From Chief to Ball

"Ji Xia said, no matter how big a house is, it's built with bricks, stones and mud? If you think so, the house will collapse soon?"

"But you can't be forced to build a house. I'm a brick. Why can't I build Xiaqu if I want to?"

"Xia Qu has enough bricks, you have to build a house!"

The two talked for a long time, but there was no result. After eating, Li Dao took a shovel to plan the cow dung and prepared to send it to the composting area. , I have to get some thread and sell some money to buy some wine. It's good for my man to come back and have a drink when he's tired from work.

Li Da planed for a while, got out some mole crickets, and trampled to death these half-dead insects that bit the leek roots in his yard.

While he was cursing, he heard the woman rushing over and shouting: "Ah, ah, go and see, those people from the construction department are really measuring the land to build a house, Shi Quan didn't say that, the house But it’s big, I heard those carpenters talk about windows, it’s really big.”

"Shi Quan is also a farmer, how can he talk nonsense? You will be punished for nonsense. Have you written this letter? Hurry up and help me. I have to send it to the composting place before dark, and I have to listen to Shi Quan at night. .”

The woman pulled it over and said, "Go and see, go and see."

Li Da had no choice but to go out with the woman, there were already a lot of people around, and a few large window frames made on purpose were put aside, obviously before it was time to build the house, slaves had already moved here The bricks were broken, and a large circle was drawn with lime on the ground, and several people were comparing something there in a manner.

Standing next to it is a huge piece of cloth, on which a house with high eaves and strife is drawn in charcoal and ink on it from the current point of view—it is more suitable for a low adobe house with almost no windows. From these eight characters.

A crowd of people pointed at the window and asked, "This window is so big, it's good in summer, but what should we do in winter or when it's raining?"

"How would I know? If I knew, I would be Ji Xia. Ji Xia asked me to do it, so just do it. Could it be that what he said was still wrong? There must be a way."

Everyone nodded, thinking that this was true, but thinking about it, it would be great if the house had such a window.A few people who came back from Yucheng had seen the windows made of large polished shells, and even boasted a lot to show that they had seen the world.

In this way, everyone asked the person who was responsible for preaching the rules.

"How is this house divided? Or is it for sale?"

These people who preach the rules seem to everyone to understand many things better than them.

"It's both divided and sold. You need people to build a house. Now I'm busy with farming, but I can't build it when it rains. I'm not busy but I can't build it in winter. I can't build so much."

"What do you mean by dividing and selling?"

"You may not be able to buy it even if you have money. You have to get a license according to the rank of the noble. You can buy it when you have a license. The money can be deducted from the public property share, but as long as you buy it, you can live in it. Wait slowly, I am here every day. Speaking, I want to get one for myself, and I don’t know when it will be my turn.”

Everyone chattered and chatted, Li Da and the woman looked at each other, and there was a tacit understanding.

Originally, the seesaw was already shaking from side to side, but at this time it was finally overwhelmed.

In the future, it is too far to divide the land and inherit it from descendants; it is too famous to contribute books to the country; it is too tiring to be dedicated to the public regardless of personal fatigue;

There are too many officials, too few top-ups, and even fewer top-ups. No matter how you look at it, Shi Quan's words are now more convincing.

After going back, he made an exception and ate a piece of bacon. He looked at the traces of life in the house, which was blackened by smoke. Not long ago, the fourth brother was still eating and living in this house, and now he has gone to Yucheng with Jixia. Leaving behind the ugly words written on the wall with ochre, he patted his thigh and said: "There are people who are home, let Xiajun and Xiadong be their own."

It was a little cold outside, so I put on a woolen felt jacket, which was brought back by someone as a reward my second brother got in Yucheng. The heat has nothing to do with me. It's a pity that there is only light wine in the brewery, otherwise I would buy some steamed wine to drink, anyway, I can't be hot."

Going out with the stars, looking back at his own house, he suddenly thought of the three younger brothers who left Xiacheng and were in Yucheng, and wondered if they could live in the new house earlier than himself.

Chapter 96 Brothers Chatting

Although the three younger brothers of the eldest brother of the Li family were all in Yucheng or on their way to Yucheng, it was early May when the three younger brothers reunited.

There is a huge stone in the upper reaches of the river on the cape island, and there are many traces of human activities nearby. Sometimes there are some silly characters written in charcoal on the stone, or names or some words of love just learned, written The mess.

The fourth youngest brother of the Li family was chanting a sentence from Shitou, and couldn't help laughing with his two elder brothers: "There are five words in total, two of them are wrong, and they must have been beaten all day long in school."

While talking, he took out a pot of wine from behind and handed it over, "This is the steamed wine we gave out. I always wanted to drink it with my brother. I didn't expect to get together after coming here for more than a month."

The third brother took the wine gourd and wondered: "It's not a ten-day holiday today, why do you have time to come?"

"The ten-day holiday in May has been brought forward, and we will go to the farm to harvest wheat in two days. All of us who serve in the military will go there, except for Habayashi Wei and Hei Yiwei. They say that our Lei Huowei is the same as them, our summer The best army in the country, but we are still different from them."

"The commander of the black guard is Ji Bo, and the commander of the Habayashi guard is Shi Shan. Those are the names we often hear. The battle of Yangguan captured the big flags of the grassland tribes, and the battle of Dongyi lured Moucheng. The two guards are all veterans, and they all know how to ride horses, and now they have stirrups, even those who were poor at riding before can now ride very fast."

"We are different. Up to now, we don't even have a general, which is worse than those conscripted spearmen. Let alone riding horses, we can't even see a cow in our camp. Most of them are with me. Same young man."

While listening to his younger brother's complaints, Li San took out a dried and hard salted fish from his arms, smashed it hard on the stone, picked up some small pieces and handed them to the second and fourth brothers.

"Brother, you were brought by Ji Xia personally, so maybe this is not enough for you to be happy?"

The fourth brother shook his head and said, "It's been more than a month, and I haven't seen Ji Xia a few times. We usually train in formation, or turn left and right, change from two rows to four rows, or practice running in a horizontal line to keep them even. I learned these things all day when I was in school. At that time, I learned to write and count in the morning, and I was in the queue in the afternoon..."

"Last time in Xunxiu, I met a guy who came to Yucheng with me. He didn't join the three guards, he joined the conscripted troops. After asking, we found out that we practiced similarly to them...he thought we were too What about the cavalry. A batch of weapons came to our camp a few days ago, and you couldn’t guess what it was... a pile of bamboo, a pile of bamboo brought from the lower reaches, not even spears!"

The second elder brother, who had been silent all this time, patted his younger brother on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "How come you have learned to complain? If they are all cavalry, our Xia country can't afford it. Now there are more than 300 cavalry at full count, and I listen to Ji Xia." I have complained several times. Do you think it is enough to raise a horse and only eat grass? A horse can eat beans that several people eat. Since you have entered Leihuowei, you should do well. Is it true that Ji Xia is idle and has nothing to do? Think of you as those spearmen?"

The fourth brother giggled, picked up the gourd and took a sip of the spirits, biting hard on the stiff, smelly and very salty fish.

"I'm just complaining and complaining. In fact, how to train at ordinary times is still pretty good. In a few days, I will probably be elected as the corps leader. Oh, I know that the second brother and the third brother forge iron and copper every day. You spend all day Learn from Ji Xia, what are you going to learn?"

The second elder brother curled his lips and said, "You don't understand. Do you think that we Tai students are just wandering around with Ji Xia every day? No, I have to write and count every day, and I can't let Ji Xia tell me." Some things, some things, Ji Xia wrote a wooden slip and threw it to us, and let us do it after explaining it to us, do you really think it's that simple?"

The fourth brother patted his head and said: "I remembered, I saw you and Jixia by the lake a few days ago, I heard that a new workshop is going to be built?"

"Yes, that's right, everyone knows that we need to build a workshop."

The second brother thought for a while and was sure that Ji Xia hadn't prohibited them from talking about these things.There are many rules in Xia Kingdom, and many things have rules of confidentiality, but also because there are many rules, so what is not prohibited by the rules is allowed.

So he said mysteriously: "Ji Xia said that he wants to build a paper-making workshop."

"Paper? What is paper?"

Li Er shook his head and said, "I don't know either. Ji Xia just said that it's a bit like silk linen, but it's less labor-intensive than silk linen. It can be used for writing, and it can be used to paste windows so that the windows only let in light but not wind."

The two younger brothers suddenly said: "No wonder, no wonder all the newly built houses have such big windows. They used to seal the windows with paper? It would be great if that was the case! Think about it, such a big window can let in light, How bright is it in the house during the day?"

Seeing the two younger brothers so happy, the second elder brother felt happy too, and said to himself that if Jixia hadn't been allowed to tell the outside world, if you knew that there was a special labor-intensive thing that could seal the windows and make the windows brighter, you wouldn't want to be frightened up?

It's a pity that the thing is too expensive, and it can't be made too big and it's very muddy. It can be given as a gift, but it's impossible to sell it in China according to the Xia system.

The fourth brother drank some wine, his face was a little red, and his expression was a little excited. He couldn't help but asked again: "Second brother, how long will it take for this paper workshop to make paper?"

The second brother shook his head and said: "It will take some time, it's quite troublesome. Your third brother knows that last winter, a group of people were sent to collect wheat straw, wood or other messy things, which were actually used to make paper."

The third child did know about this. When the people from Weicheng, Fengcheng came here, they selected more than 2000 people to be led by Jixia alone, so they were assigned tasks to go up the mountain to collect wild grape vines, willow trees, and messy straw. such as.

"Second brother, do you still need wild vines to make paper?"

"That's not true, those wild vines... well, I can't talk about that."

The two younger brothers hurriedly shut up and didn't ask any questions. They also knew that Xia Guo's rules were strict. Once they said something that shouldn't be said, the punishment would be severe.

The second brother probably didn't want to make the atmosphere awkward, so he said, "But I can tell you about the papermaking. I may be in charge of the papermaking workshop for a long time in the future. Who made me pass the examination first, Ji Xia said Wait until those few have passed the assessment before continuing to teach us."

The two younger brothers hastily congratulated a few times, this is a big deal, and asked: "Second brother, are you going to be that kind of extremely high-ranking official?"