After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 278 Wheelchair

In the first few days of the new year, the Hai family lived peacefully.

Hai Xiya, Mr. and Mrs. Ma, and Hai Chang'an's family of three all go out shopping and watching theater from time to time, and occasionally visit relatives and friends. They live a leisurely life.

Haijiao goes out every day as usual, but it’s hard to say where to go. He now has a lot of business to be busy with and has made many new friends. Haitang could only judge that when he led the horse out, half of it was to find Jin Jiashu at Zhou's three-bedroom villa, and the other half was to go horse racing with his new friends in the city; when he was not leading the horse, it was to Zhenguo The public house, the Zhou family's third house, Huang Datou's house, or a new friend's house are all possible. He slowly formed his own network of contacts in Chang'an City, and spent less and less time at home.

Even the three elders Xie Wenzai, Cao Gengyun and Lu Bainian would go out to visit friends from time to time. Relatively speaking, Lu Bainian goes out less often and stays at home longer. The old man seems to like to be alone in the house more and more. As long as there is a kang, a small tea stove, books, pens, paper and ink, he can happily spend the whole day.

Compared with her family, Haitang spent this New Year quite leisurely. She did not disturb the world of her grandparents and her grandparents, nor did she participate in the family time of her second uncle's family of three. She could not go out with her brother, so she had to have fun on her own.

Sometimes she would go to the front yard to talk to Lu Bainian, but most of the time, she would sit on the kang in her room and ponder a drawing.

She had previously heard her brother Hai Jiao mention that Jin Jiashu should move to Chang'an City. Unfortunately, when she had difficulty moving, she came up with the idea of ​​getting a wheelchair for Jin Jiashu.

This wheelchair doesn’t have to be foldable or lightweight. It just needs to be able to sit for a long time and be pushed around. It doesn’t even have to be that the person in the wheelchair can push the wheels themselves. Anyway, Jin Jiashu can always find someone to push him. of.

Thinking about it this way, the design of this wheelchair is much simpler. The key is that the wood used must be strong and the workmanship must be good. It must be ensured that the wheelchair is stable and durable enough, and has a certain shock-absorbing function, so that it will not fall easily Destroy people.

The wood is left to the craftsmen. As for the craftsmen, Haitang has also inquired about them.

Jin Jiashu previously asked the errand boys to help him find a good carpenter to build a carriage. The people the errand boys found were quite reliable. Not only were they skilled in craftsmanship, but they also worked quickly and the charges were not outrageously high. Hai Jiao was commissioned by Jin Jiashu and had visited the carpenter's workshop a while ago. The carriage was almost completed and only needed two final coats of varnish and some adjustment and polishing work. The carriage can be delivered by the Lantern Festival at the latest.

Calculating the time, it only took the carpenter about twenty days from receiving the order to completing the work, but the quality of the carriage he produced was very good. According to Hai Jiao, although the car was not big and did not have any gorgeous decorations, it was very stable. It felt very stable when walking, with no bumps and no squeaking noises. The interior of the carriage is also designed with folding tables, chairs and storage cabinets, which are enough to seat three people. If necessary, the tables and chairs can be folded up and squeezed together to sleep two people.

This design is very similar to the carriage the Hai family rode on the way back to Chang'an from Suzhou. Haijiao is very familiar with such carriages. Judging from his personal experience, the carriage customized by Jin Jiashu should allow people to sleep quite comfortably, perhaps even better than his own carriage.

A carpenter who can make a carriage of this level is quick and the charges are reasonable. Does Haitang still need to hesitate? Naturally, he immediately asked his brother Hai Jiao to inquire about the time for him, and found out that the carpenter would be free after the Lantern Festival until February 2.

The carpenter can make a carriage in about twenty days, and half a month should be enough to build a wheelchair, right?

Haitang immersed himself in research for several days, during which he reworked several times. Finally, he drew a drawing and marked all the details clearly, especially the size of each component. There must be no mistakes, otherwise the wheelchair would be successfully assembled. , it won’t take long for problems to arise.

Her carpentry skills are average. She only has a little experience in making small tables and stools for her family's food stall when she was a child in her previous life, and then there are some skills she accumulated while making wooden knives for herself in this life. But this does not mean that she does not know more advanced woodworking design. During the time she was in the palace, she guarded the library and read many books on construction and craftsmanship. Later, she was transferred to Shanggong Bureau as a weaver, where she tinkered with various textile tools and tried to improve looms. At that time, she spent a lot of time dismantling and modifying all the old and new embroidery bed looms in the warehouse of Shang Gong Bureau. Even though she was just a novice carpenter, she had learned a lot about mechanism manufacturing under the influence of her ears and eyes. As long as there are enough materials, she can assemble a jacquard loom directly now, let alone just draw a drawing of a wheelchair?

In order to ensure that this drawing could be used, she also collected some scraps of wood from around her home and tinkered with it to make a small wheelchair model. Although the model is only the size of an adult man's hand and is very crudely made. It stumbles when pushed on the kang table and the two wheels can easily fly off. The materials should be able to make a usable wheelchair, right?

Haitang thought about it again and again and drew a new drawing before giving it to her brother Hai Jiao along with the wages: "Brother, please give this to the carpenter later and ask him if he can make it according to it."

Hai Jiao looked at the drawings in surprise: "My dear, when did you learn such skills, little sister? You can even do carpenter's work?!"

Haitang had already thought about how to explain this problem before: "My cousin and Grandpa Lu have books on craftsmanship. I accidentally flipped through it and learned a little bit. I don't dare to say anything else, but just follow the drawings of a cat and a tiger. no problem."

Hai Jiao sighed: "I didn't expect that there are such books among the elders. Unfortunately, my cousin, Grandpa Cao, and Grandpa Lu always told me not to be greedy, and just concentrate on learning the art of war and geography from them, and ignore other heresy. "

Haitang coughed a little guiltily: "So... brother, there is no need to let a few elderly people know about such a trivial matter, so as not to worry them too much..."

Hai Jiao just thought it was a little girl who peeked into the elders' collection of books, and said with a smile: "Okay, I'll keep it a secret for you. If anyone asks, I'll tell you that it was the drawings drawn by someone outside." He collected the drawings carefully. OK, promise to go find the carpenter tomorrow.

Haitang was very satisfied and asked Hai Jiao again: "Where have you been these days? Grandma has been out shopping for a few days, and she is a little tired. She thinks the weather is too cold, so she might as well stay at home and chat to keep warm. She The old people don’t criticize you, saying that you run out all day long and don’t know what you are busy with.”

"It's just a horse racing joke with some young masters from the general's family." Hai Jiao said, "Everyone is free during the Chinese New Year. We don't have to work hard to study and practice martial arts, so we naturally have to seize the time to have fun. I hang out with them, You can also expand your network of contacts and get a lot of news!”

Speaking of this, Hai Jiao remembered something and hurriedly lowered his voice and told his sister: "Little sister, you don't know, the commander of Zhaodu in Shanxi has replied to Zhuang Tongzhi!"

Haitang blinked: "Is this the one whose hometown is in Pingyang Mansion? He replied so quickly? Zhuang Tongzhi didn't write to him until he was young, right?" It was less than half a month!

Hai Jiao smiled and said, "The messenger walked quickly and delivered the letter on New Year's Eve. Commander Zhao Du happened to be at home and avoided many twists and turns. After reading the letter, he was said to be shocked and wrote a reply on the same day. , another confidant's personal soldiers were sent to Zhuang Tongzhi on fast horses. The messenger sent by Zhuang Tongzhi is still on the way. The Zhao family's soldiers are elite cavalry in the army, and their riding skills are not comparable to those of ordinary officials."

So urgent? What was written in the letter?

(End of this chapter)