farming female castellan

Chapter 237 Someone Came to Talk Business
A villager from a rocky mountain village in the distance is coming to discuss business.There is a limestone mountain over there, and the villagers process the big stones into bluestone slabs.

Fang Lizheng handed Chen Fan and Zhang Ci each a bluestone slab, and put some scraps in front of them.

"Your Majesty and Young Master, please rest assured that the bluestone slabs in our village are all high-quality, compact and durable. It is a blessing for the people that the Lord wants to build roads for the village. This bluestone slab is a good choice for paving the road."

The two didn't speak, just looked at the board in their hands.

Fang Lizheng hesitated for a moment, and said, "Don't worry about the price, it's absolutely favorable, and it's cheaper than what we usually sell. Except for those rocks, there are no trees or grass growing on the mountain, and the harvest in the field is not high. The villagers are living too hard, so they rely on the bluestone slabs to earn some hard money."

Zhang Ci glanced at him: "How much can the villagers get from the bluestone slab?"

Fang Lizheng took a deep breath: "I'm mainly in charge of the business. I want to earn a little money after paying the villagers' wages. The ordinary people can't afford the bluestone slabs. In the past, those gentry robbed them and didn't pay according to the price. Sometimes I have nothing left after paying my wages, and I even have to post money to the villagers to pay their wages. I earn less than the villagers’ coolie wages, but if this work stops, the villagers will scold me again.”

"Have you always paid your wages exactly?" Chen Fan asked him.

"I have always paid. The township lord and son can go to the village to inquire. If I squeezed the villagers, I would be able to live a good life, but I didn't do that."

"You tell me the address, and I will send someone to check. If you need your bluestone slabs, I will also send someone to find you."

Fang Lizheng left in panic.

"There are still mountains like this in Shengping County?" Chen Fan felt that there were far more mountains in Shengping County than in Yuanfeng County.

Zhang Ci told her: "There is also a big mountain in the west of Yuanfeng County, which produces quartz stone, which is a material for making glass."

"I haven't been to the west yet. I'm going to go around Yuanfeng County after I've been busy for a while."

Zhang Ci smiled: "We can go a little farther, and the Yangtze River is further south."

"Down the Yangtze River?"

Zhang Ci smiled awkwardly and took a sip of tea.

There is also a Lizheng in Guangyun County who is selling bluestone slabs.Zhang Ci dismissed with the same reason.

"Let Qi Yun and Yan Qiong go check it out, they are so busy that they almost know thousands of villagers."

The first roads to be built were north-south.The fried loess is mixed with crushed and sieved coal cinders, spread on the river embankment, and compacted with stone rollers.The gravel road is paved under the embankment. The materials are the stones dug up from the river and the stones cleared from various wastelands. They are forged and crushed, mixed with mud, paved, and then compacted.

"Stones are rarely used to pave roads. You have a good idea." Zhang Ci patted Chen Fan's head.

"Stones can be built into walls, so they can also be paved. There are many gravel roads in my hometown, and there are also small-scale applications here. It is normal for me to expand the scope." Chen Fan pinched his hand.

"If you can walk on the embankment, why build a road under the embankment?"

"It's easier to harvest crops and transport fertilizers. There are also multiple routes between Qijiadu and Liujiabian."

These two villages live along the river, but the villagers don't go to the river embankment, they don't step on a road there, and they look at the weeds every year.

Qi Yun and Yan Qiong checked quickly.Fang Li in Shishan Village is sincere for the people, but has been exploited for many years.What the one in Guangyun County said was false, and Lizheng himself is arrogant.

Chen Fan laughed angrily: "The ethos in Guangyun County is really unified."

"I also asked about the price, and it's more affordable. It's less troublesome than laying floor tiles. We have to mix the soil and fire the floor tiles ourselves. It's good to have the bluestone slabs sent over. But if the quantity is large, it will cost too much .” Qi Yun said.

Zhang Ci looked at Chen Fan: "Is the cost of our floor tiles a bit high?"

"It needs to be fired, and coal is expensive. This is still without wages included."

"Usually, the bricks used to build walls are not so delicate and firm, and the cost is not so high," Yanqiong said.

Zhang Ci nodded: "The kiln worker said that some brick kilns burn for two days, some brick kilns only burn for one day, and even small kilns burn for half a day."

Think about it too, how many people are willing to use coal to burn bricks sold to ordinary people?They all chop some firewood, and they want to save some firewood, and the materials are handled differently.Zhangci tested the compound clay formula, which has higher hardness.

"Go to Fang Lizheng and ask them to send you 1000 yuan bluestone slabs tomorrow. Tell them clearly about the text and military. You can reward Lizheng with more money as appropriate." Zhang Ci ordered, and Qi Yun agreed to go out.

He smiled and looked at Chen Fan: "How do you plan to distribute the bluestone slabs and floor tiles?"

"This is a brain-intensive thing." Such a large area requires a huge amount.

Chen Fan thought for a while: "The front of our yard is paved with bluestone slabs, or is it paved with bluestone slabs here? This way the style is more consistent."

"In better counties, the streets are covered with bluestone slabs, such as Yuanfeng County. Not so good, like Guangyun County, Shengping County. There are still many loess roads, which may not have been speculated yet."

Chen Fan smiled: "The location of the Xiangjun Mansion should be like a city."

Many scenic spots and ancient towns have bluestone roads.The simple gray-blue brick surface, the surrounding green hills, and the smoke from the roof are the style that many people like.

There is great power in numbers.Thousands of people paved the embankments on both sides in one day, and half of the gravel road was paved. After this half was dry, the other half was paved.

"No wonder you have to cut down trees. You need to burn firewood and put them on the road."

"If you don't need to surround it with wooden boards, wouldn't the mud run everywhere?"

"There is also a carpenter busy at the big house. The cut trees have been transported to that house. I don't know what to do."

"What else can I do? Make some good-looking desks and cabinets. Isn't it all about construction when a person becomes an official?"

"That house is good enough, what else can we do?"

What they were talking about was the big house in Hetian Village, which was located in the westernmost part of the village, and it was not close to other people.

The next day, Chen Fan and Zhang Ci came to see the newly fired bricks.The kiln workers burned it for sixteen hours, and then added water to cool it.

"Many bricks are usually used like this." A kiln worker surnamed He said.

Chen Fan dropped a brick: "Although the texture is not as good as the previous batch of blue bricks, it is still hard."

"The ground is good enough, flat, waterproof and non-slip. I have never seen a village with green brick roads in my life." He Kiln Worker felt that this was already a high-class village road.

Zhang Ci nodded: "The bricks used by Murakami will be fired like this, and the kiln will still be fired for three days. You should arrange the time for work and rest."

The two rode to Qiaoshang Village.

"There's no river or bridge here." Chen Fan looked around, and found another village that didn't live up to its name.

　Thank you very much for the support of book friends, thank you Chuxin, book friend 20221201010316488, thank Jiangyuemanting, Lanyu 396, thank you, Yuanshi, kite has no return date.I wanted to do more yesterday, but it took a lot of time to figure out how to burn bricks.The data on the Internet are different, and I still have to decide on a time and remember the timeline in the book.I was entangled in which road to pave and which bricks to lay. I also used a pen to calculate the area and how many bricks I needed, as if I was really paving the road.Sometimes it takes a lot of time to change the tone of a few sentences and words.It is very troublesome, and the codeword progress is not fast.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)