment, Ding Shang on the side also understood what was going on and looked at Guo An with excitement.
"Guo Changshi, you asked those craftsmen to circle a hundred acres of land and build two-foot-high cement low walls every three ridges of land, just to prepare for planting vegetables in winter?"
"Exactly!"
Guo An nodded slowly, "In the future, these will require a large number of iron stoves to be installed in the greenhouse. Once the weather gets cold, charcoal will be burned day and night to warm the greenhouse."
"So, wouldn't that require a lot of charcoal?"
Zhu Di suddenly asked.
"Your Highness is wise!"
Guo An nodded quickly, "Therefore, I would like to ask His Highness to dispatch and the general manager to buy a few more charcoal mountains in the next few days. It would definitely be best if we could buy all the charcoal mountains in the entire Xishan Mountain."
"Buy all the Tanshan in Xishan?"
Zhu Di subconsciously stared, feeling a little worried about money again.
Guo An was good at making money for him, but he was even more ruthless when it came to spending money.
"Your Highness, you will definitely not lose money." Guo An said in a low voice.
"In this case, when we go back, we will order He Zhong to buy a mountain!" Zhu Di said.
"Your Highness is wise!"
…
time flies.
Soon, another month passed.
More than thirty concrete houses have been built scattered throughout the farm.
However, these concrete houses are scattered around the farm in twos and threes.
There are also more than 20 chicken pens, sheep pens, hog pens, and cattle pens built with cement.
Of course, the most eye-catching thing is that a two-foot-high cement wall has been built on the farm's 100 acres of fertile land near the river.
Hundreds of extremely long low walls divide hundreds of acres of farmland into small pieces, like a chessboard.
At this moment, a group of laborers and craftsmen stood in front of the farm gate, looking at Zhu Liang at the gate with burning eyes.
Of course, most of them were staring at the boxes of copper coins beside Zhu Liang.
"The farm house has been built. According to King Yan's order, all laborers will be rewarded with two guan of money, and the craftsmen will be rewarded with three guan of money."
"Thank you, His Highness King Yan!"
"His Royal Highness, King Yan, is merciful!"
"King Yan will definitely live a long life..."
A group of labor craftsmen quickly expressed their gratitude.
Zhu Liang shouted directly, "You are not allowed to be crowded. Please line up one by one and come forward to receive money."
After hearing this, a group of laborers and craftsmen quickly lined up and stepped forward to receive the money one by one.
Not far away, Zhu Di and Guo An looked at it for a while, nodded with satisfaction, and walked towards the hundred acres of fertile land where cement low walls had been built.
Looking at the fields in front of him that had been leveled by the laborers, Zhu Di said again: "Guo Qing, it's getting colder now in Beiping. If we don't sow seeds, these vegetables won't grow in the cold winter! "
During the years of labor camp in Fengyang, Zhu Di's knowledge of farming was as good as that of some veteran farmers.
Guo An sighed softly and asked Ding Shang on the side: "General Ding, how many days can we delay?"
"Reporting to Guo Changshi, if we don't plant vegetable seeds in these ridges in half a month at most, the soil in the fields will slowly freeze and the vegetable seeds will not sprout!" Ding Shang replied.
After hearing this, Guo An pondered for a moment and then said: "Your Highness, if that's the case, then just send people to plant vegetables on these ridges."
"Um?"
Zhu Di was stunned and looked at Guo An with some doubts, "Aren't you waiting any longer?"
Guo An said helplessly, "Your Highness, Wei Chen has been waiting for a month. Now, if we wait any longer and delay the good planting opportunity, it will be too late regardless of whether we can finally calcine the transparent glass Wei Chen needs.
But all the hard work of craftsmen and laborers to build these warm walls was in vain. "
Zhu Di asked: "Then how to build the greenhouse you mentioned?"
During these days, Zhu Di was more concerned than Guo An about building greenhouses and growing vegetables in winter.
Just to explain to Zhu Di, Guo An had to explain it more than ten times.
Naturally, we also understand the importance of transparent glass to the greenhouse.
Therefore, Zhu Di urged him several times.
Guo An gritted his teeth, with a look of reluctance on his face, "If you can't make transparent glass after five days, then make the glass with the best transparency, and count as many vegetables as you can grow."
No matter what, he would try to grow vegetables in the winter.
He didn't want to spend the whole winter, or even the beginning of next spring, eating cabbage and radishes.
Zhu Di also said boldly: "In this case, we will accompany you crazy for a while, and we will only lose a few thousand taels of silver.
In the past few months, just the textile machine and cotton business have already made us money back. "
"Thank you, Your Highness!"
Guo An's face was filled with gratitude.
"Your Highness, Your Highness..."
At this time, Zhu Liang, who was supposed to be distributing money to the laborers and craftsmen outside, ran in with a happy face.
"What's the matter?"
Zhu Di was in a low mood because of the greenhouse incident.
Seeing Zhu Liang's reckless appearance, he asked angrily.
Zhu Liang laughed sarcastically and reported quickly: "Your Highness, good news. The transparent glass requested by Guo Changshi from Tieye has been calcined."
"What?"
"Is it really calcined?"
Zhu Di and Guo An were instantly happy and stared at Zhu Liang.
Zhu Liang nodded repeatedly, "Brothers from Tie Ye indeed reported this."
Zhu Di didn't ask any more questions, but said directly: "Let's go to the Iron Smelting Institute!"
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Zhu Liang, Guo An and others quickly followed.
When they arrived at the Iron Smelting Institute, they saw Zhong Huo, the manager of the Iron Smelting Institute, already standing at the door, waiting with a happy face.
Seeing Zhu Di, Guo An and others arriving, they hurried forward to report.
"I've met Your Highness and met Guo Changshi. The craftsmen have already calcined the transparent and impurity-free glass that Guo Changshi requested."
"Stop blabbering and take us there quickly." Zhu Di said directly.
"As you command!"
Zhong Huo quickly led the way.
Several people walked around and arrived at a house in the corner of the iron smelting institute.
Inside the house, there were more than a dozen old craftsmen, surrounding a large piece of light gray but unusually transparent glass, with faces full of excitement and wonder.
However, as Zhu Di and Guo An came in, these craftsmen quickly retreated.
"It's really transparent glass!"
"This glass can actually see things on the other side directly from one side without any obstruction."
Zhu Di and Guo An were overjoyed.
Seeing this, Zhong Huo, who was following closely behind him, felt relieved and quickly stepped forward and asked, "May I ask Guo Changshi, can this glass be used?"
In the past two months, because of this piece of glass, the pressure on him, the manager of the iron and steel industry, has been increasing day by day.
In the past few days, I couldn't sleep all night long, and there were several fire bubbles in my mouth.
"It works!"
Guo An nodded slightly.
Although this piece of glass was not quite what he wanted, it was still enough to let in sunlight and sterilize vegetable seedlings!
"That's good!"
Zhong Huo suddenly beamed with joy.
Similarly, Zhu Di on the side also followed Guo An's words and his face was filled with joy.
"This time, for your merit in calcining glass, you will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver by Zhonghuo, and all craftsmen who calcine glass will be rewarded with ten taels of silver!"
"Thank you, Your Highness!"
"Thank you, Your Highness!"
The whole room was knelt down.
"Okay, no need to be so polite!"
Zhu Di waved his hand casually and looked at Guo An: "How many pieces of glass of this size are needed to build a greenhouse?"
"The more the merrier!"
Guo An said.
Zhong Huo was stunned, how much was that?
"Let's calcine thousands of pieces first!"
Guo An seemed to understand Zhong Huo's doubts and said again, "Even if the greenhouse is not used up, it can still be installed on the windows of cement houses."
"On the window?"
At this time, Zhu Di, Zhong Huo and others couldn't help but be stunned again.
…
(End of chapter)
